Innovative Projects Realized

Explore thousands of successful projects resulting from collaboration between organizations and post-secondary talent.

31620 Completed Projects

2978
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5221
BC
856
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696
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899
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9419
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9858
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98
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619
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1192
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Projects by Category

Assessing memantine induced mitophagy in a neurodegenerative model of Drosophila

A consequence of aging is the increased risk of neurodegenerative disease. In the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases is the production of misfolded proteins which can clump together and interfere with normal cellular function. Mitochondria are highly important as they produce energy necessary for cell survival as well as regulate the controlled cell death process of apoptosis. Misfolded proteins are able to interact with mitochondria in such a way that dysregulates energy production, putting the cell at risk of undergoing cell death if not dealt with, thereby contributing to the decline of neurons seen in neurodegenerative disease. This project aims to investigate the induction of mitophagy, a pathway through which depolarised mitochondria are removed, in an in vivo model of Drosophila melangoster (common fruit fly). In so doing, we aim to better understand the effects of systemic mitophagy induction in a model of neurodegenerative disease.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Angus McQuibban

Student:

Partner:

Stellenbosch University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Life Sciences (not health); Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Global Health

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Shoulder Rotation of Pedestrians passing a Bottleneck

Understanding pedestrian dynamics is crucial to the design of pedestrian facilities. Although pedestrian flows are part of everyday life, many basic characteristics of pedestrian dynamics cannot yet be described in detail.
The aim of the PhD project is to study the upper body rotation of pedestrians when crossing a narrow passage (bottleneck). Since the movement pattern of individuals differs significantly in individual movement, small groups, and crowds, correlations and transitions from free movement of an individual to restricted movement in crowds during traversal will be investigated.
It is expected that the analysis of the physical parameters is subject to the influence of social interaction. Furthermore, it is expected that, as a consequence, parameters such as the timing of deceleration or motivation change the motion sequence and thus the shoulder rotation in the bottleneck. The host supervisor, Dr. Max Kinateder, has been conducting research on human visual perception for a long time. Among other things, how behaviour in emergency situations is controlled by the social and architectural environment. Dr. Kinateder’s expertise provides the opportunity to extend the analysis of physical parameters to include social aspects and those of perception, thus laying the foundation for new model ideas.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Max Kinateder

Student:

Partner:

Forschungszentrum Jülich

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; Transportation (excluding aerospace); Advanced Computing

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

New directions for old aluminum: Innovating aluminum recycling through novel processes and materials

Demand for aluminum alloys is increasing rapidly, facilitation of electric vehicles being but one example. A consequence is increasing scrap supply; a positive as aluminum is highly recyclable with it consuming a fraction of resources compared to using primary aluminum. There is a growing concern, however, as high-performance alloys are compositionally tuned to maximize performance. Separation of similar but distinct alloys in a scrap yard is infeasible leading to a growing fraction of the scrap supply that can only be down-cycled. With scrap supply outstripping demand new recycling and reuse solutions are required. This proposal builds upon existing collaborations between UBC and MPIE, focusing on using advanced characterization techniques (at MPIE) to better understand materials, processed at UBC, that 1) have non-traditional alloy chemistries based on scrap compositions and 2) are fabricated by combining local scrap recovery and additive manufacturing.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Chad Sinclair

Student:

Partner:

Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Achieving Net Zero; Advanced Manufacturing; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Mutual avoidance between young and older adults when passing through an aperture

The ability to perceive the motion of approaching person and to make appropriate adjustments to avoid collisions is an essential component of safe locomotion through the environment. The proposed project will investigate young and older adults’ collision avoidance behaviours with an approaching young adult in order to understand the visual information used to accomplish the task. The proposed research project will have two individuals approach an open doorway from opposite sides and pass through without colliding with each other. Both individuals’ movements will be tracked as they approach and pass through the doorway. The project will determine whether individuals use optical information, such as Time-to-Contact (TTC), to determine who will pass through the doorway first and avoid colliding with the other individual. TTC is amount of time that remains before each individual will reach the doorway and if used, will not only determine the arriving order, but also preserve this crossing order. It is believed that young adults will be in-tune with this optical information and use it to guide their actions whereas older adults may not use this information.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Cinelli

Student:

Partner:

Université de Haute Bretagne Rennes 2

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

Wilfrid Laurier University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Feasibility Study of an IoT-based Real-time Safety Alerting System for Working at Heights in Construction Sites

In the proposed project, we will investigate a solution for increasing the safety of construction workers at heights using an intelligent sensor-based system. A real-time monitoring system will be developed for alerting workers who are getting close to hazardous conditions and areas. The objective is to lower the chance of accidents by enhancing supervision of workers for their safety based on regulations and working practices in a construction site. This is done by collecting the locations of workers along with equipment, tools, and machines, processing the information using cloud platforms, and making notifications when required. The project has three main components including (1) Hardware devices to be carried by users, (2) An IoT cloud platform, and (3) Various firmware modules for localization and position tracking.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mehrdad Moallem

Student:

Partner:

1252258 B.C. LTD.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Applications of AI in the development of public health solutions

This project will focus on the research areas of smart device monitoring and the analysis of complex medical data in public health. Through the use of artificial intelligence, researchers will develop solutions that exploit large-scale sensor data, address significant challenges caused by global threats by, for example, setting early heat alerts for extreme heat waves. These efforts will support older adults to live independently in smart home environments while maintaining a good quality of life.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Plinio Pelegrini Morita

Student:

Partner:

University of Strathclyde

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Artificial Intelligence; Technology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Characterization of stem cell-derived human dopaminergic neuron subtypes

The goals of this proposal are to develop methods to identify cell subgroups in dopaminergic (DA) neuron cultures obtained by differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC), and to exploit this information to improve existing DA neuron differentiation protocols. To realize these goals, we will leverage expertise at STEMCELL Technologies in hPSC differentiation and Simon Fraser University (SFU) in high content screening and laboratory automation. In four specific aims we will; (1) automate DA neuron differentiation from induced hPSCs (iPSCs), (2) identify known DA neuron subgroups in these cultures using established antibody markers, and (3) identify morphological features of cellular organelles to facilitate identification of these subgroups using an automated cell profiling approach. Finally we will, (4) use these novel morphological features to screen a compound library of known bioactive molecules for those that increase the specificity of DA neuron differentiation to these subtypes

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Faculty Supervisor:

David Vocadlo;Dr. Lisa Julian

Student:

Partner:

STEMCELL Technologies Canada Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Manufacturing; Mining; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Unraveling the cells and genes uniquely contributing to doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity

Cancer is a devastating disease known to be treated with chemicals causing severe side effects in the advanced stages of the disease. Among these chemicals are a group of antibiotics, called anthracyclines, used to treat a variety of cancers, including breast cancer (BC). Doxorubicin, one of the preferred anthracyclines used in BC treatment, is particularly toxic to cancer cells, but also healthy tissue, leading to multi-organ damage, including damage to the heart. A new technology, called single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), can determine which cells and genes in the heart contribute the most to the damage seen in the heart muscle following doxorubicin treatment, potentially leading to the identification of solutions. Using this technique, combined with advanced computer programs, the student aims to study doxorubicin-induced heart damage in a previously studied tumor-bearing mouse model. Herein, heart tissue will be processed and scRNA-seq performed, before analyzing the data and reporting the findings.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Britt Drögemöller;Galen Wright

Student:

Partner:

Stellenbosch University

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Pharmaceuticals; Technology

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Globalink Research Award

FeatTS-Detect : Features-Driven Time Series Anomaly Detection

With the rapid growth of sensors in Cyber-Physical Systems such as clinical data, industrial systems and data centres, there is an increasing need to monitor these devices to secure them against anomalies. This is particularly the case for streaming clinical data. Indeed, the timeliness revelation of anomalies in these data can save the patient’s life.
Time series anomaly detection has been a perennially important topic in data science, but in recent years there has been an explosion of interest in this topic.
The main objective of the project is to implement a system that permits to discover anomaly points and the anomaly subsequence of points in the time series data through a system that evaluates an anomaly considering a set of features extracted among the time series. The features have obtained good performance for clustering of time series. Therefore, our idea is to extend this technique for detecting anomalies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Raymond Ng

Student:

Partner:

Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Mass spectrometry imaging of glucocorticoids in the mouse thymus

The project aims to better understand how stress hormones (i.e., glucocorticoids) are synthesized in the thymus, a key primary lymphoid organ of the immune system. Stress hormones are critical for proper thymic development and immune function. However, many details about how and where in the thymus stress hormones are produced remain unexplored. As part of the proposed project, the student will be visiting the University of Edinburgh to access state-of-the-art mass spectrometry (MS) imaging. MS imaginng is a revolutionary technique that permits regional analysis of stress hormones directly from organ tissue surfaces. No research institution in North America possesses MS imaging for glucocorticoid detection, and the host supervisor (Prof. Ruth Andrew) has the unique expertise required. This project will produce a “map” of stress hormone distribution and levels within the thymus using a mouse model. The student will fill critical gaps in knowledge in immune-endocrine crosstalk that can be applied to interventions and preventions in immune system disorders.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kiran Soma

Student:

Partner:

University of Edinburgh

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Human-in-the-loop: Occupants as integral drivers of indoor climate controls

Occupant thermal comfort and ventilation drive the operation of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems in buildings, which consume a large portion of their energy use. “Human-in-the-loop” (HITL), a term borrowed from machine learning referring to a synergy between humans and machines, is a data-driven approach that aims to enable human-based controls of the HVAC system. This participatory approach integrates environmental data and recurrent occupant feedback in the HVAC control loop to tune comfort predictions and determine set points. The goal of this project is to apply it to an educational setting, to attempt to optimize educational building environments for teaching and learning, while minimizing energy use.
Following a machine-leaning based approach, this research aims to develop a pilot testbed project in the BCIT campus to explore the application of human-in-the-loop principles in an educational setting. The objective of the project is to design an experiment in a classroom or a group of classrooms linking a comfort App in the students’ and faculty phones, with enhanced room environmental sensors to provide real time feedback to the HVAC building management system (BMS) controls.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Sirine Maalej

Student:

Partner:

École Centrale de Lille

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Energy and Utilities; Artificial Intelligence; Achieving Net Zero

University:

British Columbia Institute of Technology

Program:

Globalink Research Award

AI Orchestrator For Energy-Efficient Future Networks

The information and communication technologies (ICT) sector is an energy intensive and growing sector (with an increase of 9% annually). Recently introduced applications of the next-generation radio networks, namely 5G-and-beyond (5GB), have dramatically accelerated the use of ICT services in many economic sectors, creating a unique opportunity to improve our quality of life. In this project, we will optimize a cloud-edge fabric model with respect to new requirements of next-generation radio applications and minimized energy consumption. Based on an artificial intelligence (AI) orchestrator, this model will be able to automatically adapt to the requirements of different classes of users while being eco-responsible. Services will be provided to end users through virtual network slices, which are optimized from end to end. The findings of the project will be assessed and quantified on the ENCQOR (Evolution of Networked Services through a Corridor in Quebec and Ontario for Research and Innovation) network. This outcome will have the potential to be standardized in OpenRAN (O-RAN) alliance and hence be used worldwide.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kim Khoa Nguyen

Student:

Partner:

Université de Lorraine

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

École de technologie supérieure

Program:

Globalink Research Award

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Mitacs — Return on Innovation

Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon.