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
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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

Investigating continuous miners’ performance at Goderich salt mine to minimize the generation of fine particles

Continuous miner (CM) optimal performance depends upon various factors which controls the rock-bit (cutter) interaction, including the type and geometry of the bits (cutters), operational parameters (drum speed, advance rate and etc.) and geological setting of the target rock. According to the conducted investigation on CMs performance at Goderich mine, although, these machines have improved the production rate significantly, fine particle (<28 mesh) generation has been increased drastically as well. Increasing fines has several drawbacks including growth of respirable dust generation which is extremely hazardous for workers, material handling difficulties (flowability) and costumer dissatisfaction. Implementing numerical simulation such as discrete element method (DEM) is the key approach to simulate the rock-bit interaction process quantitatively which is essential to understand the performance of the CM. This simulation will reveal the role of the CMs bit geometry and type along with the operational parameters on rock fragmentation and size distribution of the generated particles considering the geological features of the target mine.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kamran Esmaeili

Student:

Partner:

Compass Minerals Canada Corp.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Mining

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Assessing the ovarian cancer microenvironment with optical coherence tomography and artificial intelligence

Ovarian cancer is one of the deadliest gynaecological conditions in the developed world, as it is often detected late into progression. Efforts to improve surgical and chemotherapeutic approaches have only made marginal improvements to patient outcomes over the past 30 years, but there remains potential within immunotherapeutic approaches. Understanding the tumor microenvironment, and particularly the immune response to cancers and pre-cancers, is critical to selecting appropriate therapies. A novel dataset of volumetric structural imaging of ex vivo fallopian tubes, the origin of the most prevalent ovarian cancers, has been collected with corresponding histopathology. This work explores whether there are imaging biomarkers associated with immune response such as t-cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment that can be distinguished using deep learning vision models.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Pierre Lane;Shuo Tang

Student:

Partner:

BC Cancer

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Information and cultural industries; Professional, scientific and technical services; Public administration

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Efficient Learning-based Parameter Configuration of Cellular Networks

Network parameter configuration is crucial for optimizing performance in a cellular network. Often, such parameters are too numerous and their interdependence too complicated for them to be efficiently configured by human experts. Therefore, it is of great interest to study network parameter configuration as a machine learning problem. We aim to expand on the machine learning approaches in recent work from industry leaders such as Huawei. Recent solutions make use of “transfer learning”, that is, sharing information learned between cells in the cellular network to improve the overall performance. In this project, we will consider additional constraints for each cell that must be satisfied and may conflict with the primary goal of network performance optimization.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ning Lu

Student:

Partner:

Pennsylvania State University

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Education

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Hospital Optimizer: Horaire récurrent avec perturbations

Thales développe le Hospital Optimizer, un outil pour gérer l’utilisation des salles d’opérations en les affectant à différentes équipes médicales. Cette allocation tient compte de la demande, des disponibilités médecins, de la disponibilité des salles et des types de chirurgies pouvant être effectuées dans chaque salle. Si la version courante du Hospital Optimizer prend bien en compte ces éléments du problème (et même plus), il lui manque toutefois une fonctionnalité cruciale afin de permettre l’acceptabilité de cet outil dans le milieu de travail : la production d’horaires récurrents. Toutefois, dû à de trop nombreuses perturbations dans les disponibilités des médecins et des salles, il est impossible de garantir un horaire qui sera identique de semaine en semaine sans compromette une utilisation maximale des salles d’opération. Nous proposons donc de créer des horaires qui varient le moins possible d’une semaine à l’autre tout en maintenant une utilisation maximale des salles d’opération.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Claude-Guy Quimper

Student:

Partner:

Thales Canada Inc

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Management of companies and enterprises; Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Université Laval

Program:

Accelerate

Optimizing medical marijuana: developing genetic and chemical resources to improve the quality and quantity of cannabinoid metabolites in Cannabis sativa L strains

Cannabinoids are synthesized and accumulate in Cannabis plant hairs called glandular trichomes, which are particularly abundant on female flower buds. Cannabinoid content and composition vary dramatically among Cannabis strains, with two general groupings distinguished: marijuana strains, defined by high THC and low CBD levels, and hemp strains containing low THC and high CBD (or low total cannabinoid content). Marijuana breeding efforts have increased the cannabinoid potency and profiles of cannabis strains, and have produced marijuana strains with highly variable chemical phenotypes (chemotypes). While these breeding efforts have been successful in dramatically increasing THC levels, they commonly have reduced the content of other pharmaceutically valuable cannabinoids that compete for overlapping starter substrates (4). Many cannabinoids are known to have important pharmacological properties, and the relative abundance of the major cannabinoids (THC, CBD and CBC), minor cannabinoids and terpenoids can alter the therapeutic effects of marijuana strains. For instance, the presence of CBC augments some of the pharmacological effects of THC, while CBD has the ability to reduce THC side effects (5, 6). Metabolic profiling efforts proposed here will determine which cannabinoids accumulate in the female flowers of select medical marijuana strains, and the relative abundance of these cannabinoids in each strain.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Anne Lacey Samuels

Student:

Partner:

Anandia Therapeutics

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Elevate

Development of a biosensor to monitor food spoilage in real time

Food freshness is an essential consideration for food quality control and consumer acceptance, especially for fish and related products which are highly perishable due to their special biological and physicochemical characteristics. Conventional methods to detect fish spoilage are generally not suitable for on-site application due to the complexity of procedures and high testing requirements. Thus, innovative biosensors with good portability for on-line measurements or in-situ testing are of great interest to satisfy the current requirement for rapid food quality control. The objective of this project is to develop a new inexpensive, portable, quick biosensor with good sensitivity to detect one of the fish degradation products to monitor food spoilage in real-time. A highly selective chromogen will be used as a visible indicator immobilized on the paper-based biosensor to indicate the freshness of fish product. The developed biosensor will be applied to several fishery products to certify its performance. This research will provide a new possibility of one-step simple detection in food spoilage control field.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Benjamin Simpson

Student:

Partner:

Complutense University of Madrid

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Developing a mitochondrial gene risk for patients with neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases.

Neurodegenerative diseases represent one of the largest healthcare burdens in Canada. However, there is limited understanding of how the complex biological factors affect the development of neurodegenerative diseases, thus the era of precision medicine has not to come to treat them yet. Here, we take focus on bioenergetic disruption as a shared risk factor of neurodegenerative diseases and common conditions as type 2 diabetes, psychiatric disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. Hence, we apply machine learning techniques to analyze sets of biological measurements related to mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell controlling bioenergetics – to identify biological factors that contribute to risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases and related conditions. NetraMark’s novel AI will analyze how diseases can be stratified based on biological markers, and the results will be added to their analytic depository for further algorithmic development. MitoCanada Foundation will deliver novel findings to patients, clinicians, and scientists in approachable medium to accelerate mitochondrial research and education.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ana Andreazza

Student:

Partner:

NetraMark Corp;MitoCanada Foundation

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

The Transitioning Youth with Disabilities and Employment Project – “The TYDE Project” – Focus on Gender Equity: Why are jobs distributed so unequally across gender?

Employment is important for ensuring social inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who commonly use the identity term self-advocates in Canada. Self-advocates are much less likely to be employed, and work fewer hours a week and often earn only minimum wage. When gender is taken into account, men are hired more frequently, work longer hours, and earn higher wages. A better understanding of employment barriers facing women and gender diverse self-advocates is needed to protect and promote the right to work. A reference group of women self-advocates will identify barriers to employment in order to develop an online educational resource that aims to improve gender-specific knowledge about employment expectations and overall employment outcomes. The online resource will be tested at four workshops. Changes in workshop participants’ knowledge about employment and their feedback will be used to make any needed improvements for the educational resource to be effective.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Rachelle Hole

Student:

Partner:

Inclusion BC Society

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

The University of British Columbia - Okanagan

Program:

Accelerate

Privacy and Security Preservation in Internet of Medical Things (IOMT) Devices

Medical devices, like other computer systems, can be vulnerable to security breaches, potentially impacting the safety and effectiveness of the devices. Left unmitigated, these vulnerabilities could allow unauthorized users to access, control, and issue commands to compromised devices, potentially leading to patient harm, identity theft, ransomware, and other illicit activities on patients’ accounts. However, security is constrained by the processing power, scheduling time, and energy resources available to those devices. It is of utmost importance to evaluate these constraints and to come up with essential security solutions for Internet of Medical Things’ (IoMT) market. Additionally, the growing need for advanced data monitoring applications, changing lifestyles, growing awareness among end-users, especially by the pandemic, is expected to drive the growth of the internet of medical things (IoMT) market. Therefore, we will build a secure IoMT platform that will fill up the gap between cross vendors and users within this emerging market.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jonathan Anderson

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Information and Communications Technology; Technology

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

An Environmental Scan of Self-Management Interventions in Clinical Practice

One approach that is commonly used to treat chronic condition is self-management interventions. Self-management refers to the daily “tasks that individuals must undertake to live well with … chronic conditions” (Adams et al., 2004). To help people with chronic conditions develop the skills needed to manage their conditions, several self-management interventions have been created. Many of these interventions have been extensively researched; however, moving these research findings into the real-world is difficult since the real-world is much less controlled than the research world. To learn how self-management interventions can transition from research to real-life, we intend to examine how other self-management interventions have made this transition. We will accomplish this by conducting an environmental scan, a broad search of available materials, on self-management interventions used in clinical practice. Specifically, we will determine how the self-management interventions we find are delivered, regulated, and adapted to ensure access, quality, and fidelity.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Tanya Packer

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Accelerate

Ethical Space: A framework to support equity in land use planning in the Upper Columbia region of British Columbia

Approaches to land use planning in BC are rapidly shifting in an effort to right previous wrongs with respect to the dispossession of Indigenous land. The BC government committed to developing a new planning framework, through the Modernized Land Use Planning (MLUP) program, that involves deep collaboration with Indigenous Peoples to conduct equitable decision-making process with respect to public land use planning. This research presents Ethical Space as a framework to achieve equity in land use planning in BC. This proposed project will support the work of Gwen Bridge, an Indigenous consultant, and leading practitioner of Ethical Space across North America, by elevating her contributions to develop useful resources and academic contributions that train other planners in Ethical Space. The project will promote knowledge mobilization through the development of workshops and training materials for planners to use.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Andréanne Doyon

Student:

Partner:

Gwen Bridge Consulting Ltd.

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Characterization of in-feed materials of wood pellet plants

The key objective of this research is to measure the quality of in-feed materials of wood pellet plants around the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. This research will include the collection of in-feed materials from at least eight plants and a series of experimental measurements in in-feed properties such as moisture content, ash content, bulk density, particle size distribution, calorific value, and smoking temperature. Wood pellets are a crucial bioenergy component in the global transition away from fossil fuels and in replacing coal in power generation. The results in this project will facilitate the improvement in the safe operation of pellet plants and the enhancement of pellet qualities. A successful project will allow Canadian pellet plants to obtain insights on producing the highest quality products in the safest manner.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Shahab Sokhansanj;Jim Lim

Student:

Partner:

Wood Pellet Association of Canada

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

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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.