Innovative Projects Realized

Placeholder: Enabling business teams to improve operational effectiveness in the realities of COVID-19 commercial real estate market. Creating tailored real-time dashboards and proactively identifying pipeline bottlenecks.

As PlaceHolder looks to scale in the realities of COVID19 economy, an overarching number of business decisions like resource allocation and pricing will require sufficient amount of data behind them to make sense. In the past 6 month we have built data pipelines to capture raw information from various departments but our operations teams are lacking SQL and Python skills to properly analyze it on the ongoing basis. In order to leverage the power of the data collected – analytical tools need to be built for the business teams to track their process improvements (e.g.funnel effectiveness), allowing them to identify potential bottlenecks in the organizational pipelines. The purpose of this project will be to create a suite of tailored real-time dashboards for the Operations and Sales teams to inform their daily decision making, identify trends and optimize acquisition budget deployment.

NACO Summer Internship

Angel investors are uniquely positioned to bring transformative and positive change in areas
that will impact Canada’s ability to scale innovative companies that rise to the global stage.
Angels are community-based investors that take a “leap of faith” on entrepreneurs before
institutional investors, such as venture capital funds. To grow and scale, entrepreneurs need
angels. Angels exist to support high potential entrepreneurs. National Angel Capital
Organization (NACO) provides intelligence, best practices, tools and resources to its 4000
members to unlock the capital and mentorship that Canadian entrepreneurs need to scale
their companies. Over the past 10 years, NACO members have invested over $1 billion into
1500 companies and created thousands of Canadian jobs. Angels are essential for paving the
road to venture capital, scale and growth. NACO is working to unlock more “Made in Canada”
success stories, such as Solium in Calgary, Lightspeed POS in Montreal, Skip the Dishes in
Winnipeg, Shopify in Ottawa, Verafin in St. John’s, Enthusiast Gaming in Toronto. The road to
scale and growth is built by angels, and NACO is focused on paving the way to many more
Canadian success stories.
The research department is responsible for collecting, managing, and analyzing national data
on Canadian angel activities and the impact they create in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Reporting to the CEO, the Angel Investment Statistical Research Intern will support the
research objectives of the National Angel Capital Organization. The internship will focus
primarily on assisting in government statistics reporting, preparation, early engagement, and
organization of this year’s Angel capital statistical study, showing the impact of Canada’s
Angel investors.

CFD Analysis of the Microsys Cold Gas InflationSystem

Microsys is a Mississauga company that designs and sells specialized test equipment to airbag manufacturers worldwide. The Cold Gas Inflation System (CGS) allows these manufacturers to test the inflation characteristics of airbag systems in a simple, safe, and inexpensive manner. The CGS involves the rapid discharge of a compressed gas, which the company would like to better understand, in order to further develop this system. The proposed research is to use state-of-the-art flow simulation software to examine the flow in the CGS, to predict inflation rates and pressures, to assess the role of various geometric features within the CGS on the performance of the system, and ultimately to allow Microsys to improve its design and further distinguish its product from those of competitors.

SWO YMCA- Summer Marketing Analyst

The primary project for the intern would to be a leading force in the overhaul of the YMCA of Southwestern Ontario’s CRM system. Currently using Salesforce, the YMCA of Southwestern Ontario is looking to clean its data sets to be able to effectively and efficiently research membership data trends, study consumer behaviour, and best understand its customers. The intern would assist in redeveloping the CRM system while assisting in data migration and cleaning.

Data Strategy and Analytics Summer Intern

Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA) is aiming to deliver the best service and resources to its credit union members in Canada. However, the value of its services sometimes may not be fully aware of or understood by the members, especially during this pandemic situation when they are overwhelmed by various tasks on hand. Therefore, the project for the intern to help build a factor model that can measure trends in member engagement, identify inflection points where intervention is required, and potentially even predict member engagement moving forward. With this project developed, CCUA is better able to understand the on-going involvement of members, and initiate corresponding measures to approach members to ensure they can always get the appropriate service they need.

Business Strategy Internship 2021 – Manzer Hair Studio and Paige Neddeau

Manzer Hair Studio is a friendly/ welcoming small female owned and operated hair salon business located in downtown Toronto. Manzer Hair Studio was able to pivot to an online store that sells personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, face shields, hand sanitizer to the local Toronto community. Unfortunately, Manzer hair has missed out on many of these potential buyers due to their minimal social media presence.
The intern will work with Manzer Hair Salon to improve their brand strategy by helping them identify their target audience, value proposition, brand message and story, using the knowledge of marketing and related subjects she has gained from attending Ryerson, experience and similar volunteer positions. Using social media, the intern will engage with Manzer’s audience by creating digital content across their different social media channels that tell the brands message and story. Using storytelling to create an experience for customers as they engage with the company’s content across all channels. The intern will analyze data to determine whether social media campaigns have achieved their objectives.

Vestshell Inc.

Cette PME québécoise est une entreprise qui a été considérée comme un service essentiel durant la pandémie. Aucun arrêt de production n’a été effectué chez Vestshell Inc. Cette période d’adaptation a fait en sorte que l’entreprise est actuellement en mode «réaction» à tous les imprévus et priorise les urgences. Mon stage leur permettrait de mieux orienter leur prochain plan stratégique afin de favoriser l’atteinte de leurs objectifs grâce à l’obtention de données probantes, basé sur la science.
Ils pourront alors construire leurs prochains objectifs sur des fondations solides, en ayant une compréhension plus holistique de la situation actuelle de l’entreprise. À partir de cela, l’objectif serait de les aider à construire un plan stratégique qui leur permettra de tendre vers une gestion plus préventive ou même proactive et de retourner au statut d’équilibre. Ils pourront aussi y inclure des solutions aux enjeux de ressources humaines engendrés par la pandémie.

Environmental Data Reporting in the ESG Disclosures of the Canadian Energy Sector

Environmental, social, governance (ESG) reporting or sustainability reporting is not a new concept for non-financial disclosures. However, as discussions relating to the environment, climate change, and social consciousness become more prevalent in the mainstream media, so have the discussions relating to the industry-specific disclosures on topics such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water management, and biodiversity. The accuracy and transparency of ESG reports are of high importance to the investment community as the global financial markets embrace a socially conscious way of investing; however, there is a need for standardization and clarity. This research project will evaluate the evolution of ESG reporting in the Canadian energy sector over the past few years, focusing on GHG emissions, water management, and biodiversity. Of primary interest to the partner organization is the study of data accuracy relating to GHG emission disclosures in ESG reports published by the Canadian energy sector. This research will allow the partner organization to achieve its research objectives and publish a concise report on this topic.

Development of Innovative Tools for Conducting Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment

All new infrastructure and natural resource projects being developed in Canada are required to undergo an Environmental Assessment. A key aspect of this regulatory process is the need to demonstrate that the activity will not adversely affect human or ecosystem health. It is through the science of human health and ecological risk assessment (HHERA) that these predictions are made. The science and toxicology of making these risk predictions more accurate continues to evolve at a rapid pace. At Intrinsik Environmental Sciences our MITACs interns will work closely with our professional staff to develop innovative tools to improve our knowledge and understanding of predicting how people and ecosystems interact with chemical releases. Specifically they will tackle the challenges of how chemical emissions from oil and gas development in British Columbia and Waste-to-Energy (WTE) municipal waste facilities across the country could affect the communities we live in.

Business Strategy Internship

The Business Development Internship position will include the following duties and activities: Researching and identifying potential corporate sponsors and partners and cultivating positive relationships with both existing and potential donors. Additionally, the role will consist of identifying and developing revenue generation opportunities by engaging with cross functional teams, interviewing potential clients and researching market trends. It will also involve assistance in executing the identified revenue generation opportunities and analyzing potential risks associated with entering into new donor partnerships. Furthermore, the intern will identify community and corporate opportunities that align with organizational objectives, strategize opportunities for donations with a view to optimize sponsor relationships, and develop and maintain database of corporate sponsors and partners. The intern will also complete other duties as required.

The benefit to the partner organization is an increase revenue streams, new corporate sponsorship opportunities, and updated market research. The intern will also cultivate relationships and assist in maintaining sponsor relationships that are sustainable.

Automation and Optimization of Steel Connections – RES0054367

This internship will focus on investigating potential applications for automated steel connection design software in the real-world context that incorporates all of the complexities that can be found in construction projects. Prior work has already developed a pilot program that links existing software design tools to advanced optimization software, enhancing the functionality with added programming where required to automate the connection design process according to parameters determined by the designer. During this internship, the student will apply these tools to real-world projects and determine their suitability for use, in addition to exposing weaknesses that require further research. The student will use the beta software to check for functionality, code compliance, and constructability/ease of fabrication based on the experience and feedback of the partner company’s engineers. Based on this feedback, the student will make changes or suggest changes to the research team to improve the tool. The lessons learned by all involved (student, partner, Steel Centre research group) will be invaluable inputs to enhancing the proper use of existing industry data, the development of software “learning” algorithms, and the outward-facing software interface.

Policy Analysis

Reporting to the Executive Director, Fort Saskatchewan & District Chamber of Commerce the student will be to accumulating and utilizing research data in order to make recommendations for platform policies for voters and candidates in the 2021 municipal election. The student will be connecting with the Fort Saskatchewan community through surveys, face-to-face, interaction and focus groups to obtain insight into the opinions and perceived outlook of the business owners and residents in the city in regard to economic priorities for the upcoming municipal election. The student will supplement primary research with secondary research into the past priorities of the municipal government and how it was received.
With the support of the Executive Director, the student will compile the information from the research into an economic update report and from there make recommendations for key messaging.