Innovative Projects Realized

Design and integration of a robotic loading system for an automated saw grinding machine

This internship is intended to address the need for automation in the saw grinding process for the saw mill operations in Canada. The key issues involve the design of a robotic arm that can accurately load the saw blade to the grinding machine and deliver the finished saw on the output stacks blades to enhance the operational safety and efficiency of the grinding process. The proposed design will be realized for ready integration to the grinding machine that is currently being developed by Williams & White Inc. The automated loading system should be capable of handling saw blades of different sizes in a reliable manner. The robotic link is also required to place the finished saw blade in an adequate “finished stack” following the finishing process. The completely developed machine should be able to carry out this operation without any operator inputs during the operation

Development of a Blockchain-enabled privacy-preserving solution to enhance opioid prevention and senior care applications

Lifeguard Health is a B2B SaaS provider in public health with solutions to reduce harm in the opioid crisis and senior care. During 2020, the pandemic deaths accelerated opioid crisis and had a high impact in senior care. Subsequently, the opioid crisis solution was deployed in the province of BC and the contactless senior care solution has begun trials.

During the internship, a privacy-preserving blockchain-enabled transmission channel that augments the trust of the users, who are wary of compromised security during the app communication with emergency centres, will be developed. The project may also design a blockchain-enabled opioid supply chain system, to be piped into the Lifeguard App solution, to curb the spread of illegal opioids.

Data Ethics & Privacy by Design: Unlocking Health Innovation

Healthcare innovation is a major focus across Canada and the globe. It can be defined as, “activities that generate value in terms of quality and safety of care, administrative efficiency, the patient experience, and patient outcomes.” Efforts are underway to transform health care by leveraging technology and data so that Canadian provinces and territories promote efficient use of limited resources and blaze the trail for new medical treatments and services. This shift has resulted in exciting innovations and the emergence of numerous health-related commercial companies and start-ups across Canada.
Additionally, big data demands, as well as the increasing commoditization and economic value attributed to health and health data is on an upward trajectory with no indication that it will slow down or decrease. For instance, it has been projected that by the year 2025 genomics (personalized healthcare) will constitute the largest data demands in the world surpassing astronomy, YouTube, and Twitter as major generators of big data. The commercialization benefits of data have pushed privacy boundaries and tested consumer trust at new heights, both within Canadian healthcare and elsewhere in the world.
This proposal addresses the need to implement ethics and privacy design to unlock health innovation.

Conseil de la culture de l’Estrie

Mené en partenariat avec le Conseil de la culture de l’Estrie (CCE), le projet vise à évaluer les pratiques d’inclusivité, d’accessibilité et d’équité de quelque 65 organismes culturels, en vue de formuler des recommandations stratégiques pour les améliorer. Dans le contexte québécois de démocratisation de la culture, l’optimisation de ces pratiques est nécessaire, d’une part, pour rendre l’offre culturelle accessible à tous les publics de l’Estrie et, d’autre part, pour assurer la pérennité des acteurs culturels de la région. Outre son importance en matière d’admissibilité aux subventions et financements, cet effort pour adapter les stratégies d’entreprise apparaît d’autant plus critique face aux conséquences de la pandémie Covid-19. Le milieu culturel compte en effet parmi les secteurs les plus sévèrement affectés par les implications de la crise. Dans ce contexte complexifié, le CCE souhaite ainsi entreprendre des mesures concrètes pour aider ses membres à adapter leurs stratégies d’affaires et contribuer significativement à relancer le secteur culturel de la région, au sortir de la crise.

Business Models to Successfully Implement Clean-Cooking Technologies in Tanzania

My research question is, “What business models can successfully implement clean-cooking technologies in Tanzania?”.

As we move towards the clean economy, it is imperative that all three pillars of sustainability are considered – the environment, the economy, and society. Studying the business models that will ensue clean-cooking technologies to have long-lasting impact in rural communities is an integral thread to weave into the solution for climate change. Currently, almost half of the world is using carbon-intensive biomass fuels for cooking. This is because they are the cheapest fuel source available to them. Biomass fuels result in a variety of issues, namely indoor and outdoor air pollution, gender inequities, and greenhouse gas emissions. Due to social structure, is it women and children that sacrifice their education, health, and income-earning opportunities to cook these meals for their families. This research proposes to determine business models that will make clean-cooking technologies more economically feasible in these rural communities, which will also shift the community into using a clean renewable source for cooking and liberate women and children to live fuller lives.

Cultural, Social, and Environmental Factors in Implementing Clean Cooking Technologies in Tanzania

After 40 years of attempting to implement cleaner cooking technologies (Batchelor et al, 2019), successes have been muted, leaving approximately 2.8 billion people (IRENA, 2020) to spend hours gathering biofuel and enduring smoke-related harm due to cooking with fire. Despite the years of research examining reasons for the failures, there do not appear to be enough studies of the social, cultural, or environmental factors that could predict the success or failure of a given project. By researching previous projects, the cooking cultures and energy deficits of certain countries, and three solar cooking technologies, insights and questions will be developed for the interviews with the East African diaspora living in Calgary. Together, these will yield a framework through which clean cooking technologies may be effectively implemented in Tanzania.

Business Strategy Internship

This project with LooLoo Box includes creating digital marketing tacts and advertisement videos for a start-up dating app called MateMachine. During the scope of the project a business plan, a business development roadmap, and a marketing plan will be conducted. The marketing plan will then be implemented and analyzed through marketing analytic tools and softwares to determine the success of said plan. The objective of this project is to benefit LooLoo Box by turning MateMachine from a start-up to a globally recognized social network and dating app.

Clear Blue Technologies Strategy Project

The project will focus on helping the company grow in three key areas for the coming years. These include market expansion, organizational structure and key process improvements. The objective of this project is to help the organization decide how to target a new market, structure the organization with new processes to ensure it is built to grow, and improve the exiting internal processes for sustainable growth.

1. A comprehensive market analysis and market entry plan that will evaluate all elements of a new market, identify options and risks for market entry and advise on a market entry strategy for the company.
2. A full analysis and recommendation plan for inventory management. This would require an analysis of the company’s existing Inventory Management software and internal Order-to-Ship processes, an evaluation of the existing ERP software and current processes relative to best practices, and a recommendation on new processes and/or update existing processes that can improve the Clear Blue’s functionality. If possible, the Intern would also help implement any recommended changes supported by the Clear Blue management team.
3. An evaluation of the Company’s compliance with the Environmental Social Governance ESG) guidelines and recommendations from the Canadian Government.

Industries Polykar

Dans le cadre du projet, la stagiaire assistera le responsable des achats et de la logistique dans la configuration du ERP. En effet, le directeur, Maxime, est responsable de trois modules, achats, expéditions et inventaire. Il suscitera l’aide de la stagiaire pour réfléchir à des points d’améliorations. Ils feront également des scénarios de test, créer et documenter du matériel de formation. Ils débattront des meilleurs processus pour l’entreprise via des réunions avec des consultants et d’autres membres de l’équipe et finalement, ils configureront ensemble les rapports et choisirons ce qui pourra être utile à l’avenir en matière de « Business Intelligence ». Toutes ces tâches sont en lien avec l’ERP mais la stagiaire couvrira également les tâches au jours le jour en ce qui a trait aux achats, la négociation avec les partenaires. Elle saisira des données pour les remises sur le volume et les bons de commande à recevoir, elle assistera le responsable pour d’autre tâches tel que les lectures de silos, la gestion des fournisseurs, le budget et les variations, la gestion des stocks et plus encore.

Accelerating Cycling Uptake Through Community based Social Marketing

Through the use of a community-based social marketing strategy that focuses on perceived benefits and barriers to urban cycling for transportation, the research project will serve to expand the services and usage of BikeChain: the University of Toronto’s not for profit bicycle repair shop. The work will increase the reach of BikeChain’s services within the campus population and provide a social platform to engage and support the uptake of cycling behavior. In addition, it will also create a strategy for increased revenue from sales and services to better support the delivery of BikeChain’s programs.

Digital Access: Who is Underserved and Why? Jane Finch Youth

The main priority in our research is telling the stories of the youth in the area and translating these lived experiences on paper and collaborating together to present their own narratives. Through a series of interviews documenting our participants lived realities we will attempt to identify the impediments to their access to digital and internet spaces and broaden the conversation around the impacts this has in their daily lives. Our research reaches out to two groups of people. Group A, is community workers and activists who work with young people in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. Group B, are young people themselves.

Enersion Tri-Generation System: Applications, Sizing, and Economics

Enersion has developed a novel integrated tri-generation (TG) system that provides electricity, heating, and cooling. In order to guide their business plan, they would like to know which customer application would benefit the most from implementing their TG system – residential, commercial, or industrial. This work will establish a decision-making methodology for the usage of TG in various building applications in select climatic conditions. Furthermore, economic aspects such as cost comparison to conventional utilities and payback will be explored to evaluate further impact on decision-making.