Innovative Projects Realized

Mindfulness for Mental Health: Tailoring the DeRose User Experience

DeRose Meditation delivers meditation classes to thousands of users worldwide with the goal of improving personal wellbeing, work performance, and overall life for its clients. Through thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with developers of DeRose Meditation, meditation class leaders, and long-time program users, this project will articulate a “Theory of Change” model specific to DeRose Meditation, which will define fundamental, active components of the program, how these components are invoked to generate change, and key outcomes associated with participants in the program.

Real-Time VLT Player Data Personae Classification

The goal of this project is to train a machine learning model that can identify player’s personae using VLT (Video Lottery Terminal) data within a transactiontime limit. The personae are results of the previews MITACS project. Using unsupervised learning each playing session was associated with a playstyle. Identifying the playstyle as soon as possible is of great importance since it can be used later for problem gambling detection in early stages of playing. Another challenge this project tries to solve is to estimate an optimal limit for transactiontime. It is preferred to identify the personae earlier with higher accuracy. Another challenge is to propose a good method for feature extraction. For the previews MITACS project a complete session was used for identifying the personae, therefore the feature space is not sparse unlike this project. To overcome sparse feature space problem, proposing new features or deep neural networks that ease feature extraction task.

Projet Entourage : développement, implantation et évaluation d’outils d’intervention centrés sur le réseau social de femmes victimes de violence conjugale

Le projet Entourage répond à un besoin identifié par des chercheuses et intervenantes en violence conjugale, à savoir de développer des pratiques permettant d’améliorer le réseau des femmes victimes et, conséquemment, d’assurer leur sécurité à long terme. Réalisé en partenariat avec l’Alliance des maisons d’hébergement de 2e étape pour femmes et enfants victimes de violence conjugale, le projet Entourage vise à développer, implanter et évaluer des outils d’intervention centrés sur le réseau social des femmes. Il permettra 1) d’analyser les pratiques actuelles et les besoins des intervenantes en ce qui concerne l’intervention centrée sur les réseaux ; 2) de développer des outils concrets en collaboration avec les membres d’un comité de travail issus des milieux de pratique ; 3) d’implanter les outils dans les maisons d’hébergement intéressées à participer et 4) d’analyser l’implantation et les impacts des outils. Cette dernière étape, rarement réalisée en violence conjugale, permettra d’assurer la robustesse des outils mis en circulation.

BSI Internship at RailVision Analytics

Founded in 2017, RailVision Analytics positions itself as an AI expert in the Rail industry. It specializes in custom data analysis, software solutions and consulting for the rail industry. Its specialties are Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Custom Solutions, Advanced Algorithms, Mobile Applications, Web Development, and Rail Equipment. The objective of the project is to support RailVision Analytics in modifying their business operations to adapt to the new economic reality.
My expected project activities will include: 1) conduct marketing research and competitor research; 2) Collect information of potential clients 3) Finance support (budget plan, ratios calculation); 4) Funding proposals support 5) Social media marketing; 6) Business travel for connection 7) Strategic planning projects.

Marketing Research of Post-Industrial Volcanized Rubber Powder

The project is conducting a market study on the uses of high-quality reprocessed rubber powder, produced from post-industrial rubber products. This includes evaluating pros and cons of reprocessing post-consumer and post-industrial rubber products. This project delivers a better understanding of the market environment, market size, price structure, potential customer, and competition for the company. Galemco benefits from a deeper understanding of the potential of this market, which will help it decide whether and where to invest and develop such opportunities in Canada.

Accelerator Development Associate

The Business Strategy Internship project will help the UAlberta Health Accelerator in refining its business strategy and improving its operational procedures. It will also help the student gain project management, business planning and strategy building skills.

Hannah Hayworth-Prompt Health

When Covid19 hit, Prompt health Inc. was forced to delay the launch of our service as many of our target clientele had closed their doors. Now that businesses have begun to reopen, we’re facing changes in the way we reach our clients. Since face to face marketing has become increasingly difficult, we will need to develop a new strategy that revolves around digital marketing and reaching new clients online. The internship will allow us to utilize young talent to develop, implement and maintain a virtual presence as we prepare to launch in September 2020. Gaining the help of a student is integral to a successful launch as we currently have a limited team.

Analysis of Marketing and Branding Strategies of Hawkins & Co. Accounting; Suggesting a new way Forward

The intern would undertake research and implementation activities for Hawkins and Co. Accounting, a local accounting firm based in Windsor, ON. The organization has been operating successfully for the last seven years until COVID hit, and the economy started slowing down. With this new external factor impacting their business, Hawkins realized that online presence has become more important than ever. Where the firm previously depended mostly on its goodwill and word-of-mouth, they recognized the importance of digital media and branding. The goal is to revamp the brand elements and reach as many potential clients as possible. Therefore, the project aims to analyze the problem in detail, develop marketing strategies, and implement campaigns to achieve the marketing goal.

Marketing Strategy Intern at CANImmunize

CANImmunize provides software solutions that improve how immunization programs connect with the people they protect with digital tools that are designed to help public health authorities, organizations and individuals digitally store, manage and track vaccinations. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for digital immunization tracking systems to support the roll-out of a COVID-19 vaccine. To prepare for what will be the most complex health intervention in history, CANImmunize is working with partners and participating in several pilot projects where we will test and validate various features and functionalities of our technology in conjunction with the 2020-21 flu season. If these features are successfully validated, they will be incorporated into our production versions in anticipation of a COVID-19 vaccine. Given the influx of new projects related to the fight against COVID-19, we are looking for an intern to help us promote this work and formalize a new market segment for our business. An intern would be hugely beneficial to our business success by attracting new customers and making our existing customers aware of our new product offerings. Tasks include designing a marketing plan, identifying channels and materials for promotion, and communicating design updates or new materials with user.

Marketing Community Manager

Apologue is a coaching company focusing on personal development workshops to help students in their personal and professional lives. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been unable to secure in person workshops and have resorted to online workshops which do not convert well. An intern could help with coming up with creative ways to reach more students effectively and improve our current coaching systems.

– Manage social media platforms and grow its community through content creation
– Create and develop journaling app for our coaching program
– Participate in strategy sessions to grow community and increase signups
– Support and assist in ad hoc tasks

Xenia Ai/Pricepoint

Since 2018, Xenia has been working on a new product – Pricepoint. Pricepoint is a fully automated revenue management system for small and mid-sized, independent hotels, and hostels. It uses artificial intelligence to derive demand forecasts and at any moment provide hotels with the most optimal price which has the highest probability of increasing the hotel’s overall revenues. Pricepoint fully automatically manages hotel’s prices on online sales platforms at a fraction of the cost of a revenue manager. The intern will validate the product-market fit by developing the first cohort of paying customers.

Integration of molecular tools with technological evaluation to improve the performance of starter cultures for yogourt

Yogourt demand has increased significantly over the past decade, accompanied by a fast-paced diversification in types of product, requiring specialized processes. The challenge faced by Lactalis Canada is to continually adapt the fermentation process to obtain consistent and optimum quality, shelf-life and sensory profile using the cooperation of living microorganisms as starters in milk which already contains a variable microbiome. In order to meet this challenge, molecular tools are urgently needed to improve the process of starter production and monitor the performance of starters during milk fermentation. The collaboration with the University of Guelph will provide the expertise to develop these tools and evaluate the genetic and metabolic compatibility of specific strains for predictable yogourt characteristics. This project will expand understanding of bacterial interactions during milk fermentation and their impact on the flavour profile of fermented milk. The results will be used to improve the yield and sensory profile of yogourt produced by Lactalis Canada.