Innovative Projects Realized

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

31620 Completed Projects

2978
AB
5221
BC
856
MB
696
NL
899
SK
9419
ON
9858
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98
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619
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1192
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Projects by Category

The analysis of the social media platforms and marketing campaigns of Col Juicery to improve their local reach and boost their growth in Northern British Columbia

During the pandemic, many businesses have restructured their marketing strategy. Col Juicery from Prince George, British Columbia, has introduced new ways of satisfying their customers’ needs. Their new curb-side and online delivery services have helped the company not only stay open during these challenging times but also increased customer engagement with the brand. First, The research will aim to help track and analyze customer engagement through social media platforms and the Col Juicery website to understand how well the new strategies are being implemented. Second, the research will also provide the manager with crucial information gathered using analytical tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook Analytics to analyze and help better target new customer segments. The third goal is to help the manager to implement and monitor the new marketing tool ActiveCampaign to meet new business goals. The final report will provide the manager with recommendations in the form of an article with customer persona tables, graphs, and other types of analysis presented to help the company grow.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Charles Scott

Student:

Partner:

Col Juicery

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Accommodation and food services

University:

University of Northern British Columbia

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

Mise en place d’une érablière de recherche

L’érable à sucre est exploité depuis plusieurs siècles en raison de la concentration particulièrement élevée en sucre de sa sève. Malgré son importance économique, notamment au Canada, les paramètres qui régulent le mécanisme de la coulée à l’échelle de l’arbre sont encore mal connus. Il existe également de nombreuses lacunes en ce qui concerne la capacité des érablières à résister aux changements climatiques.
Le but de ce stage est de mettre en place une érablière de production et de recherche qui servira par la suite à la réalisation de différentes expérimentions qui auront pour principaux objectifs 1) d’identifier les différents facteurs climatiques, sylvicoles et abiotiques qui influencent la quantité et la qualité de l’eau d’érable à l’échelle de l’arbre et du peuplement et 2) de permettre le maintien des érablières en santé et résistantes aux changements globaux.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Christian Messier

Student:

Partner:

Groupe DDM;Société de Développement Wendat inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Université du Québec à Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

What does the extant literature and needs assessment determine is the most effective mentorship model for low SES Black children?

The purpose of this project is to support the effective planning, design, development, implementation, and maintenance of a new mentorship program through the YCMA of Greater Toronto serving Black youth in priority neighbourhoods in Toronto’s east end, namely the Galloway, Malvern and Dorset Park neighbourhoods in Scarborough. This program seeks to support educational achievement and create change across the system of employment for Black youth by bringing them together with adult Black professionals and role models within individual and group mentoring sessions through schools, employment organizations, and social service organizations. As such, the research asks: What relevant literature exists about mentorship programs for Black youth in the Canadian context? What are the research findings pertaining to the most effective program designs and implementation methods? Where are the gaps in both research and service provision where the mentorship of Black Canadian youth are concerned, specifically girls? What such services exist for these communities? What are the needs of these communities? Answers to these questions will be sought through a literature review/scoping study and a needs assessment through community outreach and engagement sessions.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Camisha Sibblis

Student:

Partner:

YMCA of Greater Toronto

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Windsor

Program:

Accelerate

Advanced non-destructive testing solutions for mass concrete and deepfoundations

This project aims to develop an improved methodology for condition assessment of mass concrete structures and deep foundations using customized NDT solutions and an integrated approach. The project builds on recent advances developed by the project partner (FPrimeC Solutions) and the academic research group (uOttawa) for next-generation NDT products and services. Assessing the condition of large foundations and other mass concrete structures is complex, yet critical for the protection and maintenance of valuable infrastructure assets. The results of this research collaboration, and the technology developed, will serve to consolidate FPrimeC’s position as a market leader in this field. The guidelines produced during this work will also benefit infrastructure owners and the industry at large by enabling better and more cost-efficient management strategies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Martin Noel

Student:

Partner:

FPrimeC Solutions Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa

Program:

Accelerate

Assessment of local air filtration in hospital wards to prevent spread of SARS-CoV2

A major mechanism for the spread of COVID 19 is inhalation of aerosols and droplets produced by an infected person. Localized filtration systems (essentially an air purifier with appropriate inlet and outlet ducting) could provide an important layer of protection in the event that other layers of protection (ie, mask wearing) are compromised. Delta Hospital is developing local air filtration systems that would extract the majority of particles produced by a patient (with or without a mask). Smoke visualization will be used to ensure that the systems do not increase bed-to-bed transport of particles. Simplified design approaches will ensure that the systems “do no harm”, but assessing the effectiveness is more complex: this is the subject of this internship. The intern’s work will be primarily experimental, first measuring particle concentrations in an unoccupied room using a controlled particle source. Later, concentrations of particles and air velocities will be monitored in occupied rooms with and without the filtration systems.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Steven Rogak

Student:

Partner:

Fraser Health Authority;Vancouver Coastal Health

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Study of the air flow in a rectangular cavity fitted with pads filled with phase change material Application to the latent storage air solar collector

Solar Energy is approved, as a significant player in most of development of experimental techniques. However, the usage of PCMs in the solar energy system needs an expensive cost. For this reason, a new numerical tool is necessary to minimize and choice the best PCMs in the gain of energy of the system. In our research, I expect to gain essential knowledge of LBM and to develop a computer code able to simulate heat and mass transfer through infrared solar collector in the presence of PCMs. Dynamic and thermal fields in the system will be obtained by solving mass, momentum, and energy balances associated with energy equation using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The melting process of PCMs will be presented in details. The parametric studies of different materials and, number of fins, configuration of fins, hot wall temperature, thermal boundary conditions, and inclination angle of the PCM cavity will be also showed.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Abdulmajeed Mohamad

Student:

Partner:

Université de Tunis El Manar

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Effects of Switching Dynamics on Solvent Recovery Efficiency from Shrinking Polymer Microdroplets

Latex particles are widely applied in inkjet printing, painting, coating, lubrication and many other areas. The current process for latex production relies on emulsion formation and separation, requiring the use of organic solvents that are flammable and volatile with negative environmental impact. In their seminal work, Jessop et al reported switchable solvents that can be hydrophilic after protonization by CO2 or other acidic stimuli (such as glycolic or formic acids), and become hydrophobic when the stimuli are removed [1]. Those solvents can be used to dissolve polymer in absence of the stimuli, forming emulsion droplets containing polymer in water. In presence of the stimuli, the solvents are converted to soluble salts that leave the droplets, leading to break up of the emulsion [1]. As such, switchable solvents provide a green and sustainable approach for latex nanoparticle synthesis in an aqueous environment [2,3]. A representative switchable solvent is N,N-Dicyclohexylmethylamine (Figure 1) with CO2 as a popular trigger.
Despite of significance for a broad range of technological applications, it remains challenging to recover switchable solvent from microdroplets containing latex nanoparticles for reuse.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Xuehua Zhang

Student:

Partner:

BC Research Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Clean Technology; Sustainability & the Environment; Nanotechnology

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Fashion Foodnotes – Understanding the Social, Environmental and Cultural Implications of the Food-Fashion Nexus

At the center of the research project are the various phenomena connecting food and fashion, such as fashion that is printed with, shaped like or even made of food, as well as collaborations between designers and actors in the food industry. After a tense relationship between food and fashion in the past, this new development can be considered a change in social values – seemingly heralding the end of Kate Moss’ “Nothing-tastes-as-good-as-skinny-feels”-mentality as well as the start of an increasing (environmentally) aware consumer culture. By taking a closer look at the connection of food and fashion the thesis will highlight how gender performance, identity construction and group dynamics have shifted. The insights gained through the dissertation will benefit our understanding of food and fashion from a social, historical and cultural background. In addition, the thesis may help to open a conversation about the underlying attitudes, motivations and beliefs of people in Western society asking for a change towards a more environmentally and humane development in the industries.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jessalynn Keller

Student:

Partner:

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Adaptive operating room (OR) scheduling and control of cardiac surgeries

Operating room scheduling is one of the most important issues at Foothills Medical Centre (FMC), on which the hospital budget and the efficiency of OR management rely. OR
scheduling is difficult in practice and theory because there are many constraints and disturbances. However, cardiac surgeries have special characteristics. Compared with other
types of surgeries, cardiac surgeries usually have more complicated procedures, accordingly resulting longer case times and greater variances, increased interdependency of patients with surgeons, and increased dependency of surgeries on OR staff and anesthetists. These special characteristics make OR scheduling of cardiac surgeries sensitive to disturbances. Thus the general OR scheduling and planning at the hospital is inefficient for cardiac surgeries. Therefore, in our extension Mitacs-Accelerate project, we focus on cardiac surgeries. We need to tailor our former FFPD heuristic for general adaptive OR scheduling and control, by taking into consideration of variances of case times and dependencies of cardiac surgeries.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Barrie Nault

Student:

Partner:

Alberta Health Services

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Public administration; Retail trade

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

Understanding Failed Forensic Science: A Research-Based Radio Documentary Series

This project enhances scholarly and public understandings of how technical scientific knowledge shapes legal outcomes, especially through the process of finding facts. Fact determination is an unregulated yet enormously consequential task for courts. Yet the law of evidence remains widely conceptualized as an essentially rule-bound domain, including in legal pedagogy. Meanwhile, despite judicial efforts at gatekeeping for reliable science, forensic expertise continues to feature in miscarriages of justice. By accessibly highlighting underappreciated stories of expert evidence gone wrong, this project will address critical gaps between legal theory and practice, enrich the research literature with interdisciplinarity, and foster academic progress with vital practical applications. This project also aims to enrich public discourse surrounding these issues in Canada and abroad. To date, little research about how experts and technical scientific knowledge shape the law’s key processes has been effectively mobilized to the public. Our project seeks to reverse this trend by partnering the intern’s disciplinary expertise with Cited Media’s acclaimed knowledge mobilization framework to produce a five-part radio mini-series that will enhance the public’s understanding of critical yet often misunderstood legal processes

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Faculty Supervisor:

Emma Cunliffe

Student:

Partner:

Cited Media

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Prioritization and Optimization of the Sewer Flushing Program for Municipal Wastewater Collection Systems

The objective of the study is to develop an algorithm to streamline and automate the decision making process for implementing the municipal wastewater collection flushing program. Traditionally, a municipal flushing program, or pipe cleaning, is based on a time-cycle approach. This means that all sewer pipes in the network are treated the same, ignoring variables, such as the pipe physical attributes, site conditions, use and service are ignored. The driving paradigm for this project is to switch from a quantity-focused practice toward a quality-focused approach. This project will develop an innovative computer-based tool to optimize the preventive maintenance of sewer pipes through flushing. Flushing is characterized by injecting pressured water inside the pipes to flush the grease, debris and deposits before blockage and failures occur. This computerized tool will assist municipalities applying an evidence-based, risk-informed asset management strategy. The strategy will focus on decision making to optimize and implement the flushing program and the modelling of the process with existing GIS applications. Aspects outside the scope of this project include condition assessment and modelling of pipe deterioration.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Arnold Yuan

Student:

Partner:

Town of Georgina

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Public administration

University:

Toronto Metropolitan University

Program:

Accelerate

Integration sound considerations into the Montreal nightlife policy

Noise affects everyone, and our cities try to limit noise impacts through effective policy. We focus on the issue of night noise, where the needs of different people can vary widely between wanting quiet for sleeping and for the great nightlife that cities are known for. This collaboration between the City of Montreal and the Sounds in the City research team uses Montreal as a living laboratory to develop new tools and methods to take sound into account when developing and evaluating a new nightlife policy. The project focuses on participatory approaches to integrate the perspectives of different city users on night noise into a coherent nightlife strategy and policy. Building upon a review of regulations and best practices, the project will support the implementation of the new nightlife policy with a sound dimension. We will first determine an auditory diagnosis of the current situation in Montreal in relation to sound and noise aspects, and then develop pilot projects to evaluate innovative approaches for nightlife policy and management.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Catherine Guastavino

Student:

Partner:

Ville de Montréal

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Public Service, Policy, and Governance; Sustainability & the Environment; Tourism

University:

McGill University

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.