Innovative Projects Realized

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

29670 Completed Projects

2811
AB
4990
BC
801
MB
663
NL
825
SK
8841
ON
9197
QC
95
PE
568
NB
1088
NS

Projects by Category

Impact of Livestock Grazing on Grassland Herpetofauna

Grasslands cover approximately one third of the Earth’s surface but are among the most threatened and least protected habitats. Livestock grazing is one management strategy to restore degraded grassland ecosystems, but little is known about the effect of grazing on grassland reptiles and amphibians (herpetofauna). World-wide, herpetofauna are in decline and may be particularly susceptible to impacts from grazing. The goal of this project is to understand how grazing in mixed-grass prairies affects grassland herpetofauna species-at-risk using coverboard arrays to locate herpetofauna and quadrat surveys to characterize plant diversity. We will determine: 1) how grazing affects biotic (plant and herpetofauna species) and abiotic (thermal and moisture) environments, and 2) how biotic and abiotic environments change on a gradient from forest edge to the center of a mixed-grass prairie. Understanding the potential impacts of grazing will assist Nature Conservancy Canada (NCC) in management of mixed-grass prairie habitat throughout western Canada.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Pamela Rutherford

Student:

Partner:

Nature Conservancy of Canada

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture and Food; Natural Resources; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

Brandon University

Program:

Accelerate

Broad Spectrum CoV Therapeutic; rhACE2 Immunoadhesin to treat COVID19

Over the last decade, multiple pandemic events have highlighted the vulnerability of the world to existing and emerging infectious threats. Currently, COVID19 has infected >4M people resulting in >300K deaths. Although there are candidate drugs in development, the projected term until an effective COVID therapy or vaccine is available is projected to between 1-2 years. COVID19 marks the third coronavirus outbreak (preceded by SARS and MERS) within the last 20 years and suggests spillover of animal to human coronavirus will occur again. Therefore, in addition to conventional practices (social distancing and quarantining), other strategies to prevent death and spread are needed. The ability to have a ready-made coronavirus solution in place could provide an effective tool in the early phases of future outbreaks and protect front line workers and naïve populations. The Therapeutics Business Unit (TxBU) within Emergent BioSolutions Canada Inc. is proposing a proof-of-concept program to address current and future Coronavirus infections. Chimeric variants of recombinant human ACE2 receptor will be evaluated and downselected to a lead candidate(s) to assess efficacy in vivo for treatment and prophylaxis modalities (against SARS-CoV-2 and SARS) with implications for addressing future coronavirus outbreaks.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jason Kindrachuk;Peter Pelka

Student:

Partner:

Emergent BioSolutions

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Monitoring the Impact of COVID-19 Isolation Policies on Public Wellness using IoT – A Public Health and Work from Home Perspective

Social isolation is having a significant impact on the quality of life, physical activity, and sleep patterns of our population. While self-isolation and social distancing provide the most successful method for limiting the progression and spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19, we often overlook the impact of these rules on our population. This impact is also observed in the quality of the work environment available for employees working from home, where they often lack the necessary equipment and conditions to comfortably and safely work from home.
Through the use of data ecosystems developed at the UbiLab, we propose to monitor the impact of quarantine rules on household-level and individual-level physical activity, sleep, mental health, and work-related stressors and ergonomics.
During Phase 1, from a public health perspective, the proposed ecosystem would be useful in understanding the impact of COVID-19 in our population, monitoring the ongoing impact and the changes in our behaviours caused by public policies implemented. In Phase 2, our team will explore the use of this data to better inform work from home guidelines.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Plinio Pelegrini Morita

Student:

Partner:

Thinktum

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

Probiotic Reduction of Biofilm and Viral and Microbial Spread in Built Environments through Air Purification and Humidity Control

Origen Air and the University of Victoria (UVic) will construct a controlled test environment inside a seven-meter shipping container with a greenhouse bio filter installed on the roof. It will connect to a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system servicing the interior of the shipping container. The system will include anti-viral surfactants and air purification/humidity control technologies, including probiotic fogging to destroy biofilms, genetically engineered pothos ivy biofiltration, activated carbon filtration, ultraviolet disinfection, and HEPA particle filtration. This experimental research initiative will focus on the reduction of viral transmission through controlled humidity, air purification, and surface sanitation to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Phalguni Mukhopadhyaya

Student:

Partner:

Origen Air

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Development of Thin Polymer Strips for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery

This project will develop thin polymer strips that dissolve rapidly in the mouth and can deliver a therapeutic payload. Specifically, the proposed strips will be loaded with vaccine particles that can be delivered directly to the bloodstream via the sub-lingual mucous membranes. It has been previously shown that sub-lingual vaccination is effective for a number of infections. We believe that, even after a vaccine for the current pandemic is found, administration of the vaccine using traditional methods will take a very long time. The proposed polymer strips will allow people to become vaccinated in a rapid and convenient manner, without the need for medical staff.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Alex Adronov

Student:

Partner:

Rapid Dose Therapeutics Corp.

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

Development of wearable QR-RFID trackers for prevention of spreading of COVID-19

Social distancing and case tracking are effective steps to prevent the further spread of Covid-19 and prepare for the recovery of economy. QR code scanning is applied in many countries for case tracking purpose; however, as a smart phone is required and concerns of the privacy have raised, a simple-to-use and cost-effective approach based on non-contact functional system is proposed. By combining QR code with chipless RFID in one tag, a personal information can be read and uploaded automatically before entering into crowded places. Thanks to the sensing function of RFID, too close contact can be detected, and the system will remind or warn the person. In this project, a printed-electronics-solution building upon a react-on-demand (RoD) inkjet printing technology is used for printing chipless RFID. This method not only provides high resolution manufacturing of silver traces through on-site synthesis, but also lower the cost for the whole tag.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jun Yang

Student:

Partner:

Canadian Two-Dimensional Barcode Technology Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

The University of Western Ontario

Program:

Accelerate

High-T2hroughput Rapid Detection of Infectious Diseases such as COVID-19

The project is a high-throughput method to detect and identify infectious disease such as COVID-19 based on advanced optical technologies developed by Manitoba based Adva Diagnostics Inc. The Adva technologies use the interaction of light with a patient sample to produce a spectral “fingerprint” in minutes without the use of reagents. The spectral “fingerprint” is compared with a library of virus spectral “fingerprints” to test for a match. Five University of Manitoba Mitacs interns together with collaborators Prof. Peter Pelka (Microbiology) and Prof. Cyrus Shafai (Electrical Engineering) are helping with “fingerprinting” virus samples and fabrication of certain optical components for the system.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Pelka;Cyrus Shafai

Student:

Partner:

Adva Diagnostics Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Innovative Business Strategies: Business development and export opportunities and challenges associated with small Canadian companies considering cross-border business, and maximizing gains from remote work, particularly during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic

The proposed research will explore two types of business strategies – cross-border business and remote work uptake – that can help small Canadian companies adapt to and recover from the shutdown policies put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the intern will begin by conducting two literature reviews – one to explore the costs and benefits of pursuing cross-border business, and another on best practices for maintaining productivity through remote work. The intern will then develop and calibrate two tools for a small Canadian company: (1) A decision-making framework for deciding whether to engage in cross-border business activities or pursue a cross-border merger, and (2) A corporate remote work policy based on best practices observed in the literature and company-specific considerations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Rajni Dogra

Student:

Partner:

Limestone Analytics Inc

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

St. Lawrence College

Program:

Accelerate

Development of DNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine platforms

This proposal seeks to identify the most promising lead candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine that could be rapidly and inexpensively scaled-up to meet Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine needs. In collaboration with a Canadian biotech company, Entos Pharmaceuticals, we will determine the safety and efficacy of several vaccine candidates to identify the most promising candidate to move forward to clinical trials. If successful, we will have directly contributed to a “designed, developed and made in Canada” COVID-19 vaccine, a key requirement to ensure Nova Scotians and all Canadians will have ready access to a COVID-9 vaccine. Our research strategy also holds the promise of developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine to deal with future outbreaks of other novel coronaviruses.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Roy Duncan;Craig McCormick;Alyson Kelvin

Student:

Partner:

Entos Pharmaceuticals

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Accelerate

COVID-19 Grocery Response NDG

Grocery Response NDG is a grocery ordering and delivery program for seniors 70+ who are confined to their homes during the pandemic. The project is a joint initiative of Concordia University (Ageing + Communication + Technologies – ACT) and New Hope Seniors Centre. The Québec response to the COVID-19 pandemic requires seniors 70 and over to self-isolate Seniors with limited or no social networks and no access to the Internet are especially at risk. The intern for this project is working to set up a telephone line that is accessible to seniors, work with a team of volunteers who take their grocery orders and relay it to a partnered Provigo grocery store. The store then delivers the groceries to isolated seniors.This project offers a friendly check-in and remote shopping experience for the senior at the same time as it provides support to existing grocery stores and their employees. The project has three main goals: To help reduce the infection rate among older adults and supporting seniors in their self-isolation measures; To enable seniors to access food safely during the pandemic; To build and share approaches and tools that can be used to support similar actions in various locations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kim Sawchuk

Student:

Partner:

New Hope Senior Citizens’ Centre

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Accelerate

Real-time Optimization of Freshwater usage in Aquatic Facilities based on Occupancy and Water Quality data Using Machine Learning Methods.

In this research, occupancy monitoring data, temperature and humidity, and water quality parameters data collected through image processing and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors from multiple swimming pools are going to be processed and analyzed to identify the meaningful relations between these parameters and freshwater usage. The aim is to identify correlations between parameters and formulate the addition of freshwater as a function of number of swimmers, time spent, and activities. In addition, these formulas will be used to optimize freshwater usage while maintaining water quality and health parameters within the standard range defined by health regulations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Fae Azhari

Student:

Partner:

EAIGLE Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Tracking community movements through real-time visualization and predictive analytics to manage the spread of COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic complete eradication will at least take 2-3 years, putting the country under complete lockdown is an impractical solution. Hence, Computing and Data Analytics research group at Saint Mary’s University (SMU-CDA) proposes a collaboration with Agyle Intelligence to develop a complete framework using Data Analytics and Machine Learning that can help citizen, civic authorities and local business to make a decision regarding its community movement. It will be an effective tool to practice implementable social distance norms helping citizens to identify hot spot places and times which will help stop the spread of the virus. It’s a transparent crowdsourced data collection project currently in touch with health and civic authorities in Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Nova Scotia (NS) for data collection.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Pawan Lingras

Student:

Partner:

Agyle Intelligence Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Saint Mary's University

Program:

Accelerate