Innovative Projects Realized

Exploiting wild tomato genetic resources and pathogen effector diversity for resistance

Plant pathogens, including bacteria, can damage plants and cause significant crop losses. Among those Pseudomonas syringae is a major pathogen of tomato plants. It is now accepted that domesticated plant crops are often more sensitive to pathogens than their wild relatives. We aim to exploit a library of pathogens virulence factors to find new bacterial gene that trigger an immune response. Then we will use a targeted approach to sequence wild tomato resistance genes. Finally, we will exploit this data to generate a high-throughput library to identified new resistance genes in Tomato against Pseudomonas syringae. This project will provide benefit to the partner by idetifying new resistance genes in Tomato crops using both the diversity of the pathogen and of the wild relatives of domesticated tomato.

Biodegradable Polyurethane Elastomers Comprised of Bio-based Plasticizers

Polyurethane elastomers for consumer applications, are developed with primarily bio-based polyester-polyols, isocyanates and bio-based plasticizers which are specifically tailored to result with the required mechanical, flexibility, and biodegradability characteristics useful for consumer applications, especially for footwear and foam products for furniture and automotive industry.

Optimizing Thin Film Growth

Thin film deposition equipment is in wide demand amongst academic researchers in chemistry, physics, materials science and electrical engineering, not to mention manufacturers of semiconductor devices, medical consumables, storage media, and optics parts. Thus the size of the market can vary greatly from year to year due to its strong dependence on the health of these enduse sectors. Nonetheless, technological breakthroughs have often lead to large-scale growth. To this end, Angstrom Engineering Inc has strived to remain a leader in this field by constantly improving the ease of use of their systems as well as the quality of materials produced. The project will involve developing methods and models to further automate and optimize their thin film growth.

Development of Residential HVAC and Air Conditioning Demand Management and Control Systems – Modeling and Control Desig

The project aims at the modeling and simulation of the HVAC system for the study of energy conservation strategies. After the optimal energy conservation strategies are found through simulations, a central HVAC controller will be developed for the integrated operation of the Archetype House HVAC equipment which will employ the energy conservation strategies such as moving the heating/cooling load to off peak hours when the electricity price is low, cooling the house with the outside cold air in summer during the night time, changing the setpoint of heating/cooling to optimal level and adjusting the percentage of the fresh and return air in the supply air based on the occupancy level of the house by monitoring carbon-dioxide in the return air duct.

Numérisation tridimensionnelle d’un véhicule et détermination automatisée de trajectoires robots

Groupe Domax est une entreprise spécialisée dans l’intégration et l’opération de lave-autos mécanisés en Amérique du Nord. Groupe Domax prévoit se positionner comme le nouveau leader mondial en ce qui a trait au lavage automatisé et écologique, et ainsi se démarquer favorablement dans un marché de 19,6 milliards de dollars seulement en Amérique du Nord. Pour en arriver à réaliser cet objectif, l’entreprise a besoin de développer une méthodologie de numérisation tridimensionnelle de véhicules routiers et de transposer ces données en coordonnées robotisées utilisables en milieu réel. Le projet de stage consiste donc en la détermination d’une méthodologie efficace et rapide utilisables par des robots 6-axes conventionnels de marque FANUC.

Evaluation of therapeudic natural killer cells

The intern will undertake the development and evaluation of a novel gene-edited immune cell therapy for the treatment of different cancer types. The cancer immune cell therapy is a hot and rapidly growing field that has yielded success and clinically meaningful benefits for the treatment of certain cancers. Many of these successes have been with a kind of treatment called CAR T cells, which are potent anticancer cell therapies yet pose significant safety concerns, namely a potentially lethal inflammatory condition called cytokine release syndrome and neurological complications.
Ankarys is a Canadian early stage start-up that is leveraging advances in gene editing technology and stem cell biology along with its scientists’ deep expertise in the investigation of cell therapies to develop a proprietary cell therapy product: engineered stem cell-derived natural killer cells. Natural killer cells are our body’s first line of defense against viral infections and cancer growth, and have been shown to be safe in different contexts of treating cancer.

Finding position and characterization of the defects in 3D point cloud

The inspection process has been an inseparable part of manufacturing to measure dimensions such as diameter, flatness, roundness and straightness of the parts. Besides, on some machined surfaces, it is required to measure roughness and identify surface defects. For defect detection, companies are still relying on visual inspection, which is very slow and labor-intensive. To overcome all challenges, interferometry instruments are used to acquire 3D images. Still, once a surface is acquired, the position and size of defects have to be found, and sometimes defect has to be classified. Novacam Technologies Inc. designs and manufactures fiber-based low coherence interferometry instruments capable of acquiring volumetric data in hard to reach spaces. The goal of the proposed project is to identify defects on the acquired point cloud file of the curved surfaces and find its position, orientation and size. The major and minor axis of each defect will be computed and profiles through the deepest point extracted. All the parameters related to the defect’s position and characterization will be listed in a log file.

Mass spectrometry analysis of beneficial compound profiles of medicinal mushrooms

Mushrooms represent a source of diverse medicinal compounds that have been exploited for centuries. Beneficial compounds have proven efficacy against disease, including anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-tumoral, anti-bacterial traits. These compounds, along with potential for new discoveries, drive the exploration of mushrooms as a powerful medicinal source and supports their application in the health sector to discover new treatments against disease. Moreover, the increased accessibility and popularity of medicinal mushrooms requires a thorough understanding of the properties and present within different mushroom species and their potential influence on the consumer. In this proposal, we will evaluate the production of beneficial compounds and nutrient availability within medicinal mushrooms under a variety of environmental growth conditions. We will use the information collected to advise our industrial partner, Wake Network Inc. of optimal growth conditions to promote production of the beneficial compounds.

Mineralogy and isotopic signature of the Marshall lake VHMS deposit, northwestern Ontario

The proposed research project will study processes which took place during formation of the copper-silver-gold deposit in the southern part of the Marshall Lake property, western Ontario. The study will focus on deciphering primary and metamorphic mineral assemblages and conditions of their origin. Studying mineral textures and their chemical and isotopic compositions will allow characterization of the processes which formed the deposit, including estimation of temperatures and pressures at which they took place. Isotopic dating of minerals will show relationships with the geologic processes on a regional scale. The study results will significantly improve the current model of the deposit and understanding about copper, silver and gold behavior at this locality. As a result, the partner organization will be better able to select targets for exploration. In addition, this information may be applied to other, similar exploration prospects.

Social Media Chatbot

RecruitForMe is shifting into an online model to sustain its operations during COVID-19. A chatbot will be created to support this organization’s clients regarding knowledge of the Employment Standards Act (ESA) and the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC). The chatbot will do this in the form of answering the clients’ questions about these legislations, in the context of recruiting. If the chatbot cannot answer a question, it may re-direct the inquirer to an individual who is knowledgeable on the nuances of the ESA and/or the OHRC. The chatbot will be able to do this by having a language resource–the text corpus–that has information interpreted from the ESA and OHRC as it pertains to the recruitment process.

ResolvMD Corp. – Business Development Analyst (1)

As we are a smaller and nimble company, we have been able to drive home the importance of moving to digital infrastructure. Discussions with clients have been very positive in this regard. There are structural changes in mentality and operations occurring which our organization benefits greatly from. We are looking to drive adoption on multiple fronts – more time for patient care, higher efficiencies and less intermediaries. We would like to analyze whether to continue to look for roll-up targets in an effort to enhance physician on-boarding. There are also opportunities to start looking at our future markets for expansion (Canada as a primary and the US as a secondary). We are strongly positioned in Alberta but want to be proactive in starting to understand the dynamics in other provinces, the systems of record and the competitive landscape. An intern can help accelerate our path to market in both regards which in turn helps us to grow faster and earn market share.

Corepoint Solutions Inc. – Marketing & Business Strategy Intern

The intern, with the mentorship of several Corepoint team members and consultants, will be tasked with developing a new marketing plan and framework for the COVID world. This will include:
-competitive analysis in a rapidly evolving market
-assessment of current organizational assets and messages
-current customer segment analysis
-new customer prospect list within key Canadian markets
-suggested tactics and creative approaches
-proposed sales workflow and resources
-budget

The intern will be able to significantly impact the volume and velocity of our customer funnel, helping a growing start up increase our speed.