Innovative Projects Realized

Business Management Intern

OneCup AI specializes in the marriage of artificial intelligence and agriculture. We are creating a platform for ranchers to track, identify and monitor their livestock with the click of a button. The ideal candidate will have the ability to create a detailed business analysis, outlining any problems and possible solutions, assist with the budgeting and forecasting given that we will be developing and launching BETSY IoT into the commercial market in the fall. Business Management intern will be in charge of the business structure, financial analysis, researching grants, business partnerships, and grant writing as well as assisting in the investor and beta location relations in advance of the fall commercial launch.

GLJ Ltd. – Business Development Intern

GLJ has been working on several market entry strategies internationally and into other areas of the energy industry. However, do to the COVID-19 pandemic, that work has been stunted. It is our desire for the intern(s) to identify methods in order to overcome this obstacle. Though we have been a successful company for decades in the oil and gas industry, entry into new markets requires business insights and acumen than are not a position of strength.

Cebas Fluid Solver

This project seeks to develop a fluid solver that is capable of simulating the interaction between low viscosity fluids and solid objects, such as pouring down water from a water pitcher onto the ground. Fluid effects such as splashing water are widely used in video game and film industry. As a visual effect solution provider, Cebas Visual Technology is very interested to develop fluid solver, and such a development experience is beneficial for the intern student.

Musculoskeletal Model Development and Biomechanical Evaluation of the Levitation Knee Brace

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating musculoskeletal disease affecting approximately 1/3 of Canadians over the age of 25. Knee braces are often prescribed for OA patients to restore joint function and reduce pain in an attempt to avoid or delay knee replacement surgery. Most braces are designed to offload one side of the knee, however, more than 95% of knee OA patients have OA that affects more than one compartment of their joint. Spring Loaded Technology has designed the Levitation™ “Tri-Compartment Unloader” knee brace to reduce forces in all three compartments of the knee. This study aims to determine how effectively the brace offloads the knee joint by developing and using a musculoskeletal model along with several data analysis techniques. These evaluations of the Levitation knee brace are needed to prove efficacy of the device, which will contribute to growth and market success for Spring Loaded Technology.

Blockchain-based secure transaction logging system

Smart-city platform developed by B-CITI company stores sensitive information of platform users (citizens) in a database to provide them services. The proposed research project’s aim is to build a system that records each user interaction with the database. The records are immutable and, easily linkable and traceable. The records can be used as forensics evidence for proving and validating the integrity of the data in the database. For this, we use permissioned blockchain that is managed by multiple untrusted entities to generate trust in the system. The entities include B-CITI, city corporation and citizens. Consensus mechanism among the untrusted entities guarantees trusted execution of the system. The developed system is used by B-CITI in their future implementations of the platform.

Augmenting Movies with Interactive Narrative Agent

Netflix recently released an interactive movie that brings the concept of interactive media from video games into movie form. In contrast to the passive viewing experience with conventional movies, the interaction brings viewers into the movie scenes for an immersive experience. However, existing interactive movies are still scripted. Though there have been proposals towards freeform conversational for games and agent-directed interaction, viewers are still not in control of the story development. In this project, our objective is to transform characters in a movie into interactive objects offering viewers a real interactive experience, neither pre-scripted nor pre-filmed. We will propose and develop a self-learning avatar shadowing a selected character to learn the story from the perspective of the shadowed character. We will augment a movie with the avatar to offer interaction with a character. This proof-of-concept will shed light on turning all characters alive to offer viewers unlimited interactive experience.

Biophysical characterization of synthesized fluorescently labeled biologically relevant phospholipids

The chemical synthesis of lipids with defined fatty acid side chains in terms of chain length and the degree of saturation/unsaturation is important to provide high-quality products for life science research. When dyes are added to the lipids, they can be used to a variety of biomedically relevant experiments by measuring be color and amount of signal collected in a light detector. Moreover, very important lipids need to be isolated and purified from natural sources. One class of these lipids, called plasmalogens, has become very important to better understand brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
The intern will perform detailed analyses of these synthetic and isolated lipids. These studies will provide a better understanding of the structure and function of lipids and their role in biomembranes. The partner organization will benefit from a series of optimized protocols to produce biologically highly relevant molecules with the potential for new markets.

Salts & West Growth Strategy Project

This project is aimed at supporting Salts & West (S&W) in improving its online presence and exposure, social media marketing, and customer service strategies which is expected to have a positive impact on sales and growth. An increase in sales and growth will result in the need for more help (i.e. job creation) and thus a ripple effect on the local economy and individual income levels. The project will involve (but not limited to) partnering and collaborating with other businesses and organizations, researching of best practices and the developing of guidelines, procedures and staff training and customer service manual for the company.

County of Lennox & Addington

The County of Lennox & Addington is an upper tier municipality located in Eastern Ontario. Their offices are located in Napanee, ON. The Lennox and Addington Economic Development Office is a team of Economic Development professionals who focus on improving the economy of the County. They provide business coaching to help their businesses succeed, encourage new business development and attract visitors and residents to ensure a strong and diversified economic base. COVID-19 has created many challenges for the businesses and economy of Lennox and Addington County. To assist with the County’s economic recovery and to determine new opportunities, Lennox & Addington County launched an Economic Development Task Force. The Task Force focuses on four main sectors of the economy: Manufacturing/Trades, Agri-Food/Beverages, Tourism/Residential Attraction, and Retail/Restaurants. Each sector is represented by Lennox and Addington business leaders. These sectors represent the four largest sectors in the County and are also sectors that have faced unique challenges and opportunities as a result of the pandemic.

Criterium Group project

The project will support the Social Impacta & Digital Transition initiatives of United Way of Calgary and Area (UWCA). It will enable UWCA to optimize business processes & move away from paper to a digital for donations. Currently, most donations are made with a paper pledge form that is touched multiple times and is subject to inefficiencies & error. The team will use half their time to strategy development for other clients and the other half supporting UWCA.

Project Delivery Associate

AltaML is looking for a highly motivated Project Delivery Associate to help in the planning and delivery of transformative projects to address business problems for our clients using predictions and machine learning.

Vog App Developers – Marketing Coordinator

Strategic analysis was completed over the past 3 weeks that increasing brand recognition will be an important factor in Vog’s continued growth. The intern will work with the Digital Marketing Consultant to review the existing brand story and develop a new narrative that increases market competitiveness. In the post-COVID world businesses need to have trusted digital solutions to interact with customers and increase business efficiencies. It’s crucial that when they look to implement new technologies, Vog is top of mind. The intern will work with the digital marketing consultant to write blog posts and create a brand narrative around Vog. This will primarily include writing blog posts on upcoming issues, technologies, and industry events, and narratives about Vog’s past successes.

The student will also have the opportunity to support on client project work to gain a better understanding of the industry and development process.