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

Real Time Inverse Scattering for Optical Coherence Tomography – Year two

A critical challenge today in neuro-surgery is the determination of tumor boundaries intraoperatively. There are means of doing this using high-resolution MRI machines, however, these can be prohibitively costly. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers a promising, cheaper, label-free alternative. However, the basic models used for clinical, real-time OCT limit its usefulness and depth of focus. This work will develop a type of image reconstruction that includes digital focusing and anisotropic properties. This will extract more optical information than is currently possible, as well as improving focus using only computational techniques, all in real-time. This would significantly improve current OCT systems as well as their prospects for intraoperative tumor boundary detection.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kieran Murphy

Student:

Partner:

Synaptive Medical Inc;University Health Network;University of Toronto

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Real Time Inverse Scattering for Optical Coherence Tomography

A critical challenge today in neuro-surgery is the determination of tumor boundaries intraoperatively. There are means of doing this using high-resolution MRI machines, however, these can be prohibitively costly. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) offers a promising, cheaper, label-free alternative. However, the basic models used for clinical, real-time OCT limit its usefulness and depth of focus. This work will develop a type of image reconstruction that includes digital focusing and anisotropic properties. This will extract more optical information than is currently possible, as well as improving focus using only computational techniques, all in real-time. This would significantly improve current OCT systems as well as their prospects for intraoperative tumor boundary detection.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kieran Murphy

Student:

Partner:

Synaptive Medical Inc;University of Toronto;University Health Network

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Social and Environmental Impact of Co-operatives

The intern will work with the project supervisors to develop an online tool to capture 15 key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect social and environment performance of co-operatives in Canada. The intern will attend focus meeting with the supervisors in order to identify the co-operative participants’ requirements. The intern will complete a systems mock-up and detailed user requirements document that will be approved by CEARC. An online web-based system will be developed to gather submitted data, produce benchmarks and functionality to create on-demand reports. The Web-based tool is a key component of CEARC’s social and environmental reporting index project. While the tool will be designed to capture 15 KPIs for this project, it will have the capability to enable the CEARC systems administrator to add many other categories over time. This system will provide significant benefits for CEARC as a mechanism to identify and report KPIs that reflect a way array of co-operative performance elements.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Pawan Lingras

Student:

Partner:

Duguid Consulting

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Saint Mary's University

Program:

Accelerate

Voids of Speculation – The uncanny ruins of failed urbanism

This research explores ghost-cities in Hanoi, Vietnam, built mostly for speculative reasons, often lingering uninhabited for a prolonged period of economic uncertainty. The dive of Vietnam in market economy in the 90’s called for a large scale restructuration of what has previously been uncontrolled rapid urbanization processes. At the beginning of the 2000s, at least 50 large satellite
towns have been planned for Hanoi as a way to quench lingering housing shortages and draw real-estate profits. Bigger projects were divided in New Urban Areas projects (Khu do thi moi, KDTM). A few of these KDTM famously became ghost-cities, with owners even unable to put hands on their properties as some infrastructures remain unfinished. This research explores what happens to livability and to the urban condition when the habitat is synthesized mostly for economic efficiency, particularly in a time lapse where this performance is not even fulfilled.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Martin Bressani

Student:

Partner:

National University of Civil Engineering

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Upheaval buckling behavior of offshore oil pipeline

Over the past few decades, offshore oil and gas development activities have grown rapidly to meet the global energy demand. Canada is one of the major offshore oil and gas producing countries in the world and relies on pipelines for transporting offshore oil and gas. While the pipeline is considered as one of the most viable mean of transporting oil and gas, the consequence of pipeline failure is disastrous, affecting the economy, public health and the environment. It is therefore of paramount importance to keep the pipeline safe from any potential damage. The upheaval buckling is a mode of deformation that overstresses the pipe wall and may lead to pipeline failure. In this research, upheaval buckling of offshore pipeline will be investigated in order to develop improved design method to safeguard pipeline against upheaval buckling.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ashutosh Dhar

Student:

Partner:

Husky Energy Inc (NL);Petroleum Research Newfoundland & Labrador

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Mining; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

Role of Dissolved Oxygen Concentration on Gold Recovery from Sulphide Ores via Cyanidation and Thiosulphate Leaching Processes

The proposed research project pertains to the analysis and understanding of the role of oxygen in gold extraction and recovery process. Currently most gold mining operations apply air in their gold recovery process, but there are some data showing that the gold recovery with air application is not efficient. It is believed that the use of oxygen gas would result in higher gold recovery and ultimately lower costs. Also we believe the application of oxygen gas instead of air would minimize or eliminate the need for addition of lead nitrate into the gold recovery process solutions. The proposed research program will investigate the oxygen addition and provide scientifically reliable data to the gold miners regarding the application of oxygen over air.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ahmad Ghahremaninezhad

Student:

Partner:

Air Liquide Canada Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Mining

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Accelerate

Construction and validation of the interRAI 0-3

The purpose of this study is the construction of the interRAI 0-3 to: 1) improve identification of developmental, behavioural and emotional problems in young children; 2) enhance evidence-informed care planning; and 3) facilitate access to early intervention and individualized, tailored treatment based on the needs of the child and the family. The expected benefit to the partner organization will include cost reduction through improved triaging and prioritization. Collaboration and use of a common language with multi-disciplinary community partners can reduce the overall costs in avoiding the duplication of services. These strategies will contribution to wait list reduction strategies and reduce frustration for families trying to navigate the mental health service system. Data driven decision-making will also provide information for accreditation and program evaluation to support improved mental health for children and their families and ultimately improved service system integration.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Shannon Stewart

Student:

Partner:

Merrymount Children's Centre

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Linking microbiome to eco-industrial function: the in silico and metagenomic exploration of microbial dark matter and taxonomic blind spots – Year two

The collection of bacteria and archaea in an ecosystem is termed the microbiome. This microbiome is critically important to the structure and function of essentially any ecosystem, providing many ecosystem services, such as growth promotion, nutrient turnover, and impacts on organismal health. The vast majority of these organisms, however, are unknown to science for a variety of reasons. Recent advances in high-throughput DNA and RNA sequencing of environmental samples provide a significant data resource to help understand these organisms. These data provide a meaningful target for data intensive biological research with tremendous scientific and industrial application. This research program seeks to apply techniques of data intensive biology to these environmental sequencing data to provide an understanding the role of metabolic, functional, and taxonomic affiliations in ecosystem services. TO BE CONT’D

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Faculty Supervisor:

Andrew Doxey

Student:

Partner:

Metagenom;University of Waterloo

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Life Sciences (not health); Biotechnology; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Elevate

Linking microbiome to eco-industrial function: the in silico and metagenomic exploration of microbial dark matter and taxonomic blind spots

“A large majority of microbes cannot be cultured. Recently, microbiome sequencing has begun to identify the genetic potential of these lineages, often referred to as microbial “dark matter”. By integrating my taxonomic profiling methods with function profiling developed by the academic supervisor, I aim to develop and apply a comprehensive pipeline for microbial dark matter characterization, placing unclassified taxa into both a taxonomic and functional context. This data intensive approach will characterize novel gene families, pathways, and taxa at an unprecedented scale.Poorly characterized data can severely blunt microbiome analysis, limiting its scientific and industrial utility. My role at Metagenom Bio will be to analyze client microbiome and metagenomic data for specific industrial applications. Development of taxonomic and metagenomic functional profiling methods that incorporate microbial dark matter leverage custom computational techniques, and will enable high-resolution characterization of proprietary Metagenom Bio metagenomic libraries, substantially increasing their value.”

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Faculty Supervisor:

Andrew Doxey

Student:

Partner:

Metagenom;University of Waterloo

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Life Sciences (not health); Biotechnology; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Elevate

Development of Combined Building Integrated Photovoltaic/Thermal (BIPV/T) System for Net-Zero Energy Building Applications

“Building integrated photovoltaic–thermal array (BIPV/T) incorporated within a building structure is a system that combines the roof/facade, photovoltaic cells and thermal collector as an all-in-one product instead of installing each individually. BIPV/T effectively replaces conventional building materials and is more cost-effective than having several separate products, and installation of the BIPV/T system can be implemented during initial building construction. BIPV/T serves to not only produce electricity, but can also generate thermal energy, and act as protection against noise and the weather. With this in mind, BIPV/T functions as a new disruptive technology. This project will benefit the partner(s)’ understanding of BIPV/T benefits, challenges, and system design/installation improvements, which could potentially reduce costs, help advance commercial solar energy system and contribute to the economic benefits of Ontario and Canada.”

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Faculty Supervisor:

Alan Fung

Student:

Partner:

Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (Vaughan, ON)

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services; Public administration

University:

Toronto Metropolitan University

Program:

Elevate

Situation Awareness in Process Control Field Operations

The University of Toronto and Cameco Corporation propose to undertake a research project to adapt a measure of situation awareness to process control field operations. Situation awareness, or “knowing what is going on”, is intuitively linked to job performance in nuclear and chemical facilities. That is, if an operator “knows what is going on”, he can be expected to perform the job well, and vice versa. Thus it is important to have valid measures of situation awareness. A recently completed study shows that situation awareness can be measured in control room operator activities with the Process Overview Measure. Further research is needed to adapt the Process Overview Measure to field operator activities. If successful, this would provide a new tool for evaluating equipment, procedures and training for field operators. Conducting such evaluations is a key component in the licensing process for nuclear facilities.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Greg Jamieson

Student:

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Mining

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Early warning indicators as tools for freshwater monitoring

A myriad of environmental stressors are threatening freshwater ecosystems. However, monitoring the impacts of these stressors on economically and culturally important native fish populations remains a challenge. Ontario is a large province with hundreds of thousands of lakes, yet knowledge of ecological structure across lakes is limited, particularly for remote lakes in the Far North. The proposed research seeks to develop new, cost-effective indicators of fish population and freshwater ecosystem change, which are based on food web theory. We will use existing data, from southern to Far North inland lakes in Ontario, to establish relationships between altered feeding patterns, movement, and behaviour of fish, and environmental change (e.g., land use changes, climate change). The resultant indicators, based on these relationships, will provide Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada with the ability to more rapidly identify potential changes to ecosystem health given accelerating environmental change due to climate and industrial land use.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kevin McCann

Student:

Partner:

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (Toronto, ON);University of Guelph

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Other services (except public administration); Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Guelph

Program:

Elevate