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
QC
98
PE
619
NB
1192
NS

Projects by Category

Sustainable Shipping – A roadmap to zero emission ambitions

Tackling climate change is a complex task, one that depends on transformation of different sectors. Maritime shipping is the transmission belt of the global economy and continues to account for the majority of imports and exports. It is recognized as an energy-efficient mode of transportation compared to road and air transport. Yet, maritime transport has increased by 250% over the past 40 years, resulting in the sector contributing to 3% of total annual man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These emissions are expected to increase by 150%–250% by 2050 in business-as-usual scenarios, causing serious human health and environmental harm. More stringent global regulations have recently been introduced to mitigate emissions from ships. Maritime shipping is now expected to adopt innovative solutions to lower its impact on climate change. One alternative is to change fuels (i.e., a shift from the existing use of fossil fuels to clean fuels). Fuel choice is, however, uncertain, raising the critical question of which fuel is the preferable future marine transportation fuel. My research concerns improving knowledge and tools for effective corporate sustainability through collaborative decision-making.

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Faculty Supervisor:

David Gillen;Jane Lister

Student:

Partner:

Teekay

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Transportation and warehousing

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Capturing expert model in crisis managementusing SYnRGY

SYnRGY is a computational tool designed to support command and control operations in the context
of crisis management. Although SYnRGY has been designed from a user-centered perspective, some
degree of training is required to bring novice users up to a level of competence required to use the
system. The objective of the current proposal is to capture the expert model of crisis management and
design a prototype intelligent tutoring system based on that model. The objective will be achieved in
three phases. The purpose of the first phase is to develop a realistic crisis management scenario. The
second phase will involve human in-the-Ioop simulation with experts. The objective of this phase is to
capture experts’ knowledge in a formal model. Finally, the third phase is devoted to integrating the
expert’s model in a prototype intelligent tutoring system. Thales is confident that this project will
contribute to improve efficiency of training for crisis management in general and for SYnRGY
specifically.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Sebastien Tremblay

Student:

Partner:

Thales Canada Inc (Montreal, QC)

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

University:

Université Laval

Program:

Accelerate

A Sustainability Evaluation of Post-harvest Fisheries Opportunities for First Nations in Nova Scotia

Many First Nation communities are now exploring and developing post-harvest livelihood activities related to the purchase, transformation, and sale of catch from band harvesters. This research will assess post-harvest businesses currently operating within NS Mi’kmaq communities, and new livelihood opportunities currently being considered by Mi’kmaq Band Councils and entrepreneurs. This assessment will focus on the overall sustainability of the fishery operations, including social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors, among others. The aim of this work is to determine what post-harvest activities are currently being explored and help in weighing the potential positive and negative implications on the economy, environment, culture, and other aspects of NS Mi’kmaq communities. This work is significant as it will assist NS Mi’kmaq communities in further developing post-harvest livelihood activities to support new business developments and sustainable livelihoods.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jerry Bannister

Student:

Partner:

NEXUS Coastal Resource Management Ltd.

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Indigenous Affairs; Aquaculture and Fishing; Public Service, Policy, and Governance

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Accelerate

Examining the effectiveness of a feminist framed transformational leadership development program for young female coaches in university/college athletics

The project aims to examine the effectiveness of a leadership development program to increase competence and confidence of Female Apprentice Coaches to lead in sport in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association. Th leadership development program looks to increase knowledge and practice of effective leadership skills while addressing common barriers women face in sport and sport leadership. The process also engages key sport leaders in the FAC environment including respective mentor coaches and athletic directors. The program has the capacity to be a successful tool to help the CCAA recruit and retain female head coaches in its national championship sports. The research also has the potential to drive organizational change in university sport programs to support effective leadership development for FACs and current female student-athletes.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jennifer Walinga

Student:

Partner:

Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation

University:

Royal Roads University

Program:

Accelerate

Designing Asymmetric structures to Generate Oblique Surf Waves in Rivers

Recreational river waves are gaining more and more popularity, but there is not enough academic research to support them and a few companies around the globe can artificially create them by adjustable structures in rivers. Surf Anywhere, the Calgary-based partner organization in this research, is one of those few companies which has completed and is working on many wave projects in Canada, USA and Europe. Our team investigated, and tried to provide a technical instruction for design of adjustable wave structure that can generate wave in every river condition and on a horizontal bed (unlike common technologies, this does not need a drop!). In previous season of this research, a symmetric structure was investigated (through computer simulations) to generate perpendicular waves. In this season, the asymmetric arrangement of the structure would be investigated (through physical modeling in a hydraulic laboratory) to create oblique complex waves resembling more to attractive ocean waves. The ultimate purpose of this research is to facilitate design of ideal structures that could provide most attractive and safe waves with minimum cost.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Colin Rennie

Student:

Partner:

Surf Anywhere

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa

Program:

Accelerate

Reconfigurable Legged Robot for Structural Inspection with Confined Spaces

This project is motivated by the demands for automation of industrial structure inspection. An autonomous re-configurable robot system is proposed to facilitate the inspection of structures with confined spaces, like airframes or ship hulls. The robot will be able to realize various types of legged locomotion by means of configuration changes. The general objective of this project is to develop a legged robot system that is fully autonomous and adaptable to the structures under operation. We believe that the proposed system will have significant potentials for commercial applications as a lot of industries are calling for an autonomous robotic inspection. Therefore, the partner organizations are driving new technology in Canada.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ting Zou

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Technology; Artificial Intelligence; Aerospace

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

Beyond processing waste of sea cucumber: cosmeceutical potential of North Atlantic sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)

Orange-footed sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) is the most common sea cucumber found in the North Atlantic Ocean. This species is mainly fished for its edible body wall and other remaining body parts are discarded as processing waste. However, all the body parts are rich in protein and production of protein hydrolysates is identified as an efficient method to upgrade the by-products. The protein hydrolysates and peptides so produced exhibit excellent functional and biological properties. These properties show great potential for utilizing as functional ingredients in the cosmetic industry. The cosmetic industry’s current interest is moving towards natural cosmetics with added health benefits, particularly, it has become the emerging trend in skincare products. Therefore, proper incorporation of sea cucumber biologically active molecules into cosmetic products will enhance the full utilization of Atlantic sea cucumber while promoting skin health.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Deepika Dave

Student:

Partner:

Springboard Atlantic Inc.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Aquaculture and Fishing; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

Investigating the Role of Novel Fatty Acid-Binding Protein (FABP) Inhibitors as Treatments for Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders and chronic stress represent major healthcare and economic burdens worldwide. Approximately 75% of Canadians who use health services for a mental illness present with anxiety disorders which may affect up to 10% of the population in terms of lifetime occurrence. Despite the large prevalence of anxiety-related disorders in Canada, there are currently a limited range of effective pharmacotherapeutic interventions. In addition, all currently effective anti-anxiety medications are linked to serious side-effects, including drug dependence and withdrawal, cognitive impairments and metabolic symptoms. Our project is characterizing novel pharmacological compounds that inhibit a protein called FAB-P. This can modulate the brain’s own naturally occurring cannabinoid system. This compound displays strong potential as an effective anti-anxiety medication with fewer side-effects than traditional anxiolytic drugs. Remarkably, these compounds can bypass cannabinoid receptors in the brain and produce anti-anxiety effects without the unwanted side-effects associated with other cannabis drugs and formulations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Steven Laviolette;Walter Rushlow

Student:

Partner:

Artelo Biosciences

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of Western Ontario

Program:

Accelerate

Developing an IoT Edge Computing gateway System (IoT-ECS) to improve passenger’s journey: an intelligent mobility perspective

This research project is part of a bigger initiative driven by Tangente AI and BusPas that fits into the context of intelligent mobility within “smart cities” and is focuses on improving the urban logistics services for the transport of citizens/passengers. More specifically, by leveraging on the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and applications, within the scope of this project led our partner BusPas, we aim to contribute to the development of a multi-technology edge computing gateway (e.g. installed on bus stops, bus shelters and bus terminals) used as a connected device for automatically detecting, collecting and analyzing in real-time data about nearby passengers, in order to improve the passenger’s journey.
From a practical perspective, although various versions of “smart” bus shelter and bus stops are now available worldwide, existing solutions suffer from (a) limited functionally (b) limited connectivity options (c) poorly automated design for detecting users. From an academic perspective, although intelligent mobility and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been well documented within the context of smart cities, the knowledge related to the design of an IoT environment used to improve passenger’s journey is very limited.
We aim to bridge this gap by documenting our experiments and proposing our prototype.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ygal Bendavid

Student:

Partner:

BusPas Inc.

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; Transportation (excluding aerospace); Technology

University:

Université du Québec à Montréal

Program:

Elevate

APERTURE ANTENNAS AS MOBILE SATELLITE TERMINALS

Antennas are essential part of communication links. This project is investigating antennas for communication between a mobile terminal on earth to a satellite. The mobile terminal could be a flying craft or a vehicle in motion. These antennas should be able to transmit and receive data simultaneously in different channels. Besides, they should be capable of scanning the space to find the target satellite. Single channel antennas or antennas with mechanical tracking have been tested for this purpose and are available in market. But, this project is investigating a single antenna of dual channels with simpler structure, lower profile, lower fabrication cost and specifically electronic tracking. Electronic tracking is much faster and more reliable than mechanical tracking by step motors which are bulky. These antennas are highly in demand in market. Hence, TRTech can benefit from commercialization of this product

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mojgan Daneshmand

Student:

Partner:

TRTech (Edmonton, AB)

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Bioprocessing strategies for enhanced production of heme in Escherichia coli

Ardra Inc. has sustainably produced many high-purity chemicals that are used for various flavor, perfume, and cosmetic applications. Combining industrial/business expertise provided by Ardra with academic/research skills provided by Dr. C. Perry Chou’s lab, we are aiming to effectively produce high-value heme compound using engineered E. coli host organism. Major efforts will be dedicated toward engineering of this bacterium by adopting synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and bioprocessing strategies to facilitate large-scale bio-based production of heme. As a long-term goal, it will provide innovative strategies for the production of heme in a clean, sustainable, and cheap way. Lastly, it will enhance world biomass economy and biomanufacturing capacity, leading to the improvement in the quality of life.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Perry Chou

Student:

Partner:

Ardra Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

Influence des paramètres de forge et detraitements thermiques sur la taille de grain del’austénite primaire et les propriétés mécaniquesd’un acier forgé

L’objectif de ce projet est d’étudier l’influence des conditions de déformation ainsi que les
paramètres des traitements thermiques sur la taille de grain de l’austénite primaire, qui à son
tour influence les propriétés mécaniques d’un acier à haute résistance mécanique produit par
la compagnie Sorel Forge. La présence de plusieurs éléments d’alliage dans la
microstructure de cet alliage rend difficile la mise en évidence de la taille du grain de
l’austénite primaire.
Différents procédures seront utilisées pour déterminer la méthode optimale pour révéler de
façon précise les joints de grain de l’austénite primaire pour l’alliage étudié. Cette méthode
sera utilisée pour déterminer l’influence des différents paramètres de fabrication sur les
caractéristiques de l’austénite et son impact sur les propriétés mécaniques. La méthod
développée permettra à l’entreprise de réduire le temps de maintien dans le four pendant les
traitements thermiques réduisant son coût d’énergie et ainsi améliorant sa rentabilité.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mohammad Jahazi

Student:

Partner:

SOREL FORGE;École de technologie supérieure

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

École de technologie supérieure

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.