Innovative Projects Realized

X-rAID: Computer Aided Diagnosis of X-Ray Images

Radiologists use x-ray images of the human thoracic cavity to diagnose many diseases. One
of the most common diagnoses, an enlarged heart, is detected by measure the cardiothoracic
ratio – the ratio of the heart diameter to that of the thoracic cavity. Radiologists measure the
cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) manually. This process is time-consuming and error-prone. In this
project, we aim to build a computerized system to measure the cardiothoracic ratio
automatically from chest x-rays. To this end, efficient algorithms will be designed to segment
the x-ray image into its constituent organs and to detect important points necessary for
measurements. When complete, such a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system will help
prevents errors, save time and reduce costs. If successful, the project may be extended to
allow diagnosis of other cardiothoracic diseases.

Conservation of Plant-Pollinator Relationships in the Lower Columbia Region Program

The project proposes to enhance pollination networks and the diversity of interactions among both native plants and their native pollinator taking into account the changing climate and a history of habitat loss and degradation. The main goal is to increase the ecological connections among sites to work toward a more resilient landscape in the Lower Columbia Region in south-central British Columbia. On-the-ground actions will improve habitat for pollinators including at-risk bumble bees and butterflies, specialist bees, and moths through the planting of appropriate pollen, nectar, and host plants, and nesting resources. Two target ecological systems are at the focus of this work: the Monarch Flyway and Riparian Meadow Corridor. Diverse pollination networks have been called the ‘key to ecosystem sustainability’ as direct benefits to plants and pollinators flow up through the food chain, with improved food availability for plant, seed, fruit, and insect-eating animals.

Testing Tile Drain Phosphorous Removal with a Novel Carboxymethylcellulose-iron Hydrogel Filtration Matrix

The objective of this research is to reduce the loss phosphate (P) used as fertilizer into waterways. Accumulation of phosphate in rivers and lakes leads to premature lake aging and high P-content allows growth and proliferation of algae, which degrade quality of drinking water, aquatic habitat, and recreational utilization of waterways.
The environmentally friendly compound carboxymethyl cellulose in combination with iron forms stable gel beads and when placed in water, bind and retain phosphate. This project aims to produce the beads on an industrial scale and field-test this novel P-filtration system at two farm tile drainage systems in the Lower Thames River near Chatham-Kent and Bruce Peninsula, in Southern Ontario.
Partners will benefit from a demonstration system for the low-cost and efficient P-removal. The wide range utilization of the P-binding matrix and the tile drain filtration systems will reduce P-load in waterways thus lowering the incidence of harmful algal blooms.

Marketing & Sales Communication Strategy

The project involves better identifying the value of employee health and wellbeing during and post-COVID, given the new workforce landscape. HEAL is aware that Canadians are struggling more than ever with their mental and physical health, working from home, less social interaction, etc. Thus, they are looking to do a deep dive into the current needs of businesses at this time as it relates to employee health and morale and the impact it will have on productivity and profit.
Based on these insights and findings, the objective is to create an updated marketing and sales communication strategy.

Project Activities
o Identify the value of employee health and wellbeing during and post-COVID.
o What is it costing businesses when their employees are experiencing mental health issues?
o How can we prove that an improved diet, more movement, and mindfulness mitigates these concerns and show the associated cost savings to a company?
o Research and analyze the market and the current needs of businesses during this time, concerning employee health and morale and the impact that it has had and will have on productivity and profit.
o This will include discussions with HR professionals and employees, where possible.

Business Process Co-op Student

In partnership with the University of Victoria and the Mitacs program, The Good Party is excited to be working with a student from the Gustavson School of Business on a four month project to create a new arm of the company focused on Experiential Marketing and Social Media Management. With a focus on the team’s expertise in creative planning and production and the extensive education of the existing planning team, the Co-op student will take the lead on such tasks as business planning, market research, brand identification, and execution of a launch. The student will also have the opportunity to work within the new arm of the company and on such tasks as social media management, client communication, brand planning and storyboarding, proposals for service, and execution of experiential pop-ups and happenings.

Marketing project with medical device company Hyivy Health

Hyivy Health, as a medical device company established in 2019, seeks a marketing guru who can help with the marketing side of the business. This project with a focus on marketing will require the intern to put together a detailed marketing plan for the company, including in-depth marketing research and analysis, website redesign, competitor’s analysis, social media content management and development. Moreover, the intern is also expected to prepare materials for customer survey and marketing campaigns and to help with the pre-sale on Kickstarter. With the marketing efforts of the intern, Hyivy Health can reach to target customers and communicate the products to them more effectively; in addition, Hyivy Health can also increase their presence both online and off-line by sharing the rapid growth and medical breakthroughs of the business to the consumers.

Investigation of supportive policy for Active School Travel: Evidence-based recommendations for policies to promote active transportation for school journeys

Walking and wheeling to/from school represents an important source of physical activity for children. As policy decisions about how we build our neighbourhoods, schools, and transportation systems have changed, we have seen a worrisome decrease in the number of children who use active modes of travel to get to/from school. We have limited research mapping existing policies related to school travel planning across and within school, municipal, and regional districts. We proposed that the intern will review and analyze Ontario policy scan data, conduct a scoping review, and survey and interview key informants to identify best practices for policies and procedures that support and promote the use of active travel modes by Ontario students. These findings will inform the policy agenda of the Ontario Active School Travel Council, and support Ontario Municipalities, School Boards, and Student Transportation Consortia to develop policies that support and promote active school travel.

Hemicelluloses – based Microgel and its applications

Hemicellulose is the second most abundant renewable polysaccharide, and the HMC-based microgels have great potential in the application in various industries of surface coating, oil recovery, printing, and diaper industry. In this project, the HMC obtained from FPInnovations’ novel fractionation process will be used as the raw material to prepare HMC-based microgels. The fundamental properties, including the rheological behavior, water absorption, swelling degree, will be determined. The second aspect is to determine the potential applications of the prepared HMC- based microgel, such as coating, ink/printing, oil recovery, diaper. There is a strong market demand develop natural polymer- based micorgel, not only because of the rising oil prices but also due to structural versatility, biocompatibility, and sustainability of bio-based products. Hemicelluloses (HMC) are renewable resource of biopolymers, and they have been the focus of growing attention in the context of bio-economy and sustainable development.

Pursuing innovative non-rare earth amplified fibered DFB lasers: Ultra-long fiber Bragg gratings non-linear induced temperature control

Recent years have seen significant leaps towards perfecting the fabrication of ultra-long fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) for application in non-linear optics, including fibered DFB lasers. Previous work from the laboratory was able to successfully identify and mitigate some of the intrinsic defects causing non-uniformity in multiple type of fibers leading to their compensation attaining high quality reproducible ultra-long FBGs. However, implementation with such novelty components lead to poor results for the DFB fibre laser applications, and further investigation demonstrated temperature gradients along the grating degraded its expected efficiency. This research follows in its footsteps, with the objective of further investigating possible solutions to approach the predicted performance of the DFB laser. Transfer matrix methods using Matlab computation are expected to be a core section of the research. Introducing Kerr non-linearity will allow the simulation of temperature degradation effects. Validation of numerical results will then be experimentally assessed in our laboratories and/or at the partner location.

Towards a patient-centered eHealth system through the integration of cloud services into OpenEMR

Healthcare organizations in British Columbia currently lack an eHealth system as a network of multiple data sources to manage EMRs in meaningful ways. To support clinician decision in operational needs, this project will research the usability of a GUI as an EMR summary view in the Canadian healthcare context for both providers and patients and investigate integrate data from provincial EMRs information systems. Afterwards, another research on how to present the collected information in a meaningful, contextual relevant way will be carried out to assist healthcare data management, and finally a patient portal will be designed to help healthcare providers improve their individual medical services. This system will facilitate the partner’s healthcare business by supporting clinical decision making and improving the patient experience of care.

Creating and testing effective teacher curriculum guides for the educational versions of Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed games

The Assassin’s Creed series is viewed by the public and educators as a promising educational tool rife with historical settings, characters, and events (e.g., Chapman, 2013). Yet, its use in formal education has lagged (Gilbert, 2017) because educators’ lack understanding (i.e., knowing how to teach with a technology, Mishra & Koehler, 2008) and acceptance (i.e., being willing to use technology, Davis, 1989) for games as educational tools. To address this issue, we will create and test Assassin’s Creed curriculum guides. First, the team will document the full range of learning activities in the games. Second, activities will be organized into two teacher-friendly curriculum guides that can be implemented in multiple grades and countries. Third, educators will provide feedback on the guides via surveys and focus groups to determine if and how the guides increase their understanding and acceptance of Assassin’s Creed as an educational tool.

Antimicrobial Activity of Kisameet Clay II

e problem to be addressed is if detailed laboratory studies can be designed out to confirm
and extend the historical, anecdotal information on the therapeutic/medicinal properties of
Kisameet clay (KC). There is much non-scientific information alleging the potent antimicrobial
activities of many clay products. In this research proposal we propose to carry out a detailed
microbiological analysis of the antibiotic activity of KC: the project will involve a full
investigation of the bactericidal and bacteriostatic activities of the clay, considering the
material as a potential antibiotic. Once confirmation of antimicrobial activity is confirmed we
will develop new methodologies and carry out further studies with a variety of pathogens,
including hospital isolates of antibiotic resistant strains. This internship looks at support
research for the main research goals. The company will benefit from the research into the
development of advanced methodology which will be used in ongoing experimentation to gain
a better understanding of the microbiological properties of Kisameet clay.