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

(De)Constructing ‘Crisis’ at the Borders of Europe: Border Control, Maritime Rescue and the Production of Humanitarian Space in the Mediterranean Sea

In recent years, the Mediterranean Sea has become a visible site of exclusion characterized by the graphic imagery of boats filled with migrants en route to the European Union (EU). Often marked with tragedy and loss of life, these narratives are routinely accompanied by vivid depictions of rescues at sea being conducted by Frontex, the EU border agency, and increasingly, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Engaging with the humanitarian framing of sea rescue, I unpack how this process of rescue can be understood to perform and enact state borders. I suggest the sea is represented by both state and non-state actors as an idealized, supposedly apolitical humanitarian space defined by the acuteness of saving lives in situations of grievous distress, blurring the politics and violence of borders. Examining the invocation and operation of humanitarianism in response to irregular migrant journeys in the Mediterranean is crucial for understanding the trends and patterns in state and non-state responses to migrant mobility, the fragmented nature of their journeys, and global bordering processes. Exploring the complex interactions of bordering and humanitarianism through the intersections of governmentality and securitization of migration control provides a nuanced understanding of borders as sites of struggle, resistance and agency.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Nyers

Student:

Partner:

University of Warwick

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

The development of web- and smartphone-based knowledge translation tools for clinical exercise prescription

There is a growing need for the development of guidelines related to best practices in the treatment of chronic disease. Clinical practice guidelines have become an important means of translating scientific evidence, identifying gaps in the literature, distributing new knowledge, and improving patient care. Following a teleconference, and an in-person meeting between national and international authorities on the best practices in clinical exercise rehabilitation, as well as various computer science specialists who have worked previously with our research group, the key messages and guidelines for clinical exercise prescription will be identified. These key messages will then be developed into a series of web- and smartphone-based applications to increase the distribution of the information. The benefit of these applications to the Health & Fitness Program of BC lies in their ability to disseminate current information regarding the most effective preventative strategies for prominent medical conditions and obesity.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Darren Warburton

Student:

Partner:

Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

PET/MRI Coil Performance and Hardware Attenuation Correction

In this project, we partner with Multi-Magnetics Inc. to develop improved approaches to make heart images acquired with simultaneous MRI and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images of the heart more accurate. This includes compensating for the effect of custom image acquisition hardware (coils) that are present in the scanner at the same time as the patient. The PET/MRI cardiac coil has two parts: a rigid part underneath the patient and a flexible part on top of the patient. Compensation for the presence of coils will involve scanning the coils with dual-energy CT (X-ray based methods) to generate attenuation maps and will employ machine learning approaches to match the maps to the position and shape of the flexible part of the coil on a given patient. The effect of these improvements on PET image accuracy will be measured. Intellectual property for the approaches will be developed.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jean Theberge

Student:

Partner:

Multi Magnetics Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Publishing Dis/ability and Public Access

This project will investigate the creation of an accessible digital platform that will serve as the basis for all future publications of PUBLIC as well as a model for similar organizations looking to make the transition from print to digital. Importnatly, this project centers dis/ability communities, methods, and methodologies. Not only will this research situate PUBLIC and Public Access as a leader in digital publishing, but they will be providing access to a larger audience and be better equipped to work with dis/ability communities in the organization’s operations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mary Bunch

Student:

Partner:

PUBLIC Journal

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

New and Digital Media; Technology; Other

University:

York University

Program:

Accelerate

Simulating bead deposition and heat transfer mechanisms for metal based additive manufacturing processes for complex components

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process family in which layers of material are deposited to create components. It can also be used to repair complex 3D parts. The scope of this research is to establish a process planning framework for metal-based bead deposition processes that considers the various heat cycling, materials, and process parameters. The goal for any designer is to achieve a high strength component with minimal developed stresses and distortions. Therefore, understanding the influence of how the material is deposited the shape and strength is critical. This research will help CAMufacturing Solutions Inc. to continue to develop AM process planning software that their customers need.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Mehrdad Saif

Student:

Partner:

CAMufacturing Solutions Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries; Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Windsor

Program:

Accelerate

Deep Mixture and Generative Models: Representation, Approximation, Robustness, and Application

Recent progress on deep architectures has enabled efficient representation and learning of complex high dimensional probability distributions over rich sensory data. In particular, deep mixture models and deep generative models have emerged as the most powerful techniques for this task. The proposed research aims at addressing some of the fundamental questions in this field: What is the relationship between the two seemingly different methodologies? What is the trade-off between network size and noise complexity, and how do these factors affect the approximation accuracy? Can we build on recent advances on sum of squares relaxations to design principled and provably correct convex relaxations for parameter estimation? And last but not the least, how do we measure and strengthen the robustness of such unsupervised deep models? TO BE CONT’D

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Faculty Supervisor:

Yaoliang Yu

Student:

Partner:

Royal Bank of Canada (Borealis)

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; Technology; Finance and Insurance

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

Performance Art, Politics, and Pedagogy in the Borderlands: Curating Cross Cultural Exchange at the Canada-U.S.-México Borders

Cross border political performance art and pedagogy are the focal point of my research—a topic more relevant and urgent than I could have anticipated with the Trump Administration’s proposed wall, immigration policies, and legislation which forcibly separates migrant families caught attempting to cross the Southern border as well as controversies surrounding Canada’s ‘Safe Third Country Agreement’. While previously researching in Mexico I met and collaborated with performance artists from across the Americas and began developing my own performance work and curatorial material that stemmed from experiences of border crossing. My continued Ph.D. research is combined with my curatorial practice and involves working closely with performance artists who are developing original performance material and collaborative cross cultural opportunities across geographic barriers. My work politicizes and grounds live performance at the border and implicates Canada within a larger border studies narrative within the Americas, drawing attention to the Indigeneity upon which boundaries and trade policies have been built upon in the first place. In El Paso I will be examining performance activism in the borderlands fostering long term collaborations, relationships and discussions across dividing lines […]

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Faculty Supervisor:

Laura Levin

Student:

Partner:

University of Texas at San Antonio

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Other; Aboriginal Affairs; Education

University:

York University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Passive air sampling for gaseous mercury in workplace atmospheres and for personal inhalation exposure monitoring

Inhalation exposure to mercury continues to be a concern in a number of workplaces. Examples are facilities handling mercury-containing electronic waste or so-called “gold-shops” processing the amalgams from artisanal and small-scale gold mining operations. We are exploring the feasibility of using a passive air sampler recently developed for recording long term average mercury concentrations in the ambient atmosphere in the monitoring of personal mercury inhalation exposure and mercury concentrations in workplace atmospheres. This sampler is small, light, inexpensive, easy-to-operate, and requires no power. The intern will be performing experiments to evaluate sampler performance (i) with and without a wind shelter, (ii) with different diffusive barriers, and (iii) at different concentration levels. Specifically, she will be determining sampler precision, the extent of the influence of wind, and quantitative sampling rates for the different sampler configurations and exposure conditions. The sampler will be tested in workplaces with mercury inhalation concerns.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Frank Wania

Student:

Partner:

Tekran

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Experimental constraints on basalt-rhyolite mixing dynamics in a caldera-forming eruption

Volcanic eruptions commonly involve several magma batches with distinct compositions that meet and mix during or shortly prior to eruption. In some cases, this mixing process can prime or trigger eruptions, as ascending hot and gas-rich magmas can remobilise and mix with cooler magmas stalled at shallower depths and destabilise the magmatic system. We have conducted field and geochemical studies on deposits from the Halarau?ur eruption (Krafla volcano, Iceland), a very large eruption that provides physical and chemical evidence for mixing of two discrete magmas. To assess any role this mixing process may have played in priming or triggering this eruption, it is crucial to constrain the timescale over which mixing occurred. We will use a recently developed, cutting-edge experimental apparatus at the University of Perugia, designed to replicate the dynamics of magma mixing under natural conditions, to perform a time-series of chaotic mixing experiments using natural end-member samples from the Halarau?ur deposits. By examining the compositional evolution of the hybrid (mixed) magma through time in our experiments, we will constrain the timescale of magma mixing during/prior to the Halarau?ur eruption […]

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Faculty Supervisor:

John Stix

Student:

Partner:

University of Perugia

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Sustainability & the Environment; Environmental Science and Technology

University:

McGill University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Véhicule industriel électrique et autonome à pile à combustible pour les usines et les entrepôts

La compagnie DIVEL développe et commercialise des plateformes mobiles pour la gestion des entrepôts. Ces plateformes mobiles utilisent en majorité les batteries comme sources d’énergie pour la motricité. Le contexte d’opération typique d’une usine impose des contraintes de temps d’opération qui induit des décharges profondes au détriment de l’efficacité énergétique et la préservation de la durée de vie des batteries qui représentent jusqu’à 25% du coût de fabrication d’une plateforme mobile. Les batteries utilisées présentent une autonomie réduite qui limite le temps de fonctionnement du robot et une usure prématurée ce qui ajoute des coûts supplémentaires de remplacement. Afin d’aider la compagnie DIVEL à développer la seconde génération de plateforme mobile dotée de la navigation éco énergétique, on propose de développer un système hybride de gestion énergétique basé sur un système pile à combustible-batterie qui permet de trouver un bon compromis entre les contraintes opérationnelles du robot, l’efficacité énergétique et la préservation de la durée de vie du système batterie-pile à combustible.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Sousso Kelouwani

Student:

Partner:

DIVEL Inc;Institut de Recherche Hydro-Québec

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services; Utilities

University:

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

Program:

Accelerate

Development of a commercial protocol to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into skeletal muscle progenitor cells (hPSC-SMPCs) with transplantation potential

Recent scientific breakthroughs have led to the development of methods to differentiate human PSCs (hPSCs) into skeletal muscle cells. This has allowed, for the first time, the development of cellular models to study muscle diseases such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and the possibility to utilize these cells for cell therapy applications. However, the reliability, efficiency and prober characterization of cells produced from these differentiation protocols remains a roadblock for their routine utilization by the research community. In this proposal we aim to develop a commercial kit to differentiate hPSCs into skeletal muscle progenitor cells (hPSC-SMPCs) with reproducibility between cell lines with various genetic backgrounds. We anticipate that such a kit will enable researchers to overcome previous roadblocks and facilitate the robust and consistent generation of large numbers of skeletal muscle cells. This new tool will allow researchers to study human skeletal muscle development, model muscle diseases, screen cells for drug discover and investigate the regenerative potential of hPSC-SMPCs in preclinical cell therapy applications.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Fabio Rossi

Student:

Partner:

STEMCELL Technologies Canada Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Biotechnology; Life Sciences (not health); Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Community Tables: Engaging Neighbors! [Internship Pair #4]

The United Way of Greater Victoria (UWGV) is spearheading a collaborative community development project with the UVIC Office of Community-Based Research (OCBR) and BC Healthy Communities entitled Community Tables: Engaging Neighbors. Four Mitacs OCBR Interns (plus a fifth supporting intern) will work with 3 neighborhoods and on a broader Capital Region District level with citizens from all walks of life to identify community assets, capacities and visions for change using participatory research, survey, mapping and action planning. Specific attention in the research and action planning will be paid to the United Way’s three priorities for 2011-2014-From Poverty to Possibility, All that Kids Can Be; and Healthy People, Strong Communities.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Leslie Brown

Student:

Partner:

United Way - Greater Victoria

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

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