Innovative Projects Realized

Explore thousands of successful projects resulting from collaboration between organizations and post-secondary talent.

29670 Completed Projects

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801
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663
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825
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8841
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9197
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95
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568
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1088
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Projects by Category

Development of an Intelligent Mobile Personal Emergency Response System for Elderly

Epic Safety Inc. specializes in Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS), Mobile PERS and Tele-Health. Recognizing Dr. Golnaraghi’s internationally recognized expertise in this field, Epic will be working with his team of HQP and provide them with practical training with the goal to employ these highly qualified personnel to guarantee the advancement of this technology. The envisioned Mobile PERS includes a fall and vital signs sensory system that uses a combination of sensors to record a user’s movement/activities and vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate etc.). In this phase of the study, the SFU team will look at design of the sensory system and testing the proof of concept to ensure its reliability for fall detection. The proposed technology combines various pioneering academic research concepts including the inertial navigation systems, intelligent systems and novel vital signs detection utilizing the concept of oximetry. The proposed activity will directly benefit Canadian elderly population.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Farid Golnaraghi

Student:

Partner:

Epic Safety Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Economic Assessment of a Predictive Technology for the Early Detection of Oral Cancer

Health economic evaluation provides information about the value for money of new healthcare technologies, and is increasingly used to guide the allocation of scarce resources based on maximizing health gain. The molecular diagnostics company, PDI, has developed a technology to improve the identification of patients at high risk for oral cancers for early intervention, and distinguish abnormal cell growth that will not become malignant, compared to the current gold standard alone. This more accurate diagnosis could save lives, reduce morbidity from traumatic surgeries, increase the duration of productive work lives, and save healthcare costs. The purpose of this internship is to develop a health economic model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the technology, as well as its social impact. The results of the study will help determine whether the new technology demonstrates value for money and can be used by policy makers to help make reimbursement decisions about this new technique.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Daria O'Reilly

Student:

Partner:

Proteocyte Diagnostics

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

Determining chocolate antioxidants by infrared spectroscopy and multivariate analysis

Chocolates have a rich source of dietary phenolic compounds and antioxidants. During chocolate manufacture, the antioxidant capacity and procyanidin content in cocoa can be affected by a variety of processing conditions. Therefore, a rapid and less expensive method to determine chocolate antioxidants is highly demanded in confectionery industry. As a nondestructive tool, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis is an ideal candidate to address this technique challenges in chocolate industry. We will determine antioxidant capacity and procyanidin content of chocolates using FT-IR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis. With the multivariate analysis model, the determination of antioxidant capacity and procyanidin content of chocolates can be achieved within 1 min per sample in a nondestructive manner. This novel technique has the potential to reduce the cost of determination of antioxidants in chocolate and to further aid in optimizing chocolate manufacture process, leading to more health benefits to chocolate consumers in Canada and abroad.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Xiaonan Lu

Student:

Partner:

Chocolat Naturel

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Reclamation of Mercury-Contaminated Tailings from Small Gold Mining

This Mitacs Accelerate proposal is the second of three-phase project of Adriana’s Goncalves master’s thesis. For this Mitacs-Accelerate renewal proposal, it will be investigated further flotation process targeting recovery of 80-90% considering a previous technical feasibility study conducted on material from a representative sample of ASM tailings from Costa Rica. The tailings belong to a small Canadian company, Newlox Gold Ventures Corp. a new gold processing and trading company pursuing precious metal related business opportunities in Latin America. A higher flotation recovery could allow the project to be economically viable.
The case study for this research will take place in Canada at the laboratories of UBC Dept. of Mining. This conceptual study is critical to establish the basic parameters for the processing design, required to develop the unit operations of the processing plants to be recommended for the Newlox Gold as a result of this research. The research is also part of a larger conceptual model of Small Mining Is Beautiful which defends that small gold plants can be cleaner and more sophisticated than the usual ones generating more environmental and social benefits in developing countries

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Faculty Supervisor:

Marcello Veiga

Student:

Partner:

Newlox Gold Ventures Corp

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services; Mining

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

OVOGEN : Co-culture autologue embryon-endomètre versus milieu conventionnel dans le traitement de l’infertilite : essai clinique contrôle randomisé en double insu

Un des facteurs les plus importants du succès de la fécondation in vitro est la qualité de culture de l’embryon. Un nouveau milieu de culture a été créé en utilisant les propres cellules endométriales de la patiente. Le but est d’évaluer l’efficacité d’un transfert d’embryon au stade de blastocyste après la mise en co-culture avec des cellules endométriales autologues et le comparer avec la culture en milieu conventionnel. Le critère de jugement principal est le taux de grossesse. Cette étude concerne 1080 femmes de 18 à 38 ans en cours de FIV. Une biopsie de l’endomètre est effectuée chez toutes les patientes lors du cycle précédant le cycle de stimulation. Les femmes vont être séparées en deux bras. Nous nous attendons à un meilleur taux de grossesse avec la co-culture en milieu autologue. Ces nouveaux milieux de culture pourraient permettre d’augmenter le taux de réussite de transfert d’un seul embryon au stade blastocyste.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Pierre Lehmann

Student:

Partner:

Clinique OVO

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Amélioration économique et éthique de la production porcine par la génétique quantitative

Optimiser la production porcine au Canada est un défi majeur puisque ses acteurs sont en concurrence avec ceux des pays où les coûts de production sont moindres. Il est impératif pour une telle optimisation de repenser ses programmes de sélection, de considérer la nécessité de diversifier son offre et d’améliorer le bien-être animal. En combinant deux approches, ce projet se propose de traiter ces problèmes économiques et éthiques par le biais d’une recherche de pointe en sélection génétique. Premièrement, en appliquant de façon unique au domaine agricole des méthodes de quantification des tissus internes initialement développées pour la médecine humaine, les méthodes éprouvées de génétique quantitative permettrons d’optimiser les programmes de sélection pour produire des porcs à plus forte valeur économique. Deuxièmement, les comportements agressifs liés au stress dans les élevages intensifs pourront être limités grâce à la sélection sur une source de variabilité génétique ignorée jusqu’à très récemment : les effets génétiques relatifs à la sociabilité

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dany Garant

Student:

Partner:

Olymel

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Agriculture; Manufacturing

University:

Université de Sherbrooke

Program:

Accelerate

Silicon photonic thermal phase shifter for on-chip spectrometer

Luxmux sensors will monitor steam quality and water quality for in-situ Thermally Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery. In Canada, 2 billions of kilograms of steam are produced per year for heavy oil recovery and this amount is expected to double in the next ten years. Each year, heavy oil producers spend $2.3 billions on natural gas to produce this steam. Lack of technology for online monitoring of steam quality and water quality reduces the amount of oil that can be produced and increases the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) being emitted. Luxmux’s sensors and analyzer solutions will provide heavy oil producers the ability to generate more oil for a given plant and reduce Canada’s carbon footprint. Currently the 11% of Canada’s total CO2 emissions is caused by Alberta heavy oil production; in ten years it might become the 20% of Canada’s emissions, if the oil production increases as expected. Luxmux’s solution is expected to provide a reduction in 1 megaton of CO2 per year, and increase revenue by $5 million per year per boiler for heavy oil producers. This project will improve the technical specifications of Luxmux’s sensors, making them more useful for the oil and gas industry.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Lukas Chrostowski

Student:

Partner:

Luxmux Technology Corporation

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Mechanical design and improvement of modular Stable Vertical Lift Platform (SVLP)

Portable lifting systems and platforms are used extensively in music and movie industries for elevating both equipment and personal. An ideal system for these industries is a portable stable platform that can be transported to the desired site and reconfigured (or moved) to the necessary height with ease. The market currently lacks such highly portable stable lifting system. A modular stable vertical lift platform (SVLP) has been conceptualized in order to overcome the mentioned issues in current lifting systems. The modular SVLP has tremendous market potential in both the entertainment and movie industries. Indeed the final clients in the entertainment industries are eager about the design idea. SFP currently lacks the expertise and dedicated manpower resources to independently develop the modular SVLP system and needs the assistance of an intern through the Mitacs Accelerate program in order to successfully design and analyze their system.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Krishna Vijayaraghavan

Student:

Partner:

Surrey Fluid Power Ltd

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Utilities

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

De nouvelles plateformes pour améliorer la gestion de l’information sur le chantier

A l’heure actuelle, le domaine de la construction est l’un des plus en retard au niveau des nouvelles technologies par rapport aux autres domaines de l’industrie. En effet, que ce soit pendant la phase de conception, ou celle de réalisation, l’information circule encore beaucoup sur support papier, et en grande quantité. Alors que des études ont été conduites sur l’introduction des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication sur les chantiers et en phase conception, et que les résultats montrent clairement un impact positif de ces nouveaux dispositifs (logiciels pour tablettes, mobiles, bornes i-booth et SmartUse, drones…) sur la productivité et la qualité, les entrepreneurs restent réticents à investir dans de telles nouveautés qui représenteraient pour eux un changement peut être trop brutal des habitudes de travail, et une perte de profit à court terme due au temps d’adaptation. Ce projet vise donc, en particulier en travaillant sur i-booth et SmartUse, à établir un guide d’implantation, de façon à faciliter la mise en place et la prise en main des technologies, et plus largement à encourager les entreprises à les adopter afin de faire évoluer la construction au Québec.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Daniel Forgues

Student:

Partner:

CERACQ;CONTECH

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Construction; Information and Communications Technology; Manufacturing and Construction

University:

École de technologie supérieure

Program:

Accelerate

Valorizing Industrially Produced CO2: An Effective Solution for Carbon Capture and its Conversion to Marketable Products

Sequestering the industrially produced CO2 leads to its capture via the underground formation of stable inorganic carbonates/bicarbonates. An alternate approach is to convert the CO2 into valuable organic products having commercial markets. The incorporation of CO2 as block molecule with which to expand the platform is part of the Enerkem strategy aiming to further improve the use of Carbon from waste. Such strategy is deployable across Alberta. It will likely constitute the first world model of an integrated Carbon utilization blending biomass C, recyclable C and fossil C resulting in an optimized energy system. The proposal is aimed to validate, further develop and implement an effective and efficient technology that will “recycle” CO2 from, and captured by, the petrochemical sector (amounts available in Alberta are more 120 million metric t/y recovered as CO2-rich streams) via its conversion into CO. Such conversion is carried out using combined CO2/steam reforming of methane.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Natalia Semagina

Student:

Partner:

Enerkem (Edmonton, AB)

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Exploring energy disaggregation techniques for application on low resolution energy data from non-residential properties

Reducing energy consumption is one of many ways to respond to our urgent global need to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. To do so, it is important to identify the most effective energy saving strategies and communicate them to energy consumers. Pulse Energy is a company that works to do just that and is always looking to improve their energy saving recommendations. This internship will explore how these recommendations can be improved using energy disaggregation, which tries to find the energy consumption and operating schedule of equipment in a building using only measurements of the building’s total energy use. We will evaluate the use of some energy disaggregation techniques on various businesses’ energy data, measured every 15 to 60 minutes. Our work will expand the body of research on energy disaggregation and help Pulse Energy connect non-residential energy consumers with the best energy saving recommendations possible.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Lutz Lampe

Student:

Partner:

Pulse Energy inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Unpaved forest roads as a source of suspended sediment in the Honna River watershed

The Honna River is the drinking water source for the Village of Queen Charlotte (pop. 950), and is also important salmon habitat. Sediment from unpaved forest roads near the river may be entering the channel in significant quantities, reducing water quality. In two previous internships, intern David Reid implemented a channel reach-scale study of all sediment sources in the Honna River in an effort to collect data regarding the quantity of sediment contributed from the road, and also regarding how this quantity compares to natural sediment sources. The goal of the proposed internship is to undertake analysis of collected field data in order to calculate a sediment budget for the river basin, with a greater goal of determining: 1. The volume of sediment contributed by the road surface, 2. the effect of traffic on increasing sediment input to the river, 3. Whether a road surface sediment production model can be a useful tool for predicting in-channel sediment yields. Results will be used to manage wet weather road use in the Honna River watershed, and will also fill research gaps related to basin-scale sediment input from roads to rivers.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Marwan Hassan

Student:

Partner:

Forestry BC (Prince George);Island Timberlands

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Water; Forestry; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate