Innovative Projects Realized

5N2 Strategic Implementation Project

5N2 is a Scarborough, Ontario non-profit that fights food insecurity by rescuing surplus food and turning it into support for local families. Since starting as a small soup kitchen in 2013, it now delivers over 4,500 free meals and pantry support each week with 24 partner organizations (14 direct beneficiaries) across Scarborough and the GTA. To cut food waste and help fund its programs, 5N2 launched “5N2 Farms,” two shipping-container hydroponic farms that grow pesticide-free leafy greens year-round; sold locally under “Buy Greens that Do Good,” these sales help cover about $12,000 in monthly operating costs. The farms face challenges—uneven crop performance, limited distribution, and brand/marketing gaps—so customer growth is essential. In 2025, three Mitacs BSI interns recommended actions now ready to implement: a 70/30 B2C/B2B sales mix to build community loyalty and secure stable institutional accounts (e.g., the Metro Toronto Zoo), co-branding and potential facility leasing, and a quarterly cost-and-pricing review. A companion marketing plan will boost visibility through local influencers, community events and markets, frequent posts, website improvements, and basic cybersecurity. Three graduate research assistants—two in marketing/sales and one in web, social, and analytics—will carry out this work with an academic supervisor and 5N2’s leadership.

L2M – Designing and validating an AI-based, user-centered tool to assess discourse skills in individuals with aphasia

Up to 40% of stroke survivors can experience aphasia, a language disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak, understand, read, or write. However, one of the most effective ways to accurately assess aphasia, discourse analysis, remains underutilized. Discourse analysis is usually time-consuming and performed manually, leading to varying results between clinicians. It can also be difficult to integrate into busy clinical settings, leaving many stroke survivors in need of this assessment method without access. Practical assessments like discourse analysis are important because they help clinicians choose the most appropriate therapy options and track patient recovery more efficiently.

The purpose of this project is to develop an automated discourse analysis tool powered by Artificial Intelligence that is designed to assess linguistic difficulties in individuals with aphasia. This tool will be used to transcribe aphasic speech, extract its linguistic features, and deliver results in minutes, not hours. Designed by clinicians for clinicians, this tool can be easily used in busy clinical settings, providing clinicians with quick, accurate, and reliable assessments that can support diagnosis, treatment planning, and outcomes. By using this tool, clinicians may save time and reduce variability in their assessments, allowing them to focus on patient care. During this internship, we will conduct the first phase of the project, which includes engaging with potential users like speech-language pathologists, to gain insights into how to design and further develop this tool for the next phases of the project.

In terms of benefits at the health systems level, this tool may reduce wait times, optimize the use of resources, and improve the overall quality of rehabilitation services for patients. By making discourse analysis fast, consistent, and accessible, this tool could support its wider clinical use for individuals with aphasia.

MoCaP–ScoRe: Markerless Motion Capture for Precision Scoliosis Rehabilitation

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a common spinal condition that affects posture, movement, and quality of life. Deficiencies in proprioception, the body’s sense of position and movement, may play a role by disrupting balance and postural control, contributing to spinal misalignment.

Scoliosis is typically assessed with static images such as X-rays, which cannot show how the spine moves during daily activities. The most accurate technology for studying movement, marker-based motion capture, is costly, complex not allowing for routine clinical care.

This project will develop a safe, non-invasive, markerless system that uses machine learning (ML) trained on surface scans and X-ray images. The result will be an easy-to-use app that allows clinicians to assess posture, spinal movement, and postural control in real time.

In partnership with Curvy Spine, a specialty scoliosis clinic, the project will deliver a tool to track progress, personalize treatments, and measure the effects of exercises and bracing. This practical and scalable system will reduce reliance on repeated X-rays, improve clinical assessments and personalized intervention. Ultimately, it brings cutting-edge science into everyday practice to improve outcomes for young people with scoliosis.

Collective will and the Brazilian Left: how is a real movement built out of a crisis of praxis?

This project is intended to follow and analyse the most recent activities of groups identified to be in the Brazilian Left. Through fieldwork and theoretical analysis, the goal is to understand how the Left views itself, how collective will can be developed within these groups, and if a critical pedagogical methodology can assist in this process. The ethnographic methodology employed in this project will help to identify who the main actors are and what kind of activities have been prioritized by Left organizations. This is very important considering the context of poverty and inequality in Brazil, as these activities are often related to social justice concerns. Strong divergences are expected to be found between the perspectives of Left organizations that, on the surface, seem to be in agreement, which will help to explain why the Brazilian Left is fragmented and part of a general crisis of democratic representation in Brazil.

L2M – SeeVita: AI-Powered Contactless Realtime Vital Sign Estimation

Accurate and accessible blood pressure monitoring remains a challenge for individuals, wellness providers, and organizations such as insurers that require reliable health data. Existing cuff-based devices are often inconvenient, intrusive, and unsuitable for continuous or large-scale use. There is a growing demand in the wellness, fitness, and insurance industries for technologies that make health monitoring seamless, affordable, and user-friendly.
Our project is developing a novel blood pressure monitoring platform that emphasizes non-invasiveness, usability, and integration into everyday settings. The concept is to provide a scalable solution that extends beyond clinical environments, supporting preventative health management and enabling new applications such as wellness tracking, risk assessment for insurers, and remote monitoring for organizations.

Pathways to Prosperity: New policy directions and innovative local practices for newcomer integration and attraction

This project will aim to promote interagency collaboration in order to improve immigrant integration. In order to achieve this goal, the intern will be involved in clarifying employer and college/university needs, local settlement agency capacities, and the institutional mechanisms that would be needed to promote and govern interagency collaboration. The research process will involve interviews, focus groups, and reviews of the literature. The project will lay out a coherent, evidence-based set of ideas and propositions to be used by LASI to construct viable commercial relationships. These relationships would entail the provision of services and advice by LASI members or member coalitions to the following actors: colleges and universities, employers and employer associations, international students, and internationally trained workers

Entangled Memories and Divided Belongings: Politicization of Memory and Othering in Post-Conflict Northern Cyprus

This project explores how different groups within the Turkish-speaking Cypriot community in Northern Cyprus remember the island’s history of conflict and how those memories shape their relationships and the future of the unresolved conflict. It focuses on two groups: native Turkish Cypriots born and raised on the island and naturalized citizens of the de facto state TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) of mainland origin. Although these groups now live together, their memories and experiences often differ, creating misunderstandings, tensions, ontological insecurities, and a sense of “us” versus “them.” Through in-depth interviews, this research listens to how people talk about the past ethnic conflict, their sense of belonging, and their aspirations for the island’s future regarding reconciliation. Rather than focusing only on formal negotiations, this project examines intra-communal tensions and how everyday people experience and talk about conflict, identity, belonging, and life in a state not officially recognized internationally. The project aligns with the expertise of both the home and host supervisors and provides a unique opportunity to establish enduring collaboration between McMaster University and Eastern Mediterranean University. It will lay the groundwork for future co-authored publications, joint conference panels, and a digital archive on intergenerational memory narratives in Cyprus.

AI based Animal Behavior Recognition: Dog Pose and Labeling

This project will develop a real-time Artificial Intelligence based system that accurately estimates 3D skeletal pose from monocular video of dogs and reliably classifies fundamental behaviors to support veterinary health monitoring and behavioral assessment applications. Recent research has demonstrated significant progress in automated animal behavior recognition. The intersection of computer vision, animal behavior analysis, and veterinary health monitoring represents a rapidly evolving field with significant implications for both technological advancement and animal welfare. The project addresses the societal challenge of pet mental health and accessible veterinary care, the technology will benefit Canadian pet owners and support the domestic pet care industry.

L2M – Multi-layered Collagen Scaffolds for Periodontal Regeneration

This project is developing a new type of collagen-based material that can help reattach loose teeth caused by severe gum disease or injury. When gum tissue and bone are damaged, teeth can loosen or fall out because the natural structures that anchor them are destroyed. Current treatments only partially repair this damage and often fail to restore proper teeth function. Our team has created a tri-layered collagen scaffold that imitates the natural layers of human dental support tissue, helping the body rebuild them in the correct order and restore teeth attachment. Through the Lab2Market program, we will explore how this innovation could be brought from the lab into dental clinics by studying market needs, pricing, and adoption barriers. This work will help the partner organization advance its mission of turning Canadian research discoveries into real-world health innovations that improve patient outcomes and reduce long-term dental treatment costs.

L2M – NexusNeuro Portable EEG Validation

Diagnosing neurological conditions like epilepsy is often difficult because clinicians rely on brief, in-clinic brain activity recordings, which may miss crucial events. To solve this, our company, NexusNeuro, is developing a “Neurological Holter Monitor” — a discreet, wearable EEG device that allows for continuous, long-term brain monitoring in a patient’s everyday environment. While we have the core technology, we need to confirm the best way to bring it to market.

This four-month project is designed to bridge that gap. The goal is to perform a deep market validation study to determine the most urgent clinical need for our device. This will be achieved by conducting over 100 interviews with key stakeholders, including neurologists, sleep specialists, and hospital administrators.

The primary benefit for NexusNeuro will be the creation of a Commercialization Blueprint. This key deliverable will use the data gathered from interviews to define the essential features for our first product, outline a clear go-to-market strategy, and validate our business model. By completing this project, we will transform our innovative idea into an evidence-based business plan, significantly reducing risk and accelerating our path to improving patient care in Canada and beyond.

Lululemon: Sports Bra Comfort Assessment

Female breasts experience large displacements during physical activities such as running and jumping. This can lead to problems such as breast discomfort, and even chronic neck and back pain. However, correctly designed sports bras can alleviate some of these symptoms, and enable women to exercise with greater comfort. lululemon Athletica strives to develop a sports bra with optimal support and comfort. Therefore, the objective of this collaboration is to understand the biomechanical and morphological variables that correlate with comfort under different activities and sports bra conditions. This will be done through a large scale experimental study of dynamic movements under a wide variety of bra design conditions. The results of this study will help us to understand the features of a sports bra that best provides user specific comfort, satisfaction and performance, so that these can be implemented and optimised for future designs.

Education, Community Engagement and Unconventional Oil and Gas Development: North East British Columbia

Through directed interviews and exit questionnaires information about baseline education levels associated with academic preparedness and skills training will be analyzed to determine what type of support is lacking in the Natural Gas development. The interviews will take place throughout the Monteny Region of NE British Columbia region to assist with Liquid Natural Gas development. This assessment will focus on what educational resources are currently in place, and assess their ability to meet and deliver program in support of specific skill development, their potential to enhance skills training in partnership with local authorities trough all phases of education K-12 to apprentice and/or colleague/university/certificate training programs. This activity will also identify critical limitations with existing education providers to provide skills training or industry ability to create a long term skills training strategy.