Innovative Projects Realized

DTES Climate Readiness Roadmap Project

SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) is SFU’s first research infrastructure developed for the purpose of extending community-engaged research to provincial, national and international communities. As a way to strengthen this infrastructure, this proposal outlines the development of the SFU 312 Main Research Shop in partnership with the Vancity Community Foundation, the operating manager of 312 Main. The SFU 312 Main Research Shop is a public-facing model for community-engaged research that supports community-serving organizations (community groups, non-governmental organizations, and other organizations) by providing research services at low or no cost. It is piloted with Vancity Community Foundation and operates in collaboration with 312 Main which is a social innovation hub in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a project of VCF and where the CERi office is located.
The SFU 312 Main Research Shop provides VCF with valuable research support, enabling it to better develop and evaluate its projects and programs. While VCF supports community organizations through its various projects and programs, it is not able to provide the assistance necessary to address all the research, evaluation and knowledge mobilization needs that arise. SFU 312 Main Research Shop would fill this gap.
VCF and CERi are partnering on this MITACS application to achieve the following objectives:
• Provide funded research support to community organizations working on policy change at 312 Main, benefiting members and partners.
• Explore opportunities to build on research outcomes and recommendations.
• Contribute to the knowledge on housing security, climate justice, poverty reduction, and anti-racism through research projects, informing VCF’s strategy and programs.
For this Part 2 application, the community partner is Vancity Community Foundation.
As climate impacts intensify, social sector organizations in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside aim to adapt and enhance their climate readiness by proactively anticipating, preparing for, responding to adverse climate-related events, and multi-solving across issues of housing, safety, health service delivery, etc. in a way that contributes to both resident and organizational adaptive capacity and resilience. While the sector is adept at dealing with risk, climate change exacerbates existing risks and challenges and creates new ones. The goal of this project is to bring DTES organizations and residents into a collaborative process to identify proactive and effective ways to respond to climate changes, learning from the scholarship and each other, to advance an equitable, low carbon resilient DTES neighbourhood.
An initial outcome of this program of work will be a roadmap for nonprofits and support organizations to address their climate readiness. This will integrate the best practice approaches in the social sector that aim to minimize climate risks and emissions, alongside equity, health, housing, and other organizational goals. It will be developed through a series of co-creation workshops to tailor strategies for the support organizations working with the most climate-vulnerable and disproportionately impacted residents of our communities. Knowledge and learning from this project will be developed into resources and tools that will be mobilized to support a variety of social sector organizations in BC and across Canada.

Write to Read BC Project

SFU’s Community-Engaged Research Initiative (CERi) is SFU’s first research infrastructure developed for the purpose of extending community-engaged research to provincial, national and international communities. As a way to strengthen this infrastructure, this proposal outlines the development of the SFU 312 Main Research Shop in partnership with the Vancity Community Foundation, the operating manager of 312 Main. The SFU 312 Main Research Shop is a public-facing model for community-engaged research that supports community-serving organizations (community groups, non-governmental organizations, and other organizations) by providing research services at low or no cost. It is piloted with Vancity Community Foundation and operates in collaboration with 312 Main which is a social innovation hub in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a project of VCF and where the CERi office is located.
The SFU 312 Main Research Shop provides VCF with valuable research support, enabling it to better develop and evaluate its projects and programs. While VCF supports community organizations through its various projects and programs, it is not able to provide the assistance necessary to address all the research, evaluation and knowledge mobilization needs that arise. SFU 312 Main Research Shop would fill this gap.
VCF and CERi are partnering on this MITACS application to achieve the following objectives:
• Provide funded research support to community organizations working on policy change at 312 Main, benefiting members and partners.
• Explore opportunities to build on research outcomes and recommendations.
• Contribute to the knowledge on housing security, climate justice, poverty reduction, and anti-racism through research projects, informing VCF’s strategy and programs.
For this Part 2 application, the community partner is Write to Read BC.
Since 2011, based on the vision of former BC Lieutenant-Governor, Steven Point, the first Indigenous person in that role, various community-based Indigenous Elders, leaders and educators have collaborated with non-Indigenous organizations and groups to establish libraries and learning centres in 27, mostly rural and remote Indigenous communities. This ongoing, diverse and non-linear collaboration, since its early phases, has been called the Write to Read BC Project or simply “W2R”.
Main activities of the partner:
The Write to Read Project (W2R) in British Columbia is a collaborative project that aims to improve literacy by creating accessible libraries and learning centres in remote and Indigenous communities across the province. The centres provide books, computers, and internet access, which support both literacy development and digital skills, particularly among Indigenous youth and adults.
Challenges the partner aims to solve:
The project described in the plan has the dual goals of 1) informing the public and of 2) re-framing the W2R BC Project from the point of view of Indigenous educators, leaders and Elders through their voices and descriptions; of the impact and effects of this ongoing set of collaborative partnerships.
Social and economic benefit for the partner organization:
Working with a community-led model and mindset, Write to Read brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens in order to break down social barriers, to build bridges across cultures, and to re-establish positive relationships. The efforts to improve literacy support accessible, higher educational attainment, social services and improved employment opportunities. It is a solid example of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
Education and literacy are a central focus of the research and for the purposes of this project “education” includes both Western and Indigenous ways of knowing and the community and group changes that can be described as a result of the presence of these highly localized learning centres. This is the broad approach in this research. A narrower and more engaging portion of the research will include stories from selected communities that provide deeper insight and local detail of impacts and effects of the W2R Learning Centres.

Dissoudre le soi afin d’expliquer la conscience phénoménale

Ce séjour de recherche à l’Université de New York (NYU) vise la collaboration avec David Chalmers, l’un des experts mondiaux de la philosophie de la conscience, ainsi que la participation aux activités du Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness. Ce séjour a comme objectif l’avancée vers la formulation d’une théorie de la nature de la conscience et de son lien avec le cerveau, un domaine crucial en cette période de développement rapide de l’intelligence artificielle.

Examining Health & Safety Risk Assessment in the Oil and Gas Industry

This research project in intended to explore the personal health and safety factors that indicate risk in the oil and gas sector and whether there are any early-warning risk factors that exist. In this industry, organizations typically measure risk by analyzing the personal safety of its workers. Currently, personal health and safety is measured using historical data such as the number of workplace injuries over the past month, quarter, year, and so on. This research project will review the monitoring processes currently used for monitoring personal health and safety risk factors in the oil and gas sector, research the most common risks that occur and explore gaps in the existing monitoring processes. The project will use the information to further explore whether there are any preventative risk factors that exist, are measurable and may be able to provide an early warning for risk.

TRLUP – NovaAI Solutions

NovaAI Solutions will offer a suite of secure and customizable AI services designed for local businesses, including inventory forecasting using sales patterns and seasonal data, email categorization to help businesses prioritize important messages, automated reporting and business analytics summaries, offer admin task automation and document processing, and review and feedback analysis for actionable insights. The current functional chatbot — will expand it into a modular AI assistant that performs backend automation tasks for local businesses. The chatbot will be improved, tested, and adapted to support tasks like review analysis, report generation, or email triage, depending on business needs validated during the project.

TRLUP-Merit-IoT Agricultural Sensors Validation

Over the four-month Technology Readiness Level-Up placement at NSCC, we will advance our urban-agriculture Internet of Things prototype from **TRL 4 to TRL 6** by hardening its enclosure, integrating LoRaWAN/MQTT telemetry, and linking the dashboard to Authentik SSO. We will validate temperature, moisture, and pH sensors against lab-grade instruments, refining calibration curves. In parallel, micro-pilots in two Halifax community gardens will **gather industry feedback on scale-up feasibility** and refine our BOM for cost-effective production. Expected deliverables: a lab-certified sensor node, documented manufacturing workflow, and a user-tested dashboard. This will position us for a TRL 6 field demonstration and a seed-funding round.

L2M Validation / Qc Automne 2025 / Développement d’un Scribe Intelligent pour la Préconsultation Médicale

Le projet vise à développer un système d’intelligence artificielle capable de remplacer le rôle traditionnel du scribe en clinique. Actuellement, dans certaines cliniques à Montréal, les médecins se sont regroupés pour créer des formulaires comprenant des questions essentielles à poser à un patient se présentant avec certains symptômes. Par exemple, dans le cas d’un mal de tête, il est crucial pour le médecin de connaître la chronologie du mal de tête, sa localisation et sa latéralité. Cette tâche est actuellement exécutée par des étudiants qui n’ont pas de diplôme médical et qui ne sont pas étudiants en médecine.
Ainsi, ce scribe intelligent assistera le médecin dans l’identification des symptômes des patients et la raison de leur visite. En fonction des symptômes rapportés, l’IA pourra dresser un portrait médical pour le médecin. Il ne s’agit pas de poser un diagnostic, mais d’accélérer le processus de première ligne. Le diagnostic final (compléter le portrait médical selon le jugement clinique) et l’examen physique restent de la responsabilité du médecin. Cet outil permettrait d’accélérer les visites (réduire les temps d’attente) et d’automatiser les questions systématiquement posées en fonction des symptômes. Il permet également de traiter plusieurs problèmes.

Multisensory Game Design for Flow and Engagement: “Ammonite” Development – Business Strategy Internship

Fluxscopic Ltd. is an independent video game studio currently developing its new game, “Ammonite”. Their work is important in pushing the boundaries of interactive story telling and experimental mechanics. The game centers around an avatar navigating a puzzle-based world, where players interact with objects that respond dynamically through audiovisual and tactile cues.
The internship will involve both hands-on development using Unity and the PS5 DualSense controller, as well as research into the psychological and physiological effects of sensory synchronization on immersion.

A key innovation challenge being addressed is the underexplored role of haptic feedback coupled with advanced sound design in creating emotionally resonant and ethically engaging gameplay experiences. This internship combines game prototyping with experimental design, including the creation of a study to compare synchronized vs. unsynchronized feedback conditions. Measures will include flow metrics and physiological data such as heart rate variability and skin conductance, offering a multi-layered view of player experience. This will provide valuable information for new avenues to explore in psychological research with video game engines. And the company will benefit by having a key feature of their game tested under controlled conditions and analyzed with proven physiological and psychological methods.

Informing the delivery of modern therapies for therapies improving cardiorenal outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes

Per clinical guidelines, patients with Type 2 diabetes and certain co-morbidities should initiate modern glucose-controlling therapies that also reduce the risk of cardiovascular and renal adverse events, such as GLP-1 RA and SGLT2i medications. But many indicated patients have not initiated these therapies, in part because some primary care doctors are uncomfortable with the complex clinical considerations for initiating these therapies. Since 2022, the DECIDE-CV clinic at the McGill University Health Centre has used an innovative “synchronized care” approach, in which three specialists meet with patients at the same time to facilitate quick and safe initiation of guideline-directed therapies. In this project, an intern will use simulation modelling and economic evaluation methods to evaluate the DECIDE-CV clinic model, quantifying the health-economic impact and the long-term clinical benefits. This analysis will inform decisions to sustain, expand and/or modify the DECIDE-CV clinic at the MUHC. This project will also provide data to support other health systems that are considering ways to improve treatment for multimorbid patients with Type 2 diabetes.

ReaderBound

This project will be concerned with improving the sales and marketing effectiveness of ReaderBound, and enhancing its ability to reach and engage with book publishers in Canada. This project will therefore focus on two specific areas: 1) Improving and expanding our social media footprint, including the development of a comprehensive social media strategy and creative assets and templates. 2) Strengthening ReaderBound’s prospect pipeline and establishing internal systems for prospect management.

Développement d’un robot mobile autonome comprenant la coordination d’un robot collaboratif et d’actionneurs auxiliaires

Les opérations de peinture, de sablage et de plâtrage des murs et plafonds dans les bâtiments résidentiels et commerciaux ont toujours été des tâches pénibles, répétitives et à haut risque de lésions professionnelles. La pénurie croissante de main-d’œuvre spécialisée aggrave encore cette problématique. Pour y répondre, NIO Robotics développe un robot mobile complexe capable d’exécuter ces tâches de manière autonome. Ce développement technologique ambitieux requiert d’importants efforts en recherche et développement. Le projet MITACS s’inscrit dans cette initiative en ciblant un enjeu fondamental en robotique multi-système : la génération de trajectoires coordonnées entre sous-systèmes. En d’autres termes, le projet cherche à répondre à la question suivante : « Quelles doivent être les trajectoires synchronisées de la base mobile et du bras robotisé pour permettre l’exécution optimale d’une tâche, par exemple, peinturer un mur situé à l’autre extrémité de la pièce? »

The Dual Effect of Normobaric Hypoxia on Heart Rate Variability and Substrate Partitioning During Exercise and Recovery

)The research proposal is designed to examine the relationship between metabolism and the autonomic nervous system during exercise and recovery. This randomized, controlled crossover design experiment will consist of three sessions. The first session is a familiarization session. The second and third sessions will be the same, except the exercise portion will be done in either hypoxia or normoxia. For the second and third sessions, participants will first complete a basal metabolic rate, and then the participant will cycle (intervals) for an hour. Following cycling, they will complete a post-exercise metabolic rate. This study shall examine the cumulative effect of exercise and hypoxia on the sympathovagal balance (using heart rate variability) and its potential association with the shift in substrate partitioning during recovery. It is hypothesized that the treatment (hypoxic exercise bouts) will delay vagal nerve reactivation during recovery compared to control (normoxic exercise bouts) and that this autonomic response will affect substrate partitioning to a greater extent. Results from this study will benefit the partner organization because it will help them to possibly create new technology and give them information for further studies