Innovative Projects Realized

Communications and Networking Internship for The Heartwood Healing Centre

The proposed project is to aid the Heartwood Healing center, a therapy center that supports individuals affected by childhood sexual abuse. The project aims to grow the centers communications efforts by enhancing its online engagement, hosting community events and forming new partnerships with other organizations. By expanding their reach and collaborations, the project will allow Heartwood to sustain its operations and continue serving those affected by trauma effectively.

Inclusivity in Action: Building an Accessible Brand

Main activities: For over 65 years, Bellwoods has supported adults with physical disabilities to live independently. We offer affordable, wheelchair-accessible housing across Toronto, as well as community-based home services. Bellwoods’ staff support clients with daily living activities, including light chores, hygiene, and meal prep, empowering those with disabilities to live independently. The intern will join Bellwoods’ communications department, which leads strategic internal and external communications.

Challenges: Bellwoods does not have formal brand guidelines to inform inclusive communications and design. Without these guidelines, we do not have templates to help us adhere to the inclusive branding standards set out in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), such as print sizes, high-contrast colour palettes and screen-reader compatibility. Right now, Bellwoods spends significant time and energy working to create consistent, inclusive communications materials on an ad-hoc basis. We lack brand recognition and struggle to consistently connect with our staff and clients.

Optimization and scale up of seaweed preservation and biorefinery, and validation of bioplastic compostability

The partner, PhyCo, is a marine biotechnology startup specializing in the development of sustainable, seaweed-based bioplastics for agricultural applications. The company collaborates with the Verschuren Centre for product development, including seaweed bioprocessing and extrusion methods for seaweed-derived biomaterials. The main activity of the partner involves exploring proprietary biorefinery (multi-step extraction) technologies, developing bioplastic formulations, and transitioning benchwork methods to scalable processes. Additional activities include the analytical analyses, pilot-scale trials, development of seaweed preservation methods (at ambient temperature), and biodegradability assessments. The partner aims to achieve efficient extraction of valuable seaweed biomaterials using environmentally friendly, energy reduction methods while minimizing operational costs. These biomaterials must integrate seamlessly into a twinscrew extruder with ease and consistency. Formulation optimization is required to mimic polyethylene in terms of mechanical properties (e.g., flexibility, tensile strength) to meet market demands, and with rapid biodegradation in a home-compost, preventing residual microplastics. The project is anticipated to yield significant economic and environmental benefits, including the development of innovative, eco-friendly plastic alternatives, increased scalability of production processes, and reduced carbon footprints (GHG emissions). It will support the partner in creating jobs and market reach. The collaboration will contribute to advancements in industry bottlenecks (with seaweed processing), biomaterials science research, improving patent potential, and commercial capabilities.

Demande SSE | Azer Khelifa

Ce projet vise à explorer comment des agents d’intelligence artificielle (IA), enrichis par des bases de connaissances externes (RAG), peuvent automatiser ou améliorer certaines tâches en marketing numérique. En combinant raisonnement, outils numériques et données, ces agents IA deviennent de puissants assistants. L’objectif : démontrer leur utilité concrète, tout en adoptant une approche responsable face aux enjeux éthiques et environnementaux liés à l’IA. Ce projet permet aussi de développer des compétences de pointe en IA générative et en conception de systèmes intelligents.

Dual Cobalt/Photoredox Catalyzed Synthesis of Urea-Type Containing Heterocycles

A key goal in modern organic chemistry is the development of efficient synthetic routes to access industrially relevant structures starting from highly abundant feedstock chemicals, while minimizing the use of expensive rare-earth metals for catalysis. This project aims to synthesize urea-type containing heterocycles, which are a common structural feature found in many biologically active compounds, through the combination of cobalt and organophotoredox dual catalysis. The starting materials for this transformation are easily accessible, allowing for a variety of previously difficult to access compounds to be achieved in a simple one step procedure. Success of this project could result in this methodology being applied on a larger scale in an industrial setting. By collaborating between the University of Toronto and Kyoto University, the transfer of knowledge between two internationally renowned institutions could result in further advances in the scientific community through the mutual sharing of expertise.

Improvement of process control in a PHK based dissolving pulp production process

AVN uses a sophisticated Distributed Control System (DCS) to monitor and control the process. The mill is equipped with a data historian system which captures continuous and discrete process data from the DCS and manual tests. The effectiveness of process monitoring and control has evolved over the years. But at many stages of the process, operators’ and engineers’ interventions are still required to control the process. Now AVN is looking at the next level of process monitoring tools to take quicker corrective actions for both short term and long term process drifts. The scope of this project is to identify process drifts by automatic signals or flushing capabilities icons/color codes in the dashboards and SPC (statistical process control) charts for the operators, engineers and managers to take corrective and preventive actions right away to mitigate the loss. The scope would also involve incorporating new automatic controls into the DCS wherever possible.

Analyse de l’impact du Programme de remboursement des médicaments sans promoteur de la CDA-AMC sur les décisions de remboursement et de négociation à l’APP

Ce projet vise à évaluer l’impact potentiel du programme de remboursement des médicaments sans promoteur de l’Agence des médicaments du Canada (CDA-AMC) depuis sa création, tout en analysant les conclusions des négociations avec l’Alliance pharmaceutique pancanadienne (APP). Avant l’introduction de ce programme, de nombreux médicaments étaient difficilement accessibles aux patients canadiens, car les promoteurs ne soumettaient pas de demande de remboursement à la CDA-AMC. Cette absence de soumission pouvait résulter d’un refus ou d’une incapacité à le faire, en raison du coût associé à cette démarche et du faible retour sur investissement attendu (p. ex., médicaments destinés à des populations restreintes ou en fin de cycle de vie). L’organisme partenaire, Merck, souhaite mieux comprendre ce mécanisme de soumission et ses implications dans l’écosystème pharmaceutique canadien. Ce programme a le potentiel d’influencer le processus de soumission sponsorisé par l’industrie, un élément clé pour Merck, qui réalise plusieurs soumissions chaque année grâce à son vaste portefeuille des produits. Ultimement, il mettra en lumière un nouveau programme d’accès aux traitements pour les patients canadiens et aidera Merck à orienter son approche pour les années à venir.

Inuit Mental Health Workers: Strength, Resilience, and Retention

This project investigates the workplace experiences of Inuit frontline mental health workers in Nunavut, where systemic barriers and high suicide rates underscore the need for culturally grounded care. Despite their vital role, Inuit workers often face burnout, racism, and insufficient support. Through partnerships with local organizations, this study will interview Inuit mental health professionals to identify challenges and solutions for improving retention and job satisfaction.

Using a community-centered approach, the research will produce actionable recommendations to create trauma-informed, culturally responsive workplaces. Findings will be shared with policymakers, healthcare organizations, and Inuit communities to drive systemic change. The project aligns with national reconciliation efforts and aims to strengthen mental health services by supporting Inuit workers.

Led by a researcher with deep ties to Nunavut, this work prioritizes Inuit perspectives and collaboration at every stage. Outcomes include reports, presentations, and academic publications designed to benefit both workers and the communities they serve. By addressing workplace inequities, this project seeks to enhance the sustainability of Inuit-led mental health care and improve well-being across Nunavut.

Converting colour memory to a spatial format to benefit behaviour

This project explores how the brain transforms visual information, like colour, into spatial formats when storing it in memory. Using functional MRI (fMRI), we will study how these transformations happen and which brain areas are involved. This research builds on previous studies using EEG, but fMRI will provide a clearer picture of the brain regions responsible for these changes. The findings could improve our understanding of how memory adapts to task demands and may have applications in neurorehabilitation and brain-computer interfaces. The collaboration between the University of Toronto and the Ernst Stru¨ngmann Institute will strengthen international research connections, enhance expertise in neuroimaging, and provide valuable hands-on training in advanced fMRI analysis.

Experimental Study of Low Dimensional Bose Gases

Trapped ultracold atoms are one of the primary platforms enabling the development of quantum computation and simulation. Continued scaling towards large, robust quantum mechanical systems relies on our ability to exert increasing levels of control over these atomic systems. The team working on the Rubidium-87 experiment at Collège de France have demonstrated unprecedented precision manipulation of low-dimensional ultracold atoms, the density and spin spatial profiles of which they are able to arbitrarily set via the usage of digital micromirror devices in a high resolution imaging setup. A remaining obstacle in the path towards total control over this system is in the lack of tunability of the interaction strength between the individual atoms. To that end, the goal of this project is to experimentally implement a protocol for modulating the interatomic interactions between ultracold alkali atoms in a system which is already able to exert state-of-the-art control over all other properties of the atomic gas. This will enable the team to explore the strongly-interacting regime for low-dimensional gases, while the intern will develop skills unique to the team at Collège de France which may be implemented on the Rubidium-87 apparatus at the University of Toronto.

Connected Canadians Feedback & Evaluation Coordinator

This project will help Connected Canadians improve the way it delivers free digital literacy training to older adults. By observing, participating in, and helping lead technology workshops and other training sessions, the student intern will gather feedback and suggest ways to make the training offerings even more helpful and easy to follow. The intern will also look at feedback already collected through surveys and suggest small changes to improve how programs are run. These improvements will help Connected Canadians better meet the needs of the seniors they support and ensure their training continues to be engaging, accessible, and effective.

Demande SSE | Marie-Ange Tremblay Laporte

Le projet vise à aider les détaillants canadiens à optimiser leurs stratégies e-commerce pour rivaliser efficacement avec les géants du secteur comme Amazon et Wayfair. En tirant parti des données clients et de l’analyse comportementale, le projet propose des solutions concrètes pour améliorer la visibilité des produits, augmenter les ventes en ligne et en magasin, et mieux comprendre l’impact des campagnes numériques. À travers l’optimisation des flux de produits, la segmentation précise des audiences, et une gestion astucieuse des fluctuations saisonnières, l’objectif est d’offrir aux entreprises une approche personnalisée pour maximiser leur retour sur investissement.

Ce projet inclut également l’intégration de technologies de suivi du trafic en magasin, afin de mesurer l’efficacité des campagnes au-delà du monde numérique. En fin de compte, il permettra aux détaillants d’affiner leurs stratégies pour rester compétitifs dans un marché en constante évolution.