Innovative Projects Realized

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

13270 Completed Projects

1072
AB
2795
BC
430
MB
106
NF
348
SK
4184
ON
2671
QC
43
PE
209
NB
474
NS

Projects by Category

10%
Computer science
9%
Engineering
1%
Engineering - biomedical
4%
Engineering - chemical / biological

Statistical Methods for High Through-Put Flow Cytometry

This research project aims to develop automated statistical methodology to analyze data generated by flow cytometry (FCM), a high-throughput technology widely used in health research and disease diagnostics. FCM is commonly used to define the overall status of the immune system either in healthy or diseased subjects by performing quantitative measurements on a variety of cell types belonging to the immune system. However, FCM has not reached its full potential due to the lack of tools to process the wealth of data generated by this technique as part of an automated analysis platform that parallels the data generation platform. In this proposal, the intern plans to develop new statistical techniques to address the current bottleneck in the application of the recently developed high throughput flow cytometry technology which is poised to have a dramatic impact on human health.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Raphael Gottardo

Student:

Kenneth Lo

Partner:

BC Cancer Research Centre

Discipline:

Statistics / Actuarial sciences

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Quantifying the Responses of Songbirds and Woodpeckers to Changes in Habitat at the Stand and Landscape Scales: Testing for Thresholds and Setting Management Targets

How do species respond to changes in habitat, and can their responses be used to set reliable management targets? The intern’s research is focused on determining whether forest birds respond non-linearly to the loss of forest habitat due to logging. For example, theoretical models show that the probability of finding forest birds within a given patch of forest declines sharply when less than 30% of forest cover remains in the patch. A point of sharp decline in a graph of a particular response to habitat loss is referred to as a 'critical threshold' or 'habitat threshold'. Thresholds indicate the point at which species become highly affected by habitat loss, and thus, can be used as a guide to set quantitative management targets – such as the amount of forest that should be not be logged. The intern proposes to quantify changes in bird abundance and reproduction in response to changes in habitat at the stand and landscape scales using an intensive survey method. She will statistically test for non-linearity and thresholds in these relationships, and then she will compare the results to a related study that will estimate responses using a standard, less intensive survey method.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Kenneth Lertzman

Student:

Kelly Squires

Partner:

Canadian Forest Products

Discipline:

Resources and environmental management

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Petrological and Geochemical Profiling of Copper-gold Mineralization in the Iron Range Region of BC

Eagle Plains Resources is a junior exploration company exploring for minerals in Western Canada. The goal of this project is to understand the nature and type of the copper-goal mineralization present in the Iron Range, Kootenay region of BC. To accomplish this, a number of analytical techniques will be used to determine not only the chemistry of the rocks containing mineralization, but also to gain a better understanding of the geological history of the Iron Range lithologies and processes involved in mountain building in that area via determinations of pressures, crustal depths, temperatures and ages of the local rock formations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Dan Marshall

Student:

Varina Smith

Partner:

Eagle Plains Resources Ltd.

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Modelling Body Composition with Special Attention to Visceral and Subcutaneous Adiposity

The internship research focuses on the regulation of human body composition as expressed by the ratio of lean body mass to total fat mass, a quantitative description of which is relevant to the management of obesity. Special attention will be paid to the distinction between visceral fat, which is associated with increased risk of heart disease and type 2 Diabetes, and subcutaneous fat, which imparts less risk for these conditions. Recently, a large database of body composition data, segregated by gender and race, was collected, incorporating information on both visceral and subcutaneous fat. Based on this data, the team will (1) extend an existing mathematical model (with two compartments, one for lean body mass and one for total fat mass) to account for potential differences of body composition regulation between racial groups and genders, and (2) expand the model to account for both the visceral and subcutaneous fat compartments. This research will allow predictions about rates of gain or loss of the comparatively hazardous visceral fat compartment in different populations, which may then be used to direct dietary and weight-loss therapy.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Gerda de Vries

Student:

Diana White

Partner:

St. Paul's Hospital

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Measuring and Modelling Ecological Resilience

The BC Ministry of Forests and Range has recently undertaken a Future Forest Ecosystem Initiative (FFEI) whose purpose is to adapt the BC forest and range legislation and policy to a changing climate and to ensure BC’s forest and rangeland ecosystems remain resilient to stress. This research project helps to provide a scientific underpinning for the FFEI by developing mathematical models that predict how ecological resilience varies across environmental gradients and in response to cumulative environmental stress. It combines theoretical modelling of ecological resilience and ecosystem diversity with field research and takes advantage of a network of long-term field studies of forest succession established throughout the central Interior of BC. Fieldwork will be conducted with the intern during the summer and early fall of 2007 to re-measure existing field plots.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Suzanne Simard

Student:

Sybille Haeussler

Partner:

BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development

Discipline:

Forestry

Sector:

Forestry

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Influence of Viruses on Marine Prokaryotes in Canada’s Arctic Waters

Viruses are an abundant and dynamic component of marine microbial communities. The project will use information encoded in the genomes of viruses and their bacterial hosts to obtain a measure of the number of different types of viruses and bacterial species in Canadian Arctic waters. Additionally, the project will focus on the relationship between viral and bacterial communities by trying to identify patterns in their geographical distribution in response to changing environmental conditions such as temperature or salinity. Furthermore, markers suitable for identifying specific virus population will be developed and applied in order to identify viral survival strategies and infected bacterial species.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Curtis Suttle

Student:

Christian Winter

Partner:

Institute of Ocean Sciences

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Forest Habitat Requirements for Nesting Sandhill Cranes in Coastal British Columbia

The Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) is a tall, long-lived bird that uses isolated wetlands, estuaries and meadows in British Columbia for breeding and staging. The Sandhill Crane is “blue-listed” (a species of special concern) in British Columbia and requires specific management strategies, including Wildlife Habitat Areas, for forest and range activities. Sandhill Cranes found along the coast of BC have a distinct coastal migration path, and are thought to have different habitat requirements for staging, breeding, and wintering than interior Sandhill Cranes. Nonetheless, little is known about their distribution and/or habitat requirements on the coast. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to document Sandhill Crane behaviour and habitat use in undisturbed areas and disturbed areas in coastal British Columbia. The primary goals of the intern’s research include identification of breeding areas of Sandhill Cranes, definition of their habitat requirements, and documentation of their breeding behaviour and life history on the Central Coast. The most non-invasive methods will be used, including aerial, boat and ground surveys, habitat mapping, and hide observations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Dan Smith

Student:

Krista Roessingh

Partner:

BC Ministry of Environment

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Detrital Mineral Geochronology of the Wernecke Supergroup in the Yukon: Enhancing the Framework for Mineral Exploration

This project is designed to provide new information on the source of the sediment in the Wernecke Supergroup, a widespread geological formation in northern Yukon that was deposited approximately 1.8 billion years ago. This formation is important because it hosts numerous mineral occurrences that are attracting considerable mineral exploration activity. The source of the sediment will be identified by ion probe analysis on detrital (sedimentary) grains of the mineral zircon. Determining the sediment source is important because it will help to develop a comprehensive model of the geological environment of the Wernecke Supergroup at the time it was deposited. Specifically, the information may be used to determine which continent lay next to western North America (e.g., Australia, South China or Siberia), what types of mineral deposits may be expected to be found in Yukon and how exploration strategies may be adjusted to increase their effectiveness.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Derek Thorkelson

Student:

Francesca Furlanetto

Partner:

Yukon Geological Survey

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Determining the Kinetics of Self-assembly of Islet Amyloid Polypeptide in Type 2 Diabetes

The intern will be conducting experiments to gather real-time data on the formation of toxic fibrous proteins that occur as part of the disease process in type 2 diabetes. These experiments will be carried out at BC Children’s Hospital in vitro for various concentrations of protein precursor to study the kinetics of assembly of the polymer with and without “seeding” of the reaction with preformed fibrils. This data will then be analyzed using mathematical modeling techniques to discover the key steps in the formation and growth of the toxic fibers. The team hopes to learn more about the kinetics of these proteins so that therapeutic measures can be suggested.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Drs. Leah Keshet & Daniel Coombs

Student:

James Bailey

Partner:

BC Children's Hospital

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Extracting Commonality within Network Data Streams

Alcatel-Lucent manufactures telecommunications equipment, ranging from telephone handsets to internet routers. The Research & Innovation group within Alcatel-Lucent is mandated with evaluating new technologies and new ideas that may benefit Alcatel products, thereby benefiting Alcatel-Lucent’s customers, and ultimately the end users. One current area of their research is the ability to identify similar groups of traffic by extracting features that are common to all streams within the group, so that similar types of traffic can be treated together, and to allocate resources suitable for the stream. This collaborative internship project focuses on the development of algorithms to extract the common elements of these traffic streams in high dimensional spaces, given the restricted computing power available for such features at the router level.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Shirley Mills

Student:

Katrina Rogers Stewart

Partner:

Alcatel Canada Inc.

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Accelerate

Real-time Reproduction of Statistical Accurate Distributed System Workloads

Enquisite Software provides analytical services to corporate clients through the “mining” of data detailing how client customers interact with the clients’ Internet-point of presence. To facilitate this work, Enquisite actively collects a continuous stream of client interaction data which is stored in its repository, on which Enquisite clients perform on-demand queries for business actionable knowledge. In order to cost-effectively build the IT system required to support their business model, Enquisite needs to understand the statistical nature of the workloads which their IT system must be designed to process. Thus, this internship will develop the required statistical workload models through the analysis of the historical workload records held by Enquisite.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Stephen Neville

Student:

Christopher Mueller

Partner:

Enquisite Software Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Security Assertion Checking & Enforcement Using Monitors

The goal of this project is to develop a new set of procedures and tools for testing the security of running software systems using a technique based on the concept of monitor. Monitors are systems which observe and analyze the behavior of a second system. The monitor will be designed as an external system that uses software “hooks” in the existing system to insert and extract information. This framework will allow the checking of assertions and the reporting of exceptions. Once a monitor framework is in place, work may progress by identifying the points in the systems that could be exploited for malicious intent thus allowing the implementation of safeguards. The open-source LINUX kernel will be used as a basis for this research. The resulting monitor framework can contribute to the accountability of users, assurance of security measures and the continuous protection of secure systems for users.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Issa Traore

Student:

Alexander Hoole

Partner:

Microdev Engineering Corp.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

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