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

Understanding the Engineering Design Process

This research project is a study of the engineering design process. The goal is to study the design process at Manitoba Hydro to better understand: how design works, how information flows, and how the process is communicated. The intern’s research team will study the design process from within the organizational environment. This will involve a study of how research is conducted and how information flows between different levels within the design groups. The results of this study will be a better understanding of the design process within the corporate environment. This study is set up as a qualitative study versus a more typical engineering quantitative project. This was necessary to understand the actual process engineers undertake as they move through a design project. Data collection includes: observation of engineering design groups, interviews of engineering designers, following design projects through to completion, and studying design activities in project records and through observation. Manitoba Hydro is planning on using the information to help them to; improve ability to hire or promote individuals for design positions, improve transfer of design knowledge to new designers, improve engineers’ ability to create new designs, improve engineering groups understanding and therefore their ability, improve communication between design teams, save money by speeding up process, and identify successful procedures to be shared globally with all corporate teams.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. M. G. (Ron) Britton

Student:

Donald Petkau

Partner:

Manitoba Hydro

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Application of Spatial Statistics to Quantify Mixing and the Potential for Reaction

Many chemical reactions can produce unwanted byproducts which require additional purification steps and lead to unwanted waste. Additional purification steps consume large amounts of energy, and waste products can have a significant environmental impact. The chemistry can be modified so that the desired products are favored over the unwanted byproducts, and the mixing can be intensified so that molecules are more rapidly and intimately mixed. Both of these approaches will reduce byproducts. In this project, the equations describing mixing and reaction rates are solved for various mixing rates and sets of reactions to identify the important variables. Then industrial data sets are analysed using spatial statistics to link the mixing conditions in the fundamental models to realistic data sets for an industrial reactor. This work has implications for industrial flares, pharmaceutical and fine chemical reactors, reaction injection molding, and petrochemical reactors.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Suzanne Kresta

Student:

Syed Imran Ali Shah

Partner:

NOVA Chemicals

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Chemicals

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Potential Climate Change Impact On Surface Winds in Southern British Columbia: Analyses Using A High-Resolution Regional Climate Model

Results from a state-of-the-art regional climate model will be used to analyze properties of near-surface winds (speed, direction, power, and variability in time) in selected regions of southern British Columbia. Station observations taken over recent decades will be used to develop a relation between model output fields and wind characteristics that can be used to deduce wind properties at station locations in any future period. These will be compared with high-resolution maps of the same wind fields derived from the climate model in the future period, in order to ascertain the suitability of the maps for use in further impact assessment. Of particular interest are changes in the mean and maximum wind speed, power, and variability from contemporary values, as these are likely to have a direct impact on operations at the partner organization.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Adam Monahan

Student:

Charles Curry

Partner:

BC Transmission Corporation

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Ontology-based Data Integration for Translational Medicine

The project will research advanced theories and applications for the integration of biomedical research data and clinical data from electronic health record databases for the purpose of advancing the state of research and health care. The results of the project will inform the company partner in their strategic move to expand their product palette on software components in support of translational medicine.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Jens H. Weber

Student:

Fieran Mason-Blakley

Partner:

GenoLogics Life Sciences Software

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

New Business Development: Food Service Applications for Earthcycle Packaging

Market segmentation, research and analysis for a potentially significant new product line to be developed by Earthcycle Packaging. An opportunity exists to market and distribute compostable/biodegradable plates to certain food service segments such as airlines, hospitals and other institutions, and restaurants. The internship will focus on dissecting these markets to evaluate the business decision and establish metrics for competing products moving forward. The competitive landscape will also be analyzed to evaluate the current and potential market for these applications and any identified future possible directions.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Darren Dahl

Student:

Darren Negraeff

Partner:

Earthcycle Packaging

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Finance, insurance and business

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Measuring the Value of eHealth

Technology in today’s healthcare system. eHealth is the term used to describe this technology. The research performed will build a model to help determine the value of financial savings and customer service that can be attained by implementing eHealth within varying regions with varying degrees of existing information technology. The information for this model will come from existing financial data and by surveying users of the healthcare system, patients. This study will assist in deciding whether eHealth is a worth while investment in a particular region and if so, what its value is.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. James Tansey

Student:

Greig Pothan

Partner:

Canadian EMR

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Full Waveform Tomography for Time-Lapse Monitoring

Oil and gas resources are hidden deep within the earth in geological structures which form reservoirs for these fluids. Finding these reservoirs, and monitoring the flow of fluids within these structures requires advanced imaging technologies and algorithms for the successful recovery of these valuable resources. This project will develop a newly proposed mathematical approach to imaging these structures, known as full wavefield tomography (Brenders and Pratt, 2007). The mathematics will be refined and implemented as a set of software tools, and tested with real exploration data from our industrial partner. These methods will then be applied to the problem of time-lapse seismic imaging, which allows for the real-time monitoring of changes within a petroleum reservoir over the weeks and months as fluids are extracted from the reservoir.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Gary Margrave

Student:

Chad Hogan

Partner:

Husky Energy Ltd.

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Oil and gas

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

Cluster and Discriminant Analysis for Vehicles Detection

It is very useful to build an automatic computer system to recognize the types of vehicles passing a checkpoint given some easy-to-get data about the vehicles, such as the distances between axles, the weights on each axle. Such a system has many applications, for example, in monitoring traffic volumes and identifies the type of vehicle, which will be helpful in budgeting road maintenance costs. The main goal of this project is to develop a better methodology for cluster analysis with application to the vehicle detection problem. The simplest clustering technique is the K-means clustering. However, K-means clustering requires that the users supply with a number of clusters. X-means clustering may be an alternative method since it can detect the number of clusters with some simple criteria. But X-means would introduce more severe local mode problem. We will investigate a new method to overcome the problem by merging similar clusters after running X-means clustering.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Drs. William Laverty and Longhai Li

Student:

Zhengrong Li

Partner:

International Road Dynamics Inc.

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Automotive and transportation

University:

University of Saskatchewan

Program:

Accelerate

An Improved Wide-Band Dynamic System Equivalent Technique for Real-Time Digital Simulators

Real-time simulators are increasingly important in power system studies and equipment tests by manufacturers, universities, research institutes and power system utilities. Yet their capability for accurately simulating some aspects of very large systems is limited by the burden of additional hardware requirements. Thus, the aim of this project is to develop an improved wide-band system equivalent technique for the real-time digital simulator (RTDS) that will improve its capabilities on super-large power systems.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Aniruddha Gole

Student:

Yuefeng Liang

Partner:

RTDS Technologies Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Energy

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Application of Composite Materials to Tidal Turbine Blades

Tidal currents can provide a significant and predictable source of renewable energy. This project will research the use of composite materials for the blades of a tidal turbine to harness this energy. The rotor blades are currently made of steel, which leads to several problems in the marine environment, expensive manufacturing processes and difficulties in handling (due to weight). Composites are potentially able to solve these problems. An extensive literature review is to be performed to determine state-of-the-art solutions for the use of alternative materials in underwater applications. Possible design solutions will be investigated with due consideration to static and fatigue loads. Standards from the wind turbine and marine industry will be studied to yield guidance on the design of the blades. Recommendations for subsequent research will also be given, based on identified areas of deficient knowledge.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Curran Crawford

Student:

Alexander Jancker

Partner:

Clean Current Power Systems Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

A Comparative Analysis into the Choice Behavior of Consumers with Celiac Disease

Celiac disease is a common autoimmune disease triggered by dietary gluten proteins from wheat, barley and rye. This internship will enable the development, implementation and analysis of a web-based consumer survey among celiacs in North America. The objectives are to 1) investigate consumers’ risk perceptions toward novel gluten-binding products that do not yet exist in the marketplace, 2) investigate how celiac patients have adjusted their diet over time up to now, 3) investigate how they would adjust their diet if a novel product was available that binds gluten and 4) investigate the nature of information processing of celiacs (as part of consumers’ choice processes).

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Bodo Steiner

Student:

Jing Zhang

Partner:

IGY Inc.

Discipline:

Urban studies

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Cultural Diversity and Material Imagination in Canadian Architecture

Nowhere is Canadafs rich cultural diversity more present than in the techniques of construction brought to our country by the hands of our immigrants. Whether a religious monument or a simple farm house, architecture makes visible the invisible workings of the material imagination. In this sense, the fabrication of buildings, not just their form, is a cultural artifact. Alarmingly, an increasing scarcity of specialized and skilled tradespersons, complex building codes, and industrialized building systems threaten this invaluable cultural resource. To aid in the preservation and dissemination of these traditional materials and methods of construction, we propose the use of advanced digital, immersive, and communications technologies to develop hybrid (virtual/physical) training methods and innovative knowledge creation and management. The purpose of this research is to begin to begin the first step in the largest knowledge base in the country dedicated to heritage conservation. The proposed case study involves three phases: Data acquisition, Data storage, and Hybrid visualization. A selected architectural artifact of significant historical and architectural value will be meticulously documented using 3D laser]scanning, photogrammetry, plaster casts, photography, and other appropriate techniques in order to create a edigital artifactf, a dataset which digitally contains all the empirical information we have collected about the artifact. This digital artifact will be used in the modeling of a hybrid visualization protocol for the purpose of enlightening and instructing interested persons in the craftsmanship, history, fabrication techniques, and architectural value of the artifact.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Stephen Fai

Student:

Venkatesh Prabhu

Partner:

Autodesk Research

Discipline:

Architecture and design

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Accelerate

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