Innovative Projects Realized

Evaluation of frass, a waste stream from industrial insect production, as a soil amendment.

Industrial-scale production of insect-derived protein has emerged as a sustainable alternative to wild harvesting or large animal farming. The principal waste product is called frass, which is composed of excrement, larval exoskeletons and microbes. Frass from black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) has plant-growth promoting (PGP) properties and is therefore well positioned as a replacement for carbon intensive and environmentally damaging synthetic fertilizers. However, the mechanism by which frass enhances plant growth and whether it increases plant nutrient content are unknown. We have shown in previous work that soil amended with BSFL frass enhanced lettuce growth and water retention, but importantly, also modified the community of root-associated bacteria. Many bacteria in that frass-modified community have documented PGP properties. So, we have strong preliminary evidence that at least some of the effects of frass are attributable to the microbial fraction of frass. If this result holds true for other crop plants, it would position frass as a sustainable and widely applicable method to enhance crop plant growth, thus improving the marketability of this industrial waste stream. We propose to test the generality of the effects of BSFL frass on plant growth rates, root-associated bacterial community and nutrient content of kale plants.

Étude de la croissance des moules

La température de surface des océans a augmenté d’environ 1 °C depuis l’époque préindustrielle, une tendance qui ira en s’accélérant. L’effet probable de ce changement environnemental sur la croissance des mollusques marins sera étudié par le biais de simulations sur ordinateur. Ce travail met en jeu la moule. Nous nous servirons de données sur l’alimentation des moules acquises il y a plusieurs années. Le premier a été obtenu en nature à Pointe Mitis en 1981, et servira de témoin. Le temps d’exondation dû à la marée sera pris en compte. Le second a été obtenu en laboratoire à l’Institut Maurice-Lamontagne (1995-96 ; MPO) ; il permettra de nous assurer que les simulations sont conformes aux observations de 1981, et ultimement de faire des prévisions réalistes de l’effet des changements climatiques sur un mollusque d’importance écologique et aquicole dans plusieurs pays, y compris au Canada.

Startup Atlantic growth & partnership intern

Venn Innovation is focused on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in the Atlantic Canada region by building a strong network of startups, investors, and industry partners. The organization aims to enhance collaboration, provide resources, and create growth opportunities for emerging businesses. A key challenge is establishing a sustainable and scalable partnership model to support long-term growth and engagement within the startup ecosystem. This project will help Venn Innovation address these challenges by developing a structured approach to partnership outreach, marketing, sponsorship acquisition, and community engagement—activities that go beyond routine operations by strategically expanding the association’s reach and funding opportunities. Solving this problem requires expertise in business development, marketing, stakeholder engagement, sponsorship acquisition, and event planning. The Growth & Partnerships Intern will play a vital role in executing key initiatives, such as securing partnerships, designing marketing campaigns, supporting sponsorship efforts, assisting in event execution, and enhancing operational processes to improve member engagement and tracking.

Research Data Monetization Strategy

The Bloorview Research Institute (BRI) is exploring innovative ways to leverage its vast research data holdings to generate value and advance its missions. While this data holds significant potential value for external stakeholders across healthcare, academia, and industry, the organization currently lacks a strategy for ethical and sustainable monetization. The innovative challenge at hand is identifying viable, sustainable, and ethical models for research data monetization. This includes understanding how similar organizations approach this issue, what best practices and pitfalls exist, and how BRI can position itself to extract value from data without compromising trust, compliance, or its research integrity. The main objective of this project is to assess the feasibility, risks, and opportunities of monetizing research data at the partner organization and to develop a strategic roadmap for data commercialization.

Orbital Angular Momentum Modulated Free-space Optical Communication systems

The use of orbital angular momentum (OAM) for free-space optical (FSO) communications is almost unexplored. The proposed research will investigate the bit-error rate (BER) performance of FSO systems using OAM. The analysis will begin by considering the ideal case of separable OAM-modulated FSO system performance, to be followed by the individual and combined effects of shot noise, thermal noise, dark current and turbulence. In the presence of turbulence, the separability of OAM signals is no longer maintained, as the inhomogeneities in the refractive index of the air alter the phase structure of the optical vortex. The BER performance of the OAM-based FSO system will be evaluated by considering the effects of realistic OAM crosstalk for various turbulence strength conditions. The research results from this project will be used to help engineers design practical OWC links with higher transmission speed.

Auberges de jeunesse SaintLo

Les Auberges Saintlo souhaitent amorcer une dynamique de transition écologique concrète au sein de l’organisation. Cela passe par l’élaboration et la formalisation d’un plan d’action solide pour un tourisme durable, la mise en place de processus internes standardisés et réplicables entre les deux auberges, et la recherche de solutions innovantes, efficaces et rentables. Ce projet MITACS permettra d’ajouter à l’équipe actuelle une ressource humaine dédiée à la coordination et à la mise en œuvre des initiatives de développement durable. Cette personne aura pour mission de coordonner les actions en cours, d’en assurer le suivi et de s’assurer que les objectifs de réduction de l’empreinte écologique, de promotion de pratiques éthiques et d’engagement social et environnemental soient atteints. Elle sera un véritable catalyseur pour intégrer la durabilité dans toutes les facettes de notre activité.

MFL Mitacs Project Electric School Buses

The transition to electric medium and heavy-duty vehicles, particularly school buses, presents a significant opportunity for sustainable transportation. School buses are ideal candidates for electrification due to their predictable daily routes and manageable travel distances. However, establishing the necessary charging infrastructure and charging schedule at bus depots is a major barrier to this transition. Installing such infrastructure often requires costly grid upgrades, as existing power levels may need to be improved to support high-capacity chargers.

This project aims to design a depot-charging infrastructure that minimizes operational costs while accommodating the unique demands of school bus fleets. The primary objective is to develop a cost-effective solution that addresses energy costs influenced by utility demand charges and time-of-use (TOU) pricing. By optimizing the charging process, the project seeks to use the lowest power chargers available, schedule charging during off-peak hours, and implement staggered charging schedules to reduce simultaneous demand, despite the variability in bus routes.
The approach involves developing an optimization model that balances the costs of grid upgrades, charger installations, and energy consumption. Key parameters such as the number of chargers, their power levels, and charging schedules will be determined to ensure both cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency. An interactive tool will also be developed to visualize and manage the charging solutions through a user-friendly interface, enabling stakeholders to interact with and adjust the infrastructure plan as needed.
Expertise in optimization algorithms, electric vehicle infrastructure, and web development is essential for the success of this project. The project aims to deliver a scalable and economically viable charging infrastructure model by leveraging advanced optimization techniques and comprehensive knowledge of sustainable transportation. The successful implementation of this model will facilitate the widespread electrification of school bus fleets, significantly reducing operational costs and environmental impact. Furthermore, it will establish a benchmark for future sustainable transportation initiatives, promoting greener

Enhancing Privacy Against Surveillance and Censorship in Future Internet Architectures

The dramatic growth of the Internet has enhanced access to information, fostering seamless communication and promoting effective collaboration. Unfortunately, advanced network traffic control and monitoring systems have empowered state-level actors to deploy large-scale surveillance and censorship mechanisms that track people’s Internet activities or limit their ability to freely access and publish information. Recently, multiple initiatives have pushed towards an overhaul of the Internet by applying the lessons learned throughout 30 years of practical network engineering experience. These initiatives, known as Future Internet Architectures (FIAs), seek to remove legacy design constraints and improve performance, scalability, and mobility while adding much-needed security features.
However, the deployment of effective privacy-enhancing tools within FIAs and the broader Internet remains a significant challenge. For instance, the traffic of popular anonymity networks such as Tor can be easily detected (and blocked) if not properly hidden. This project aims to enhance our understanding of FIAs and worldwide censorship efforts by investigating the efficacy of popular mechanisms that can be used by state-level actors and design a novel countermeasure.

Enhanced Mechanical Properties and Lower Gas Permeability for Liner Polyethylene in Fiber Reinforced Pipes (FRPs) – Year two

Permeation of CO2 gas through the inner layer in multi-layer fiber reinforced pipes (FRPs) destructively reduces pipe
durability. FRPs generally consist of three or more layers of polymer and reinforcing fibers. Gas permeation thorough
the polymer layer and its accumulation in reinforcing layer leads to pipe failure during depressurizing cycles. Using clay
nano-platelet can lead to decrease gas permeability in polymer layers. Good dispersion and good adhesion between
clay nano-layers and polymer are key features for optimization of gas permeability. This study will focus on optimizing
polyethylene (PE)/clay composites to reduce gas permeability in PE-liner. Other objectives of this research study are
using polymer blends and cross-linked PE for developing composite pipes with enhanced mechanical properties at
elevated temperatures and high pressures. Polymer modification and optimization of processing condition will be
further investigated in this research study.

“Summer of History” New Brunswick Museums and Heritage Places Marketing Project

With the support and supervision of the Executive Director and several Board Members, the intern will be carrying out a marketing campaign that highlights NB’s unique museums and heritage places. They will be asked to organize a calendar of posts and to create the content and post it in accordance with optimal posting times. They will be tracking data to better organize the campaign and ensure maximum success. They will also be helping to plan and coordinate a launch event. The benefit to AHNB will be that the successful campaign will be a great service to our members, we will see an increase in our social media following, and we expect to gain knowledge from the intern’s education and experience.

Scale-up to semi-industrial cultivated fat production

Main Activities
Genuine Taste is an innovative biotechnology company focused on producing cultivated fat, a scalable and customizable ingredient for the growing alternative protein industry. We provide high-quality, structured fats that enhance the flavor, texture, aroma, and nutritional profile of plant-based and cultivated meat. Our technology offers a cost-effective alternative to conventional animal fats and synthetic flavor additives.
Challenge We Aim to Solve
Genuine Taste is developing a scalable, cost-effective solution for producing cultivated fat, a critical ingredient for enhancing the sensory and nutritional properties of alternative meats. The challenge we face is scaling our production
process from benchtop to demonstration scale, which is necessary to validate the unit economics and product quality for customers and investors. Achieving a price point of $10/kg is key to secure customer interest, but scaling to this level requires addressing new technical challenges such as optimizing yield, maintaining consistency, and ensuring product quality at a larger scale. Without this proof of scalability, it will be difficult to move forward with customer acquisition and pilot projects. The primary hurdle is scaling the production process to demonstration scale (10L bioreactor) while maintaining product quality and yield. The increased scale introduces complexities such as shear stress, contamination risks, and oxidation, which need to be addressed to ensure a consistent, high-quality product. This project will enable us to hire an experienced bioprocess engineer to refine our process and optimize production at this scale.
Anticipated Benefits to Genuine Taste
• Successful completion of this project will generate critical data proving the unit economics of our cultivated fat
production at demonstration scale (10L), a key milestone for commercialization.
• We will expand our in-house expertise in process engineering, strengthening our ability to scale production.
• We expect to file two new provisional patent applications, reinforcing our intellectual property portfolio.
• Our project will generate at least $50,000 in revenue from sample sales, with a portion coming from exports to
customers in the U.S. and the Netherlands.
• Meeting key technical milestones—such as three successful runs in a 10L bioreactor—will enable us to engage
with large food corporations, many of which require this validation before entering formal collaboration
agreements.

Security Analyst I

Bulletproof, specializes in cybersecurity, providing security operations center (SOC) services to monitor, detect, and mitigate security threats. Their main activities include real-time monitoring of security events, investigating incidents, and ensuring a robust security posture for their clients. The innovation challenge they face involves enhancing their ability to identify and respond to evolving cybersecurity threats, including hardware and software failures, security breaches, and network connectivity issues. This project aims to strengthen Bulletproof’s security operations beyond routine monitoring by leveraging advanced threat intelligence, improving incident response strategies, and enhancing security configurations. By integrating proactive analysis, custom detection logic, and intelligence gathering, the initiative will provide deeper insights into potential threats, reducing response time and improving overall security resilience. To achieve this, expertise in cybersecurity operations, threat analysis, digital forensics, network security, security policy development, and the use of advanced testing tools and security event management platforms is required. The project will go beyond day-to-day operations by creating a more adaptive and intelligent security framework, ensuring Bulletproof remains at the forefront of cybersecurity defense.