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

Measuring Young Piano Student’s Degree of Motivation and their Interest in Piano-Related Activities

One of music education's major concerns is the challenge of motivating students to continue learning the piano. A high percentage of young students stop piano lessons within the first 18 months, before they begin to master the instrument (Sloboda and Howe, 1991). This research will measure young piano students' degree of motivation and their interest in piano-related activities by using the Survey of Musical Interest. Participants will be from the Merriam School of Music, which has agreed to be involved in this research project. The results will be representative of young students' perceptions of piano learning and their feedbacks on piano-related activities. The results will help piano teachers to understand and better assist their students, and allow the music school to evaluate and develop their program in order to raise student achievement levels with no increased investment of time or money.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Gilles Comeau

Student:

Yifei Liu

Partner:

Merriam School of Music

Discipline:

Music

Sector:

Sports and recreation

University:

University of Ottawa

Program:

Accelerate

Geothermal Ground Loop Performance Monitoring

The project will entail the development of a flexible and robust data acquisition and monitoring system for the large scale long-term performance evaluation of residential ground source heat pump system. The literature review will guide different alternative ground loop heat exchanger options. The expected result will provide flexible and portable hardware/software equipment and survey protocol for large-scale monitoring and evaluation of ground source heat pump systems. This will provide the necessary information on when and how such systems can be deployed based on the energy, economic and environmental perspectives. This will lead to new business for Groundheat System International and at the same time will forest faster adoption of renewable energy in Ontario/Canada.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Alan S. Fung

Student:

Farzin Rad

Partner:

Groundheat International Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Energy

University:

Ryerson University

Program:

Accelerate

Exploring regional productivity difference – Could differences in management be the cause?

This project explores the role that management techniques play in changes in productivity, economic fluctuations and growth over time for Canada and the U.S, as well as regional productivity differences. This information should help economists create better models and policies, as well as better inform Governments and businesses about the importance of proper management and providing opportunities to train (and retrain) managers to employ the best techniques. Participation in this project will help the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity fulfill their mandate (to help the public better understand the macro and microeconomic factors behind Ontario’s economic growth) by engaging in ground breaking research using newly designed indicators of technological change in management. At the end of the project, the findings will be made available to policy makers and the general public by circulating copies of the results in working papers written for the Institute, doing interviews about the research, and submitting copies of the results to Ontario’s Task Force on Competitiveness, Productivity and Economic Progress.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Michelle Alexopoulos

Student:

Trevor Tombe

Partner:

Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity

Discipline:

Economics

Sector:

Management of companies and enterprises

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Evaluation of an Educational Intervention for Employees Exposed to Workplace Trauma

Experiencing a traumatic event at work has detrimental effects on the individual and the organization he/she works for. In some cases, exposure to a traumatic event leads to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); a debilitating anxiety disorder. In this study, 2 groups of Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) employees will be compared: those receiving the usual care (TAU group) and a group receiving an educational intervention (BPI group). The primary outcome is the proportion of participants seeking treatment. Additionally, interviews will be conducted with a subset of participants who have sought treatment. These interviews will explore participants perceptions of the educational intervention and discuss reasons for seeking treatment. Overall, this study may help to clarify the role of educational interventions for trauma. The TTC will benefit through the implementation and evaluation of a novel intervention aimed specifically at their employees. Educating employees about trauma and PTSD may lead to a higher number of employees seeking specialty mental health treatment for their symptoms.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Paul Links

Student:

Sheena Bance

Partner:

Toronto Transit Commission

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Automotive and transportation

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Development of an In Vivo Model to Monitor Vitamin D Activity

Vitamin D compounds are being developed for the treatment of chronic kidney disease. The purpose of this proposal is to develop a cell-based screening platform that will allow the rapid assessment ofrelative efficacy of a library of compounds. The intern will use recombinant DNA methodology to generate a cell-based assay in which the green fluorescence protein will be inserted into a vitamin D responsive gene; thus, permitting the visualization of vitamin D signaling in real-time. This same recombinant DNA construct will be designed in such a way that it can be further used to establish a line of mice in which tissues responding to vitamin D compounds will “glow”. This may permit the visualization of pharmacodynamic properties of compounds in live animals.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Glenville Jones

Student:

Tracie Pennimpede

Partner:

CrossWing Inc.

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Accelerate

Computation of Risk Measures via Efficient Least-squares Monte Carlo

The computation of risk profiles for financial products and portfolios is an extremely important problem, both for regulatory and internal management purposes. For complex products whose value depends on a number of underlying risk factors and for which exercise decisions can be made prior to maturity, Monte Carlo simulation techniques are the only viable procedures. This project aims to adopt a simulation method used for pricing products, to computing risk exposures. Various ways of improving the computational speed will be explored. Having a highly-trained intern, with particular expertise in this area, allows for our industrial partner to take on this important longer-term project that would otherwise not be possible due to resource constraints. Completion of this project will significantly improve the ability of the risk management team to assess and manage the risks of complex products.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Mark Reesor

Student:

Felix Kan

Partner:

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Finance, insurance and business

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Adipocyte Dysfunction as a Cause of Obesity-Induced Pathophysiologies: Accelerated Cellular Impairments in Individuals of South Asian Descent

At similar levels of obesity, individuals of South Asian descent (SA) are at greater risk than individuals of European Caucasian (EC) descent for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). We hypothesize that in SA individuals, the morphology and functions of individual fat cells within fat tissue are altered, such that they are enlarged, inflamed and express altered levels of proteins called adipokines, which induce insulin resistance at other body organs, leading to T2DM and CVD. Here, we wish to determine in fat cells obtained via needle biopsies from the abdomen of SA and EC individuals at different degrees of obesity (100 in all): (1) size parameters (2) the cellular signaling systems leading to altered inflammation and adipokine expression. Overall, we intend to elucidate the mechanisms leading to accelerated T2DM and CVD in South Asians, which will potentially aid in the development of T2DM and CVD therapies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Shirya Rashid

Student:

Michelle Melone

Partner:

AstraZeneca

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

Walking the Prevention Circle Evaluation

The health of Aboriginal children and youth has been identified as a critical issue in Canada. Walking the Prevention Circle (WTPC) is a violence prevention program specifically designed to support Aboriginal communities in promoting healthy relationships and healthy development for their children and youth. WTPC is a capacity building model for communities to train their own prevention educators, developed and delivered by Red Cross Aboriginal Coordinators in close collaboration with Aboriginal communities. WTPC acknowledges the history, challenges and potential of Aboriginal individuals and communities as it explores issues relating to abuse, neglect and interpersonal violence. The project has three objectives: (1) To analyze existing evaluation data from 25 WTPC communities, (2) To conduct face-to-face interviews with Aboriginal leaders from 5 WTPC communities, (3) To develop, administer, and analyze a follow-up questionnaire for 25 WTPC communities. This research will enable the Red Cross to evaluate and augment the WTPC program and continue their important work of supporting healthy relationships and healthy development for Aboriginal children and youth in Canada.This project is in partnership with PREVNet.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Debra Pepler

Student:

Alice Vaughn

Partner:

Canadian Red Cross

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

University:

York University

Program:

Accelerate

Model Predictions of the Effects of Vaccination on the Epidemic Growth Rate of Seasonal Influenza Epidemics

Influenza is associated with thousands of hospitalizations and deaths annually in Canada. The cornerstone of influenza control is the annual trivalent influenza vaccine administered prior to the start of the flu season. The annual vaccine does not provide perfect protection for all recipients and it is difficult to measure the vaccine’s efficacy at the start of the flu season, while the epidemic is growing. A mathematical model will be used to generate a typical influenza season using publically available data from FluWatch, a Canadian influenza surveillance system. Historically, once a seasonal influenza A epidemic starts to build, the number of influenza cases nearly doubles every week. A conclusion may be of the form “For a vaccine efficacy of x and a vaccination coverage of y, we can slow the epidemic growth rate, and the number of cases would be expected to double in z weeks.” The conclusion is hypothetical, as vaccine efficacy or coverage may still be too low to see an effect.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Jonathan Dushoff

Student:

Michael Jordan Delorme

Partner:

Public Health Agency of Canada

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

The Use of Transgenic Plants and the Chloroplasts of Green Algae to Produce Low-cost Oral Therapeutics for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes is a serious, common and chronic health problem. In Canada, more than 2 million Canadians are living with diabetes today. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes that accounts for approximately 90% of diabetes cases. The cost of diabetes care is almost 4 times as much as for someone without diabetes. The Canadian Diabetes Association estimates that the total cost of diabetes will continue to escalate and could reach $15.6 billion by 2010 unless dramatic actions are taken. The presently available medicines, including insulin as well as those commonly used insulin-sensitizing drugs such as sulfonylureas and metformin, have limited success in controlling blood glucose levels. The goal of the proposed project is to develop novel, low-cost oral anti-diabetic agents using genetically engineered plants as well as the photosynthetic organelle chloroplasts in algal cells. Results of this research will benefit Plantigen by broadening the company's product portfolio, strengthening the position of the company's intellectual property and helping the company to attract new investment opportunities.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Norman P.A. Huner

Student:

Xiaofeng Wang

Partner:

Plantigen Inc.

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

The Urban Greening Model: Furthering a City’s Goal Towards Sustainability through Prioritized Tree planting Regimes

Urban forests, characterized by trees and green spaces in urban areas, are highly prized for their socioeconomic and environmental contributions to society. Models to quantify the benefits of urban forests exist (energy savings, storm water mitigation etc.), but there is no process by which the models’ results are then directed towards the broader planning goals of a municipality. What this project proposes, therefore, is to investigate the relationships between the City of Thunder Bay’s (CTB) urban forest and its objectives with respect to sustainability and to demonstrate how these relationships can aid in creating a community development tool for furthering a city’s goals towards sustainability. This model, called the Urban Greening Model (UGM), will help the CTB prioritize planting, greening and tree protection efforts that will maximize the level of net environmental, financial and social benefits to the community. As a result, the UGM will help planners integrate these benefits into municipal planning activities and other private agencies’ goals, and thus strengthen the cooperation and communication among these groups.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Todd Randall

Student:

Bradley Doff

Partner:

City of Thunder Bay

Discipline:

Geography / Geology / Earth science

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Lakehead University

Program:

Accelerate

The Optical Breathalyzer

This internship will enable a targeted collaboration to be developed between Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp. and Trent University, associated with designing and constructing a new generation of alloptical breath alcohol sensors. The high-sensitivity, high-selectivity breathalysers that will emerge from this collaboration are expected to become a valued diagnostic tool within many sectors, from professional to recreational. Portable breathalysers are currently based on chemically-induced changes, while an all-optical device could extend the existing advantages of these devices to include higher sensitivity, increased reliability, and a longer working life. ACS Corp has been a leading manufacturer of alcohol sensing instruments for more than 20 years, with a very active industrially-related research program. This internship, funding in part by MITACS, will optimally combine the output from university-based research with that from industry to enable a speedy development of a product that will undoubtedly have significant commercial potential.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Ralph C. Shiell

Student:

Bryan van der Ende

Partner:

Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp.

Discipline:

Physics / Astronomy

Sector:

University:

Trent University

Program:

Accelerate

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