Innovative Projects Realized

L2M – Scaling Sustainable Waste-to-Energy Solutions: Poultry Manure to Biofuels and Carbon Capture

The project “Scaling Sustainable Waste-to-Energy Solutions: Poultry Manure to Biofuels and Carbon Capture” focuses on commercializing an innovative pyrolysis-based technology that transforms poultry manure into bio-oil, biochar, and pyro-gas. This solution addresses both environmental and economic challenges in Canada’s poultry and renewable energy sectors by providing a sustainable alternative to traditional manure disposal methods, which contribute to high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and nutrient runoff pollution. Through controlled thermochemical conversion, this technology reduces waste disposal costs for farmers, mitigates up to 25,000 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions annually, and creates new revenue streams. The resulting bio-oil serves as a renewable industrial fuel, while biochar enhances soil quality and enables long-term carbon sequestration. Pyro-gas, a valuable byproduct, can also be reused within the system, improving energy efficiency. The project aligns with Canada’s 2050 net-zero targets and advances circular economy principles by converting agricultural waste into valuable resources. Over the four-month Lab2Market program, the focus will be on market validation, regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and financial feasibility analysis, ensuring that the technology is commercially viable and ready for industry adoption. By collaborating with key industry partners such as Net Zero Atlantic, this project will help position Nova Scotia and Canada as leaders in sustainable agri-tech and clean energy innovation.

L2M – Craft Brewery Innovation Project

Craft breweries depend heavily on their brewmasters to forecast demand and plan production, which distracts them from their core focus: brewing good quality beer. It also puts significant pressure on breweries because if the brewmaster suddenly becomes unavailable, they would be incapable of effectively completing these tasks. Forecasting and production planning become increasingly difficult as breweries grow operations, necessitating a better, tailored solution for craft brewery production planning automation and standardization.

We provide a platform that helps breweries become self-sufficient and facilitate their production and operational growth. In a user-friendly web application, brewers can generate seasonal, monthly and weekly demand and sales forecasts to better prepare their production, ensuring sufficient inventory levels and appropriate scheduling to meet demand. The application also automatically generates production schedules, ensuring demand is met efficiently. This enhances the brewery’s forecasting and scheduling process by providing greater confidence in accuracy, removing much of the reliance on a single individual to complete the process, and gives brewers more time to do what they do best – making great quality and delicious beer. The tools on the application are facilitated by a combination of machine learning, analytic and optimization-based algorithms to perform forecasting and scheduling. This project enables resource-scarce breweries to adopt advanced forecasting and scheduling technology without requiring deep technical expertise, reducing reliance on manual planning.

We are performing a case study with a craft brewery in Nova Scotia for testing and refining our prototype, and we aim to develop at least two more industry partnerships through this program. We are nearing completion of a prototype and will soon begin testing, using real brewery data to validate our approach and refine key performance criteria. Through this program, we seek guidance in positioning and selling our platform to breweries, strengthening industry relationships, and gathering feedback to further enhance our product.

L2M – Shelltech_Business_Strategy_Internship_Proposal

This project will create an AI-powered device that helps shellfish hatcheries keep their larvae healthy by constantly monitoring them. The system uses smart image analysis to catch early signs of disease or stress, sends real-time alerts to staff, and reduces the need for manual checks. This makes hatcheries more efficient, helping them produce more healthy shellfish while saving time and money. By improving shellfish farming, this innovation supports Springboard Atlantic’s mission to connect research with industry and strengthens Canada’s aquaculture sector, boosting the economy.

L2M – Chase Biotherapeutics: Breaking barriers towards clinical translation of ChASE37-AR for stroke recovery

Stroke is a leading cause of disability, affecting 880,000 Canadians, with 109,000 new cases annually and no approved therapies for neuroregeneration. Current standard of care for ischemic stroke includes acute thrombolysis and/or thrombectomy to restore blood flow to the injured tissue, yet these treatments are time sensitive and only apply to specific stroke etiology, leaving over 85% of stroke survivors solely with rehabilitation, which is time and labour consuming and often plateaus within the first year. This leaves many individuals with lifelong disabilities and a reduced quality of life. Beyond the financial costs, stroke imposes devastating emotional, physical, and social burdens on both patients and caregivers. Despite decades of research, no approved therapies exist to regenerate lost brain tissue or restore lost function. The economic burden of stroke is $3.6 billion CAD annually in Canada alone, and is rising due to the aging population. The global stroke treatment market, valued at $36.1 billion CAD in 2022, is projected to double by 2032, reflecting a growing demand for innovative recovery therapies.
Chase Biotherapeutics is developing ChASE37-AR, a unique and disruptive regenerative therapy that combines a re-engineered enzyme (ChASE37) with a biodegradable hydrogel for sustained, localized delivery, comprised of 3 patents. Unlike existing treatments that focus solely on symptom management or rehabilitation, our approach is disease-modifying — actively promoting tissue regeneration and functional recovery by breaking down inhibitory barriers in and around the injured site. Our preclinical studies demonstrate that ChASE37-AR effectively enhances brain plasticity and improves functional outcomes in stroke-injured rats.
In this project, we aim to move closer to clinical translation, by initiating regulatory frameworks, developing a business plan, and further validating our technology in animal models. By achieving our goals, we will be well-positioned to advance ChASE37-AR into clinical trials and towards commercialization, ultimately transforming the treatment landscape for stroke.

L2M-Free Flow Counterflow Gradient Focusing

Our project focuses on improving protein purification using a novel continuous separation method; Free-Flow Counterflow Gradient Focusing (FF-CGF). Traditional purification methods are slow, inefficient, and result in high sample loss, making it difficult for industries like pharmaceuticals and biotech to recover valuable proteins. Our technology offers a faster, more efficient alternative without the need for costly additives. The project focuses on validating market demand, refining our business model, and developing a strategy to overcome commercialization barriers by seeking industry insights from stakeholders in the protein purification sector

L2M – High reliability free-space quantum communication in turbulent environments.

The objective of the proposal is to enable high-reliability free-space quantum communication in turbulence environments. Free-space optical and quantum communications face a critical hurdle of atmospheric turbulence induced distortions in propagating optical beams. This degrades signal purity in quantum key distribution (QKD) and long-distance optical transmission. Our vision for this project is to establish a fast physics-based turbulence prediction system for a secure free-space optical communication. This will extend the range and reliability of existing optical and future quantum communication networks. The turbulence prediction system can be an essential element of the design cycle and additionally be used in the signal deconvolution during operation of the receiving systems. For commercializing the idea, we require access to potential users of the proposed technology, so as to fine tune the system to the present needs of the industry, while working towards the future advancements in terms of key-exchange rate and transmission distances.

Magnetic Compression and Stability of Spheromaks

The objective of a fusion device is to confine a plasma and heat it to a temperative high enough for its ions to gain sufficient energy to overcome their mutually repulsive force and fuse. Fusion neutrons will provide a heat souce that’s used to generate electricity in a steam cycle. Fusion power is environmentally friendly and the fuel source is abundant. A spheromak is a toroidal plasma configuration that has internal currents to maintain the magnetic field that keeps it together. Several methods are used to compress spheromaks at General Fusion. Sufficient compression can cause the conditions to vary, instabilities that cause the spheromak to lose confimenent may develop. The magnetic compression experiment at General Fusion had the aim of producing spheromaks and then compressing them with an external pulsed magnetic field. During compression, the properties of plasma must be monitored to gain insights to mechanisms that can be implemented to optimize the compression process while maintaining the stability of the spheromak. The project will contribute to and advance existing spheromak technology at General Fusion.

Canada Trade Promo Optimization (TPO) Transformation: Modernizing the End-to-End Pipeline

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The main activities of the partner
Unilever Canada is a global leader in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, focusing on innovation and sustainability across its five business groups: Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition, and Ice Cream. The company integrates AI and data-driven approaches to optimize supply chain processes, improve consumer insights, and enhance business operations. A key focus is Trade Promotion Optimization (TPO), where Unilever applies machine learning techniques to enhance promotional efficiency. In this project, Unilever will provide industry expertise, access to proprietary datasets, and business insights to ensure the research aligns with real-world applications.
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The challenges the partner aims to solve through this project
Unilever faces challenges in scaling AI-driven trade promotion strategies across its diverse portfolio of 400+ products. Traditional trade promotion planning is inefficient, requiring extensive manual effort and struggling to balance multiple business goals, such as maximizing ROI, increasing market share, and reducing trade spend. Existing machine learning models also suffer from computational inefficiencies, limiting scalability. Additionally, integrating multi-objective optimization algorithms with real-time data analytics remains a complex challenge. This project aims to refine Unilever’s predictive models and streamline the end-to-end ML pipeline to enhance decision-making efficiency.
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The anticipated social or economic benefits of the project for the partner organization(s)
For Unilever, this research will lead to the development of an AI-powered TPO system, enhancing decision-making, reducing operational inefficiencies, and improving promotional effectiveness. Automating trade promotion planning will result in cost savings, higher profitability, and better allocation of marketing budgets. More broadly, society benefits from optimized trade promotions that improve product availability, create cost savings for consumers, and contribute to a more sustainable and efficient retail supply chain. Furthermore, advancements in AI-driven decision-making from this project could set a benchmark for other industries seeking to improve operational efficiency through machine learning.

Development of qPCR tests for the assessment of water quality

Despite many recent advances in biotechnology, the methods for monitoring water quality remain largely unchanged for the past century. We will use next-generation DNA sequencing technology to guide the design of novel DNA-based tests to improve sensitivity and specificity of water quality testing. There are two challenges which will be addressed by the intern: DNA from the environment has variable quality and we will work with Coastal Genomics, a BC company, to improve the quality of the DNA for analysis; and once we design the rapid DNA-based tests, we will work closely with the BC Public Health Microbiology and Reference Laboratory, which performs a high volume of water testing in BC, to transition these tests from the research laboratory to a environmental testing laboratory. The findings of this research will lead to the development of new and improved tools to monitor water quality in British Columbia and across Canada.

L2M – Alaagi

Alaagi Inc. is developing an innovative seaweed-based bioplastic to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution caused by single-use petroleum-based plastics. This project focuses on refining the bioplastic prototype to improve its durability, flexibility, and biodegradability while ensuring it is cost-effective and scalable for mass production. Additionally, it aims to assess market readiness by engaging with industry stakeholders, conducting pilot tests, and gathering insights to align the product with customer needs. By the end of the project, Alaagi Inc. will have a refined, market-ready bioplastic and a clear commercialization strategy. The project benefits the partner organization by accelerating product development, validating its market potential, and supporting its goal of introducing a sustainable alternative to traditional plastics. This aligns with broader environmental and economic goals by reducing plastic waste and fostering innovation in the packaging industry.

L2M – Pliantech

Spinal disorders are the largest cause of years lived with disability globally. Artificial disc replacement (ADR) is a common surgical approach to address dis degeneration, but reoperation rates can remain as high as 20%. Mechanical analysis of on-market designs and discussions with spine surgeons suggest this is linked to the mechanical design of the implants leading to adjacent segment disease (ASD) by placing higher loads above and below the spinal level of operation. The goal of this project is to characterize and develop a novel implant design for ADR to see how varying different properties in structure of flexures in the implant affect its mechanical performance. Designs will be 3D-printed in titanium and tested with a mechanical loading 6 degree-of-freedom joint simulator, as well as simulated response with a finite element analysis software. The designs will be simulated in compression (Fz), torsion (Mz), lateral bending (My), and flexion extension (Mx) loading. For mechanical testing, the flexures were printed between custom-designed endplates to attach to the AMTI VIVO joint motion simulator. Designs are set to be tested under the same loading conditions as the simulation, with the primitive flexure response captured using a 3D digital image correlation system. These results will provide new understanding of the mechanical behaviour of additively manufactured primitive flexures for the implant design. This will help with the validation work on the potential health care application of this project. For the partner organization, this project supports the development of a Canadian enterprise and increases the likelihood of translating academic research from the lab to a commercial application. The end benefit for users is a potentially improved disc replacement design with more natural biomechanical properties.

SEDV 2025 Capstone Project

The goal of this project is to develop and pilot a sustainability materiality assessment framework for the Calgary Stampede. It is essential to understand stakeholder group’s values and motivations to make the best strategic decisions possible for organizations and the Calgary Stampede is no exception. By piloting the framework, it will be possible to test its effectiveness before utilizing the framework for future stakeholder engagement.