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

State-of-Charge Display Device for Disposable Batteries

In the last ten years the market for mobile devices and portable electronics has never ceased to grow, creating a rising demand for batteries. However it is practically impossible for consumers to identify their actual state-of-charge leading to the disposal of still viable batteries. In the past battery manufacturers have developed “on-board” testers allowing consumers to gauge the charge but these indicators have been discontinued due to their lack of reliability and their active feature discharging the battery while in use. Relying on its P-ink platform, Opalux will develop the next generation of “on-board” battery tester. By incorporating electrically active polymer these materials allow colour changes while being subjected to different voltages without consuming current. In this project the fellow in collaboration with Opalux will develop “passive” indicators based on thin and flexible devices “wrappable” onto batteries that will provide clear and reliable information for the consumer on the state-of-charge. The program will extend from the design of materials reaching technology requirements all the way to engineering of scale-up routes for industrialization allowing Opalux to target the global and growing battery market.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

D.r Geoffrey Ozin

Student:

Romain Perrier-Cornet

Partner:

Opalux Inc.

Discipline:

Chemistry

Sector:

Consumer goods

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Conductivity measurements of cardiac tissue using magnetic resonance imaging

The first objective of this project is to obtain the first high resolution impedance measurements of cardiac tissue. These measurements will be synchronized with electrocardiogram to determine quantitatively for the first time the changes of conductivity at different stages of the cardiac cycle. Since the heart is one of the most electrically-active areas inside human body, knowledge of its electrical properties will benefit many cardiac modeling and clinical applications. The second objective of this project is to test the influence of anisotropy on cardiac impedance imaging. We will also compare the conductivity values in the direction parallel or perpendicular to the heart muscle fibers. Successful completion of these objectives will help our partner organization to test and improve the design of the related hardware and software. As well, it will help to prepare both hardware and software as candidates for resalable products.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Adrian Nachman

Student:

Weijing Ma

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Application of Data Mining Methods to Radiation Therapy Planning Automation

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is an advanced technique for cancer treatment through high-precision radiation delivery. It generally requires a complex planning procedure, where the crucial step is manual delineation of the organs at risk in three-dimensional (3-D) computed tomography (CT) images, performed using simple drawing tools. It is a labour-intensive and error-prone process which, depending on the clinical case, may often require several hours of intensive work. This project is aimed at developing novel technological solutions to automate radiation therapy planning by analyzing large populations of patients who underwent the procedure and automatically transferring the relevant  information from the existing to the new clinical cases. In particular, automation of anatomy contouring in the head and neck area will be addressed. Carried out in partnership with Philips Healthcare, the leading provider of radiation treatment planning software systems, the project will facilitate the development of new generations of advanced radiation planning solutions and increase the standards of patient care.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Sven Dickinson

Student:

Alex Levinshtein

Partner:

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

An Abstraction Layer for Querying and Understanding Business Process Behaviours

Business intelligence is the commercial term for using information within organizations to make informed decisions, and to run operations effectively based on known data. The Canadian business intelligence (BI) market is projected to increase from C$185 million in 2006 to over C$290 million by 2011. Ontario is home to Cognos, a world leader in BI, which was recently acquired by IBM. The proposed collaboration between the University of Toronto, IBM Cognos, and IBM Research would use an emerging technology for business process management, called "business entities with lifecycles" (a.k.a. "business artifacts"), to develop a qualitative expansion in the kinds of BI queries that can be posed. In particular, the approach should enable queries over process execution histories, at different granularities and unified across regional and other variations. The outcome of this project will provide a framework that could enable fundamentally new ways to use IBM's Cognos products to gather business intelligence, which would increase the penetration of Cognos tools into customers worldwide.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Renee Miller

Student:

Hoijjat Ghaderi

Partner:

IBM Canada

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Management of companies and enterprises

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Privateye electronic navigational aids for individuals with vision impairments

This research project will support the design of electronic navigational aids for enhancing mobility for individuals with vision impairments. The researchers will work closely with members from the vision-impaired community throughout the project period to understand the contexts where such aids could be helpful to them and to evaluate the usability of relevant components, products and services. The research framework will inform and support the business goals of the partner organization, Comimi Research Inc., Toronto, in the design and development of their proposed product, Privateye, as an effective electronic navigational aid technically, functionally and commercially. In designing Privateye, Comimi leverages on mobile phone, text-to-speech and GPS technologies. The project will support the design by researching current mobile devices and services that provide navigational facilities, assessing their usability by individuals with vision impairments and formulating a set of recommendations for the design of accessible electronic navigational aids.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Nadia Caidi

Student:

Sambhavi Chandrashekar

Partner:

Comimi Research Inc.

Discipline:

Journalism / Media studies and communication

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Hierarchical Heat Transfer Modelling in High-End Electronic Devices

One of the main challenges in the development of nano-scale devices is that the conventional physical relations and techniques, which have been used for modelling thermal problems at macro-scales, are no longer valid at these small scales.  In this project, we are developing a new hierarchial methodology to be applied to thermal management issues for nano-scale devices.  The impact of elecromigration in a joule heating form will also be explored.  Devices with nano-scale feature sizes are currently employed in high-end electronic systems.  In this method, we include the atomistic level effects; and in order to predict the heat transfer rate in nano-scale devices, the vibration of atoms is modelled.  We also modify the current  available methodologies (which are only valid at macro-scales), so that they become applicable to the nano-scale devices.  The platform engineering division of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc., based in Greater Toronto Area, is the receptor of the developed methodology.  This knowledge will be employed to advance the design of the next generations of Fusion products.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Cristina Amon

Student:

Aydin Nabovati

Partner:

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Nanotechnologies

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Constructing lexicons of Canadian English

Language technology-for example, spelling checking-is widely used. A key
component of many language technology systems is a computational lexicon-a
dictionary-like knowledge source containing a list of words and information associated with each word. Such resources require great human effort to create and are therefore very expensive. However, language is constantly changing (e.g., new words come into use), and there may be dialectal differences within a language. Therefore, many  language technology systems use a computational lexicon which is either out-of-date or inappropriate for the system's target users. The goal of this project is to develop methods for automatically creating and updating computational lexicons that reflect the language used by a particular community, specifically Canadian English. This research will directly address a daunting challenge in language technology which Ontario corporations are struggling to solve, and will facilitate the creation of language technology that is better suited to the needs of Canadians than is currently available.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Graeme Hirst

Student:

Paul Cook

Partner:

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Retail Intelligence: Moving from Reporting to Optimization and Decision-Making

Retail businesses are increasingly reliant on fine-grained data about customer preferences, demographics, and behavior, as collected by sources that range from loyalty programs and sales records, to physical sensors. Typically such data is leveraged in the context of a report or statistical summary used to advise human decision-makers. In contrast to the retail sector, industrial areas like manufacturing have a long history of operations research, whereby data serves not only to populate reports, but as the basis for optimizing objectives and supporting decisions mathematically. Thus the goal of "retail intelligence" is to use fine-grained retail industry data to support optimization and decision making, rather than reporting alone. Developing a mathematical approach to processing retail data requires more flexible models and reasoning techniques than existing methods for large-scale industrial optimization. The goal of this project is to develop such solutions, using ideas from artificial intelligence, constraint programming, and machine learning.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Sheila McIlraith

Student:

Eric Hsu

Partner:

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Service industry

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Interplay between monocytes/macrophages and cardiomyocytes in diet-induced diabetes

Insulin controls blood sugar and is required for the entry of sugar (glucose) into blood cells from blood. Excess body fat in obesity or high fat diet makes body resistant to insulin. Due to this insulin resistance, sugar accumulates in the blood and over time this leads to an increase in blood sugar and development of type 2 diabetes (T2D).  Normally insulin resistance precedes the development of T2D by 10-20 years.  Because insulin resistance is associated with cardiovascular problems, people with T2D are at a high risk for heart disease. To date, the molecular mechanisms that directly affect the heart in the context of insulin resistance are poorly understood and remain unknown.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Amira Klip

Student:

Girish Kewalramani

Partner:

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Mathematical Analysis of Partial Differential Equations Modeling Electrostatic MEMS

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), which combine electronics with miniature-size mechanical devices, are essential components of the modern technology. In order to provide accurate, controlled, and stable locomotion for such microdevices, researchers have proposed a variety of models, based upon thermal, biological, or electrostatic forces. There are many industries and manufacturers in Ontario who rely on MEMS technology in a crucial way. Our objective is to use mathematical analysis to predict various phenomena related to some of these models. Our analysis will help MEMS industry to understand which material parameters are most crucial to tune in order to achieve a desired effect. This can prevent manufacturers from expensive experiments and contribute to the practical needs of the modem technology.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Robert J. McCann

Student:

Amir Moadifam

Partner:

Discipline:

Mathematics

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Building Surfaces from Curve Sketches

In recent years 3D sketching has received considerable attention and a number of powerful tools (such as ILoveSketch) have been developed which can interpret strokes of a design artist as three-dimensional curves. Using these tools, the artist can create, in roughly the same time it takes him/her to draw a single 2D sketch, a loose 3D wireframe model of his/her intended object in the form of a collection of curves in space. In this project, we intend to intend to extract actual 3D surfaces from such collections of space curves, thus turning the end result into a true 3D model. Such a technology can significantly accelerate prototyping in industrial design.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Karan Singh

Student:

Badia Sadri

Partner:

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Digital media

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Developing a prototype electrowetting on dielectric device to perform immunoassays

The goal of this project is to develop a prototype microfluidic device to rapidly determine whether a target protein is present in a sample. Applications of this device include genomic and proteomic research, pharmaceutical testing, and quality control for various industries, including food preparation. The prototype will make use of electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD) actuation, which uses the application of electric fields to manipulate confined droplets. Unlike conventional microfluidic devices, EWOD devices do not require complex features for flow control or external pumping. This makes them easier to fabricate, smaller, and more suitable for applications that use multiple reagents. The industrial partner for this project is Engineering Services Inc. This company has expertise bringing emerging biotechnology to market and access to clients that would benefit from the proposed devices. This project will help Ontario become a leader in the development of commercial microfluidic devices that satisfy the high throughput demands of biological testing.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Ridha Ben Mrad

Student:

Michael Schertzer

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Previous
1…488489490491492493494…1,106
Next

Join a thriving innovation ecosystem.

Subscribe to our newsletter now!

Subscribe