Innovative Projects Realized

Validation of the tissue regenerative properties of a novel peptide using a cellular co-culture model

This project addresses untreated dental caries, the world’s most prevalent disease affecting over 2 billion people, particularly underserved populations. The research will validate a novel peptide therapeutic that simultaneously promotes dental tissue regeneration and controls inflammation in infected tooth pulp. Using advanced cellular co-culture systems that mimic the inflammatory environment of dental infections, the study will investigate how this peptide activates regenerative pathways while modulating immune responses. This work represents a critical step toward developing a first-in-class biological treatment that could preserve inflamed dental tissues currently requiring removal, offering a transformative alternative to conventional interventions. Successful validation could establish a new paradigm for regenerative treatments in dentistry with broader applications across multiple inflammatory conditions affecting stem cell-rich tissues.

Social Isolation and HIV Care: Identifying Causal Pathways of Social Isolation that Affect Treatment Adherence in Small Urban, Rural and Remote Communities in British Columbia (TIE: Treatment Adherence, Social Isolation, and Engagement)

Social isolation can be both a consequence and a contributing factor to poor adherence to HIV antiretroviral therapy (ART), leading to worse health outcomes and a higher risk of HIV transmission. Smaller urban, rural, and remote (SURR) communities in BC face unique challenges, including geographic isolation, limited healthcare access, and HIV-related stigma which all contribute to social isolation amongst people living with HIV.
This participatory research project will focus on identifying the causal pathways that lead to social isolation and exploring strategies to mitigate its effects. This understanding will enable us to develop targeted recommendations, informed by community, that can inform the policies and practices of SURR programs and services designed for people living with HIV. By addressing social isolation and its implications for ART adherence, we can improve health outcomes for PLHIV and contribute to a more equitable healthcare landscape across the province.

Blended Learning Strategy through Moodle to Improve English Vocabulary Acquisition among High School Students

This project explores how blended learning (B-learning) models can enhance bilingual education and vocabulary learning in Colombian public schools through a comparative study with Canada. While Colombia’s National Bilingualism Program promotes English proficiency, traditional grammar-based instruction and limited digital integration still hinder progress. During a 12-week research internship at the University of Saskatchewan, the intern will analyze Canadian best practices in hybrid and bilingual education, focusing on how technology and pedagogy are integrated to improve language learning and teacher development. Activities will include classroom observations, interviews with educators, and analysis of policy and curriculum documents.

The study will produce a comparative report and a policy brief with recommendations for implementing hybrid English-teaching models in Colombia. By linking research and practice, this project will strengthen international collaboration, support inclusive and technology-driven education, and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education.

DRM WRAP Research and Development

Dawson Group’s IT team has created a new in-house web application called WRAP to modernize how Dawson Road Maintenance (DRM) plans work, reports activities, and manages crews. WRAP replaces an older system and makes it easier for supervisors and staff to organize road and bridge projects, track costs, and reduce manual paperwork. Although WRAP is off to a strong recent start, more features are planned, including a custom mobile app, improved reporting through Microsoft Power BI, better tools for identifying and planning work, and the migration of older digital forms into one easy-to-use system. To continue developing these improvements, Dawson Group is seeking research and development support in 2026 through student involvement. Bringing new talent onto the team will enable needed research, improve the app’s quality, strengthen development and testing practices, and ultimately give DRM’s workforce better tools so they can focus on road safety and serving the travelling public across BC.

Deep Research for Forecasting

ServiceNow develops a platform for client organizations to manage and automate large-scale processes across various industries. In 2020, ServiceNow acquired Element AI to strengthen its presence in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) research landscape and the Canadian AI ecosystem. This acquisition enabled the developmentof AI-driven products that improve the platform’s capabilities. ServiceNow Research has made significant contributions to the field of foundation models, notably in Natural Language Processing (NLP), and has a strong presence in developing generative models for different data domains.
This project addresses the challenge of improving time-series forecasting by extending the static knowledge base of Large Language Models (LLMs). It aims to enable AI agents to reason, discover, and retrieve crucial side information, assess uncertainty, and adapt Deep Research methods for time-series analysis. The goal is to develop an Agentic Forecaster that can identify anomalies, triggers, and influential covariates, refining forecasts and enhancing interpretability and reliability.
Expanding deep research agents for time-series forecasting improves predictive accuracy, enabling better resource allocation, reduced waste, and optimized investment strategies. These advancements lower uncertainty, stimulate innovation, and create high-value analytical services supporting economic growth. To encourage this line of research, the findings of this work will be open sourced.

Formulation d’encres de graphène/polymères conducteurs pour l’électronique imprimée

L’électronique imprimée permet la fabrication de dispositifs flexibles et peu coûteux, mais elle repose actuellement sur des métaux non renouvelables (argent, cuivre, aluminium) imprimés sur des plastiques, générant des déchets électroniques difficilement recyclables. Dans un contexte de transition écologique, ce modèle soulève des préoccupations environnementales croissantes. Le projet présenté vise à remplacer ces métaux par des encres à base de graphène, un matériau carbone non toxique, potentiellement biodégradable, et offrant d’excellentes performances électriques et mécaniques. Ce programme collaboratif réunit une équipe universitaire (Prof. JF Morin, ULaval) et une entreprise québécoise (PULR Technologies). Ensemble, ils développeront des antennes RFID compostables, en combinant encres de graphène et substrats biodégradables. Le projet vise à concevoir des encres de graphènes performantes et écoresponsables, tout en établissant les bases d’une industrialisation à grande échelle. Les retombées attendues sont scientifiques (meilleure compréhension des encres de graphène), technologiques (nouveaux procédés d’intégration), industrielles (avantage concurrentiel pour le Québec) et environnementales (réduction des déchets électroniques). Ce projet se distingue par son approche systémique de fin de vie complète, encore rare à l’échelle internationale, et s’inscrit dans une démarche de recherche appliquée au service d’une économie plus verte et circulaire.

Footwear effects on human performance

We wear footwear every day to complement diverse activities and lifestyles, from leisure walking to performance sprinting, and everything in between. Determining whether a certain type of footwear alters performance remains a key challenge with each innovation. While we know that sensory feedback from the foot influences our ‘feel’ for the ground, how these sensations alter the nervous system’s command for generating force is largely unknown. This raises the critical question of how a shoe’s properties affect an individual’s ability to generate force. This project aims to address this question by developing a framework to provide clients with direct, evidence-based insights into how footwear properties affect human performance. Using high-density surface electromyography (HDsEMG), this project will investigate the underlying neural control of muscles as participants push against the ground in footwear with various footwear properties.

Enhancing Engagement in Oakville: Voter and Candidate Outreach for the 2026 Municipal Election

This project addresses a key innovation challenge: how to ensure equitable access to electoral information and foster meaningful participation, especially among underrepresented groups such as tenants, youth, seniors, newcomers, Indigenous individuals, and persons with disabilities. It builds on a Council commitment made in November 2024 to improve voter and candidate support through inclusive, accessible communication.

Like most municipalities across the province, Oakville faces declining voter turnout and uneven engagement across demographic groups. Many residents encounter barriers to participation, including limited understanding of the voting process and exposure to misinformation. The Town seeks to address these issues through innovative, IDEA-informed strategies.

Key activities for the project include:
• Researching best practices and analyzing voter data
• Developing tailored outreach plans and educational resources
• Launching a digital literacy campaign to counter misinformation
• Engaging communities through events and partnerships
• Supporting candidates with IDEA-aligned tools

Stage de recherche en droit de l’environnement au sein de la Chaire de recherche du Canada en droit de l’environnement

La stagiaire effectuera un séjour de recherche à l’Université Laval, en lien avec son Master 2 en droit de l’environnement. Le séjour permettra un accès facilité aux ouvrages de la doctrine québécoise utiles à la rédaction de son mémoire. Elle pourra échanger avec le corps professoral et les étudiants chercheurs de la Chaire de recherche du Canada en droit de l’environnement dirigée par la professeure Halley.
La stagiaire aura notamment l’occasion de contribuer aux travaux de la professeure Halley sur “le traitement juridictionnel de l’urgence environnementale”, réalisés dans une perspective de droit comparé (France, Brésil, Chili et Canada), et à la révision et mise à jour de textes portant sur le contentieux climatique et les droits environnementaux de la personne. Elle pourra également être invitée à participer à des conférences dans le cadre des activités de cette entité.

FloatVR – User Retention

This project will extend the functionality of FloatVR, a VR mental health application for the Meta Quest. The project includes upgrading our analytics platform, extending our loading system and building a generic tagging system to modularize functionality. We would also like to build a simple area sequencer for users. These upgrades will enhance our ability to provide a rich personalized experience for our users.

Manufacturing scale-up of graphene-based end-of-life sensor for fire-protective fabrics

Firefighters risk their lives every day to protect ours. Their protective clothing is critical to allow performing their duties while remaining safe. The performance of the fibres used to make their protective clothing is excellent when new; however, this performance degrades over time while the protective clothing is exposed to heat, UV light, moisture, etc. In addition, this degradation is generally not visible until the loss in performance is extreme, which raises serious safety concerns for the firefighters.

To solve this problem, a graphene-based end-of-life sensor for fire-protective fabrics is being developed in collaboration of five industry partners and a firefighter training school. The sensor includes a sacrificial polymer with a graphene track. The polymer is sensitive to the same aging conditions as the fabrics. The degradation of the polymer disrupts the conductivity of the graphene track. The firefighter will monitor the condition of their garment by measuring the residual electrical resistance of the sensor secured on their garment using a simple multimeter during their regular protective gear assessment. This sensor is a major breakthrough in terms of safety for workers exposed to heat and flame and will lead to new product development opportunities for Canadian textile manufacturers.

Field-Assisted Sintering of Alloy-Derived High-Entropy Oxides for Energy-Sector Protection

This project brings together Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at University of Alberta (UofA) and Institute of Energy Materials and Devices (IMD-2: Materials Synthesis and Processing) at Forschungszentrum Jülich to develop tougher, longer-lasting oxide coatings for high-temperature use. Our team recently discovered a promising mix of metal oxides that forms naturally on a special alloy. During a 24-week visit to IMD-2 in Germany, intern Hongrui Yue will use an advanced method called Field-Assisted Sintering (FAST/SPS) to press and heat the mechanically alloyed oxide powders with the same chemistry so they become dense, uniform, and well-bonded. The work will include preparing powders, running sintering trials, and checking results with standard tools that measure density, structure, and strength. The goal is to create coatings that can better resist heat and corrosion in areas like turbines and industrial equipment. The expected benefits are clear: IMD-2 will advance a fast, energy-efficient process for complex oxides and strengthen ties with Canadian researchers; UofA will train a highly skilled postdoctoral research fellow in modern manufacturing and share new know-how with Canadian labs and companies. Together, we aim to shorten the path from lab discovery to practical, durable materials that support cleaner, more reliable energy systems.