Innovative Projects Realized

Explore thousands of successful projects resulting from collaboration between organizations and post-secondary talent.

31132 Completed Projects

2940
AB
5159
BC
837
MB
685
NL
882
SK
9291
ON
9695
QC
97
PE
601
NB
1161
NS

Projects by Category

Studies on transformations of complex pollutants to support bioremediation strategies at contaminated industrial sites in Canada and abroad

An industrial area located in the northeast of Brazil is subjected to bioremediation projects for the decontamination of soil and groundwater of the site. The compounds of interest (COI) are related to the production chain of an herbicide, thus, they are aromatic compounds containing nitro or amino group and/or chlorine. As part of a long-term collaborative research program, our findings have been broadening the understanding of processes involved in the biodegradation of such compounds, contributing to a more successful bioremediation strategy implementation at the site.
During the Ph.D. research under the Mitacs Accelerate program of the proposing intern, native organisms from the impacted site were able to biodegrade or biotransform the COI, under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. This proposal seeks to address the remaining gaps not yet solved by previous studies and current questions raised by the research group. Future findings can improve the bioremediation strategies applied not only in the target site but in industrial areas impacted by similar compounds across the world.
In the two-year program, we will maintain and scale up the enriched organisms aiming to achieve complete degradation of COI and develop biomarkers from them that could be used to monitor biodegradation on site.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Elizabeth Edwards

Student:

Partner:

Geosyntec Consultants Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Elevate

Development of Geometallurgical Testing Procedure for HPGR and Cyanide Heap Leaching of Gold

This research program aimed at developing a Geometallurgical Testing Method to classify ore for downstream processing involving comminution using a HPGR followed by cyanide heap leaching to recover gold. The program is focussed on Eldorado Gold’s Kisladag mine in Turkey. This research will assess two options for developing the sample preparation comminution procedure including the Piston Press Test and the MPT hardness tester. The developed methods could indicate the metallurgical variability of drill core samples such that the information can be included in orebody and block models for mining planning and operation. The information would also demonstrate overall improvements in gold recoveries and mine productivity as compared to conventional crushing and heap leaching approaches.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Bern Klein

Student:

Partner:

Eldorado Gold

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Mining

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Modeling carbon storage for NL’s provincially significant peatlands

Peatlands, in spite of only occupying 3-6% of earth’s land surface, store about 30% of global soil carbon (C). This project will estimate the areal coverage of provincially significant peatlands and calculate their carbon storage. The results of this project will show the importance of peatlands in NL’s carbon storage and help NL’s provincial government and indigenous communities set up the peatland priority area for strategic conservation, and contribute to the national efforts of mapping Canadian peatlands to study the potential of peatlands helping achieving the carbon neutral by 2050.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jianghua Wu

Student:

Partner:

Nature Conservancy of Canada

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

AI for Template based Multi-physics eMachine Design

Electrical machines are fundamental to the operation of modern society – from household devices and transportation to industrial operations and power generation. However, designing these devices is a slow and complex process. Many components of the process date back over a century and constrain the devices that can be produced. With technologies such as additive manufacturing removing many of the traditional constraints on design, it is important that the design process is also updated. Machine learning and artificial intelligence provide the potential for generating more efficient design tools capable of creating novel structures and reducing the overall cost of the process. The research in this project will result in a new generation of design tools capable of meeting the requirements of 21st century technology.

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Faculty Supervisor:

David Lowther

Student:

Partner:

Siemens Electronic Design Automation ULC

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McGill University

Program:

Accelerate

Cement kiln dust (CKD) and digestate for improving soil quality and crop yield and reducing greenhouse gas emissions

Cement kiln dust (CKD) from the cement industry and digestate from the biogas production process are industrial by-products that can be used to improve soil fertility. The intern will study, over four years, the effect of CKD, digestate and a humic acid product on soil properties, greenhouse gas emissions, and crop yield and quality in a wheat-canola rotation in an acidic soil. The intern, and the rest of the research team and the partner organization will work together to disseminate the research findings to farmers across the country, in western Canada in particular, and provide policy input for the proper management of CKD and digestate. The intern will receive comprehensive training on experimental design, project management, soil and greenhouse gas measurement, crop management, and communication skills. The partner organization will receive scientific data on the agronomic value of CKD and the combined use of CKD and digestate and humic acid to guide their operations. The findings from this research will be promoted through public seminars and various forms of publications.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Scott Chang

Student:

Partner:

Norstar

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Agriculture; Wholesale trade

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Improving Structural Integrity of Buried Pipelines under Ground Deformation using Special Geobuffer Blocks: Field Testing and Strain Monitoring

Steel pipelines as key Canadian infrastructure are often exposed to various geological and environmental conditions that cause defects such as cracks, dents, and gouges in the pipe wall, which can lead to pipe fracture in pipelines, compromising the entire pipeline’s functionality and resulting in significant economic losses, environmental issues or even fatalities. There are several methods to predict the fracture capacity, including experimental testing, analytical approaches, and advanced numerical methods. The use of fixed fracture strain criterion implemented in the computer programs may not appropriately predict the crack propagation path because of the concentration of large strains. Further, fracture criteria that ignore the crack tip constraints and depend on the type of the test specimens used to obtain fracture indices may lead to inconsistent predictions. There is a need to develop and implement more efficient and accurate fracture criteria specific to pipe steel as a function of crack tip constraints, independent of the type of specimens used and the size of pre-cracking. This research project aims at developing calibrated numerical-based fracture criteria for predicting the crack propagation in steel pipelines.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ali Imanpour;Samer Adeeb;Lijun Deng

Student:

Partner:

Enbridge Pipelines;ALFA Upgrades Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Mining; Transportation and warehousing; Utilities

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Evaluation of Equine Omega Complete in horses with IL-1 induced articular inflammation

Lameness (abnormal gait) associated with osteoarthritis (OA) represents a major cause of economic loss, as well as reduced performance and welfare in many veterinary species, including racehorses. Whilst administration of anti-inflammatory drugs can afford good pain management, they do not address the underlying degenerative condition and may accelerate cartilage breakdown over time. For this reason, feed additives which may promote inflammation resolution, such as those containing omega fatty acids, are an attractive option for delaying OA progression and managing clinical signs. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the systemic effects of dietary omega supplementation (Equine Omega Complete [EOC]) in horses with induced mild joint inflammation. Joint fluid and blood will be analyzed for markers of inflammation and severity of lameness will be assessed. The partner organization (Southern Equine Distributing) will gain valuable scientific evidence of the efficacy of EOC to support equine health.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Wendy Pearson

Student:

Partner:

Southern Equine Distributing

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Wholesale trade

University:

University of Guelph

Program:

Accelerate

Query Optimization using Machine and Deep Learning

In this project we will investigate and develop novel techniques that employ Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) for the optimal execution of queries in a relational DBMS. The research will be conducted with close collaboration with the team of IBM that develops Db2, the well-known relational DBMS of IBM. The goal is to integrate the produced ‘learned’ optimizer in Db2. The students that will work on the project will extract information from queries and execution plans and use this information in order design, develop, and evaluate ML/DL-based approaches that learn the current optimizer’s cost inaccuracies. Furthermore, they will design a technique that enables the query optimizer to incorporate such information into the decision making process towards the selection of the best query execution plan.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Vasiliki Kantere

Student:

Partner:

IBM Canada Ltd

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Agriculture; Information and cultural industries; Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Ottawa

Program:

Accelerate

Effectiveness of Pharmacogenetic testing in improving pharmacologic treatment for CAF Veterans

Advances in the field of pharmacogenetics have brought much attention to the potential benefit of personalized medicine in the field of psychiatry. We will assess the value of a simple pharmacogenetic test for treatment-seeking CAF veterans. If the results from prior depression studies hold in our PTSD population, this approach holds potential to save time and money and accelerate the path to recovery by matching treatment to the profile of each patient, and therefore improving treatment outcomes (Hall-Flavin et al., 2013).

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Faculty Supervisor:

Don Richardson;Anthony Nazarov

Student:

Partner:

Calian Ltd

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of Western Ontario

Program:

Accelerate

5G-LEAP – Flexible Open RAN Platform for 5G and beyond networks

5G and beyond mobile networks are expected to support a variety of emerging use-cases, such as holographic telepresence, immersive extended-reality, cloud gaming, and autonomous driving. Such a diverse set of services imposes strict requirements on the mobile network along several dimensions, such as throughput, latency, and reliability. Network slicing has been envisaged as a key enabler to satisfy these diverse requirements, by creating multiple isolated end-to-end virtual networks dedicated to different services, on top of a common physical infrastructure. However, the implementation of network slicing is not without its challenges. This project addresses some of these fundamental challenges that are impeding the realization of end-to-end slicing in mobile networks most notably in the Radio Access Network (RAN). The flexible and reconfigurable nature of end-to-end network slices, building on Open RAN technologies, will allow for the realization of new use cases with stringent performance requirements that cannot be guaranteed by legacy mobile networks. This research will benefit Rogers by facilitating the integration of hardware and software from diverse vendors and by enabling new services and business verticals.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Raouf Boutaba;Nashid Shahriar;Ali Mashtizadeh;Raouf Boutaba

Student:

Partner:

Rogers Communications Inc.;University of Waterloo

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

University of Regina; University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

Development of Hydrophobic Cellulose Nanofibril Reinforced Epoxy Composites for High Performance Applications

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) are attractive eco-friendly and renewable materials for replacing the petroleum-based synthetic fibers in high-performance composites applications. Performance Biofilaments has developed a proprietary processing technology for producing CNFs from sustainably harvested Canadian wood fiber, using mechanical means without the need for additional chemical or enzymatic pre-treatment. The process thus allows for large volume manufacturing of CNFs. However, a major barrier towards the commercialization of CNFs as reinforcement materials is the hydrophilic nature of CNFs resulting in limited compatibility with polymer matrices such as epoxy resins. This leads to poor dispersion of the nanofibrils and weak interfaces with the matrix which reduces the mechanical properties of CNF composites. The present research aims at developing scalable technologies for producing hydrophobic CNF reinforced epoxy nanocomposites for high-end applications. The outcome of this program will demonstrate the potential of CNF-epoxy composites as a sustainable, and cost-effective structural material with significant capability for light weighting.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Yasmine Abdin;Emily Cranston

Student:

Partner:

Performance BioFilaments;BC Research Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Characterization of novel nanoparticle-stabilized foam using the local equilibrium (LE) implicit texture model for EOR and CO2 storage

The project focuses on using novel method to maximize oil recovery. It is carried out through both experiment study in core scale and simulation research in field scale. The new knowledge that will be accrued will be the culmination of a truly collaborative approach. First and foremost, Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador will gain immensely from recovering additional oil from its offshore east coast reserves. Additionally, this method will evaluate the potentials to help trap anthropogenic CO2 in the subsurface.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Lesley Anne James;Anand Yethiraj

Student:

Partner:

CNERGREEN Corp.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Oil and Gas; Ocean Tech; Natural Gas

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Accelerate

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Mitacs — Return on Innovation

Mitacs is funded by the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Government of British Columbia, Research Manitoba, the Government of New Brunswick, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Government of Nova Scotia, the Government of Ontario, Innovation PEI, the Government of Quebec, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the Government of Yukon.