Innovative Projects Realized

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

31132 Completed Projects

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

Projects by Category

Development of data pipelines to support a regular reporting format for epidemiological insights and disease trends

Globally, there have been challenges in pulling together data, analyses, epidemiological insights, and unusual infection disease trends into comprehensive and regular reporting, that support pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations with timely intelligence for decision making. BlueDot has the knowledge and expertise to bring together these insights in a highly visual, easily understandable regular reporting format, by leveraging proprietary and publicly available data. However, there are challenges in scaling across diseases and locations to meet the growing demand for this content, as well as limited resourcing to improve upon processes, analyses, and methods to deepen our insights and improve efficiency.
This project has several challenges and opportunities that an intern with subject matter expertise and experience with relevant data can help with and learn from. BlueDot has started to develop a foundation for the regular reporting project, and an intern can help by expanding capacity to scale up. They can be helpful every step of the way – from determining usability of new data sources for communication of disease trends, to supporting data engineers in building data pipelines, to thinking about how the data can be used for generating actionable insights, to producing these regular reports with support from senior team members.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jennifer Brooks;Ava John-Baptiste

Student:

Partner:

BlueDot Inc

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of Western Ontario; University of Toronto

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

McLeod Lake Moose Enhancement Project

This project is intended to provide information regarding the potential impacts and benefits to wildlife habitat resulting from varying forestry harvest practices, with an emphasis on moose, by studying the short term differences among plant species, soil moisture, light, and wildlife use.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Vanessa Uschenko

Student:

Partner:

Society for Ecosystem Restoration in Northern British Columbia

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

College of New Caledonia

Program:

Accelerate

Evaluer la menace des limaces exotiques aux plantes herbacées du mont Saint-Bruno

La propagation d’espèces exotiques envahissantes constitue une cause principale de la perte de la biodiversité et les extinctions causées par ces dernières sont dix fois plus importantes que celles causées par les espèces indigènes à l’échelle planétaire. La présence du complexe de la limace exotique européenne, Arion subfuscus s.l., a été confirmé dans les écosystèmes forestiers du mont Saint-Bruno, une colline montérégienne qui abrite une biodiversité exceptionnelle y compris plusieurs espèces de plantes herbacées à statut précaire. Cette étude vise à évaluer l’ampleur de son invasion, la menace de son activité d’herbivorie sur les plantes herbacées à statut et de tester son interaction éventuelle avec d’autres plantes exotiques envahissantes. Le but est d’aider le partenaire, la Fondation du Mont-Saint-Bruno, à optimiser leurs efforts de conservation des plantes herbacées à statut face à cette nouvelle menace.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ira Tanya Handa

Student:

Partner:

Fondation du Mont-Saint-Bruno

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Université du Québec à Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Designing for Circularity: Exploring Recyclability in Packaging Choices

This research examines how producers make decisions regarding recyclable packaging, considering their internal capabilities, external influences, and sustainability impacts. The aim is to create a decision-making framework that assists producers in adopting recyclable packaging while meeting regulatory requirements and consumer expectations. Packaging, particularly plastic waste, presents significant environmental challenges. Producers face complex decisions in packaging design, balancing recyclability against cost, functionality, regulatory compliance, and consumer expectations. Circular Materials, a national not-for-profit organization, is committed to promoting the circular economy in Canada by establishing efficient recycling programs. This research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, collecting data through surveys and semi-structured interviews with packaging designers, operations managers, and supply chain executives. This will provide both quantitative and qualitative data on decision-making criteria, perceived obstacles, and attitudes toward regulations and consumer demand. The study aims to develop, for Circular Materials, a framework that identifies key factors influencing recyclability decisions, offers recommendations for overcoming barriers to adopting recyclable packaging, and provides insights on facilitating transitions to circular packaging.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Kadia Georges Aka

Student:

Partner:

Circular Materials

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services

University:

Université de Moncton

Program:

Accelerate

Exploring a Multi-modal Audio Foundational Model

Boson AI is an early-stage startup of 30 scientists. They are building large language tools for interaction and entertainment. They are seeking interns from the University of Toronto to join them in their Toronto office. The intern will work on modeling and training LLMs, understanding and interpreting model behavior and aligning models to human values. The company will provide comprehensive guidance and resource support during the internship.
During this project, the partner wants to build an AI model to understand and speak in a natural and emotionally competent manner. Humans often prefer voice communication over text. This has to do with the immediacy of the response and the amount of emotional nuance and subtext that can be conveyed beyond the actual words. Details are only obtainable through the audio (tone, laughter, pauses, volume, etc.), and humans are very good at picking this up. Computers are typically less good at this.
The project is expected to bring significant social and economic benefits by enhancing AI’s ability to understand and express emotions naturally in speech. This advancement will improve human-AI interactions, making virtual assistants, customer service bots, and social robots more engaging and intuitive.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Paul Gries

Student:

Partner:

Boson AI

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Education; Information and cultural industries

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Aston Dynamics Canada EBS project

Aston Dynamics Canada Limited (Aston Dynamics) is working on improving electro-hydraulic braking (EHB) systems for electric and heavy-duty vehicles. The company has already made significant progress in solving key issues like slow braking response, reliability, and limited braking force. They’ve developed and tested prototypes that show better braking control and efficiency, especially for electric vehicles, trailers, RVs, and agricultural vehicles. As the project continues, the focus will be on enhancing the system’s electronics, testing it in real-world conditions, and preparing it for commercial use. This project will help Aston Dynamics lead the way in making braking technology safer and more reliable, benefiting the partner organization by offering advanced, efficient, and industry-leading EHB systems.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Christopher Yip

Student:

Partner:

Aston Dynamics

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

Data Systems & ML Ops Redesign

J Squared builds and provides rugged electronic systems in several industries. FALC-AI, a division within J Squared, is focused on the vertical integration of these platforms with computer vision and AI models to enable a variety of use cases that require being
able to extract accurate data from videos and images, and in turn, use that data to enable industry specific features. As a result of this, data from edge devices is streamed into the cloud for processing. With a low number of edge devices, the performance and storage requirements are pretty minimal. But, as more devices are added, the current solution will need improvements on the data processing side to be able to operate on the data in a performant and timely manner. This project will focus on researching, testing, and implementing a variety of improvements across the full data pipeline—from infrastructure setup and query optimization to data cleaning, library evaluations, and benchmarking—to ensure robust and scalable solutions for processing data from edge devices. The primary focus is optimizing the performance of a compute-intensive stage in the pipeline, where a YOLO-based object detection model and a Person Re-Identification (RE-ID) model, OSNet, run in parallel. Since the RE-ID model is particularly resource-intensive, it’s crucial that all data processing in this step is highly efficient to maximize overall system throughput.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Shurui Zhou

Student:

Partner:

J-Squared Technologies

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Fine-Tuning Large Language Models for Standards and Claim Chart Mapping

XLSCOUT Ltd. specializes in AI-driven patent intelligence, providing advanced solutions for intellectual property (IP) strategy and innovation management. The company aims to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of patent-related tasks, such as claim chart generation and standards compliance mapping, through fine-tuned large language models (LLMs).
This project addresses a critical challenge: general-purpose LLMs lack domain-specific understanding required for precise claim chart mapping and regulatory compliance. By fine-tuning LLMs for standards interpretation and automated claim chart generation, the project will significantly reduce manual effort while improving accuracy and consistency in patent validation.
The anticipated benefits for XLSCOUT include enhanced AI-driven tools that improve workflow efficiency for IP professionals, reducing time and cost associated with claim chart creation. This will strengthen XLSCOUT’s competitive position in the patent intelligence market by offering a unique AI-powered solution tailored to industry needs.
Beyond XLSCOUT, the broader IP sector will benefit from more reliable and standardized claim chart mapping, leading to improved patent litigation and enforcement. Additionally, this research will contribute to advancements in AI applications for legal and technical documentation, demonstrating the potential for LLMs in specialized regulatory domains.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Gerald Penn;Frank Rudzicz

Student:

Partner:

XLSCOUT

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

La lixiviation des dépotoirs, un risque pour l’environnement?

La gestion de nos déchets est un défi de taille du 21e siècle : si la part du recyclage/réacheminement est en constante progression au Canada depuis quelques années, il n’en demeure pas moins que la vaste majorité des déchets collectés aboutissent dans des sites d’enfouissement, posant ainsi des risques de pollution pour les écosystèmes avoisinants. L’infiltration et le ruissellement des eaux de pluie sont susceptibles de mobiliser les contaminants associés aux déchets et représentent ainsi une source de pollution potentielle tant pour les nappes phréatiques que pour les cours d’eau de surface. Si la collecte et le traitement de ces eaux permettent de minimiser les impacts environnementaux, les canalisations nécessaires à une telle collecte souffrent d’encrassement limitant l’écoulement des eaux et l’efficacité globale du processus. Telle est du moins la réalité de notre partenaire ECO360 en charge du site d’enfouissement de la région du sud-est du Nouveau-Brunswick. C’est pourquoi deux objectifs communs ont été identifiés pour ce projet : 1) caractériser l’enrichissement des eaux de lixiviation en 4 éléments majeurs (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn), 7 éléments toxiques (As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Hg, Pb et Zn) et 2 autres contaminants émergents (Ra et U) et 2) identifier la nature de l’encrassement.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Olivier Clarisse

Student:

Partner:

Southeast Regional Service Commission

Discipline:

Earth science

Sector:

Administrative and support, waste management and remediation services

University:

Université de Moncton

Program:

Accelerate

Leveraging AI and IoT to predict heatwaves in Canada: A climate health initiative

This project uses AI and smart thermostats to predict heatwaves in Canada, helping protect public health. By analyzing indoor and outdoor temperature data, we aim to improve heatwave forecasting and understand how extreme heat affects indoor spaces. Using machine learning, we develop models to predict future indoor temperatures, supporting better planning and response strategies. The project benefits institutions by providing valuable data for public health officials and policymakers, helping them create early warning systems and improve heat-related safety measures, especially for vulnerable groups.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Plinio Pelegrini Morita

Student:

Partner:

National University of Kharkiv

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Environmental Science and Technology; Sustainability & the Environment

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Advancing the Cellular Agriculture Industry with the Power of Raman Spectroscopy

This project will integrate an advanced analytical technique (i.e., Raman spectroscopy) and machine learning to help the partner organization monitor key cell growth parameters, streamline experimental design, accelerate culture media optimization, and ensure the consistency of media and product quality. These advanced analytical tools and workflows will allow the partner organization to improve the efficiency and precision in cell-cultured pork production, accelerating the commercialization of their products, and strengthening their position as a leader in the cell-cultured meat industry.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Yaxi Hu

Student:

Partner:

Myo Palate

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Elevate

A Patient-Centered and Visually Attractive Toolkit Adapted to Children and Youth to Reduce Inhaler Impact on Carbon Footprint in Ambulatory and Outpatient Settings

A Patient-Centered and Visually Attractive Toolkit Adapted to Children and Youth to Reduce Inhaler Impact on Carbon Footprint in Ambulatory and Outpatient Settings
1) Introduction/Background: Carbon footprint (expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent, CO2e) is the preferred method to measure our impact on climate change. Healthcare represents 4.6% of total Canadian greenhouse gases emissions, and in this category, pharmaceuticals is making up to 25%. Pressurized Metered-dose Inhalers (pMDIs), are known to have a higher carbon footprint impact than their primary alternative, the Dry Powder Inhalers (DPIs), due to their liquified gases called hydrofluoroalkanes (HFAs). In a recent REB approved project, we completed a chart
review to examine the prescribing of inhalers in our pediatric respirology clinic, from January 1, 2022, to Dec 31st, 2022. Our research project highlighted that 92.9% of a year of inhaler prescriptions in our respirology clinic were pMDI inhalers with a high switchability potential to DPIs, if deemed clinically feasible. We estimated that switching 30% of salbutamol prescriptions from MDI to DPI could save around 16 metric tonnes of eCO2 emissions, an equivalent to 6 flights round trips between Toronto and Tokyo. As we were planning to share knowledge to our peers and influencing change on MDIs to PDIs prescription, when clinically safe, we could only find toolkits for a sustainable prescribing and usage of inhalers in the adult population but none that were adapted and patient-centered for the pediatric population. This is an opportunity to collaborate with clinicians, in a carbon stewardship model, and expand a proven carbon
reduction model into tools, adapted to the pediatric population.
2) Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement
project is to design and share, a video, a handout and a decision tree, adapted to the pediatric population, as tools to simplify decision making processes in inhalers prescription by healthcare professionals.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Norah McRae

Student:

Partner:

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Business Strategy Internship

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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.