Innovative Projects Realized

Techno-Economic Evaluation of Materials Handling Solutions for the KSM Project

Mining operations have significant environmental impacts, making the adoption of innovative, energy-efficient materials handling technologies crucial for achieving both economic viability and environmental sustainability. This Mitacs project focuses on optimizing the materials handling systems at the Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) Project in British Columbia to reduce its operating costs and GHG emissions. The project aims to identify and evaluate alternative technologies for materials handling by engaging equipment manufacturers and KSM Project personnel.
Discrete event simulations and an energy system model specifically tailored to the KSM Project will be developed to evaluate these technologies based on key operational parameters. The Mitacs project will provide a comparative analysis of these technologies to recommend the most suitable techno-economic solutions for the KSM Project encompassing capital and operating costs, energy sources, availability, and environmental impacts.
These insights will help enhance the operational efficiency of the mine while minimizing its environmental footprint.

Knowledge Assisted Optimization for Production Scheduling Based on Simulation and Metamodeling

In industries, chemical processes involve different plants running in parallel with different production rates under the strict constraints on available resources. Therefore, events like shutdown of one or more plants, operating plants with different production grades with flexible run length time, different equipment utilization rates of plants are vital to be studied, scheduled, and optimized. CADSIM Plus is a software tool, which simulates different chemical processes in industries and thus ensures an effective production in practice. The software is used by more than 220 companies and organizations all over the world. The objective of this project is to investigate and develop efficient optimization methods that can be integrated with CADSIM Plus for chemical process production scheduling. The task of chemical process production scheduling is a complex operation and cannot be modeled directly by simple mathematical equations. Therefore, optimizing the production scheduling on the basis of CADSIM Plus simulation leads to a challenging optimization problem and requires robust techniques to solve. The proposed intern will apply the integration of artificial intelligence with the state-of-the-art metamodel-based optimization methods to tackle this problem.

Comprendre les freins structurels et psychologiques à la mobilité active en région

Alors que beaucoup d’efforts sont faits pour favoriser la mobilité active dans les grands centres urbains, trop peu d’attention est portée sur les municipalités régionales (5000 à 50 000 habitants) et les défis particuliers qui s’y rapportent. La promotion de la mobilité active demande de bien comprendre les besoins, enjeux et freins propres à chaque contexte. Malheureusement, les territoires ruraux et petites villes n’ont souvent pas accès à des données d’enquête de qualité pour brosser le portrait de la mobilité de leurs résidents et comprendre les attitudes et barrières perçues à l’adoption des modes actifs. L’objectif principal de ce projet est de combler ce manque en développant et en administrant une enquête visant à identifier les barrières psychologiques et structurelles perçues à l’adoption de la mobilité active dans les municipalités régionales de 5000 à 50 000 habitants. Les constats tirés de cette enquête dans plusieurs MRC de Lanaudière permettront de soutenir le développement de stratégies holistiques et multiniveaux (infrastructures et promotions) pour promouvoir la mobilité active dans les municipalités de cette région.

Social finance in rural Atlantic Canada: Innovative strategic planning initiatives for community foundations

The general objective of the research is to identify potential to address research gaps in a cohesive understanding of philanthropy in Atlantic Canada and the role and engagement of foundations within the broader landscape of social finance. The project will also identify innovative approaches for planning within foundations to maximize their contributions to sustainable communities, as well as contribute to an edited volume focused on Atlantic Canadian philanthropy and special issue featuring emerging research in social finance and philanthropy research from across Canada.

Connecter, innover, prospérer: Le rôle des écosystèmes régionaux innovants

En analysant en profondeur les écosystèmes régionaux innovants, l’objectif est d’identifier les leviers et meilleures pratiques qui favorisent la création et le développement d’initiatives mobilisatrices pour l’innovation collaboratives ayant des retombées économiques positives sur les régions ciblées. Cette démarche permettra ensuite de formuler des recommandations visant à optimiser les forces et les faiblesses d’intermédiaires innovants.
À travers le bilan exhaustif de notre étude, comprenant une évaluation détaillée des projets, une cartographie des parties prenantes et une analyse des retours d’expérience, l’organisation pourra mieux appréhender les opportunités et les défis auxquels elle est confrontée. Les recommandations découlant de notre analyse fourniront des orientations précieuses pour renforcer et développer sa mission, qui consiste à connecter, propulser et éduquer les acteurs régionaux de l’innovation et de l’entrepreneuriat. Enfin, notre recherche contribuera au rayonnement de l’organisation en mettant en lumière ses réalisations et en soulignant son rôle crucial dans le soutien à l’innovation et à l’entrepreneuriat régional.

Optimization of fuel supply for the power plant

This power plant project proposes a software system which assists the operator to optimize the fuel supply, storage and usage for the power plant. Interns manage to build a web-based application to monitor, record, display and forecast the state of fuel condition. Interns will use mathematical model implemented in the system to figure out potential factors that could influence the power generating volume and measure the degree of influence. Such a system is expected to offer decision support to the key stakeholders. The optimization will result in better fuel transportation plan, less cost for the power plant and considerable energy-saving. Interns are suppose to provide technical support and an actual system for the partner organization, Clean Energy Consulting Inc. The support is high-efficiency, solid and cost-effective.

Development and testing the go-to-market (GTM) strategy for the on-device streaming voice AI generator

Picovoice has recently released Orca Streaming Text-to-Speech, on-device streaming voice generator – enabling developers to add voice to their applications without sacrificing privacy, accuracy, or user experience. Currently, there is no direct competition, but alternatives. The intern will be responsible for developing and testing business development and go-to-market strategy with vertical-specific value propositions and messaging.

Text-to-Speech is a generative AI product and an emerging market after the introduction of Local Language Models (LLMs). Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology converts written text into spoken words. Behind the scenes, TTS engines process and synthesize speech in chunks to turn them into audio humans can listen to. Processing in chunks requires developers to design and set up their products to feed TTS manageable text segments. Since an LLM generates text in a stream, akin to a person typing out a message while TTS waits for the full text or a segment of text to process before starting the speech synthesis, we encounter a challenge: a delay between the text generation and the spoken output, disrupting the flow of real-time interactions between machines and humans.
Orca Streaming Text-to-Speech, built for the LLM-era, processes streaming text input on-device offering low-latency and privacy.

Modular Front-End Enhancement – Mohammad Mohammadifar

MedMe Health, a leader in pharmacy software solutions, is embarking on an innovative project to enhance its platform’s front-end architecture and optimize key functionalities, particularly the appointment scheduling system. As the healthcare industry faces increasing demands for efficient, scalable, and user-friendly digital solutions, MedMe’s platform must evolve to maintain its competitive edge and continue providing high-quality, patient-centric services.

This project will involve two main objectives over the course of eight months. The first objective is to develop a more modular and scalable front-end architecture. This improvement will make it easier to integrate new features, maintain the software, and support the platform’s growing user base. The second objective involves optimizing the performance of the appointment scheduling system, ensuring that it remains responsive and reliable, even under high user loads. These enhancements will lead to a more streamlined experience for both healthcare providers and patients, facilitating better access to care and improving overall satisfaction. These enhancements are critical for supporting high volumes of interactions and ensuring the platform can handle complex clinical workflows without compromising speed or reliability.

Intern Mohammad Mohammadifar will play a central role in these developments, gaining hands-on experience in cutting-edge technologies and software engineering practices under the guidance of senior engineers at MedMe Health. This collaboration not only aligns with MedMe’s mission to transform pharmacies into comprehensive healthcare hubs but also supports broader healthcare accessibility and efficiency goals. By advancing digital healthcare solutions, this project will contribute to better patient outcomes and streamlined pharmacy operations across Canada and beyond.

Multi-disciplinary Associate Project Manager

The project is composed of several Microsoft Identity Access and Management projects within the Enterprise team at CrucialLogics. The intern will be closely working with the Project Management Office to deliver Microsoft security solutions for a large Enterprise customer.

Makerspace YK – Membership Management and Security

Makerspace YK (MSYK) is a non-profit makerspace in Yellowknife NT, in its first two years of operation. MSYK’s. The challenge for the organization is their current membership management process that utilizes a combination of different existing applications as well as manual administrative time to operate. This inefficiency along with the limitations of staff capacity to manage members, has resulted in slow uptake of memberships. The improvement priority and solution that would address this challenge is to set up an automated membership management system. This innovation will support the expansion of the MSYK community by developing a solution to integrate their website, membership database, user data tracking, training resources and tracking, payments, scheduling and bookings and tool lockouts. This will also enable 24-hour access to the facility for members, which will help the organization build a more stable member revenue stream as well as increased community impact. This solution will mainly require software development expertise, though expertise in web development and service design may support this development and integration of this solution as well.
The overall goal of this project is to develop a software solution that enables automated membership management and facility access.

Innovating Auction Inspections: Develop A Strategic and Viable Approach to Logistical Efficiency and Growth

This project leverages an innovative approach to optimize CarInspect’s vehicle inspection logistics, streamlining processes, reducing costs, and developing a scalable model to meet new client demands and set a new industry standard.

Enhancing Concussion Assessment Accuracy Using Kinarm Robotic Platform: A Statistical Approach to Evaluating Neurological Deficits in Athletes

The project aims to improve how concussions in athletes are detected by using the Kinarm robotic platform, which measures sensory, motor, and cognitive functions. By analyzing data from healthy and concussed athletes, the project will develop a more accurate method for identifying neurological issues after a concussion. This will help the partner organization enhance athlete safety, reduce the risk of repeated injuries, and potentially expand the use of Kinarm technology in sports-related concussion assessments both in Canada and internationally.