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

Evaluation of species specific success for fish passing through fishways

Irving Oil Ltd. (IOL) manages impounded wetlands on company owned properties including a wetland located on the Little River at the site of the Saint John Oil Refinery. IOL in partnership with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) manages this wetland and other impoundments to provide proper habitat for wildlife including fishes and ducks. To do this this IOL must know the most cost effective way to manage physical factors (i.e., water flow and temperature, fishway structure) that affect the viability of wildlife in its wetlands. Adjusting physical variables is costly, both in capital costs (i.e. materials for new fishways) and operations and maintenance (i.e. adjusting water flow). Determining the most biologically effective and cost efficient way to manage these fishways is of great value to IOL and DUC. IOL and partner DUC have approached Acadia University to begin a pilot project in summer 2013 to assess the efficiency of a small subset of fish passage systems. Whether these fishways are effective at facilitating the movement of fish from one wetland to another, or between portions of the same wetland has never been tested. This project will lead to more effective and less expensive fishway design and operation.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Michael Stokesbury

Student:

Samuel Andrews & Mathieu Gregoire

Partner:

Irving Oil Ltd.

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Acadia University

Program:

Accelerate

Scalability of an autonomous trading platform

This project will build on the work previously completed in the Mitacs project done by Dr. Michael Bauer, Omid Mola and Cyborg Trading Systems (CTS) – Integration of an Autonomous Trading Platform. The previous project formed the foundation of developing an autonomic system in an algorithmic trading application. The initial project was successful in determining that an autonomic system could be implemented by utilizing CTS’s proprietary framework. An initial prototype system was developed which issues a notification with a change of state in the system when certain conditions occur based on the policies developed. CTS’ algorithmic trading environment is a dynamically changing, real-time and fault tolerant system due to the nature of the application. As a result of the environment, there are a vast number of variables and policies as well as hardware that must be considered in developing an autonomic system for this application. This next project will focus on narrowing in on the relevant policies and conditions that need to be incorporated in order to ensure the prototype autonomic management system can be further developed. This would provide Cyborg a highly dynamic and flexible trading engine and a competitive advantage.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Michael Bauer

Student:

Omid Mola

Partner:

Cyborg Trading Systems

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Finance, insurance and business

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Prevention of hearing loss by oral administration of the flavonoid-enriched fraction AF4

Flavonoids are polyphenolic compounds which give fruits and vegetables their bright colours. Habitual consumption of dietary flavonoids reduces the risk for neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Pre-clinical studies performed using animal models for these disorders have convincingly demonstrated that flavonoids not only halt the pathological processes which cause neurodegeneration but also promote recovery after brain damage. These findings and the fact that flavonoids can be consumed safely even in large amounts suggest they be useful treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. With this in mind, we have isolated a flavonoid-enriched fraction from the peel of Nova Scotia apple called AF4. Oral administration of AF4 reduces inflammation, brain damage and motor deficits in mouse models for stroke and multiple sclerosis. The purpose of the present application is to determine whether AF4 also reduces the inflammatory and degenerative events responsible for noise- and cisplatin-induced hearing loss in mice. Hearing loss is a frequent complication of cisplatin therapy for cancer that may occur within the first few days of treatment. Demonstrating that AF4 prevents cisplatin-induced hearing loss in mice would therefore facilitate a clinical trial in cancer patients enabling rapid-proof-of-concept in humans for condition relevant to neurodegenerative disorders.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. George S. Robertson

Student:

Matt Nichols, David Aphkhazava & Jin Zhang

Partner:

Scotia Biosciences

Discipline:

Pharmacy / Pharmacology

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Accelerate

Design and analysis of a path planning algorithm

The research project to be undertaken involves the development of a path planner algorithm, given a set of inputs (geometry of a circular saw and a grinding wheel), to produce tool paths (5 axis positions and start and end points for the cut). This algorithm must take into account both single and dual head cutting operations. It will be used to ensure the in-tolerance final dimensions of the sharpened saw. In order to achieve the final goal, the intern will be provided with all the necessary geometry of the machine and the saws to be sharpened.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. John Jones

Student:

Soheil Keshmiri

Partner:

Williams and White Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Utilization of malting company waster water for hydrogen production and water cleaning

Malting company waste water contains high concentrations of many valuable nutrients such as sugars and proteins. Those compounds have to be removed before discharge the waste water. The removal of those compounds costs a lot of money to the company. But we have bacterial strains which can grow in the waste water and produce hydrogen. Bacteria also clean the waste water after using the nutrients for their growth. So our technology can clean the waste water and produce valuable biogas hydrogen.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Wensheng Qin

Student:

Miranda Maki

Partner:

Canada Malting Company

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

Lakehead University

Program:

Accelerate

Improving estimates of complex option-based employee compensation

Stock-based compensation allows employers and employees to share in the risks and rewards of their company’s success. In addition to intangible benefits such as team building and goal sharing, there can also be large financial rewards for employees and similar costs to employers. These costs must be reported in the company’s financial documents such as quarterly and annual reports. Current (and future) vesting rules for stock options are making them difficult to price, and this makes financial reporting difficult. New simulation-based pricing models will be developed and integrated into SyncBASE Inc.’s flagship product for managing and monitoring stock-based compensation.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Stephen Chen

Student:

Dominic Dotterrer

Partner:

SyncBASE Inc.

Discipline:

Finance

Sector:

Finance, insurance and business

University:

York University

Program:

Accelerate

Ultra-wideband planar antenna design using spintronic microwave sensors

Microwave imaging has gained interest in biomedical imaging because of its non-ionizing and non destructive approach. It will be quick, comfortable and cheap compared to current imaging modalities available such as X-ray tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In microwave imaging, the major challenge is the design of microwave sensors for receiving scattered signal from the target. For effective signal penetration, the frequency of operation has to be low (below 7 GHz), and at this frequency, the sensor size becomes large. The use of spintronics sensors is proposed instead of microwave sensors, which will be a break-through in the microwave imaging technology area, if a successful implementation of a is possible. It requires high-performance, miniaturized ultra-wideband antennas to illuminate the target. The scattered signals will be picked up by the spintronics sensors for reproducing the image. The partner organization is interested in optimization process and image reconstruction algorithm for clinical application. The organization will have the opportunity to collaborate with the University for a clinical system design and develop a new imaging technique which will be beneficial for Canada and the world.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Stephen Pistorius

Student:

Saeed Latif

Partner:

nQube Technical Computing Corp.

Discipline:

Physics / Astronomy

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Sustainability Reporting: Lessons on initiating a sustainability report in a junior mining company

This project seeks to simplify and clarify the process of initiating a sustainability report using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). During Lindsay’s previous Mitacs Accelerate project, she identified the GRI as the best reporting framework for Junior and Mid-Tier miners. Further to this, Lindsay created a “Quick-Sheet” as a tool to help small companies understand the GRI and which identifies and recommends Performance Indicators which represent core sustainability obligations in the mining sector. The scope of the Quick Sheet includes governance, transparency, health and safety, environmental performance, climate mitigation, project financing and engagement with communities. This project will include researching and consolidating “best-practice” advice for how to put into place robust and complete data collection mechanisms, lessons learned from implementation of said advice, and key recommendations for how to make the initiation of a sustainability report a smooth undertaking. The findings of this project will help Keegan Resources reduce risk and will help to bolster their sustainability performance and reputation. It is our hope that the project will resonate with other Juniors and Mid-Tier companies in the mining sector and thus also transfer these benefits to these firms, raising the sustainability performance of the industry as a whole.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Stephanie Bertels

Student:

Lindsay McIvor

Partner:

Keegan Resources Inc.

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Assessing of affects on application-level mobile device quality of experience measures

With the growth of mobile device platforms such as smartphones and tablets, users now primarily experience the wireless networks they uses, whether cellular or WiFi based, through the context of the apps that they use. Hence, a heavy Skype user may perceive a given network to be of substantially different quality than would be perceived by a heavy text-messaging user. This reality has lead to a growing interest in quality-of-experience (QoE) measures as a compliment to more traditional network-level quality-of-service (QoS) measures. This internship will study how QoE measure are affected by changes in mobile device technologies, with the popular Android and iOS platforms servicing as the exemplar platform technologies. Quantifying and understanding how QoE changes with platform changes is important as, particularly for cellular and cable operators, it goes directly to the core issues such as how operators would use these new types of measure to improve their services to their customers, how to design and improve better apps, etc. This internship will be conducted as part of University of Victoria’s Entrepreneurial Engineering Master’s Program, and hence, under the strong guidance of Wesley Clover and the Alacrity Foundation such that the full intension is to produce industry-usable and applicable results.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Drs. Thomas Darcie & Stephen Neville

Student:

Mustafa Abousaleh

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

Plankton biomass estimation using multi-frequency sonar

The internship seeks to develop an acoustic classification algorithm that estimates the organism composition and density of plankton. A series of experiments have been conducted using trawl nets where a four-frequency sonar device was pointed across the net openings. The catch from each trawl survey is broken down into an estimate of the relative composition of different organisms. This internship involves relating the known catch to the corresponding acoustic measurements of that catch. Essentially, the objective of the internship is to develop an algorithm which will allow a sonar device to produce estimates of the types and densities of plankton in the part of the ocean that is being surveyed. The partner organization (Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation) would benefit from this internship by having an enhanced ability to predict salmon returns by being able to monitor the amount of food (plankton) available to the salmon. An acoustic classification algorithm would allow for plankton estimates to be conducted inexpensively using underwater robots that can operate in a wide range of weather conditions.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. John Bird

Student:

Steve Pearce

Partner:

Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Fisheries and wildlife

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Efficacy of intravenous TCAP-1 administration in reducing stress on the expression of cocaine-related behaviours

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a chemical found naturally in the brain that plays a key role in the mammalian stress response. CRF is also known to be involved in anxiety and mood disorders, as well as in various aspects of drug dependence, including long-term relapse to drug use. The teneurin C-terminal associated peptides (TCAP) comprise a chemical system in the brain that may serve to naturally regulate CRF activity. More specifically, TCAP has been found to have inhibitory effects on CRF-induced anxiety and cocaine-related behaviours in animals models and may, thereby, have important therapeutic potential in the treatment of mood and substance abuse disorders. The primary objective of the proposed project is to study the effects of systemic (intravenous) administrations of TCAP-1 on cocaine relapse behavior and other cocaine-related behaviours induced by CRF (i.e. behavioural anxiety and sensitization), using well-validated rodent models. Based on the outcome of past work from our lab (supported in part by a previous Mitacs Accelerate Internship), we expect intravenous TCAP-1 injections to inhibit CRF-induced relapse to cocaine seeking, and other cocaine-related behavioural measures.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Suzanne Erb

Student:

Zenya Brown

Partner:

Protagenic Therapeutics Canada Inc.

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

A scalable solution for sensing and sorting ore in the mineral mining process

This project intends to research the building of scalable, low-cost and robust alternatives and improvements to existing systems for mineral sensing and sorting in order to achieve greater productivity and efficiency by means of improving speed and accuracy in the process of mining minerals from low grade rocks. The project will combine developments in embedded and streaming systems, parallel computing and machine-learning to create a more specialized system for this domain. The project will be based on an existing platform of MineSense, a leading company in this area. This research will provide MineSense with insights into alternative hardware and software systems, as well as useful research data with regards to trade-offs in light of scalability, latency and accuracy, which should prove beneficial for design and planning for their current and future mining systems.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Alan Wagner

Student:

Sarwar Alam

Partner:

MineSense Technologies

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

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