Innovative Projects Realized

Beyond Elections: what can Brazil tell us about democracy?

Representation and accountability are essential for the proper functioning of democracy. Through a close examination of Brazil since the 1990’s, this project investigates the conditions that make a country move toward stronger representation and accountability. Like many Latin American countries, Brazil was neither an institutionalized nor a representative democracy in the 1990s. Although the president was held accountable at the ballot box, power was concentrated in the office of the executive branch. Since then, however, Brazil has developed stronger accountability and institutionalization. Three conditions will be examined: (a) a presidential impeachment, (b) the creation of institutional agencies to prevent corruption, and (c) the stabilization of the economy. The analysis will rely on interviews with Brazilian legislators, as well as on the examination of archival and media material from the 1990s to the present moment. This research will shed light on the mechanisms that can lead toward representation and accountability in democracy.

Student Internship – Digital Marketing Innovation

The project aims to enhance the marketing and communication strategies of Abundant by Design Inc., a leading women-led business specializing in importing, exporting, and business consulting in Cocagne, NB. Over a 4-6 month internship period, the intern will streamline marketing efforts, develop digital strategies, and improve internal marketing visibility. Deliverables include upgraded digital systems, new marketing products, and improved international communication functionality. This collaboration offers interns practical experience in addressing real-world business challenges while benefiting the company’s continued growth and innovation in Canada’s market segment and beyond.

Développement d’outils de BI dans le contexte d’une application de web mapping

K2 Geospatial a développé la suite JMap. JMap est un ensemble d’outils qui permettent aux organisations de connecter et diffuser leurs données géospatiales et de les consulter, de les mettre à jour et de les analyser à l’aide d’applications desktop, web et mobiles. JMap est utilisé par plus de 450 municipalités au Québec et autres organisations dans 8 pays.
La plus récente itération de JMap s’appelle JMap Cloud. C’est une plateforme infonuagique qui reprend l’ensemble des fonctionnalités de JMap, mais avec une architecture en microservices adaptée au cloud.
L’interface de visualisation des cartes de JMap Cloud s’appelle JMap NG. Cette application est très interactive et permet d’interagir avec les données de la carte de manière performante et offrant une expérience utilisateur supérieure.
Le but de ce projet est de développer des outils de Businness Intelligence (BI) intégrés à JMap NG. Ces outils vont ajouter de la valeur aux données en offrant de nouveaux affichages qui pourront aider les clients à prendre de meilleures décisions en utilisant leurs données. Ces affichages prendront la fome de compteurs, tableaux et graphiques de toutes sortes.
Les retombées de ce projet permettront à K2 Geospatial d’inclure le BI dans son offre technologique et ainsi de consolider sa place de leader dans le monde du géospatial.

Investment Analyst Internship Project

The Venture Capital Analyst role at Nimbus Synergies will encompass sourcing high-quality deal flow, conducting due diligence, assisting in portfolio management, performing market research, representing the firm at industry events, building relationships within the venture ecosystem, and executing independent projects as assigned. Responsibilities include establishing connections with founders and fund managers, preparing valuation analyses and investment memos, contributing to portfolio company/fund reports, evaluating market trends, and fostering collaborations. Through these activities, the analyst will play a vital role in driving Nimbus Synergies’ success in the dynamic venture capital landscape.

Refugee States

Although archives are an important historical resource, they are especially meaningful and impactful if they are mobilized to educate and inspire researchers, community members, and the general public. This project addresses this challenge by activating the digital archives of Midaynta Community Services through the engagement of one intern who will research and prepare an online exhibition of the organization’s history of refugee resettlement. Although this community organization has been active for more than three decades, its pivotal role in empowering migrants and refugees has not received the prominence it deserves. Through this project, one intern will be trained in the skills of digital storytelling, and drawing on these skills and in consultation with diverse stakeholders, will design and launch an online exhibit.

Social Enterprise through Acquisition (SETA) Project: Transforming Local Businesses into Sustainable Social Purpose Organizations

The Community Sector Council of Newfoundland and Labrador (CSCNL) aims to champion social and economic well-being in the province by fostering citizen engagement, encouraging social and economic progress, and leading research. With support from a student intern, CSCNL plans to develop the Social Enterprise Through Acquistion (SETA) project. The goal of this project is to address the challenge of preserving businesses in rural Newfoundland and Labrador while creating revenue diversification opportunities in the community sector, which will be achieved by facilitating the transformation of vital local, private businesses in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) into sustainable social purpose organizations (SPOs) to bolster local economies and ensure the continuity of essential community services. With support from the student intern, CSCNL will provide non-profit organizations with expert advice on how to structure the acquisition of a business for the purpose of generating revenue to support a social purpose activity. This project also aims to support business owners by providing them with expert advice on how to structure the transition, financing options, and special support for business. If the application is successful, the student will support this project by: developing processes to support the acquisition process for both buyers and sellers; the development of a comprehensive database of organizations involved in the acquisition process; and, coordinating events and information sessions to disseminate knowledge and engage stakeholders.

Marketing Strategy Development and Implementation

Apption is an established data and software services provider, with a track-record of sucessful product incubation and commercialization. Apption is planning to reinvest in marketing initiatives, hoping to drive growth of our professional services in the data and AI space as well as our related AI-product offering: Datahunter. Datahunter automates data cataloguing and management tasks and is in active government trials. We believe Datahunter and Apption’s consulting and build services have significant growth opportunities in the rapidly growing market.

The internship project aims to establish a strategic foundation for all future marketing investment. The intern will conduct market research, contribute to business and product model strategies, and develop short and medium-term digital marketing plans. The intern will implement some of the strategic plan to establish quick marketing wins, while the planning will cover a 2 year outlook. Their work will directly support Apption’s growth in new and existing markets, ensuring the company’s offerings meet the evolving demands of the data and AI industry.

Dynamic Configurable Ranking System for Sports and eSports organizations

Our project is designed to transform the way sports and esports organizations handle athlete and team rankings through a sophisticated, web-based live ranking system. This innovative platform, Powered By ARC, empowers governing bodies to configure their own ranking algorithms without any programming expertise, offering a transparent and undisputed method to rank athletes and teams within and across sports. By integrating live data feeds and a user-friendly interface, this system not only enhances the discoverability of athletes but also serves as a key traffic driver to our AI website builder, ARC Profile. This integration aims to boost engagement and increase revenue through our SaaS product, providing a cutting-edge solution to the longstanding issue of ranking dissemination in sports, typically handled via static methods like Excel or PDFs.

Accessibility Investments Database (“AID”)

Access to Success is a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that supports people with disabilities with a mission to Enable Everyone. It runs ATS Labs, Canada’s only accelerator for accessibility startups, which provides unique programming, services, and resources tailor-made to help scale startups serving people with disabilities. We believe that by accelerating innovation in accessibility, we can significantly push the needle towards a barrier-free Canada.

One of our most crucial challenges is helping our participating startups fundraise. Investors interested in investing in this sector are few and far between, and precedent data is not transparent and extremely hard to find. The result is that each time an entrepreneur sets out to improve the lives of people with disabilities, they spend substantial time and resources simply identifying the right investors. The data insufficiency means that a handful of prominent investors active in the disability sector get overwhelming inbound interest, despite several other funders waiting in the wings.

The proposed BSI project aims to construct the world’s first Accessibility Investments Database (“AID”). This database will systematically chart previous investment activity in startups with a focus on accessibility. It will cross-reference various aspects such as investors, funding stages and amounts, additional terms of the funding round, startup entities, disability categories, and other pertinent information. Having this information on hand will allow us to better serve our entrepreneurs, identify active investors, and help connect the two. It will improve not only ours but the entire disability innovation ecosystem’s understanding of financial activity in this sector.

Reference Dependence and Effort Provision: Does Access to Clean WaterMatter?

The rural poor of Northeast Brazil do not have time to waste; their entire livelihood is dependent on using their time wisely. The objective of the proposed project is to better understand not only how access to clean water impacts the time-use decisions of the rural poor in Brazil, but why these patterns exist. A framed-field experiment is designed to uncover the underlying motivations behind behavioural choices to complement an on-going project measuring how rainwater cisterns impact time-use patterns. Specifically, the experiment will test for reference dependent behaviour and uncover the sources of these reference points. It will generate important information regarding why these individuals make the choices they do.

Renforcement de la gouvernance et changement d’échelle du Réseau Régional en Alimentation Communautaire (RRAC) : un projet innovant pour la sécurité alimentaire au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean

Cette demande vise à documenter, étudier et optimiser les efforts du projet innovant de création du Réseau régional en alimentation communautaire (RRAC) au Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Les objectifs du stagiaire seront de travailler en collaboration avec la chargée de projet en développant des outils pour la réflexion et développement du modèle gouvernance du RRAC et de favoriser la participation démocratique dans les travaux de constitution, en se basant sur les meilleures pratiques identifiées dans la littérature. Il devra aussi documenter les dynamiques de pouvoir déjà en action dans le milieu pour mieux suivre l’impact du RRAC dans l’écosystème de l’alimentation communautaire et solidaire. La méthodologie comprend des ateliers, des entrevues semi-dirigées, des observations, et une recherche documentaire approfondie. Les livrables incluent des outils de communication sur les dynamiques de pouvoir et les modèles de gouvernance pertinent pour le projet, un rapport documentant la démarche, et un modèle de présentation du RRAC pour les partenaires externes. Ce projet revêt une importance cruciale en renforçant les efforts déjà en place pour la sécurité alimentaire, en favorisant la mutualisation des ressources régionales, et en créant une instance unique au Québec dédiée à l’alimentation communautaire. De plus, il offre un modèle potentiellement reproductible pour d’autres régions, renforçant ainsi la capacité nationale à lutter contre l’insécurité alimentaire.

Computational Analysis of Main Group Complexes Containing Cyclopentadienyl-Carbene Ligands

The upcoming research internship will explore how a specific class of ligands incorporating cyclopentadienyl and carbene moieties can stabilize less common, low oxidation states of certain heavier elements like germanium, tin, antimony, and bismuth. This computational study aims to understand the unique bonding and reactivity patterns of these compounds. By simulating these reactions computationally, the project will identify the most promising chemical targets for actual laboratory synthesis, thus saving time, reducing costs, and minimizing environmental impact. The primary goal of this project is to train the intern in computational chemistry, a crucial skill that enhances other chemistry disciplines. The intern will learn and apply computational techniques within the Vasko group at the University of Helsinki, which has extensive expertise with the computational investigation of heavier main group compounds and their reactivity with respect to small molecule activation. A secondary objective is to determine the best ligand design for binding specific elements. The project will compare different cyclopentadienyl structures and hydrocarbon linkers attaching these to the carbene moiety, to identify which configurations best stabilize these elements, focusing on predicting how these compounds react with economically important small molecules like hydrogen and nitrogen.