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

Drivers of woodland caribou calf survival in the Rocky Mountain foothills: a landscape with anthropogenic disturbance and multi-carnivore predation risk

Throughout western Canada, declines in woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus) continue at unprecedented rates. Caribou calves are especially vulnerable in their first four weeks of life, after the calving period. During this time, mother caribou must effectively select habitat that is rich in food resources, but also minimizes likelihood of predation. In the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, the predator community is large, including
wolf, black bear, grizzly bear, cougar and wolverine, meaning avoidance of areas with high predation risk is important. Using an array of camera traps in the Rockies, I estimate predator distributions for the entire predator community, and combine this with telemetry data of two mountain caribou herds to investigate how female caribou select habitat to balance these costs, and the effect this has on the survival of their calves.
Understanding drivers of caribou calf survival will inform management and aid in the development of recovery plans for these herds.

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Faculty Supervisor:

John Volpe

Student:

Gillian Fraser

Partner:

InnoTech Alberta Inc

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Development of protein and carbohydrate complexation delivery systems for improving the transport, stability, and efficacy of plant immune aids

While modern pesticides have dramatically improved crop yields and food security, the challenges of emerging pest resistance, environmental run-off, and the need to help crops better cope with weather-related stresses like drought and extreme heat all demand new solutions. Our partner, Suncor, has recently developed a new class of plant immune aids that activate a plant’s native immune system to induce a range of beneficial responses to both pest and weather-related stresses while avoiding some of the downstream challenges associated with existing pesticide and fertilizer use. Intern Dr. Ali Akbari, working in Dr. Todd Hoare’s lab at McMaster, will collaborate with Suncor to encapsulate these immune response triggering chemicals using safe and inexpensive food-grade proteins that can actively transport the immune aid into the leaf for optimal activity and release the active agent over time to minimize the frequency of required re-application for the farmer. TO BE CONT’D

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Faculty Supervisor:

Todd Hoare

Student:

Ali Akbari

Partner:

Suncor Energy Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Evaluation of Mazzaella Japonica as a Food Additive for Ruminants

In collaboration between Thompson Rivers University (TRU) and Beaver Meadow Farms (BMF), we propose to investigate the invasive foreign red seaweed Mazzaella Japonica as a food additive for ruminant livestock, primarily cattle. BMF is a multi-faceted agricultural company based on northern Vancouver Island built around organic pasture-raised cattle but also the harvest of storm-cast Mazzaella Japonica. Recent work using a similar red seaweed species has shown that its inclusion in livestock diets is beneficial to: (1) increase omega fatty acid concentration in meat, (2) facilitate uptake of nutrients present in the animal feed, and (3) mitigate the formation of methane gas caused by the bacteria in the rumen. Particular nutrients within algae are attributed to their success as feed additives, and if similar chemicals are obtained from M. japonica it may prove a valuable resource. To BE CONT’D

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Faculty Supervisor:

John Church

Student:

Spencer Serin

Partner:

Beaver Meadow Farms

Discipline:

Resources and environmental management

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Program:

Elevate

The Use of Enhanced Percentages of XY and YY Males and Protemics to Increase Freshwater Closed Contained Farmed Production of Sockeye Salmon

At harvest, the males of a mixed female/male culture of farmed Sockeye salmon are larger in freshwater culture. This research will enhance the percentages of male fish in a mixed female/male cultured population of Sockeye so as to increase the harvest weight of the fish. In addition, proteomics will be used to identify key markers of metabolic processes that can be used in ‘real time’ to ensure the Sockeye are cultured in a way that ensures the good welfare of the fish.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Vicki Marlatt

Student:

Anqi Yuan

Partner:

LSL Living Seafoods Ltd

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Technologically Assisted Mindfulness Meditation for Older Adults

Mindfulness meditation has recently received considerable interest in clinical and in broader contexts for its mental health and cognitive benefits. It has been proposed that giving people feedback about their meditation relevant brain activity during or after meditation can help people learn this difficult skill, and initial work looks promising, but there are a number of unanswered questions. Additionally, it may be difficult for older adults to learn it due to age-related cognitive changes. We propose to investigate the brain activity of older adults during mindfulness meditation as part of designing tools to help them learn mindfulness and to clarify the issues they face. Additionally, older adults face many issues learning and using technology, and we propose to understand the usability issues they face with existing technologies that make use of brain activity. TO BE CONT’D

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Faculty Supervisor:

Cosmin Munteanu

Student:

Simon Cook

Partner:

InteraXon

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Coalescing around gender inequity frames on Twitter: The use of online campaign to #ElectMoreWomen in the Toronto 2018 Municipal elections

Using an advanced social media analysis tool developed by experts at Nexalogy, we will look at a Twitter campaign that focuses on gender-identity and inequality in an effort to challenge and change unequal representation of marginalized people (in this case, gender) in elected office and spaces of traditional political power. By looking at female-identifying challenger candidates who use this framing, and employ hashtags like #electmorewomen, we will compare and interpret what impact this has on a candidates level of engagement, perceived legitimacy, and also how the public accepts, reacts and challenges these framings of candidates.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ketra Schmitt

Student:

Adnan Raja

Partner:

Nexalogy

Discipline:

Engineering - other

Sector:

Digital media

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Functional Proteomics to Inform Targeted Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer

To ensure effective cancer treatment, it is vital to match the drug with the molecular characteristics of the patient’s tumor. This research project is focused on developing functional diagnostic assays that may be used eventually in the clinic to stratify patients for targeted therapies. The project will provide a unique opportunity for the interns to work with a clinician at the forefront of cancer treatment and scientists of a partner organization that is developing innovative tools to enable precision cancer medicine. This project will generate unprecedented insights into the pathogenesis of cancer progression and therapeutic resistance and provide a foundation for translation of innovative proteomic technologies into transformative new approaches for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Furthermore, this project will provide the proof-of-concept for the partnering organization for the eventual translation of its innovative technologies to the clinic to benefit patients.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Anthony Nichols

Student:

Xuguang Liu

Partner:

Precision Proteomics Inc

Discipline:

Visual arts

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Finding Access to Social Services for Calgary’s Non-Status Migrants

This study 1) examines the lives of 3 to 5 non-status migrants in Calgary; 2) determines the challenges that these individuals face in accessing healthcare and social services; and 3) ascertains available services as well as the obstacles to services that are essential to these individuals’ social and economic integration. In general, my research answers the question, “From the viewpoint of non-status migrants, how do the federal, provincial, and city governments facilitate delivery of healthcare, community, and social services to non-status migrants?” Findings from this study will be used to formulate a policy-brief for policymakers and immigration agencies to guide them in making and carrying out decisions that respect and impact the principles of social justice and of the attendant basic human right to social services. In addition, a database of resources for non-status migrants that will be hosted on the website of Migrante Alberta will be created.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Liza Lorenzetti

Student:

Nellie Alcaraz

Partner:

Migrante Alberta

Discipline:

Social work

Sector:

Management of companies and enterprises

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Identification of gene expression biomarkers for different biotic stress conditions in Arabidopsis thaliana and canola

Plants, like humans, sometimes get sick because of the activities of pathogens. When crops are diseased, their growth vigor will be severely damaged, leading to tremendous yield loss. To cure plant disease, farmers have been relying on synthetic pesticides for centuries; but the over-use of synthetic pesticides has caused pest resistance and serious environmental issues. To overcome this dilemma, companies like Terramera Inc. have been developing alternative powerful pest-managing products, namely biopesticides, which are eco-friendly bioactive agents derived from natural resources. To further accelerate their product development, the present MITACs project is aimed at identifying a set of gene expression biomarkers to be used as early diagnostic tools to reflect real-time plant health status and to quickly assess the efficacy of biopesticide treatment. These biomarkers will immensely speed up the development of novel agricultural products and bring huge profits to Canadian farmers.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Yuelin Zhang

Student:

Di Wu

Partner:

Terramera Inc

Discipline:

Visual arts

Sector:

Forestry

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Optical Variable Effects for Minting Applications

The appearance of polished gold and silver has always been attractive to the human eye. The high reflectivity of these surfaces naturally makes them strong candidates for optical designs that are based purely on reflective optics. When circular grooves are scribed into metal surfaces, some very interesting optical effects can be observed, and in some cases light beams will appear to come out of the surface. Other light beams will appear to go into the surface. Through clever design and orientation of these scribed regions, the appearance of interesting optical effects can be generated.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Arnaud Weck

Student:

Jaspreet Walia

Partner:

Royal Canadian Mint

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Research on the Social and Ecological Impacts of “The Thingery” Community Sharing Platform

The Thingery Sharing Inc. is the logistics provider and parent organization of five co-operatively owned community-level goods lending libraries known as Thingeries located throughout the Lower Mainland of BC. As a data-intensive enterprise, Thingery Sharing Inc. has the potential to track the social and ecological impacts of community level goods sharing. However, the existing literature provides insufficient guidance on how to structure indicators of social impact in the newly emerging sharing economy. This project will use social impact research to identify and understand the impact that a Thingery has on the social connectivity and ecological footprint of its members. It will analyze these findings to develop a set of metrics that can be incorporated into Thingery Sharing Inc.’s information systems for ongoing analysis and planning.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Katherine Reilly

Student:

Selena Neumark Hermann

Partner:

Thingery

Discipline:

Journalism / Media studies and communication

Sector:

Digital media

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Uncertainty Modeling and Quantification in Neural Network Image Denoisers

Image denoising is a fundamental process in most of computer vision systems, imaging systems, and photography productions. Recently, with the power of deep neural networks, image denoising has been pushed towards new boundaries. However, neural network image denoisers are constrained by the accuracy of the noise model used to train them. Training on a poor noise model results in poor generalization performance on real-world images. Moreover, it is still unclear how to quantitatively assess the output of a neural network image denoiser, especially in real-world cases where ground truth is unavailable. To this end, this project aims at pushing the state-of-the-art denoising performance through: (1) training neural network image denoisers on more accurate noise models derived form real images; and (2) using loss functions that models and quantifies the uncertainty of the network outputs, hence, we can have a confidence measure of the denoising results.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Brown

Student:

Abdelrahman Abdelhamed

Partner:

Borealis AI

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program:

Accelerate

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