Innovative Projects Realized

Freshwater mussels as biosensors for environmental pathogens

In an era where emerging zoonotic diseases pose a constant threat to biodiversity and public health, there is an urgent need for innovative and robust pathogen surveillance systems. Freshwater mussels, often overlooked in the realm of disease surveillance, may hold the key to revolutionizing our understanding of pathogen dynamics and providing early warning signs of potential outbreaks. By filtering water to acquire nutrients, freshwater mussels uptake pathogens present in the environment that may threaten public health if undetected. We propose to test cutting edge genomics technologies to detect such pathogens present in freshwater mussels. In this way, we aim to use the natural filtration ability of freshwater mussels as a more efficient and effective way to detect pathogens in the environment than currently available time-consuming and expensive methods such as mass screening of wild animals across the environment or manual filtration of copious volumes of water.

Developing an AI Social Media Marketing for Online Learning Platform

An innovative learning platform is currently under development for Canadian market, but localization is necessary. Mathematics and Science subjects for Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) is chosen to initialize this localization process. In recent months, AI technologies, particularly ChatGPT, demonstrated an astonishing potential to the world. Creating contents for social media is one of well recognized features and they are expected to grow and accelerate. In this EdTech project, the objective is to integrate Python programming and existing AI tools to generate contents and design social media pages or advertisements for marketing and future business development.

Methology (Tentative work plan)
A) Problem (8-10 weeks)
– define scope of works such as topics and summaize content requirements
– program to generate a spreadsheet of contents utilized AI tools
– validate the content generations, revisit the problem if needed
B) Execution (8-10 weeks)
– generate proposed social media graphics
– if applicable, short videos with English vocal
– publish social media posts automatically (e.g. Instagram or facebook)
C) Refinement (4-6 weeks)
– analyze the outputs and optimize the system (~1/4 of time, 6 weeks)

The outcome of this project is an automatic system to generate social media contents and publish posts (or advertisement). Upon the success of this phase, the next phase of this project is to optimize the posts to attract audiences and promote the learning platform.

ACL Prevention Program for Athletes

This project will focus on the prevention of ACL injuries with a proper 8 week program based on scientific research to date. The goal is to target basketball and soccer athletes to reduce the number of injuries that are occurring in this population with proper flexibility, strength, agility and rest combined.

Product design and market outreach to help young adults understand, improve and make financial literate choices

Perks Pilot Inc. is a new and innovative solution to help match financial services and tools to those that can most benefit. This Mitacs project will aim to develop educational strategies to help young adults understand financial services. Two interns will be brought on to understand the market, build a target profile and then design and execute educational strategies that will be used alongside our launch and marketing strategies to expand our product offering.

Mobile Application & Marketing Project

Ksalsuti Wellness Resources is a Mi’gmaq non-profit organization located in Oromocto, New Brunswick. Our goal is to support the social and emotional well-being of children and youth by creating culturally inclusive resources. Ksalsuti hired an intern in the spring of 2023 to create a mobile application to extend the exposure of its newly published books, the Turtle Island Series. The books were designed to provide critical social and emotional well-being tools to children that can be used at home and in the classroom. The mobile app featured a read along function whereby elders read out the story in Mi’gmaq and Wolastoqey. Each page in the book is displayed in the app. On each page the reader is able to play the audio version of the book in Wolastoqey and Mi’gmaq. Hy Pham was chosen as the co-op student who completed the proof of concept for the mobile app under the supervision and guidance of Dr. Paul Cook. Hy was able to complete a proof-of-concept for the mobile app. By obtaining Mitacs funding, we can hire another student to expand beyond the initial phase of the project and complete more language translation recordings for the mobile app. Ksalsuti is also seeking to further develop and implement its marketing strategy. This involves updating the user experience of our website, as well as creating social media content. Ksalsuti would benefit from gaining more momentum in marketing and developing a greater network for our products and services, especially for the mobile app being developed.

Marine Critical Parts

To develop a synchronized critical supply chain solution for the maritime industry to help in reduction of operating cost and lead times of ordering.

Evaluating the Confidence of Metabolite Rankings in NMR Metabolomics Data

The proposed project is for the intern to develop an algorithm to decide on the suitability of a group of chemical compounds to transfer from one detection instrument (low throughput) to another detection instrument (high throughput). For ease of use and cost considerations it is preferable for these chemical compounds to measured using a high throughput instrument. The company has validated a set of compounds on the low throughput instrument and would like to transfer these to a high throughput instrument. The value to the company is that experimentation is expensive and time consuming and the number of compounds the company is analyzing is large. If an algorithm can be developed to identify (prior to experimentation) which chemical compounds will have a higher chance of success, this will lower the cost and will speed up the time for the company to get its product to market.

Collecting and Analyzing Data to Inform Future Convention Planning

SUMA is now offering a unique and engaging opportunity in event planning and marketing for the intern and also for collecting and analyzing data to improve Convention planning. SUMA is a member-driven not-for-profit organization that runs an annual Convention for its member municipalities. The annual Convention involves education sessions, networking opportunities, question and answer periods with SUMA and with provincial politicians, opportunities to identify new and pressing advocacy issues, opportunities to learn about the services and programs SUMA offers, and more. SUMA has planned and run over 100 Conventions in the past and has various ideas (mostly around data collection, organization, and analysis) on how Conventions can be improved upon, both in the planning and running of the Conventions. Unfortunately, there has never been the time or resources available to explore these ideas, and hiring an intern will provide an opportunity to pursue these different avenues which will hopefully lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness of the Convention. In addition to improving upon events/sessions from years past, data will also be collected and analyzed to predict useful and relevant new events/sessions for upcoming Conventions for the first time (these would be brand new events/sessions, rather than improving on existing events/sessions).

Technical validation and optimization of a pediatric robotic exoskeleton

This research project entails a comprehensive series of tasks aimed at enhancing the functionality and effectiveness of a pediatric ankle exoskeleton, specifically designed to provide gait assistance to children with locomotor disabilities. The project encompasses crucial elements such as technical validation, design validation, and the refinement of the control strategy. Throughout these endeavors, our primary objective is to achieve positive outcomes in terms of the device’s impact on various kinematic and kinetic parameters of gait. We anticipate that the exoskeleton’s influence will improve gait performance such as range of motion, torque, cadence, step length, and metabolic cost. By rigorously validating the technical aspects, design, and control mechanisms, we aim to contribute valuable insights to the realm of rehabilitation technology, ultimately advancing the well-being and mobility of children facing locomotor challenges.

Global Maritime Innovation – Software Development

Canadian Global Maritime is looking to bring on an intern to assist in the development of multiple internal software tools across a wide area of engineering and data science. These tools cover areas such as hydrodynamic analysis, wind turbine load linearization for frequency domain simulation, optimization algorithms, and development of new software for offshore operations, The intern will assist in both the development of these tools as well as creating an implementing a process to manage revisions and collaboration. Through the internship, the intern will gain an understanding of day to day workings of the business and gain valuable insight into the developing world of marine renewables.

1.1 Project title: Innovation for System Partnerships, Implementation and Evaluation (INSPIRE)

Holland Bloorview, as an academic health sciences centre, is often approached by industry who have a desire to co-develop, test, validate, or sell their health products to the organization or its clients. Industry may choose to approach any of a wide range of Holland Bloorview personnel including executives, leadership, clinicians, and researchers. Outcomes from these pitches by industry may then lead to clinical evaluation, research, and/or procurement of hardware or software health products. However, to thoroughly evaluate the opportunity, and determine value for Holland Bloorview, a co-ordinated, collaborative evaluation and decision process involving leadership, administration, clinicians, researchers, and staff is required.
Currently, there is no single process or person(s) in place to intake and evaluate such opportunities when they are presented to us by industry. This results in an overall lack of a coordinated approach within the organization for the next steps of action with respect to decisions on whether to pursue a particular partnered project opportunity, and for how best to evaluate at Holland Bloorview and then introduce it (if deemed appropriate) within our clinical care as part of solution implementation. Similarly, there is also no organizational-wide view of all opportunities that we have engaged in or declined.
To address the issue of strategic alignment, organization-wide coordination, resource optimization and visibility, we will be establishing the Innovation for System Partnerships, Implementation and Evaluation (INSPIRE) initiative.

Création d’un produit d’inspection numérique pour les entreprises d’enchères automobiles

Création d’un produit d’inspection numérique pour les entreprises d’enchères automobiles