Innovative Projects Realized

Evaluating Skill Transfer Between Canadian and Global South Midwifery Associations

The Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) implements global programs in Africa and the Caribbean, building midwives’ technical skills and strengthening the capacity of midwifery professional associations in our partner countries. CAM seeks two researchers first to assess current best practices in skills and knowledge transfer activities (particularly the transfer of healthcare skills) and civil society strengthening, and second, to develop tools to monitor and evaluate the efficacy of CAM’s current project implementation activities in the domains of midwifery skills and knowledge transfer and in association-strengthening.

ATCO Home of the Future and DSO Orchestration

The intern will be part of the ATCO Electricity Innovation Team and will support in delivering novel next generation prototypes that will define the future of the electricity grid in Alberta, broader Canada and globally. Some of the current projects in the portfolio includes smart EV charging, artificial intelligence based microgrids, home of the future and power systems technologies for making the electricity grid autonomous and smart. The student will be part of a horizontal team structure and will report directly to the Innovation Director.

Beaver Hills Biosphere Communications: Advancing place-based heritage appreciation and stewardship

The Beaver Hills Biosphere is a newly established biosphere reserve that needs to communicate why it is a special place to its residents and visitors. The UNESCO Biosphere program wants biosphere reserves to promote the exchange and transfer of knowledge on environmental problems and solutions, and to foster environmental education for sustainable development. Research related to environmental education, public history, Indigenous histories and communications efficacy can highlight the importance of personal place-relationships within a biosphere. This research can address a fundamental biosphere-related objective — to understand the stories of citizens and visitors of the area and to develop community connections to the biosphere, contributing to sustainability, resilience, and knowledge mobilization goals. TO BE CONT’D

Distributing Computing and Machine Learning Applications

Kings Distributed Systems (KDS) is working with researchers at Queen’s University to break down barriers to the development of powerful machine learning applications by using distributed computing. By connecting any device – everything from smartphones to enterprise servers – and harnessing their excess power to complete tasks, the Distributed Compute Protocol (DCP) substantially reduces costs while providing innovators and industries with the fuel they need to compete. It’s a scalable, easily accessible system that’s democratizing the industry and encouraging growth in emerging sectors. Applying this technology to the field of machine learning – often prohibitively expensive to explore due to the resources required – could spur an explosion of development.
Interns working with Kings Distributed will test the performance of existing machine learning algorithms before porting them to DCP in order to compare the results and answer fundamental questions regarding the viability of this process

A Prototype for a Privacy-Aware Health Sharing App

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are validated questionnaires with which respondents self-report their health status. This may include symptom severity, functional status, and quality-of-life data. PROMS are an increasingly important part of the communication between a patient and their healthcare team. Beyond the individual encounter, PROMs data is also critical to healthcare systems providing more personalized care through “precision medicine.” PROM data helps give context to all the other sources of big data (e.g., laboratory/radiologic, genomic, wearable sensor) collected in healthcare.
The challenge, however, is collecting PROM data in a way that is secure and private, and in conformance with the specific desires of individual patients. By providing this assurance individuals can share such data with their healthcare providers, researchers, care givers, or their family with the assurance that it will only be used as intended. This is the challenge Promera is trying to address. TO BE CONT’D

The role of certifications and traceability in supporting the Inuit seal harvest to deliver Inuit rights to food, culture, and economic opportunities

Inuit have the right to food, culture, and economic opportunities, and the seal harvest can help to support these rights. However, resultant international bans from anti-sealing campaigns have undermined the Inuit economy and imposed hardships on Inuit communities. In an effort to improve market access for Inuit seal products, the Canadian Government established the Certification and Market Access Program for Seals (CMAPS), which is creating certification and tracking systems for Inuit seal products in EU markets. CMAPS will improve existing tracking systems for Inuit seal products and explore the role of certifications, namely the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Fair Trade, in improving market access for Inuit seal products and subsequently supporting Inuit rights to food, culture, and economic opportunities. This research project will collaborate with Nexus Coastal Resource Management to better inform CMAPS and the Government of Nunavut on best measures for creating certification and tracking systems for Inuit seal products in EU markets.

Treated Drill Mud Residue Commercialization Research

As part of Envirosoil’s re-usable energy division in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, drilling fluid waste product will be re-purposed as a potentially viable fuel supplement and additive in other industrial processes. The proposed research would look into viable options for reusing this material in a way that is commercially beneficial to the current operations, while also diverting the waste from landfills. The general objective of the proposed research is to better characterize the nature of the waste and how it can be safely pushed into the commercial market. This will be done through market research combined with a scientific laboratory-scale testing process for the treated waste product.

Curating Anti-Colonialism: Re-imagining the Institution through a Decolonial Lens

Understanding that art galleries must position themselves as open learning communities, the MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG) proposes internships in Indigenous and new curatorial practices. Canadian cultural institutions have long considered themselves above the political. However, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action have posed challenges to art institutions and their leaders are now confronted with an urgent question: How do galleries shift to align with the more diverse populations they now serve?
Through this application, the MAG is taking steps to address the decolonizing of art in its institutional structure. How cultures are represented in art, media, entertainment, must be foremost in our minds as we strive to achieve a more equitable, diverse and inclusive society. This project will provide best practice in how to decolonize institutions through curatorial practices that educate us to better understand and practice fair and accurate representation, share knowledge and, eventually, frame just economies.

Connecting ecological dots through striped bass diets by using DNA barcoding and stable isotopes

Striped bass invaded Labrador, Newfoundland and Labrador in August 2017 and were identified to feed on Atlantic salmon and capelin; two important fishes to NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC). This project aims to sample striped bass in Labrador to identify what it is consuming. We will combine traditional stomach content morphological identification with a new approach for identifying stomach contents using DNA from the partially digested stomach “goo”. Species-specific DNA fragments (primers) will be used to identify prey through methods like the ‘barcode of life’ project. Additionally, we will use quantitative PCR (qPCR) to quantify how much DNA is present from each species when multiple species are in a stomach sample. By combining these methods, we anticipate identifying prey items within a wider window than using the traditional method alone. TO BE CONT’D

Textual Analysis of Climate-Related Disclosures

When faced with difficult issues such as climate change, some organizations decide to disclose information on relevant risks, opportunities, and strategies. The language used in these disclosures can theoretically reflect how managers process information in complex and uncertain environments, and by extension, their abilities in creating value for the firm. This research collaboration examines linkages between the language of climate-related disclosures and firm performance. From a theoretical perspective, findings from this collaboration could explain why different firms experience different outcomes when faced with complex issues. From a practical perspective, this collaboration could help establish foundational knowledge to evaluate the capabilities of firms in complex environments.

Implementation and strengthening of the community enhancement program to assess theneeds of different residents living at Brightside

The purpose of the project is to assess the housing, community engagement, and social inclusion needs and challenges faced by different residents, many of whom are older adults and are residents in Brightside Community Housing Foundation. Also known as Brightside. A mixed method approach (dempgrahic questionnaire, survey and focus group) will be used in this study. The findings from this survey will guide Brightside’s action plan to improve housing security and offer community initiatives that are tailored to the needs of their residents. Findings from this research project will help to a) gain an understanding of the needs and challenges of people, especially older adults living in affordable not-for-profit independent housing, and b) provide an insight into challenges and potential solutions for non-for-profit housing agency dealing with similar issues with their residents.

Modeling atmospheric gas dispersion using computational fluid dynamics – Part 2

Although rare, industrial facilities can suffer from minor to catastrophic failures, commonly referred to as loss of primary containment (LOPC), which can result in the release of hazardous gases and/or liquids. In order to protect the safety of the public, companies must provide a means of mitigating the potential damage to people and the environment. Since these measures are determined beforehand, the ability to develop and produce accurate modeling techniques is of the utmost importance.

The modeling of gas dispersion in the atmosphere following industrial releases (industrial stacks, containment breaches, etc.) relies on the ability to simulate accurate atmospheric flow close to the Earth’s surface. These flows are generally divided into three stability classes. Although neutral stability is well understood and applies to a number of real world scenarios, accurate prediction of dispersion under stable and unstable atmospheric flow would expand upon the current number of applicable cases. Therefore, this project seeks to augment existing knowledge by modifying and adapting simulation tools to adequately simulate multiple stability classes.