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

Preclinical characterization of medical marijuana cultivars with therapeutic efficacy and low side-effect liability

Medical marijuana describes the legal use of cannabis plants for treating health-related issues. In Canada, there are currently about 40,000 medical marijuana users, and this number is expected to increase by over 1000% during the next decade. The large majority of patients use medical marijuana for its psychological effects, such as for anxiety, depression, pain and insomnia. There is a concerning lack of knowledge about the effects of different strains (“cultivars”) of medical marijuana, including both therapeutic effects as well as unwanted side-effects. In the present application, we propose to study different cultivars for their therapeutic potential and side-effect liability using preclinical protocols. Working with our Industry partner, we will select their most promising cultivars and test them in a comprehensive behavioral test battery, using state-of-the-art animal models. Cultivars will be extensively screened for anxiolytic and antidepressant properties, while sedating and cognitive side-effects will also be evaluated. The results of these studies are expected to result in the identification of specific cultivars that can be used as promising candidates for downstream clinical trials involving the human patient population and who are often refractory to existing pharmacotherapies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Alasdair Barr

Student:

Heidi Boyda, Jessica Yuen & Taylor Willi

Partner:

Drayton MedCanna Solutions

Discipline:

Pharmacy / Pharmacology

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

A systems level optimization of the solar battery in a solar energy system

SunVault Energy Incorporated, a Kelowna, British Columbia based energy technology company, aims to become a significant player within the emerging Canadian solar industry. They have devised a technology, the solar battery, which integrates the energy storage and energy generation capabilities of a stand-alone solar energy system. They view this as potentially a means of lowering costs, increasing efficiencies, and reducing losses. In this project, the intern will explore the performance of the stand-alone solar energy systems that include the solar battery and contrast the obtained result with the conventional solar energy system. Means of improving the overall system performance will be sought. Finally, if time permits, pathways to commercialization, with a focus on technological improvements to the device and the overall system, will be sought.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Stephen O'Leary

Student:

Franzi Tschurtschenthaler

Partner:

SunVault Energy

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

University of British Columbia Okanagan

Program:

Accelerate

F508-del CFTR rescue by mutated toxoids and evaluation of its functional efficacy in vivo

Many genetic diseases caused by small genetic mutations do not result in complete loss of protein fnction, but rather are due to the degradation of mutant protein by a “quality control” mechanism (endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation-ERAD) soon after it is made. Prominent amongst such ERAD-dependent diseases is Cystic Fibrosis(CF), a chronic, progressive, life-threatening genetic disease that primarily affects the lung, gastrointestinal and reproductive systems. Certain bacterial and plant toxins “hijack” this “quality control” system in the ER. Our cell culture results show inactivated (detoxified) Cholera Toxoid rescues the mutant protein causing cystic fibrosis from degradation. This could be a new basis for the treatment of many of the genetic diseases caused by ERAD. Animal studies will allow the partner company to bring this novel therapy to the market faster. To remain competitive in the global economy, corporations need to accelerate pipeline development by outsourcing specific research projects.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Christine Bear

Student:

Humaira Adnan

Partner:

ERAD Therapeutics

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Novaxe gesture toolkit

The Novaxe gesture toolkit will be developed conjointly between the music faculty of university of Montreal and OMP Music. This project proposes to develop a hardware and software kit for the automatic transcription and evaluation of gestural parameters of the guitar performance. This will be part of the Novaxe project, an online social network virtual environment for guitar learning relying on an innovative notation system and pedagogy developed by the Vandendool Studio over years of teaching experience. Other notation systems and learning environments lack gestural information. The gesture toolkit will tremendously contribute to distinguish Novaxe from other available product in three ways. First, by providing an automatic tool for score transcription. Second, by augmenting the score with fully navigable multimedia and motion capture information. Third, by providing realtime feedback to learner, therefore rebuilding the apprentice-master link that is otherwise broken in online learning.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Caroline Traube

Student:

Anne-Marie Burns

Partner:

OMP Music

Discipline:

Music

Sector:

Media and communications

University:

Université de Montréal

Program:

Accelerate

Assessment of safety and efficacy of probiotics use in premature infants

Probiotics are suggested to greatly reduce the risk of mortality and risk of infection in the gut of preterm infants. However, probiotics are rarely given to babies in hospitals in North America. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of probiotics supplementation in improving intestinal heath and preventing gut complications in premature infants. In this study, 25 preterm infants in St. Boniface Hospital will receive the probiotic for four weeks and 25 infants in the Winnipeg Health Science Centre will not receive probiotics. Stool, blood and urine samples will be collected before and after administration of probiotics for multiple laboratory analysis (biomarkers related to gut health). The results will provide a better understanding of the efficacy and safety of probiotic supplementation as a routine treatment for premature infants.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. James Friel

Student:

Chenxi Cai

Partner:

Lallemand Inc.

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

The Science of Body Sugaring

Sugarbush Spa is a London-based company that specializes in the removal of unwanted body hair by a method known as sugaring. The method, used for centuries in the Middle East, has several notable advantages over traditional waxing. Commercially available sugaring pastes suffer from inconsistency in production and unsatisfactory performance. At its core, the creation of sugaring paste is a synthetic organic chemical reaction, hydrolyzing the disaccharide sucrose to the two monosaccharides glucose and fructose. The goal of this internship is to develop a superior sugaring paste using scientifically-informed methods. The intern will use an iterative process, keeping a strict log of conditions and a record of observations and results. Product samples will be examined using NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, and evaluated by expert staff at Sugarbush Spa for is physical properties. Ultimately, a standard operating procedure will be developed for Sugarbush Spa to create a consistent, high-quality sugaring paste.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Michael Kerr

Student:

Joanne Curiel Tejeda

Partner:

Sugarbush Spa

Discipline:

Chemistry

Sector:

Consumer goods

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Towards the commercialization of an infrared-heated sample introduction system and development of an argon recycling system for inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES)

Numerous industries and government agencies carry out analyses every day using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) instruments that typically waste 95% of the sample and consume large amounts of argon. A greener approach would not generate any sample waste and reduce expensive argon consumption. The first year will be devoted to making a viable commercial product from an infrared-heated sample introduction system for inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). If the prototype can be developed as a financially feasible product, the company would patent it. The second year will focus on developing a new system for recycling argon from ICP instruments, whereby the ICP exhaust will be trapped, purified and recirculated for analytical use. Both of these research projects would not only allow Telegistics Inc. to expand its commercial line, promoting company growth, but they would also significantly advance the analytical performance and cost-effectiveness of ICP spectrometry in general.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Diane Beauchemin

Student:

Yoseif Makonnen

Partner:

Telegistics Inc.

Discipline:

Chemistry

Sector:

Chemicals

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Accelerate

Human Activity Analysis in Sports Videos

Automated human body pose estimation and activity recognition in videos is still one of the challenging problems in computer vision. Generally, it is becomes a significantly difficult task in real world applications due to camera motion, cluttered background, occlusion, and scale/viewpoint/perspective variations. Moreover, the same action performed by two persons can appear to be very different. In addition, clothing, illumination and background changes can increase this dissimilarity. This project is about learning good features for automated human pose estimation and activity recognition using the broadcast video cameras in the context of sport videos. Therefore, this project contributes to constructing an automated and robust vision base human activity recognition and body pose estimation that works in real-time with respect to the current hardware resources.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Martin Levine

Student:

Vikram Veldala, Srikanth Muralidharan & TBD

Partner:

TandemLaunch Technologies Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

McGill University

Program:

Accelerate

Effective Simulation and Surface Reconstruction Approaches for Detailed Fluid Simulation Visual Effects

Creating computer generated animations and visual effects (VFX) of fluids is a challenging task. The goal of this project is to design novel approaches that ease the creation of fluid simulations for VFX. Four main challenges will be tackled: the simulation of viscous fluids, the gain in geometric details of free surface fluids, the texturing of free surface fluids, and the optimization of distributed computation for fluid simulation. A team of four graduate students and three professors will handle the academic research, and will collaborate with two industrial partners, specialized in VFX and computer animation for film and television. The prototype implementations for these novel approaches will allow the industrial partners to run tests on scenarios from past productions and other scenarios specifically crafted for this project. This will help the academic team in improving the approaches to maximize their usefulness for the Canadian computer graphics industry, and for the industrial partners.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Eric Paquette

Student:

Bruno Roy, François Dagenais, Valentin Vervondel, Julián Edgardo & Guzmán Cortes

Partner:

Mokko Studio

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Digital media

University:

École de technologie supérieure

Program:

Accelerate

Sensor Development for Intelligent Apiary

This project will design an Apiary Management System to control and study environmental conditions that affect beehive health and honey production. Several efforts will be undertaken in developing this intelligent hive concept. In-hive environmental sensors will be implemented and thermal backplane will be developed to regulate the temperature within the hive. Sensors will be installed for studying bee movement, activity, and population. In the environment surrounding the apiary, food type and availability will be studied. Data gathered by sensors will be correlated with observations of bee and hive health, food availability, and honey production to map trends. This system will provide apiarists the ability to remotely monitor hive health, providing significant cost benefits to the apiarist. With bees playing a significant role in the pollination of agricultural crops, the developed technology offers the potential of additional economic benefits to the Canadian agricultural industry due to the greater health of the bees and hive environment.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Cyrus Shafai

Student:

Ahmad Byagowi, Colin Gaudreau, Valerie Beynon, TBD

Partner:

Durston Honey Farms

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Manitoba

Program:

Accelerate

Surface modification to reduce biofouling on water quality monitoring devices

Biofouling is the unwanted accumulation of proteins and microorganisms on wetted surfaces. Accumulation of biofoulers on sensors and microfluidic devices greatly impairs their performance in assessing the physical, chemical, and biological condition of natural and processed water. Failure to obtain accurate data on these changes and respond in a timely manner may lead to serious health consequences and hinder natural water preservation. This issue was expressed at the 2014 MacWater meeting, where leading research groups and international water industries were in attendance. Chemical modification of material surfaces has been utilised to create protein resistant, and subsequently, antifouling materials. Through the collaboration with leading experts in this field at Soochow University, we hope to gain expertise in polyethylene glycol (PEG) grafting methods to resist long term biofouling on a variety of polymer based materials. Their expertise will improve current and future sensors and microfluidic devices developed by MacWater research groups. Thus, this research opportunity will facilitate international collaboration for global water quality management.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Qiyin Fang

Student:

Sharon Goh

Partner:

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Globalink Research Award

Green Strategies for the Urban Design and Development of a Public Square for The City of Kitchener’s Intermodal Transit Hub

The research project will use a case study approach at the proposed Transit Hub for the City of Kitchener. In its objectives, the research will focus on the opportunities for a high quality green public space/square to better integrate a new LRT line and a new GO/VIA rail station into the surrounding city. It will look at how to create a healthy people oriented public environment that will also transfer people from one mode of transit to another. With the surrounding new mixed use developments and heritage architecture of Kitchener’s industrial past, the case study is typical of the situation facing most urban centres undertaking transit expansion in Ontario. Masri O Architects will benefit from the research undertaken in the Mitacs partnership by acquiring a better understanding of the potential of new ideas in green urbanism and sustainable materials strategies which they will then be able to incorporate into their architectural and urban design in the future.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Val Rynnimeri

Student:

Tahoora Alimohammadi

Partner:

Masri O Inc. Architects

Discipline:

Architecture and design

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

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