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

Space-borne water quality assessment

Understanding river water quality is critical for various purposes such as ensuring drinking water safety, protecting public health and aquatic habitat, monitoring pollution, and disease control. The traditional approach to investigating water quality is by acquiring water samples at fixed-locations, which is time and cost consuming and cannot discover spatial distribution of water quality over a large area. The goal of this proposal is using remote sensing imagery to provide a complementary method to map and monitor water quality in large areas at real time. Satellite images, acquired concurrently with ground survey, are utilized to model water quality by using ground-surveyed water samples as reference. Different water quality parameters are mapped, and provided to governments and water resource managers, in order to improve decision making, save mapping time, and reduce project budget. This study can be extended to water quality monitoring in lakes and shallow ocean environments. In addition, components of this study (e.g. bathymetric mapping, measurement of river channel geometry) can be used for fish habitat assessment, hydraulic modeling, and sediment transport analysis.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Murray Richardson

Student:

Chuiqing Zeng

Partner:

Fluvial Systems Research Inc.

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Natural resources

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Accelerate

Social Impact Analysis and Program Evaluation of GEM Mentorship Program

The project seeks to provide a program evaluation of the Girls E-Mentorship Innovation (GEM) youth mentoring program. GEM’s program is a socially innovative approach linking high school aged girls with successful professional leaders in the employment sector, to support the development of positive attitudes and future career attainment. Using mixed methods, this project develops key outcome measures assessing the effectiveness of the GEM program, along with providing a general assessment of the overall economic and social impact the organization has in its local area. Results from this study will highlight not only the impact the GEM program has on the young women participants but also the general economic and social benefits such a program offers. The results will be used by the organization for further program development and refinement, and to aid in increasing its own economic impact by demonstrating its success to potential donors and program funders.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Shier

Student:

Stephanie Gouthro

Partner:

Girls E-Mentorship Innovation

Discipline:

Social work

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

Swine feed efficiency improvement and meat quality co-selection using genome wide technologies Year Two

Improving feed efficiency (FE) and meat quality (MQ) are Canadian swine industry priorities that will increase sustainability and competitiveness. It is difficult to improve these traits simultaneously by traditional breeding methods due to limited knowledge of genetic interactions, limitations on animals that can be measured and the high cost of measurement. High throughput genomic technology has the potential to positively impact these issues. Our overall purpose is to develop a genomic assisted breeding program to simultaneously improve FE and MQ. This collaboration will benefit the partner’s long term competitiveness through implementation of genomic technology into existing breeding programs and training of high qualified personnel. An example of the potential economic benefits to the industry by improving FE: herd feed conversion (kg feed/kg pork) is now ~3:1, each 0.01 improvement in FE (e.g. 3.00 to 2.99) represents ~200,000 tonnes of feed/yr saved, worth approximately $55 million to the Canadian pork industry.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Graham Plastow

Student:

Chunyan Zhang

Partner:

Genesus Inc.

Discipline:

Food science

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Elevate

Liver cancer detection using recent advances in deep learning

Approximately half of today’s population will be affected by cancer during its lifetime. Knowing that the earlier cancer is detected, the better the life expectancy, accurate radiological detection can make the difference between life and death. Primary liver tumor, known as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and secondary liver tumor (metastasis) represent, in aggregate, the second most common cause of cancer-related mortality in North America. Existing Computed Assisted Diagnosis (CADx) software use traditional image analysis techniques and as such their applications are mainly oriented towards type of cancer that show specific imaging characteristics (e.g. lung nodules, colon polyps and breast micro calcifications). The goal of this project is to innovate in the field of automatic medical image analysis by using the latest developments in artificial intelligence, computer vision and machine learning. Using readily-available data of sufficient quantity from the liver through extensive datasets hand-segmented, we plan to develop a framework that will detect and segment tumors in a liver segmented from CT and MRI images. This approach opens new prospects for medical imaging applications, by proposing of models that exhibit high accuracy with minimal human intervention, broadening their use and ultimately leading to improved patient care.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Christopher Pal

Student:

Mohammad Havaei

Partner:

Global Imaging On Line

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Anishanaabe Maamwaye Aki Kiigayewin; Indigenous Inclusion

Between government obligation and corporate social responsibilities, mining companies are experiencing a need to maintain positive corporate-Indigenous relations as they develop and implement impact benefit agreements in ‘consultation’ with First Nations.. Specifically the research will answer the following question(s): Does Indigenous cultural competency and safety training help to: a) foster a work place environment that focuses on positive employee relations as well as enhance the corporate-Indigenous relationship and b) identify attitudes that create an environment of inclusion thereby enhancing the company as a place of choice to work? Finding ways to enhance positive relationships with Indigenous peoples will assist to meet internal needs of a diverse and renewed workforce while expanding on the desire to be viewed as a company of choice for work. It will also assist to identify ways of meeting corporate social responsibilities as it pertains to corporate- Indigenous relations and possibly enhance their social licence to operate. The research will benefit Canada and the Indigenous population through recognition of one possible method for creating inclusion in the flow of resources

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Faculty Supervisor:

Daniel McCarthy

Student:

Dorothy Larkman-Flood

Partner:

Goldcorp Inc.

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Aboriginal affairs

University:

University of Waterloo

Program:

Accelerate

Facilitating knowledge transfer by sharing experience before carriers disappear

The knowledge and skills of long-term employees are vital to the success of any business. When they leave, retire or are no longer available to perform their functions new employees are hired to take on their job functions. Somehow the skills of the departing long-term employees have to be transferred to the newly hired. The most effective way for transferring the skills to the new employees is mentoring. The aim of this project is therefore to put in place a system for facilitating knowledge transfer from long-term employees that are experts in they job functions to novices before the experts are no longer available.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Jon Rokne

Student:

Omar Addam

Partner:

GOmentr

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

Husky Lloydminster Upgrader Water Risk Assessment

This project will review water source alternatives for the Husky Lloydminster Upgrader Complex. These alternatives will be evaluating in terms of their relative economic, technical, social and environmental risks. The framework developed will provide a basis for conducting similar water risk assessments for other operations. The interns will research alternatives, risks, and develop the assessment framework.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Catherine Mulligan

Student:

Nayereh Saborimanesh

Partner:

Golder Associates

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Oil and gas

University:

Concordia University

Program:

Accelerate

Stepping Out. The impact of exercise on young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The overall research project undertaken by the University of Calgary graduate students will examine the effects of exercise on young adults 18-35 years of age with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Areas of investigation include cerebral blood flow changes, as well as sleep behavioral improvements. By doing research such as this, we will justify the use of exercise as a non-invasive means of treating and managing ASD, and additionally, establish exercise protocol templates that can be replicated in other universities and fitness facilities across the country. This initiative will address the enormous need for exercise and community programs for this underserved population. There is a need to further all the positive anecdotal evidence from previous pilot projects and create a database of information on individuals with ASD in an effort to advance the knowledge and improve the current care.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Penny Werthner

Student:

Hayley Wickenheiser

Partner:

Goodlife Fitness

Discipline:

Kinesiology

Sector:

Sports and recreation

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of a Rice Husk Pyrolysis Reactor

A rice husk pyrolysis reactor producing syngas and char was developed by GreenGenTech Energy Inc. (Ottawa, ON) and is currently being built and commercialized in China by a partner company called Ruizhantai. The reactor is fully functional and some sites have been running continuously for two years, although requiring skillful operation during start-up or when agglomeration of husk occurs. Aiming at optimized and more automatically controlled operations, GreenGenTech Energy Inc. wishes to perform temperature measurements to characterize the performance of the reactors (in terms of the quality of syngas and char output). In additional, preliminary numerical simulations will be performed to better understand the physics inside the reactor. This is the start of a long term collaboration. This collaboration will give GreenGenTech Energy Inc. a competitive advantage to optimize current technology of pyrolysis reactors as well as expand their usage towards a variety of biomass waste (for example, waste from wood mills, straw, etc.), which will result in revenue generation for the company, expansion, and job creation in Ontario.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Edgar Matida

Student:

Michael Miller

Partner:

GreenGenTech Energy Inc.

Discipline:

Aerospace studies

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

Carleton University

Program:

Accelerate

Interactive ‘digital’ education for multilingual, multicultural, and transnational business practices: The framework for industrial EFL education in internationalism and glocalisaion

This project will bring to the international society a framework for “international-minded” education for business people and industrial entities. Such industrial entities may include ones that aim to start or enhance their international trading businesses, and study-abroad support businesses. The target entities may also include public educational institutions, and federal/state/municipal governmental entities that deal with international public relations, marketing, or communication. The framework provides the public with free referential resources for language and cultural management of international businesses and practices, which could be significantly supported and enriched by the in-depth understanding to the multi-facets of multilingual communication in transnational corporations, and the role of English as a global language in these complex new configurations, including digital communication. As its initial stage, the project aims to create resources to guide best practice for the education of transnational actors who need to deal with Canadian and Japanese customers, fulfilling the needs of the partner organization.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Daniele Moore

Student:

Koichi Haseyama

Partner:

Green Path Educational Inc.

Discipline:

Education

Sector:

Education

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Nonlinear Frequency Response Analysis for Fuel Cell Diagnostics

In order to enhance the capabilities of fuel cell test stations, a new tool for fuel cell diagnostics based on nonlinear frequency response analysis (NFRA) will be developed. NFRA applies a perturbation of the operating current and measures the voltage response of the cell. By varying the frequency of the perturbation, processes with different dynamics (i.e. fast or slow processes) are excited and can be probed individually. From this frequency response, the state of the cell can be determined. Of foremost interest in this project is the reactant transport in the catalyst layer, which limits the performance of the cell at high currents. The reactant transport can be hindered by product water that accumulates in the catalyst and gas diffusion layer. Our aim is to find out whether NFRA can be used to distinguish and quantify the transport losses in those layers. This would enable a targeted development of these important fuel cell components.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Michael Eikerling

Student:

Thomas Kadyk

Partner:

Greenlight Innovation

Discipline:

Chemistry

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

The Academic Physician Retirement Project

This research project will investigate retirement planning among academic physicians within the Department of Medicine (DOM) at the University of Toronto. The overall objective of this project is to investigate the range of perspectives held by members of the DOM about retirement and to develop a later career transition assessment tool that will facilitate institutional succession planning and enhance individual adjustment to retirement. This assessment tool will be developed based on three subprojects: analyses of a survey instrument administered to the entire DOM, interviews conducted with a purposive subsample, and validating the tool. Findings from this project will have implications for retirement planning within the University Health Network in Toronto and that are potentially relevant to succession planning at other institutions employing individuals with strong work identities. Hay Group will benefit from the addition of validated and generalizable later career transition tool.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Michelle Pannor Silver

Student:

Kristen Pitzul

Partner:

Hay Group Health Care Consulting

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of Toronto

Program:

Accelerate

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