Innovations 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

Improved Care for High Risk Arthritis Patients

Arthritis affects 4.6 million Canadians and the demand for timely and effective care is critical to better patient outcomes and cost effectiveness. The research projects will identify better models of care delivery for:
1) at risk patients with obesity who may require knee and/or hip replacement surgery or require conservative medical treatment in place of surgery; and,
2) for inflammatory disease (IA) patients who require rapid medical intervention to limit disease progression and symptoms.
This research will use data modeling tools for such patients to analyze the risk and need for surgery. Also, it will evaluate nurse-led clinics treating IA patients such that rheumatologists can examine and treat acutely ill IA patients in a more timely fashion.
The partner organization, Alberta Bone & Joint Health Institute (ABJHI) will apply these results in its work with Alberta Health Services (AHS) to improve patient care and health system outcomes through program development and establishment, and ongoing measurement.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Brenda Hemmelgarn

Student:

Elena Lopatina

Partner:

Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute

Discipline:

Kinesiology

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

Development of Advanced In-Situ Recovery Technologies for Oil San

In-situ recovery methods for oils sands are applied to reservoirs containing bitumen that are too deep for mining. To date there has been only one commercially viable in-situ recovery method, Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), involving high pressure steam injection and bitumen production using horizontal well pairs located near the base of oil sands formations. While SAGD has enabled conversion of significant resources to reserves (about 170 billion barrels), SAGD has many economic and environmental limitations. SAGD capital and operating costs are high making many projects uneconomic at current low oil prices. Water usage and carbon emissions are also high in SAGD making the process environmentally unsustainable. The Accelerate Cluster projects are aimed at finding new recovery methods that reduce costs of delivering energy to the formations and that also reduce water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Faculty Supervisor:

ZhangXing Chen

Student:

Min Yang

Partner:

Nexen Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Oil and gas

University:

University of Calgary

Program:

Accelerate

An initial evaluation of the working memory impacts of a cognitive training program for children with learning disabilities

Learning disabilities (LD) are a significant area of identified disability for children in North America and worldwide. We currently understand cognitive processing weaknesses to contribute to the developmental difficulties that children with LD face in learning and beyond. One of these areas of cognitive weakness, working memory, is an important target for intervention because it not only impacts learning but other important aspects of life. This project examines the working memory effects of a cognitive training program for children with LD, the Eaton Arrowsmith school. We will use behavioral and neuroimaging techniques to examine working memory changes in treatment and control groups. This project will provide the Eaton Arrowsmith school with valuable knowledge about the effects of their program and will help researchers in this field better understand how we should continue to intervene with children with LD to encourage their academic and lifelong success.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Rachel Weber

Student:

Meagan Murphy

Partner:

Arrowsmith Program Inc

Discipline:

Education

Sector:

Education

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Adaptive User Interfaces for Product Recommender Systems

We are in the process of creating and growing a team of researchers, expert in the field of machine learning and data-mining. Ultimately, our aim is to create solutions to eliminate the need to manually define personalization strategies. We are in the process of signing partnership agreements with retailers capable of collecting large-scale datasets of customer behaviour. Through a data-sharing/consulting partnership we plan to perform research on the design of recommender systems customized for the data-sets available to brick and mortar retailers. These methods can be used in their physical and online loyalty programs as well as in their dynamical promotions/pricing strategies.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Cristina Conati

Student:

Ehsan Mahmoudzadehvazifeh

Partner:

Qi-Leap Analytics Inc

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Seasonal operational model for water management within irrigation districts

Reservoir operators typically determine flow releases by assessing the available storage and demand and then applying a rule?of?thumb. Thus, in spite of numerous previous and current computer modelling studies, the use of computer models in real?time reservoir operation on a district level is virtually nonexistent. The resulting “water savings” offer the opportunity to increase river flows, making greater volumes of water available to irrigated agriculture to reduce drought risks, or support irrigation sector expansion that meets all water licenses and in?stream water?quality objectives. Our proposed computer model will use runoff forecasts and historical runoff patterns, along with advanced optimization technique to update operational guidance based on current storage levels and crop demands. Six major irrigation districts in Alberta are participating as project partners and they will be involved in evaluating this tool. If the project succeeds, the tool could be linked as a web application with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Irrigation Demand Model (IDM) and offered to both provincial and international audiences.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Evan Davies

Student:

Amr Gharib

Partner:

Optimal solutions

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Natural resources

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Study of the Catalytic Effect of MFD on CuFeS2 Leaching

Bio-heap-leaching is a hydrometallurgical process used to process low grade chalcopyrite ore as the cost of alternative routes of processing and refining are not economically viable. The limitation however of the heap leaching process is the long time it takes to leach the metal and the low total recovery that can be achieved. As heap leaching being a large scale atmospheric leaching process, neither temperature nor pressure can be changed. Therefore, a viable solution is to add a catalyst that would dramatically enhance the kinetics while not being too expensive, environmentally detrimental or affect downstream process. Our discovery of MFD as catalyst fulfills all the requirements and is 100% compatible with the current heap-leaching process. Jetti resources hopes to use this technology to enhance the heap-leaching rate of chalcopyrite by at least 3 times higher than the conventional process.

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Faculty Supervisor:

David Dixon

Student:

Luis Quiroz Castillo

Partner:

Jetti Services Canada Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Crif1 : Protein expression, purification and crystallisation

Human Crif1 is a protein with multiple functions, playing important roles in embryonic development, cellular stress, cell cycle regulation and mitochondrial membrane integrity. CRIF1 is coined to play a regulatory role in the Bone Marrow microenvironment-induced leukemia cell cycle arrest possibly through interacting with CDK2 and acting as a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor.
In this project, we will express human Crif1 protein in baculovirus system, purify it with affinity chromatography and followed by crystallisation. The structural elucidation of Crif1 will enhance the understanding of complex processes in leukemia cell cycle arrest and improve the strategy for drug research.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Sheng-Xiang Lin

Student:

Preyesh Stephen

Partner:

Pyrovac Inc

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Enhancement of signal quality in Near Infra-Red (NIR) spontaneous Raman spectroscopy using coherent detection techniques for use in real-time cancer microsurgeries

Raman spectroscopy is a compound identification technique that can be used for real-time identification of cancerous tissues during surgery. The development and clinical translation of an intraoperative surgical-guidance instrument based on this technique is the main objective of ODS Medical, a Canadian startup. However, Raman signals are intrinsically very weak thereby requiring the measurements to be done in an absolute dark environment in order to minimize interferences by sources of light in the operating room. Such a requirement is incompatible with the clinical environment: presence of visible and invisible light sources is needed to accomplish surgeon’s tasks. Using coherent detection techniques, we propose to suppress environmental interferences from the collected signal, thus allowing to acquire high quality Raman spectra with no disruption of the surgical workflow. Those techniques will be implemented on the ODS Medical system and the prototype tested in various clinical environments in order to determine optimal system operational conditions. A 6-patients pilot study will be realised where in situ intraoperative measurements are acquired during glioma surgery at Montreal Neurosurgical Institute under various ambient light conditions.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Frederic Lesage

Student:

Jean-Philippe Tremblay

Partner:

ODS Medical Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - computer / electrical

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Improved Powder Production Processes: An Exploration of Atmospheric Spray Freeze Drying

This project will refine an existent technology developed by us for freeze-drying biological and medical solutions to produce powders. Freeze-dried bio-medical powders are used in pharmaceuticals as well as for food. The technology we will refine in this project is called atmospheric spray freeze drying (ASFD) and has the potential to be faster and more economical than current methods and to work for a wider variety of substances than allowed for by current methods. In this project, we will refine the monitoring and control components of the ADFD technology. In the proposed work we will custom build an AFSD device and improve the monitoring and control, internally, of process parameters at different point in the prototype device. Use of AFSD will be explored using pharmaceutical formulations of interest to the industry partner and comparison to conventional tray freeze-drying will be made. The aim of this project is to gain a better understanding of how process parameters and their control affect the essential properties of atmospheric spray freeze dried material.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Warren Finlay

Student:

Alvin Ly

Partner:

Pfizer Canada Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Pharmaceuticals

University:

University of Alberta

Program:

Accelerate

Evaluating the effectiveness of real time image filtering in multi-platform live broadcasting and interactive VR installations as means for artistic expression

There are several platforms that allow users to share real time video with the public. However, these platforms lack the tools that would allow creative professionals to create artistic video compositions extemporaneously. Our prior research assessed the potential for artistic expression within live video broadcasting by developing and integrating new creative tools within the Generate platform, a mobile tool for dynamic artistic video compositions. Behavioral analysis provided the information to determine the effectiveness and relevance of video art in an online real time nature. This research proposal will focus on two areas of investigation: (1) multi-platform live broadcasting and (2) interactive VR installations.

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Faculty Supervisor:

David Fracchia

Student:

Ruo Jin (John) Yan

Partner:

Generate Software Inc

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Education

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Preparation of a new formulation to prevent surgical adhesions

Inter-tissue adhesions cause significant complications following veterinary surgery of domesticated animals. Fucoidans are natural, negatively charged, carbohydrate polymers (polysaccharides) from seaweeds that have been successfully developed and commercialized for reducing such adhesions, thereby improving surgical outcomes. Currently, the inherent variability in the molecular size and composition of native fucoidans extracted from seaweed presents a significant barrier for their break-through application in human surgery. Hence, the objective of this project is to develop a scalable, efficient route to synthesize novel anionic polysaccharide derivatives that both mimic the function of extracted fucoidans as a medical device, and meet the stringent requirements on purity and structural homogeneity necessary for use in humans. Successful completion of this project will result in a process method for the production of a novel medical device that will supersede current fucoidan preparations for the reduction of post-surgical adhesions. Subsequent development by the industrial partner of this device into a product will reduce pain, suffering, and mortality in Canadian patients following routine surgical procedures. The resulting reductions in hospital stay durations, re-admissions, and re-operations will reduce healthcare costs to all Canadians.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Harry Brumer

Student:

Laleh Solhi

Partner:

ARC Medical Devices Inc

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Unmanned Air Vehicles: Conformal Antenna and Shape Sensing in Flexible Aeroservoelastic Flight Demonstrators

QUATERNION has partnered with BOEING USA on a flight validation and evaluation program using Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to identify the operational system that replaces the 900MHz Autopilot Whip Antenna, integration of the printed antenna system into the UAS and related connectorization, fiber optic and strain gauge instrumentation in support of the shape prediction system and associated flight testing. As part of this development, QUATERNION is actively developing tools and processes to improve the predictive capabilities their in-house design and validation tools on printed electronics, sensors, antennae and shape sensing for the UAV market. QUATERNION is specifically interested in the flight test demonstration using UAV technology to further the maturation of printed electronics and structural antennae.

View Full Project Description
Faculty Supervisor:

Curran Crawford

Student:

Willem Brussow

Partner:

Quaternion Engineering

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Aerospace and defense

University:

University of Victoria

Program:

Accelerate

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