Measuring the Value of eHealth

Technology in today’s healthcare system. eHealth is the term used to describe this technology. The research performed will build a model to help determine the value of financial savings and customer service that can be attained by implementing eHealth within varying regions with varying degrees of existing information technology. The information for this model will […]

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New Business Development: Food Service Applications for Earthcycle Packaging

Market segmentation, research and analysis for a potentially significant new product line to be developed by Earthcycle Packaging. An opportunity exists to market and distribute compostable/biodegradable plates to certain food service segments such as airlines, hospitals and other institutions, and restaurants. The internship will focus on dissecting these markets to evaluate the business decision and […]

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Managing a New, Reduced Iron Steelmaking Process: Operations, Finance and the Risk of Patent Litigation

HATCH, an engineering consulting firm, owns the patent on a continuous steel processing technology that close-couples traditional steel processing with an innovative approach. Regression analysis will be conducted on a patent litigation data set to estimate the probability of patent litigation in the steel industry and forecast potential litigation costs. If the financial economics of […]

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Estimation of required efforts for information technology projects

The general objective of this research project is to enable a consulting firm to produce more accurate estimates for information technology (IT) projects. More specifically, the general objective consists of two sub-objectives, namely to: (1) determine the causes of estimation errors in the needs-analysis phase of IT projects; and (2) use new tools to correct […]

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Social and Environmental Purchasing Portal

The intent of this internship is to undertake the research necessary to enable Vancity to develop a social and environmental purchasing portal. The target audience will be Vancity staff via their existing intranet, Insite. The research will focus on Vancity’s peer and micro-entrepreneurs, their social enterprises and its ‘green’ business members. The idea is to […]

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The Creative Economy: Vancouver’s Untapped Resource

Vancouver consistently ranks at the top of Richard Florida’s “bohemian” and “creative” indexes. Many of its leading industries, such as film and new media, involve a significant creative component. However, the ‘creative’ sector is difficult to define and much of its activity falls outside of the traditional economy, particularly within certain communities. The grassroots creative […]

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Green Technology – the Role the Municipal Government Can Play

Despite being in a natural environment for success, Vancouver’s green technology industry has yet to take‐off. The Vancouver Economic Development commission, as part of its mandate, is seeking ways to help existing businesses and make policy recommendations to the City of Vancouver with regards to the green technology sector. The research project being undertaken focuses […]

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Emergency Department Flow Optimization Case Study

This Mitacs-Accelerate internship has to do with studying the Emergency Department (ED) operations at the Grand River Hospital. In May of 2008, the provincial government announced funding for a number of hospitals to help them reduce ED wait times. The focus of the internship is an in‐depth study of the ED, and a detailed analysis […]

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Research and Innovation Change Management in the Canadian Construction Industry

The purpose of the internship is to identify the existing status of research and innovation (R&I) processes in the Canadian construction industry. The internship will look at target levels and the extent of research and innovation (R&I) based in part on comparisons elsewhere. The intern will also research the barriers to change and an implementation […]

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Evaluating the Economic Impact of Greater Victoria’s Technology Sector

The objective of this research project is to locate VIATeC (the Victoria Advanced Technology Council), its member companies, and the Greater Victoria technology sector in general in relation to its current strategic environment. Through a review of the literature, surveys, interviews, and focus groups, the researcher will bring answers to the following questions: (1) What […]

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Opportunities in BC to Generate Carbon Offsets from Biomass-based Renewable Energy

The focus of this project is an estimation of the potential in BC for economically viable biomass-based renewable energy projects capable of generating greenhouse has offsets. The research required for this project involves a discussion of suitable bioenergy technologies for on and off-grid applications along with their associated fuel types, a demand-side analysis involving the […]

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Exploring the Role that Science and Technology Play in Regional Productivity Differences Using New Metrics

Problems associated with measuring scientific and technological advances make it difficult to determine the impact of R&D on scientific advancement, technical change and ultimately productivity and output. Our research uses new publication-based measures of technical and scientific change to: (1) quantify the importance of R&D and determine the strength of these relationships, (2) document differences […]

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