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

Measurement-based Optimal Dispatch of Distributed Energy Resources in the Power Distribution System

The integration of significant capacities of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as renewable wind and solar generation for a more sustainable energy future creates several challenges to the reliable and efficient operation of power distribution systems. These include: (i) Uncertain and intermittent nature of renewable generation compromises power quality for end-customers. (ii) Up-to-date distribution-system network topologies are not well known and their real-time monitoring is limited. As a result, effective management of DERs is challenging. (iii) Accurate DER control may require solving complex optimization problems.
To this end, the goal of this research project is to study distributed measurement-based methods to design DER management systems by developing equivalent network-sensitivity models of distribution systems from real-time measurements.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Yu (Christine) Chen;Liwei Wang

Student:

Severin Nowak

Partner:

Enbala Power Networks Inc

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

University:

University of British Columbia

Program:

Accelerate

Towards developing inhibitors to treat CoVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, which started in Dec. 2019, has so far not been contained due to unpreparedness and unsuccessful development of antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2. In response to this pandemic, we propose strategies for the development of novel antiviral agents against a number of known viral targets using in-silico modeling and laboratory testing to rapidly identify and validate their efficiency in blocking viral functions. We have prior experience working with viruses of the same family, which include those that cause Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PEDv) and influenza A/H1N1, and aim to -build small molecules to block the new virus. The goal of our design will be to find molecules for 1) the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication; 2) blocking of S protein-ACE2-mediated viral entry; 3) targeting SARS-CoV protease (3CL); 4) inhibiting viral protein nsp-14 – DDX1 helicase interaction. Each molecule will be evaluated for specificity and efficacy in in-vitro assays. We will synthesize target proteins and promising compounds and test their interactions by functional assays, including cell toxicity, and biophysical assays including analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), Microscale Thermophoresis (MST), and by high throughput screening.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Trushar Patel;Neal Davies;Borries Demeler

Student:

Maulik Badmalia;Siddhartha Biswas;Dong Ju Kim;Amy Henrickson

Partner:

Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Continuation of Characterization and Design of Additively Manufactured Components for Materials Integrity

Rapid prototyping, or 3D printing, has inspired the imagination of the general public, from simple build-it-yourself “hobby” machines using polymer-based binder material with inkjet functionality, to portable printers that can fashion components in zero gravity on the International Space Station. The functionality is user-friendly, in that printed material is dropped onto a substrate in viscous plastic form, which solidifies to take on the designed shape. The resulting piece is a plastic prototype that may be used as-is, for some applications, or as scaled models to assist the product development process. This work focuses on 3D metal printing, specifically, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), to build three-dimensional, complex parts using metallic powders. We integrate materials science, design of experiments, and engineering design for the purpose of manufacturing components with complex geometries and lightweight, high-strength metallic-alloy properties for aircraft applications. By investigating how process parameters affect the properties of materials, we expect to reduce run-to-run variations in the DMLS process, reduce production and post-production time and costs, and contribute to innovation in using an additive approach to the engineering design of complex components.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Amy Hsiao;Grant McSorley

Student:

Lucas Gabriel Gallant

Partner:

MDS Coatings

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Prince Edward Island

Program:

Accelerate

The COVID-19 infodemic : Telling Facts from Fakes

The Internet has become a major source of information, with a single piece shared across different platforms potentially reaching millions in a short period of time. As Covid-19 spreads across the world, the misinformation and fake news around it also spread. For each fact about Covid-19 made public, a large body of misinformation grows and gains traction (e.g. false origin of this disease, unproven treatments, the impact it has on different companies, governments and others (Raman Sandhya., 2020)). In response we must detect misinformation and suspicious posts around Covid-19 and prevent the potential impact on millions. In this project, we will apply machine learning and natural language processing techniques to distinguish fact from fake and classify information around Covid-19 into pre-defined categories. Furthermore, we will use intelligent web crawling strategies to iteratively gather a large diverse dataset, and ensure a robust model which can thrive in the ever changing misinformation ecosystem. Finally, we will augment our content-based model with syntactic and contextual information to even more robustly separate fact from fake.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Stan Matwin

Student:

Sima Sharifirad

Partner:

Factually Health

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

University:

Dalhousie University

Program:

Grief, Memorials, and Loss through COVID-19: Resources for caring while physical distancing

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting physical distancing measures pose a unique challenge regarding the ability for people to respond to loss and grief. In partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association of Hamilton, researchers from McMaster University will develop an interactive online resource to support people dealing with grief and loss during the Covid-19 pandemic. The resource will include examples of how to build community capacity for expressing care, sympathy and empathy and for coping with grief and loss in this time of social/physical distancing. These resources can be shared by health professionals, social service providers, and public and private institutions and the general public.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Ameil Joseph

Student:

Shaila Kumbhare

Partner:

Canadian Mental Health Association

Discipline:

Social work

Sector:

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

Validating a new lateral flow assay for COVID-19

The rapid spread of COVID-19, associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is of tremendous global concern. There is an urgent need to expand the current diagnosis capacity and to develop effective home-usable tests, and simple ones that can be used at the primary point-of-care. Ideally, the test will be simple enough that it could be performed by untrained personnel, yet also optimized to eliminate potential misuse and inaccurate measurements. An ideal test of this form would eliminate the current bottlenecks of personnel time, and the prof swabs or saliva or sputum, heat or chemical extraction, extraction kit shortages, and specialized machine with required bandwidth that is high and uncontrolled spread of the COVID-19. Lateral Flow Immunoassays (LFA), simple testing strips that employ a comprehensive collection of antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, might provide the needed functionality. However, proper validation is essential for reliability, as we can see with the failure rates of so many tests rushed to market. The team will determine the reproducibility of obtaining positive, and negative, results by LFA.

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Faculty Supervisor:

John Trant

Student:

Bukola Aremu

Partner:

Audacia Bioscience

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Windsor

Program:

Accelerate

Examining backcountry recreationists’ understanding and use of the avalanche danger scale: insights from qualitative interviews and responses to an online survey

Danger scales use a combination of colours, words, and severity levels to efficiently communicate basic hazard information to a target audience. Avalanche warning services around the world use a colour-coded, five-level danger scale to communicate the severity of snow avalanche conditions to recreational backcountry users. While past research has primarily focused on helping forecasters produce accurate danger levels, there has been relatively little research on recreationists’ comprehension and use of danger ratings. This research proposes an analysis of existing interview and survey data to identify themes and patterns in recreationists’ perceptions of the avalanche danger scale. The identified strengths and weaknesses of the current communication strategy will offer evidence-based recommendations to improve communication of the danger scale. Given the widespread use of danger scales in other settings of our daily lives, our results will also be of interest to the broader risk communication community.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Pascal Haegeli

Student:

Abby Morgan

Partner:

Avalanche Canada

Discipline:

Environmental sciences

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation

University:

Simon Fraser University

Program:

Accelerate

Structural characterization and mechanism-based inhibition of TMPRSS2, a human protease that activates SARS-CoV-2

The novel SARS-Coronavirus-2 becomes activated and is infective after interacting with the human TMPRSS2 enzyme, as it primes the virus to enter and hijack lung cells for viral replication. By designing drugs using a strategy that has shown success in inhibiting enzymes structurally similar to TMPRSS2 and understanding the exact shape of this enzyme in greater detail, highly specific drugs can be engineered to block SARS-CoV-2 activation and alleviate symptoms contributing to COVID-19 mortality. Through a collaboration between BC Cancer and the Structural Genomics Consortium, promising COVID-19 therapeutics predicted to block TMPRSS2 can be produced and tested experimentally, then translated to clinical study in an accelerated manner through the combined expertise of leading scientists and clinicians.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Francois Benard

Student:

Bryan Fraser

Partner:

Structural Genomics Consortium

Discipline:

Other

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Program:

Accelerate

Optimizing the COVID-19 response capacity at the Canadian Red Cross (CRC) through technical and evidence-based support to CRC’s Global Health Unit

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The Canadian Red Cross (CRC) has been at the forefront of providing support to the COVID-19 response in Canada. The Global Health Unit (GHU) at CRC is providing health-related technical and operational support to CRC in its efforts to combat the impact of COVID-19 in Canada. To optimize the CRC operations, the GHU is striving to provide quality evidence-based technical and operational guidance to the CRC program implementers who are working in the field to operationalize the public health measures put in place by the Government of Canada. The research will provide the scientific basis for CRC’s COVID-19 related work, contributing to COVID-19 response in Canada and globally through knowledge sharing activities.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Amardeep Thind

Student:

Faiza Rab

Partner:

Canadian Red Cross

Discipline:

Epidemiology / Public health and policy

Sector:

University:

Western University

Program:

Accelerate

Investigating SARS-CoV-2 Spike interactions with the cellular Ezrin protein as a potential novel therapeutic target for COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel, highly infections virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its rapid spread and high mortality rate, intense research efforts are focused on developing screening tests, antiviral therapies and vaccines. Further research is needed to understand how this virus interacts with host cells to infect them, replicate and release new virus to spread the disease. This project will study the interaction between the viral protein called Spike and a cellular protein called Ezrin. The intern will manipulate the EZRIN gene in cultured cells to determine if this Ezrin-Spike interaction is required for the SARS-CoV-2 viral life cycle. A biosensor will also be developed to identify small molecules which can block this Ezrin-Spike interaction. Results from this project will be used to develop antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19. Additionally, the path to develop new drugs can be expedited to clinical trials through our industry partner, Tika Therapeutics.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Peter Greer

Student:

Victoria Hoskin

Partner:

Tika Therapeutics Inc

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

Queen's University

Program:

3-D Nanoscale Imaging of Coronavirus Analogues at Various Stages of Cell Infection

In the project, we will use an advanced microscope instrument, called a focused ion beam, to capture 3-D datasets of a coronavirus analogue and SARS-CoV-2 infecting cells to understand its biomechanical relationship at the cellular level. The intern will work on sample preparation, imaging of infection and turning those images into a computerized model to gain insights into the infection mechanism.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Nabil Bassim;Kathryn Grandfield

Student:

Eric Woods

Partner:

Fibics Incorporated

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McMaster University

Program:

Accelerate

Mechanism of CoVID-19 induced hyperinflammation

This Mitacs-NSERC COVID-19 joint initiative is to investigate the mechanism of COVID-19 inducing hyperinflammation and cytokine storm. COVID-19 infected cells cause injury that triggers immune cells to release inflammatory cytokines. The partnership with Encyt Technologies Inc. and PI will use established immune macrophage cell lines to identify the molecular mechanism of hyperinflammation induced by COVID-19 ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/Mas GPCR platform in triggering the processes associated with this cytokine storm. We have also identified that the prodrug, oseltamivir phosphate (OP), is active against mammalian neuraminidase-1 (Neu-1), which we think may have relevance as a potential anti-COVID-19 drug. Neu-1 has been reported by us to control the receptors on immune cells involved in this cytokine production. The potential outcomes will provide valuable knowledge and scientific evidence to treat patients infected with the COVID-19 virus in exhibiting signs and symptoms of impending respiratory failure.

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Faculty Supervisor:

Myron Szewczuk

Student:

Reza Bayat Mokhtari

Partner:

Encyt

Discipline:

Biochemistry / Molecular biology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Queen's University

Program:

Accelerate

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