Canadian Innovation Week 2022: #InnovateToInspire

Young Canadians are changing the world, one step at a time. From their new perspectives to their engaging passion, these are the innovations that inspire.

Together for clean water

Engineering students at McGill University, Bernadette Ng and Tirza Pang, began to develop ideas on how rural communities could access clean water when their trip to build water pipelines in Latin America was cancelled due to the pandemic. With a team from varying undergraduate programs, the students designed a device that could clean water through a carbon filter and ultra-violet rays, producing ready-to-drink water in a few hours. This month, team members will test their device in Honduras to help with water access.

Improving future research

An innovative project by Vedashree Meher, a graduate student at the University of Saskatchewan, uses synchrotron-based imaging techniques to take a closer look at blood clots and determine their composition. Examining them through this technique could potentially affect the treatments and outcome of stroke patients. Although the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada considers the recovery rate of stroke patients to be around 70 per cent, this can potentially be improved with new methods!

Research in the north

The Weston Family Awards in Northern Research provides support to young scientists studying ecosystems in the North and contributing to the development of Canada’s research. Past winners of the awards include Sofie Agger from The University of British Columbia who studied Arctic ecosystems, McKenzie Kuhn from the University of Alberta who studied the rate of methane emissions and Matthew Asplin from the University of Victoria who studied storm surges in the Western Canadian Arctic.