The Legacy Foundation of Canada is a non-profit organization that works to provide support and resources to marginalized communities across the country. Their mission is to create a more equitable society where everyone has access to the resources and support, they need to thrive.
Our team decided to create a fundraising campaign that would gather donations from both online and in-person sources. We worked closely with the Legacy Foundation to understand their needs and goals, and to develop a campaign that would resonate with potential donors.
To start, we created a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that included social media, email marketing, and digital advertising. We used free channels to reach as many people as possible, and to build awareness around the Legacy Foundation’s mission.
In addition to our digital efforts, we reached out to local businesses to secure monetary and non-monetary donations. We also participated in the “Indigenous Vendor Fair Event” held at Algonquin College, where we offered our non-monetary donations for monetary donations that could directly help the Legacy of Hope Foundation.
Throughout the campaign, we worked closely with the Legacy Foundation to track our progress and adjust our strategy as needed. We regularly shared updates on the success of the campaign, and provided detailed reports on the sources and amounts of donations.
In the end, we were able to raise a good amount of funding for the Legacy Foundation. The campaign exceeded our goals and expectations and helped the organization to continue to make a positive impact in communities across Canada.
Along the way, we learned a great deal about the power of community and collaboration. We saw firsthand how individuals and organizations can come together to make a real difference, and how technology can be leveraged to connect people from all corners of the country.
We also learned about the importance of transparency and accountability in fundraising. Throughout the campaign, we made sure to provide regular updates to donors and stakeholders, and to be transparent about how the funds were being used. This helped to build trust and credibility with our audience and contributed to the overall success of the campaign.
Overall, working with the Legacy Foundation was an incredibly rewarding experience. We were proud to play a role in supporting their important work, and to contribute to the creation of a more equitable and just society.
Reaction All Years
Lykkå Village is a community-building and co-living startup based in Montreal, founded in 2020 by Trine Mikkelsen and Jean-Michel Pollak – both parents themselves. The name “Lykkå” is derived from two Danish words: “Lykke,” meaning “happiness,” and “å,” meaning “stream.” Lykkå Village provides a unique blend of the features offered by Airbnb and Match.com, bringing families together to live in harmony and mutual support. In addition to shared living spaces, the platform enables members to host and join events, buy and sell goods and services on the marketplace, and connect with like-minded people.
Recently, Lykkå Village required the creation of an event sidebar to help filter their events, making it easier for members to find events that suit their interests and needs. With this new feature, Lykkå Village continues to enhance the user experience, offering a more personalized and convenient way to engage with the community.
Team
In order to help Lykkå Village achieve their goal of providing a more personalized and convenient experience for their members, we implemented a filtering algorithm for events. This algorithm uses a date picker, category selector, and search bar to make it easier for users to find events that suit their interests and schedule. By incorporating these features, Lykkå Village is able to offer a more streamlined and user-friendly platform, making it easier for members to engage with the community and participate in events that matter to them.
Learned
Throughout the project, our team gained valuable insights and experience. We learned how to quickly adapt and learn new technologies, such as React and MUI, in order to meet the client’s needs. Additionally, we honed our skills in client communication and collaboration, working together as a team to achieve our goals. Along the way, we were presented with various challenges, which provided us with opportunities to develop our problem-solving skills and think creatively to find solutions. Overall, our experience with Lykkå Village allowed us to not only expand our technical skills but also our interpersonal skills, making us better equipped for future projects.
Hello Dear is a senior-focused mobile application designed to the unique needs of seniors and their caregivers. Our client approached us with the idea of creating an app with a focus on enhancing senior well-being and privacy, as well as prioritizing a user interface to ensure accessibility for all.
Our client realized there was an opportunity in the market for an app that connects seniors with their caregivers or loved ones, and to take preemptive measures based on the senior’s mood. With many caregivers being busy with their own lives, our client saw the need for an app that can help seniors navigate their daily routine. While there are similar apps on the market, they lacked visual appeal due to unattractive design, harsh colours, or were not senior-friendly. Therefore, our client wants an all-in-one-solution that provides all necessary features for senior well-being presented in an accessible interface.
Our team, Hexagon, took our client’s challenge and conducted our own research to gain better insights in the market and to come up with a unique solution. We conducted market and product research to understand our competitors, and user research with older adults in the community to better understand what our primary users’ needs are. A number of themes emerged as a result, but the main recurring theme was the use of mobile devices to communicate with friends and loved ones. This was particularly evident during the pandemic where seniors had to combat isolation and loneliness.
Combining our research with our client’s goal, Hello Dear was formed. We prototyped an app designed to promote senior well-being by enabling caregivers to check in on their mood and offer recommendations. Seniors can communicate their emotional state through the app’s senior-friendly interface, and the app provides recommendations based on their mood. This allows seniors to receive personalized recommendations, tailored to their unique needs at that moment. The app also shares the senior’s mood with the caregiver or family member, providing real-time updates without the need for direct communication. This feature helps caregivers keep track of the senior’s well-being and offer support accordingly. Hello Dear features a “My Circle” or contact list, that is by invitation only. This ensures that only trusted individuals can access the senior’s information, providing an extra layer of security and privacy.
As we developed the app’s features, we began to face the challenge of designing an interface that is user-friendly for our older target users, who may be faced with physical or visual impairments, while also being visually appealing. To achieve this, our team researched studies and accessibility guidelines, and conducted an iterative process of user testing to come up with a simple design accessible for all users and suitable for all levels of technology experience. Hello Dear’s interface features a large text size by default, high contrast on all important elements of the app, and text-to-speech support. All these features are adjustable in the settings of the app to adapt to different user needs. The app also features a simple navigation on the homescreen to reduce information overload, which users can customize by adding or removing features as needed. Interactive components are also sized larger and limited to mostly tap gestures to ensure accessibility for those with physical impairments.
Throughout the development process, we learned a great deal about the unique needs of seniors, accessibility, and the importance of teamwork and communication. When conducting user research, this project has taught us the importance of tailoring our interviews and questions to our target audience, and we gained a deeper understanding of how an often-overlooked demographic struggles with technology. We also found that regular check-ins and updates were essential to keeping everyone on track. By working collaboratively, we were able to address issues as they arose and were able to overcome obstacles and deliver a high-quality product. We believe that the skills and experience we gained throughout the project will serve us well and we look forward to applying them in future projects.
Hello Dear is a mobile application that addresses the unique needs of seniors in both features and its interface. With its accessible-focused interface, personalized recommendations based on the user’s mood, and building stronger communication between seniors and their loved ones, the app provides seniors with the care and attention they deserve while providing caregivers with the peace of mind they need. We are proud to have worked on such an important project, and we hope that Hello Dear will make a positive impact on the lives of seniors and their caregivers.
You are welcomed to view a prototype of Hello Dear here: https://figma.fun/GgkHGC
There are no current social platforms in which young women may safely engage in meaningful conversations around beauty and wellness. Additionally, there is an opportunity to provide brands with a context in which they can connect with and participate in meaningful conversations to provide suggestions for problems that users express regarding beauty and wellness.
The PeerCircle App will help young people struggling to find meaningful beauty and wellness conversations by providing safe, self-curated micro-communities that enable them to connect with relatable people and brands to have real conversations that empower their true selves, offer support in real-time, without any fear of judgement, hiding, or pressure.
This project focuses on designing the UI/UX that will be the foundation upon which this application will be developed
The project’s purpose is to facilitate the process of training and optimizing models. It should easily allow the developer to create varied algorithms for experimenting. Then these experiments should be easily visualized and stored. The optimization process should include different algorithms such as Bayesian optimization, grid search and random search. The algorithms should also support parallel training for lowering the time spent training all experiments. The visualization should be responsive and updated in real time so the developer can easily decide to stop or restart the optimization process.
A thermal camera attachment for a drone with a custom pan and tilt is to be designed and built for Indro Robotics on the basis of functionality and weight. The purpose of this project is to create a scaled-down version of an already existing product in order to provide customers with a cheaper alternative to what is currently available on the market. Various off-the-shelf components will need to be purchased, while others will be provided by the client. The pan and tilt system will need to be custom designed, and 3D printed.
SPEnD or Social Procurement and Development is a project intended to develop, curate, and disseminate research on the capacity of Canada’s college sector for social procurement and social finance and contribute to community wealth building through research and development of market-driven social enterprises.
SPEnD’s areas of research are social enterprises, social procurement, social finance, and social entrepreneurship. SPEnD is 3-year program at Algonquin College’s Social Innovation Lab, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies.
Our project aimed to create a more efficient and safer way to extinguish fires, particularly in situations where access is limited or the risk to human life is high. Traditional firefighting methods can be dangerous and ineffective, especially in high-rise buildings.
The FireFightBot we developed uses a webcam and color filtering system to accurately detect flames, even in low light conditions. Two servos control the nozzle’s movement, which allows the robot to aim the water spray at the center of the flame with precision. The pump activation system ensures that the water is sprayed for a controlled period of two seconds before the robot stops. The robot repeats this process every two seconds until there is no substantial flame left in the camera’s view.
This innovative firefighting robot has the potential to be fast-acting, enabling it to extinguish fires quickly and effectively, providing more time for emergency teams to arrive. In addition to being safer and more efficient than traditional firefighting methods, the robot’s ability to reach difficult-to-access areas can prevent the spread of fires, limiting the potential for further damage or harm.
Our team conducted extensive research on existing solutions and technologies to develop a reliable and efficient robot that can be deployed quickly in emergency situations. The robot’s advanced capabilities, combined with its fast response time, can help minimize damage to buildings and property, making it an invaluable tool for firefighters.
Our FireFightBot has the potential to revolutionize the way firefighters approach extinguishing fires. Its fast-acting and efficient nature can provide critical time for emergency teams to arrive, potentially saving lives and minimizing the potential for further damage or harm. We are excited about the impact this technology can have on the world of firefighting and look forward to further developing it in the future.
As part of the Applied Project Management course, students are required to conduct an event with specific targets. The main goal of this course is to give students an opportunity to put into practice what they learned in Semester One. By undertaking this event, the students are expected to go through all the stages of the project management cycle (i.e. from Initiation to closing) while considering all the stakeholders, risks, and costs. The course instructor, Prof. David Solomon (also the Project Sponsor) provided the class with 5 Project Charters (5 possible projects to choose from). From here, one project is assigned to each team by Prof. Solomon.
The Make-a-Wish foundation has already previously partnered with the PMGC program in Algonquin College to conduct fundraising events. The Make-a-Wish foundation is a nonprofit founded in the United States that helps critically ill children achieve their greatest wishes (Make-A-Wish, n.d.). In Canada, Make-A-Wish has granted over 36,000 wishes since 1983 (Make-A-Wish Canada, n.d.).
As explained by Darlene Bennett, a member of the Development Team in Ottawa, Make-a-Wish runs various charity events to raise money so that these children’s wishes may be granted. She added that on average, each wish would cost around CAD 10,000.00. Since this is a huge sum of money for one event to raise, multiple events are run so that the total profit may sum up to the specified amount of CAD 10,000.00.
Although all projects that were provided as options seemed equally challenging and potentially rewarding, the impact a charity would have on the community, and specifically, on an ailing child, motivated the Project Team to submit an application with the Make-A-Wish foundation as our primary choice of project.
As Ms. Bennett mentioned, having their wishes come true rejuvenates the children and inspires them to fight harder against their illnesses. The possibility of making a child’s wish come true is a great purpose and, in the Project Team’s opinion, trumps other outcomes.
After careful consideration of all the applications, the Project Sponsor awarded Team 13, The Pentagon group, their first choice for a project: A charity event for the Make-A-Wish foundation. The project team is currently undertaking research into various aspects of this project before the scheduled Kickoff in week 9 of the term.
In this project, we as a group tried to look for potential venues to host a karaoke night and eventually we were able to secure a venue. After communicating with the venue and finding about the precise day and time, we commenced to promote the event and invited more people to come and donate for the event.