Impact | Conestoga Applied Research

A solar-powered alternative to wood-fired cooking with Zacstar Ltd.

Zacstar Ltd. supplies solar panels to the Nigerian market. The company partnered with Conestoga’s SMART Centre to refine a solar oven prototype designed to provide households with an alternative to wood-fired cooking. The project focused on improving the oven’s functionality, durability, and affordability while preparing the design for potential manufacturing.

A new approach to solar panel recycling with Sunset Renewables

Sunset Renewables, an Indigenous-owned company based in Hamilton, Ontario, partnered with Conestoga’s SMART Centre to advance purpose-built technology for recycling waste solar panels. Building on an earlier collaboration, the project focused on preparing the company’s recycling equipment for commercial operation while improving material recovery, efficiency, and scalability.

Smarter washroom maintenance through connected technology with Dexterra

Dexterra partnered with Conestoga to develop a smart washroom monitoring system for commercial facilities and high-traffic public washrooms. The project focused on designing a scalable platform that uses connected sensor technology to monitor washroom conditions and provide facility management teams with information to support cleaning, maintenance, and supply replenishment.

Smarter battery energy management with Vortex

Vortex partnered with Conestoga’s SMART Centre to develop an intelligent building management system designed to optimize battery energy storage operations. The project focused on creating an automated controller that uses electricity pricing and battery performance data to determine when batteries should charge, discharge, or remain idle.

Finding new possibilities for sustainable land use with Uprise Impact

Uprise Impact partnered with Conestoga’s SMART Centre to develop a prototype platform that evaluates land suitability for renewable energy technologies and other sustainable uses. The project combined AI with geographic, environmental, and land-use data to help property owners and prospective developers better understand opportunities for land development.

Developing a non-invasive cervical cancer screening technology for CELLECT Laboratories

CELLECT Laboratories partnered with Conestoga’s SMART Centre to conceptualize and design a non-invasive technology for collecting cells from menstrual blood for cervical cancer screening. The project combined CELLECT’s nanotechnology with the SMART Centre’s prototyping expertise to develop a functional screening device.

Optimizing trucking logistics with an automated cargo carousel for Circular Supply Chains Inc.

Circular Supply Chains Inc. partnered with Conestoga’s SMART Centre to develop a cargo management system that could help address inefficiencies in traditional trucking logistics. The project combined the company’s logistics expertise with the SMART Centre’s design and engineering capabilities.

Residential energy modeling for Homes to Zero

Conventional home energy modeling can be time-consuming and costly, making it difficult to apply at scale. Homes to Zero required validation of its faster, typology-based approach to ensure it could provide reliable guidance for retrofit decision-making.

Self-powered sensing technology for Shimco North America Inc.

This project focused on refining a prototype circuit board designed to capture and store sensor data during aircraft operation.

Building a data platform to support consumer packaged goods launches for goCPG

This project addressed a common challenge for consumer-packaged goods brands: turning scattered public data and informal launch notes into clear, repeatable business decisions.