Intern Grower

The main goal for the project is to provide an intern with hands-on experience in maintaining a hydroponic system while supporting a up and coming social enterprise that is trying to develop a peat free horticulture substrate. The intern will work with Typha Co.'s Grower Technician to implement growing trial and that growing regimens are followed while ensuring effective data collection.

Digital marketing

#1 Website implementation & refining. #2 Website activity tracking. #3 Website B2C & B2B sales #4 Creating sales funnels with advertising #5 Automize digital marketing

Bioresource Strategist

We have a mission to create a growing medium with a far lower environmental footprint than the status quo peat based growing mediums. We want to accomplish this by using Typha or Cattails that absorb agricultural and human waste nutrient pollutants from watersheds, mitigating eutrophication downstream in lakes and other water bodies. Harvesting and repurposing Typha has been shown to successfully remove significant amounts of pollutant N and P from water systems by taking it out of the system. While importantly, harvested wetlands have also been shown to continue to grow to great health year after year. We currently have access to a constructed wetland which can supply us enough Typha for at least the next year. Although we will need to expand our harvesting operations as business grows. There is an estimated 3-6 million tonnes of Typha available to be harvested annually in Manitoba and we would like to harvest at maximum, a tenth of that in the future. Much of this harvestable Typha is on crown land, private farms, and municipal property. We would like you to come up with and report on strategies necessary to reach this harvesting goal at a low cost and with minimal negative effect on the environment.

Typha Gel Extracts: Biocompatibility and Efficacy Assessment

Typha Co. is investigating the potential of cattail-derived compounds for use in cosmetics and wound-healing gels. The project aims to assess the biocompatibility and anti-inflammatory properties of these natural extracts using mammalian cell culture assays. Students will conduct literature research on cattail-derived bioactive compounds to understand their potential applications. They will design and execute mammalian cell culture experiments to evaluate cytotoxicity and perform anti-inflammatory assays, such as ELISA and qPCR for cytokine expression. The goal is to analyze and interpret data to determine the extracts' potential for medical or cosmetic use. This project provides an opportunity for students to apply classroom knowledge in a practical setting, enhancing their understanding of biocompatibility testing and data analysis.