Infrasound Data Analysis for Wake Vortices and Maritime Vessel Detection

Infrasonic signatures are long wave acoustic signals in the under 20Hz range (below human hearing). The partner organization has been experimenting with infrasonic sensors to achieve 2 key outcomes: a) detection clear air turbulence to benefit commercial air travel and b) detection of ‘dark vessel’ marine traffic, i.e., illegal fishing.The ability to detect clear air turbulence from the host aircraft in real time offers a savings to the airline industry (between $500M and $1B per year) in lost time accidents and costly fly arounds for suspected turbulence.

Design and Development of the Smart Friction Pendulum System (FPS) for High-Rise Buildings to cope with seismic loads

Buildings are vulnerable to moderate and powerful earthquakes. In order to keep their functionality during and after the seismic events, structural control systems are the promising candidates to be embedded in the buildings in which they dissipate the energy towards the building and separates the movements between the soil and the infrastructure. One of the common systems for this protection is the friction pendulum system (FPS), but it has the disadvantage of losing position once an earthquake happens.

Software development for beam-type structures' reliability analysis

Reliability analysis of structures is crucial to ensure efficient operations in industrial assets. Nowadays, industries benefit from condition monitoring (CM) equipment to evaluate their products' health. Current commercial reliability software can not accurately analyze the reliability of structures under time-varying conditions. The intern has previously developed an algorithm for accurate reliability analysis of different structures. We have also validated that algorithm for bearings under time-varying working conditions.

Distributed Fault-tolerant Drone Network Design

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or drones have numerous applications in different industries. However, drones have limitations such as short flight time, limited flight range, and navigational inaccuracy in regions with unreliable GPS signal. To mitigate these limitations, using a group of drones to cooperatively perform the mission is proposed. The resulting parallel operation increases the efficiency and reduces the operational time. In addition, we propose a cooperative localization to navigate the group of UAVs as a back-up for GPS navigation.

Development of an embedded piezoelectric sensor for bearing fault detection

Rolling element bearings act as the heart of rotating machines. Any imperfection in their condition can lead to an abrupt failure which can be catastrophic. For more than two decades, implementing sensors for condition monitoring of bearings has been beneficial in preventing abrupt failure and fault detection. These sensors require a noise-free atmosphere to have optimal performance, however, noise and vibration from other machines are an unpreventable part of an industrial environment.

Improvement of a Portable Assistive Device Concept for Hand Rehabilitation

As the number of patients with stroke and Parkinson's Disease (PD) increases, it is essential to obtain treatment progress data efficiently for the home rehabilitation. For the therapy of hand disabilities, a system is required to collect data, process and control hand motions during rehabilitation. Current rehabilitation devices that are available in the market are costly and not portable. Existing hand training devices use contact-based sensing approaches that are expensive and inaccurate.

A model retrieval system for efficient bolus shaping

Bolus covers patient’s skins to correct varying surface contours for desired dose distribution in cancer care. The existing method of bolus shaping is a manual process by cutting the bolus material into 2D pieces and wrapping the pieces on the targeted body area, which is inaccuracy and time-consuming. An accurate and efficient bolus shaping method is proposed to increase the bolus shaping accuracy and reduce air gaps by applying a 3D-2D-3D process. In order to improve the efficiency, a model retrieval system will be developed based on feature extracting and image-based matching methods.

Design improvement and prototyping of an upper limb rehabilitation device

Upper limb rehabilitation devices mirror the skeletal structure of patients’ limbs and moves patients’ arms for recovery in rehabilitation exercises. Existing rehabilitation devices in the market have problems of adaptability and portability, which cannot meet different requirements of rehabilitation. This project will improve the design and build a prototype the device. The detail design will be improved in dimensions and specifications based on relation of design parameters and functions. The device prototype will be made by 3D printing.

Financial Modeling based on Sentiment Analysis and Natural Language Processing

Financial variables modelling plays an essential role in computational finance and risk management. Recent research has shown that public sentiment and other information expressed in the natural text such as news articles are important factors correlated with financial variables. The main purpose of this project is to better model financial variables such as market indices and credit spreads.

Application of a Surface Fouling Sensor for Predictive Maintenance of a Brazed Plate Heat Exchanger System

Heat exchangers, used in building heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to transfer heat from hot to cold fluids, are designed to operate under ideal conditions. However, in practice operating conditions may vary with ambient temperature or humidity. HVAC system efficiency can be improved significantly if fluid flow rates are adjusted in response to such changes. Armstrong Fluid Technology is a Canadian firm that has developed control systems to adjust the flow through building heat exchangers to maximize their efficiency.

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