There is a great need and benefit to integrate artificial intelligence, robotic simulation, and robotics technology into Canada’s medical industry, hospital environment, and healthcare system. Robotic simulation technology, which has been successfully used for space rover missions such as NASA's Curiosity rover and the Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner mission, provides the ability to create and test different types of robots with different hardware configurations, and develop their associated artificial intelligence systems.

Extem supplies research grade mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and is looking to differentiate themselves by providing a proprietary human-derived growth media to replace the cow-derived fetal bovine serum (FBS) typically used. Pooled platelet lysate (PPL) may be a viable alternative. However, existing PPL methods lack quality control, standardization, and can result in up to 50% cell viability loss. Extem would like to develop a more economical solution that integrates beneficial quality control and standardization. By collaborating with Dr.

Kane Biotech Inc. is a Manitoba based company that provides innovative technologies that breakdown and disperse microbial biofilms. Dispersin B is an enzyme that both inhibits and disperses bacterial biofilms. Kane Biotech Inc. has expressed this enzyme protein in E. coli, with the goal of developing Dispersin B based products. Dispersin B yield and cost effective production are critical factors affecting the market opportunities for Kane Biotech’s Dispersin B products, estimated to be $10million in the next few years. Kane Biotech and Dr.

The conventional way of treating silver ore is using cyanide during leaching process, also called cyanidation. Due to the inherent toxicity of cyanide and the potential hazard toward human and environment, cyanidation has raised more public concerns in our society. More and more regions have strict regulations or prohibition on using cyanide. An alternative leaching method for silver ore is necessary. Among all the proposed alternatives, thiosulfate leaching is the most promising one. Low toxicity and low cost make thiosulfate leaching attractive.

This project will focus on researching Cell Broadcast solutions for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications (command and control operations). As an alternative to the Internet, Cell Broadcast is expected to offer great
advantages to both Utility providers as well as Commercial/Residential HVAC consumers due to its characteristics and it’s broadcasting nature over cellular control channels. Adopting Cell Broadcast will generate several communications-related challenges that will be studied and researched throughout the grant period.

Recent studies demonstrated that biochar produced from the thermochemical decomposition of biomass at high temperatures without oxygen (pyrolysis) can be used as a soil amendment to improve soil properties, sequester carbon and reduce soil greenhouse gas emissions. However, uniform and safe application of biochar in field is a drawback, due to the low density and particle size of biochar. Thus, the general objective of this internship research project is to produce pellets made from biochar that could be used for soil amendment in order to improve soil physico-chemical properties.

This project is to perform systematic studies to better understand key recovery mechanisms of mixture solvent CSI process and provide fundamental parameters for field-scaled prediction. For mass transfer, a methodology of measuring diffusion coefficients for multiple components simultaneously dissolving into heavy oil systems under bulk volume and porous medium conditions will be established. For foamy oil flow, its properties of non-equilibrium will be investigated by PVT measurement and depletion tests, respectively.

The proposed research project aims to optimize the conditions for Carbon dioxide eXpanded Liquid Extraction (CXLE) which uses liquefied Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and ethanol as co-solvents for extraction of compounds from natural sources. Design alterations will be implemented to a Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) unit at the partner organization (BioFoodTech) to perform CXLE and further increase the extraction amount as well as extraction rate.

Goldcorp recently announced a new initiative referred to as H2zero with the goal of reducing water usage in their mining operations by 80 to 100%. Mineral processing and specifically comminution and mineral separation are the main consumers of water. This research focuses on dry comminution technologies and represents a first step towards advancing dry comminution as part of a longer term goal and research intersect. A literature review will be conducted to compile information about existing and novel dry comminution technologies.

The proposed research focuses on developing a secure, reliable and real-time heterogeneous communication system to monitor and protect utility assets such as metering infrastructure, pumps and underground pipelines. The proposed system will be able to collect and aggregate data and upload the data through a cloud gateway to allow remote monitoring and control. The proposed system will interface the transmitted data with Lexcom’s Capital Infrastructure Management Systems (CIMS).