In collaboration with Acadia University and Nova Scotia Power, Innovasea inc. proposes an intern to determine route choice, and measure survival of Atlantic salmon smolt as they descend the Gaspereau River past the White Rock Hydropower Generating Station. This project will be completed in full collaboration with Fisheries and Oceans Canada Scientists. The results will both test new V3 tagging technology and inform mitigation efforts that will reduce negative impacts of dam passage on inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon as they begin their migratory journey to the ocean.

The proposed research aims to develop novel wood foams to be used for thermal insulation in buildings and houses. The wood foam will be designed to replace plastic foams, which are linked to environmental and health concerns. The wood foams will be prepared from unwanted forest residues (beetle killed wood) and green additives to impart strength and flame retardancy. Wet foams will be prepared with several water-based compositions and then oven dried to make porous hard sponge-like materials.

With the increasing effects of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions on climate change, there is also increasing interest to alternatives to internal combustion engines for mobility. Battery electric vehicles are one route, and another is fuel cells. There is increasing interest in polymer composites that are not only mechanically strong and lightweight, but also have other properties, such as electrical and thermal conductivity.

The global burden of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasing as it has become the second leading cause of cancer-relateddeaths and the fifth most common cancer worldwide. HCC is heterogenous, arising in the setting of various chronic liver diseasessuch as hepatitis C, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cirrhosis. Patients with cirrhosis who develop cancer cannot tolerate therapydue to inadequate liver function.

With our increasing dependence on technology, the total energy consumption from electronic devices for computation is projected to surpass all other contributions. By creating atomic-scale devices at the fundamental limits in size and energy cost, we can reduce their overall energy consumption while increasing computational power. While proof of concept devices are already routinely created, a fully automated fabrication procedure is necessary to successfully merge this technology with current electronic manufacturing processes.

Most of the cost of a product is determined by its design. Among current design theories and methods, there lacks a formal design method to support the design of a product that can be used as two or more products, an example of which is a sofa bed. Design for Versatility (DFV), as a design theory and methodology, will be developed to help designers to design a product that can perform functions of two or more products.

There is a scarcity of affordable custom pressure mapping equipment that enables a more independent life for persons suffering from neuropathy due to paraplegia or aging. Such individuals with limited mobility are at risk of developing pressure ulcers due to their lack of reactive nerve signaling, which can be life threatening.

Women use sports bras to reduce the breast movement and discomfort during exercise. In order to provide support, sports bras have a tight fit, adding pressure to rib cage. Pressure applied to the rib cage via a sports bra, can provide resistance during inspiration, and increasing the effort and work required to breath. The purpose of this study is to measure how the tightness of a sports bra affects how women breath at rest and during exercise.

Modern machine learning methods are data-intensive processes, requiring massive amounts of training data to achieve a high level of performance. As such, these techniques are challenging to deploy on tasks where datasets are especially difficult or expensive to obtain or where edge cases and other rare events are most relevant and worth learning. In such occasions, data augmentation techniques offer enormous benefits to alleviate the issue of limited training data.

This proposed Mitacs project will investigate and further develop EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy), or AC-impedance-based measurement hardware used for diagnosing faults in PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell systems (FCS), and incorporation of this on-board EIS function in the fuel cell dc/dc converters used to transfer power from the fuel cell to the vehicle traction drive.