Two types of color changes occur in potato, raw potato darkening and after cooking darkening. We are investigating the factors behind each type of darkening in three potato cultivars (Chieftain, Goldrush, and Yukon Gold). Effect of digging method (hand/mechanical) and storage time (after 3,5, and 7 mo) were studies to find if the digging method and/or storage has any effect on darkening. In addition we are developing a digital photography system and color intensity measuring software to use in industry as inexpensive, quick, and more accurate determination of potato discoloration.

Long checkout lines at the grocery stores and wholesales are one of the biggest complaints about the shopping experience. Soon these lines could disappear when te ubiquitous universal product code barcode is replaced by smart labels, also called radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. RFID tags are intelligent barcodes that can talk to a networked system to track every product that you put in your shopping cart. In this project, Graphene, the wonder material of the century, will be integrated into RFID devices to increase its reliability and reduce its product cost.

Virtual environments represented by multibody system models play an important role in many applications. Adding the possibility of the user directly interacting with such environments via physical touch using haptics can significantly enhance the usability and range of application of simulated environments.

Canada’s municipal water suppliers are facing challenges from population growth, ageing infrastructure, and climate change. We can no longer rely on finding new water sources or increasing our abstraction rates; we must implement demand management approaches that reduce our need for water. This project will focus on the use of price reforms in Canadian municipal water-providing entities to reduce public water consumption. The data collection phase will take place at Econics, a company that provides environmental and financial services to water providers.

Big data is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. The challenges include capture, curation, storage, search, sharing, transfer, analysis, and visualization. In this internship, we analyze a real-world big data set(s) to make sensible inferences by taking into account a selected range of criteria. A number of methods and algorithms are investigated, evaluated and evolved to advance the development of specialized tools and processes.

We have developed microfluidic polymer chips, and their associated reader for rapid differential diagnosis of disease states². Each polymer chip is 2×2 cm², and needs only 10 μl of whole blood sample of the patient for diagnoses. The turnaround time from introducing the blood sample to get the results is 15-30 min. The chip contains all the reagents, and thus it is disposable and can be used in doctors' office/emergency rooms of the hospitals without any need for central laboratory equipment.

This project aims to improve the throughput of the production system at ArcelorMittal through better coordination between the production operations. The project proposes a sophisticated discrete-event simulation model to analyze the impact of all important parameters of the production system, such as steel temperature, furnace heat duration, ladle movements, and heat loss at ladle. Several improved coordination strategies will be generated and deployed in the simulation model and the to-be behavior of the system will be observed.

The objective of the proposed project is to map all engineering processes involved in aeroelasticity calculations at Bombardier Aerospace and develop methods for holistic analysis and improvement of the aeroelasticity process, for the sake of performing better overall improvements and more realistic quantitative validations of those improvements. Existing methods and techniques for process mapping will be considered to develop a process framework which will be adapted to perform analysis and provide improvements to the process.

Quantitative assessment of the thermal role and wear characteristics of multi-layer coatings in cutting tools is approached through the analysis of mechanical contact problem at the tool-chip interface and the constriction resistance phenomenon. The micro-contact configuration on the surface asperity level and the macro-contact configuration (contact pressure distribution and the size of the adhesion and sliding zones) are to be analyzed. The dependence of the workpiece rotational speed and size on the convective-radiant coefficient of heat transfer is to be determined.