The industrial scale manufacturing automation largely works because of robotic systems which are preprogrammed to reliably carry out the same sequence of steps over and over again. As a result, when scenarios change, or become more complex, robotic systems need to be re-programmed. Moreover, in high value added manufacturing applications, it is impractical to program every single motion of a robot manually. The project aims to develop fully autonomous robotic manufacturing and inspection systems that do not require extensive programming by end-users.

The utilization of meat by-products (e.g., heart, liver, kidney, intestines, and tongue) is necessary due to their adverse effects on environment. Livestock by-products represent about 52% of the cattle live weight. Since greater amounts of animals live weight is rendered unfavorable for regular consumption, it becomes important to develop technologies for the effective utilization of meat by-products. Furthermore, the large scale disposal of meat by-products in landfills raises environmental concerns. In this regard, their reuse in 3D printing technology could be an alternative.

The research project proposed will be used to improve the financial feasibility of an urban agricultural greenhouse. The first objective of this project is to create a business model that will supplement revenue to a greenhouse by offering mental health services. The second objective of this project is to test and assess the performance of a smart climate control system prototype that fuses climate sensor data with infra-red imagery of crops.

Renewable energy resources such as wind and solar power are often tied to the grid using dc-ac power-electronic converters. Unlike large power plants, these sources of energy have a dispersed nature, i.e., they are comprised on many small units that are operated in parallel to form a large power plant. This project deals with investigating the dynamics of these highly sophisticated, paralleled sources, their modeling, and control interactions. In particular, the project will consider the implications of paralleling and the impact these sources have on the dc side of the converters.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an undiagnosed sleep disorder affecting up to 10% of the population. OSA patients experience morning headaches, depression and daytime sleepiness which increase the accident risk factor. Polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard of OSA diagnosis, however, it’s expensive and time consuming. Therefore, it’s not practical to conduct PSG for patients prior to surgery requiring full anesthesia. Our research team was able to use tracheal breathing sounds for OSA diagnosis during wakefulness.

The Long-Term Development (LTD) 3.0 framework and its previous versions have been distributed by Sport Canada to national sport organizations since 2005 to improve participation and physical activity levels across the country, although the LTD’s acceptance and rollout has not been evaluated.

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the current and future potential of beef cattle to up-cycle and redirect food loss and waste (i.e. surplus food) to feed. This project will identify short and long term solutions for incorporating surplus food into beef cattle diets.

Advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients require close surveillance, as CKD patients are at high risk of adverse events including death, acute dialysis initiation, emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Previous data from our population-based provincial study showed that there is a 10-fold increase in ED visits and hospitalizations related to kidney failure and its complications during the 30-day period before the start of dialysis.

Electromagnetic metasurfaces have shown great potential in the field of antenna design thanks to their abilitiesto systematically manipulate electromagnetic waves in extraordinary ways such as the generalized refraction andreflection, impedance matching, polarization control, etc. However, the synthesis of a metasurface based on therequired scattering properties still largely relies on the designer’s intuition and experience as well as manyiterations of full-wave electromagnetic simulations which is an expensive and time-consuming process.

Tile drainage is becoming popular as a way to control excess moisture in the field to increase productivity. Yet, the economic return on investment (ROI) on installing tile drainage is not known in Manitoba. This research will allow us to assess the impact of water management through controlled drainage on yield. Detailed water table depth at different times will help us model water flow within the rootzone and its impact on crop yield.