Innovative Projects Realized

Selling Awareness: Comparing Media Representations of Domestic Violence in France and Canada

Both Canada and France evidence high levels of domestic violence and, as such, various governmental and non-governmental bodies attempt to address the problem through media awareness campaigns. The Mitacs Award will support the media analysis of recent French media campaigns developed to create awareness around domestic violence, comparing these with depictions of domestic violence employed to sell products. What is innovative about this research is that I will also consider how similar images in anti-domestic violence campaigns and consumer ads impact audiences and investigate a puzzling hypothesis that representations of gender-based violence in consumer ads create more buzz than awareness campaigns. Studying with Dr. Karine Berthelot-Guiet, a leader in the field of social semiotics, this project promises to support the development of a strong international network as the findings will be compared with an analysis of media campaigns in Canada, conducted after the completion of the analysis of French media campaigns.

Designing a safe, non-intrusive game for children to potentially detect Child Sexual Abuse (CSA)

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) is a universal problem. It produces lifelong ill effects. Children should be made aware of it and educated about protecting themselves. They need easy ways to recognize and express attempts of CSA. This project aims to design an educational game that creates awareness in children about CSA. It will be conducted in Canada and India to study how cultural differences might influence the design. Children will not be directly involved in the research. Parents, guardians, and other interested adults in Canada and India will be surveyed to gather requirements for the design of the game. They will also participate in the design through focus group sessions to be conducted in Toronto and Bangalore. It is hoped that the resulting game will be helpful in making children more savvy about CSA.

A Culturally Inclusive AAC App for Autistic Children in China

“Verbal language is significant in communicating our thoughts for daily living. However, children with autism often have problems with verbal communication. Early intervention is extremely significant to autistic children because it can encourage their verbal language, self-care and social skills. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools based on pictures can benefit autistic children by compensating for writing and speech. In Canada, there are diverse AAC apps available for autistic children while in China, they do not have them. This project will develop a prototype for a Chinese AAC app using a popular AAC app in English. The app will be evaluated in China with parents and caregivers through community training workshops. Lessons learned from this cultural examination of use of technology in autism intervention between the two countries will be shared with community organizations in both countries.”

Improving bend gesture accuracy using simulated tactile properties

Bend gestures on flexible devices allow users to provide subtle and continuous input to a computing device by bending a corner or a side of the device in question. The depth of bend can be used to control, for example, the speed at which the user scrolls through a document. This kind of input could be made more precise through the incorporation of tactile, or touchbased, feedback. By embedding a flexible device with vibrating elements, we will be able to simulate the properties of real-life materials. As the user performs a bend gesture, the device makes subtle ‘click’ sensations, like a volume knob on a stereo. By being able to feel the degree of bend they are performing, I predict that users will be able to use bend gestures with increased accuracy. Through this project I seek to determine the effect that tactile feedback has on bend gesture accuracy. It is also exploratory research, looking to ways this type of feedback can be used to expand the vocabulary of bend gesture input.

Task-optimized parallel manipulators

This research focuses on the optimization of parallel mechanisms, a specific class of robotic mechanisms, such that an optimal design guarantees that a desired task, having certain requirements, is able to be completed by the mechanism. The Inria Sophia Antipolis Coprin project (now the Hephaistos project) have worked on the development of interval analysis algebraic geometry tools. These tools greatly extend the possibilities of improving both the analysis and optimization algorithms used in this research, providing guaranteed results. The application of such tools is very exciting since it may be possible to verify that a resulting design is indeed optimal. The outcome from this research project will be the development of a set of interval-based algorithms for the optimal determination of a parallel mechanism for a desired task.

High efficiency CO2 electrochemical reduction to syngas and hydro-carbon fuels at elevated temperature

The present dependence of human society on fossil fuels indicates the inevitable increase of energy de-mands and emissions of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide (CO2). These problems need to be resolved with sustainable energy solutions, including the idea of capturing CO2 to synthesize renewa-ble or sustainable hydrocarbon, and carbonaceous fuels. Our proposed research project focuses on the de-velopment of a novel solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) process for electrochemical reduction of CO2 to produce value-added products. The students will utilize the elementary reaction modeling technology to further optimize the current SOEC configuration and to prepared advanced electrode materials in order to achieve the goal of high efficient conversion of CO2 to syngas. The proposed research project will pro-vide strong support to the investigation on renewable energy application including methane associated high-density vehicle fuels, solar cell, as well as wind, wave or nuclear power.

Landscapes of Erasure: geographies of absence in Michoacan.

The state of Michoacan in Mexico, where most of the drug war comes from, has a long history of exploitation against indigenous people and the natural resources concentrated in the state. Michoacan’s vast system of forests has been subjected to years of illegal wood trafficking, a fact very well known but little exposed, pushing the indigenous ‘purepechas’ to become both slaves and accomplices of those crimes. Drug trafficking clashes with civil war and indigenous resistance struggles with their right for local jurisdiction of culture and natural resources. My research attempts to investigate how violence materializes in space, producing regulated territories that otherwise would just be a natural physical environment. For example, how the drug wars in Michoacan, a crime that leaves no apparent material residue, shapes the geographical and the social?. My interdisciplinary research combines social studies with studio arts practice, usually presented at museums, galleries and research centers.

Production of Bio-based Phenol Formaldehyde (BPF) Floral

Commercial phenol formaldehyde (PF) foams are produced from petroleum-based phenol and formaldehyde. Depletion of the non-renewable petroleum and environmental concerns have intensified a global interest in producing bio-based PF (BPF) foams using bio-phenols from lignin or lignocellulosic biomass to replace petroleum-based phenol. This Mitacs Globalink proposal aims to produce open-cell BPF floral foams, building upon our success in the preparation of close-cell BPF foams. The proposed methodologies are briefly described as follows: Foamable BPF resin (at a high phenol substitution ratio ~50%) will be firstly synthesized using kraft lignin (KL), phenol, and formaldehyde under alkaline conditions, followed by foaming through blending a blowing agent, a surfactant, a curing agent, catalyst, and optionally a wetting agent, a dye, an essence, etc. into the synthesized resole resin. Novel methods to control the cell structure (with a desired open cell ratio) of the foam configuration will be developed. The obtained BPF floral foam will comprehensively characterized for physical/chemical properties compared with conventional PF floral foam.

Explaining Discrepancies between De Jure and De Facto Exchange Rate Regimes: A Constructivist Approach

Why some states publicly announce one type of exchange rate regime but in fact adopt another? Do states try to manipulate their currencies by creating discrepancies between words and deeds? My research intends to provide an ideational explanation to the gaps between de jure and de facto exchange rate regimes. More specifically, I argue that the classification and verification of exchange rate regime is a social fact rather than a “brutal fact”, and the ideas and perceptions held by national policy makers regarding proper government intervention lead them to code and frame regime choice in accordance with local understanding. Therefore, if policy makers perceive exchange rate management differently from neoliberal orthodoxy, they will be more likely to be judged as “renege” on policy proclamation by neoliberalism-based de facto classification.

Modelling of Surgical Workflows

Minimally invasive interventions are becoming increasingly common as they improve patient outcomes such as recovery time and infection risk; however,

these procedures can be difficult for operators to learn. To improve surgical training efficacy, computer-assisted training, which must provide feedback in the form of instruction and skill evaluation, can be used. The training system must have a sufficient model of the procedural workflow, which can be described surgical process models. These surgical process models, combined with methods for automatically determining the current phase of an intervention can be used to automate instruction. For this project, I propose investigating surgical process modelling for the technical subcomponents of needle-based interventions. Subsequently, these surgical process models can be combined with a previously developed workflow segmentation algorithm to provide automatic instruction. The resulting system will be integrated into the opensource PerkTutor platform (www.perktutor.org) for image-guided intervention training.

Synthesis of camelina biodiesel using heterogeneous catalysts

Currently in North America, biodiesel is mainly produced from vegetable oils such as soybean and canola using a homogenous catalyst, KOH or NaOH. Two associated challenges are: 1) using edible oils as feedstock may impact food and feed supply adversely; 2) a great amount of water is needed to wash off the homogeneous catalysts dissolved in biodiesel product and then the waste water effluent is discharged to the environment.
This project will evaluate the feasibility of producing biodiesel from camelina using heterogeneous catalysts. Camelina is a low cost oil crop; however, it has a fairly high oil content. It can grow in marginal lands and exhibits a strong tolerance to drought, cool weather and insect pests. The application of heterogeneous catalysts allows recovery and reuse of catalysts, which would reduce biodiesel production costs and minimize the impact on the environment.

wearable electric field sensor

The project focuses on the design and development of a wearable electric field sensor. Mathematical simulation, mechanical design, optical system built-up and signal processing will be involved. The project will be conducted in the Laboratory of Ultra High Precision Mechatronics at Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing. The student will need to analyze and simulate the relation between electric field and surface wave using different materials. In the second phase, the student will design the sensor structure and develop the system. The static and dynamic characteristics of the sensor also need to be analyzed and measured. Finally, the supervisor will guide the student to complete a report and some other documentation.