Innovative Projects Realized

Bracelet connecté de monitoring des signes vitaux piloté par l’IA

La surveillance continue des paramètres physiologiques, tels que la température corporelle (T), la fréquence cardiaque (FC), la pression artérielle (PA), la saturation en oxygène du sang (SpO2) et la fréquence respiratoire (RR), est couramment effectuée dans les hôpitaux à l’aide d’unités de surveillance souvent très encombrantes. Des systèmes miniatures ont été conçus pour surveiller les signes vitaux des athlètes et des patients [1]. iMD Research et ses collaborateurs de trois universités canadiennes ont mis au point une plateforme portable de surveillance des signes vitaux. Initialement conçu pour détecter les complications associées au COVID-19 [2], le dispositif a été reconçu pour les personnes âgées et leurs proches aidants. La plateforme de détection, qui peut se conformer à diverses géométries, se présente sous la forme d’un bracelet. Ce système de capteurs tourne autour de l’acquisition de signaux photopléthysmographique d’oxymétrie de pouls (PPG). Grâce à un ensemble d’algorithmes d’intelligence artificielle, tous ces signes vitaux clés tels que la fréquence cardiaque, la tension artérielle, la SpO2 et le RR peuvent être dérivés efficacement à partir d’un seul capteur PPG.

The Livingston fossil macroflora: reconstructing the paleoclimate and paleoecology of an ancient forest from southern Alberta

Plants closely reflect the climate where they grow as they are immobile and must interact and adapt to the conditions of their environment. Given this relationship between plants and the environment, fossil plants can be used to reconstruct past environments, and groups of fossil plants more generally provide a valuable record of ancient climates and ecosystems. The proposed project will involve research on fossil plants of early Paleocene age (~60 million years ago), recovered from sites in northeast Calgary, Alberta. The fossil plants from these sites will be analyzed in order to reconstruct the ancient climate of southern Alberta, and to better understand past ecosystems at the sites. The results of this project will improve our overall understanding of climates during past warm periods in Earth history, and will also provide valuable environmental context when studying animal fossils from the region.

Penser le modèle d’affaires de la pharmacie communautaire au Québec, en 2035

En 2016, un rapport de l’industrie de la pharmacie communautaire au Québec rédigé par deux économistes montrait comment cette industrie vit de grandes turbulences et ce, à l’intérieur d’un système hautement régulé et normé. Le rapport faisait un appel à un renouvellement du modèle d’affaires. Récemment, l’incursion d’Amazon dans le secteur de la pharmacie — Amazon Pharmacy — et l’impact de la campagne de vaccination à grand déploiement dosl==licitant les pharmacies pour participer à l’enrayage de la pandémie COVID-19 suscitent un vériable questionnement sur les attributs porteurs de valeur dans le futur modèle d’affaires de la pharmacie communautaire. Une démarche qualitative auprès des acteurs clés sera réalisée pour comprendre les pourquoi des comment des modèles d’affaires choisis et de l’innovation de modèle d’affaires actuelle, sous une perspective prspective, dans un secteur pluraliste hautement régulé. Des groupes de discussion et des entrevues seront utilisés pour capturer la dimension prospective en dessinant des scénarios à l’aide du Business Model Canvas.

Efficient and Resilient Smart Grid Modeling and Operation Approaches in a Smart City Environment

RUNWITHIT Synthetics Inc., University of Alberta, and the interns in this Mitacs project will use synthetic modelling to design, optimize and trial approaches for improving the efficiency of resilience investments in technology, grid management and infrastructure. Under many different circumstances, including both natural and human-made disasters such as earthquakes and cyberattacks, traditional grids are vulnerable and the impacts on public health, safety, and productivity are significant. Evaluating and measuring optimal ways of configuring grids that include smart city technology to minimize human impacts and time to return to normal is the general objective of this project. RUNWITHIT commercializes these models in specific region synthetic environments and the data they produce around the world for utilities, municipalities, and technology suppliers energy transition and resilience design.

Topology design for robustness and performance of vehicle state estimation and control system

Vehicle reliability and safety are critical especially with the growth of Advanced Driver Assistant Systems (ADAS) and automated driving. Vehicle active safety systems have advanced significantly since they were introduced in about 40 years ago. They have played an important role in making vehicles safer and reducing vehicle fatalities.
Current vehicle motion control requires a large-scale estimation system with multiple sub-functions to estimate the vehicle states and parameters that are strongly interacting with each other. The risk in this cascaded structure is if one function fails to perform as expected, the failure may propagate into the system and can cause performance degradation for the whole control system.
In this project, we intend to advance the reliability and performance of vehicle control systems by studying how the topology of estimation and control modules can be designed to optimize the robustness, reliability, and performance of vehicle control systems.

Learning-based Autonomous Robotic System for Package Sorting Application

With the advent of e-commerce and logistics industry, numerous goods are delivered every day. Sorting systems play a pivotal role in orders delivery practices. Advanced sorting systems are required nowadays because e-commerce retailers are usually confronted with different orders, each consisting of various items. Integrated sorting systems typically consist of a mix of conveyors tied together which are controlled by the Warehouse Management System (WMS). Traditional objects sorting lines rely on human operators to locate and pick each product by hand. Such systems are labor-consuming and error-prone, resulting in multiple counts to be done on a regular basis. To reduce labor costs and increase efficiency, large enterprises strive to replace their manual sorting systems with automated ones. The automated sorting systems are based on innovative systems such as automatic picking solutions. The main goal of this proposal is to design and develop an autonomous robotic system for sorting packages from a conveyor belt, using computer vision and deep learning techniques.

Étude du développement et de la propagation dans les eaux souterraines des anomalies hydrogéochimiques des gîtes métallifères du Bouclier canadien profond; facteurs d’influence et paramètres de contrôle du continuum eau de recharge / saumures profondes.

Le partenaire industriel CONSOREM détient actuellement une base de données unique contenant plus de 200 analyses chimiques d’eau souterraine prélevée dans des forages d’exploration jusqu’à de grandes profondeurs (> 1 000 m), dans l’environnement de six gîtes minéraux (métaux de base et métaux précieux) de l’Abitibi. Ces données de très haute résolution analytique ont permis de révéler l’existence d’une empreinte géochimique singulière dans l’eau souterraine. Les mécanismes d’acquisition de cette signature chimique particulière demeurent cependant largement incompris, ce qui restreint l’application de la méthode à plus large échelle. Ce projet postdoctoral consiste donc à valoriser la base de données du CONSOREM, en vue d’examiner les modalités chimiques de la formation et de l’évolution des halos anomaliques. Les nouvelles connaissances générées par ce projet permettront d’étendre le potentiel de découvertes dans des secteurs peu explorés, c’est-à-dire sous des couvertures épaisses de dépôts meubles, et en profondeur dans le socle rocheux.

Digital Workflows for Adaptive Reuse of Historic Houses in Ottawa’s downtown (Canada)

Digital Workflows for Adaptive Reuse of Historic Houses in Ottawa’s downtown (Canada) will explore new
applications of emerging digital technologies for the rehabilitation of our built heritage, especially in producing
records relevant for the understanding of the historic fabric of residential buildings in Ottawa. Good decision in
heritage conservation relay on accurate and precise information about the building’s fabric and structure. This
project will foster interdisciplinary and collaboration in producing an integrated digital workflow for emerging tools
in digitisation, building information modelling (BIM), and digital storytelling.

Control of plant fungal and bacterial diseases using photodynamic inactivation (PDI) compounds

The goal of the research is to develop and optimize in-planta assays for evaluating low-risk disease suppression compounds/formulations produced by Suncor and Photodynamic inactivation (PDI) techniques. The screening projects will be conducted in controlled environment growth facilities, with the goal of eventually moving the trials into a greenhouse environment. Current agriculturally important plant pathogens that assays are being developed and optimized with our research partner, Suncor, are for Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci,and Colletotrichum orbiculare. Lower-risk alternatives to pesticides, antibiotics and other chemical options are favourable, as the Agricultural industry is moving towards reduced inputs and Integrated Pest Management as best management practices. The assay and screening program described will help to select the best lower-risk disease control options for field trials that are specific to agriculturally significant pathogens, with emphasis on further expansion to screening other agriculturally significant plant pathogens in the future.

Conveniently Green Marketing Development and New Market Expansion

Conveniently Green (CG) is a start-up that strives for sustainability. We offer products for consumers to become more Earth-conscious in their everyday lives. Our products replace single-use plastics with alternatives that are made from biodegradable materials. All products are sustainable, accessible, and convenient.

As consumers become more informed about climate change, they are researching and making decisions towards changes to lead a greener lifestyle. Furthermore, the Candian Government is implementing a ban on single-use plastics in the near future, resulting in a large number of disposable plastic consumables being replaced with greener alternatives. Making these changes can be difficult for the consumer. “Going green” can take time to find suitable alternatives that fit in with their lifestyle. CG wants to make it convenient for customers to go green.

Our focus is to develop and distribute environmentally-friendly consumer goods that are easily accessible and convenient to use. The intern’s challenge is to bring our products to the identified target markets using innovative, creative, and unique strategies in the areas of digital and physical marketing. Furthermore, she will be involved in the processes of creating new products through applied market research.

Improving the Success of Commercializing Early-Stage Innovation Through Targeted Non-Financial Support Mechanisms

This project aims to improve the success rate of bringing innovation to market by determining the effectiveness of various types of non-financial support mechanisms. Ag-West Bio’s services include mentorship, business planning, technical resources and training to startup companies in food and agricultural biosciencs. However, the path for agriculture technology is unique. Compared to other types of technology businesses, such as pharma, fintech or digital (from which these statistics are drawn), ag-technology businesses typically have a longer pathway to commercialization and face more hurdles in regulation and customer acceptance (as examples). The ability to develop targeted networking events that link agriculture technology to end users and enable innovators overcome specific challenges would help grow the sector and make the ecosystem more efficient. A defined process is required to measure the value of these programs.

Process development for MDMA Manufacturing – ON-570

Over the past year, PharmAla has developed the first GMP MDMA value chain in North America. Our customers are companies wishing to initiate clinical trials with MDMA for a particular indication. In order to make our products, PharmAla has contracted a number of CDMO partners. To fulfill our company goals, PharmAla is seeking a qualified candidate to help gather data from our test batches and manufacturing runs, initiate a Quality Assurance workstream, and begin preparing data for regulatory filings on behalf of ourselves and our customers. This will help make PharmAla more competitive, as well as ensure that our IP remains in Canada for the long term.