Projets novateurs réalisés

Développement d’une stratégie d’utilisation des sources THz afin de valider la faisabilité de développement d’un prototype fonctionnel en milieu industriel

Cette demande Mitacs SSE a pour objectif central de valider le potentiel de la technologie ciblée par IRIDIS pour le contrôle qualité dans un contexte industriel. Des tests préliminaires ont été réalisés précédemment pour valider la faisabilité générale en laboratoire avec un succès suffisant.

Productizing Smart Infrastructure Use Case for 5G Technology

This project is focused on assessing market feasibility, market size and full market commercialization go-to-market strategy for productizing smart infrastructure use case for Rogers Communications Inc. Key deliverables for the project include market size go-to-market strategy, and unique value proposition for the product.

Conducting Enterprise Architecture in the Context of an SME that is Adopting an ERP

Despite the vast literature that has accumulated around ERP technologies over the years, there is still a great need to better our understanding of the forces at play in the adoption of ERP technologies, and this, particularly in the context of small and medium size organizations. In addition, the field of enterprise architecture (EA) has been emerging as a technology for helping organizations cope with complexities of technology adoption and organizational transformation (Lapalme & de Guerre, 2013). Accordinly, EA can be a useful technology for helping organizations with the complexities of adopting ERP technologies. However, similarly to the literature on ERP technologies, very little literature exist on the use of EA in the context of SME

AI Education Platform – Advanced Learning and Integrated Control for AI-Incorporated LEGO Robots

Recent advances in sensing, edge-computing devices (e.g., Raspberry Pi and Jetson Nano) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, especially deep learning (DL) models for computer vision and speech tasks, together have led to exponentially increasing AI applications in military, civilian and education scenarios. It is widely agreed that AI will be the driving force of the next industrial revolution. Therefore, there is an enormous motivation to integrate AI education into our education system, especially for K-12 education. Together with the industrial partner Cortic, based on Coritc’s current AI education platform, by addressing a few key challenges (e.g., limited training samples, limited computational power at edge devices, improved integrated control and management for LEGO robots), we plan to improve the AI education platform based on AI Incorporated LEGO Robots. The developed algorithms will be integrated into the partner’s products, thereby significantly enhancing their competitiveness in the market, and contributing more to Canadian job market.

Enjeux liés au développement et à l’utilisation d’une intervention web pour favoriser l’adoption de saines habitudes de vie : perception des personnes âgées qui vivent avec la maladie coronarienne et des soignants

En raison du vieillissement actuel de la population et du haut taux de maladie coronarienne chez les aînés, des interventions doivent être développées afin de favoriser leur santé. Notamment, les personnes âgées devraient être accompagnées dans l’adoption de saines habitudes de vie au moyen d’interventions accessibles et qui répondent à leurs besoins. À cet effet, les interventions Web pourraient être envisagées. Alors que plusieurs enjeux sont à considérer dans le développement des interventions Web afin de faciliter leur utilisation, ce projet vise à évaluer les perceptions (besoins, facilitateurs, barrières) des personnes âgées vivant avec la maladie coronarienne et des soignants quant aux interventions Web qui visent l’adoption de saines habitudes de vie. Les résultats de ce projet pourront permettre d’en apprendre davantage sur les enjeux reliés au développement et à l’utilisation des interventions Web auprès de la clientèle cible, en plus de guider le développement de futures interventions.

Exploring the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the Canadian Sport Industry Phase 2

This project will examine the equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the Canadian sport industry. The central research question is: “To what extent does the Canadian sport industry demonstrate principles of diversity, equity and inclusion; and to what effect are these corresponding values evident via policy and lived experiences.” The study will employ a mixed methods approach, building on a case study analysis to ground the study in industry practices and concerns, and to explore the effects of EDI in Canadian sport industry.
The objectives for this project are a) to offer a baseline assessment of the EDI of the Canadian sport industry b) to develop a EDI model and measure for the Canadian sport industry to address barriers and promote greater diversity in sport organizations, and c) to spark and support conversations to ultimately offer strategic guidance to address long-standing inequalities within our sport industry.

Impacts of climate change on land surface hydrologic fluxes

Hydrological extremes are often defined by a series of complex processes operating at a range of geographical and temporal scales. Climate extremes’ dynamics are highly impacted by land surface hydrologic fluxes (e.g., the interaction of temperature precipitation, soil moisture, etc.). It is critical to identify places where land surface conditions have a substantial influence on the atmosphere to improve our knowledge of regional and local climatic extremes. Additional research is necessary to determine the effects of climate change on land surface hydrologic fluxes. This study intends to analyze changes in land surface hydrologic fluxes as a result of climate change using remote sensing products (e.g., soil moisture) by conducting a systematic assessment of the land-performance atmosphere’s simulations of key variables (e.g., runoff and water storage) across hydroclimatic regimes over watersheds in Canada.

Reading Leigh Hunt Anew

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was one of the most prolific and influential writers on British culture and politics in the first half of the nineteenth century. “Reading Leigh Hunt Anew” will investigate in great depth Hunt’s interactions and networks. “Reading Leigh Hunt Anew” consists of two tightly interrelated projects on Hunt, one of the key figures of the Romantic period in England, known for his work as editor, journalist, poet, and facilitator. The first is an online database devoted to Hunt’s critical writings called “The Leigh Hunt Archive”, which will enhance accessibility and usability of Hunt’s works (along with an experimental exhibition component). The second part of this research program is a new book entitled “Reading Leigh Hunt’s Critical Essays Anew through Digital Humanities Tools”.

Automatic Generation of Personalized Feedback in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

As Intelligent tutoring systems such as Coursera, Korbit become popular, a great way for students to learn is by receiving feedback for incorrect answers. Since manual feedback generation on large educational texts seems impracticable, an important goal is to create hint generation systems from student-teacher conversations. These systems can be deployed as chatbots giving hints on wrong answers, and annotated datasets for NLP research in dialogue-based question answering.
Initial solutions focused on designing rule-based approaches, typically based on deep linguistic knowledge. Although producing useful hints, these methods rely heavily on manual labour.
In this project, we leverage neural NLP models (like BERT, BART etc.) for automatic generation of pedagogical interventions. We are equally interested in less explored domains – active learning by asking the student to select correct hints, conversational QA (to develop intelligent agents driving QA style conversations). Another important direction is to use hint generation for improving tasks like question-answering, question generation etc.

Combining experiments, genomic tools, and an eco-evolutionary framework to understand the biotic basis of harmful algal blooms

Although evolution is considered a gradual process recent evidence suggests that adaptation can be rapid, particularly when there is genetic variation and selection is strong. Determining whether rapid evolution happens predictably in nature, both at the phenotypic and genomic levels, is crucial to understanding the origins and maintenance of biodiversity. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose a challenge to freshwater biodiversity conservation that may force organisms to adapt rapidly. Interestingly, in some cases the keystone zooplankton species Daphnia has been shown to feed extensively on enough cyanobacteria to remediate HABs. Rapid evolution is the most likely mechanism but this has not been investigated. My Mitacs internship centres on developing a new genomic tool for monitoring clonal variation in Daphnia that is reliable, rapid, and low cost. This method will be used to analyze Daphnia samples from a multi-generational HABs exposure experiment. The results generated will address the importance of genetic variation in driving ecological outcomes, resulting in new management strategies for mitigating HABs.

Hardware-in-the-loop software for modeling autonomous sailboat performance

The objective of this project is to develop a hardware in-the-loop sailboat model software that can represent the sailboat’s performance during its mission. At its core, the controller will be programmed on an embedded processor, and will communicate with all of the sailboat’s sub-systems that can be modelled in software. First, to represent the sensor inputs, a model of the position and orientation of the sailboat will be provided in real-time, and the wind speed and direction, as well as ocean currents will be provided. Second, a model of the steering system will be developed to represent the actuator and rudder on the sailboat. Third, a model of the propulsion system that is typically impacted by the sails will be programmed. Each of the software modules will provide a realistic model of the actual sub-component. At the end of the project, it is expected that a complete software model will be able to predict the behavior of a sailboat as it navigates between two waypoints on the ocean. To test the validity of the software, it will be used to explain the performance of the SeaLeon and the Breizh Tigresse during their past missions.

The Unaccompanied Violin Works of F.W. Rust

Johann Sebastian Bach’s works for unaccompanied violin, collectively titled “Sei Solo,” are cornerstones of present-day classical violin performance and pedagogy. However, fundamental questions remain about how violinists performed these works during Bach’s own time. In tandem with dissertation research at the University of Toronto, Arlan Vriens’ Mitacs Globalink Research Award internship project will address this knowledge gap by studying the unaccompanied violin sonatas of Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739–1796), a direct student of the Bach family.

As a Visiting Research Student at the University of Cambridge, Vriens will consult manuscripts and estate documents in the UK and Europe and collaborate with historically-informed performance experts in Cambridge and London. Through these activities, he will resolve questions about Rust’s violin performance practices, furthering our understanding of how the violin music of Bach and Rust sounded in the 18th century. In turn, this process will offer new tools for present-day violinists to create fresh, innovative performances of well-known repertoire.