Projets novateurs réalisés

Green Industries Directory Study

The research will review of best-practices in green business directories and identify key opportunities for deployment of a localized listings directory of green businesses in the GTA.

Lennox & Addington Community Investment Fund

The County of Lennox & Addington is exploring the creation of a Community Investment Fund, a local investment vehicle that will provide capital to support the creation of new business from owners currently operating in Lennox and Addington, and to attract new residences to the region who are interested in starting new ventures. This will be accomplished by the Economic Development Office taking a collaborative, ecosystem-wide approach. We want to redirect investor capital from Bay Street to Main Street and create impact that investors can drive-by in their home community.

Throughout the Fall of 2021, the Economic Development Office, in working closely with Keshiv Kaushal, the Queen’s Smith School of Business intern, will be developing a draft business plan, an implementation timeline and key design elements of the Fund. In August, we formed a working committee comprised of Economic Development Coalition members to help us assess and finalize the Fund’s business plan and objectives.

Once the CIF Plan and its’ Fund components have been approved by the working committee and Economic Development Management, the team (led by Keshiv Kaushal) will work with KPMG throughout the fall to structure the Fund from a legal, regulatory and tax perspective.

Design, Sensing and Control of Novel Modular and Adjustable Prosthetics

Amputations of the upper limb are devastating injuries which can significantly affect the capability of performing
daily living, working and social activities. The current challenges of prosthetic solutions exist due to the lack of
modular design, comfort, immediate response to user intention, interfaces and tactile feedback. The long-term
objective of Awenza Health is aiming at building the next generation of prosthetics to improve the lives of hundreds
of thousands of amputees who suffer from discomfort and desensitization from their existing prosthetics. The
objective of this project is to design a low-cost modular and adjustable prosthetics which can use sensory feedback
to control the motion. Force sensors including EMG will be investigated for the controller design of the new
prosthetics. A modular and adjustable prosthetics will be designed and simulated for human-like motions. A 3Dprinted
prototype will be built and tested with control unit and sensors for verifications.

Determining Biomarkers of Addiction Disorders and Mental Health using Electroencephalography

There is a health crisis in Canada where substance abuse and addiction disorders have been growing out of control, resulting in the death of 19,355 Canadians from 2016 to 2020. Researchers describe the crisis to be getting worse in that opioid-related deaths tripled from 2000 to 2015 in Ontario, Canada and increased by 120% since the onset of COVID-19. Consequently, therapies are struggling to keep up. Our proposed project will have a major impact on saving the lives of those with addiction disorders as we are seeking to provide an objective measure of addiction with the intent of facilitating therapeutic assessment and treatment. Specifically, we will build a therapist-patient centered application that measures addiction through brain-waves. This will enhance therapeutic assessment and treatment by allowing individuals to track their own markers of addiction and provide therapists with a wealth of information about their patients.

Development of Wireless Power Transfer charging system for Commercial Electric Vehicles using a Model Based Design process.

As the climate change problem has been a serious global issue, we have been making effort replace internal combustion engine to electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce carbon emission. As demand for EVs increases, it is necessary to research an infrastructure; such as an efficient and intelligent EV charging system, to support various charging services. Wireless power transfer (WPT) is an efficient and promising charging system for EVs, and it is one of core research areas of Ontario Tech. University. Using a model-based design (MBD) method, my research topic, it is possible to shorten development time and to improve reliability and stability of a WPT charging system. The expected outcomes of this program are 1) development of a MBD based WPT charging system and 2) to achieve reduced WPT charging system development time and to 3) to improve system reliability and stability. Eventually, we would like to contribute expansion of more efficient and reliable EV charging infrastructures and to reduce carbon emissions in the world.

Développement et fiabilisation de l’Analyse de Cycle de Vie Routière au Québec

Piloter la transition écologique nécessite de connaître nos impacts environnementaux et d’évaluer les pistes de
réductions de ces impacts de manière fiable. Or, on évalue rarement cette fiabilité, et les prises de décisions
environnementales sont encore trop souvent basées sur des intuitions parfois erronées ou des résultats
d’analyses peu pertinents et non fiables. L’objet de ce projet est de quantifier les incertitudes relatives aux
évaluations environnementales menées par la méthode d’Analyse de Cycle de Vie en fonction de la qualité des
données d’entrées utilisées. L’objectif est de mieux comprendre la fiabilité des évaluations actuelles pour
l’industrie routière québécoise et la possible amélioration de cette fiabilité par le développement de données
issues de l’industrie.

Procédure d’audit et d’entretien des systèmes de traitement d’air dans les espaces confinés exposés à la COVID-19

La recherche consiste à appliquer le protocole d’utilisation des tests de contamination des surfaces et de l’air par ATP-métrie, définie dans un précédent projet Mitacs. Elle consiste donc à appliquer ce protocole d’utilisation des tests de contamination d’air et de surface dans les locaux de l’École de Technologie Supérieure de Montréal. Trois étapes sont nécessaires : la première étape sera consacrée à l’application régulière du protocole de mesure sur les surfaces, et éventuellement dans l’air, afin de suivre l’évolution de la flore bactérienne au cours d’une année, tout en appliquant différentes sollicitations afin d’évaluer l’état des systèmes (filtres par exemple). La deuxième étape sera consacrée à l’analyse des performances sanitaires et des systèmes de traitement d’air après application du protocole de mesure et la validation des résultats. Par la suite, la troisième étape permettra de concevoir et de tester des protocoles améliorés de désinfection, d’entretien et de maintenance des systèmes de traitement d’air.

GPS/Wi-Fi/ MEMS Sensors Integration for Indoor Navigation

In the last few years, pedestrian indoor navigation systems are widely used for various applications such as health care monitoring, Location Based Services (LBS) and emergency services. However, most of the indoor navigation systems are not mature, and could not provide continuous, accurate and reliable positioning solutions. GPS, MEMS sensors and Wi-Fi are three main candidate technologies for pedestrian navigation. GPS cannot provide reliable pedestrian navigation indoors because the GPS signals are degraded in indoor environments. MEMS sensors provide accurate but relative positioning solution for short time periods of standalone usages because of MEMS sensors’ errors characteristics. Wi-Fi can provide absolute location information by using pre-existing wireless infrastructures. However, Wi-Fi positioning requires special radio maps databases which is labour intensive and time consuming. Moreover, accurate orientation information from Wi-Fi cannot be provided in any of the existing methods. This research aims to improve the accuracy, reliability and accessibility of indoor navigation in two different ways for the current smart phones using GPS, Wi-Fi and MEMS sensors. Firstly, an algorithm is proposed to estimate the Wi-Fi heading by using clustering based and estimation based techniques.

Textile-based Delivery System for Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy: Novel Electrodes and Compliant Conductors

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is an effective technology for the therapy of patients who suffer from physical impairment. To increase the effectiveness of FES and reduce the cost of hospitalization, a new design is required for the remote and long-term application of FES so that the patients can easily undergo FES during their daily life activities without the need of clinical assistance. The goal of this project is to develop a smart wearable technology for long-term and remote application of FES. This will be achieved through two objectives: (i) design and development of a novel electrode to be reusable and functional for a long time, and (ii) design and development of a textile-based medium for connecting electrodes inside the wearable system and delivery of electric signals. With the design of advanced electrodes and novel textile-based connections, a new wearable system can be achieved for a user-friendly, remote, and long-term application of FES.

Lumiio Inc – Fall 2021

Lumiio’s goal is to accelerate health outcomes through data collection. They specialize in real-world data collection and connect stakeholders in health communities by aligning interests. The organization has identified a significant gap in the standardization and use of patient information to drive improved health outcomes. The team recognizes a number of core offerings are missing from their platform that could streamline the acquisition of data, provide a better understanding of the health information landscape, and make the data collection process more user friendly. The intern will be utilized to complete business case analyses for additional platform products that will allow Lumiio to identify business opportunities that will allow them to scale and improve health outcomes globally.

Vapor-phase processing of nickel for EV batteries and Metal Additive Manufacturing

The proposed research project aims at technology for environmentally benign recycling of nickel. The
process entails conversion of nickel found in the “black mass” from recycled Ni-based batteries into
nickel carbonyl, Ni(CO)4, by reaction with CO at modest temperatures around 50-120°C (pressuredependent).
Only nickel carbonyl is volatile under these conditions and is easily separated from other
metals and residual materials found in the “black mass”. Downstream, the nickel tetracarbonyl vapors
are introduced into a high-temperature zone (ca. 200 to 500°C) where the carbonyl decomposes into
pure nickel metal film or powder and CO gas, which is then recycled back to the carbonylation reactor.
The project will focus on identification of optimal process conditions and equipment design for this new
source of “urban mining” materials and high-purity nickel products needed for the production of
advanced, high-capacity rechargeable batteries.

Smart Based Socks for Wound Prevention and Management

Lower extremity wounds are painful wounds in the legs and feet that can result from immobility (e.g. secondary to Multiple Sclerosis, spinal cord injury), peripheral vascular disease and/or diabetes. They are slow to heal and cause immense pain and suffering. These wounds can cause infections, may lead to amputations, and in more severe cases, death. These wounds impact an individual’s ability to engage in their daily activities and impact the individual’s quality of life. Many people living with diabetes are unable to feel changes in their feet. Being able to sense pressure and changes in skin temperature may help prevent these wounds from occurring. This project will develop socks that will sense pressure and temperature changes in the feet, to help alert individuals to engage in behaviours that will prevent wounds from occurring.