Projets novateurs réalisés

Understanding the experiences of patients with chronic pain on waitlists to develop an interactive clinical platform

Chronic pain (CP) is a prevalent, disabling, and costly disorder. The gold standard treatment for chronic pain is care from an interdisciplinary pain clinic (IPC) – a rare resource in Canada that is often associated with long wait times (up to five years). These long wait times increase the risk of physical and mental deterioration for the patient and so there need to develop tools to assist CP patients who are on an IPC waitlist. Research suggests that the use of web-based clinical platforms are helpful in health domains (e.g., migraine management). The aim of this research is to engage with CP patients to design a platform to help them manage their pain and avoid deterioration while on the waitlist.

Fraud Detection in Derivatives Market using Graph Neural Network (GNN)

In the last few years, a high increase in the interest of traders and investors towards financial instruments directly led to an important augmentation of the information received daily by exchanges. Exchange regulators, who constantly monitor markets to unveil potential infractions, traditionally perform their investigation manually and the notable growth in market activity represents an important risk of fraudulent events going unnoticed. In response to that new reality, exchanges around the globe are establishing automated surveillance systems that track market activity. In this project, we set out to design new artificial intelligence algorithms that will detect anything in the Montreal exchange’s market that seems abnormal or fraudulent in the market data and news, so that analysts can focus on these alerts. Such a system could potentially detect fraudulent cases that are currently going unnoticed, while drastically reducing human costs and validation time.

Exploring the drivers of innovation diffusion for virus-resistant grape vines

Increasing exports of value-added agricultural products is a priority set out by Canada’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth. Upper Canada Growers has developed novel technology to produce grape vines with improved disease resistance to red blotch, a virus that has been significantly reducing grape quality and harvest globally, and this project will investigate how this innovation can achieve major adoption in key grape growing regions in the U.S. Interviews will be conducted with American grape growers and estate wineries to understand the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of this new type of grape vine. The data collected will be analyzed and used to produce a report providing recommendations for Upper Canada Growers to improve and guide their efforts in promoting this crop.

Minimal Touch Front-end Customer Dashboard Development for Photo Kiosks with WebAR Functionality

Tribute Kiosk currently operates photo booths that are touch-based in terms of their operation. However, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers are hesitant to interact directly with high-contact surfaces. Tribute Kiosk seeks to migrate the functionality of its photo booths to a touchless format while also adding new interactive augmented reality features to replace existing photo effects accessed through a touchscreen. This internship will focus on migrating and updating the programming used in the photo booths and implementing the new augmented reality features, allowing Tribute Kiosk to extend the lifespan of this product, add additional features with greater ease, and bring the product’s programming in line with the other products that Tribute Kiosk currently offers.

Formulation of sustainable amino polyolefin coatings with improved adhesion and corrosion protection

Corrosion is the destructive attack of a metal by a chemical or electrochemical reaction with its environment. Corrosion of industrial and mechanical infrastructure causes severe economic losses. Canadian corrosion-related expenses amount to $41 Billion CAD annually. The extensive oil and gas pipeline networks in Canada require approx. $1 Billion CAD annually for replacement and/or maintenance. Catastrophic, corrosion-related accidents in the pipeline sector pose a severe threat to the environment, property, and human life. Current corrosion protection technologies cannot adequately provide durable and efficient coatings for the long-term protection of pipelines. Loss of adhesion and delamination of the current coatings limit their corrosion protection ability. A coating technology developed at UBC and the focus of a new BC start-up company a2o Advanced Materials Inc. has the potential to provide more durable and effective corrosion protection. The intrinsic adhesive and self-repair properties of our coating will be formulated to result in long-term adhesion between the coating and the underlying metal surface. Also, its self-healing properties will repair the coating to prevent the formation of cracks during aging. This novel coating is produced using green and sustainable research methodologies to improve the longevity of metal surfaces and ultimately will reduce corrosion-related expenditures.

BC Arts Sector COVID-19 Response: Study of Arts on Prescription Pilot

Arts on Prescription is a system wherein a registered doctor can refer a patient to a cultural service offered by a professional arts organization with the goal of altering the social factors that impact the patient’s health. AoP is successfully used outside of British Columbia as a way to address the social determinants of health, democratize the arts and direct resources to community-based arts programs. For these reasons, in 2021-2022, the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture will oversee an Arts on Prescription Pilot program co-created with an arts organization and a COVID-19 long-haul clinic in Vancouver. This research project will evaluate the impact of the AoP Pilot program.

Improved inhibitors of HIV infection

ViroCarb has identified a new class of HIV inhibitors against a new therapeutic target on the HIV envelopeprotein gp120, present in all HIV, including drug resistant strains. The objective of this internship is to conduct screening studies of libraries, designed based on this new chemical class for optimal efficacy and drug-like properties, using methods previously developed and optimized by the intern. He will also determine the level of anti-HIV activity of leading compounds identified against different HIV strains, including multi-drug resistant strains, and of inhibition of binding of the gp120 protein to the new target. The Result of these studies will be the identification of a lead compound for the development of a drug candidate.

Long Duration Flight Using Wireless Power Transmission and Solar Power

The proposed research project will demonstrate the feasibility to fly a small uninhabited aircraft for very long, multiday missions by providing it with power using a mix of wireless power transmission and solar-power. The wireless power transmission will be sent as a directed microwave beam from a ground-based transmitter and received using rectennas that are attached to the lower surface of the aircraft wing. Solar-cells on the upper wing surface and batteries will complement the power needs. The subsequent ability to fly indefinitely has many benefits for Canada’s large, sparsely-populated areas that are often underserved with infrastructure and access. Similarly, this technology, which promises to be less cost-intensive than most alternatives, can become a useful airborne asset for Canadian Northern sovereignty operations. Aside from these domestic applications, the research will help to continue the expansion of Canada’s leadership in uninhabited autonomous aircraft technology worldwide.

The Development of a Hemocompatible Protein-Capturing Filter Materials for the Efficient Production of Universal Blood – Year two

Objective 1. Generation and testing of blood converting enzyme retention device for the universal conversion blood collection bag.

Objective 2. Optimization of blood conversion in the blood bag, and enzyme removal, under different conditions.

For a more elaborate description of the project overview please see the research proposal document.

The Development of a Hemocompatible Protein-Capturing Filter Materials for the Efficient Production of Universal Blood

Recent scientific findings identified a set of enzymes in the human gut that can selectively convert blood group antigens to universal blood type O, by cleaving off the sugar chains present on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). The increased availability of universal donor blood decrease the shortage of such precious product and will save patients in emergency. However, the application of these new enzymes currently requires a centrifugation step to remove the enzymes from the blood prior to transfusion. As a result, the upscaling of this technique is very challenging. In this proposal, we are developing a novel device that can capture enzymes prior to transfusion. For that purpose, the blood group-cleaving enzymes will be genetically modified with different kinds of capture-tags and complementary tag immobilized blood compatible matrix/filter will be developed to capture the enzymes. The goals of this project are to investigate the capture concept, optimize the capture-tag and complimentary tag, enzyme capture efficiency and blood compatibility of the filter matrix, and the generation of universal blood without unwanted side reactions.

Improving the tools for assessment and analysis of energy losses through building envelopes using Infrared Thermography (IRT), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAV), and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

IR imaging presents the temperature distribution of the exterior surface of a wall and is typically assessed through visual inspection by building science experts. A specialist must review numerous images one by one which is inefficient and inaccurate. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with IR camera attachments has become a method of faster and more accessible on-site building envelope evaluation. The proposed research aims to develop a machine learning framework to improve the evaluation of energy loss through the envelope, using UAV and IR thermography. An artificial intelligence algorithm will help significantly cut down assessment times and make the process more advanced. Understanding the heat transfer process within the wall system without a need for intrusive openings will allow for representative and more applicable retrofit intervention strategies. This research and development will drive the building rehabilitation industry to be more practical and effective.

Test d’acceptation de la démarche technologique Plan Monark et validation de son indicateur de convergence en contexte de gestion de projet

Plan Monark est une démarche technologique de type SAAS sur le point d’être commercialisée. Afin de s’assurer que la démarche technologique réponde aux besoins des chargés de projet ou intervenants conseil qui l’utiliseront, Plan Monark désire soumettre sa démarche technologique à un test d’acceptation en plus de valider l’utilité de son indicateur de convergence (entre le chargé de projet et les parties prenantes) pour la conduite d’un projet. Au terme de la recherche, le stagiaire aura procédé à l’analyse fonctionnelle de la démarche technologique, à l’analyse du comportement et des commentaires de ses utilisateurs et à la comparaison de neuf projets réalisés avec le Plan Monark pour déterminer l’incidence de l’indice de convergence sur la conduite desdits projets. Plan Monark pourra ensuite commercialiser sa démarche technologique et produire le matériel de formation et d’accompagnement. Quant au stagiaire, il pourra déposer son rapport ou mémoire de recherche requis par son programme d’études.