Innovative Projects Realized

Benefits and Challenges of using a Digital Health Platform for Remote Delivery of Allied Health Provider Services

The proposed research is aimed at understanding and predicting the adoption rate for a proposed commercialized platform, based on the HQB Prototype, and for providing essential insights into the user experience by both user groups of the HQB Prototype that will be included in the design specifications for the commercialized product.

HealthQB has been researching indications of the parasympathetic nervous system and wellbeing of chronic pain patients in allied health since 2018. The company established a formal relationship with the UBC Vision Lab directed by James Enns, by funding a MITACS project that employed Dr. Veronica Dudarev, PhD, full-time to study heart rate variability (being the indicator of parasympathetic nervous system activity) and subjective reports of wellbeing in chronic pain patients. As a pilot study, patients were recruited through the multidisciplinary allied health clinic Fit To Train, located in downtown Vancouver. The allied health practitioners involved included Greg Elliott (Kinesiologist), Jessica Reigh (Physiotherapist) and Shoko Nagai (RMT).

Life-long learning in game development processes

In the game industry, software projects extend over several years: for instance, a typical AAA game is developed for 3 to 5 years. To make the development process easier for the developers, tools are put at their disposal to help with, for instance, the artistic creation process or code integration. Those tools are based on machine learning (ML) models and learning processes, trained on historical data.
While such ML models might work accurately right after training, their predictions might lose relevance as time goes by, since the project’s development objectives change over time, becoming progressively different from those at the time of model training. The phenomena of models and dataset aging are referred to as concept drift in the literature.
Through this research, we want to study concept drift in the game industry using the years of historical data and tool performance Ubisoft has gathered over time. Better understanding of concept drift would allow game tool creators to decide strategically when to update learning processes, and with which dataset, in order to maximize the performance (accuracy, precision, recall) of the tools over a long period of time.

Conception et validation d’un instrument de mesure de la compétence perçue au hockey sur glace.

La compétence perçue est depuis longtemps reconnue comme un facteur important de l’expérience sportive qui peut contribuer à l’abandon prématuré du sport ou, au contraire, a sa pratique prolongée. De plus, des perceptions de compétences qui diffèrent grandement entre les parents, les entraineurs et les joueurs peuvent mener à l’apparition de conflits qui nuisent aussi significativement au développement sportif. Cependant, aucun outil de mesure validé de la compétence perçue au hockey n’existe présentement pour les intervenants du milieu et certains chercheurs en encouragent l’élaboration.
Le premier objectif de ce projet est donc de concevoir un questionnaire portant sur la compétence perçue au hockey sur glace tandis que le deuxième objectif est de procéder à la validation du questionnaire à l’intérieur du contexte du hockey mineur québécois.

Association feuillus – résineux dans les plantations d’épinettes d’âge intermédiaire de la forêt boréale mixte

Le reboisement résineux est une importante activité dans l’est du Canada. Bien que plusieurs études se soient intéressées aux interactions feuillus-résineux lors de l’établissement des plantations, peu d’études ont évalué celles-ci dans les peuplements intermédiaires. Dans cette étude, nous utilisons un indice de compétition du voisinage (NCI) afin de qualifier et quantifier les interactions feuillus-résineux dans des plantations d’épinettes noires et blanches âgées de 15 à 30 ans. L’étude considère les effets de densité, de distance, d’espèce et de taille du voisinage sur le rendement à l’échelle de l’arbre. Deuxièmement, l’étude vérifie l’hypothèse selon laquelle la composante feuillue augmente la disponibilité en eau par son impact sur les propriétés physiques du sol, diminuant le stress hydrique des plants. L’avancée de ces connaissances permettra d’identifier les conditions où la compétition présente un risque sérieux pour le rendement des plantations de celles où elle est négligeable.

Assessment of Thermionic RF Electron Gun

The Canadian Light Source produces a very bright light which can be used to study DNA, viruses, cells, proteins, and other small-scale structures. To generate this light, the CLS needs a beam of electrons which are generated by an electron gun. In 2018, this electron gun failed, and the facility was unable to function for 6 months while it was replaced. The CLS had purchased a more reliable electron gun which uses different technology to generate electrons. This project aims to make measurements of the new electron gun and develop magnetic systems from those measurements to install the new gun alongside the existing one. By doing this, the facility will be protected against future failures allowing research to continue uninterrupted.

Atlantic Canadian Beef Success and Opportunities

The purpose of this project to empower Atlantic Canadian Beef Producers to understand the unique success factors for beef production in the region and identify opportunities to improve their cost of production while mitigating environmental impacts based on the on-going work of the Beef Cattle Research Centre on the Canadian Cow-Calf Cost of Production (CDN COP Network). The project will implement by reviewing 12 Maritime focus group sessions, conducting interviews, synthesis of international competitors, and Atlantic Canada’s position. It will offer a unique opportunity to identify success factors for small beef farms, level of competitiveness of Atlantic Canadian beef, profit maximization model, and dairy-beef feasibility in Atlantic Canada. The findings will provide valuable information to producers and enhance public trust regarding the use of management strategies about the social and economic benefits to the beef industry and thereby contribute to the improvement of the financial viability of the sector.

Feasibility Study of Solar Photovoltaic Systems at Abandoned Mine Tailings Sites

My research question of interest is: Can abandoned coal tailings impoundments be suitably utilized as sites for installation of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels for electricity generation? My research will focus on the feasibility analysis of renewable energy power generation utilizing geomembrane-mounted solar PV systems at the Victoria Junction Tailings Dam in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The Victoria Junction Tailings Dam has ceased operations since the early 1990’s. Waste products in the form of fine tailings from defunct coal mines are being contained sub-aqueously in ponds behind the dam. My proposed project will involve the design of geomembrane-mounted interconnected PV modules on top of the tailings dam, and a freshwater collection, storage and stormwater drainage system. The study will involve a comparison between a geomembrane-mounted and a conventional land-based PV system. My project aligns with the objectives of SEEDA Incorporated’s proposed innovative program called Clean Energy in Problem Areas (CEPA). CEPA’s vision is to convert contaminated tailings impoundments from an environmental liability to an environmental asset by mitigating the environmental risks caused by contaminated tailings ponds at a considerably lower cost for all stakeholders.

Stakeholder value propositions and process to identify value that AI adds to an offer

The objective of this strategic project is to define investor and customer value propositions of a new AI-powered offer and a business model for a commercial environment disrupted by COVID-19. The new offer integrates signals from plants’ photos and thermal images with a controller that regulates the flow of food and water administered to the plants.
The expected outcomes of this business strategy project include:
1. Profiles for two target customers and one investor
2. Value proposition to customer profile #1
3. Value proposition to customer profile #2
4. Investor value proposition
5. Customer adoption model for the new offer
6. Model to make money from investing in developing and commercializing the new offer in a post-pandemic environment
7. Controller that regulates flow of food and water
The project will make at least three contributions to the partner organisation:
1. Become the blueprint for the business strategy for a local company to enter the market for artificial intelligence powered applications in agriculture after the pandemic.
2. Approach to assess the value AI brings to customers and investors.
3. Approach to define the customer adoption model.

Data & Market Analyst

This project would be focused on the advancement of one specific subsidiary – AMI RockChain Inc. AMI RockChain has developed a unique digital solution platform for the sale, purchase and transportation of aggregates. Prior to COVID-19 much of our clientele was in the Oil and Gas industry however due to the pandemic, many of these operations have slowed down or stalled altogether. Also, market pricing and the cost of aggregates have changed drastically from pre-Covid, during Covid, post Covid and now into recovery and the market research gained during this program would help to support AMI RockChain as we are looking to expand into new industries, new markets and new offerings. This project will be focused on new market research and building the back end of our digital platform to support our front office team. The market research will also be used to help identify aggregate owners that are looking to diversify, optimize efficiency and possibly even sell their assets, due to the strained market that COVID-19 has created.

Development of a strategic marketing and fundraising plan for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Vancouver Island

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Vancouver Island (BGCCVI) is a non-for-profit organization that serves the communities of Comox Valley, Lantzville, Nanaimo, and Ladysmith. The organization supports programs in over thirty areas ranging from breakfast clubs to youth leadership, mentorship to substance abuse prevention and counselling, and digital literacy to financial education.
The organization faces two key challenges. Firstly, despite the fact that the BGCCVI supports a large number of programs, the aftercare programs receive the most attention. Secondly, while the BGCCVI has the support of the community and financial support from the government, the organization faces unprecedented challenges. COVID-19 related public health challenges are exacerbated by a lack of resources. With increasing competition for discretionary funding, the organization is under pressure to secure sustainable funding to retain its current programs, and to develop programs required by the central Vancouver Island communities. This project provides the BGCCVI with the opportunity to analyze the current context of the organization by comparing its position to its competitors, and with its vision of itself. This stock-taking exercise permits the organization to evaluate its current marketing and fundraising activities.

Develop a API security framework and evolve company policies

APIs are crucial for all digital products, and protecting their privacy, security and integrity is important to enterprises.
Finding secure and compliant APIs is a cumbersome manual process. Developers typically go to API documentation (online webpages) to try out APIs. They perform a number of steps for trying APIs such as registering for an account, getting an API key, writing a small computer program etc. Even after trying an API, developers may not fully test the security posture of those APIs. Since a developer may typically deal with tens or even hundreds of APIs, manually checking the security and compliance postures of APIs is not efficient and leads revenue losses and cybersecurity risks.
This project will be at the intersection of business data analysis, project management and software engineering (UI/UX and developer relationships). I will conduct data/market research related to existing API management solutions and solve the technical challenges of integrating various APIs in TeejLab’s API management platform. This will not only help TeejLab with market leadership, but it will also enrich my entrepreneurial experience.

Caractérisation et mise à l’échelle de mélangeurs horizontaux pour poudres propulsives

Le but du projet est de mettre au point de nouvaux modèles de mise à l’échelle pour le mélange de poudres propulsives. Des lacunes ont pu être observées lors de la mise en marche de la production à l’échelle industrielle de nouvelles de formulations de poudres propulsives et les règles de mise à l’échelle courrament utilisées ne suffisent pas. De nouvelles règles développées à l’aide de caractérisation d’opérations de mélanges et de simulations permettront de faciliter la mise à l’échelle de nouvelles formulations de poudres propulsives.