Projets novateurs réalisés

Functional MRI in Neuroscience (In framework of IRTG 2150)

Pollination efficiencies of flower visitors of agricultural crops

Understanding Question Difficulty and Student Ability in Mathematics Assessments

Education software is abundant on the web, but few support the analysis of students’ performance and test difficulty over user-defined questions and learning objectives. The idea of this project is to create a computer program to provide educators with insights on student performance on assessment items and perceived and actual assessment item difficulty within fine-grained learning objectives. This tool also provides departments with key metrics to identify potential course delivery issues and compare students’ understanding of course material year over year. The software proposed here estimates item difficulty and student ability by building a mathematical model from student performance data on assessment question items. In addition, an interface is envisioned to help educators and students better understand model results based on fine-grained learning objectives.

Long COVID and cardiac function

Recent research has confirmed the lethal ‘acute’ effects of the COVID-19 virus on the heart, but there is a growing concern and increasing number of those individuals infected by the virus to remain ‘chronic’ as long-haulers, i.e., Long COVID. There are estimates that as many as 40-60% of individuals infected continue to experience symptoms for up to 12 weeks, and as many as 10-20% continue to experience symptoms longer than 12 weeks. Thus, the proposed research will investigate the effects on Long COVID on the heart using the LLA Recordis™ cardiac sensor and echocardiography. We have demonstrated previously that the LLA Recordis™ cardiac sensor can measure and record how the heart is contracting and relaxing with every heartbeat. The current research will help us to understand the long-term complications on the heart. This research will assist LLA Technologies Inc. to enter the global market to commercialize their cardiac sensor and become a leader in Canada and globally for cardiac diagnostics.

Detection and investigation of downtime causes

The use of machine learning and big data in production is still in its early stages as only a limited amount of data is used. This research aims to improve productivity by determining factors affecting downtime. Changeover’s time and performance rate improvement during production will be addressed considering not only equipment data and product data but also a variety of factors such as raw material consumption, environmental effect on material properties, production sequences and operators’ impact.
This project will include an evaluation of state-of-the-art techniques, the selection of data sources required for performance loss and changeover times analysis, the preprocessing of data, and the testing of different machine learning and big data techniques to identify the main factors impacting the downtime in production.

Integration of Electric Vehicles into the Power Distribution System

Electric vehicles (EVs) have become increasingly popular because of their high efficiency and sustainability. However, EVs represent an intensive electric load. Their penetration to the power system poses significant challenges to power distribution system operation and control, such as voltage drop and transformer overload. This study will evaluate the impact of EV penetration on Saskatchewan’s urban residential power distribution system and develop plans to cope with the EV load growth. Actual EV charging profiles will be analyzed to understand the characteristics of the EV charging. Individual and aggregated EV charging models based on Saskatchewan’s local situations will be developed. The impact of uncontrolled EV charging load on the voltage drop of 120/240V systems and 14.4 kV to 120/240V service transformers will be evaluated. Optimal EV load aggregation methods and smart charging algorithms will be developed to cope with the negative impact.

Applied Science for the Canadian Hop Industry

The Canadian hop industry requires supportive resources from the Canadian scientific community to develop unique Canadian hop varieties with characteristics sought after by craft brewers. The scientific team at Langara College in collaboration with three Canadian hop companies will undertake the following studies i) to identify (chemically and genetically) promising novel feral hops for
commercialization, ii) to cultivate and test selected feral hops for brewing trials to produce a new signature craft beer, and iii) to develop a centralized database of hop terpene profiles (the HopNet) to showcase Canadian-grown hops. Two Mitacs interns will be hired to assist with the research project. These studies will directly benefit the industrial partners involved in the project and in general aid in the successful development of the Canadian hop industry.

Investigating London Dispersion Interactions in 2,2′-Substituted 9,9′-Bifluorenylidenes

Investigating microbial degradation under a redox gradient

Evaluating the “Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation” framework: A case study of the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable management plan

The Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable is collaboratively developing a watershed management plan for the lower Coquitlam River, using the “Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation” framework. Developed by the Conservation Measures Partnership (a group of international NGOs), this framework is intended to guide the design and implementation of conservation projects using an integrative approach and an adaptive management cycle. Although the Open Standards framework is being used to develop conservation projects in several settings in North America, it remains unknown whether the framework will successfully achieve the goals of sustainable water resource management and address uncertainty when implemented at the watershed scale by community-based organizations. The purpose of this research is to determine if the application of the “Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation” framework by the Coquitlam River Watershed Roundtable will achieve the goals of the roundtable and the goals of sustainable water resource management. TOBECONT’D

Drought Stress Resilience of European Beech and Norway Spruce

Development of Natural Health Products from Sea Cucumber and Wild Blueberry

More than half of Canadian households have companion animals such as dog or cat. However, cancer has become the leading cause of death in dogs. Currently, available treatments have limitations and compromise the quality of life of dogs. Adored Beast Apothecary wishes to develop unique natural health products to prevent and treat cancers of dogs. The objective of the proposed research project is to develop optimized processes to generate safe and efficacious anti-cancer natural products using a sustainably grown phytoplankton strain. The specific objectives of the project are to identify the natural compounds present in the new product, assess whether the products have antioxidant activity to prevent cancer as well as to treat cancer. The intern (a postdoctoral fellow) will examine both cancer preventive and treatment properties of the new natural health products using cultured mammalian cells. The expected result will become useful for the Adored Beast Apothecary to file a patent application, plan for experiments using animals, and progress with business development plan and commercialization.