Innovative Projects Realized

Connected Canadians Outreach & Partnership Coordinator

During COVID-19 Connected Canadians has expanded its programs to serve seniors in a variety of different ways, including helping to reduce isolation and loneliness amongst the senior population.

Research will be done to analyze any operational inefficiencies and weaknesses that may be present and create a strategy to best address them. Connected Canadians is growing rapidly, thus figuring out any occupational inefficiencies early on is ideal. Work will also be done to aid Connected Canadians in the volunteer management and recruitment engagement strategy to ensure the organization is able to keep up with the rapidly growing needs in the community.

Augmenting Flight Training with AI to Efficiently Train Pilots

There is a critical shortage of commercial pilots in North America, in large part because pilots who are qualified to conduct such training are in very high demand. Delphi is an innovative Calgary-based flight training school that is using novel methods to improve student outcomes, increase retention of students, and scale student training to better satisfy this demand. This research will use machine learning and intelligent tutoring system techniques to enable a new, simulation-based, training pipeline that aims to dramatically increase the success of Delphi’s training program, resulting in higher-success, lower-cost training of new pilots.

Process design and optimization of a bioethanol plant

Le bioraffinage forestier consiste a valoriser les principaux composes chimiques issus du bois pour la production de biocarburant, d’energie et de produits chimiques de specialite. Un concept de plus en plus etudie concernant les bioraffineries de 2eme generation est celui de bioraffinage integre. Parmi les differents concepts de bioraffinerie integree actuellement a l’etude, on peut citer celui impliquant les technologies d’extraction des hemicelluloses contenues dans le bois avant l’etape de mise en pate pour la production de bioproduits tels que l’ethanol. Le projet de stage propose s’articule autour de l’analyse et optimisation d’un procede de production de bioethanol. Deux etudes de cassont considerees : celie ou la bioraffinerie est un procede a part entiere et celie ou la bioraffinerie est implantee dans une usine de pate et papiers existante. .

The Development and Cost-effectiveness Analysis of High Throughput Screening for Drug Candidates Using a Dedicated, Novel Mass Production Microfluidics Technique

During the preclinical drug testing stage, conventional test subjects include animals and cells cultured in a lab, which are costly, and cannot correctly represent human tissue. Therefore, these test subjects may inaccurately predict human response to a drug and may falsely demonstrate a drug as “safe”. Upon public distribution, unexpected side effects may occur, which claim thousands of Canadian patients annually. This preventative phenomenon can cost the healthcare system billions of dollars. We propose large-scale production of human microtissues in order to be used as ideal subjects for screening preclinical drugs. Our objective is to effectively synthesize large sample sizes of 3D multi-tissue systems which can be used to screen multiple drugs in-lab in order to enhance our understanding of human response. Our research will benefit the pharmaceutical industry drug screening process, as well as other potential industries related to cosmetics, food science, and biotechnology.

Using soil nematodes as indicators of soil health in wet meadow rangelands

Grasslands store carbon, regulate water, recycle nutrients, and conserve biodiversity. In western Canada, seasonally flooded, wet meadow grasslands, also provide habitats for species at risk. Despite their importance to conservation, little is known about the effect of grazing on these ecosystems. This research will help understand how grazing effects plants, soils, and the ecosystem services provided by wet meadow grasslands. Specifically, this project will explore links between grazing, plants, and soil nematodes, small worm-like animals, that recycle carbon and nutrients in soils. Our research will test three questions: 1) Does grazing increase the abundance of grasses, sedges, and rushes in wet meadow grasslands; 2) How do changing plants affect the structure and composition of nematodes in wet meadow soils? 3) Can soil nematodes help monitor changes in carbon and nutrients in wet meadow grasslands? This research will focus on Lake Manitoba Plain Ecoregion and will small differences in soil, vegetation, and moisture to measure the effect that cattle have on plant and soil communities. Findings from this research will help with the sustainable management and conservation of wet meadow rangelands in Canada.

Cytology-based DNA measurement for oral cancer screening

Oral cancer (OC) presents a global burden on society and the healthcare system with high incidence rates and poor prognosis. Despite the oral cavity being easily accessible for visual assessment, lesions are often detected at an advanced stage when the prognosis is poor and radical interventions are necessary. An invasive biopsy of a clinically suspicious lesion is the current standard of care for OC diagnosis and lesion monitoring; however, repeated biopsies may not be feasible. This study aims to provide a non-invasive, objective, and accurate OC diagnostic test using high throughput DNA-based cytometry. This test combines artificial intelligence software with a commercially available and affordable slide scanner. Potentially, this new technique can be used in remote communities with limited access to care and provides a significant benefit in early detection of at-risk oral lesions and reduction in OC burdens.

Systematic approach of equipment performance analysis using new Key Performance Indicators

The research proposal introduced is a development of a systematic method for evaluating the performance of Kraft process equipments from the point of ‘view of energy, water and
chemicals, using new and adapted key performance indicators. The objectives are (i) to develop new Key Performance Indicators adapted to the Kraft proces.s operations and
equipments to evaluate their performance regarding energy, chemicals and water utilization, (ii) to propose process improvement projects and validate their practicality with the mill engineers. Both the first and the second objectives of the internships will be applied on both partner mills. At the end of the internships, adapted key performance indicators will be developed. These KPls will help the industries to systematically analyze the performance of their processes, diagnose the causes of the inefficiencies and propose improvement projects for water, energy and chemical utilization.

Accompagner ÉtudeSecours dans la réflexion et la construction d’une nouvelle plateforme d’apprentissage en ligne, à l’aide des meilleures pratiques issues de la recherche en soutien à la motivation : une étude ciblant les contenus mathématiques d’élèves de 4e secondaire.

Le projet de recherche vise à identifier les bonnes pratiques issues de la recherche quant à la motivation et l’apprentissage en ligne de notions de mathématiques chez des élèves de 4e secondaire. L’organisme partenaire, ÉtudeSecours est nouvellement accréditée par le MÉES comme étant une école en ligne à part entière pour les élèves de 4e et 5e secondaire. ÉtudeSecours souhaite créer une toute nouvelle plateforme d’apprentissage selon une posture pédagogique différente et motivante pour les élèves. La stagiaire accompagnera cet organisme dans le développement de la nouvelle plateforme. Afin d’étudier l’efficacité des bonnes pratiques mises de l’avant, la nouvelle plateforme sera comparée à l’ancienne. Deux groupes de 150 élèves auront accès aux plateformes pendant un mois. Ils rempliront des questionnaires de motivation et ils pourront travailler sur la plateforme attitrée. À terme, une comparaison entre les deux plateformes évaluera leur efficacité et leur effet sur la motivation des élèves.

Integrating thermal storage in hybrid renewable mine energy systems; a techno-economic feasibility assessment

As a major contributor to Canadian industrial carbon emissions, miners are placing more emphasis on decarbonization efforts by developing greener strategies and sourcing cleaner energy for their mining operations. Despite some progress, decarbonization attempts by mining companies have been underwhelming mainly due to the financial challenges of renewable system implementations. This study aims to perceive an all-inclusive hybrid hydrogen-renewable storage energy system which can be financially competitive with the conventional mine energy system (usually diesel-fueled). Accordingly, the present research for the first time offers a novel solution to achieve full decarbonization of mine power system by integrating a multi-storage (Battery/Fuel Cell/Thermal Storage) and renewable power generation systems (i.e. wind or solar) for application in remote mine sites. Given the heavy reliance on diesel fuel in remote mines deployment of the proposed hybrid renewable system offers a significant potential for carbon savings.

Project Manager at Core Civil Constructions

The proposed research project focusses towards developing and implementing a method to incorporate a company-specific safety program by incorporating the government-specified guidelines and working through the parameters of the program. The Government of Canada has recently released an enormous amount of data in lines with the safety measures, which needs to be evaluated and extensively researched on to truncate it down to meet the needs of an individual organization.
As a project manager, the keys tasks would involve engaging with every level of management in the organisation, understanding their organizational operations, managing both internal and external auditor and overall designing the flow of the project in terms of safety. As an intern, this is a great opportuinity as this provides exposure towards work breakdown structures, risk management, time management. For the Organisation the specified safety program would ensure a safer work environment and give the organisation an edge over its competitors in both government and private construction sector.

LBB Stratégies

LBB Strategies est une firme de services conseil et de planification stratégique qui intervient auprès de clients locaux à internationaux principalement en sport, loisir et vie active. LBB a connu une croissance soutenue de son chiffre d’affaires et est maintenant reconnue comme un chef de file au Canada en sport et vie active. Œuvrant auprès de clients du sport amateur et olympique, sport professionnel, gouvernements, municipalités, entreprises privées, événement sportifs, LBB désire consolider et rehausser sa présence dans l’industrie du sport. Parallèlement, LBB cherche à ouvrir de nouveaux marchés dans des industries qui expriment des besoins similaires.
LBB a ainsi créé une nouvelle division œuvrant en dehors du domaine du sport qui sera déployée à l’automne 2020 dans le marché québécois. LBB aura donc à mettre en œuvre une stratégie de marketing et de pénétration de ces nouveaux marchés tout en consolidant celui du sport, le tout dans un mode adapté de développement d’affaires.
LBB n’a pas été affectée par la pandémie et a su rapidement pivoter pour offrir des services adaptés à la situation à ses clients, notamment en gestion de risque et agilité des processus d’affaires.

Optimisation multi-objective de I’utilisation du gaz de synthese issu de la gazeification de la biomasse dans Ie contexte de la bioraffinerie forestiere integree et verte

La bioraffinerie forestiere integree et verte (BRFIV) est un complexe industriel integre capable de transformer de la biomasse par divers procedes de conversion en une grande variete de produits tout en eliminant I’utilisation de I’energie fossile et tout en reduisant les emissions de gaz a effet de serre par I’utilisation rationnelle de I’energie. Parmi les differents concepts de la BRFIV, on peut citer celui impliquant les technologies de gazeification de la biomasse pour la generation de nouvelles gammes de produits. Le projet de maitrise se· penche sur ce concept et plus precisement sur I’etape du couplage de I’unite de gazeification a la BRFIV. L’objectif principal de ce projet de maitrise est de developper et resoudre un modele d’optimisation multi-objective permettant d’identifier les alternatives de bioproduits generes a partir de la gazeification de la biomasse capables de maximiser les profits de la BRFIV et minimiser les impacts environnementaux.