Projets novateurs réalisés

Gouvernance de l’eau comparée: apprentissages institutionnels entre l’Argentine et le Canada

Les modalités dont les sociétés parviennent à gérer les ressources naturelles varient d’un pays à l’autre et entre les territoires qui les conforment. Ce projet porte sur une analyse comparative des arrangements institutionnels mis en œuvre par deux fédérations, comme l’Argentine et le Canada, a fin d’administrer leurs ressources en eau. À partir de l’étude des cas des provinces du Chubut et du Québec, le projet a pour but d’identifier des apprentissages communs sur la gouvernance de l’eau dans ces larges provinces du sud et du nord des Amériques. Il s’agit d’analyser les régulations mises en place pour préserver cette ressource et garantir son accès pour les différentes activités, notamment pour les activités agricoles. Il s’espère que le projet donne lieu à l’élaboration d’un rapport sur l’expérience de gouvernance de l’eau dans chacun de ces territoires et à une publication internationale sur les apprentissages réciproques pour chacun des deux pays.

Modélisation des pertes de charges en biofiltration

L’épuration des eaux usées par biofiltration est de plus en plus fréquente en raison de la compacité et des performances épuratoires de ce procédé. L’implantation en usine de ce type de traitement est bien connue, mais la manière de l’opérer reste à perfectionner. C’est au niveau des pertes de charge que le bât blesse; la perte de charge étant une variable majeure dans l’optimisation des cédules de lavage des biofiltres pour minimiser les débordements d’eaux usées. La perte de charge est constituée de trois composantes : 1) la perte de charge initiale, (2) la perte de charge due à l’encrassement (la perte de charge réversible), et (3) la perte de charge du au colmatage(la perte de charge irréversible).

Bernier (2014) a développé un modèle complet du procédé par biofiltration. La perte de charge initiale y est bien prédite pour les filtres propres. Si la perte de charge due à l’encrassement des filtres est généralement bien prédite, celle due au colmatage du filtre est difficile à simuler. L’objectif de ce projet de recherche est donc de proposer des modifications au modèle de Bernier (2014) pour améliorer la prédiction des pertes de charge et ainsi optimiser l’opération des biofiltres en usine.

Can a neuromuscular training insole alter low back muscular and postural responses?

Back posture and muscle activation are effected by the alignment and behaviour of joints below: the hip, knee, ankle, and foot. Neuromuscular training insoles use disruptive
technology to change how the feet respond to interactions with the ground. If such an insole can improve the foot??s ability to sense orientation/position and the required stabilization for normal and effective gait, it may be able to improve the performance of joints in the chain above. The proposed research will quantify activation in key muscles in the back, abdomen, pelvis, and legs (using surface electromyography), force plates, and three-dimensional motion profiles during standing, walking, and simulated work tasks in men and women. Measures will be taken before and after eight weeks of insole use. This research is expected to be very valuable to our partner in terms of product validation, research-based re-designs, and in the development of new products.

Uncertainty for prediction quality assessment in clinical settings

Deep learning has the potential to increase efficiency of many routine tasks in medical image analysis. For instance, segmentation, the detection of the boundaries of specific target structures like organs or tumors, is a tedious and time-consuming chore for clinicians. Robust deep learning models could assist medical personnel for this type of task. However, automatic segmentations using machine learning and in particular deep learning could lead to medical errors due to so-called silent failure. If a model fails to produce a reasonable output segmentation it doesn’t give a warning to the user. To avoid this issue, verification of each single case from experts is required. Associating each prediction with an uncertainty value can indicate which predictions need more attention from the medical specialists. Hence, exploring uncertainty estimation methods that correlate with segmentation quality (e.g., Dice score) would greatly benefit the medical field and the neuroscience community. This project aims to study factors impacting uncertainty, hence will lead to increase insight on the uncertainty mechanisms associated with neural network. The ultimate goal is to find concrete methods to evaluate uncertainty to identify particularly challenging cases likely to result in low-quality segmentations.

Advanced Building Performance Analysis Tools for Computation Design of Building Envelopes

An early-stage design analysis methodology will be investigated for evaluating preliminary building envelope design alternatives using advanced computation and analysis tools. Design alternatives will be generated based on different envelope materials, structure, insulation types and window-to-wall ratios and evaluated based on selected metrics including energy use, daylighting, life cycle analysis and life cycle costing. A master-planning project in Mississauga, Ontario, will be used as a test-bed for the methodologies explored in this research. Finding will assists in developing design guidelines for efficient and low-carbon building envelopes. The benefits to the partner from this project include expanding expertise in envelope performance analysis, experimenting with expansion of carbon accounting consultation, expanding expertise in computational design and analysis tools, developing tool comparison measures, and testing efficacy of in-house developed analysis tools and improving their efficiencies.

Internationalization strategies in the Canadian cannabis industry.

Cannabis is one of the oldest naturally psychoactive substances known to humans and is globally the most commonly used psychoactive substance under international control. The proposed research work aims to analyze how the international strategy of Canadian companies in the field of cannabis is influenced by factors inherent in the industry in order to develop a sustainable competitive advantage. This work will enable Canadian companies to better understand potential international strategies of Canadian cannabis companies and how they could develop in order to gain a competitive advantage.

Hydroelectric development impact on Marine Ecosystems: Grand Riverkeeper Labrador, Inc. engaging in knowledge sharing with Subsistence and Commercial Fishers

Grand Riverkeeper Labrador, Inc. (GRK) is a federally incorporated non-profit organization that has as its mandate to preserve and protect the water quality and the ecological integrity of the Grand (Churchill) River and its estuaries for present and future users and for posterity through actions of public awareness, monitoring, intervention and habitat restoration. The purpose of this research project is to support GRK in engaging coastal fisher communities (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) in Labrador and other coastal communities impacted by hydroelectric dams and reservoirs, including those on the Grand (a.k.a. Churchill) River. GRK intends to engage with various experts in environmental and water policy, climate, marine environments, ocean environments as well as various other ENGO groups involved in protecting water and oceans to build on the report. The project includes hosting knowledge sharing workshops with subsistence and commercial fishers on the ways in which dams and reservoirs can affect marine ecosystems and in particular how they can affect subsistence and commercial fisheries in coastal communities.

Scaling up Land2Lab:Intergenerational community action research promoting Traditional Mi’kmaw Foodways

The land and its foods are extremely important for the health of Indigenous communities. Throughout Canadian history, however, factors have limited Indigenous people’s ability to be able to go out on the land and harvest their foods according to Traditional ways. To combat this today, Elders have been sharing their knowledge about the land with youth to support the continued health of their communities. COVID-19 has made this increasingly difficult, however, as the health of Elders is of outmost importance and social gatherings have been limited as a result of this. For this research project, therefore, we will be using a virtual approach to bring together Elders and youth to encourage youth to get on the land to learn about their foods. The Intern will help evaluate this approach and develop a program tool-kit for this project to support its continuation within CMM and so that it can potentially be implemented in other First Nation communities across Canada.

Business Development Intern

Flextrapower Technologies Inc. (FTI), Corporation Number 11422197, Business number 792843278, is a Canadian Controlled Private Corporation, founded by Linh Le, a serial startup founder with chemical engineering background from Columbia University and Stevens Institute of Technology. Since founding, FTI has been actively involved with technical consulting as well as strategy work for multiple companies at various stages of development. Most recently and notably, FTI is the winner of the contract with Hanoi University of Science and Technology to provide the graphene-based textile sensors in Electromyography (EMG) in dual-use applications for both consumer and medical markets. Since Covid pandemic, the management team has made the decision to focus in Asia region, which happens to be the best in dealing with Covid and the business has been growing in both service and product offering. Having a chance to work with Abhik will offer a chance for FTI to better understanding the market insights and product requirements, which is crucial for the next stage of business development for the company

Évaluation d’un programme de saines habitudes de vie basé sur les traditions autochtones: approche participative et analyse qualitative ancrées dans le paradigme autochtone

Le diabète de type 2 (DT2) frappe plusieurs communautés autochtones au Québec comme ailleurs dans le monde. Cette maladie non-transmissible peut être bien gérée par l’adoption de saines habitudes de vie. Par contre, les programmes habituels de saines habitudes de vie offerts aux autochtones ne tiennent pas compte de leur contexte culturel. Le projet vise donc à proposer une intervention en saines habitudes de vie centrée sur l’alimentation traditionnelle, la médecine traditionnelle et l’activité physique culturelle. Il s’attarde notamment au vécu des participants qui s’impliquent dans une telle intervention culturellement appropriée. À travers des entrevues individuelles et de groupe, le projet cherchera à comprendre les mécanismes de changement de comportements durant l’intervention et la perception des participants au niveau des impacts sur leur bien-être, la gestion et la prévention du DT2, ainsi que le sentiment de connexion à l’identité culturelle que procure la participation à des programmes culturellement pertinents.

Moving to musical groove: Modulatory effect of emotions, and individual differences

Rhythmic music naturally urges us to move. This is visible when they spontaneously move or dance with music, even without being consciously aware of aligning movements to the musical pulse. Moving to the beat of the music (Auditory-Motor Synchronization – AMS) is a widespread behavior involving the fine coordination of a motor rhythm with an external rhythm which involves a complex neuronal network including both cortical and subcortical areas (such as the basal ganglia and the cerebellum) and cortical regions (such as the SMA and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). Previous researches have shown that there is a tight link between brain networks subserving in processing emotions and motor control as well as duration perception. In this regard, The main goal of this project is to examine whether emotions conveyed by complex auditory stimuli, namely rhythmic music, affect AMS and if so, what are the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms supporting this effect. To reach this aim, we designed a project to investigate the behavioral aspects of emotional conditions and their relationships with AMS abilities.

Conception et fabrication d’une matrice de micropropulseurs à combustible solide

L’utilisation de plusieurs petits satellites à faibles coûts envoyée en orbite plutôt qu’un seul comporte de nombreux avantages, autant au niveau financier que logistique. Cependant, le placement sur les bonnes orbites de ces petits satellites amène un problème important, soit la conception d’un système de propulsion assez puissant, compact et à faible coût. C’est l’objectif de ce projet, qui sera de concevoir et fabriquer une matrice de micropropulseurs à combustible solide. Le combustible étant limité à ce qui a été inséré dans les chambres, une plus grande quantité de micropropulseurs équivaut à un plus grand nombre de poussées disponibles. Par l’entremise de la compagnie Numérica Technologies inc. un prototype fonctionnel sera conçu et testé en laboratoire afin de recueillir les données nécessaires pour mieux caractériser le système, et ainsi l’améliorer.