Innovative Projects Realized

Modelisation du comportement des sables ameliores par vibroremplacement

Le vibro-remplacement est une technique d’amelioration des sols proposee par Geopac Inc. qui consiste a
inserer dans Ie sol des colonnes ballastees pour les renforcer. L’utilisation de cette technique est relativement
recente au Quebec, OU I’on peut trouver des sols difficiles a traiter. L’objet de ce projet est I’etude theorique du
processus de vibro-remplacement, afin de mieux com prendre et interpreter ses effets sur Ie sol. Le stagiaire
memera une revue de litterature portant sur la modelisation numerique et analytique du vibro-remplacement. La
majeure partie du projet repose sur une campagne de modelisation numerique du vibro-remplacement. Enfin,
les donnees seront completees par des observations sur des chantiers de vibro-remplacement. Le projet permet
a Geopac Inc. d’approfondir son etude du vibro-remplacement a un niveau de recherche, et ainsi d’en prouver
eventuellement son applicabilite a de nouveaux marches.

Fall and Head Impact Acceleration Monitoring of Short Track Speed Skaters

Short track speed skating is a fast-paced sport where athletes routinely reach speed above 50 km/h. It is one of the leading Canadian sports for medal count at the Olympic games. Unfortunately, given the fast-paced and pack-style skating, athletes often fall on the ice, which may lead to concussion. There is no clear data on the incidence of falls in short track speed skating, nor is there a clear understanding of the mechanism of head impact.

Therefore, this project will track the incidence of falls and measure head impacts that may lead to concussion using ‘smart’ mouth guards. These mouth guards have sensors that can quantify the force, location, direction, and number of impacts an athlete sustains during practice or in competition. In addition to using mouth guards to further understand head impacts, we will perform comprehensive concussion assessments to correlate head impacts to the incidence of concussion. This project will be highly beneficial to INS Québec and the Olympic Canadian short track speed skating team as it will help coaches and medical staff better understand how their athletes get concussions. This project will also help inform guidelines for the future development of helmets to keep athletes safe and healthy.

Research and Data Analysis of Aycoutay Wellness Device user scans

The Aycoutay Health Screening Device is based on well-established EEG technology. It is a modern, computerized EDA based health monitoring/screening device that performs a comprehensive analysis of the bio-electrical activity of each organ and gland, as well as the critical interrelationship between them, using algorithms that translate this electrical data into diagnostic information. It is designed for wellness consumers and provides a primary diagnostic estimation or an opinion about state of internal organ systems. During a session, a user would perform a 30 second scan, this simple, affordable, cost-effective, painless, non-invasive and radiation free test can monitor all body systems at once to determine if they are functioning properly.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Protected Areas in Canada

Global biodiversity is declining due to habitat loss and protected areas provide an opportunity to prevent this. While governments create and manage most protected areas in the world, non-governmental organizations can also play a significant role in the acquisition and management of properties for the purpose of conserving biodiversity. We propose to measure the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s contribution to the protection of biodiversity in Canada. To do this, we will compare various measures of biodiversity and connectivity over different NCC land management types (purchased vs donated and fee simple vs conservation agreement). We will also compare these metrics among NCC properties and other protected areas in Canada (e.g. areas managed by government).

Development of a New Family of Agri-based Flocculent for Optimized Water & Nutrient Recovery from Anaerobic Digestate

Anaerobic Digesters are used in farm-based, municipal and industrial settings to convert wastes (manure and crop residues) as well as other feedstock material (fat, grease, oil and food wastes) to biogas. Produced digestate is rich in nutrients such as phosphate, nitrogen, (and other minor nutrients) and is mixed with water that makes the transportation costly and can’t be land applied due to excess of phosphate, nitrate and ammonia. The majority of current flocculants contain petroleum solvents ?that remain in the organic solids after separation; rendering it unsuitable for subsequent use in farm fields. Some others are not efficient in removal of solid and nutrients. Developing an green and environmentally friendly solution to convert digestate into more concentrated and/or higher value product improves the economics of Anaerobic Digestion facilities. The present proposed project has been planned to develop an innovative technology for enhanced nutrient recovery. Developed agri-based polymer removes water and nutrients from digestate efficiently and cost-effectively, producing a nutrient-rich product that can be transported off-site and/or used as higher value product such as organic fertilizer. Using the proposed technique, anaerobic digestate can processed to generate a concentrated and higher value nutrient product while its recovered water can be land applied.

Deep Language models for Visual analytics of diversity and inclusion

The project will build an Artificial Intelligence-powered Bias Detection tool to identify bias and discrimination faced by employees of a company. The tool will take in free-text content from employee surveys, internal reviews and social media, and produce a score indicating whether the author of the content is likely facing or exhibiting bias. Algorithms will be trained to recognize bias against women, ethnic & cultural minorities, LGBTQ2+ folks, individuals with disabilities, and other special groups. The tool will help companies in improving their diversity and inclusion practices, and investors in focussing their funds on companies with a strong diversity and inclusion record. The results of the project will help Diversio achieve and maintain world-class status in this emerging IT industry sector.

Beehive strength modelling using multiclass supervised machine learning

A third of the food that we grow depends on honeybee pollination. Nectar’s mission is to help the beekeeping industry ensure honeybee health to secure our food supply. By leveraging sensor data with labelled data on numerous aspects of beehive conditions, this project aims to develop multiclass classification of key phenomena to improve beehive health and reduce labor. Labelled data on honey quantity, queen bee status and productivity, population, and pesticides will be modeled to develop a hive strength score based on each labelled data category.

An Investigation of Potential Market Entry for Novel Medical Devices in a Pandemic Environment

Currently, it is difficult to obtain market share in the medical device market. Furthermore, a lack of resources by small companies with disruptive technologies can prove to be detrimental to establishing market share. This huge hurdle thus discourages innovators from commercializing their life-saving technologies especially in a pandemic situation. This project will focus on the development of a framework to support vulnerable new entrants into the medical device market with penetrating and securing a position in the market, within a pandemic setting. Healthcare professional-led innovations will, therefore, have the chance to develop tailored market entry strategies to quantify risks and outcomes of various market entry options, defined by the framework. This framework will be utilized by Difinity Solutions in marketing their medical devices based on a novel medication delivery system and mechanism to improve patient outcomes. This will therefore provide evidence-informed decision on an overall market entry strategy for Difinity’s medical devices.

Collaborative Robot for Vertebral Fusion with a Quality of Fusion Estimation Model

Spinal fixation, the process by which a broken spine is mended, or a deformed spine corrected, can involve the placement of tens of pedicle screws during lengthy surgical operations. With an ageing population the overall demand for these procedures is increasing. Surgeon fatigue is an issue in these procedures and has demonstrated decreased performance. Our focus will be on the researching and developing an automatic surgical system for the purposes of spine screw insertion. By having a robotic system which performs the most work intensive tasks, the surgical workload can be shared thereby relieving surgeon fatigue and all complications associated with it. e

Business Development Intern

Company Background:
Popul8 aims to build immersive and intelligent technologies to map the industrial world. Our goal is to enable workers to solve complex problems by communicating visual information and facilitating remote and real-time collaboration. In order to safely restart businesses, Popul8 applications help address social distancing and travel restrictions by enabling remote team collaboration for planning, audits, procurement, training, and support. The organization has developed a tool to allow asset managers to visit their sites & assets virtually rather than in person. The intern will help to expand the sales effort of the venture and support other businesses affected by COVID.

Internship:
Popul8 is looking for a Business Development Intern to help lead the company in the next growth phase by increasing our reach through lead generation and qualification. As a Business Development intern, you’ll have an opportunity to increase our reach through identifying new markets and leads, managing the CRM funnel and analyzing data. We are looking for a creative, self-starting individual who will thrive in a fast-paced environment and wants to see the impact of their work.
– Execute on a business development strategy for Popul8
– Perform Funnel analysis
– Identify markets and potential opportunities

Estimation of Better Bid prices in the CustomerChoice-Based Network Revenue ManagementProblem

A “bid price” is a mathematical tool in the seat inventory control to make a decisionmaking
system to accept or reject arrivals in order to maximize expected total revenue
with a limited available capacity of resources. As part of this internship, intern will
develop new models and test their performance using actual data. This internship will
allow ExPretio to test new approaches and apply advanced technigues in seat
inventory control and other mentioned related fields, areas in which the intern has
specialized as part of his Ph.D.

Marketing Intern

The goal for this internship is to devise a marketing plan to re-educate the public on what Independent Living and Assisted Living are and how they are different than Long Term Care, and instill a feeling of safety from making the choice to move to our residence during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The marketing strategy will include writing and managing ads, developing outreach programs, writing and sourcing content for our website and ads speaking as experts in our field or related topics, as well as some sales and tracking. Additionally, scheduling educational content for our residents as well as our clients would be part of this role should the restrictions on visitors be lifted. A successful marketing campaign will result in the ultimate goal of reaching 100% occupancy.