Innovative Projects Realized

Record Keeping on Canadian Cow-Calf Operations

This project will work to better understand record keeping adoption on Canadian farms and ranches. Farmers and ranchers use production and financial records for a number of reasons: to identify trends in production and areas for improvement; to measure financial performance at the whole-farm, business unit (animals, land, profit and cost centres) and individual animal level; and to certify that production practices meet third-party standards.
The purpose of this project is to determine the factors associated with greater rates of adoption of record keeping for these uses and the economic returns gained from using records to make decisions. These findings directly benefit BCRC’s internal record keeping project looking at developing record keeping modules and guidelines for novice, intermediate and advanced producers.

Validating Artificial Intelligence Algorithms for Breast Cancer Detection

While mammograms remain the best available technology for early detection of breast cancer, there are a high number of false positive mammograms and biopsies, leading to increased costs to the medical system on follow-up procedures and increased patient anxiety. This project evaluates the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) systems for breast cancer detection using about 100,000 digital mammograms from the BC Cancer Breast Screening Program. We plan to compare the predictions of the system to those made by breast screening radiologists in routine clinical practice and then compare and contrast the performance of the AI systems to that of individual radiologists. We believe this work will pave the way in using AI models to aid breast cancer detection in routine clinical care.

Computational performance enhancement of hand-held spectrometer

The intern will enhance the functionality of a hand-held gamma spectrometer produced by Environmental Instrument Canada (EIC). In order to improve the performance of the spectrometer, the control board will be switched to a higher spec microcontroller, and the firmware source code will be re-written from interpreted Javascript to C code. New functionality, including energy calibration, background subtraction, peak identification, isotope identification and enhanced spectrum display on local LCD, will be implemented to the extent that the microcontrollers’ resources allow. EIC will use the developed circuit boards, firmware, and enhanced functionality in their spectrometer product lines. These improvements in speed and functionality will expand the potential market for product and improve customer satisfaction. The new SoC and firmware base will also have applications in future product lines.

Understanding Performance of the Swale in Phosphorus Removal from Lagoon Effluent

Rural Municipality of St. François Xavier developed a strategy to lower total phosphorus level below legal water discharge limits when over-limit phosphorus values are measured at the discharge pipe of the lagoon. This strategy consists of a trickled discharge of lagoon treated water and a swale system. Swales are widely applied to manage surface runoffs from urban areas and reduce phosphorus and other pollutants in the runoffs before they reach to the receiving water bodies. While it is a quite effective method in the management of surface runoffs, it did not work for the phosphorus removal from the lagoon treated water. The aim of this project is to find out the cause/s for the swale system failure and accordingly develop a nutrient reduction strategy by improving the current strategy

Forecasting prices of mobile plans in Canada

In order to assess the current state of competition in the Canadian mobile telecommunications industry, we propose different models to estimate and to predict the evolution of plans offered by wireless service providers in Quebec and in Ontario. The models are estimated using data collected by Planhub which frequently updates and compares the prices and characteristics (e.g., voice, text and data allowances) of plans offered by providers. Three models combining structural econometrics and statistical learning methods are proposed. The models are compared on the basis of their ability to predict changes in plans’ prices and characteristics and to identify potential outliers in the dataset.

Impacts des bureaux de projets (PMO) dans la transformation des organisations publiques dans les pays en voie de développement : cas de la Zambie et de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC)

Dans les pays en voie de développement, le budget national repose sur des projets financés par des bailleurs de fonds internationaux. Une saine gestion de projets est donc une condition essentielle au succès des stratégies de développement national. Actuellement, la gestion de projets se fait en silo, malgré l’existence de la déclaration de Paris : « la communauté internationale s’est entendue sur les principes d’harmonisation des méthodologies, d’appropriation par les pays, d’alignement sur les procédures nationales et, plus généralement, la gestion axée sur les résultats ».

Le but du projet est de comprendre le niveau de maturité des bureaux de projets (PMO) et de déterminer les caractéristiques nécessaires contribuant à une meilleure performance des projets. À l’issue de ce projet, l’organisme partenaire aura à sa disposition un outil diagnostic de son PMO et une plateforme numérique lui permettant de cibler ses interventions d’appui auprès des gouvernements des pays en développement.

End-to-End Vulnerability Analysis of a No-Trust IoT Security Ecosystem

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) combine communication and information technology functions to the physical components of a system for purposes of monitoring, controlling, and automation. The power grid is becoming one of the largest CPS, where grid components are controlled based on the synergies in the cyberspace. CPS hold a great promise to improve the efficiency and productivity of numerous sectors in Canada and around the world. However, cyber-security is a major concern in CPS including the smart grid where an intrusion in one part of the system can cause a failure in the entire network if not detected and dealt with in a timely fashion. The main objective of this research project is to develop a realistic model to enable the implementation of machine learning-based algorithms to detect cyber-attacks in a smart grid environment.

L’impact des technologies de l’information et de la communication sur les principes directeurs du procès civil

Le projet mené par Madame Frédérique Boulanger, doctorante à l’Université du Luxembourg, vise à étudier l’impact des technologies de l’information et de la communication sur les principes directeurs du procès civil.

Sera analysée l’interaction entre :
– les services proposés les acteurs de la legaltech et le principe dispositif
– l’utilisation des logiciels applicatifs d’analyse des décisions de justice et l’office du juge
– la base de données de jurisprudence et le principe de publicité dans le cadre de l’open data des décisions de justice

L’objectif est de développer des dispositifs juridiques permettant l’adaptation du cadre juridique actuel au cadre technologique impliqué dans le déroulé de l’instance civile.

Le présent projet s’inscrit dans le cadre des recherches menées par le Professeur Karim Benyehlef directeur du Laboratoire Cyberjustice et de la Professeure Séverine Menétrey qui travaille sur l’accès à la justice au Luxembourg, en Afrique de l’Ouest.

Développement d’une structure intelligente de gestion et de distribution des pièces, outils et équipements adaptés à la réalité des PME manufacturières québécoises et canadiennes

Le présent projet s’inscrit dans un vaste projet de réingénierie des flux physiques à l’intérieur des PME manufacturières québécoises et canadiennes. Le partenaire est un chef de file canadien du domaine et propose déjà plusieurs solutions commercialisées. Le but du partenaire est de développer un concept modulaire, flexible et interconnecté pour aider les PME à numériser les opérations de manutention de leur usine.

Le défi technologique est de permettre d’automatiser le magasin, mais de prioritairement permettre l’interaction humain/machine. Ce modèle hybride est encore à développer, mais se rapprochera davantage du besoin de flexibilité de la PME.

L’objectif du stage est de développer un magasin intelligent. Depuis un bon moment, le partenaire souhaite développer un prototype de démonstration de leur façon de faire afin de promouvoir leur savoir-faire. En créant un magasin complètement automatisé et versatile, le partenaire espère pouvoir démontrer que les PME manufacturières peuvent prendre le virage numérique.

Developing cultural practices to produce dry beans in Quebec

It is critical for farmers to have the information necessary so that they can make decisions on the best practices to undertake when growing a new crop. Pulse production is growing in demand and is an established market in Canada. In addition, plant based protein products are growing in popularity. We are working on developing a set of tools and information that will enable farmers to grow more pulses in Quebec. We will determine basic agronomic parameters that will maximize crop yield and minimize risk of crop failure. These will be planting date, space between rows, number of plants per hectare and cultivar selection.

Intelligent Production Optimization in Real-Time by Implementing Hybrid Data-Physics Simulation

In day to day operations, oil producers need to optimize their production workflow to reduce operational costs. Building a physics-based reservoir model is costly and time-consuming and is not suitable to generate and compare many scenarios. The alternative procedure, Data-Driven Model, is fast enough; however, testing and validating the model is controversial. In this project, a hybrid data-physic framework will be developed, which meets the requirement to quantitatively describe the physical behavior of the reservoir and also predict its mechanism statistically. The model is fast and can be feed by real-time data and create many potential operational scenarios and recommend the most favorable ones.

Strategic Operations Intern

We do not have Standard Operating Procedures, and in the Strategic Plan this has been identified as a critically important need. What if a team member does not come back from layoff? What if they get sick with COVID-19 and need to be off even longer? This is a critical priority yet with a limited team and so much pressing work to adjust to restaurants in a C19 world, we need help.

Ideally, the candidate will work directly with the CEO, and research SOP templates and together decide on a base template for SOP v1. From there the student will interview EVERY team member, and talk through one process at a time, and write and record the SOPs. Funny enough – the student will most likely gain an incredible knowledge of restaurants, franchising, and global needs of a franchisor through this process from documenting mundane tasks to critical ones.