Projets novateurs réalisés

Investigations on amino acids for optimal gut health and productivity in broiler chickens raised without antimicrobial growth promoters

The largest cost of raising chickens is feed, therefore maintaining chickens in an environment that supports proper nutrition is essential for productivity and profitability. However, nutrient absorption and gut adaptation to luminal inflammatory stress is challenging production efficiency as a consequence of the restriction on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) and anti-coccidial drugs. The metabolic changes induced by inflammation are homeostatic in nature and thus nutrients that would have been utilized for growth and skeletal muscle accretion are diverted to support host defense systems. The available scientific information on aspects of amino acids nutrition and gut health is fragmented. The proposed research will use meta-analysis approach to establish a bibliographic database on interactions among amino acids and other nutrients on metabolic and immune responses in broiler chickens and identify gaps in knowledge that require further experimentation.

Attribute-Driven Automatic Generation of Realistic Face Textures

When creating a video game, every digital character must be created by professional artists. Their work is very labor intensive because the number of created characters are in the thousands, each of which has multiple visual components that must be created for each one. “Scanning” real actors to create a digital version of themselves can help speed up this process, but each scan must be altered to preserve the actor’s anonymity. Given all of the face data Ubisoft has from past projects, we plan to create a system that can generate faces of completely new digital characters automatically with just a few desirable attributes and with high quality and believable results. The faces generated should be good enough to use on player characters and minor characters with little to no modification by artists. This will give them more time to work on major characters in the game.

All-Mach 3D Aerodynamic Design System (HALO3D) for Next-Generation Hypersonic High-Altitude Low-Orbit Commercial Aircraft

The future of aviation is (much) faster travel with (significantly) lower environmental impact (pollution, noise, etc.). In another couple of decades, hypersonic flight (5-10 times the speed of today’s aircraft) will be a serious contender. Tom Clancy prophesized having breakfast in Washington and be back in time for lunch after conducting business in Europe: that is how fast hypersonic flight could be. As the Internet has completely changed our lives, hypersonic flight will be a similar game changer. The research program groups the talents of a leading university (McGill) with a giant of aerospace (Lockheed Martin) and the no. 1 simulation software company (ANSYS) in developing a simulation system for studying and optimizing the aerodynamic and chemistry effects of a civil airplane, from subsonic take-off speeds (today’s aircraft), to acceleration to supersonic speeds (such as the Concorde), entry into low-orbit at hypersonic speeds (space shuttle), and landing as an aircraft.

Optical Coherence Tomography Imaging of Conjunctival Lymphatic Vessels

The proposed project will focus on using new Optical Coherence Tomography techniques for non-invasive imaging of the anterior segment of the eye. In particular, our effort will be focused on using OCT methods to reliably image the lymphatics vessel network of the conjunctiva, which plays a major role in the progression and surgical intervention of glaucoma but has thus far been difficult to image non-invasively. Reliable OCT imaging of the conjunctiva lymphatics network will be a significant breakthrough in the treatment of glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness globally. The partner organization and its collaborators are uniquely predisposed to facilitate this work in a meaningful fashion, given their extensive knowledge in developing new and effective glaucoma treatment technologies.

Automated HX-MS technology for protein functional analysis

Proteins are important molecules. They are the workhorses of your cells and increasingly, they are being developed as new drugs (biopharmaceuticals). Proteins are large and complex and determining their properties is difficult. Our best tools for this are very impractical to use in a high throughput setting, where 100’s of samples need analyzing. In this project, we are improving the ruggedness and throughput of one of these exemplary tools (HX-MS), and developing focused software to support it. Our partner (Trajan Scientific and Medical Inc.) will gain access to advanced HX-MS systems and concepts that can help them improve their product offering in this space.

Remote Life Signs and Self-Harming Behaviors Monitoring System

Suicide is one of the most important causes of deaths in the prison environment, both in Canada and internationally. Rates of attempts of suicide and self-harm have been on the rise in recent years. To address this problem, there is a real and immediate need for an automated, private, and effective monitoring system that can detect attempts of suicide and self-harm in real-time. This project aims to develop a first phase of a monitoring system by assessing vital signs as well as body configurations through sensors and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms to detect behavioral patterns that can be classified into gestures of interest. Set parameters are defined for triggering alarms when the conditions are met in order to assist the personnel responsible for the health and safety of the inmates. The system is also designed to respect the inmates’ privacy and confidential information.

Croissance du mélèze hybride assujetti à différentes méthodes de préparations de terrain

Le secteur industriel forestier traverse une période difficile due à plusieurs causes, dont le

manque appréhendé de bois. Divers organismes gouvernementaux et non gouvernementaux

ont trouvé dans la sylviculture intensive et le zonage forestier (TRIADE) une façon de faire

face à ce problème. À son tour, la sylviculture intensive doit résoudre certains inconvénients

comme l’établissement des plantations. Une fois l’arbre planté, il doit s’adapter aux conditions

environnementales du terrain (disponibilité de l’eau, de la lumière, des nutriments, etc.). Très

peu de choses sont connues au Québec en matière de sylviculture intensive et

d’établissement de plantations intensives, notamment à l’aide de mélèzes exotiques. Cette

étude cherche à connaître les traitements de préparation de terrain idéaux et les

caractéristiques environnementales les plus favorables, des microsites de plantation pour le

mélèze hybride. Cette recherche sera un important outil pour Abitibi-Bowater en Haute-

Mauricie, le MNRF et l’industrie forestière du Québec dans son ensemble qui se dirige vers…

Breaking Biofilms with Ordinary Polymers – Light-Activated Antimicrobial Crosslinkers

Microbial growth on surfaces, or biofouling, is a pervasive problem across sectors including medical implants, hospital surfaces, water treatment, and environmental monitoring. Many existing solutions involve the use of harsh chemicals that may harm human health or the environment. In this work, our team of chemists, biologists, and engineers will develop a plastic that includes light-activated molecules that prevent microbes from growing, but do so in a way that is site-specific and inherently safe. Our partners, Epic Ventures, Inc. have introduced many other new materials to the market, and will work with us to translate our new polymers into useful coatings for medical devices, hospital environments, drinking water systems, and high performance materials.

Conception et évaluation d’un système embarqué permettant d’analyserles forces de poussée des athlètes de l’équipe canadienne de patinagede vitesse courte piste

Les connaissances des spécialistes de patinage de vitesse courte piste Canada sur la manière dont patinent leurs athlètes d’élite sont principalement basées sur leur expérience personnelle. Actuellement, le manque de mesures concrètes réduit considérablement les innovations technique et d’entrainement que s’autorisent les spécialistes. L’objectif du projet consiste donc à concevoir un système capable de mesurer les forces générées par les athlètes olympiques à chaque coup de patin. Ce système permettra aux spécialistes de mesurer concrètement ce qu’il se passe sur la glace, et ainsi d’ajuster plus précisément les stratégies d’entraînement en musculation, ou encore la forme des lames des patins.

Design of a Force-Feedback Manipulandum with Integrated Sensors

Haply Robotics is developing a haptic device that produces forces on the hand while interacting with medical simulations in virtual reality. As part of this larger project, we will design and evaluate an improved manipulandum – the stylus of the device that is held in the hand – with integrated sensors capable of measuring the grip force applied by the hand and the location of the manipulandum. By measuring the grip force, we will optimize the forces produced such that they are adapted to whether the manipulandum is held loosely or firmly, which can otherwise result in unstable behavior (e.g., unwanted vibrations). By integrating novel tracking sensors, we expect to reduce the cost of tracking, improve the range of motion, and allow the manipulandum to be detached and used as a handheld virtual reality controller. The result will be a high-performance, cost-effective manipulandum that will be part of Haply’s next-generation haptics devices.

Program Evaluation: Community Impact/Poverty Reduction

The purpose of this project is to assist a community non-profit organisation to build a comprehensive plan to evaluate its poverty reduction initiatives and activities. The agency partners with other non-profit agencies as well as with government partners, other stakeholders, and persons with lived/living experience. The purpose of the project is also to develop a set of common/shared measures of progress amongst several agencies as a demonstration project that will be evaluated to determine its utility across agencies and potentially within government to enhance collaboration and improve reporting.

The Use of ‘Lesson Play’ As a Post-Activity of ‘TouchTimes’

The focus of this proposal is on ‘TouchTimes’, a new and potentially powerful digital technology for understanding multiplication. I want to explore processes by which students can reflect meaningfully on their experiences of using ‘TouchTimes’, in order to support their learning. The issue I am concerned with is whether a process of writing about their experience leads students to form explicit links between the manipulative activities of ‘TouchTimes’ and the concept of multiplication. I intend to make use of ‘lesson play’ (script-writing) as a post-activity task for students, after using ‘TouchTimes’. It will be possible to investigate the extent to which students are able to summarise and re-organise their embodied knowings, to write a script. I will consider the extent to which writing lesson scripts provokes meaningful generalisations of manipulative activity. Outcomes from the project will relate both to ways of using ‘TouchTimes’ for learning multiplication and the potential of lesson-play as a tool for teachers and researchers to use with students.