Projets novateurs réalisés

Comportement énergétique de l’Axionaut dans un contexte 5G

Les innovations de la 5G, en particulier au niveau de la diminution de la latence des transmissions et de la déportation des calculs proche de la source ouvrent la porte à l’utilisation du réseau cellulaire pour effectuer des opérations de contrôle. Avec ce projet, nous souhaitons explorer le potentiel d’optimisation de la consommation électrique d’un prototype de voiture autonome de taille réduite, grâce au calcul déporté via 5G tout en garantissant une fiabilité maximale du véhicule.

Feasibility Assessment and Development of Knowledge, Technology, and Tools for a Reliable Touch Interface for Metallic and Non-Metallic Surfaces

As ‘Smart-home’ technologies are developed and become a major player in the household appliances market, so too must the technologies that allow us to interface with it. This project, over the span of two years will develop methods of sensing not currently used in the appliance sector. This will allow companies such as iaconicDesign to integrate numerous aesthetics into their products while maintaining reliable functionality. In this project the technologies of piezoelectric and capacitive will be explored initially for use with metallic front-plates, as to rapidly develop a prototype, and later, the technology of Electrical Impedance Tomography will be developed as a future-proofing method.

Étude sur la valorisation des boues d’épuration provenant d’une usine de production d’émulsions de polymères (Celanese, Boucherville)

Dans une perspective de développement durable et d’économie circulaire, les industries sont forcées vers des pratiques plus durables de traitement et de valorisation des matières résiduelles, telles que les boues provenant du traitement de l’eau. Ainsi, les pratiques conventionnels d’enfouissement et d’incinération des matières organiques seront bannis au Québec à partir de 2022. C’est dans ce contexte que ce projet vise le traitement et la valorisation des boues d’épuration provenant de l’usine de production d’émulsions de polymères de Celanese à Boucherville. Une stratégie de biométhanisation sera étudiée dans le but de produire de la bioénergie et des biofertilisants à partir de ces résidus. Les avantages escomptés pour l’organisme partenaire incluent une réduction des coûts et de l’impact environnemental de ses processus par l’implémentation éventuelle de la valorisation des boues au lieu de la pratique actuelle d’enfouissement.

Perfectionnement d’un système d’assistance motorisée pour lève-personnes

De nos jours, le vieillissement de la population ainsi que l’augmentation du poids moyen sont à l’origine de nouvelles problématiques dans le secteur médical et paramédical. En effet, la majorité des aides-soignants souffrent de problèmes musculo-squelettiques (lombalgie, etc …), qui peuvent trouver leurs origines dans le transfert des patients “handicapés ou blessés”. Ces déplacements, et particulièrement les rotations, répétés plusieurs fois par jour par le personnel, peuvent être à l’origine de douleurs menant à des arrêts de travail. L’objectif du projet est d’optimiser un système de contrôle permettant de commander la motorisation d’un levier et permettre de déplacer des patients sans effort et ainsi diminuer le risque de blessure chez les aides-soignants.

Measuring the contributions of non-crop areas to precision canola yield: Phase 2

Canola growers recognize that the beneficial arthropods that live in natural habitats and non-crop areas may play an important role in augmenting and stabilizing crop yields. These bees, flies, beetles, spiders and other arthropods may spill over into the crop, and through pollination or pest control, help to improve yields, decrease inputs, and increase profitability. A postdoctoral fellow will assess the relationship between natural habitats and canola yield that may result from these spillover effects, or other ecosystem services. Their task will be to use precision yield data collected by sensors on the harvesting equipment of grower-cooperators. These data will be applied to build spatial statistical models relating yield hotspots with non-crop areas in at least 60 fields. The partner organization, Canola Council of Canada, will receive an assessment of the potential for non-crop areas (which are very common in prairie canola fields) to contribute to yield, as well as advice which it can disseminate to canola growers about how to leverage any effects of non-crop areas effectively.

Le changement stratégique dans un contexte incertain : l’horizon d’un modèle d’affaires ouvert et collaboratif

Le changement stratégique est, pour nombre de PME, une question de pérennité. Considérant qu’elles occupent plus ou moins 97% de l’économie nationale, la question du changement stratégique est cruciale pour que celles-ci s’adaptent à leur environnement. C’est le cas des entreprises de services-conseils qui optent progressivement vers des modèles d’affaires plus collaboratifs. Cette recherche se penche sur le cas d’une PME de services-conseils en ressources humaines qui est confrontée à un changement dans l’écosystème concurrentiel et prise avec un défi d’attraction et de rétention de ses consultants. Ce projet permettra de mettre en lumière les nouvelles tendances concernant les modèles d’affaires collaboratifs et ouverts. Il s’agit d’un défi de recherche pertinent puisque le nombre d’entreprises adoptant ces modèles d’affaires émergents est en croissance. L’organisation partenaire pourra profiter de cette collaboration de recherche puisqu’un diagnostic interne lui sera présenté et des recommandations stratégiques leur seront proposées à partir de la littérature scientifique.

Development of a drug loaded degradable embolic particle capable of locally deliveringtherapeutic agents for transarterial chemoembolization

Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer and has the third highest death rate
world-wide. Patients are usually diagnosed once the disease has progressed to a
point where a cure is not possible. An emerging treatment to help manage this type of
cancer uses small particles to block blood from reaching the cancer while also
providing local chemotherapy. One of the problems associated with this method is
that the doctors have trouble directly seeing the particles. This lack of visibility can
lead to serious clinical problems such particles being delivered to non-target tissue.
ABK Biomedical, a Halifax based company, has developed a platform technology,
OccluRad, which is a fully visible particle for blocking blood flow in blood vessels.
This research will adapt the current technology so that it can be used to treat mid to
late stage liver cancer by blocking blood flow to the tumor and delivering a drug to at
the same time.

Enhancement of an AI-driven space situational awareness platform for more robust predictions

As transportation to space becomes more accessible, space debris pose increasing risk to operational satellites. Objects orbiting the earth can have a detrimental effect on space travel and threaten the
spacecraft and its personnel. These objects can be anything from active and passive satellites, orbital debris, space junk, asteroids and fragments from their disintegration and collisions. The first step toward
mitigating the adverse effects of these objects is to be able to predict their motion. Since the motions of these objects are very complex and not independent of each other, conventional techniques and directly
derived physical models fail. In this project, machine learning techniques are used to predict the motions of objects in space. Because machine learning techniques rely on a learning process, their accuracy can
wildly vary. This project specifically focuses on improving the prediction accuracy of two techniques implemented by Columbiad Launch Services Inc., by enhancing the data, and the training procedure that
leads to the machine learning.

Canadian History Through the Lens of Indigenous Women: Indigenous History and Cultural Awareness Training

This proposed research project pairs two students with expertise in branding, digital design and user experience with a partner organization that offers training in Indigenous cultural awareness, specifically Canadian history as seen through the lens of Indigenous women. The students will address research questions, assist with finding ways to expand the awareness training to a wider audience via digital outreach, and explore possibilities for building an online educational platform. The students will also evaluate the partner organization’s positioning and brand identity and advise on ways in which this can be strengthened to reflect the growing scope of the business.

Self-tuning servers within IBM cloud

Modern cloud-based applications are deployed as isolated processes in containers or virtual machines. These applications frequently require tuning by the application developer (or a DevOps engineer) in order to extract the requisite performance. For example, a Java application executing within a Docker container may have radically better performance if the host JVM runs with a specific garbage collector policy, or if the Docker container has the appropriate amount of memory and virtual CPU resources. This application-specific tuning is today a manual process. And, it may be unwieldy for engineers to perform this tuning for complex applications that execute across multiple machines and communicate through message passing.

In this project we will work with the IBM hybrid cloud product team to develop new algorithms and systems to improve the automatic tuning and management of cloud-based applications. Our focus will be initially on improving the performance of Java applications. We may later branch out to consider clusters of applications (e.g., Microservices) that must be tuned in aggregate to optimize overall system performance.

Connected Communities in a time of Physical Distancing: Community-led responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the city of Toronto.

CCPD will explore the ways that 6 Toronto communities have responded to the health, psycho-social and economic stresses that are exacerbated, amplified or created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on interviews with grassroots leaders, social service agencies, NGOs, and City staff engaged in each of 6 Neighbourhood Improvement Areas in Toronto, CCPD will explore the social infrastructure that was in place prior to COVID-19 that has enabled some communities to act together during and subsequent to the pandemic, and what communities identify as a lack of social infrastructure that made community-led responses difficult or impossible during and post COVID-19.

Rapid Implementation of a Shared COVID-19 Tracking and Response Platform for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Populations in Canada

As COVID-19 rapidly spreads across Canada, the morbidity and mortality rates are likely to follow the same patterns as H1N1, and be significantly higher in First Nation, Inuit and Métis (FNIM) populations compared to non-Indigenous Canadians. Thus, there exists an urgent and currently unmet need to track and respond to incidences of COVID-19 in these populations. Any effort to do so will need to bridge persistent gaps in Indigenous health information system infrastructure while also acknowledging distinct, nation-based FNIM data sovereignty. With these core requirements and key challenges in mind, this project will build on existing networks of Indigenous health information partnerships with FNIM, Indigenous, federal, provincial/territorial (P/T) and allied governing bodies to rapidly implement a shared COVID19 tracking and response platform for FNIM populations in Canada. This research will, 1) rapidly implement the development of a FNIM COVID-19 database, visualization platform and modelling of predicted FNIM case surges and service needs; and 2) progress rapid application of emerging FNIM COVID-19 evidence to content and scope of FNIM community responses, advance quality and comprehensiveness of databases and engage and support FNIM who are hospitalized with COVID-19.