Projets novateurs réalisés

Harmoniser les exigences contractuelles BIM en fonction des besoins du client: Faciliter la production et le transfert de l’information utile à la gestion des actifs du bâtiment

Ce projet tentera de formuler un processus qui permettra de guider l’inclusion des livrables BIM dans les documents contractuels qui régissent les exigences du projet. Une attention particulière sera portée aux exigences BIM en lien avec la gestion des actifs (FM). L’hypothèse proposée suggère que l’inclusion contractuelle d’exigences numériques forcera les donneurs d’ouvrages à se questionner davantage sur leurs besoins à long terme et agira comme catalyseur pour l’intégration du BIM à l’industrie de la construction.

UV Mapping Assistance through Deep Learning

The goal is to create a conversation loop between 3D designers and artificial intelligence programs. This will help the AI provide suggestions to the designer, while the designer provides the AI with feedback. This can help make it easier for designing complicated objects as well as complicated textures that belong to the surface of 3D objects. Through this interaction, the hope that AI can extend the utility of design software.

Development of gene therapy for pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) patients with rare and lethal mutations

Based on current research in the field of genetic disorders, gene therapy – through the use of gene editing tools such as CRISPR – is a promising method to rescue defective genes. Stem cells from patient can provide a compelling in vitro model for gene therapy. In this work we are investigating the effects of a mutation causes inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in both intestinal and pancreatic cell lines.
Interestingly, it has been shown that some mutations, which are highly damaging to the intestinal epithelia, have no apparent detrimental effect on pancreatic cell line. This suggests compensatory mechanism avoiding apoptosis and death in pancreatic cells.
Like the intestine, stem cells in the pancreas also give rise to diverse epithelial cell types. Thus it would be highly advantageous to develop a gene therapy protocol using pancreatic progenitor cell as a proof-of-principle for intestinal epithelia.
However, introduction of corrected sequence of the genome with no base insertion/deletion at the end of DNA double stranded break, resulted from CRISPR-Cas9 nickase activity, is challenging. We are hoping to have site-specific genomic integration of therapeutic transgenes to the defective stem cells in intestinal epithelial.

Nanotraceurs Raman à nanotubes de carbone fonctionnalisés pour l’imagerie Ramanhyperspectrale

Il y a un besoin dans l’industrie pour développer des traceurs moléculaires actifs en Raman qui

permettraient des mélanges d’un très grands nombre d’agents de contraste. Un partenariat entre

l’Univsersité de Montréal et l’entreprise Photon etc. cherche à capitaliser sur une opportunité

singulière basées sur des nanotraceurs Raman très polyvalents et sélectifs pour la diffusion Raman.

Ces traceurs optiques sont constitués de nanotubes de carbone à simple paroi fonctionnalisés

chimiquement sur la paroi extrene et encapsulés avec des molécules aromatiques actives en Raman.

Ce projet propose de développer un librairie de 10 nanotraceurs Raman et de faire une validation

technologique de l’invention avec un imageur Raman hyperspectral commercialisé par Photon etc.

Cette librairie de traceurs sera adaptée à la technologie hyperspectrale de Photon etc. pour des

applications en imagerie médicale, biologique et en spectroscopie Raman.

Facial expression identification over a time series of images

Facial expression is a universal language to convey emotions and significantly affects social interactions. While psychologists have investigated facial expressions for decades, they have recently found their way into human-computer interactions and the gaming industry. A lot of research has been published on automatic detection of human emotions given either a single image or a series of images. In this project, we propose a new method for facial expression interpretation over a time series of images. We will first identify key facial expressions utilizing convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) methods. Then, we will interpolate between these key facial expressions utilizing artificial intelligence while tracking head, eye, mouth, and eyelid. Finally, we will classify the emotions conveyed by the facial expressions over the entire time series of images. We expect to improve the state-of-the-art performance with this approach. Furthermore, we think that this approach would be more easily conveyed to the animation and gaming industries.

Floatability and washability characterization of difficult to process coal seams at Teck Greenhills coal mine

Teck Coal produces metallurgical quality coal from the coalfields in southeastern British Columbia and it is the second largest exporter of metallurgical coal in the world. It operates four coal mines in SE BC. One of the Teck Coal operations has been experiencing difficulty in processing fine coal for several years. Overall, this situation has led to less than expected plant performance, resulting in some losses in production. The research undertaken in this project will develop a deeper understanding of the root causes of these processing problems and will work towards finding viable solutions at this processing plant.
The research performed by the student will advance Teck’s understanding of the problems and find solutions to the processing of fine coal from a planning, mining and processing perspective. TO BE CONt’D

Manufacturing and stabilization of nanocellulose in a scale up process using functional maleates as a colloidal dispersion

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), a form of cellulose, shows a lot of promise in the development of sustainable materials thanks to its unique properties such as high performance, large surface area, is readily available, renewable, and biodegradable. Early methods to synthesize CNC have not been very successful. In order to isolate CNC, to make them ready for fast production of industry needs, these challenges need to be resolved by chemical modifications. Therefore, the goal of this project is to develop fast and easy methods to manufacture cellulose nanocrystals and for the homogeneous dispersion. An eco-friendly one-pot method will be used to achieve the objective of synthesizing large batches CNC treated with the use of environmentally friendly chemicals. The resulting CNC will be examined in detail for its properties.

the Essence of Human Design from the Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence

The objective of this research is to relate the language game proposed by Wittgenstein to design theory in the context of philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Wittgenstein put forward the theory of language game in his later philosophy, believing that language is a kind of game. Since the process of language game between human beings is a process of showing intelligence, the language of game can be used to test machine intelligence. One of the goals of design theory is to understand and model the mechanism of creative design, which can be naturally applied to the implementation of an intelligent design machine. So it is possible to study machine intelligence, which is also the basis for discussing whether machine design is possible. Environment-Based Design theory proposed by Dr. Zeng is such a theory for creative design, which is based the logic of design and the ontology underlying design activities. The proposed research will bring these two works together to shed some light on the philosophical foundation of design intelligence.

Non-contact heart rate detection for evaluating mental stress and enhancing designer’s creativity

The recent research of producing heart rate signal from a webcam has opened the opportunity for numerous new applications. This technique uses video of the face and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to detect core physiological signals such as heart rate and respiration. We improve the correlation algorithm to make the measurement algorithm has higher fault tolerance and the heart rate signal’s detection more accurate. In addition, we observe the time domain component and frequency domain component of the original heart rate signal with wavelet transform at the same time, and it is very effective to observe the trend of heart rate signal change over time. Concordia University have a valuable experience in the field of stress science and creative design. We hope to cooperate with Concordia University and apply this new technology to evaluate mental stress and enhance designer’s creativity.

Faculty Supervisor: Xiaoyuan Li
Student: Peng Wu
Discipline: Engineering
Sector: Control science and engineering
University: Zhengzhou University

Détermination des caractéristiques géométriques d’une soudure à partir de données ultrasonores en trois dimensions à l’aide de l’intelligence artificielle

La reconnaissance d’objets est une technologie permettant de traduire des données visuelles en informations utiles visant à reconnaitre des objets, les classifier et les localiser. L’utilisation de la reconnaissance d’objets dans l’industrie des essais non-destructifs est en pleine croissance. Cela permet d’améliorer les délais d’inspection, tout en améliorant la détection et la classification des défauts de soudure.
Le but de cette recherche est de développer un modèle de reconnaissance d’objet capable de détecter, classifier et de localiser les caractéristiques géométriques d’une soudure et ce à partir de données ultrasonores en trois dimensions. Le système produira également une représentation géométrique de la soudure et des défauts sous forme de nuage de points en trois dimensions fournissant ainsi de l’information précieuse pour leur correction. La méthode développée sera également utilisée comme un outil d’audit pour s’assurer que les données n’ont pas été mal manipulées ou falsifiées.

Violent futures? Contestations along the frontier

This research project investigates the effects of large-scale land use change on organized violence in rural Africa. Through an analysis of contested land in Northern Kenya, this project analyses how the Kenyan Government’s ‘Vision 2030’ project impacts conflicts in the region through large-scale infrastructure and conservation projects. The student is expected to join one of the four working groups to combine quantitative data analysis and qualitative case studies to better understand the dynamics and changes in conflict in this region. This is in an effort to form a typology of violence along the Kenyan frontier of development. The student is expected to conduct trend analysis of violence over time in Kenya relying on data collected by the host institution, while also preparing and cleaning the data for the final database. This experience will not only further the student’s analytical skills, but also provide firsthand experience conducting research relating to development.

Development of a multifunctional in situ-forming scaffold with antimicrobial activity for treatment of complex wounds

Pressure ulcer is one of the top five leading causes for re-hospitalization of spinal cord injured patients. In general, there are three main difficulties associated with treating these ulcers: 1) Presence of cavities and tunnels which makes it difficult to treat with conventional regimens, 2) A high chance of infection and, 3) Susceptibility to weight-bearing pressure on bony areas of the body. To address these unmet challenges, we propose to manufacture a novel wound care product consisting a fibrous scaffold loaded with antibacterial silver nanoparticles embedded within a liquid matrix.
This composite is ideally a flowable scaffold that can improve the healing outcome of wounds by filling up deep wounds of varying depths and shapes from the bottom up, preventing the growth of bacteria, and increasing physical strength of the healed wound. TO BE CONT’D