Innovative Projects Realized

From incubator to money maker: An investigation of entrepreneurial founding teams

The current project seeks to develop an understanding of the process of startup organization process by examining the individual, team, and contextual characteristics that will lead to the success of a startup organization. Despite the importance of each variable, most of the literature has focused on individual characteristics, ignoring the importance of the team as a whole and the context of the organization. The goal of this internship is to create an evidence-based assessment tool that will evaluate a startup based on the aforementioned characteristics. In addition, we are aware that startup organizations are not static in nature; rather, they are dynamics organizations that are constantly evolving as their meet their goal of becoming an operating business. This project will therefore take a temporal approach to assessing startup organization’s needs by identifying differences stages in the startup process and identifying which characteristics are most important at each stage.

Development of invertebrate behavior bio-indicator assays forcontaminants in honey.

This

project aims to investigate the possibility of using insects that feed on honey in nature to develop a simple, lowtech

test for testing honey contamination levels. We propose to test the behavior and development of larvae of

the Greater Wax Moth and the Small Hive Beetle on honey with a range of contamination levels. If we can find a

significant behavioural difference between insects on contaminated and non-contaminated honey this could be

used as an alternative to high-cost testing methods currently in use. We believe that this could have great

potential for small-scale honey producers and in the developing world as a method of reducing the costs of

honey production.

Using a digital camera to monitor dust emissions at mine sites

Minerals industry has a considerable responsibility to implement effective dust management plans, thereby controlling the mine dust emissions. In dust management plans, the monitoring of dust emissions is an indispensable part in both mine sites and process plants. However, mine sites cover a wide range of locations where conventional monitoring instruments cannot be all installed. These locations are still under interests, but there is a lack of technology to monitor their dust emissions to the environment. To this end, new technology using a digital camera will be developed to monitor dust emissions at mine sites. The fundamental understanding of light scattering and absorption and their relationships to dust concentrations will provide valuable guidance for the dust management plans. The findings of this research could be used to create guidelines that will be used in other mining sites in Canada.

Characterization of Active Ingredient in Buckwheat – Part 2

Buckwheat contains an active ingredient that lowers blood glucose in diabetic rats. The active ingredient is not a known compound such as chiro-inositol or rutin. The goal of this project is to characterize the bioactive compounds in buckwheat fractions obtained by countercurrent chromatography (CCC) and having biological activity. This is important for setting the foundation to 1) monitor the levels of the active ingredient in buckwheat (as affected by variety, growing conditions and season), 2) determine how levels of active ingredient are affected by processing, 3) standardize the amount of active ingredient in functional food products and thus meet Health Canada requirements, and 4) provide a screening tool for further enhancement of buckwheat varieties by plant breeding.

Product Portfolio Design using Neural Networks

High-throughput phenotyping of plant health using machine learning and computer vision

Phenotyping is used to develop new strains of plants, understand plant-affecting diseases (phyto-pathology) and evaluate the effects of various substances on plants. A growing variety of sensors and sensor technology is used to gather data used for phenotyping, in a non-destructive manner, and this overall process of data acquisition and analysis is being automated, leading to high-throughput pheno-typing. These technological changes pose challenges both in terms of which models to apply to these heterogeneous data, as well as the scalability of the data and analytics pipeline. The proposed project aims to develop a deep learning model that would produce estimates of plant health based on imaging and other sensor data generated by Terramera, with high classification accuracy, according to threshold tolerances defined by Terramera plant physiologists. The project would also explore some of the data management challenges arising from the application of those deep learning models on automated phe-notyping data acquisition at scale.

Verifying Security Properties in Modular Systems

Security is a huge concern in our digital society, especially with distributed systems like the Internet. Services deployed on such systems are frequently subject to malicious attacks; thus, verifying and enforcing its security is essential. One way of doing this is by using models like finite state automata. Past literature has explored how a system designer can easily verify and even enforce the security of a system: a supervisor can ensure that an outside observer cannot identify some secret in the system. Unfortunately, past research has been limited to single, autonomous systems, disregarding the distributed nature of modern systems. This project aims to find means of enforcing opacity (security) when there are multiple independent systems and supervisors, since opacity does not necessarily hold when the systems interact with one another. Additionally, this project aims to enforce opacity when there is a different attacker for each module of the system.

Optimization and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) translation of GLIDE (Guided Lymphocyte Immunopeptide Derived Expansion) manufacturing process

Leukemia, lymphoma and other forms of blood cancers are still largely diagnosed every year in Canada. These diseases constitute the second leading cause of cancer related death in young adults and the sixth in adult. The five-year survival rates still range between 42% and 85%. Currently, the main treatment is a stem cell transplantation which unfortunately do not prevent lethal relapse. The goal of this study is to develop and improve a novel cellular therapy aiming to limit and prevent relapse of hematological malignancies. We propose to “educate” ex vivo donor white blood cells against specific tumor patient’s antigens. In this context, if a cancer relapse occurs, these donor specific white blood cells will efficiently eliminate tumor cells without affecting any other patient’s cells. This very novel cellular immunotherapy will strongly improve the survival rate of patients treated with stem cell transplantation.

“Virtually” connected: Can virtual reality technology foster closeness and intimacy in romantic relationships? – Year two

Social connections, especially satisfying romantic relationships, are vital for health and well-being. Yet, couples are spending increasingly more time apart, limiting opportunities for connection and intimacy. However, engaging in shared novel activities (i.e. self-expanding activities) can help couples connect and maintain their relationship over time. Indeed, couples who experience more self-expanding opportunities in relationships feel closer to their partner and are more satisfied and connected in their relationship. As such, we will assess the extent to which virtual reality (VR) can be used to simulate face-to-face interactions and provide couples with the opportunity to connect and self-expand when apart. We anticipate that VR will increase perceptions of novelty, as well as perceived intimacy and satisfaction. Hence, we propose two studies testing whether using VR technology simulates face-to-face interactions fostering more closeness and intimacy compared to other forms of mediated communication (e.g., video interactions, instant messaging). Additionally, we seek to assess if orienting couples toward the opportunities for connection and novel experiences using VR compared can bolster feelings of closeness and connection during virtual interactions. Our results will also provide useful information about couple’s experiences using VR and provide Facebook with information about couple’s experiences using Oculus Rift.

“Virtually” connected: Can virtual reality technology foster closeness and intimacy in romantic relationships?

Social connections, especially satisfying romantic relationships, are vital for health and well-being. Yet, couples are spending increasingly more time apart, limiting opportunities for connection and intimacy. However, engaging in shared novel activities (i.e. self-expanding activities) can help couples connect and maintain their relationship over time. Indeed, couples who experience more self-expanding opportunities in relationships feel closer to their partner and are more satisfied and connected in their relationship. As such, we will assess the extent to which virtual reality (VR) can be used to simulate face-to-face interactions and provide couples with the opportunity to connect and self-expand when apart. We anticipate that VR will increase perceptions of novelty, as well as perceived intimacy and satisfaction. Hence, we propose two studies testing whether using VR technology simulates face-to-face interactions fostering more closeness and intimacy compared to other forms of mediated communication (e.g., video interactions, instant messaging). Additionally, we seek to assess if orienting couples toward the opportunities for connection and novel experiences using VR compared can bolster feelings of closeness and connection during virtual interactions. Our results will also provide useful information about couple’s experiences using VR and provide Facebook with information about couple’s experiences using Oculus Rift.

Development of a business model to plastic packaging waste management: the case of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) – Year two

“By being moldable, durable, light, and inexpensive plastic packaging has seen a rapid growth in the use and its disposal is becoming a planetary challenge. Besides sustainable production and consumption globalized trade in waste plastics represents a significant option towards a circular economy. China, who so far represented the greatest importer of this material, recently (2017) implemented a policy banning the importation of most plastic waste and rising global concern regarding the destiny of this enormous displaced material flow. In this context, the present project wants to offer insights on the waste plastic disposal and management within the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) and how to cope with the potential future impact of this policy ban on the already critical situation for the region. Starting with Life Cycle Assessment of different waste management practices, including the disruptive feedstock recycling technology of the industrial partner, a multi-criteria decision model is implemented to analyze potential waste management scenarios. As a final step, a Not-for-Profit (NFP) Business Model Canvas (BMC) to waste plastic packaging management is proposed to minimize costs and increase the social and environmental benefits for the MMC while possibly being exported to other cities with similar plastic waste market and policies.

Development of a business model to plastic packaging waste management: the case of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC)

“By being moldable, durable, light, and inexpensive plastic packaging has seen a rapid growth in the use and its disposal is becoming a planetary challenge. Besides sustainable production and consumption globalized trade in waste plastics represents a significant option towards a circular economy. China, who so far represented the greatest importer of this material, recently (2017) implemented a policy banning the importation of most plastic waste and rising global concern regarding the destiny of this enormous displaced material flow. In this context, the present project wants to offer insights on the waste plastic disposal and management within the Montreal Metropolitan Community (MMC) and how to cope with the potential future impact of this policy ban on the already critical situation for the region. Starting with Life Cycle Assessment of different waste management practices, including the disruptive feedstock recycling technology of the industrial partner, a multi-criteria decision model is implemented to analyze potential waste management scenarios. As a final step, a Not-for-Profit (NFP) Business Model Canvas (BMC) to waste plastic packaging management is proposed to minimize costs and increase the social and environmental benefits for the MMC while possibly being exported to other cities with similar plastic waste market and policies.