Projets novateurs réalisés

Évaluation de la santé et du bien-être des veaux laitiers destinés à l’élevage des veaux de boucherie

Ce projet de recherche, en cours, est mis en place en concertation avec les principaux acteurs de la filière laitière québécoise principalement les producteurs bovins, le ministère de l’agriculture, les chercheurs de la faculté de médecine vétérinaire et l’association des médecins vétérinaires praticiens du Québec.
Le but de ce travail est d’améliorer les connaissances sur la filière veau de boucherie – veaux laitiers transitant par les lieux de rassemblement pour la vente (encans) – afin d’optimiser la santé et le bien-être des veaux laitiers et leur qualité en engraissement.
Structurant pour l’ensemble de la filière, il vise à documenter les points critiques associés à des anomalies chez l’animal afin de permettre la valorisation des veaux laitiers, l’amélioration de leur suivi et une meilleure performance en engraissement.

Functional investigation of the dynamics of TERRA and hTR in cancer cells

The research project is focused on the relationship between cancer and telomeres. It is intended to be a functional investigation of the dynamics of TERRA, a long non coding RNA transcribed at telomeres, and hTR, the telomerase RNA subunit, in human cancer cells. TERRA is an important molecule implicated in telomere maintenance and genome stability. Interestingly, TERRA interacts with the telomerase enzyme; however, the molecular details and implications of TERRA-telomerase interactions remain to be elucidated. A main objective of the project is to study the localization dynamics of TERRA and the telomerase RNA in human cancer cells. Preliminary results from our laboratory indicate that, in cancer cells, TERRA localizes to Cajal Bodies, a subcellular compartment. Since it is known that telomerase localizes to Cajal Bodies and this localization is essential to telomerase maturation, I will investigate whether TERRA and telomerase RNA both co-localize with Cajal Bodies in cancer cells and whether and impaired localization of telomerase to Cajal bodies also impact on TERRA localization. My results are expected to help understanding the function of TERRA in the regulation of telomerase in cancer.

The Tabletop Makerspace: A Portable Low-Cost Personal Fabrication Toolkit

This project will be a collaboration between the School of Interactive Arts at Simon Fraser University and Science World in Vancouver, British Columbia. A portable low-cost set of tools will be assembled to support “maker” activities, educational do-it-yourself building project that use electronics and personal fabrication technology. Personal fabrication technology refers to a new generation of desktop sized fabrication machines that create physical objects from computer files. The toolkit will be used to conduct workshops with the Future Science Leaders program at Science World. FSL is

a science enrichment program for high school students. Workshops will be used to collect data on the use of personal fabrication technology.

Reinforcement Learning for Aviation Training

This project seeks to explore the use of a class of artificial intelligence algorithms called reinforcement learning for the purpose of aiding the training of new pilots. In the process, we seek to “teach” an algorithm how to fly an aircraft by exposing the AI pilot to a virtual environment and providing it with flight data and a goal. Alternatively, the algorithm could learn by observing human pilots. If this approach is successful, it could lead to better autopilot systems as well as teaching aids for new pilots by simulating their response to different flying environments and helping instructors select the most appropriate training exercises.

Infectious reovirus rescue from temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants

Globally, viruses cause more than half of deaths recorded in humans. Thus, lots of scientific research is ongoing to prevent viral-related disease and death. In addition to known harmful effects that viruses can have, other research has shown that viruses may be beneficial. For example, mammalian reoviruses can destroy certain types of cancer cells without apparently harming normal non-cancerous cells. It appears that some aspects of internal cell signaling play roles in whether or not the virus can kill cells, but virus characteristics that determine cell killing are not as well known. The student will learn a technique called “Reverse Genetics” to make changes in the virus genome in order to define some of these virus characteristics. As a learning experience, the student will determine which of 3 known amino acid alterations in a specific virus temperature-sensitive mutant are responsible for the mutant characteristic, by systematically changing each of the 3 amino acids and testing temperature sensitivity of each clone. For completeness, the student will also make and test each possible double-and triple-mutant, for a total of 8 clones (1 wild-type; 1 mutant; 3 single- and 3 double-mutants).

Real-time visual detection for robotic inspection

The project aims to equip Hydro-Québec’s current and future fleet of inspection robots with autonomous inspection capabilities. The three main objectives of the project are:
1. Leverage breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to enable robotic vehicles to realize real-time automated visual inspection of the company’s infrastructure.
2. Facilitate and accelerate deep neural network (DNNs) machine learning through visual simulation and synthetic images.
3. Use a simply and securely deployable robotic vehicle to perform the company’s first fully autonomous power line components inspection missio

Musculoskeletal disease in a population of cattle admited at the CHUV of the Université de Montréal

1-Currently, cows can be “locomotion scored”. These scores include a category for ‘imperfect locomotion’ or ‘uneven gait’ to define a cow that is unsound (favoring one leg) but not clinically lame. However, this detection method does not discriminate whether locomotion originate from the foot or the leg. Claw lesions are easily diagnosed in a trimming chute. Other orthopedic lesions are more difficult to diagnose. It needs a special clinical expertise and specific diagnostic methods like radiographic images, arthrocentesis and ultrasound. I expect to improve my proficiency in the diagnostic of orthopedic diseases as well as getting familiar with their treatment.
2-Digital dermatitis (DD) is a painful disease that is widespread worldwide. The DD is classified in 5 “M” stages (M for Mortellaro) corresponding to the dynamic of the disease. The M2 stage is a typical painful ulceration between the heels of the hind feet engendering a significant lameness. However, there is still controversy on the level of pain experienced by cows with the other DD stages (M1, M3, M4, M4.1). We would like to better characterize the lameness and the pain perception of all stages of DD in dairy cattle in tie stall and free stall barns. TO BE CON’T

OPTIMIZATION FOR BUSINESS SYSTEMS AND CONVERSATIONAL ANALYTICS (Retail Personal Store Manager)

State-of-the-art forecasting: Demand planning is a critical part of a business’ operations. Traditional approaches to forecasting use statistical methods to predict future demand from past transactions, but do not take into account contextual data. However, there are good reasons to believe that contextual data – such as weather, events, product descriptions, sentiment analysis (from reviews, Zendesk tickets, social media), and more – can contribute significant signals that directly influence forecasting accuracy for the better. Additionally, a common problem in demand forecasting is new products introduction since there is no historical data on which to base statistical predictions. Contextual data of related products, as well as their sales history, could be used to infer demand for items sharing similar features.

Modelling the Dependence between Loss Frequency and Loss Rate

Lending to various companies and individuals is a core business of banks. This lending activity comes with credit risk, namely the risk that some borrowers default and fail to make required payments. Estimating credit risk accurately is important for banks’ risk management. In this project, we analyze and model the dependence between loss frequency and loss rate of defaulting customers. The reason for the dependence comes from the underlying economic cycle: in an economic downturn, losses occur both more frequently and more severely than in an economic boom. In this project, we plan to develop a suitable model for this dependence structure between loss frequency and loss rate, which will help estimate credit risk more accurately and thus determine capital requirements more precisely.

Floating Wetland Treatments to Enhance Remediation (FLOWTER) Project

The IISD-Experimental Lakes Area is currently examining the effectiveness of minimally invasive shoreline methods for cleaning spilled oil. Non-invasive methods are needed to eliminate disturbance to sensitive riparian areas that occur with typical cleanup operations. Non-invasive methods protect sensitive shoreline habitats by minimizing physical contact and they can also speed oil removal after a spill and restore ecosystems more effectively. This project specifically seeks to enhance the capacity of naturally occurring microorganisms to degrade oil by optimizing the application of Engineered Floating Wetlands (EFWs) in near shore environments. Optimizing the effectiveness of this approach provides a real-world, genomics-enabled solution to a potential ecosystem threat that may be superior to other minimally invasive oil spill remediation methods being tested by the IISD-ELA program (i.e. shoreline washing, Monitored Natural Recovery, nutrient addition). TO BE CONT’D

Efficient algorithms and software for eye tracking on an embedded platform such as a smartphone

The goal of this project can be divided into three subobjectives. First, we need to propose, implement and train an accurate eye tracking model on the server, then migrate it to an embedded platform with a simple application that can run the model. Finally, we need to experiment different pruning methods for the network and possibly explore new approaches in order to improve energy efficiency while preserving other performance metrics of the model such as frame per second and accuracy. The focus of the project will be the third subobjective. Throughout the project, various network pruning methods will be explored and incorporated into the model. Some existing approaches are found in literature. This includes energy-aware pruning and layer-by-layer pruning. TO BE CONT’D

Optimizing Gastric Banding Surgery Outcomes in Obese Patients

The negative effects of obesity on quality of life, daily functioning and overall health are well documented. Specifically, obesity is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Despite this knowledge, the incidence of obesity continues to increase exponentially leading some, generally extreme cases, to seek out laparascopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB), as a means to control life-long obesity. Although LAGB can be successful, its long-term success is dependent on collaborative, individualized behavioural interventions. This research, a unique collaboration between academics and industry, seeks to develop a multi-factorial assessment/screening tool that may better predict and optimize success of the LAGB procedure.