Projets novateurs réalisés

La mutualisation pour assurer une meilleure sécurité alimentaire

La cantine pour tous (LCPT) rassemble des acteurs de divers réseaux de l’économie sociale. Elle propose de réunir, dans une même région, des entreprises collectives ayant ou désirant développer des volets d’économie sociale dans la transformation alimentaire et la production de repas destinés à diverses clientèles dont plus spécifiquement les écoliers du primaire et les personnes âgées. Les objectifs de ce réseau d’entreprises collectives sont d’augmenter l’offre alimentaire en mutualisant des infrastructures communautaires et publiques de production alimentaire existantes.

Le projet de recherche proposé vise à explorer les possibilités technologiques pour optimiser et faciliter cette mutualisation des infrastructures et équipements. La recherche vise à développer et à tester l’implantation d’un système d’information sur des territoires circonscrits. Ce projet servira à créer une base de données qui répondra aux besoins de LCPT et de valider, à l’aide d’experts, quelle(s) technologie(s) sera la mieux appropriée pour LCPT.

Investigations on grain maize using non-targeted mid infrared spectroscopy for feed authentication

Quality Improvement of BIM for Operation and Maintenance phase

The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) processes and technologies is rapidly growing in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. It is being widely implemented during the design and construction phases. However, the building models created in these phases are not suitable for the Operation and Maintenance Phase (O&M). These models lack useful data for O&M or include unnecessary items which affect the usability of models. This project aims to develop tools to improve the quality of models used for O&M. Additionally, a strategy of quality assurance and quality control will be investigated. The project outcomes will offer a competitive advantage to the partner organization in the high-potential market of O&M. Finally, it will empower the Canadian role in BIM development and enable facility owners to make considerable savings.

Dense Plasma Focus device for Nanostructured Tungsten Synthesis and Processing under Extreme Conditions

ITER is the model designed to scale down the sun on earth. However, for this fusion reaction very high temperature is required. Despite of magnetic confinement of plasma in reactor, the edge plasma results into damage of the first wall or divertors. Dense plasma focus (DPF) provides the similar conditions or heat load as that in nuclear reactor, so DPF can be used conveniently to study plasma facing materials(PFM). The discharges in DPF generates intense plasma stream and high neutron yield that can help to get more knowledge about the effects of fast ion streams and neutron irradiation on PFMs. W and W grades are frontrunner in choice of PFM for ITER divertors because of its high threshold energy, low thermal shock, resistance to form hybrid or co deposits with tritium. Morphological and structural effects on the W and W grades using material characterizing techniques(AFM, BB-XRD, GI-XRD, SEM, hardening and tensile tests) can be used to material properties.

Visual memory and the pedometer in navigating desert ants.

Desert ants rely on multiple systems in order to successfully navigate, including memorizing snapshots of their visual surroundings and path integration. During path integration, foragers record both their heading direction, through a sky compass, and the distance from the nest through a step-counter giving the forager an estimate of the nest’s location while they forage. Foragers traveling long distances in environments with many visual landmarks need to store multiple snapshot memories along their foraging route, and it is unknown how foragers separate these visual memories of different points along the route during learning. Here we examine if the pedometer affects visual memory acquisition of multiple visual memories through using artificial skylines erected along foraging routes. If the pedometer does act as a context cue aiding in panorama acquisition, snapshot memories acquired at sites separated by large differences in the forager’s pedometer should result in high navigational performance and memory. When these skylines are learned closer to each other along the route, memory and navigational performance should suffer.

Perceptions of Fairness and Equity of Accommodated Classroom Assessments for Students with Disability

Research on assessment accommodations for students with disabilities is well-documented in the literature. Assessment accommodations are the arrangements made by the teacher such as allocation of more time on the tests to give disability students a fair and equal opportunity to show their learning as well as possible. However, much of the research on this area has focused on the types of accommodations that are available for teachers to give to these students in standardized testing contexts, with little research on how teachers percieve and practice accommodations in their ongoing assessments (i.e., such as asking questions). Therefore, this project aims to understand how teachers, disability students, and their parents understand the practice of assessment accommodations within classrooms. To address the purpose of this project, researchers at my host university has started a study in secondary-schools in Australia. I will join this big project and bring my research expertise in assessment fairness to analyze how we can create assessment accommodations that are fair for disability students based on the responses of teachers, disability students, and their parents. The results of this study will also help think about fairer accommodation practices for students with disabilities in Canadian secondary schools.

Lessons from Project Synergy: A Guide to E-Mental Health in Canada

E-mental health, which is an emerging field that utilizes technology to improve access to care, has shown strong potentials to address the overwhelming demand for mental health services. Australia is currently undertaking an unified effort between clinicians, researchers, private sector, the government, and the users to provide a rigorously evaluated digital platform through Project Synergy. This multi-million dollar project can be the point of entry for many Australians who seek mental health care. Currently, Canada is also facing overwhelming demand of mental health services but does not have a such e-mental health project at the scale of Project Synergy. My goal is to conduct a process evaluation of Project Synergy and bring back my learning experiences back to Canada. This will guide unified effort to develop and evaluate large scale e-mental health platform in Canada.

EVALUATION DE FILIERES DE TRAITEMENT DES EFFLUENTS CONTAMINES AUX BPC

Le projet de stage vise a repondre aux besoins du partenaire ABB Inc. en termes d’identification des meilleures

filieres de traitement des effluents contamines aux biphenylpolychlores (BPC). Le projet repose sur: (i) la

caracterisation technique et economique des procedes adaptes a I’enlevement des BPC; (ii) Ie developpement

d’un protocole generique d’evaluation et de suivi de filieres de traitement basee sur I’analyse de la satisfaction;

(iii) la validation du protocole sur la base de donnees reelles collectee sur Ie terrain. L’identification de filieres en consideration d’une part des caracteristiques techniques et economiques des technologies identifiees et

d’autre part, leur capacite a s’adapter aux variations des debits et des concentrations a trailer en integrant la

specificite des sources (toit, terrains) dans Ie schema des fiux a traiter.

Structural controls and modification of the Big Bulk Cu-Au porphyry system, Stewart District (northwest BC): constraining the geologic environment during porphyry emplacement

Porphyry Cu-Au-Mo systems, especially those formed along continental active margins, are generally considered to have formed in contractional tectonic environments of crustal thickening, surface uplift and rapid exhumation (e.g., Sillitoe, 2010). The tectonic environment of porphyry systems formed in island arcs, such as those located within the Stikine terrane of northwestern BC, are not as well understood. The Stewart district is a ~170 km long, linear belt of mineralization within the Stikine terrane and hosts the Kerr-Mitchell-Sulphurets deposit, the largest undeveloped gold reserve in Canada. Recent regional and detailed mapping studies in the district have presented compelling evidence for emplacement of these systems into an extensional regime, which contradicts the classic contractional model. My research seeks to test this model and its applicability to the region as a whole by reconstructing the Early Jurassic basin geometry, structural architecture and stress regime that provided permeable pathways for magmatism and hydrothermal fluids at several less well studied mineralized systems within the district. If the observations indicate that the porphyries were deposited in extensional basins, a new exploration model for porphyry emplacement can be implemented which will benefit exploration in Canada.

Identifying key factors for effective cleaning of EEG data using machine learning approaches

Study of DME Injection in Oil Sands Reservoirs

Thus far Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) has been the sole commercially viable in-situ recovery method to extract Canadian oil sands that are too deep for mining. It involves high pressure steam injection and bitumen production using horizontal well pairs located near the base of oil sands formations. While it has enabled conversion of significant resources to reserves (about 170 billion barrels), SAGD has many economic and environmental limitations. The public and government want to see the negative aspects of SAGD reduced significantly. The Accelerate Cluster project is aimed at improving SAGD sustainability through the injection of DME to accelerate oil recovery rates, decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and renew the role of the Canadian oil industry as a competitive member of the global oil production families.

Enzymes as an alternative to chemistry