Projets novateurs réalisés

A case study on the business impact of personalized shopping experience on retail stores

This research will determine what factors are the most significant when it comes to the personalized shopping experience from the perspective of both customers and retailers, and shed light on opportunities and options for North American retailers to innovate within the retail space. We will conduct surveys with both retailers and customers to determine the level of value that each cohort places on the various factors and data points that can improve the personalized shopping experience. Three pilot-studies will be conducted in retailers stores in which new data to provide personalized shopping experiences will be provided to retailers through the addition of a sensor that tracks customer behaviours, and through the collection of POS data to show previous purchasing patterns. We will survey these retailers at the end of the 45-day pilot-studies to uncover how retailers might use this additional data to provide a personalized shopping experience, what factors or data points they found most helpful, and what areas of opportunity they believe exist in the retail landscape in North America. The results of this study will help inform future innovations from RetailDeep in its mission to provide customer-based data to retailers that will support the personalized shopping experience.

Monitoring and Visualization of Air Pollutions on Construction Sites

Construction industry is considered as one of the major air pollutant emissions sources, such as NOx, PM, COx, SOx and so on. Those air pollutants are detrimental to the ambient air quality, and they can cause immediate and serious damage to the workers’ health. However, in current practices, the potential impacts are significantly underestimated and neglected. Therefore, this study is to create an affordable and portable IoT (Internet of Things)-based air pollution monitoring system with the low-cost microcontrollers and sensors to measure the air pollutants in an automated and real-time manner. With such system, construction professionals can assess the environmental impacts of the ongoing construction operations and track what pollutants the workforces are exposed to and take actions to protect workers from harms in a timely manner. Also, the proposed system can be extended to monitor other industry with the disturbing issue of air pollutions.

Aircraft sensors fusion algorithms optimisation

This project is to study the sensors (e.g., accelerometers, gyros, magnetometers) which used to measure the flight control system. These sensors are usually are effecting with bias, drift and noise effects. Therefore, the use of sensors fusion algorithms is key to estimate accurately measured and filtered values and to ensure the correct behavior of the flight controller. These algorithms (EKF,Mahony and Madgwick) and proper sensors models (with bias, noise, etc…) have already been
implemented in Matlab and C++ and tested on aircraft scenarios.

In the second step of this study, the new algorithms/features might be implemented and integrated such as Unscented Kalman Fiter (UKF) or Least Square Methods (LSM). These new approaches will have to be compared to the previous results.

Study of Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited (CBPPL) byproducts and potential uses for food production

Overall this study aims to determine feasibility, parameters, and processes related to improved utilization of selected byproducts resulting from Corner Brook Pulp and Paper Limited (CBPPL) operations. The proposed activities and ideas relate to monitoring and understanding the nature of the composition of the mill’s production of wood ash over time, determining the suitability, feasibility of improving mill competitiveness through alternate/improved processing of ash, sludge and waste heat. The combined possibility of more environmentally sustainable processing, potential reduction of current expenses, and potential creation of new revenue streams all provide opportunities to increase competitiveness for members of the industry.

Research on Architecture Systems

The aim of the project is to contribute to reshaping conceptual design by incorporating state-of-the-art design theories and model-based systems engineering. Concept design is the first phase of the design process, the time needed to make basic decisions that set the specifications for a proposed artifact and begin to determine its ultimate shape. To better support this first phase of design, the use of model-based systems engineering is studied. The proposed project will contribute to these research efforts by contributing to the model itself, its use, applied to aircraft concept design, and its integration into the model and the process. The project will include, but is not limited to:
• Research on (formal) design theory
• Research on the integration into systems engineering approaches
• What indicators can be used to best support the design approach
• Modeling the approach.
The project will start with the follow?up of the literature study already started by the ISAE?SUPAERO M1?student, followed by an extension of the modeling work that he started. This modeling takes place in SysML (essentially) and in OPM.

Two-phase measurement of the flow around multi-droplet array on various functional surfaces and its modeling

The objectives of the proposed research internship is to develop a model of the critical airflow velocity at which the droplets start to move according to the arrangement of the droplets, the wettability of the surface, and the interaction between the droplets on the various functional surfaces and the airflow passing over them, which is further followed by the experimental validation. It is very important to understand and control the thermal fluid phenomena of the system, especially two-phase flow phenomena, in order to maintain its stability or improve the performance in various industrial problems. In particular, it is often necessary to efficiently remove droplets that are unnecessarily present on a solid surface, however in-depth studies have not been conducted so far. TO BE CONT’D

Analysis of a Model for Shipping Grains from Summerside (PEI) to Corner Brook (NL)

Corner Brook Port Corporation (CBPC) and the Summerside Port Corporation, Inc. (SPCI) are exploring the opportunity to ship grains from Prince Edward Island to Western Newfoundland. First discussions between the two ports indicate that there this may be a viable business opportunity for both entities. The Port of Summerside is currently shipping grains from producers on the island outbound in bulk. Meanwhile, there are a number farms, particularly dairy farms, in Western Newfoundland located close to the Port of Corner Brook. The ability to ship grains by vessel directly to Corner Brook could reduce costs and shipping times, and could mean access to fresher products and possibly a wider range of grain and related products. CBPC and SPCI require further research to move forward with this project.

Mobile Beacon-based Localization with Motion Compensation for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

The aim of this project is to propose an improved mobile-based localization scheme by considering a practical factor (i.e., ship-motion) in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs).
In the last decade, localization techniques associated with UASNs have been widely studied as a method to provide fundamental support for many location-based applications. In particular, mobile beacon-based localization schemes (e.g., usage of ship or AUV) have been proposed as a more promising method than static anchor-based localization in terms of energy efficiency. Further, the mobile beacon-based schemes have similar effects (i.e., accuracy) as the use of many static anchors. TO BE CONT’D

SWAT modeling for permafrost watersheds

The Cape Bounty Watershed Observatory (CBAWO) is in the Canadian High Arctic, where the soil is frozen and river discharge is zero, except for the summer months (June – August). Given the higher climatic sensitivity of polar regions to climate change, understanding changes in watershed function in these locations is important for assessing land-to-sea fluxes of carbon and nutrients. SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) is regarded as a strong tool for hydrological modelling and water chemical fluxes; however, it has its limitations for Arctic environments, because of the dynamic evolution of the soil profile. The active layer (the seasonally thawed layer of soil in permafrost catchments), expands during the thaw season allowing water to infiltrate deeper and ground ice to thaw, which changes both the subsurface and surface hydrology. Therefore, hydrological modeling in permafrost watersheds requires coding a new algorithm in SWAT that incorporates a dynamic soil profile by introducing a dependent proxy variable for the active layer thickness.

Investigation of impact of predatory bacteria in simulated gut microbiome, Robogut

Gut microbiome stability appears to be essential for keeping health nowadays. Then, the needs to develop proper tools to modulate microbiome become important issue. In this proposal, we suggest predatory bacteria as microbiome modulator. Predatory bacteria are ubiquitous in the environment and non-toxic to mammalian cells. Recent researches proved the existence of predatory bacteria inside 92 humans’ gut and found relatioship between disease and their existence. Also, one groups added predatory bacteria into gut of rats for 7 days, beneficial microbes are increased. However, this researches are in early stage and we need to find good model to analyze impact of predatory bacteria inside gut microbiome by controlling many of factors.
Robogut, chemostat with simulated gut microbiome, is perfect model to simulate impact of predatory bacteria inside gut microbiome without animal model. TO BE CONT’D

Reversible assembly state of plasmonic nanoparticles driven by controlling liquid crystalline defect under multi-stimuli system

The main research theme of the project is to achieve reconfigurable assembly state of plasmonic NPs by controlling its trapping agent, LCs, under multi-stimuli system. There are two kinds of multi-stimuli LC control platform; one is static system in which anchoring, rubbing, and confinement can be modified, while the other is dynamic system which is subjected under electric field plus the three stimuli of the previous system.
As the fabrication method for LC control template is based on soft-imprinting technique, it offers an advantageous aspect, simple and cost-effective manufacturing process, compared to the fabrication process of contemporary research. The change in assembly state will be analyzed via various optical spectrometers including Polarized Optical Microscopy(POM), Fluorescence Microscopy(FM), and Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy(SERS).

Utilizing Virtual Reality as a Tool for Research on Environmental Behavior Study

My main field of interest is environmental behavior, which deals with interrelations between physical environments and human behaviors regarding urban- and architectural safety planning. I am currently planning to conduct an experimental research on public safety issues (fire/escape, terror/crimes) in urban- and architectural environments utilizing Virtual Reality technologies, and although I have recently acquired fundamental knowledge on VR technologies for the experiment, I am still in great need of technical assistance from professionals and detailed know-hows for more profound research and research performance. Professor Andrew Park, with whom I got acquainted at a research subject workshop, works at Thompsons Rivers University in Kamloops, Canada. Professor Park specializes in computer modeling and scientific visualization and conduct diverse studies on human behaviors in urban environments using Virtual Reality and Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation. TO BE CONT’D