Projets novateurs réalisés

Optimisation des séquences de chargement ETL

Chez la Banque Nationale du Canada, des délais du chargement ETL (Extraction, Transformation, Chargement) des entrepôts de données sont très importants, ce qui influence l’efficacité et aussi le fonctionnement des autres projets. Des chargements ETL non exécutés qui ont plusieurs interdépendances, et le problème comme des erreurs systèmes, des données manquantes, des données non conformes et des fichiers non transmit à temps dans une étape manuelle, produisent des goulots d’étranglement, ce qui cause des délais. Ce projet est l’optimisation des séquences de chargement ETL des entrepôts de données par la modélisation mathématique. L’objectif consiste à minimiser les délais de chargement dans une optique de gestion de risque. A la fin, une séquence qui minimise le risque d’avoir des délais importants et une prévision du temps pour permettre de l’anticiper seront proposées.

Développement d’outils automatisés permettant la cartographie de l’hydrographie surfacique et linéaire et des sites avec contrainte de drainage aux opérations forestières

Le projet vise à développer des outils permettant de réaliser une cartographie de l’hydrographie ainsi que des sites avec contrainte de drainage aux opérations forestières à partir du LiDAR aéroporté et de l’imagerie aérienne. Cette nouvelle cartographie permettra de bonifier les cartes écoforestières en géolocalisant les cours d’eau linéaire et surfacique ainsi que les zones de propension à l’orniérage à une échelle plus fine. Ce projet permettra au CERFO de renforcir sa position en matière de leader dans le domaine de la télédétection forestière et de former d’éventuelles ressources humaines.

Bidirectional seismic site response analysis of granular soil deposits

Seismic response analysis are evaluations that aim to capture how the geological and geotechnical properties of soil deposits at a particular site affect earthquake motions at ground level. Commonly, this type of analysis is performed by assuming the soil layers are horizontal and that the earthquake motion travels in only one direction. However, in reality soil layers are heterogeneous and earthquake motions travel in three directions: two horizontals and one vertical. This combined effect is known as multidirectional loading. Recent research has shown that these characteristics may be of importance for the design of major structures, in particular for coarse-grained materials such as sands. The objective of this research is to evaluate how this multidirectional loading affects the response of coarse-grained soil deposits and sloping ground. TO BE CONT’D

A fundamental study to better understand how blinding agents interact with particle surfaces in preg-robbing carbonaceous gold systems using electrochemical techniques

One of the most challenging issues in the gold mining industry comes from the carbonaceous ore components adsorbing gold ion complexes, resulting in up to 90% gold loss during cyanide leaching process. The addition of chemical reagents as blinding agents is one of the most promising methods to blind the organic carbon content of ore materials to increase the gold recovery from carbonaceous preg-robbing ores. This study aims to investigate the effect of various blinding agents on the main gold-containing ore components such as carbon, gold and pyrite using fundamental electrochemical techniques. This novel approach employs cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests to better understand the adsorption of various blinding agents on the individual ore components. The project helps Goldcorp Inc. find a way to mitigate the preg-robbing issue the company is dealing with in some of their operating sites and increase gold recovery.

Digitalizing Extractive Industries

The broad objectives of this research include: (1) to develop an accurate picture of the extent to which digital technologies have been adopted by extractive industries, (2) to understand factors that have impacted on the pace of digitalization, (3) to develop an understanding of how further digitalization could transform extractive industries and the communities and regions in which they operate, and (4) to provide guidance and advice to key stakeholders (industry, governments, institutions, communities) with respect to addressing the opportunities and challenges arising from digitalizatio

Comprehensive Evaluation of Animal Manure Composts and Fumigation to Improve PotatoYield in Manitoba

This project addresses two major needs of the agriculture sector in Manitoba. The shift from nitrogen

based- to phosphorus-based manure management regulations has resulted in implementing liquid hog

manure separation techniques as a phosphorus (P) balance strategy but it is uncertain as to how best to

utilize the solid material with its very high P content. A second major need is to reduce Verticillium

wilt and common scab of potato to improve potato yields. To address these identified needs, the

proposed project is organized into eight objectives: 1) Determine if hog manure compost material can

improve yield and tuber size of potato?, 2) Determine what rates of manure compost increase yields?,

3) Determine by what mechanisms manure composts improve marketable yields?, 4) Determine if

reducing Verticillium levels in soil using Vapam fumigation increases marketable yield?, 5) Determine

if there is an optimal rate of Va pam fumigation?, 6) Determine if there are relations between…

Improving Automated Clay Seam Tracking for GPR-on-borer Systems Used in Potash Mining

This project will attempt to improve knowledge of the condition of the roof of mining rooms in potash mining. Typically a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems pointing overhead and connected to a mining machine is used to assess the conditions of the roof. This is important in order to avoid rock falls which endanger lives, equipment and the operations of potash mining. The goal of this project is to improve the algorithms that are used to determine the stability of the roof so that dangerous situations can be more easily recognized by operators of mining machines through advanced signal and image processing.

Using Augmented Reality to Improve Quality in a Discreet Component Assembly Process

Quality control in manufacturing can be a challenge. While many use AR (Augmented Reality) to reduce error in training processes or to assist with the assembly process, this research will introduce AR as a means of performing quality checks while the worker is assembling, thus allowing him or her to do two jobs at once. DAQRI will be used as a smart visor/helmet to provide visual cues to the worker, eliminating the need to check a status screen for updates, as well as identifying any assembly errors and providing a means to fix the problem. The goal is to use AR to make an employee both an assembler and quality controller simultaneously. Effectiveness will be measured by assessing number of defected finished products before and after implementing the system, as well as how soon the defects were detected, and how quickly they were corrected compared to traditional means.

A comparison of finite element model-predicted brainstem strains between injurious and non-injurious laboratory reconstructed football impacts

Studies of concussive events have shown that the response of the brain during an impact may not be the most reliable predictor of concussion, since the injury may be more closely related to the forces affecting the brainstem. A laboratory crash test protocol was developed to simulate player-to-player collisions in contact sports using crash test dummies and the impact forces on the dummy head were calculated. This study will assess the response of the brainstem during concussive events using information from these reconstructed football collisions as input to a computer model of the human head and neck. The computer simulations will provide important information to further study the concussion injury mechanism. In the future, this methodology will be used to analyze collegiate and youth impacts in sports, as well as to assess the performance of new helmets.

Développement d’un imageur ultra-rapide pour déterminer la minéralogie dans des carottes de forages

Ce projet porte sur le développement d’un instrument à savoir MISSION CORIOSITY de la compagnie canadienne ELEMISSION basé sur la spectroscopie optique LIBS et qui aura pour but de fournir une imagerie élémentaire de la surface des échantillons rocheux sur place et en temps réel. Donc la compagnie espère mettre au point leur système afin que qu’il soit déployé dans les mines pour que l’industrie minière puisse automatiser leur procédé de triage de minerais en temps réel et sur place. Ce qui rend le procédé plus rapide et moins couteux.

Lifestyle and cognition: a large-scale approach – Year two

Online cognitive testing provides unprecedented opportunities for exploring human brain function among the general population. Cambridge Brain Sciences Inc has created an online cognitive testing platform that has attracted more than 1.5M users and has hosted more than 300 studies of cognition. This research plans leverage their unique dataset to explore the interrelationship between demographic and lifestyle factors, and cognitive performance on a massive scale. For example, investigate how factors such as age, sleep, exercise and practice interact within this large population to impact the profile of cognitive performance. A series of large-scale online intervention studies will be conducted to examine which of these factors causally influence particular cognitive domains and over what timescale. This unique partnership will shed new light on the links between brain function, structure and connectivity, and changes in lifestyle and cognitive performance and will certainly yield an abundance of publishable data.

Remote Condition Assessment of High Voltage Insulators Using RadiatedElectromagnetic Fields

There exist hundreds of thousands of high voltage outdoor insulators in North America whose

monitoring, inspection, maintenance, and replacement cost thousands of dollars for the utility

companies. Further, inspection of insulators on live lines has resulted in accidents to the live

line personnel. The main objective of this research is to develop remote condition

assessment techniques for outdoor insulator inspection using electromagnetic radiation. This

project includes development of sensors that can capture electromagnetic radiations from the

insulators and algorithms that can classify the type of the defect or contamination on the

insulators. The outcome of this project enables the line crew to remotely identify defected

insulators and distinguish them from polluted ones.