Innovative Projects Realized

Post-quantum secure cryptography for blockchain

The advent of blockchain technology has revolutionized the perception of modern payment systems. However, in such a system securely managing one’s wallet is a challenging issue. A typical user has access to a suitable wallet software and uses it to authenticate transactions. As wallets generate digital signatures, it requires an access to the private key of the user. The presence of a key in a system which often comes online increases its vulnerability – when a wallet is hacked then essentially the private key is lost and so is the money associated with it. Multisignature schemes ensure that multiple keys are needed to produce a digital signature for authenticating a transaction. Suppose in an organization if a CEO, a manager and an accountant need to collaboratively sign in order to make a transaction – neither an attacker can hack the accountant’s key and move the funds nor it is possible for the CEO to run off with all the money. However, there could be situations when a member of a group of parties (could be non-cooperating) should be able to sign on behalf of the group without revealing individual identity.

Restoring the Historic Fire Regime in the Chittenden Meadow, Skagit Valley Provincial Park, BC

The proposed research project to be undertaken involves the following two objectives: (1) Evaluate the effectiveness of prescribed burning as a management technique for maintaining native vegetation in the Chittenden Meadow, which has ecological and cultural importance. Continued long-term monitoring of the meadow, including assessing burn intensity, will help to increase our understanding of vegetation community change following prescribed fires and will build on 13 years of existing data, and (2) Understand the historic role of fire in the surrounding forest and meadow. This will provide information to support decisions regarding fuel treatment and restoration. The partner organization will benefit from participating by networking with BC Parks, BC Wildfire Branch representatives, and BCIT.

Thermal Management for High-power-density Airborne Satellite Communications (SATCOM) Terminals

As a full-service, data-driven solutions provider for aviation, SKYTRAC Systems is developing new 2-MCU satellite communications (SATCOM) terminal, SDL-350, which will be capable of achieving globally available broadband transfer rates of 352 kbps both to and from the aircraft. One critical challenge facing the R&D engineers of SDL-350 is the thermal management, because the power dissipation level of SDL-350 is beyond what is achievable for the convectional thermal designs of avionics. Dr. Li will partner with SKYTRAC to develop an effective thermal design which will enable all components in SDL-350 to operate within their qualified temperature limits.

Zipstall – On-line and Off-line Parking Availability Prediction

Searching for parking has many terrible impacts, such as wasted time, fuel, and emissions, overpaying for parking etc. To ease the pain of parking, the goal of this project is to develop a method of collecting information from multiple sources (crowd-sourced information from parkers, active paid session information from managers/parking enforcement, and availability information from enforcement patrols) and utilize various machine learning methods including K-Nearest Neighbors, Neural Network, Decision Tree and Time Series models to predict real-time on-street and off-street parking availability at the users’ estimated arrival time. Afterward, Zipstall can provide the users with personalized parking recommendation once the availability prediction of parking areas is accurate. The partner will benefit from participating in the program as advancements in the methodology of tracking and predicting real-time parking availability, which will enable the delivery of a vastly superior customer experience to the partner’s clients.

Building the Durham Region Food System Report Card: Assessing the opportunities and gaps in attaining a sustainable and just regional food system

Using simplified language understandable to a layperson; provide a general, one-paragraph description of the proposed research project to be undertaken by the intern(s) as well as the expected benefit to the partner organization. (100 – 150 words)
To address local food system issues like loss of farmland, people without enough food, or climate change impacts, it is important to see such issues as all related. This project will assess Durham Region food system resources, like local research and policy documents, to find strengths, areas to be addressed, and areas to be studied more. It will develop a more comprehensive picture of the local food system. This, along with the input of people who play various roles in the food system and people whose voices may not often be heard, will help in developing outlines for report cards to show the health of food system components in all of Durham’s municipalities. This project will help Durham’s residents better understand what is going well in the food system and what needs to change. The lead community organization partner will learn how to better help its community and how to advocate for change with other food system actors.

Dual-language development of minority speakers from face-to-face to remote delivery

The rapid shutting down of daycares and schools due to COVID-19 have left many new Canadian families isolated due to limited proficiency in English and small social networks. In regular school programs, teachers have expressed that reaching families who do not speak the language of schooling has been particularly challenging due to the language barrier. On the other hand, families have reported that being at home has strengthened their child’s minority language, suggesting a silver lining to these difficult times. Informed by the challenges faced by our partner, ABC Head Start Society, the proposed project applies a community based participatory framework towards the goal of including and empowering our research partner and members of the community in the research process.
The research being undertaken within the SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant study builds on our previous research in providing dual-language support for young language learners in a preschool or kindergarten environment (MacLeod, Meziane & Pesco et al., 2020), and extends this research to adapt to the COVID-19 context. Our goal is to assess the barriers and facilitators to dual-language learning among children who speak a minority language at home, and pilot a program to adapt to the COVID-19 context.

Aeration of hydraulic turbines for increased dissolved oxygen

In warm climates warm temperatures cause thermal stratification in hydropower reservoirs inhibiting mixing and leading to deoxygenation of waters at depth (hypolimnium). Turbines withdrawing water at depth result in low dissolved oxygen (DO) in the downstream flow having a large negative impact on the downstream riverine ecosystem. Legislation in the USA and elsewhere now requires hydropower operators to guarantee meeting minimum DO limits in downstream flows. Andritz Hydro Canada has initiated this project to optimize the elbow deflectors used in draft tube aeration, which is a technological retrofit approach not excessively impacting operation schedules. The main deliverables will be the optimization of the elbow deflectors, through a parametric study of the design parameters involved in maximizing bubble surface area and bubble concentration to result in an increase in dissolved oxygen concentration, and a set of data for validation of Andritz’s Computational Fluid Dynamics model.

DC Bus Capacitor Condition Monitoring for Low Voltage and Medium Voltage Power Cells

The goal of the project is to develop, implement, and validate novel condition monitoring algorithms that can detect the onset of a failure through changes in behavior of the DC bus capacitors in motor drives with no additional sensors. This is an important research area as detecting the onset of a potential failure is of a significant importance from both academic and industrial point of view. In addition, it will be beneficial for other power electronic applications.

Programmable light for microscopy

Computational optics is the integration of algorithms to enhance optical imaging and exceed its physical limitations. The principles of computational optics can be used in microscopy by implementing programmable illumination to control the application of light onto tissue. MTT Innovation Inc.’s Light Steering Projection technology uses laser illumination, spatial phase modulation, and image processing algorithms to direct light from dark regions to brighter regions that require more light. This improves the dynamic range and contrast levels of resulting images. This research project will investigate the integration of programmable illumination into various imaging modalities commonly used in microscopy, including bright-field, dark-field, and phase contrast imaging. This project will also explore the feasibility of computational microscopy in monitoring the blood flow within the microcirculatory vessels of critically ill patients. By looking at these vessels, clinicians can tell how much oxygen organs in the body are receiving, which can aid in patient assessment.

Arts’ Civic Impact: Researchers in Residence

In conjunction with Mass Culture and Emily Carr University of Art and Design’s Aboriginal Gathering Place, The Arts’ Civic Impact: Researchers in Residence, BC cohort focuses on developing a qualitative arts impact framework through a decolonized, Indigenous research lens for Indigenous focused, BC arts organizations in concert with four other researchers from across the country.

The BC Cohort will infuse the research with Indigenous protocols, way and knowledge to bring deeper engagement and understanding the complex relationship that Indigenous organizations and communities in the civil art and culture sector and how indigenous artists, filmmakers, ECU art/design/media alumni that have utilized cultural production to create other forms of value (social, ethical, communal, identity vs economic or state-sponsored, extractionist).

Brand Positioning Strategy using Hedonic Pricing Analysis: A Study of Facial Recognition and Identity Solution Market

The facial recognition and identity solution industry was a USD 3.4 billion market in 2019 which is growing at a rate of 14.5%. Unsurprisingly, this untapped market is a target market for different technology firms but such lucrative markets also have some issues due to the ‘young’ nature of the sector. The main difficulty is the absence of any established reference brand with which a new entrant firm can map their brand and position it in the market. Business analytics techniques can come in handy in such situations by developing a model that provides a snap-shot of product features that are contributing to the value brand in this competitive market. A firm can plan its strategic marketing initiatives such as brand positioning strategy, sales pitch preparation, and promotional activities according to the results of the analytics model to gain an early competitive advantage in this novel market.

Predicting Hydrological Impacts on Remote Infrastructure Using Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning

After 17 months of closure due to flooding and washouts, Arctic Gateway Group (AGG) took over operation of Hudson Bay Railroad (HBR) in September 2018 and reopened 29 washouts in 54 days. Servicing northern First Nations communities and the Port of Churchill, one of the most important aspects of the HBR is safety. As a result, water monitoring and management remains a critical priority for the company. In particular, the section of rail line known as the ‘Herchimer’ remains an isolated and difficult portion of the track to monitor. The University of Winnipeg and Arctic Gateway Group endeavor to use drone and satellite technology to monitor water near rail lines in order to mitigate impacts on northern and remote infrastructure which is increasingly impacted by the melt of permafrost, a situation expected to increase with climate changes. The introduction of technology and processes that can mitigate impacts of water on northern and remote infrastructure stands to increase the economy in Canada’s northern and arctic regions by providing reliable infrastructure that has become impacted by global warming.