Projets novateurs réalisés

Evaluation of BC lavender essential oils for product development

The proposed research catalyzes collaborations between the research group of Dr. Soheil Mahmoud (UBC Okanagan) and BC lavender farms (in particular Ryder Lake Farms Inc., Chilliwack, BC) that focus on lavender farming, agritourism, and development of value added products. The research ultimately aims to boost lavender farming in BC through the following specific objectives: 1) setup a steam distillation facility for extracting essential oils from lavenders and other plants at Ryder Lake Farms. 2) provide scientific context for the BC-produced lavender essential oils and hydrosols through assessing their chemical composition by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). 3) Identify lavender plants that produce high quality essential oils via evaluating oils from different varieties grown in several BC farms. 4) Develop value added products from lavender essential oils produced in BC.

Identification et co-valorisation des métaux critiques et stratégiques dans les usines minéralurgiques existantes

Le projet consiste en la collecte et l’analyse de données suivi du prélèvement des échantillons dans l’usine de traitement de minerai existante ciblée (Detour Lake) afin d’estimer les flux de MCS qui transitent à travers celle-ci sans être valorisés. Les résultats du projet permettront à moyen terme d’offrir un moyen de co-valorisation de ces métaux et ainsi permettre d’accroître à la fois l’approvisionnement de ces métaux importants, de réduire les impacts environnementaux des résidus générés et enfin d’augmenter les revenus potentiels des exploitations minières.

Structured H-infinity Synthesis for Certification-Oriented UAV Control Law Analysis and Tuning

This project aims to help Canadian UAV startups improve the safety and reliability of their autopilot systems by creating a software tool that checks and fine-tunes how these systems perform. Using a method called structured H8 synthesis, implemented through MATLAB, the intern will build a framework that ensures flight control systems meet key industry requirements, such as stability, responsiveness, and resistance to environmental disturbances. The work will focus on the widely used but hard-to-certify ArduPilot platform, showing how advanced analysis can make it more suitable for regulated operations.

Honouring the Waters: Environmental Policy

The Clear Seas Indigenous Internship Program aims to provide support to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities across Canada by helping them build the necessary internal capacity to research and protect their territories through a reimagined internship program. Clear Seas provides mentorship to the interns and uplifts existing internal capacity within Indigenous communities. The Clear Seas Internship Program is tackling the real-world impacts of marine shipping on Indigenous communities, with significant cultural, social, and economic consequences. While shipping is vital for trade and economic growth, it often disrupts marine ecosystems, interferes with traditional fishing and hunting practices, and undermines Indigenous governance structures. This project’s scope is to be a leader for a more holistic, respectful, supportive, responsive, equitable, and inclusive relationships between Indigenous communities and marine ecospheres through co-produced research spaces. The research centres around the marine ecosphere as Clear Seas can leverage their vast network of marine-related industries and partners. The knowledge developed through these projects will inform future Clear Seas research and guide marine-related policy and strategies.

Honouring the Waters: Tsleil-Waututh Exhibit

The Clear Seas Indigenous Internship Program aims to provide support to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities across Canada by helping them build the necessary internal capacity to research and protect their territories through a reimagined internship program. Clear Seas provides mentorship to the interns and uplifts existing internal capacity within Indigenous communities. The Clear Seas Internship Program is tackling the real-world impacts of marine shipping on Indigenous communities, with significant cultural, social, and economic consequences. While shipping is vital for trade and economic growth, it often disrupts marine ecosystems, interferes with traditional fishing and hunting practices, and undermines Indigenous governance structures. This project’s scope is to be a leader for a more holistic, respectful, supportive, responsive, equitable, and inclusive relationships between Indigenous communities and marine ecospheres through co-produced research spaces. The research centres around the marine ecosphere as Clear Seas can leverage their vast network of marine-related industries and partners. The knowledge developed through these projects will inform future Clear Seas research and guide marine-related policy and strategies.

IMPROVEMENTS OF IN-SITU SVE REMEDIATION MANAGEMENT USING INTEGRATED SIMULATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT APPROACHES AT THE CANTUAR SITE

SaskEnergy developed an in-situ remediation program using a soil vapour extraction (SVE) system to facilitate recovery of petroleum hydrocarbons at the Cantuar Site. One of main problems associated with this program is the deficiency in the knowledge of process control based on the fate and transport of contaminants, and effective studies for assessing the environmental and health risks/impacts. Many questions remain to be answered, such as: “Whether the SVE system is suitable for remediation of the Cantuar Site to current environmental guidelines?”, “How long will it take to reach the guidelines with the existing remediation efficiency?”, “Is there potential for future impacts on the surrounding community?”, etc. Answers to these questions will help site mangers & decision makers get insight into current site situations. These will be very helpful when discussing the problems and the relevant decisions with the local authorities. The proposal aims to solve such practical problems and can be applied at similar contaminated sites in western Canada.

Neural Network Architecture Design for Deformable Image Registration in Female Pelvic Anatomy

The Radiation Medicine Program at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre treats cancer patients with Radiation Therapy (RT). RT relies on the principle that the cancer can be killed by delivering a high radiation dose to the tumor while sparing healthy tissues. Deformable image registration (DIR) is a cornerstone of modern RT, enabling the alignment of images across multiple treatment courses and imaging modalities. It plays an important role in clinical workflows such as image fusion, tumor tracking, and dose accumulation. However, in female pelvic radiotherapy, DIR methods face substantial challenges in managing complex anatomical changes. These include large deformations caused by different organ fillings such in the bladder, rectum or bowel, organ sliding, and tumor shrinkage or swelling, which can compromise the accuracy of registration. To address these challenges, there is a critical need for an automated DIR pipeline capable of handling such complexities in real time, facilitating more precise adaptive radiotherapy and improving clinical outcomes.

Comparative effectiveness, and network meta-analysis of pre-insulin oral hypoglycemic drugs in the treatment of type II diabetes

The proposed project is two-phased. The first phase involves a study that will use specialized research analysis
techniques to compare the effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs used to treat type II diabetes and to identify if a
group of drugs are producing similar benefits in terms of controlling the disease. The applicant’s clinical and
epidemiological background would bring value to our study design for this and future projects. The second phase
involves economic cost modeling that will forecast financial implications of study findings. Redwood Outcomes has
extensive expertise in economic cost modeling in-house, although it is not a service that we currently offer to clients.
As the partner organization, Redwood would benefit from this project as test case for the expansion of our service
offerings to include economic cost modeling to clients as a natural extension of current services. Mitacs management
training would be valuable in grooming in-house research management capacity.

Developing a robust AI pipeline for clinical trials using digital devices: Integrating sample size estimation, data quality assessment, and AI for enhanced medical screening

Cardiovascular disease is a major global health challenge, and early prevention is crucial to reducing its impact. This project explores how wearable devices and artificial intelligence (AI) can improve early detection and prevention of heart disease. Wearable sensors continuously collect health data, but challenges such as missing information and inaccurate readings limit their reliability in clinical practice.

This research aims to develop a robust system that improves the quality and reliability of wearable health data, ensuring AI-driven risk assessment models provide accurate and actionable insights. By addressing challenges in data reliability and sample size estimation, the project will help healthcare professionals better trust and adopt digital health technologies. The findings will be tested using real-world data from an ongoing clinical trial.

This project will directly benefit healthcare organizations by improving the effectiveness of digital health tools for heart disease prevention. It will also help researchers and clinicians integrate AI-driven solutions into medical decision-making, leading to more personalized and timely patient care.

Module d’optimisation de tournées de véhicules pour l’entreprise Arche TI

Les entreprises de services sont confrontées à des enjeux logistiques majeurs liés à la conception des routes pour servir les clients. Le design de ces routes a un impact important sur les coûts de l’entreprise mais également sur la qualité du service offert. Déterminer les routes les plus efficaces pour servir un ensemble de clients peut s’avérer rapidement une tâche complexe étant donné la quantité importante de contraintes opérationnelles à considérer ainsi que le nombre de combinaisons à explorer. Dans ce projet, nous utiliserons des techniques avancées d’optimisation afin de développer des algorithmes performants pour la conception optimale des routes pour les clients de ArcheTI.

Exploration du rôle des facteurs organisationnels et personnels sur la santé mentale des pompiers et pompières d’Edmundston

Les changements en lien avec la nature du travail des pompiers, notamment en lien avec leur rôle de premiers répondants, fragilisent leur état de santé mentale. D’ailleurs, le service d’incendie d’Edmundston identifie le trouble de stress post-traumatique comme une problématique importante. Ainsi, la présente étude vise l’exploration du rôle des facteurs organisationnels (p.ex., culture organisationnelle) et personnels (p.ex., stigma) sur la santé mentale et l’utilisation des ressources en santé mentale chez les pompiers d’Edmundston. Cela permettra d’identifier les facteurs de protections et de risques en lien avec la santé mentale, les barrières d’accès aux soins et de développer une intervention appropriée.

Honouring the Waters: Accessibility in the Marine Sector

The Clear Seas Indigenous Internship Program aims to provide support to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities across Canada by helping them build the necessary internal capacity to research and protect their territories through a reimagined internship program. Clear Seas provides mentorship to the interns and uplifts existing internal capacity within Indigenous communities. The Clear Seas Internship Program is tackling the real-world impacts of marine shipping on Indigenous communities, with significant cultural, social, and economic consequences. While shipping is vital for trade and economic growth, it often disrupts marine ecosystems, interferes with traditional fishing and hunting practices, and undermines Indigenous governance structures. This project’s scope is to be a leader for a more holistic, respectful, supportive, responsive, equitable, and inclusive relationships between Indigenous communities and marine ecospheres through co-produced research spaces. The research centres around the marine ecosphere as Clear Seas can leverage their vast network of marine-related industries and partners. The knowledge developed through these projects will inform future Clear Seas research and guide marine-related policy and strategies. This project has the potential for its recommendations and methodology to be applied on a broader scope for promoting accessibility.