Innovative Projects Realized

Development of a Gateway Embedded System for Smart Lighting Control

There is a growing demand to conserve energy at the load side using smart lighting systems in the buildings, warehouses, and other facilities. In a smart lighting system each of the electrical devices (e.g. sensors, lights, actuator, appliances, etc.) is regarded as a wireless node capable of communicating with other nodes through an available wireless technology. The proposed R&D activity targets at developing a gateway device which is an important component of a Bluetooth enabled lighting system which uses the BLE technology for internetwork communication between different nodes. Bluetooth v4.0 or Bluetooth low energy (BLE) wireless technology is a newly introduced technology with much lower power consumption compared to the devices equipped with standard Bluetooth technology. The low power low cost BLE enabled devices creates a new opportunity to reduce the power consumption of the wireless nodes in smart lighting systems. The main objective of this R&D activity is developing an embedded gateway system. The gateway is responsible for communicating with the master nodes in the entire lighting system through standard Bluetooth technology. Meanwhile, it should be able to communicate with a PC (as central controlling unit) through USB cable and other gateway devices using one of the wide range wireless technologies like Wi-Fi.

Feasibility and usability of ultrasound in aiding breast tumor detection

In this research we propose to carry out a feasibility study to identify an ultrasound transducer that can be used specifically for breast cancer tumor detection. This transducer will be interfaced with the available Ultrasonix Elastrography System at SFU. This will be the most significant part of the proposed research. It will include assimilation of the transducer with the ultrasound machine along with data capturing and analysis. Fast algorithms are necessary in this kind of imaging. Strains between frames are small, thus the sensitivity of the algorithms is also very important. The data capturing will be done using breast phantoms. The breast tissue phantoms and tumor phantoms will be developed with material which has elastic properties similar to breast tissue and tumors. A preliminary probe design will also be proposed after the assessment for the suitability of use of the probe to make it available to wider audience.

Investigating the Non-linear characteristics of EVestG signals in healthy controls and those of Meniere’s Disease

Dizziness is among the top three reasons that patients seek medical attention, and one of the most common disabling conditions that humans face. One of the diseases that may cause dizziness is Meniere’s disease, which its correct and timely diagnosis and separation from other causes of dizziness with current techniques are quite challenging. On the other hand, Electrovestibulography (EVestG) is a new technique for recording vestibular responses in the ear, and has shown very encouraging results for to show EVestG signals being capable of discerning Meniere’s disease for both bilateral and unilateral impairments. This study is a pilot study on the use of EVestG for diagnosis of Meniere's disease by analyzing the EVestG nonlinear fractal dimension characteristics. We will validate the fractal dimension characteristics by statistical analysis between two groups of individuals with no dizziness and those suspected of Meniere's.

Improving Metallic Yield in a Steel Rolling Plant through Optimization

The objective of this project is to use optimization to improve metallic yield (the percentage of raw material that ends up as usable product) in an ArcelorMital Steel Rolling Plant. The metallic yield of the rolling operations depends upon the length of billets from which the final product is manufactured. Ideally, a single customer order would be filled using billets of precisely the length that would yield the minimum achievable amount of scrap. However, ideal yields for each order in a set of customer orders cannot be aggregated to fulfill them at the ideal yield for the entire set of orders, as this conflicts with the objective of keeping the inventory at a minimum level. In other words, the optimal way of fulfilling a set of customer orders is a tradeoff between yield maximization and inventory minimization. This project will develop efficient and robust models and algorithms for optimal billet ordering. Improving metallic yield is critical in ArcelorMittal, and the proposed project will improve it significantly. Each pound of scrap steel that is reprocessed in the furnace represents an important additional cost, and given the amount of production, even a small percentage of yield improvement is expected to result in significant cost savings. 

Evaluation of Flexkor as a flexibility aid for elite athletes

The objective of this research project is to determine if athletes who use the Flexkor device to facilitate stretching after their workouts will result in comparable gains in hamstring flexibility and strength as would be obtained by athletes who use a trained therapist. Many elite athletes in a team environment rely heavily on therapists to conduct stretching after practicing, as part of their cool-down period. If the Flexkor can provide athletes from a large team with the same benefits of stretching that they get from a therapist, significant time savings could be realized by the athletes and therapists. Therapists could be freed up to spend more time with the athletes that need additional attention (e.g. for rehabilitation). It is also hoped that this research will further educate athletes and coaches on the importance of stretching for injury prevention. The results of the research will also help with the development, design and marketing of the Flexkor device.

Enhancing New comers Integration: Mapping of Social Netw orks w ithin Toronto East Local Immigration Partnership. A Pilot Project

The purpose of this project is to explore the dynamics w ithin the Toronto East Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) by creating visual representations of the interconnections betw een the members involved in the Partnership. This research aims to use social network analysis to assess the relationships w ithin the Partnership in order to identify individuals that are centrally located in the netw ork as w ell as w ho is on the periphery. By visualizing the members’ location w ithin the netw ork, the Toronto East LIP w ill be able to enhance its collaboration,  communication flow s and overall effectiveness, w hich w ill hopefully improve, in turn, the current service delivery of immigration services. Ideally, these improvements should also facilitate the social and economic inclusion of new ly arrived immigrants. Since this particular research project is a pilot project, Meta Strategies hopes it has the potential of being replicated in all the other local LIPs across Toronto and even Ontario.

Development of an Agent-Based Market Simulator

Financial markets today are monitored and controlled by artificial intelligent algorithms. Developing these artificial intelligent algorithms requires a large amount of testing against complex patterns and phenomena observed in stock market. The main objective of the proposed project is the development of a market simulator. This is highly challenging and yet promising direction that will allow the partner to test some of its algorithms locally before running them in the live market. The market simulator is proposed to have an exchange engine and computerized agents that will be interacting just like participants in the real market. Rationale of the agents can be derived by observing real market entities and algorithmically extracting valid elements of their behavior. By adjusting certain parameters of the agents, one can create very specific conditions or scenarios to optimize the performance of the algorithms. 

Visualization of the cool-flame and hot flame combustion process within the IQT™

There is an interest in the optical determination of the combustion process within the IQT™. This would be performed using optical probes integrated within the IQT™. From these probes, the location of the cool-flame and hot combustion process will be identified for different fuels within the IQT. Along with the location of combustion, the ignition delay will also be measured using the chemiluminescence of the combustion products and will be compared to the actual IQT™ method of ignition delay determination using pressure transducers in the combustion chamber. This work will also be beneficial to researchers using the IQT™ to validate chemical kinetics models of novel fuels. They will now be able to compare the cool-flame ignition point of their models to measurements performed within the IQT™.

Situation Awareness in Process Control Field Operations

Effects of Ultrasonic Pretreatment on Biogas Production through Anaerobic Digestion; a Study of the Feedstock Characteristics on Overall Energy Efficiency and Methane Yield

The involve company requires improvements to alternate energy systems, such as biogas production by anaerobic production. The present team work for a common front to expand the present knowledge for increasing the present profitability of the process. Recently, the idea of pretreating the sludge with ultrasonic wave to allow an increase of biogas production and a lower retention time in biodigester as creates a new infatuation for biogas production through anaerobic digestion. The following research proposal is to answer several questions concerning the ultrasonic pretreatment of biodigester feedstock characteristic (biomass and waste). The variable of interest here is feedstock characteristic through overall energy efficiency and methane yield changes.

Advancing Waveform Tomography of Crosswell Data with Applications in the Sulphide Environment

Crosswell seismic tomography is a geophysical survey method in which the propagation of sound waves through the Earth’s crust is used to infer geological structure. An array of acoustic sources and receivers are placed into two separate boreholes, and full waveform recordings are made of the response to each source, measured at each of the receivers, the objective being a ―cross-section‖ of the geology between the two boreholes. Two attributes are extracted from this survey: i) the measured arrival times, and ii) the frequency domain components of the waveforms. Traveltime tomography is used initially to image crosssectional structure by examining the times at which the receivers first detect seismic waves generated by the sources, allowing a model of variable seismic velocity to be created.

Waveform tomography then uses the frequency domain components to improve the model resolution by taking into account the scattering and distortion of seismic waves at different frequencies. Computer software developed by the University of Western Ontario is used to create these models, which are useful in commercial geophysical exploration (for economic ores, oil & gas, etc.). Specifically for this project, data from Vale Voisey’s Bay property in Labrador will be examined.

Social Game Analytics: Using Metrics to Improve Player Engagement

In this internship we aim to develop an analytics system that targets quick conversion of game data to knowledge that allows game designers to quickly grasp the sources of engagement and disengagement of users while interacting with video games. This proposed system can benefit Blackbird Interactive Inc. by providing a method to tune their designs based on a deeper understanding of their players.