Projets novateurs réalisés

Mesure en imagerie à comptage de photon

Les systèmes d’imagerie ultra sensible et de haute performance comportent des capacités en comptage de photon peu documentées pour éclairer le choix des futurs utilisateurs en diagnostic biomédical. En intégrant l’équipe de Nüvü Caméras, le stagiaire aura comme objectif principal d’étudier et de concevoir un outils de mesure de la performance en imagerie à comptage de photon d’une caméra EMCCD, de le tester avec plus d’une technologie EMCCD et de documenter ses résultats dans un rapport. Le stagiaire aura à travailler avec une équipe d’ingénieurs qui vont l’assister pendant la durée du projet. Le projet amènera le stagiaire à utiliser des notions avancées d’optiques pour l’atteinte de son objectif.

Whales and ships within a British Columbia fjord system: assessing behavioral response and risk of strikes

As whales recover from the past centuries of whaling and as global trade compels shipping traffic to increase, we expect negative whale-ship interactions such as fatal strikes and noise disturbance to become an increasingly serious issue. To develop cost-effective and broadly applicable methods of assessing the risks of ships to whale feeding grounds, I propose to work with the partner organization to initiate a land-based visual survey of whales and ships within a fjord system of northern British Columbia that is slated for increased shipping traffic. I will analyze the data we collect to assess the risk of ship strikes and compare the behavioral response of two whale species, humpback whales and fin whales, to passing ships. The methods we develop will inform mitigation measures in our study site and facilitate similar studies elsewhere.

High average power hollow core fiber pulse compression

To be able to see an object in action, one requires to ‘’see’’ faster than the object itself. Photographing a F1 car going full speed requires a really fast camera shutter, for example. For electrons in molecules and state-of-the-art material, this mean having access to laser flashes lasting a few millionth of a billionth of a second. As far-fetched as that sound, facilities worldwide can easily provide flashes 10 to 5 times that duration rather easily. Although these laser ‘’pulses’’ are short, they are still too long to properly ‘’see’’ the dynamics of electrons (the difference between a blurry F1 image vs a crisp image of the race car). We aim to provide these facilities with a way of compressing their pulses to these shorter durations, while keeping the high energy and power they need for the highly demanding technological applications they face on a daily basis.

Étude historique et patrimoniale du Chalet Wootton/maison Joseph Minot dit Labrie

Le projet de stage s’inscrit dans une recherche globale sur l’occupation historique du territoire du parc national du Bic, qui vise à mettre en valeur son patrimoine archéologique et bâti hors du commun, dont le chalet Wootton qui pourrait être l’un des plus anciens bâtiments du Bic. Le projet vise à documenter l’occupation historique des lots du parc, dans le but de faire connaître leurs différents propriétaires, les activités économiques qui y ont été pratiquées au fil du temps et les réseaux de sociabilité qui les ont animés. Le stage permettra à une étudiante à la maîtrise en histoire de s’initier à la recherche en archives et de contribuer activement à l’avancée des connaissances et à la mise en valeur du riche patrimoine dont dispose le parc national du Bic. TO BE CONT’D

Development of Nanoparticle and Encapsulation Technology as Delivery System for Polysaccharides from Ginseng

Ginseng is a medicinal plant widely used for the treatment of various conditions, and there are two major species: Panax ginseng (Asian ginseng) and Panax quinquefolius (American ginseng). The medicinal properties of ginseng have been attributed to two main classes of chemical compounds: ginsenosides and polysaccharides (PS). We have recently developed an encapsulated PS nanoparticles (NPs) derived from American ginseng, which showed enhanced potency in protecting UV-induced skin injury in a mouse model and immunomodulatory activity in vitro. However, we have not elucidated the mechanism underlying its heightened potency. Herein, we will characterize the PS NPs, penetration of monolayers of Caco-2 cells and keratinocytes, determine the bioavailability and effectiveness after oral and topical administration in mice. PS with fluorescent tag will be prepared to track the disposition of PS materials. TO BE CONT’D

Upgrading of Hydrofaction™ Oil to transport fuel blendstock

Hydrofaction™ is Steeper Energy’s proprietary hydrothermal liquefaction technology that converts low value biomass residues to renewable crude oil using supercritical water and homogeneous catalysis. Steeper Energy Canada (SEC) is focused on identifying optimal pathways for upgrading Hydrofaction™ Oil into renewable diesel and jet fuels. Amidst plummeting crude oil prices, such renewable fuels still command attractive ‘green’ economic premiums as well as policy support for their climate and rural development deliverables. This project focusses on Hydrofaction™ oil upgrading though hydrotreatment. Upgrading has been identified as critical for the commercialization of Hydrofaction™ by three engineering design studies. Through this Project, SEC will be extending an existing collaboration with Prof. McCaffrey at the University of Alberta along with their world class equipment and expertise in hydrocarbon catalysis. With this derisking project, Steeper will also come closer to end-users.

Understanding and Altering the Dye Chemistry of Genipin

With limited global resources, it is important to develop sustainable, greener chemistry. One approach to addressing this problem is to utilize chemical feedstocks from naturally occurring sources, such as plants. This project focuses on the development of sustainable dyes, as synthetic versions have recently begun to fall out of favour globally, whether the reasons for this are real or perceived. Genipin, is a naturally occurring molecule found in Central American fruit. It is a well known dye-precursor, having the ability to generate brilliant blue dyes. This project will investigate how minor synthetic modifications to the structure of genipin will affect its dye properties. The active ingredient in Inkbox tattoos is derived from natural sources. Studying the effects of minor modifications to it will produce new colours and products for the company as they continue to grow.

Carbon dioxide: Alternative solutions for conversion of captured liquefied CO2 into valuable fue

The partner organisation, Sigma Energy Storage, develops energy storage by gas compression. This technology is based on the storage of electricity from intermittent energy sources, such as wind or solar power. During the gas compression, carbon dioxide can be liquefied and extracted. This project aims to convert carbon dioxide into a valuable fuel, which could be reused to fuel the machines, and thus having a low carbon footprint on the environment. To achieve the conversion of carbon dioxide into a valuable fuel, a catalyst made of graphene and copper nanoparticles will be developed based on recent research findings and the expertise of the partner laboratory.

Research and development of automated safety testing and certification of commercial downconverters

Alpha Technologies, a Canadian leader in power electronics, and the University of British Columbia have teamed up to develop new automated testing technologies to speed the development and certification of power supply products. The automated test systems will run the products through their paces simulating real world scenarios and environmental conditions. The ability to quickly test designs and prototypes will improve design and development time as well as improve the safety and reliability of these products that power critical equipment like small cell networks. These networks monitor telecommunication hubs and electrical sub-stations. Which constantly transmit critical data that keep our homes powered and our cell phones working. Making our world safer and helping Canada to continue to be a leader in power converter technology.

The application of UAV-based optical and thermal imagery on the estimation of intra-field soil and crop parameters

The efficient monitoring of soil and crop parameters is essential for crop stress evaluation and yield forecast in agriculture, yet most remote sensing studies focus on regional-scale soil and crop parameters estimation using satellite data. Satellite remote sensing is difficult to obtain both high spatial and temporal resolution data with a low-cost in field-scale. Currently, UAV-based remote sensing is a flexible and reliable approach could provide proper data for intra-field monitoring. This study proposes real-time and low-cost approaches for soil and crop parameters monitoring using UAV-based remote sensing in field scale.

Improving Productivity in Bioreactors through control of foaming and cell heterogeneity

Heterogeneity of cell populations is a common occurrence in bioreactor operations (Lara et al., 2006) and is typically caused by processing of cell cultures in vessels of varying sizes and process conditions and by deficient mixing. Most bioreactor research deals with average conditions of the cell population with respect to quantities such as dissolved oxygen and extracellular nutrient level, while these averages actually correspond to very different distributions of individual cell growth and productivity. Thus, in the production of vaccine, different cells in the culture may exhibit at any given time different growth and may produce different amount of antigen.

The main goal of this proposed study is to improve bioreactor productivity by controlling cell heterogeneity. We propose to manipulate the cell distribution at the beginning of the culture to improve productivity of the process. TO BE CONT’D

Modèle prédictif d’évaluation de la valeur marchande des joueurs de l’UEFA

La recherche proposée consiste en l’élaboration d’un modèle statistique permettant de prédire la valeur marchande des joueurs de soccer de l’UEFA. L’objectif d’un tel modèle est de permettre d’évaluer plus rapidement, efficacement et précisément la valeur des joueurs afin de faciliter les transactions, l’évaluation des actifs de la ligue et le moment propice pour effectuer des changements à la valeur aux livres comptables de la ligue, par exemple. Ce projet en collaboration avec la firme de consultation Accuracy permettra à l’entreprise de dégager un avantage concurrentiel important en apportant une contribution importante aux outils d’analytique des sports.