Projets novateurs réalisés

Enhancing Dental Patient Education through Collaborative Digital Art

This research project aims to improve patients’ understanding of dental procedures through a collaborative learning approach in a dental office. The project involves patients, dental professionals, and researchers working together to create interactive digital artwork that explains different dental treatments. Patients will have the opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences, which will be used to develop educational materials that are visually appealing and easy to understand. The use of patient-generated artwork and stories promotes a patient-centered approach and encourages active patient engagement in their dental health. By involving patients in the learning process, this project creates a sense of community and fosters a more inclusive dental practice. The partner organization will benefit from this research by gaining valuable insights into patient education and contributing to the advancement of dental care. The project also has broader benefits for the Canadian community, as it promotes collaboration, empathy, and understanding among diverse individuals and contributes to the development of more humane and inclusive societies

Exploring the role of MRC2 in Multiple Sclerosis Pathology

This project investigates the role of Mrc2 in CNS (Central-nervous system) infiltration of pro-inflammatory immune cells using an EAE mouse model. Fresh and postmortem tissue will be provided by collaborators. Single cell suspensions from brain, spinal cord, spleen, and lymph nodes will undergo flow cytometry analysis, using different markers to identify distinct cell populations. Unsupervised clustering and dimensionality reduction techniques will be applied for data analysis. Immunohistochemistry will confirm the findings, examining demyelinating lesions and infiltrating cell types. The objective is to understand Mrc2’s involvement in early EAE stages and its impact on CNS infiltration by pro-inflammatory cells, potentially reducing demyelination. Expected outcomes include insights into Mrc2’s role and that Mrc2 deficiency leads to a decreased infiltration of pro-inflammatory cells in the CNS.

Leaf area index and wet biomass retrieval in agricultural fields from C-band SAR data using the Water Cloud Model

Maintaining and increasing agrarian production is a significant challenge for agricultural policy in the face of global population expansion. In this context, acquiring accurate and prompt regional estimates of crop yields and development is crucial in informing and formulating food policies and mitigating food insecurity to support farm managers and decision-makers. Also, it is challenging to monitor vegetation conditions, plant diseases, irrigation, and fertilizer management on a large scale, which are influential factors in crop biophysical parameters. Therefore, remote sensing is suitable for bridging these gaps because it provides sufficient spatial and temporal information. The Water Cloud Model (WCM) is a vegetation contribution model widely used in crop biophysical parameters retrieval over large-scale vegetated areas. However, due to the lack of a standard technique for determining these descriptors, WCM must be calibrated to produce accurate estimates of crop parameters. This study proposes an innovative approach using WCM based on SAR data combined with ensemble learning models to retrieve crop biophysical parameters under all weather conditions accurately.

Realistic and High-Performance Rendering Renewal

The goal is to investigate the realistic appearance models for complex reflectance properties, modeling reflectance, masking and inter-reflection at many scales. In the end, comparison and basis-space representation will be leveraged to develop an interactive rendering application for pre-visualization and in-game portrayal of complex materials.

Temporal Interference Stimulation in the Rhesus Macaque

Deep brain stimulation is a treatment method for Parkinson’s Disease. This treatment involves implanting an electrode deep into the brain, which carries a small but serious risk of complications. However, a new stimulation technique, called temporal interference stimulation, may circumvent these risks, and allow for non-invasive deep brain stimulation. Temporal interference stimulation can selectively target deep brain structures in the mouse, however whether it will work in larger animals is currently unknown. This project aims to test whether temporal interference stimulation will be able to activate deep brain structures in a larger animal that is more similar to humans using both computational and experimental techniques. The findings will provide insights into whether temporal interference stimulation will be a feasible approach for deep brain stimulation in humans. The research findings and resulting articles from this research project will help PSSO with communicating results to the community and attract new donors.

PRedicting Human Performance – adjustments in the critical power model

Our project aims to improve our understanding of the limits of exercise capacity by using a novel model for critical power, the highest intensity at which a steady state can be achieved in cycling. We will test whether the modified 3-parameter critical power model fits power-duration data better than existing models. This will involve well-trained cyclists performing various tests to determine critical power, work completed above critical power (W’), and maximal sprint power, which will be fitted into the old models as well as the new model. The significance of this project is that a better model will facilitate the use of technology like power meters to benefit athletes and coaches, as well as the exercise physiology research community. Validating the model used by the industry partner is important for them as a for-profit company to ensure credibility of their product.

A strategic framework for a circular economy in Canada’s built environment

Canada’s construction industry plays a crucial role in the country’s economy, but it also generates a significant amount of waste, with much of its value lost when materials reach their end of life. This research project, being conducted in collaboration with CSA Group, will develop a strategic framework for the circular built environment in Canada. The project aims to answer the question of how the construction industry can reduce waste and capture value from waste materials, and will consider the design, repurposing, retrofitting, and deconstruction of residential and commercial buildings, as well as building materials and products, and related circular supply chains. The project may also inform CSA Group’s future strategies and prioritize standards development activities in the circular built environment space.

Process Improvement – Clinical Staff Orientation – Shannex

As the Shannex team move towards enhancing the processes of onboarding our newly hired employees from all areas of the healthcare team we are focusing on making improvements within orientation which will positively reflect upon retention.
The project will focus on understanding the current roles, needs and contributions of the individuals in our continuum of care at Shannex at the selected location as it relates to the orientation processes. By enhancing the existing orientation process we can then focus on the needs to successfully integrate new employees into their setting.

PROCUREMENT AS A TOOL FOR ADVANCING TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION CALL TO ACTION #92

The goal of this project is to study the potential of targeted public sector procurement spending to advance the goals of Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action #92. A commitment to increase targets for allocation of public procurement spending by anchor institutions to local Indigenous entrepreneurs could increase the amount of money retained in the local community thereby reducing economic leakage and generating greater long term taxpayer value while advancing goals of reconciliation. This project will focus on the large-scale publicly funded building program scheduled or occurring on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia which boasts a large Indigenous population. Indigevisor Ltd is a Indigenous women-led company advising on companies in support of Truth and Reconciliation on Turtle Island. This research project will support the development of tools that Indigevisor Ltd can use in their advisory services.

Artificial Intelligence Based Control of Dispension Vision Systems

Dispension’s core business is the development of intelligent kiosks equipped with peripheral technologies that are designed for distribution of restricted products (ie: alcohol, pharmaceuticals, cannabis, nicotine, etc). Dispension’s technology stack includes a series of vision systems that utilize different types of cameras to perform specific tasks. Among these systems include a thermal camera that takes thermal images of a face to identify the intoxication level of a human subject, an infrared camera that is used to identify a person’s identity by taking a subcutaneous photograph of the vascular (vein) network in the palm of a hand, and a visual light camera which takes a photograph of a face for comparison against an ID card (ie: driver’s license). These systems are at various stages of commercial readiness and require further innovation to the products and processes to meet the needs of the market. The student intern will assess the existing technology stack, identify areas for improvement and implement, test and validate the improvements under the supervision of Dispension’s technical lead.

Scenario based learning project – Develoment of new e-learning multi media offerings.

Leaf Electrical Safety, an engineering services company delivering electrical safety solutions to its clients. They provide four main products to their clients: arc flash studies, electrical safety training, electrical safety program audits, and electrical safety program accelerator (coaching, training, and support for electrical safety program development). With these products they help reduce the risk of injuries at your facility, improve your electrical safety program to be practical for electrical workers to understand and follow, and provide custom solutions to find gaps in your current program or develop your program from the bottom up.
Leaf is in a growth phase, having recently implemented a new website and SEO to build inbound sales, to much success. We feel we need to be more innovative with our offerings and want to explore offering an interactive e-Learning experience. The e-Learning experience will allow people to role-play through different scenarios, where each decision they make impacts the next stage of events.

This e-Learning offering will differentiate us from our competitors and will help retain existing clients through enhanced learning experiences. To our knowledge no other electrical training organizations are offering this “story” based, decision making offerings.

Expérimentation de l’application de l’IA pour l’automatisation des tâches des comptables

Ce projet a pour but d’identifier et de cartographier les principales tâches d’un CPA et d’évaluer la manière dont l’intelligence artificielle peut procurer des gains potentiels dans la réalisation de celles-ci. Une dizaine de tâches utilisant des documents non structurés seront recensées, analysées et documentées afin que des tests puissent être effectués sur des corpus de documents avec l’outil de LexRock AI. Cela permettra de démontrer l’efficience ou non de l’IA pour l’exécution de ces tâches.