Projets novateurs réalisés

Ryan Marks – Iridium Risk Services

The Risk Summer Intern at Iridium will both gain valuable insights into the day to day workings of a commercial insurance brokerage located within downtown Calgary as well as working as a part of internal projects. These internal projects are aimed under the idea of ensuring we provide the highest standard of service, knowledge transfer, and expertise and advice to our clients. The student will be tasked with market research, internal process problems, and a variety of other tasks that will allow them to achieve both a sense of understanding and gain valuable work experience. We will provide our standard onboarding training similar to that given to new junior employees as well as many other resources to allow the student to feel comfortable with everything provided to them to help them achieve the goals set forth.

SIMSCAN – Simulation of Safe Continuous Autonomous Navigation

This project aims to use flocks of autonomous UAVs for inspection, map generation, and the production of real-time digital twins in dynamic (i.e., time-changing) environments, using commercial ports as a case study. This project will advance autonomous drone navigation in the presence of vehicles and people, the automated deployment of large fleets, and support and improve port logistics and security. This realization of this project involves a close relationship between academic and industrial sectors, combining business skills, advanced knowledge in perception and navigation, simulation and artificial intelligence.

Exploring Artists’ Professional Practices and Observations of Patient Experience of Hospital-based Arts Programming

The Artist on the Ward (AOW) Program in the University of Alberta Hospital is a unique service that offers arts experiences such as music, painting or literary art sessions to patients, staff, and family, facilitated by onsite staff artists. The AOW program has operated for 20 years, and has received plenty of positive feedback, but has not been consistently evaluated. This study will collect artist professional practices and reflections of their sessions with patients and the feedback they receive from patients. Artists will also collect photographic documentation of the artwork created by or with the patients. Study results and images will be shared as a public art display. The study will provide the Artists on the Wards program with insight on potential areas for improvement and as well as a better understanding of its impact on patients’ hospital experiences. This knowledge will result in stronger funding applications for the program and could contribute to the development of similar programs within hospitals across Canada.

La construction identitaire en contexte entrepreneurial : l’expérience de l’espace vécu au quotidien et son rôle dans la construction d’une identité entrepreneuriale

Le projet vise à mettre en lumière le processus de construction identitaire en contexte entrepreneurial, en portant un regard particulier sur l’expérience de l’espace vécue au quotidien. Le stagiaire réalisera une autoethnographie afin de documenter la construction d’une identité entrepreneuriale au sein de sa personne, à travers sa présence chez Montréal Cowork pendant une durée de 8 mois. L’organisme partenaire ouvrira ses portes au stagiaire tout en facilitant la mise en relations avec les autres membres, l’invitant à participer à des réunions stratégiques, ainsi qu’aux diverses activités de la communauté. L’organisation partenaire bénéficiera du travail de recherche afin de notamment mieux comprendre comment son espace de coworking impact ses membres d’un point de vue identitaire. Cela permettra de faire des ajustements au sein de son espace, au besoin, et de mieux outiller ses membres entrepreneurs d’un point de vue identitaire (accès à des ressources sur place, formations, etc.).

STRUGGLE TO SETTLE Adaptation of Malayalee Diaspora in Canada

The research project titled “STRUGGLE TO SETTLE Adaptation of Malayalee Diaspora in Canada” tries to explore the adaptation issues faced by Malayalee immigrants in Canada. According to the recent census of Canada, the Malayalee diaspora is the fastest growing South Asian community in Canada. The project intended to address various issues faced by Malayalee immigrants such as cultural shocks, social stigma, racism, adaptation to climate, social and spatial isolation, lack of emotional and social support and financial struggles in their early days of immigration. The study also aims at capturing the coping strategies that are devised by the immigrants individually and with the support of ethnic community and organizations etc. The proposed research will add on to the knowledge on Malayalee diaspora in Canada as there is scant literature on the topic.

Analysis of a Functionally Graded Steel

The purpose of the proposed research is to investigate the variables that contribute to the fracture toughness of an FGM consisting of layers of carbide-free bainite (CFB) and high Manganese (Mn) Twinning Induced Plasticity (TWIP) steel, with a gradient in Mn content. The objective of this project is to determine the optimal design of the FGM that results in a combination of high strength and high fracture toughness. This is to be achieved by varying the number of interfaces and the thickness of layers to analyze the material’s mechanical response. The sub-objectives of this project are to understand the fracture mechanics of the FGM during concentrated crack propagation and to quantify the strength of the interface. It is presumed that the material responds to stresses through a combination of delamination at the interface and absorption of energy through bending. This behaviour would vary based on the construction of the material and which layer the pre-notched crack is machined in. In working with Dr. Rafael Estevez the work will be focused on developing simulations of the data using finite element modeling. The combination of simulations with experimental work is intended to provide complimentary data, improving the understanding of the material.

Library Fission: Improving APIs by observing real-world API usage

Modern software development heavily relies on external libraries. The proposed collaboration will create techniques and publicly-available tools useful to both users of external libraries and maintainers of these libraries.

Our hypothesis is that different clients use different subsets of libraries’ API surfaces, and that it is possible to use clustering algorithms to automatically split libraries into smaller, more agile libraries, which we call “library fission”. This has the helpful side-effect of reducing client exposure to security vulnerabilities in libraries: a client is only affected by vulnerabilities in the parts of the library that it actually uses, not everything else brought in by the library.

The proposed funding will enable a collaboration with the Victoria University of Wellington. Working with NZ-based experts in static analysis, empirical software engineering, and software visualization, we will develop techniques for library fission. The expected outcome of the research is a novel set of techniques and tools for improving library APIs, which will be disseminated through academic publications as well as open-source tools. These research outcomes will help both users and designers of libraries work more effectively.

Ancestral aches? An assessment of the relationship between bipedal locomotion, primate vertebral shape and human spinal health

The project will investigate the relationship between evolutionary adaptations to upright posture and the occurrence of common back problems in humans. It will use three-dimensional shape analysis techniques to investigate the vertebral shape of both humans and apes, as well as their fossil ancestors. It will also use motion capture technology to explore the relationship between human locomotion, vertebral morphology, and spinal health. The aim of this research is to identify shape characteristics of vertebrae related to human locomotion and explore any relationship between these characteristics and the presence or absence of common spinal lesions. If successful, the results will provide information on possible causes of intervertebral disc herniations and spinal osteoarthritis. This would benefit the industry partner by providing important insight into why certain individuals are afflicted by back problems which would allow new understanding of how to prevent or treat common back issues.

Community benefits of shared e-scooter pilot program in a suburban municipality

Shared e-scooters have recently emerged as a new form of micro-mobility. E-scooters offer an arguably environmentally sustainable transportation option that create an opportunity to replace some automobile trips. To date, most research focusing on e-scooters is situated in dense urban contexts, with little to no insights within suburban settings. The proposed project will explore the community benefits related to environmental sustainability and social equity, of the upcoming e-scooter pilot program in the City of Brampton. Intern 1 will explore if the City’s e-scooter pilot rollout and community engagement approaches are inclusive. Using trip data collected by e-scooter companies and survey data collected by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), interns 1 and 2 will examine who are using e-scooters, when, where and for what purposes, with a specific focus on sustainable and equitable transportation outcomes. Findings from the research will inform the future sustainability of Brampton’s e-scooter pilot program, informing infrastructure spending and transportation policy.

Carbon-based fertilizer formulations and their effects on greenhouse gas emissions and soil fertility

Sulvaris’ Carbon Control Technology (CCT™) is a patented, simple, scalable and strongly economical to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) and generate multiple benefits. The newly developed high value carbon-based enhanced efficient fertilizers through the CCT, such as the CCT-ammonium sulphate, is thought to be able to remediate the soil by providing benefits such as increasing crop yield, improving soil quality, sequestering carbon and reducing soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The CCT-ammonium sulphate products have a carbon content of 14-30%, nitrogen 11-14%, and sulfur 13-15%. However, the effects of CCT-ammonium sulphate on soil GHG emissions, soil nutrient availability and microbial activities compared with other types of products that are also C rich (e.g., biochar, humic acid) need to be investigated to better understand the effect of CCT-ammonium sulphate on soil properties and processes. We will assess the effect of different CCT-based chemical fertilizers, wood-chip biochar, humic acid and traditional fertilizers (e.g., ammonium sulphate and urea) on soil fertility and the release of GHG in a laboratory incubation experiment. The results will help the industry partner refine the biochar-based fertilizers to maximize the efficacy in the improvement of soil fertility and reduction in GHG emissions.

Représentation matérielle des femmes : pour une analyse codicologique du “Renart le Contrefait”

Notre projet entend se concentrer sur une particularité du roman “Renart le Contrefait” (XIVe siècle) qui a jusqu’ici assez peu interpellé la critique : dans un monde inversé où des animaux s’approprient déjà les traits d’humains, des femelles anthropomorphisées renversent à leur tour l’ordre du monde et résistent à l’idéalisation d’un féminin obéissant et tempéré prescrit à la même époque. Bouleversant les conceptions identitaires du genre, certaines « femmes » iront jusqu’à affirmer qu’elles auraient voulu naître hommes. En prenant compte des annotations et des commentaires laissés en marge dans les manuscrits du “Contrefait”, notre recherche a pour but de noter comment cet aspect textuel a pu être interprété par les lecteurs du XIVe siècle. Étaient-ils choqués par cette « révolte » du féminin ? Y adhéraient-ils? Il s’agira enfin pour nous de voir si cette interprétation informe les représentations iconographiques des femmes que l’on retrouve par la suite dans ces mêmes manuscrits afin de présenter un portrait plus global des dimensions textuelle et matérielle du roman.

Techno-Economic Feasibility of Eavor-Loop Electrolytic Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen fuel is currently being explored as a replacement for diesel, which is heavily relied upon for long-haul transportation. The benefits of hydrogen fuel include carbon-free emissions (US Department of Energy, n.d.) and quick refueling (FuelCellWorks, 2021). There are logistical and financial issues with transportation and storage of hydrogen, and using green, dispatchable energy for hydrogen production on site solves these issues. The Eavor-Loop 2.0 design is a closed loop that extends approximately 7km into the ground and provides ample subsurface area for heat exchange with 12 multilateral passes. (Eavor Technologies Inc., 2022). The components of the proposed site design would include an Eavor-Loop, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) generator to convert heat to electricity, and an electrolyser system to convert electricity to hydrogen. This project will include a preliminary life cycle analysis (LCA) for materials required to produce a comparable amount of hydrogen using an Eavor-Loop with an ORC generator versus energy from wind and solar.