Innovative Projects Realized

Spatial and Temporal Linear Induction Motor Harmonics

Linear Induction Motors (LIMs) are used in a significant portion of existing rail transport systems, and Bombardier Transport Canada Inc. is a global leader in the industry. LIMs will be ever more important in the future with the expansion of Maglevs globally. In this project, the intern will explore the mathematical models used in designing LIMs. The main objective will be improving the mathematical treatment in order to increase the efficiency of LIMs and eliminate or minimize undesirable effects such as overheating. Improving the efficiency leads to savings in energy consumption of operating LIM rail transport systems, and eliminating undesirable effects leads to savings in maintenance costs. The results will help maintain Bombardier’s position as the world leader in LIM design and manufacturing.

Dehydrobenzooxepanes by Tandem Nicholas Reactions

Benzo- fused seven membered ring ethers, or benzooxepanes, are widely encountered structures within natural products such as the heliannuols. We intend to target the synthesis of this ring system by of employing derivatives of butyne-1,4-diol-Co2(CO)6 complexes, by way of tandem Nicholas reactions with para- substituted phenols, thereby constructing the seven- membered ring system. Variation between the possibilities of forming the arene ortho- carbon – propargyl carbon bond initially and the phenolic oxygen – propargyl carbon bond subsequently, and the reverse arrangement of order, will be investigated. In addition the possibility of one-pot 4+3 cycloaddition protocol will be addressed. The suitability of various substituents in the benzene and the seven membered ring will be studied, with particular attention to incorporation the benzylic methyl group common to the heliannuols in enantiomerically enriched form. Methods of reductive removal of the Co2(CO)6 unit will be investigated, to give the more stable oxacycloalkenes or oxepanes.

Long term trend of air quality in Canada

In most Canadian cites, air quality has been gradually improving during the last 15 years. However, there have been a few examinations of the relationship with the emission reduction that has occurred during the same time period. By investigating the air quality and emission trends for particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, ozone and mercury in southern Ontario and other Canadian cities in the past 15 years, this study will provide useful methodology that could be used in other places to evaluate the effectiveness of emission control measures. Such assessment will aid development of future emission reduction policy.

Elderly monitoring

Develop an intelligent monitoring system for occupants within a closed environment. The following short and long term objectives are designed to allow this program to achieve its overarching objective of accurate and consistent identification of the state of well-being of an individual within a closed environment.
Short term objectives:
1. Develop algorithms for integrating data from multiple vision and depth cameras and obtain a robust estimations of location and the identity of an individual within the monitored space.
2. Develop a hierarchical model with part-based decomposition of the human body that is specifically geared for home monitoring and develop algorithms for instantiating such a model in real time for pose estimation.
3. Develop tracking algorithms that can incorporate data from multiple devices that include information rich sensors such as vision and depth sensors as well as information poor sensors such as motion sensors and audio sensors and can seamlessly transition among sensors while maintaining tracking.

Advanced Oxidation of Micropollutants in Water for Water Reuse

Trace concentrations of numerous organic compounds (emerging contaminants (EC), and endocrine disruptor compounds (EDCs)) such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP), including prescription drugs and biologics, “nutraceuticals,” fragrances, sun-screen agents, and numerous others are reported in various wastewater effluents, and aquatic systems. In addition to these, increasing levels of naturally occurring organic materials (NOM) directly linked to societal nutrient management practices are of serious consequence for managing water resources. These compounds and their bioactive metabolites are continually introduced to the aquatic environment as complex mixtures via a number of routes but primarily through both untreated and inadequately treated sewage. Growing health and environmental concerns have made PPCP of particular interest as long-term exposure to low levels of PPCPs could have adverse effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and/or human health.
Contrary to the above, wastewater as a resource remains unexploited mainly due to lack of infrastructure, development and evaluation of advanced technologies, and lack of regulation and negative public perception. Conventionally, wastewater is discharged into the environment after removing the majority of suspended solids in primary treatment, and biodegradable organic substances in secondary treatment. Tertiary treatment is required to remove most of the trace persistent organic micropollutants and pathogens. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which produce reactive species like hydroxyl radicals in-situ, are identified as one of the potential technologies for the removal of trace concentrations of organics from various water streams. Traditional water disinfection treatment processes such as ozonation and UV disinfection can easily be retrofitted to accomplish advanced oxidation in both water and wastewater treatment plants. AOPs such as UV, UV/ozone, UV/hydrogen peroxide, etc., have the potential to completely mineralize micropollutants in trace concentrations, however, at the expense of high energy and chemical costs. Partial oxidation of the initial compounds to less stable intermediates is a viable option, if the intermediates readily degrade in the environment and are harmless to humans and the environment. However, partial oxidation of organic contaminants can in some cases result in the formation of intermediates more toxic than the parent compound, and the nature and number of the degradation products will depend on the employed oxidation process, reaction time, and water quality metrics.
This research focuses on developing AOPs for degradation of target micropollutants, and quantifying the accumulated effects of the resulting mixture of compounds on living systems rather than on the precise quantification of their chemical compositions, which is costly and time consuming, and can be futile without the prior knowledge of dose and effect relationship of an intermediate. Bioassay methods based on genotoxicity, mutagenic potential will be developed for use on drinking waters treated with AOP. This is an on-going project where the MITACS global link student will evaluate the effect of water quality parameters on the resulting water quality using bioassay tools.

Development of Visible Light Active Photocatalytic Nanomaterials for Enhancing Clean Hydrogen Production and Water Purification

The pressing need to find viable alternatives to fossil fuels combined with the growing requirement for environmentally friendly industrial processes motivates a dramatic paradigm shift from fossil fuels (which also require carbon capture and sequestration) to reliable, clean, and efficient fuels. Hydrogen has the potential to meet the requirements as a clean non-fossil fuel in the future if it can be produced using the world’s most abundant sources, the sun and water. The driving forces for the energy transition towards hydrogen are many, but three major reasons are growing energy demand, oil shortage in near future and threat of climate change. Our planet is covered with an abundant, clean source of hydrogen – water. The planet is also bathed in an abundant, clean source of energy – sunlight. The vision and focus of our proposal is to use the energy of the sun to crack water into hydrogen using nanotechnology. If such a system can be made inexpensive, efficient, and stable, it would provide a practical method of producing high-purity hydrogen. Currently this is not achievable and we propose to develop new photocatalytic nanomaterials and methods required to reach this goal.

This project targets a transformative technology addressing all the existing challenges by using a co-catalyst, a sacrificial reagent to suppress the oxygen evolution, and chemically modified doped and/or dye-sensitized titanium nanoparticles as new photocatalytic materials for the energy sector with the goal for clean and cheap energy from abundant sunlight and water. This will enable a technology for the energy sector, which could dramatically decrease the energy required for hydrogen production compared to traditional energy intensive methods. Solving these issues will not only just result in a more commercially viable product for hydrogen production, but also for air/water purification, wastewater treatment and other photocatalyst applications.

Testing of Flexible Plastic Solar Cells on Transparent Graphene Electrodes

Solar cells that have been commercialized to date can be divided in two categories: i) high-cost, high-efficiency photovoltaics, prepared from inorganic crystalline materials and ii) low-cost, low-efficiency photovoltaics, prepared from disordered materials. Lowering the cost of solar cells at constant performances or increasing the market areas for solar cells by developing light wight or portable solar devices is vital to enhance the competitiveness of solar energy in respect of other non-renewable sources of energy and to increase increase their commercial value.

Graphene, a novel two-dimensional material made by single layer of carbon atoms, was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Physics and is an excellent candidate to make solar cells cheaper. It can be used as a transparent electrode placed in front of solar devices in alternative of transparent conducting oxides that require rare chemical elements, including Indium. Another advantage of solar cells assembled on transpartent layers of graphene is that they can preserve the flexibility of graphene, while solar cells built using electrodes of transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) suffer from cracks and dislocations forming in the crystalline electrode material which lower their performance.

In this project the student will fabricate organic solar cells based on plastic semiconducting materials (including polythiophene-based polymer donors and fullerene-based polymmer acceptors) on transparent and conducting layers of graphene and compare their initial and after-bending performance with similar solar cells built on TCOs. An essential part of the project will be the characterization of the solar cell performance before and after bending tests and their correlation with the amount of defects being formed in the transparent electrode and in the solar cell active layer during bending of the device and during exposure to “harsh” atmosphere. The objective of the project is to minimize defect formation of graphene solar cells even further and to develop portable comercial solar cells modules that can be rolled or bent for transportation (e.g. in pocket or in a backpack) and unrolled for their operation (e.g. for charging a portable computer, mobile phone or other portable device)

In addition to the day-to-day activities of the project, it is expected that the student will participate to the laboratory meetings of our group as well as specific three-way meetings involving the student, her/ his supervisor and a representatives of the Company involved in this project. Objective of these meetings will be to discuss the results of the project carried on by the student, as well as exposing him/her to an industrial environment and technology transfer activities.

Microalgal cultivation on effluent from waste streams

Cultivate microalgae on a variety of waste streams in a lab or pilot scale environment. Evaluate the potential for Greenhouse gas capture, biofuel and nutraceutical production. Awaiting more information from the professor. Please check back soon. Do not contact Globalink Research Internships.

Changes in Fire Incidence and Area Burned Under Climate Change Scenarios

New methods and tools are required to (i) provide insight into spatio-temporal climate effects concerning forests and fire events (ii) provide policy-makers with quantified estimates of fire activity under changing climate scenarios as well as well-defined historical models for seasonality and the occurrence of extremes (iii) be useful in a wide variety of modeling scenarios which investigate extremes and climate change effects (iv) be disseminated broadly and hence provide forest researchers with key information on climate effects (v) provide substantial interdisciplinary expertise to the student involved.
This project will develop and test new empirical models to describe (i) the seasonality of fire incidence and area burned in forests over space and (ii) how the spatial seasonality of these variables is changing over time, incorporating effects due to fuel, weather and fire-suppression activity.
The project will also assist in predicting changes to these systems based on climate change.
The data available include data on fire- weather for each day of each fire in a 50-year historical record of fires, from 1960 to 2010, forest type, fire-weather indices, various moisture codes, weather (temperature, rainfall, wind), cost of fire suppression activity, as well as a variety of relevant fire dates tracing the start and stop of suppression activities, date of control, etc. and area burned.

Fracture Toughness of All-Ceramic Crowns Luted with Different Cements.

Introduction: Computer-aided Design (CAD) computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technology, all-ceramic systems, and high-strength ceramic materials have become integral parts of modern dentistry and laboratory technology.[1] Furthermore, metal-based crowns have other disadvantages, such as galvanic reaction, and the metal underlying the veneer’s porcelain can show through as a dark line.[2,3]
Several new all-ceramic systems, which offer comparable stability to porcelain-fused-to-metal (PFM) restorations, good esthetics, and simplified fabrication procedures, have been introduced. Recently, new dental materials and techniques have been introduced to fabricate esthetic ceramic restorations with improved strength and marginal adaptation.[4] This becomes more important for posterior areas, where forces are much higher than for the anterior region and can reach 522 N in the average person.[5,6]
In order to address to this problem, a new ceramic system with higher fracture strength (IPS e-max CAD, Ivoclar Vivadent) was launched recently on the marked.[7]
In addition to the fracture resistance of dental prostheses, luting materials are also important for the longevity of dental restorative materials.[8] The ability of the resin cement to provide a greater critical load for all-ceramic crowns than for conventional cements has been evaluated previously, and the fracture resistance was improved when the crowns were cemented with resin cement.[9]
Clinical studies have demonstrated excellent long-term clinical success of high-strength all-ceramic crowns (Procera Alunima, Nobel Biocare) using conventional cementation methods.[10,11] High success rate reposted in these studies indicate that the inherent fracture strength and fracture toughness of high-strength ceramic materials may allow for conventional cementation of full-coverage all-ceramic restorations.
Conventional cementation with zinc phosphate cement, glass ionomer, or resin-modifieed glass ionomer is simple and not as technique-sensitive or time consuming as adhesive bonding with composite resin luting agents and multiple-step priming agents.[1] Nowadays, a recently developed universal adhesive resin cement (SpeedCEM, Ivoclar/Vivadent) is used like a conventional cement, and it does not require application of additional bonding agents to the tooth or restoration.
As discussed previously, studies have demonstrated the possibility of conventional cementation techniques when using all-ceramic crowns with high-strength core material, but current guide-lines for an all-ceramic crown without reinforced core material recommend the use of adhesive cementation in order to provide the proper support for the restorations. It is required margins finishing at supra-gingival level in order to allow proper isolation and this is one of the limitations of the use of such crowns. When the margins are finished at sub-gingival level and moisture control is a factor, a porcelain-fused to metal (PFM) is indicated.
REFERENCES
1. Blatz MB et al. Quintessence Int. 2008 Jan;39(1):23-32.
2. Moller H. Contact Dermatitis 2002;47:63–66.
3. Christensen GJ. J Am Dent Assoc 1994;25:311-314.
4. AL-Makramani BM et al. J Prosthodont. 2009 Aug;18(6):484-8.
5. Bakke Met al. Scand J Dent Res 1990;98:149-158.
6. Pallis Ket al. J Prosthet Dent 2004;91:561-569.)
7. IPS e-max CAD. Techincal Profile
8. Borges GA et al. J Prosthodont. 2009;18(8):649-55.
9. Groten M, Probster L. Int J Prosthodont 1997;10:169-177.)
10- Oden A et al. J Prosth Dent 1998;80:450-456.
11- Odman P, Anderson B. Int J Prosthodont 2001;14:504-509.

Improving the reliability and accuracy of flood forecasting and warning systems

Hydrologic models, applied by engineers and hydrologists for flood forecasting and water budget modeling, are used to reproduce and predict the rainfall-runoff process to determine the response of the fluvial network (rivers, streams, etc.) to precipitation events. Changes in flow regime associated with precipitation events can result in flooding, drying up of stream flows, water quality degradation, loss of aquatic habitat, alterations to sediment transport processes, and damage to engineering infrastructure (e.g., bridge piers, drinking water intake pipes, water control structures, etc.). Impacts related to climate change, which includes the potential for more frequent and intense storm events in regions of North America (Kunkel 2003), further acerbates these challenges. Hydrologic modelers require reliable and accurate tools to predict and monitor flooding events in order to anticipate and mitigate these impacts. Acquiring and processing reliable precipitation input data for these models is essential to produce hydrologic modeling results with a high degree of confidence (McMillan et al. 2011).
In many regions of Canada rainfall is measured by rain gauge stations located throughout the watershed. This process presents technological limitations in the form of accuracy and resolution of the precipitation data. Recent advances in technology and computational power have allowed for the collection and processing of Doppler radar imagery to be calibrated and used to estimate rainfall accumulations. In contrast to traditional rain gauge data, Doppler radar data can provide near real-time areal and temporal estimation of precipitation. Doppler radar data is available in Canada from Environment Canada (EC), however the data is not readily accessible for processing and integration into hydrologic models since it is not made available in a compatible format. The goal of this research program is to develop reliable and effective means to process Doppler radar imagery data to produce more accurate hydrologic modeling and flood forecasting in Canada.
This study will use the Upper Thames River watershed (near London, Ontario) as a case study to develop a reliable, automated process for obtaining and processing Doppler radar data to be used for near real-time input into hydrologic models. The specific approach includes: 1) developing an automated system for collection of real-time radar data from EC stations; 2) calibration and verification of radar imagery data with measured point rainfall data; 3) data post processing techniques to prepare the data for display in GIS (Geographical Information System) software and incorporation into hydrologic models; and 4) testing the developed system by conducting hydrologic modeling for flood forecasting in the watershed.
This research will produce a state-of-the-art solution that will allow hydrologic modelers to produce more reliable and accurate flood forecasting and flood warning systems. This challenge is common to many jurisdictions in Canada. Results from this study will provide guidance and direction for hydrologic modelers across the country, serving to better protect the public and the environment, and reduce economic loss from flooding events.

A study of aerosol pollutants using micro-xray and ion beam methods

The study of particulate matter as it affects health has become major worry for both industrialized and developing nations. I have been collaborating with colleagues in United Arab Emirates (Dubai) who setup a laboratory with the help of the International Atomic Energy Agency to study air pollution.
The applied study is promising both in its immediate goal of studying the effect of air pollution on health in a quickly industrializing nation and in its being a model for international collaboration. Under the umbrella of the IAEA, the results have proven to be useful to the native population, but also to a large expatriate community including a Canadian one. The only existing study of this type has been by the United States Armed forces, so we expect the results of this one to be helpful to the Canadian army deployed in desert environment.

Air samples are collected using impactors capable of sorting particles according to size down to .04 microns. Elemental analysis is done using micro c-ray fluorescence and FTIR. Starting this summer, we are collaborating with the tandetron facility at Western to further study the constituents using PIXE, a common technique in this area.
We hope to collect large amounts of samples during the year via our collaborators and then to do a systematic study here at Western using PIXE.