The ability to correctly make safety-related decisions and to demonstrate compliance with existing limits is of great importance in the nuclear safety analysis industry. For example, we may be interested to assess whether or not a physical component (such as the pressure tube which carries fuel) has undergone physical changes that have exceeded its allowable […]

A safe video platform can provide a healthy and suitable environment for users in general and children in particular. This project aims to utilize machine learning and deep learning techniques to identify and flag sensitive and questionable content (e.g., content related to violence, sexuality, etc.). The algorithm will leverage video frames extracted from the database […]

Bacterial contamination of fresh waters is a concern for the Great Lakes region. Contamination can be prevalent due to direct faecal deposits, as well as environmental conditions, such as sand, serving as a reservoir. One of the major contributors to bacterial persistence in the environment is the formation of multicellular biofilms. RpoS, a general stress […]

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are rod-shaped nanoparticles extracted from renewable cellulose sources that possess impressive mechanical and rheological properties, are non-toxic and biodegradable, and have potential applications in coatings, adhesives, biomedicine and energy storage devices, to name just a few. In combination with conductive nanoparticles, CNCs can be used in inks for printing conductive circuits for […]

Water quality is critical for a many human activities. With respect to recreational water, a particular type of water source, there are often relatively high levels of microbial contamination in relation to other types of water sources (e.g., drinking water). E. coli is used as a microbial indicator for water quality because E. coli accumulation […]

Voices.com, the largest online marketplace of voice talent, have identified Machine Learning as an enabler for future growth. In particular, incorporating Natural Language Processing (NLP) into structured queries and automatic classification of sample recordings. The first phase of this research will use machine learning to identify and train an NLP learnable parser. The second phase […]

The student will use ion beam synthesis to fabricate germanium thin films integrated with silicon substrates. The fabrication will use a method pioneered within our group, known as implantation-condensation. Silicon is bombarded with germanium atoms and subsequently heated to a temperature of 1000C in an oxygen atmosphere. The silicon is removed leaving a high quality […]

It is well known that fluids can be drawn along a small fibre with a conical shape. This strategy is used in nature, for example the beaks of some birds, the spines on cacti, and the needles on some carnivorous trees, are shaped so that water can be efficiently transported. Our hope is that the […]

The goal of this project is to improve the processing on hearing aids for music. Currently hearing aids are designed for speech, but for some hearing aid users music is an important part of their lives. A concert where the room acoustics are changed will be used to collect audio samples for testing changes to […]

This research targets the apparent contradiction between quantum mechanics (wherein molecules are composed of electrons and nuclei) and the language of chemistry (wherein molecules are composed of atoms and bonds) by developing topological tools for describing the output of quantum mechanics computations in chemical language. Specifically, the topology of various descriptors based on the molecular […]

The most fascinating property of diblock copolymers (DBCP) is their ability to self-assemble into a wide range of ordered structures. In the simplest case, DBCPs can assemble into two distinct spherical phases, the familiar body-centered and face-centered cubic phases. The situation changes upon introducing conformational asymmetry, in which the statistical length of the two monomer […]

Specific immunotherapy (SIT) refers to a treatment that controls allergic symptoms by improving the patient’s tolerance by administering gradually increasing doses of allergen extract. The mechanism of SIT is very complicated. Preliminary research showed that immunoglobulins are elevated in patients after SIT, and the increase in immunoglobulin sIgG4 is positively correlated with improvement of clinical […]