Quantitative assessment of risks involved in mechanized skiing in Canada

Helicopter and snowcat skiing in the backcountry involves different hazards such as avalanches, tree wells or helicopter incidents, which can result in serious injuries or even death. While the risk associated with avalanche involvements is well understood, no systematic analyses have been conducted on the other risks. In this project, we will gather all the […]

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Investigation on object recognition on very large volumes of image data

Istuary Innovation Labs, Inc partners with innovators, entrepreneurs, technical talent and experts in North America to build technology companies for fast-growing markets, such as China, and to capitalize on quickly expanding and unmet demand. Founded in 2013, Istuary’s core business consists of Innovation Labs and Idea Labs. We partner with Istuary Venture Capital to fund […]

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Investigating nanostructured local data storage and off-grid powering for the adaptive corrosion protection system

During the proposed internships, smart-grid integrated adaptive corrosion protection system (ACPS) will be developed as a stand-alone unit to provide optimum corrosion protection along with the nanostructured local data storage and off-grid powering. This will allow the continuous monitoring of the corrosion status of the metal infrastructures (e.g. transmission towers) along with the power-grid monitoring […]

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Estimating the Impacts of Oil Tanker Spills on Indigenous Cultures: A Case Study of the Potential Effects from the Northern Gateway Project on Coastal First Nations

The study will evaluate potential impacts of a catastrophic oil spill associated with tanker traffic from the proposed Northern Gateway Project on Coastal First Nations commercial and traditional activities. Main objectives of the study include determining and quantifying both economic initiatives and traditional activities of Coastal First Nations, evaluating environmental impacts of an oil spill […]

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Development of a debris-flow risk reduction design tool

Steep creek hazards such as debris flows and debris floods pose a considerable risk to mountain communities and infrastructure. Relative to other geohazards, debris flows and debris floods are particularly hazardous because they travel rapidly, provide minimal warning and occur frequently. In Canada, professionals have little experience with debris-flow risk reduction due to limited development […]

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Semantic question-answering systems for customer service automation

Recent advances in applications of deep learning in natural language processing has provided potential opportunities in building robust information retrieval and conversational models that require far less hand-crafted features for understanding the intent of queries and ultimately building question-answering systems. In particular, there has been several advances in factoid question-answering systems and some recent attempts […]

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Technical economic cost modeling for scaled production of printable organic solar cells

Traditional silicon-based solar cells are harmful to the environment and costly to manufacture. Polymer-based (organic) solar cells on the other hand are thinner and more flexible electronic devices that are economically sustainable and have high cost saving potential due to the printable nature of their manufacturing process. This project involves cost estimation and analysis of […]

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Managing the physical risk from avalanche in mechanized backcountry skiing operations: A quantitative examination of reoccurring patterns in terrain assessments and terrain use at the run scale

In the backcountry, avalanche risk is managed by first assessing avalanche hazard and subsequently carefully choosing terrain and travel procedures accordingly to mitigate the identified hazard. What are suitable terrain choices under different types of avalanche conditions and how are choices made? With this project, we quantitatively examine large-scale terrain choices in two commercial backcountry […]

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Nsyilxcn Revitalization and Documentation (Year 2)

The Nsyilxcn (Syilx Okanagan Interior Salish) language is critically endangered; fewer than fifty Elder speakers remain, no young people are learning at home and no effective school programs. Syilx people are highly invested in creating language opportunities, including teaching positions in schools, daycares, and adult programs, however no young speakers exist to staff them. Questions […]

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