Vacant storefronts reflect the disinvestment and loss of retail activity that has accompanied suburbanization, while also creating impediments to revitalization. It is therefore important to consider alternative approaches, such as activating empty storefronts through social innovation. Social innovation focuses on public interest and social cohesion, rather than commercial success. In this research, we seek to […]

Tracking humans in video can have a variety of applications including monitoring shoppers in stores, identifying suspicious activities in public spaces, and ensuring the security of senior home residents. Recent advances in video processing and hardware capability on computers have made it possible to track a single human in a video sequence in real time. […]

The activity of putting on and tying one’s shoes is completed multiple times per day, and is taken for granted until an individual experiences mobility challenges due to pain, stiffness, weakness, or instability. A new foot stool, the LaceUp, is designed for users to sit or stand, and perform the activity of putting on and […]

There has been a noticeable interest across Canada to deploy new approaches to help address our growing energy needs. Second generation bioethanol production from agricultural and forest residues (named as lignocellulosic biomass), can pave the way for achieving this sustainable bio-economy. Regardless the efforts by ethanol producer companies to develop the technologies of generation of […]

This project, in partnership with ATB Financial, will focus on the application and development of machine learning techniques in banking. We will delve into early prediction of customer events, such as encountering financial difficulties, that could indicate other issues and present opportune moments for ATB Financial to help customers get back on track. We will […]

In light of our dramatic environmental situation, we are faced with implementing carbon-neutral power sources. The sun offers a nearly endless supply of energy that can be converted into consumable power with the use of photovoltaics. While current photovoltaics are rather efficient, they are expensive to manufacture and install. A new branch of photovoltaics, organic […]

Due to the limited sources of fossil fuel and growing demand of world-wide energy, research on inexpensive alternative energy sources has significantly increased past few years. While the conventional silicon solar cells are expensive, they are also unable to provide enough energy density for current and future societal needs. Semiconductor polymers are excellent candidates as […]

With the combination of reverse engineering, shape modeling and feature-based design, there could be a huge opportunity in industry to achieve highly efficient and rapid design of products, such as car and aircraft bodies as well as the derived modules and parts. Modern CAD technology has enabled sophisticated surface modeling tools and application which are […]

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a fast growing technology with application areas in automobile, biomedical, and aerospace etc. The technology is moving rapidly from polymers to metal AM due to advantages in terms of shape complexity, and minimum material and energy wastage. The major challenge in Metal AM is the shape deviation modeling, and quantification. Shape […]

The thyroid glands are located at the front of the neck. The thyroid glands tend to develop small lumps, and it is very common in adults. Most of the lumps are not harmful to humans. However, some of these lumps could be cancerous. Therefore, it is essential to detect the lumps that are cancerous correctly. […]

Across Canada, many provinces and municipalities are struggling to address poverty in their communities. Communities are attempting to address poverty with poverty reduction strategies. With a lack of literature to support these attempts, it is difficult for communities to best address poverty and to best engage people experiencing poverty in their poverty reduction initiatives. Results […]

Agricultural grasslands are a significant source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. However, uncertainties in estimates of greenhouse gas fluxes from farmlands are still high. Soil models used to quantify and simulate greenhouse gas emissions, generally use average site inputs for soil and vegetation initialization using a limited number of samples and do not account for […]