The proposed research project aims at developing a novel nanofibrous membrane incorporating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) for wastewater treatment. Sustainable nanomaterials such as CNCs possess many interesting properties like high specific surface area, good mechanical strength, biodegradability and large amount of primary hydroxyl groups for surface functionalization. Hence incorporation of these CNCs can have synergistic effects […]

Designers often turn to traditional or digital whiteboards (i.e., SMART Kapp) during meetings to discuss designs created in complex design software (i.e., AutoCAD). However, the transition of content from these advanced tools to and from the whiteboard can be highly disruptive to the overall sense of immersion in the design task. For instance, reproducing a […]

Past research has examined whether game mechanics can be used to motivate people to change their behaviour in the short-term. However, it is currently unclear how game mechanics can be used to motivate behaviour that persists long after people have stopped playing a game. This research project will explore how game mechanics, such as narrative […]

There is growing pressure from intergovernmental organizations, governments and consumers to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. Investments in green technology such as renewable energy sources, battery technology and carbon capture and sequestration can often yield significant reductions in carbon emissions. However, the corresponding economic costs of these projects can […]

Ordos is a resource-based city located in Inner Mongolia, China, which currently undergoes a financial crisis caused by a collapsing housing market. During the past 15 years, the housing market in Ordos City has experienced a boom and bust cycle. This research aims to conduct a systematic and scientific research to thoroughly explore the reasons […]

Sober Steering is developing a wearable alcohol sensor system that communicates with a vehicle to prevent drunk driving. The FitBit-style wearable device will communicate wirelessly with a Sober Steering module located behind the dash of the vehicle to provide interlock functionality and instant alerts. The wearable alcohol sensor system will be monitored and controlled by […]

The intent of this internship is to examine the barriers and opportunities policies set for the private sector to invest in affordable housing that is attractive to young adults in St. Catharines, Ontario. The rational behind this research stems from the gap in academic literature on young adults and their experiences with affordable housing. Although […]

Global population growth, urbanization and changing climate patterns have increased the demand for potable water, wastewater reuse and value recovery from wastewater, and treatment of industrial process water. Population growth also results in increased demand for the shipping of goods by ocean freight, with the associated risk of the transport of unwanted marine life from […]

The production rate of petcoke is growing rapidly because of continuous increase in the volume of heavy crudes. This poses a long-term challenge to the upgrading and refining plants to find an economical petcoke utilization approach and reduce their waste products and also environmental impacts. In addition to its profitability feature, this technology should ideally […]

This project is comparing two systems of petroleum management between a province and its federal government by looking at two case studies: Alberta and Canada on the one hand, and Kurdistan and Iraq on the other. Alberta’s oil reserves are ranked third in the world and Iraq is the second largest crude oil producer in […]

This research project aims at providing efficient methods to solve a mathematical problem which has practical applications in digital communication and online storage. In the domain of communications, these methods perform the decoding stage of some error-correcting codes, which are used to ensure reliable data transmission over an unreliable or noisy communication channel such as […]

The project first aims at developing a robust and low latency hardware system for identifying which fingers are in contact with a surface. The second objective is to implement and refine finger identification interaction techniques that would improve the interaction with touch surfaces (smart phone, tablets, tabletops). These techniques will be evaluated to state of […]