For marine autonomous surface ships (MASS), a more acceptable operation is ‘constrained autonomous operation’ where the ship operates fully autonomously. Most of the existing systems have strictly defined operational constraints or limited available decision spaces; therefore, autonomous decisions are only allowed for some predefined scenarios. However, marine environment is dynamic; the environmental disturbances (wind, wave, […]

The purpose of this project is to take existing state-of-art machine learning techniques and implement them for ice classification in polar seas. Ice classification plays a critical role in any icebreaker voyage. An ice specialist onboard the icebreaker is required to classify all ice environments encountered. This process is tedious and time consuming. This project […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the public need for molecular diagnostic tools to identify pathogen panels through nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT). Many clinical labs worldwide have now established infrastructures for routine molecular assays using classic quantitative PCR (qPCR). In order to further advance this – now routine – tool for in vitro diagnostics (IVD), […]

The customer acquisition strategy for an organization is most effective if informed by insights into which customers would provide the most value, how much it would cost to acquire those customers, and what is the probability of success for acquiring a particular customer. While it is not tractable to do such analysis at the individual […]

Mycotoxins are acutely toxic compounds produced by fungi when they infect food crops such as grains and cereals but can also be found in cannabis flower and products. These compounds are known to cause cancer and kidney failure when ingested and are therefore closely regulated by Health Canada. There are 4 main mycotoxins that are […]

Wind and solar sources are important in the generation and supply of energy in a clean and renewable way. The potential for renewable energy generation in Canada is well-known and is projected to be a leading industry over the next years by power generation companies like TransAlta Corporation. The purpose of this project is to […]

With thousands of accidents annually, often resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, billions in economic losses, and devastating environmental pollution, the marine industry remains one of the most dangerous industries nationally and internationally. The work environment on ships is inherently risky and poses numerous challenges to the ship crew. Moreover, the nature of their […]

The process of identifying the object in an image, and the object background is accomplished by the human brain instantly. We develop such skills with experience, and often take it for granted. In digital imaging and computer vision, the same operation called image segmentation is a bottleneck of quantitative analysis. In particular, automated image segmentation […]

Increasing worldwide energy demand has sparked research interests towards the direct transformation of low-cost light hydrocarbons like natural gas into valuable liquid fuels or chemicals. Conventional thermo-catalytic approaches to achieve these reactions require high reaction temperatures (> 673 K), resulting in less desired products formation with severe coke. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) technology offers an attractive […]

As the global demand for clean energy increases, the next generation power systems design has become more complex than ever. Since renewable electrical power can be generated locally, the power flow is not only from the utility to consumers, but also from any sources (i.e. photovoltaics, internal combustion generator, electric vehicle battery pack, etc.) to […]

Mining is important to the Canadian economy, contributing an estimated $43.9 billion in 2020 while addressing growing demand for minerals. Mine operations disturb natural environments, and Canadian federal and provincial authorities have instituted the Mines Act, and the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in British Columbia, providing a regulatory framework for mine closure […]

The proposed project aims at developing novel algorithms for the 5G Core Network Placement to meet Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The ultimate goal is to minimize the number of virtual network functions in 5G packet core while meeting the latency requirements. Thus, this project aims to address the trade-off between latency and operational costs in […]