Developing Intelligent Approaches for Factories of the Future – An intelligent strategy for robotic part inspection in advanced manufacturing

Human inspection of high quality components in advanced manufacturing, automotive and aerospace applications is challenging, as detecting imperfections that are variable can result in inconsistent part quality decisions. These inspection tasks are very repetitive. Achieving zero incorrect part quality decisions that are required in high tolerance assembly, as well as in critical process operations becomes […]

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Carbon dioxide: Alternative solutions for conversion of captured liquefied CO2 into valuable fuels – Year two

The partner organisation, Sigma Energy Storage, develops energy storage by gas compression. This technology is based on the storage of electricity from intermittent energy sources, such as wind or solar power, and the recovery of unused electricity from diesel-based power sources located in remote communities not connected to the electrical power grid system. During the […]

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Assessing the Utility of a Commercial Mobile EEG in Detecting Age-Related Differences in the Brain – Year two

The world is aging rapidly and healthy cognitive aging a major healthcare priority. Thus, a better understanding of how the brain changes with normal aging versus pathology is required. Advancements in wearable technologies may allow the assessment of brain function with greater ease, accessibility, and at a lower cost, as compared with traditional neuroimaging techniques. […]

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Feasibility of clustering road user trajectories in complex scenes for automatic identification of common traffic activities

Proactive road safety analysis allows for the pre-emptive diagnosis of road safety issues without direct observation of traffic accidents by observing accident precursor events instead (i.e. “traffic conflicts”). This approach to road safety diagnosis is made possible with the collection and analysis of large quantities of high-resolution road user trajectory data acquired from video data […]

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Lifestyle and cognition: a large-scale approach – Year two

Online cognitive testing provides unprecedented opportunities for exploring human brain function among the general population. Cambridge Brain Sciences Inc has created an online cognitive testing platform that has attracted more than 1.5M users and has hosted more than 300 studies of cognition. This research plans leverage their unique dataset to explore the interrelationship between demographic […]

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Small-scale Continuous Purification of Nanoparticles and Therapeutic Proteins

Our group developed a new generation of chip-based small-scale devices for continuous purification of chemicals and nanoparticles, based on the interactions of analyte with multiple types of driving forces in an electro-fluid-dynamic (EFD) system. One series of the purification devices has the electric field in parallel with the fluid flow direction (E?F), while the other […]

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Efficacy of a novel anti-IL-1B receptor modulator in reducing preterm birth impact on neurovascular health – Year two

Preterm neonates ill-adapted to the extra uterine environment are prone to increased inflammation in multiple organs and the proinflammatory interleukine IL-1b has been closely implicated in brain injury associated with preterm birth (PTB). Notably, PTB survivors have a greater propensity to develop ischemic brain lesions long after birth. Here, we hypothesize that the neural vasculature […]

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Quantifying the value and risk of restoring wetland habitats in agricultural landscapes

Wetlands provide critical habitat and valuable ecosystem services. Land use conversion in Ontario, however, has led to substantial wetland loss. The restoration of wetlands on agricultural properties has the potential to offset wetland loss, yet these wetlands are also susceptible to contamination by pesticides. Our research will therefore establish: (1) to what degree restored wetlands […]

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Opioid Use in Pediatric-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an inflamed digestive tract and experience diarrhea, fatigue, and abdominal pain. Youth with IBD are six times more likely to take opioids than youth without IBD. We are currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. In 2016, there were almost 3000 deaths related to opioid use in […]

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Adapting Human Performance Techniques, Illusion Aesthetics, and Specialized Apparatus from the World of Stage Conjuring to Contemporary Circus Disciplines

The vast majority of performance techniques, illusion aesthetics, and specialized apparatuses used by stage conjurors are still unknown and remain unexplored by the circus world. The tacit knowledge that magicians exchange amongst themselves is rarely transferred to members outside of their subculture, which leads to creative stagnation in their communities and beyond. The purpose of […]

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Forced Air Ozone Reactor and Advanced Oxidative Process as an Alternative to Post-harvest Washing for Decontaminating Fresh Produce

The project will develop aqueous-free systems for decontaminating (i.e. inactivation of human pathogens and spoilage microbes) fresh produce that can be applied individually or sequentially. The first intervention is based on a forced-air ozone reactor that introduces the antimicrobial gas through the bed of produced at a controlled flow rate. The advantage of the method […]

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