The pilot project aims to study the relations between information behaviours (searching and retrieving information and also communications) and cognitive process in Rennes, France. Naturalistic observation, daily interaction with the public, and unstructured/semi-structured interviews will enrich knowledge in information behaviour and analyze trend. The expected outcomes include a holistic recognition of the relations among IT […]

Modern distributed applications are becoming increasing large and complex. They often bring together independently developed sub-systems (e.g., for storage, batch processing, streaming, application logic, logging, caching) into large, geo-distributed and heterogeneous architectures. Combining, configuring, and deploying these architectures is a difficult and multifaceted task: individual services have their own requirements, configuration spaces, programming models, distribution […]

Beyond the spectrum of visible light lies a window of frequencies called the W-Band which illuminates a world normally unseen to the naked eye and can be the vessel for energy without wires. In order to see this world normally unseen, we have developed a unique circuit topology which has shown signs of truly state-of-the-art […]

Green roof and water cistern technologies are increasingly becoming important components of sustainable building practices and urban water management. However, the two technologies are rarely designed as an integrated system. This goal of this project is develop an experimental design to test the reuse of cistern water for irrigation in green roofs. This experiment will […]

The student will work in a drinking water engineering research laboratory at the University of Toronto to explore an aspect related to the novel use of ultraviolet light and chlorine to destroy hard-to-treat contaminants in drinking water. Previous work by this lab has shown that this form of treatment can be effective, but it is […]

Electricity generation happens on a real-time basis therefore utilities and operators have to follow the demand, matching any variation in the customers’ needs and ensuring system stability at the same time. To achieve this balance between generation and demand during periods of high load peaks, it is necessary either to increase generation capacity or induce […]

Natural disasters are a global concern with each region experiencing unique risks and vulnerabilities. Using concepts from risk research, we can examine how the general public perceives and understands the risks that they face. However, further research is needed to understand how people comprehend risk when faced with competing hazards to see how satisficing and […]

Recent natural disasters, such as the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, have increased focus on the resilient design of coastal communities to these devastating large-scale hydraulic events. The loads from these events can be separated into hydraulic and debris loads. Debris loads, in particular, are difficult to evaluate in the field and […]

In able-bodied individuals, increases in core temperature during exercise are controlled by the nervous system as a sweating response. However, individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI) may have altered sweating responses due to autonomic dysfunction, leading to increased risk of heat stress during exercise. Currently, standard tests do not fully describe how temperature regulation is […]

Improving the durability of superhydrophobic surfaces is of significant interest in the surface engineering community. We have recently developed a novel superhydrophobic coating with a hard nanocrystalline nickel matrix and embedded hydrophobic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) particles. To further improve the mechanical robustness of the non-wetting coating, the soft polymeric PTFE particles were replaced with hard, hydrophobic […]

Pultrusion is a manufacturing technique allowing to produce constant cross section beams of fiber reinforced plastics. The main challenge of pultruding thermoplastic composite is to impregnate the fiber bed with the high viscosity thermoplastic matrix. The goal of this research project is to use two existing models to model the pultrusion of thermoplastic composites. Mainly […]

Circadian rhythms are processes which allows animals to regulate their physiology based on time of day. These rhythms are controlled by the circadian clock, a group of transcription factors that form a feedback loop. Over 40% of the genome is transcribed rhythmically, implicating the clock in many physiological processes. The cell cycle is another process […]