Gamification Best Practices- building the foundation of advanced learning

Gamification is the process of adding game elements to something in an effort to encourage participation and increase engagement. It has been used throughout multiple sectors and industries for the last decade and has been proven to have a positive impact on user engagement and enjoyment. Through this increased engagement, gamification is able to provide […]

Read More
Circular Textiles – District of Squamish

The goal of this project is to identify opportunities for Squamish to develop a sustainable Textiles Circular Economy (TCE). Objective 1: Research and report on global case studies as they relate to community-based TCE and then identify within those the what, why, how, who, and apply the four key drivers of the CE Framework. Objective […]

Read More
Digital interventions to improve the mental wellbeing and quality of life of low-income community-dwelling older adults

Our previous research with Mitacs has found that financial burden is one of the biggest negative contributors to the mental health of community-dwelling seniors. We plan to continue to work with the West End Seniors Network (WESN), Vancouver’s second largest not-for-profit seniors’ center, to explore how technology can be utilized to provide mental health aids […]

Read More
Tarahumara (Rarámuri) Health Project

Blood pressure increases with age in Western societies; however, populations that live as hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers rarely develop cardiovascular disease and do not have age-related increases in blood pressure. The mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of cardiovascular health with aging are not clear. A mismatch between the conditions that postindustrialized populations inhabit – low […]

Read More
Evaluating the Current and Future Capacity for Natural Climate Solutions in Canada’s Oceans

Climate change is rapidly altering the planet, and solutions are urgently required to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and limit further warming. Blue carbon ecosystems (salt marshes, seagrass meadows, kelp forests, marine soft sediments) are important carbon reservoirs that could contribute to Canada’s climate change solutions. Yet, despite having the world’s longest coastline, Canada has […]

Read More
An application of lignin-based coating to structural natural fiber composites

A Canadian-based company, Terrasol Geosolar Inc., has identified a unique opportunity to offer hurricane-resistant solar energy infrastructure for weather-ravaged areas of the world. Towards this functionality, there has also been significant market incentives to include bio-derived composite materials within the structure. However, current developments of natural fibre reinforced composites (NFRCs) in structural applications has been […]

Read More
Human-in-the-loop: Occupants as integral drivers of indoor climate controls

Occupant thermal comfort and ventilation drive the operation of HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems in buildings, which consume a large portion of their energy use. “Human-in-the-loop” (HITL), a term borrowed from machine learning referring to a synergy between humans and machines, is a data-driven approach that aims to enable human-based controls of the […]

Read More
Mass spectrometry imaging of glucocorticoids in the mouse thymus

The project aims to better understand how stress hormones (i.e., glucocorticoids) are synthesized in the thymus, a key primary lymphoid organ of the immune system. Stress hormones are critical for proper thymic development and immune function. However, many details about how and where in the thymus stress hormones are produced remain unexplored. As part of […]

Read More
FeatTS-Detect : Features-Driven Time Series Anomaly Detection

With the rapid growth of sensors in Cyber-Physical Systems such as clinical data, industrial systems and data centres, there is an increasing need to monitor these devices to secure them against anomalies. This is particularly the case for streaming clinical data. Indeed, the timeliness revelation of anomalies in these data can save the patient’s life. […]

Read More
Characterization of stem cell-derived human dopaminergic neuron subtypes

The goals of this proposal are to develop methods to identify cell subgroups in dopaminergic (DA) neuron cultures obtained by differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC), and to exploit this information to improve existing DA neuron differentiation protocols. To realize these goals, we will leverage expertise at STEMCELL Technologies in hPSC differentiation and Simon […]

Read More
Feasibility Study of an IoT-based Real-time Safety Alerting System for Working at Heights in Construction Sites

In the proposed project, we will investigate a solution for increasing the safety of construction workers at heights using an intelligent sensor-based system. A real-time monitoring system will be developed for alerting workers who are getting close to hazardous conditions and areas. The objective is to lower the chance of accidents by enhancing supervision of […]

Read More