This proposed project will support our ongoing efforts in scanning and screening existing technologies and de-bottlenecking key technology barriers in converting low-cost biomass residues to renewable natural gas in British Columbia pulp, paper and lumber mills. Specifically, we will focus on developing a bauxite residue (f.k.a., red mud) based catalyst for the removal of tar […]

Rivers provide important services to people in the form of agricultural irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, and recreation. However, many of these benefits require dams and river control at the expense of natural systems. Rivers in Spain are of particular interest because globally Spain has the most dams per person. This project will look at the […]

Understanding the impacts of human-driven disturbance on carnivore communities is an important step for prioritizing conservation decisions and managing land-use policies. Disturbances such as landscape development may influence how species structure their activity periods over the 24-hour cycle and potentially compromise the capacity for competitors to avoid costly encounters with each other. Few studies to […]

This project involves the testing and characterization of new piezoelectric vibration sensors developed by the research group led by Prof. Bahreyni at the Intelligent Sensors Laboratory. These piezoelectric sensors have now been combined with another type of sensor – one with a capacitive transduction mechanism to improve the low-frequency sensitivity and noise performance. I shall […]

This Project is an continuation of our SIGGRAPH Asia 2017 paper on “Learning to Group Graphical Patterns”. The paper introduced a novel deep learning approach for grouping discrete patterns common in graphical designs. The approach was based on a convolutional neural network architecture that learns a grouping measure defined over a pair of pattern elements. […]

The project involves the modeling of the metabolism of TB. I developed an algorithmic pipeline called MetaMerge, which allowed me to reconcile differences in format, nomenclature, and annotation, between two models of TB metabolism. MONGOOSE, another doctoral project of mine, is a tool for analyzing metabolic network models in exact arithmetic, resulting in consistent, reproducible […]

The objective of this proposal is to study Littlewood cyclotomic polynomials of odd degree. In algebra, the cyclotomic polynomial is one such that has all its roots on the unit circle. Since all the coefficients of Littlewood polynomials are -1 or +1, its associates a finite binary sequence with -1 or +1 entries. Therefore, their […]

This project will expose the intern to key design, implementation, and evaluation research activities in human-computer interaction (HCI). We have recently started exploring the concept of social curation of software help content by developing a novel web-based platform, Social CheatSheet, that overlays relevant community-curated instructions and multi-step tutorials atop any web application and offers an […]

Credit risk—the potential that a borrower will fail to make required payments—is the oldest risk in our economy. It may arise in a number of circumstances, for example, a consumer failing to make the minimum payment due on a credit card or a company defaulting on its debt. Our main goal in this summer project […]

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22qDS) affects 1/4,000 newborns. People with this condition can have various medical problems. Approximately 30% develop psychiatric illness (e.g bipolar disorder or schizophrenia). A recent study explored parents’ experience of receiving a diagnosis of 22qDS for their child. Families identified an unmet need for information from their healthcare providers about the psychiatric […]

Cannabis-enhanced yoga known as “Ganja Yoga” is an ancient practice that is burgeoning in North America, providing opportunities for both the cannabis industry and the yoga industry. While there is an accumulation of anecdotal reports regarding Ganja Yoga, there is yet to be research conducted on this topic. Delineating the prevalence, motives, mechanisms, risks, and […]

Body composition, i.e., the proportion of fat and muscle tissues in the human body is related to the risk factors associated with a host of medical conditions. The muscle and fat tissues are target locations for the water- and fat-soluble drugs respectively used for cancer treatment. Consequently, the proportions of these tissues are believed to […]