In this Mitacs-funded project, a postdoctoral researcher will work with partners at Trent University and Bird Studies Canada to expand our understanding of how wind turbines affect birds and bats. We will leverage an extremely detailed database on wind-wildlife interactions that is managed by Bird Canada. Using these data, we will investigate whether bat and […]

The salmon aquaculture industry is a highly profitable industry, known to contribute significantly to the Canadian economy. During this time an ectoparasite called the sea louse may infect the salmon leading to animal welfare concerns a significant economic loss. Lumpfish are a species of cleaner fish used as a biological control for sea lice and […]

The current non-destructive and fast method of hyperspectral imaging technology for the chicken egg-related problems in agri-food processing suffers from the quality of acquired hyperspectral images. Therefore, the results of all existing attempts to deal with those egg-related problems (e.g., freshness, grading eggs, fertility detection and distinguishing abnormal eggs) can be improved since they are […]

Cancer will affect 2 in every 5 Canadians in their lifetime, with just over 25% representing new breast cancer diagnoses in women. Despite significant progress in the treatment of the most common cancer in women, resistance to chemotherapeutic agents remains a consistent obstacle in terms of the successful treatment of many types of breast cancers. […]

The aquaculture industry is constantly growing worldwide. Vast arrays of fish species are farmed in freshwater, brackish, and marine systems. In farms, fish reach high-population densities, which facilitates the outbreaks of infectious diseases. This is a big challenge for the aquaculture industry, particularly in the case of viral pathogens because there are few, if any, […]

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are responsible for almost all cervical cancers. Current treatment available relies on chemo- or radiation-therapy or surgery. These methods have several side-effects with high morbidity and survival of just ~ 70%. Our lab, therefore, develops a more patient-centered approach based on targeting the viral E6 protein, the main culprit of carcinogenesis in […]

Reinforcement learning (RL) is the problem of designing an agent that interacts with its environment and adaptively improves its long-term performance. Many complex real-world industrial decision-making problems can be formulated as an RL problem. RL is at the core of artificial intelligence and has the potential of having a huge impact on our economy and […]

Improving the design and operation of open pit mines by better understanding and modeling of spatial variation of rock mass properties, can bring economic benefits to the mining industry. The proposed research project aims to develop an innovative large-scale discrete fracture network (DFN) model that is spatially constrained based on the recorded fracture data from […]

Mitochondria are critical producers of energy and are the platform for various metabolic reactions that support cellular health. Mitochondria suffer from a variety of damage as a consequence of housing these reactive pathways. In order for cells and organisms to survive this damage, dysfunctional mitochondria are removed from the cell in a process termed mitophagy. […]

The proposed project involves the creation of a computational framework to optimize the design of building integrated photovoltaic sunshades. Such shades would allow improved lighting conditions within the indoor environment, while generating power through the photovoltaic panels. The design framework takes in design constraints such as the allowable size of the shade, the location and […]

The scope of this research is to provide a comprehensive recipe for powder-fed laser additive manufacturing (PF-LAM) of H13 tool steel. The H13 components manufactured by PF-LAM can potentially show superior mechanical properties as compared to H13 steel manufactured by conventional methods; however, the process optimization is requisite to achieve the additively manufactured H13 tool […]

In the past decade, sales of several natural health products (NHPs), including Canadian grown American ginseng, have seen an unprecedented spike due to their wide health benefits. One of the key bioactive constituents in ginseng is polysaccharide(s) (PS) known to significantly boost the immune system by modulating a host of immune cells. Unfortunately, there is […]