The partner organization is designing novel dispensing equipment for liquid products to be used by quick-service restaurants. A food safety concern related to the R&D of this equipment is the potential health hazards associated with the formation of bacterial biofilms within the dispensing system. Biofilms are complex bacterial communities that grow on surfaces contacting liquids. […]

Although life cycle assessment (LCA) is a robust eco-design tool, its capacity to inspire creative ideas among designers is unclear. LCA is often used as a portrait of a product’s environmental hotspots, which are then addressed as design compromises. This highly technical design method usually leads to incremental improvements of products, and appears to do […]

Corrosion is a phenomenon that can be only mitigated, not stop. Usually, paint is applied to the surface that needs to be protected from the environment. Sooner or later, it peals off or wear, leaving the surface unprotected. Besides protection from corrosion, the paint or coating rarely has other properties like being electrically conductive. Another […]

The field of plastic waste management is essential for sustainable society that utilizes plastic waste for energy production. Land filing and incineration of plastic waste has large environmental impacts due to GHG emissions. Thus, pyrolysis is considered a low environmental impact process with high value end products. RF thermal plasma technology will help reduce operating […]

Romantic relationships play a key role in happiness but keeping the spark alive over time in relationships is challenging. One route to maintaining passion and desire is to engage in self-expanding activities with a partner. Although novel, self-expanding experiences tend to promote desire and passion, introducing novelty into a relationship can be intimidating. In a […]

There are both immediate and long-term effects of forestry on boreal birds. To minimize incidental take of birds and nests during harvest, foresters need accurate tools for predicting abundance of nesting birds in the peak breeding season, to time harvests year-round. Longer-term effects of harvest and other land uses on boreal birds are unknown, because […]

Physiotherapy is a type of rehabilitation that aims to restore a patient’s quality of life after an injury, surgery, or stroke by improving their mobility. Through prescribed exercises and specialized equipment, physiotherapy helps the patient to regain their muscle strength, range of motion, and natural movement. Unfortunately, only rudimentary tools are available to the therapists […]

Les chercheurs de diverses communautés scientifiques rêvent de pouvoir utiliser le rayonnement X dans un contexte d’imagerie où seraient combinées une résolution nanométrique et temporelle femtoseconde. Par exemple, une source ultra-brève dans la fenêtre spectrale de l’eau (2.3 à 4.4 nm) est parfaitement adaptée à l’imagerie dynamique en milieu aqueux. Cette application, parmi tant d’autres, […]

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 […]

Regulations are introduced to ensure the well-being, safety, and other societal needs of citizens and organizations. Yet, regulators often have difficulties assessing the performance of their regulations, and whether regulatory initiatives actually improve compliance. This project’s main objective is to investigate the suitability of a framework combining a standardized goal modeling notation with an existing […]

According to the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada produced 1.2 billion kilograms of chicken with chicken products worth $2.5 billion. Domestic consumption of chicken in 2016 was 32.5 kilograms per person. Canada exported over 5.3 million chicks worth over $13.4 million, mainly to the United States. That same year, 134.1 million kilograms of chicken meat […]

Infections acquired through long-term catheter use are a major problem for nearly 20% of all patients. This project seeks to apply Econous Systems’ anti-fouling MEG-OH coating to biomedical plastic catheters to see if they prevent the 3 most common microbes: E. coli, C. Albicans and S. Aureus, from growing. This will initially involve in vitro […]