Innovative Projects Realized

Multi-material Additive Manufacturing of Functional Ceramics

This proposal involves using 3-D printing technology to form a ceramic sensor. The sensor can be used by navies to detect submarines. The ceramic sensors are either an underwater sound projector, an underwater microphone, or both. The 3-D printing technology should allow larger, more sophisticated sensors to be manufactured. The technology should simplify the build process by reducing the number of steps required to build the ceramic sensor. This technology is expected to benefit the Canadian Navy in future applications and enhance the Ultra product portfolio to increase export sales and the associated benefits to Canada that they bring.

Social cartographies of land conservation practices

This project explores different approaches to land conservation practices in the Amazon region of Brazil and in Canada. In particular, the project will explore the differences in understandings of land conservation practices between mainstream land conservation organizations and Indigenous understandings of land conservation. Based on the project research regarding these different approaches, the project will develop an Indigenous-led strategic plan that will outline an agenda for decolonization of land conservation practices in both Canada and Brazil. The project will also develop a corresponding educational toolkit that will help those working in land conservation organizations to better understand what decolonization is, why is it important, and how it may be approached in ways that are ethical, accountable, and effective.

Role of Ribosomal Protein Ubiquitination in Chemotherapy- and Stress-induced RNA disruption in Tumour Cells

We have observed that chemotherapy agents can induce RNA degradation in tumour cells, a phenomenon called “RNA disruption”. Interestingly, we also found that high tumour RNA disruption after 2-3 cycles of chemotherapy predicts for complete tumour destruction after treatment and improved cancer patient survival. We and Rna Diagnostics, Inc. are using this knowledge to identify patients with non-responding tumours early in treatment, who might benefit from discontinuing chemotherapy (and its side effects) and moving on to alternate treatments. We now seek to identify earlier events in the RNA disruption process in order to accelerate our ability to predict chemotherapy outcome. The student will examine whether ubiquitination of ribosomal proteins and the activation of two key RNA degradation pathways precedes and are necessary for chemotherapy-dependent RNA disruption.

Triassic-Early Jurassic Central Atlantic and mid-Cretaceous Scotian Margin Geochemical, Organic, and Biostratigraphic Events – a test case for molecular sequence stratigraphy

Development of oil and natural gas production in Atlantic Canada has mainly occurred in the offshore of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia. Energy Nova Scotia has estimated reservoir potential for Nova Scotia has been as high as 120 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 8 billion barrels of oil. These reserves occur along the Scotian Margin, a portion of the North American continental shelf extending for ~500 km along the length of the eastern coastal seaboard. Over this distance the margin descends to a depth of 5,000 m. Continuous subsidence and sediment deposition over the last 250 million years has produced thicknesses reaching 24 km (Wade and MacLean 1990) with its proven petroleum system in some areas being disrupted by salt tectonism (e.g. Deptuck and Kendell, 2017, 2020). Thus far, production largely focused on the Sable Island gas reserves (OERA, 2011). However, industry investment has waned with all commercial production now ended. Nonetheless, multiple indications suggest that black oil reserves could also be present within one or more of the sub-basins (OERA, 2011).

Intégration optimale de procédés thermiques en serres agricoles pour la gestion efficace des besoins énergétiques

La production maraîchère en serre au Canada est grandement limitée par les coûts associés à la demande énergétique nécessaire à maintenir le climat intérieur. Une piste de solution prometteuse est d’augmenter la récupération d’énergie thermique intermittente et l’apport d’énergies renouvelables (ex. solaire, géothermique) aux systèmes de chauffage, de refroidissement, et de déshumidification des serres. L’expertise nécessaire pour choisir et combiner les technologies disponibles (ex. stockage thermique) reste hors de la portée de la majorité des producteurs en serre. Dans la proposition de recherche, la méthode de « Pincement Intermittent » sera adaptée à un projet de rénovation des Serres St-Élie (SSE), qui est un producteur important de plants de légumes et de petits fruits au Canada. SSE souhaite rénover une serre 50 000 pieds carrés (4 700 m2) de superficie, qui permettra d’augmenter la production actuelle, participer à l’approvisionnement de commerces locales, tout en limitant l’empreinte carbone de ses produits.

Robustness of Reinforcement Learning to Attacks and Adversarial environments

Reinforcement learning algorithms are successfully employed in diverse industries, for instance in autonomous driving, trading or gaming. However, their generalization especially in critical-decision making systems has raised concerns about their robustness to attacks. The 22nd recommendation issued by the White House (2016) to prepare for the future of AI states: ”Agencies (…) should ensure that AI systems and ecosystems are secure and resilient to intelligent opponents”. Existing works on the robustness of RL to attacks assume that the attacks originate from an outsider (akin to a hacker) capable of manipulating the environment, which destabilizes the agent’s and degrades their performance. In this project, we adopt a setting where the attacker is naturally present in the environment. Their goal is to observe and model a targeted agent’s actions in order to destabilize and degrade their performance. This setting unveils the need for methods enabling humans to accurately interpret the intentions underlying the interactions between RL agents in order to identify potential threats and the need to develop new defense mechanisms to decrease the likelihood and the impact of such attacks.

Reinforcement Learning Approach for Improving the Dynamic Response of Frequency in Low-Inertia Islanded Active Grids

The structure of power grid is changing due to the integration of distributed energy resources, especially the renewables and energy storage. These resources with power electronic converters provide additional controllability to grid operators and provide the capability of operating the interconnected gird as several active decentralized systems for enhancing system reliability and maintaining system resiliency. This capability can be highly important in the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events that can cause widespread physical damage to grid infrastructure or create spikes in the electricity demand, and other disruptive events such as cyber-attacks or solar activity.
The basic idea is that a large power system can be developed into several active networks and each of the active network can not only operate parallel with the main grid but also is capable of operating independently as power islands in case of major system events. However, coordinated control of large number of distributed energy resources is a complex problem. But the digitization of information and the development of smart energy networks enable the realization of data driven solutions empowered by machine learning technology to such complex problems.

Valorisation conjointe de résidus urbains et industriels putrescibles pour la production de biogaz

Depuis environ une décennie, il est possible d’observer en Europe une recrudescence de l’intérêt envers la production de biogaz. Ce dernier revêt un intérêt particulier en ce qu’il permet une réduction de la dépendance envers le gaz naturel, tout en offrant une perspective de valorisation des résidus putrescibles. Depuis quelques années maintenant, cet intérêt envers la production de gaz naturel renouvelable s’est transposé à l’Amérique du Nord, et plus spécifiquement au Canada et au Québec. En effet, dans l’objectif de réduire leur empreinte de carbone, les gouvernements provincial et fédéral considèrent de plus en plus sérieusement la production de biogaz pour réduire l’intensité de carbone du gaz naturel. Par le fait même, cette pratique pourrait permettre une plus saine gestion des matières résiduelles, car elle pourrait permettre la production d’énergie à partir de résidus dont la teneur en eau et l’hétérogénéité rendraient autrement difficile la valorisation par d’autres techniques telles les approches de conversion thermochimiques. Dans un souci de réduire l’enfouissement des matières résiduelles, leur valorisation représente une opportunité très intéressante et cette réalité est propre autant à la situation urbaine qu’industrielle.

Portable Colorectal Screening Colorimetric Metabolite Biosensor

This project involves designing a portable biosensor that measures the concentration of multiple metabolites in a person’s urine. The device measures the colour of the urine after reacting with the developed reactions to get metabolite concentrations. These concentrations are input to an algorithm to get a diagnosis. The first test will screen for colorectal cancer. Tricca Technologies Inc. will use this technology to make metabolomic diagnosis affordable and accessible to everyone and this project is the first step.

Maximizing Oil Recovery from the Hibernia Oil Field

The project focuses on screening and testing state-of-art Enhanced Oil Recovery techniques. It is carried out through both experiment study in core scale and simulation research in field scale. The new knowledge that will be accrued will be the culmination of a truly collaborative approach. First and foremost, Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador will gain a holistic perspective recovering ultimate oil from its offshore east coast reserves.

In vivo and ex vivo anabolic potential of dietary amino acids with exercise

Resistance exercise training and the provision of dietary protein is known to bring about beneficial adaptations for muscle mass and strength. Substantial research has been conducted to identify the optimal protein supplements that permit the greatest anabolic response following an exercise stimulus. This research project will examine if a novel protein supplement can increase anabolism when provided after a bout of resistance exercise to a greater extent than branched chain amino acid or carbohydrate ingestion. Whole-body and ex vivo models will be employed to help understand the effects of this supplement on leucine retention, molecular signaling, and skeletal muscle growth and breakdown. The results of this project will then inform the industry collaborator, Iovate Health Sciences International, as to the efficacy of this formulation and how best to market it.

Liquid–Liquid Encapsulation of Omega-3 Oils for Controlled Release Under Dynamic Gastrointestinal Conditions

This project aims to improve the delivery of omega-3 oils—nutrients that readily degrade during digestion, by developing soft liquid–liquid capsules that protect these oils as they pass through the gastrointestinal tract. Initial formulation and testing will be conducted at the University of Waterloo, where capsules will be created to achieve high stability and controlled release. Because Canada does not currently have facilities that simulate dynamic digestive conditions, the capsules will then be evaluated at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), a leader in food science and digestion modelling.

At WUR, the capsules will undergo digestion tests and assessment using a dynamic gastrointestinal simulator that reproduces stomach motion, enzyme activity, and fluid mixing. These experiments will show how the capsules break down, when Omega-3 is released, and how the nutrient becomes available for absorption. By combining Waterloo’s expertise in encapsulation with WUR’s advanced digestion tools, the project will generate insights into the design of effective nutraceuticals and functional foods.

This collaboration will strengthen research capacity at both institutions, support partnerships, and advance the development of nutrition technologies. It also provides training, allowing researchers to work with leading facilities and bring skills back to Canada’s innovation sectors.