Innovative Projects Realized

Caractérisation opto-électronique des pérovskites d’étain

L’abondance naturelle et renouvelée de la lumière solaire fait de sa conversion en électricité l’une des meilleures sources d’énergie propre. Pour exploiter cette énergie verte et la convertir en électricité, le partenariat international préparera des pérovskites hybrides organiques-inorganiques. Cette génération de matériaux devrait avoir des propriétés optoélectroniques améliorées par rapport aux pérovskites courantes. L’objectif du projet est d’acquérir des connaissances sur l’effet de la structure sur les propriétés opto-électroniques. Ces connaissances guideront la conception et la préparation de la prochaine génération de pérovskites hybrides organiques-inorganiques à haute performance pouvant être utilisées dans les cellules solaires.

MEV protection through delayed execution and time-locked puzzles

Blockchain technology is, by nature, transparent and decentralized. However, transparency can sometimes be a direct threat to the system’s decentralization when most of the profitable transactions get stolen by several high-power entities. This de-incentivizes new users from using the system and renders the whole system useless. In this project, we aim to guard decentralization against destructive and unfair effects of transparency. We reason that transparency can harm the system when it enables users to easily front-run each other. We aim to design a system where the content of a transaction only reveals after its inclusion is finalized. We also analyze and improve state-of-the-art technologies and provide a roadmap for future research.

Développement d’un simulateur en temps réel de la circulation routière

Le projet vise à développer un modèle dynamique paramétrique servant à simuler la circulation routière de façon réaliste. Le rendu final s’apparenterait à une prise de vue aérienne de la circulation routière. Celle simulation pourra etre alimentée en temps réel par des donnees paramétriques (ex. : vitesse, densité, type de véhicule, mouvements) obtenues par l’analyse de flux vidéo. Un tel modèle permettrait d’être utilise dans des simulateurs de vols afin de rendre la scène plus réallste. II pourrail également être utilisé par les centres de gestion du trafic afin de visualiser l’état du trafic plus facilement.

Assessing liquefaction of sandy soil: missing gaps (with Imperial Oil)

Oil sands tailings, a mixture of clay, sand, water and residual oil, is a by-product from the oil sands mining and extraction process in Alberta, Canada. This mixture is hydraulically transported and stored in engineered structures built with coarse sands separated from the oil sands tailings. The dimensions of these structures depend on the storage capacity retaining oil sands tailings. The structural integrity of these structures is governed by the strength of the coarse sands or their liquefaction potential. This research investigates the deformation and strength (liquefaction potential) characteristics of the coarse materials. The findings will be valuable in design, analysis, construction, and monitoring of these structures in a safe, cost effective, and environmentally sustainable manner. The partner organization as well as other oil sands operators will gain benefits from this research project.

Short-term effects of the Site C Dam and reservoir on Bank Swallow Riparia riparia populations along the Peace River

Renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectric dams, provide electricity to many Canadians and are important for meeting climate change targets. However, during construction, dams permanently alter the physical characteristics of the river systems and this may have consequences for the species using these ecosystems. This project will evaluate the potential changes in the distribution, abundance, diet, and mercury levels of Bank Swallow populations on the Peace River in British Columbia following reservoir filling for the Site C dam. The results of the project will evaluate the short-term effects of the dam on Bank Swallow populations and identify possible mitigation measures for any observed effects.

Machine Learning-Based Pitch and Chord Detection for Embedded Systems

This project proposal is to create an AI-based musical pitch and chord detection system suitable for deployment on a hardware device. Most of the research in this area is conducted on computer-based systems with large amounts of memory and computational power. Our goal is to develop new state of the art methods for doing this on embedded hardware, such as guitar pedals, keyboards, and more. Over an eight month period, the intern will work with Shift Audio to survey the current best methods for performing these tasks on computers and then modify and enhance them to make them suitable for embedded hardware. The intern will deliver a working prototype implementation of this system on development hardware that is suitable for quick integration into new systems. Shift Audio will benefit by generating new, unique technology that it can use in developing new products for its music technology clients.

Pay for Performance Intervention Funding

Social impact bonds (SIB) have the potential to fund proven social innovation projects that governments have to date, for a variety of reasons, been reticent to fund. Through a SIB, private investors fund innovative social intervention work that is carried out by a non-profit. If the non-profit achieves certain social outcomes previously agreed upon by the three parties, a portion of the public savings from early intervention are given to investors as a return on their initial investment. This project will refine the SIB model for deployment in BC to fund proven interventions that can reduce homelessness rates in Vancouver.

Conserved epitope locations and entry mechanisms in SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein and their applications to viral evolution and novel vaccine design

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect people throughout the world, the inherent possibility of SARS- CoV-2 to mutate and evolve into further novel variants and strains of which considerable dangers and public health risks apply remains prevalent. As the world has already witnessed, these new variants carry the potential to be both more infectious and better biologically equipped to evade our current antibody and vaccine therapies. To combat this threat, this project seeks to develop, implement, and evaluate therapeutics that are effective against possible future emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Within the scope of this research, we will use a safe and modified virus (containing CoV-2 Spike proteins) to both predict future variants and develop therapeutics that are robust and difficult for the virus to evade. We propose two strategies, one that involves using a decoy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering human cells, and another that involves characterizing a region of the Spike protein that could be developed in the future as a vaccine that is effective against a wide variety of variants. ProMIS Neurosciences will play an integral role in supporting the development of these therapeutics and has interest in pursuing possible “universal” vaccine candidates in the future.

Circular Chemical Production from Biomass and Waste

The project is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of ethylene production in Alberta. Ethylene is an important building block for the chemical industry to produce plastics, consumer goods, solvents, and paints. Ethylene is predominantly produced by steam cracking, releasing up to 2.7 kg CO2 eq./ kg of polyethylene produced. In Alberta, the production of ethylene and derivatives results in more than 4.5 million tonnes CO2 eq. / year; this is equivalent to more than 33% of non-energy sector CO2 emissions in Alberta. This project focuses on an advanced recycling process of waste plastic to ethylene (P2P). This will be achieved by using the Enerkem Gasification Technology Platform that allows all such waste (like waste plastic, and municipal solid waste with a significant amount of single-use-plastic as well as biomass that may include agricultural waste and forestry waste) to convert into syngas.

Consolidation et développement du centre d’artistes Le Lobe

Le Lobe est un organisme à but non lucratif spécialisé dans la production et la diffusion d’œuvre d’art et d’évènements. En effet l’organisme reçoit en moyenne une cinquantaine d’artistes à créer et présenter leur travail dans le cadre de plusieurs activités accessibles gratuitement au grand public, et ce, tout au long de l’année.
Avec en moyenne deux à 5 événements par mois, le Lobe reçoit des centaines de personnes à participer aux activités créées par l’équipe, en collaboration avec plusieurs autres organismes comme l’École de Skate et de Snowboard du Saguenay, Le Lieu (Québec) et Artch (Montréal), La galerie de l’UQAM, et la Rencontre internationale d’Art performance.
Nos activités permettent une portée importante aux artistes au niveau régional, provincial et national. Nous accueillons également des artistes de l’internationale et travaillons davantage sur ce pan de nos activités.
Effectivement, sous souhaitons travailler sur une plus grande offre d’événement en plus d’augmenter le nombre de partenariats à différent niveau et travaille sur un programme d’échange d’artistes à l’internationale (France, Japon).

Student Equity Analyst Project

Qube Investment Management Inc. (QIM) is a registered portfolio management firm (Alberta & British Columbia), offering a combination of value and ethical investment methodologies. QIM has a mission to make investments matter.

One of the ways we’ve set ourselves apart in the Edmonton investment landscape is by running our own equity research program. Rather than relying on paid research or passive investment products Qube’s research culminates into two discretionary portfolios, Kaleo Full and Kaleo A.

We utilize students to provide equity research under the perview of our Senior Portfolio Manager and an Associate Portfolio Manager. Students are esstentail by providing Qube with enough labour to cost effectively cover the 250-300 companies each year in our research universe. In addition to equity research, students work with portfolio managers to complete projects which help Qube improve our research program and ultimately our portfolio management for clients. Our drive for improving performance allows Qube to compete with the mass-market investment products.

NYX Media Scaling Up for Canada and USA Channel Launch

NYX Media Corporation is a privately held startup content distribution company specializing in the horror genre. We are launching a Free Ad Supported Streaming TV Channels (FAST) globally starting with the United Kingdom (UK), then Canada and USA by May 2023. We acquire the content rights by territory to program our channel with a very unique curation strategy. We will also do some original programming by launching a horror hosting program and horror industry entertainment news program. Our channel has been live in the UK since October 1, 2022 on various platforms and we want to ensure the Canada and USA launches take learnings from that experience so we can improve speed to launch in new markets.

Launching in Canada and USA is on a larger scale then our UK launch. Our first challenge is content and broadcast management. This will require us to have effective and efficient proceses in place to handle the intake of over 300 different pieces of content, scheduling that volume of content and populating our content management system. It will also escalate our requirement to seek more automative solutions to programming our graphics, electronic program guide, and content promos. Our second challenge is visual communications and web design/development. This would include tasks like video editing, graphic design and creation and maintenance of customer website. This industry is changing quickly, and we have to be a fast and nimble organization to take advantage of the opportunities in the global marketplace as they arise.