Innovative Projects Realized

How much room for the river? Balancing societal and environmental targets in river management and restoration

River management aims to balance environmental needs such as habitat against the protection of infrastructure (e.g. roads, pipelines, property) from flooding, erosion, and other geohazards. The ability to effectively navigate this trade-off stems from a fundamental understanding of how rivers function. However, management projects often rely on highly simplified models of river processes (such as sediment transport) that are subject to significant uncertainties, and subsequently, these projects are often ineffective. The proposed research aims to improve upon our understanding of river processes through scaled physical models and numerical simulations. The project provides a broad scope for scientific publications surrounding river processes and will contribute practical tools that may help to improve the management of environmental and economic assets.

Effects of conifer sustained quenching on sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence emission

Conifers retain their leaves in winter and downregulate photosynthesis. Remote sensing of coniferous forests based on measurements of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) seems a suitable tool to estimate forest photosynthesis, but little is known about the effects of downregulation of photosynthesis on the SIF signal. By installing a novel FloX field spectrometer at a coniferous forest research site in Canada, I will study the effects of downregulation of photosynthesis on the SIF signal. I hypothesize that the transition to sustained quenching in winter, which is a protective mechanism of conifers in adaptation to cold, reduces the emission of the SIF signal, and more specifically, affects its two features F760 and F687. The study will contribute to a better understanding of the F760 and F687 signals and thus bring forward remote sensing estimations of forest photosynthetic capacity, which is relevant for monitoring of forest productivity and global carbon cycling.

Développement de rapports d’inspections automobiles dynamiques, utilisant la donnée disponible sur le marché dans un but de précision

Développement de rapports d’inspections automobiles dynamiques, utilisant la donnée disponible sur le marché dans un but de précision.

Media Shop Collective Graphic Designer Internship

The Media Shop Collective is a female founded and fueled, full-service design and digital marketing agency located in Central Alberta. As a full service agency, we provide in-house branding, strategy, website design, and social media management, along with SEO and digital advertising, aligning with a brand’s strategy and desired outcomes.

Media Shop Collective recognizes a need to enhance our processes for digital marketing design and development including but not limited to improving project management with a multitude of agency partners and streamlining both operational and project workflows.

At this time, Media Shop Collective requires additional capacity to address these operational needs and challenges. As a small team handling many partnerships and projects, our ability to review and revise processes, workflows, and higher level operational/business opportunities is stretched thin. Through this internship, the student will have an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge gained at NAIT to MSC’s current challenges, providing them real-world, hands-on business experience in the digital marketing industry.

Adaptation d’un cadre d’accompagnement pour la stratégie et la mesure d’impact pour des organisations qui accélèrent la transition socio-écologique

Rhizome a développé et structuré progressivement son offre de soutien et sa propre méthodologie d’accompagnement pour amener des organisations en phase de croissance dans une réflexion plus poussée sur leur stratégie d’impact. Rhizome prépare aujourd’hui le lancement de sa deuxième “Super Cohorte en Action Climatique”, en partenariat avec L’Esplanade et Cycle Momentum. Ce projet impliquera une douzaine de startups innovantes qui contribuent à accélérer la transition socio-écologique et à réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre à Montréal. Les thématiques de cette cohorte peuvent être très variées (gestion des matières résiduelles, bâtiments verts, mobilité durable, urbanisme, etc.) et impliquent que les organisations vont mettre en place des stratégies très différentes pour maximiser leur impact social et environnemental. L’objectif de ce projet pour la stagiaire est de standardiser et d’homogénéiser la structure de soutien preparé dans le stage précédent, et de la tester dans un contexte avec plus d’organisations (12) et dans de différents secteurs. Le cadre d’accompagnement dans l’agroalimentaire ayant déjà été préparé et testé dans ce secteur, et ayant été monté pour pouvoir être utilisé dans d’autres secteurs, l’objectif est maintenant de confirmer que ce cadre peut être adapté et appliqué dans des contextes de groupe, avec des entreprises qui n’ont pas nécessairement le même type d’activités et le même stade de maturité. La réflexion consiste maintenant à décider s’il est effectivement possible de travailler simultanément avec des équipes dans des secteurs et des activités différents et de trouver des indicateurs et des réflexions similaires.

Operations Process Restructure and Implementation

When combining River Oak Imports with The Fort Distillery, many different CRM systems and client management tools were being used. When we combined, we were entering our busy season and they were combined in a temporary way that would work to get us through until the end of 2022. Student will assist in cleaning up and organizing to use one program throughout the organization and assisting in entering information from other systems to make it clean and sleek.

Overall, the student will assist in making sure all current data is accurate and help enter in new sales data to ensure system is most up to date in the most efficient and effective way, will take previous sales data from many different systems and analyze for market trends, will present sales and data trends to upper management, will assist in the creation of automated systems to populate charts and sales data, will ensure data is entered accurately for usage by other departments, and will create different sets of data for different products.

Demande SSE | William Nigel Moss – Élaboration de la structure analytique d’un modèle marketing non-linéaire

Le projet est davantage axé sur la recherche et le développement puisque William sera chargé de développer tous les processus internes / stratégies / méthodologies en lien avec la mise en place d’une structure analytique basée sur le modèle marketing non-linéaire de Google (2020). Le projet aura une grande valeur pour l’agence et nos clients. En effet, il s’agit clairement de stratégies / méthodologies sous-exploitées qui viendraient compléter à merveille l’offre de service de notre département data. Compte tenu de la forte demande pour nos services, il est difficile pour nos équipes d’effectuer le travail de recherche et développement pour la création de cette solution. La rigueur académique et l’accompagnement professoral saura certainement pallier ce défi de croissance. Nous voulons aussi étendre cette structure analytique à tous nos clients importants dans un avenir proche.

NAIT BSI for Zero Point Cryogenics

Zero Point Cryogenics (ZPC) is an Edmonton-based company that manufactures cryogenic equipment called dilution refrigerators, which are the platform for quantum computers. Unlike our competitors, we are focused on B2B applications, designing dilution refrigerators for quantum computing industry partners that will satisfy their space, size, and delivery requirements.

The production of quantum technologies such as dilution refrigerators requires advanced manufacturing capabilities. Every component of a ZPC dilution refrigerator is first fully designed and then simulated using advanced simulations to ensure operation at extreme low temperatures. This is then followed by precision CNC machining of high-purity materials, which must meet the exacting standards of accuracy required for reliable cryogenic operation. Many of these components must then be polished to a mirror finish before being plated with gold, to reduce their thermal heat load. The dilution units are then assembled by teams of highly trained and educated professionals, meeting the highest cleanliness standards, which are required for achieving the vacuum conditions for cryogenic operation. ZPC will combine these aspects in a state-of-the-art production facility, producing quantum-enabled dilution refrigerators for today’s quantum computing companies, while preparing for the future of quantum computing.

An Analysis of Power Pole Foundation Conditions

The purpose of the research project is to identify the main soil types found within the FortisBC Electric service territory and identify the best alternatives for power pole installations within each soil type. This information will be made readily available to power line designers for use when selecting the foundation alternative during the design process The large number of power poles installed each year has created a need to streamline the design process and installation cost. This project was proposed to address most typical foundation situations which may be encountered during the installation of power poles and therefore reduce the design and installation costs.

Advanced control solution for managed pressure drilling system

This project will help the drilling industry accept new technologies. This work will focus on create and testing more robust controllers for choke control, applying advanced controller techniques and designing these controllers to accommodate diverse operating conditions in different rigs.

Assessing Implications of Structure-Property Relationship of Acid-stable Cyclicimidioximes on U(VI) sequestration from seawater

Uranium can generate energy efficiently and sustainably, resulting in its high demand due to increasing global energy demand. As a result, there has been significant interest in the search for materials to sequester uranium ions, U(VI), from seawater. Among the materials adopted, the amidoxime-based polymeric adsorbent has shown great promise, but not without challenges. During industrial testing, the active site of the sorbent (CID) was responsible for the preferential adsorption of pentavalent vanadium, V(V) ions over uranium. This interaction led to the degradation of the material during the acidic elution process. Interestingly, the aromatic-based CIDs (Ar-CIDs) are acid-stable. However, the potential co-adsorption of U(VI) and V(V) and possibly other metal ions by the Ar-CIDs remains unknown, as only corresponding U(VI)/Ar-CIDs have been investigated. Therefore, this project will establish a fundamental understanding of metal ion interaction with Ar-CID-type sorbents and provide insights into developing more U(VI)-friendly and efficient adsorbents.

Supporting Patients by Family Education in Psychotic Illness

Family caregivers are an essential component of care for young adults with severe mental illness including psychosis. While their involvement improves outcomes in multiple modalities, family caregivers are often overwhelmed with the care of their loved one. Currently, there are not enough resources for family caregivers of young people with severe mental illnesses. The study involves administering a nine-week course on caring for a person with mental illness to family caregivers. We will asses