Innovative Projects Realized

Development of a Mental Health Literacy and Self-Management Resource for People with Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disability

People with Intellectual Disability (ID) experience higher rates of mental health disorders compared to the general population and yet access services to a lesser degree. The present project will begin to address the lack of access to mental health services by providing a resource designed to enhance mental health literacy, and provide validated self-management strategies that have been specifically designed for use by individuals with mild to moderate ID. This resource will be built using 1) previous research and related programming, 2) information and feedback from people with ID and then 3) be piloted with a group of people from the identified population to determine usability and benefits. This information, in tandem with data collected from the identified population and their supporters, will be used to build a mental health literacy and self-management resource specifically tailored to the needs and abilities of the identified group. The resource will be piloted with a sample of the identified population. Data collection will include pre/post surveys, informal interviews, and observations that will be used to further refine the product.

Schroedinger Bridges and Generative Models

Conventional molecular discovery relies on high-throughput screening strategies (HTS) to identify molecules that match a specific set of user-defined properties. Unfortunately, due to the enormous size of chemical spaces (10^60 molecules in the case of the drug-like chemical space), HTS is usually performed over pre-built chemical libraries of moderate size, often by employing computational/AI methods to increase the screening speed and the size of investigated libraries. Generative models (GM) are neural networks that can be used to generate novel molecules with desired profiles, and thus represent a powerful alternative to property-based HTS for exploring the chemical space. However, current GMs are challenging to design and train with high-dimension molecular representations, large molecules and large databases. We propose to develop next-generation GMs for molecular discovery that will alleviate existing challenges and unlock their potential for applications in drug and material discovery.
This project has an important learning component for the students visiting uOttawa. It combines state-of-art techniques in computational chemistry, optimal transport theory and deep generative models to tackle fundamental problems in computer-aided molecular discovery.

Mise en place d’une stratégie innovante de développement de marché

FOP EXPERTS CONSEILS est une firme (PME) de consultation située dans la région métropolitaine de Montréal qui supporte des clients dans le domaine de l’ingénierie et des sciences dans le segment (bio)pharmaceutique, agroalimentaire, cosmétiques, des dispositifs médicaux et des TIC. Face à la concurrence qui s’évit dans les différents segments de marchés identifiés, jumelée à l’instabilité économique des deux dernières années, l’entreprise peine à développer de nouveaux marchés, c’est-à-dire d’étendre son portefeuille clientèle qui a un impact considérable sur la croissance de la compagnie. Des stratégies de développement de marché ont déjà été implémentées, cependant, les résultats sont peu satisfaisants, soit pour manque de ressources, d’innovation, ou alors d’un manque d’analyse approfondi des événements qui influencent les activités du marché. Face à cette problématique, ce projet permettra d’avoir une visibilité claire sur les faiblesses et les menaces de l’organisation et d’identifier les éléments majeurs qui nous permettront d’augmenter notre avantage concurrentiel et d’acquérir de nouvelles part de marché.

Transdermal Alcohol Detection System through Measurement of Capacitance Change in a MEMS Device Year One

The proposed research develops a transdermal alcohol detection system. The system is comprised of an array of polymer based MEMS sensors and a sensor measurement circuit. The system analyzes gases exuded from the skin – the gases are chemical mixtures that may (or may not) contain ethanol. No known polymers respond only to ethanol; however, each polymer in the array creates a unique response to the presence of ethanol. When examined together – like a series of simultaneous equations – sensor responses accurately indicate the presence of ethanol. My contribution to the project will be the creation, integration and miniaturization of an electronic support system for the MEMS sensors and sensor measurement circuit. The electronic support system is a required component in the prototype transdermal alcohol detection system. Sober Steering will use the prototype system for testing required to validate the sensor system prior to its use as part of a commercial device.

Développement de la médiation culturelle et numérique au sein du Rift, organisme à but non lucratif de diffusion des arts visuels, des arts de la scène et du cinéma

Le Rift, un organisme de diffusion des arts situé au Témiscamingue, a besoin d’élaborer davantage d’activités de médiation culturelle et numérique pour remplir sa mission de développement artistique en région et accroître son accessibilité. L’élaboration d’un programme de médiation culturelle et numérique lui servira à relever le défi de rejoindre davantage les publics de la communauté témiscamienne à laquelle s’adresse ce lieu de diffusion, de création, d’apprentissage et d’échange, que ce soit par le biais de son cinéma, de sa salle de spectacle ou de sa salle d’exposition. Par le recrutement d’un stagiaire inscrit à la maîtrise en lettres, profil culture et numérique, et formé à la conception de projets numériques pour des publics diversifiés de la culture, l’organisme culturel sera à mesure de développer mieux ce secteur vital.

Future Design School Internship

Future Design School (FDS) is a Education focused consulting organization that helps schools globally by providing transformational strategies, professional development and framework based resources in order to transform how teachers teach and students learn. They work alongside educators and school districts in order to understand what are common issues that students and teachers face and provide specific resources.
As FDS grows, they have discovered the abundance of data that they are currently in possession of and have been asked by multiple clients for a condensed form in order to gain insights. This project will help FDS create a robust data centre that can be utilized by the employees and the clients by deciphering the qualitative data into quantitative data and ultimately into an interactive setup that can be used at the highest level.

Development and validation of a risk prediction model for severe exacerbations in patients with severe asthma

Asthma is a common disease of airways affecting 339 million people worldwide. About 5-10% of asthma patients have severe asthma, which is associated with disproportionately high risk of exacerbations (‘lung attacks’) and death. It also contributes to nearly 50% of asthma-related healthcare spending. In particular, exacerbations are a major source of burden in severe asthma. While advanced treatments can substantially reduce the risk of exacerbations, they are among the most expensive treatment. Current guidelines for making treatment decisions often ignore variation in patient’s response to treatment and can subsequently impose substantial burden on patients if the right treatment is not chosen.

To tailor treatment for patients with severe asthma, my project goals are two-fold: 1) develop and validate an individualized risk prediction tool and 2) assess the clinical utility of this tool in a real-world setting. The risk tool will be made available to the public as a web application.

Impact of the addition of a newly developed bioresin called Biofusion on the strength of concrete

Concrete—the most common construction material globally—represents the main component of construction. Cement production and its use in concrete as a binder are among the highest carbon dioxide producing processes, thereby contributing to climate change. Any decrease in carbon emissions from construction will help improve the industry’s long-term sustainability and help the environment. One potential solution to reduce the amount of cement used in the construction industry is to use the newly developed bio-resin Biofusion in the concrete mix.
Biodiffusion Technologies Inc. (BDT) will use the results from this project to advance the market acceptance and application of Biofusion. The goal is to work with end users to improve commercial opportunities with a key focus on sustainability. BDT has and will continue to build key contacts/networks that will enable rapid adoption and commercialization of this technology. BDT is committed to investing the resources required to continue the research trials and larger scale commercial demonstrations in partnership with said key stakeholders. Emerging from this research project will be:

Action spectra characteristic of typical and potentially new challenge organisms used in polychromatic UV reactor validation Year One

Trojan Technologies provides UV-based technologies for water, wastewater and reuse wastewater treatment. This proposal is directed towards optimizing and developing the validation protocols for UV systems provided by Trojan. The study results will expand Trojan’s ability to provide more holistic and sustainable reactors for water/wastewater treatment as well as expand the polychromatic UV market. From this project, knowledge of the specific spectral sensitivity of important challenge microorganisms used in UV reactor validation can lead to improvements in UV treatment by targeting specific wavelengths for future design. Moreover, this study will contribute to the understanding and optimizing the UV reactor theoretical simulation as well as the prediction of the uncertainty in UV reactor sizing.

Extraction automatique d’informations à partir de publications scientifiques en chimie et science des matériaux

Le nombre d’articles scientifiques a grandement augmenté ces dernières années dans la plupart des disciplines et notamment en chimie. Ce flux grandissant d’informations complique le suivi des innovations techniques issues de la recherche et leur intégration dans le processus de production par les entreprises du secteur de la chimie. Ce projet vise donc à développer un outil d’intelligence artificielle permettant d’automatiser la lecture d’articles scientifiques et d’accélérer la phase de recherche de l’information pour les sociétés et industriels de la chimie. Une fois extraites, les informations seront filtrées, structurées et stockées avant d’être présentées de manière simple et transparente au travers d’une interface graphique.

Understanding the relationship between adipose tissue hypoxia and maladaptive angiogenesis

Obesity is a well-known risk factor in many diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, in part due to abnormal blood vessel development with fat tissue. During weight gain, the volume of fat tissues can undergo drastic changes. Normally, when new tissues develop, there is a corresponding increase in blood vessel density via a process known as angiogenesis to help deliver sufficient oxygen and nutrients to the new tissue. It has been suggested that the speed and way fat tissue expand may contribute to abnormal angiogenesis, leading to insufficient oxygen delivery and chronic inflammations. However, the factors that control angiogenesis in fat tissue expansion are not well understood. Using an in vitro microtissue model, this project aims to determine the roles of physical and chemical signals on fat microtissues expansion and their corresponding effect on angiogenesis. Factors including fat tissue size, arrangement, maturity as well as metabolite concentrations (e.g. glucose, lactate) will be tested. The finding here will help clinicians identify new marker that can better define heath risk of excessive fat tissue beyond current measures such as body mass index and body mass percent fat.

Opportunities and obstacles for renewable energy development

St. Anthony is the largest town on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula and is connected to Newfoundland’s island grid by a 248 km transmission line. This research will investigate the best locations for wind turbine installation.