Innovative Projects Realized

Mutual avoidance behaviors of previously-concussed athletes passing through a doorway

The proposed study will extend the findings of the current literature through the following objectives: 1) to understand individual’s
ability to use visual information to accurately avoid an approaching person; 2) determine the role of environmental objects (i.e.,
doorway) in regulating avoidance behaviours; and 3) determine any concussion-related avoidance behaviour changes. To meet
these objectives, we will conduct an experiment involving previously concussed and non-concussed athletes, who will have to
avoid colliding with each other while walking on a head-on collision course. A doorway will be located along the path of the
walkers and the position of the theoretical collision point will be manipulated so that it occurs before, at, or after the doorway. We
will measure participants’ walking trajectories using kinematic data (via Qualysis camera system) in order to evaluate participants’
adaptations to avoid the collision in terms of speed and path changes.

Petroglyph Complexes of the Upper Indus in Northern Pakistan – Digital Annotation of Visual Cultural Heritage

Complex sites with concentrations of inscriptions and rock drawings (petroglyphs) in the Upper Indus region in northern Pakistan are threatened with inundation in a flood zone of Diamer-Basha dam. These invaluable cultural heritage resources comprising over 30,000 petroglyphs and approximately 4000 inscriptions abraded into the desert varnish on the surfaces of rocks at dozens of complexes are essential to understanding cross-cultural interactions along passageways through the Karakorum, Hindu Kush and western Himalaya mountain chains between South Asia and Central Asia. Irreplaceable records of local inhabitants, merchants, monks, and other itinerant communities require careful attention, all the more so because many sites are endangered not only by flooding, but also by human damage. We are using advances in methods of digital imaging including 3D scanning to point clouds, photogrammetry, and virtual panotours to preserve important evidence of written and visual cultures and to make this data accessible to various scholarly and non-scholarly communities in Canada and Pakistan. The objective of this internship is to apply advances in digital humanities to models of rocks with petroglyphs along the Upper Indus.

Improving the Onboarding Process for the Heardthat App

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is ushering in a new era of technology for assistive hearing devices. One example is HeardThat, a smartphone app that uses AI to enhance speech comprehension. It helps people carry on conversations more easily in the presence of background noise. This is something that many struggle with even if they have hearing aids. New technology can only provide a solution if the people who need it are able to use it, and be able to get started with it in a self-serve manner. This project will help the company that makes HeardThat achieve those goals by having the intern work with users to identify and test the product changes that are required. It will be an experimental, iterative process between users and the product team.

Exploring the threshold of mental health impact on cognition

The objective of this project is to better understand the impact prevalent mental health challenges have on cognition. For this pilot study, neurophysiological electroencephalography (EEG) will be investigated in three different mental health population groups: those suffering from Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Portable EEG will be used to assess attention and information processing in participants. Standard clinical evaluations of GAD, depression and PTSD will also be acquired. Clinical mental health testing will be compared with cognitive EEG data.

The study will focus on two key objectives: 1) determine whether mental health challenges correlate significantly with changes in cognitive EEG; and 2) explore potential threshold levels of cognitive impact by mental health severity. The approach uses advances in signal processing and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to explore the relationship between neurophysiological EEG and clinical mental health evaluation. The integrated work involves a strategic partnership with the not-for-profit Legion Veterans Village (LVV) to examine possible impacts of mental health challenges and cognition in first responders.

Personalization of Web Tasking

A web task is defined as the set of services, sessions, and sequence of interactions that are required to perform a certain user objective. The current Web tasking model does not consider user preferences and context when executing a Web task. The proposed research project aims to improve the experience of Web users through personalization of Web tasks. Personalization integrates the user’s personal context with the task execution plan to serve the user’s interest at best. We will develop a flexible task representation model that can accommodate the user’s context, mechanisms for context solicitation, interpretation and transfer, and efficient context aggregation and handling.

Stratégie de marketing numérique responsable pour générer des prospects corporatifs qualifiés

Le projet consiste à définir pour l’OBNL Masse Critique une stratégie de marketing innovante et responsable pour générer des prospects corporatifs qualifiés pour son offre de plateforme collaborative et de contenus dans le domaine du marketing responsable.

Amélioration services publics de la Ville de Trois-Rivières

Projet 1 : Centralisation des droits d’accès aux logiciels
Projet 2 : Système de maintien des droits d’accès aux logiciels
Projet 3 : Automatisation de la création des environnements de tests utilisateurs
Projet 4 : Feu et glace : Amélioration des tableaux de bords interactifs de l’incendie et du déneigement
Projet 5 : Mise en place d’un formulaire en ligne pour la collecte des encombrants

Industriallisation de l’unite de ventilation Hybrid 200

ClairiTech Innovations est impliqué dans la conception, le développement, la fabrication et la vente d’équipements de traitement d’air pour les marchés résidentiels depuis plus de trente années.

Dans le cadre de la conception de la seconde génération de notre système de ventilation double noyaux à récupération de chaleur et d’énergie, la phase finale du développement industriel a débuté par la construction du 2e prototype duquel la nomenclature des composants en sera issue. Pour finaliser les dessins des éléments constitutifs par rapport à leurs caractéristiques dimensionnelles en trois dimensions, nous devons associer à l’équipe projet une compétence complémentaire en ingénierie mécanique. Il s’agira de réaliser sous CAO/DAO la totalité des schémas nécessaires à la fabrication en interne, mais également ceux réalisés en sous-traitance.

Conception d’un logiciel pour un système de commande de portes palières (PDI)

Les portes palières sont des portes automatiques, souvent vitrées, que l’on retrouve en bordure de voie au niveau des quais des stations de métro. Elles permettent de séparer physiquement les quais et la voie de métro, dans le but d’empêcher toute intrusion non désirée. Ces portes sont conçues pour s’ouvrir uniquement lors de l’embarquement et du débarquement des usagers, et sont donc synchronisées avec les protocoles d’ouverture et de fermeture des portes du train. Ce projet va permettre de renforcer la compétitivité du secteur privé industriel canadien en permettant au partenaire de s’attaquer à de nouveaux marchés. En effet, les compagnies de transports en commun qui possède déjà un réseau en place et qui souhaitent implémenter des portes palieres ont besoin d’un PDI pour assurer la synchronisation des portes trains/plateformes

Intensification of cell culture process for pandemic influenza vaccine production

More than half a million people die every year from complications of seasonal influenza, and vaccination stands as the most effective method to prevent and limit outbreaks of the disease. Cell culture processes offer a more flexible and responsive alternative for the current egg-based vaccine production systems. Intensification of cell-based vaccine manufacturing focus on the development of high cell density processes and perfusion-based strategies. Here, a high-innoculum fed-batch (HIFB) process with continuous virus harvest will be applied for pandemic influenza vaccine production in suspension MDCK cells, as to maximize virus production while minimizing media handling. For this, a set of small-scale experiments will be executed to assess the metabolic demands. Two bioreactor runs, using a single-use bioreactor coupled to a scalable single-use hollow-fiber membrane as cell retention device, will be performed to demostrate the scalability of the system.

Adaptive Visualization for Analysis of Customer Behaviour

Companies with a strong online presence are seeking to increase users’ engagement by adding recommendation and prediction algorithms to their websites. These algorithms can for example predict which users’ actions are more likely to happen and which users’ actions are likely more profitable. Companies use such algorithms to tailor the content of their websites based on the users’ behavior. Websites tailored to users’ behavoiur become more profitable and competitive for digital advertisement and e-commerce. Despite the proven effectiveness of these recommendation and prediction algorithms, how to illustrate their benefits and educate the stakeholders still remains a challenge. This is the problem that our industrial partner Youneeq wants to address: How can data visualization be used to convince stakeholders than a recommendation algorithm is having a positive impact on e-commerce metrics? And does the visualization need to change for stakeholders with different roles and backgrounds?

Using Pair Distribution Function Analysis for the Characterization of Rare-Earth Metal-Organic Frameworks

This research project consists in obtaining detailed information about the structure of a particular class of crystalline materials named metal–organic frameworks, comprised of inorganic nodes interconnected by organic linkers. Their highly ordered structure allows the use of routine characterization techniques to earn insights about the organization of atoms and molecules within their framework. However, due to the existence of localized disorder in small (but repetitive) parts of the structure, is not possible to know the structure of the material in detail. To complete this task a state-of-the-art technique called pair distribution function will be used, by applying X-rays on the material, this energy will interact in a specific way with the atoms present in the MOF giving detailed information about the distance between them, allowing to understand how atoms are organized in the disordered space and earn a detailed understanding about the structure of the MOFs. This information will be used to explain the relationship between the structure of the material and its performance for the detoxification of a mustard gas simulant, facilitating the design of more efficient MOFs for this application.