Innovative Projects Realized

Recycling of Fiberglass Parts for re-use as Structural Parts

Large fiberglass parts cannot be easily recycled. In this proposal, a recycling method will be developed to meet the needs of Proslide. Waste Fiberglass generated by Proslide will be transformed into recycled parts that can be re-used by the company. This will accomplished in several steps by first taking the waste parts to a recycling facility to break down the parts into useable fiberglass material. The material is then converted to a material that can be used by industrial 3D printing machines. The 3D printer is then used to produce complex shaped parts. There are many technological steps in this recycling process that require research and development in order to achieve success. The entire process represents a contribution to the

Analyzing the MRI Data from Premature Infants

Brain segmentation is crucial for providing accurate predictions to the patients due to the information which can be extracted from it, such as the shape and size of the tissue, underdeveloped or injured regions, and annual comparative results for brain growth. Segmentation of infants’ brains currently requires deep expertise and is a labor-intensive process, typically performed by an experienced radiologist, and typically only for research studies, and not for routine clinical care. Automatic segmentation methods would highly increase the number of infants with brain injuries for whom we would have segmentation data, enabling further studies of neurodevelopmental outcomes. The goal of our research is to build an automatic segmentation solution, which could segment brain MRIs for neonates, at-term infants, and older children. The model would be also able to label white matter injury, which is one of the most common and dangerous injuries in preterm infants, and can be used to predict neurodevelopmental outcomes. Using segmentation results and the provided meta-data in a form of clinical labels, we can build an outcome predicting model. The provided results from the prediction model are going to be useful for medical researchers to analyze the feature importance that impacted the result.

Computer aided system based on Image processing technique for assessment ofspinal cord from MRI Year One

The spinal cord is one of the most imponant neurological structures in the body. Noninvasive image-based assessment of this structure is an increasingly demanding healthcare service. This project is a preliminary development stage of a computer-aided spinal-scan assessment software toolkit which aims at faciiitating the diagnosis of spinal cord problems. In parlicular, the proposed project is to design computational methods which automatically extract image fearures. such as structure sizes, location and intensity, thereby enabling the diagnosis of spinal cord disorders in an efficient, reproducible and accurate manner.

A Marketable Formulation that Kills Overwintering Ticks (Ixodes scapularis).

We have developed a natural product acaricide that is based on balsam fir (Abies balsamea) essential oil. The product kills overwintering ticks. It is designed to be applied to lawns, gardens and municipal parks in the late fall to kill ticks over the winter. The purpose of this project is to complete testing under semi-natural conditions, conduct a final field test (beta test) of the product this winter, and bring the product to market.

Toward microservices: an intelligent modernization and optimization of service points location system at Hydro-Québec

This partnership project with Hydro-Québec focuses on providing a better-informed optimization for service point location and modernizing the architecture of the optimization system. Our objective is to leverage the abundant data from Hydro-Québec to build robust forecasting models that can predict the workload demand at each potential or available service point. We also aim to improve the quality of the service point location optimization system through an intelligent, automated and data-driven detection of the violations of fundamental design principles that negatively impact the design quality of the system. We will then work on the recommendation of migration steps towards a modern microservices architecture style that makes the engineering of complex software intensive systems, flexible, scalable, and easy-to-perform.

Construction et mise en place d’une compétence de décision et de gestion de crise au sein d’une équipe de direction : une approche ethnographique

En 2001, t‘Hart, Boin et Heyse anticipaient déjà la pluralisation des crises que vivent les firmes. À l‘heure actuelle, le public est plus que jamais sensible aux messages qu‘envoient les organisations à leurs commettants et la gestion des épisodes de crise est maintenant un enjeu permanent dans la stratégie d‘entreprise. À l‘ère de mondialisation, les systèmes sont interreliés pour des gains en compétitivité, mais cette imbrication a également pour effet de multiplier les risques et l‘intensité des crises. Dès lors, la gestion de crise devient une compétence cruciale pour assurer la pérennité de l‘entreprise et la protection du public. Suivant un épisode critique en 2012, Sandoz Canada est devenue très sensible à l’acquisition de cette compétence. Devant le défi d’éviter que les dysfonctionnements ayant mené à cette crise amènent un nouvel épisode, l’entreprise a mis sur pied une cellule de crise avec pour mandat de contrecarrer une nouvelle occurrence. L’objectif est d’identifier rapidement et corriger toutes les erreurs, avant que leur accumulation n’amène une nouvelle pénurie de médicaments. Les pharmaceutiques oeuvrent dans un secteur d‘activité revêtant de hauts risques avec une technologie complexe. La tâche est donc ardue et l’échec est souvent synonyme de crise.

Influence of stress history on sediment transport and channel bed evolution in gravel-bed rivers

Sediment transport in gravel-bed rivers controls the river morphology, aquatic habitat, and landscape evolution. The sediment supply together with the flow dictates the amount and texture of the supplied sediment to the channel and likely influences the transport rates, bed stability, and evolution of the bed surface. However, the previous research mainly focused on the effects of increasing flow and sediment supply on transport rates. How does the bed surface evolve with rising and falling flows and sediment supply in terms of armouring, sediment clusters, bed protrusions, and surface grains size is relatively unexplored? We proposed a flume-based experimental study to explore the impacts of past flows (stress-history) and sediment supply on transport rates and bed evolution. The outcomes of this study might help in improving bedload transport rates and other river processes including flow resistance. We plan to publish the results in peer-reviewed journals to disseminate knowledge, which will benefit river scientists and policymakers.

Fluorescence Sensors for Singlet Oxygen

This proposed project is to develop efficient sensing materials and devices that can detect trace amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS), in particular a type of activated oxygen, namely singlet oxygen. Detection of singlet oxygen is an important but very challenging task in biological and pharmaceutical applications. The main difficulty in detecting singlet oxygen is due to its very low stability and trace amounts. Certain molecules can capture singlet oxygen through rapid chemical reactions, which result in emission of fluorescence light. They are therefore useful fluorescent molecular probes for rapid and sensitive detection of singlet oxygen. In this work, we will synthesize a range of low-cost but high-performance molecular probes to achieve highly sensitive detection of singlet oxygen as well as other ROS. Prototype devices will be fabricated using these molecular probes as the key components, so that real technological applications can be found in various fields.

Local Community Television Segment

Pattison Media focuses on providing local news and event coverage across our television, radio, and digital platforms. In Medicine Hat, Pattison operates two radio stations (Wild 94.5 and MY 96), one television station (CHAT) and one digital news website (www.chatnewstoday.ca).

We are regulated by the CRTC and a condition of our licence is the requirement to produce a minimum of 25 hours per week of locally reflective content(content that is specific to the local market we serve). We want to exceed this requirement through the production and launch of a new community based program. This daily show will use innovative ways to tell the Medicine Hat story. We will talk to local people, promote and attend community events providing residents with the type of local coverage they won’t get anywhere else.

Maximizing Benefit from Hearing Technologies for Persons with Early Stage Alzheimer’s Disease Year One

There is a strong connection between hearing loss and cognitive impairment, particularly dementia, in old age. The number of Canadians with dementia is expected to reach 9% of adults over the age of 60 by 2038. With these large numbers and limited health resources, caregiving will increasingly fall upon family and friends. Caregiving for persons with

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is frequently associated with elevated levels of emotional and physical distress. Concomitant hearing and cognitive loss in care recipients may lead to even higher levels of caregiver burden. To alleviate this burden, this project will provide hearing aids to AD patients and a communication intervention will be created and administered to patients and their caregivers in an attempt to improve communication functioning in both target groups. The proposed research project will enable the industry partner to extend provision of hearing aids to this vulnerable population.

Étude de l’évolution de différentes dynamiques sociales sur un espace public numérique (Twitter)

Ce projet de recherche est basé sur l’étude de mouvements « numériques » s’étant développés sur le réseau social Twitter. Cet outil de microblogging développé en 2006, permet aujourd’hui, à tout un chacun de facilement y donner son opinion sur divers sujets/débats et d’y prendre part (en publiant une photo, en utilisant un certain hashtag, …).
Même si cette pratique est parfois décriée par certains comme du « militantisme de canapé » (et que cela permettrait uniquement à certains de se donner bonne conscience, sans qu’il n’y ait de réels effets). Nous ne pouvons pas nier les effets qu’ont eus des mouvements comme MeToo ou encore BlackLivesMatter (organisation de manifestations, ouverture de la discussion sur des sujets considérés comme tabous, …).
L’idée de ce projet est donc d’étudier les facteurs d’émergence (ou non) de certains mouvements à l’aide d’outils de traitement automatique du langage et de scripts nous permettant de quantifier ces mouvements.

A Brand New Micro Aerial Vehicle with Shape Morphing Wings for Wildlife Research and Monitoring

Our project proposed an invention of a fully self-contained, autonomous flying robot that can mimic the morphology of the bat wings. Inspired by its attractive flying characteristics, our flying robot could achieve more agile flying ability in hovering and turning than conventional micro aerial vehicles. Meanwhile, the shape-morphing and flapping wings help the robot fly more quietly than quadrotors. All the advantages lead to a lot of interesting applications, including monitoring in complex geographic sites like underground mines, quiet maneuvering to study flying ecosystem, safe inspection of power transportation system, to name a few. Along with the novel, robust control and navigation methodology, this invention is expected to act as a smart flying vehicle to perform tasks in complex geographic environments independently.