Innovative Projects Realized

Portrait des résidents des milieux denses

La recherche vise à réaliser des portraits socioéconomiques et sociodémographiques des résidents types des milieux denses (aires TOD) afin de connaître leurs besoins (ex : taille et coûts des logements, écoles, parcs, moyens de se déplacer, etc.). Ces portraits permettront à la Ville de connaître les besoins de ses futurs résidents et ainsi l’aider à planifier le développement de son territoire et à développer des outils d’aménagement adaptés à ces besoins.

Innovating at the Intersection of Emotions and AI-based Language Models

Canadians have experienced tremendous mental health challenges over the last few years. At the same time, systems to address mental health are over-burdened. There is thus a clear need to scalable and low-cost technologies that could support the mental and emotional wellbeing of Canadians. This project is about developing innovations in artificial intelligence that could support the mental and emotional wellbeing of Canadians. Artificial intelligence (AI) is making stunning advances. Germane to this proposal are advances in AI for natural language processing. More specifically, language models which can generate text have been increasing in sophistication and have been used as conversational chatbots. But these “conversational AIs” have some limitations. For example, language models stop short of actually “understanding” language. Instead, they use of probabilistic estimation of word sequences to generate text. Language models also seem to reproduce the some of the social biases that may be present in their training datasets. As these language models sometimes produce surprising and inappropriate texts, their use as agents for supporting mental health and emotional wellbeing has, to date, been limited.

Simulateur de système de propulsion hydrique à base de batterie et de multipile à combustible pour un hélicoptère

L’industrie aéronautique amorce un virage irréversible vers l’électrification de la propulsion des aéronefs. À travers ce projet Bell Textron voudrait analyser les performances d’un système hybride batterie – multipile à l’échelle 1 (grandeur réelle). La compagne s’est donc adjoint une équipe de recherche de l’Institut de recherche sur l’hydrogène afin de mettre en place un simulateur de grande qualité. À travers une approche « Top Down », il serait possible de travailler simultanément sur la mise en place des modèles mutiphysique et la gestion thermoénergétique de l’ensemble des sources.

Multifunction system for measuring endothelial cell remodeling under laminar and turbulentpulsatile flow related to heart disease Year One

A London-based company, Novel Cardiovascular Systems Inc, has developed a unique multifunction system for measuring endothelial (arterial wall) cell remodelling under different types of laminar, turbulent and intermittent pulsatile flows that are associated with the onset and development of heart disease, notably atherosclerosis (narrowing of the artery). In order to accelerate the product to market, NCSI must validate the system with respect to cell biology and blood flow mechanics. Specifically, cell viability and the accuracy of hemodynamic (blood flow) measurements in an in vitro flow channel must be quantified. The proposed research will examine endothelial cell response under a range of realistic and quantified pulsatile flow conditions, thereby providing invaluable contributions to the literature. More importantly, for NCSI, it is critical to realize the project to accomplish a fully validated system in order to accelerate timeto- market. In addition, the project will further expand the capabilities of current flow system.

Effective Climate Governance for Canadian Credit Unions: Cooperating for a Greener Future

The goal is to develop a best practice guide for Canadian credit unions, focusing on the legal duties of Canadian directors and officers in respect of managing climate change, best practices for corporate boards, reporting on the latest global research on best climate governance practices for credit unions.

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.