Innovative Projects Realized

Circular Economy Communications – District of Squamish – Sept 2022

The District of Squamish (District) declared a climate emergency in 2019 and set the target to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. In support of this declaration, the District launched a Circular Economy (CE) Roadmap in 2021.

There is a global groundswell of collaboration recognizing the CE as a collective response to global crises – including interconnected issues of climate change, inequity, food security, resource depletion, consumption, and waste.

A CE aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility or value. It aims to decouple economic development from the consumption of raw materials (the linear model) by describing an alternative approach in which economic growth is generated, and jobs are created, while simultaneously reducing environmental impacts.

A CE relies on a systems solution framework. A key challenge faced in initiating and implementing a CE is how to effectively impact the ‘system’ in a coordinated way.
This project aims to address this system change challenge by applying a communications strategy to the social change end goals identified in the project.

Autonomous Cognitive Examination: A Validation Study

Timely diagnosis of dementia is a public health challenge within Canada. It is hoped that machine-learning empowered cognitive examinations might improve Canada’s response to the dementia population. This study proposed the validation of an automated cognitive examination, the Autonomous Cognitive Examination, which uses machine learning to evaluate users to evaluate previously difficult to assess inputs such as complex images or speech. By validating this examination, it will be possible to utilize this Autonomous Cognitive Examination on a large scale, allowing storage of cognitive examination responses to train machine learning algorithms upon, thereby increasing the sensitivity of the test to dementia and even creating diagnostic algorithms for dementia subtypes. The expected benefit to the partner organization is the development of a new industrial partner which will act to develop and administer this cognitive examination.

SSE_ADNANEBELOUT-IUSMM-SARAHBÉGINTREMBLAY – Projet innovateur en optimisation du processus de dotation des cadres à l’hôpital de l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM)

Projet innovateur en optimisation du processus de dotation des cadres à l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM). Au Québec, le marché du travail traverse une importante pénurie de main-d’œuvre depuis la pandémie de la COVID-19. Cette dernière touche également les cadres. Il s’agit donc d’un défi de taille pour la dotation des cadres à l’IUSMM. Ce problème peut compromettre la qualité des soins de santé dispensés à la population canadienne. En effet, une présence suffisante de cadres est nécessaire pour assurer la coordination des équipes et l’administration de soins de santé de qualité aux Canadiens. En optimisant le processus de dotation des cadres, j’assure qu’il y a un nombre suffisant de cadres à ces fins.

Commercialization strategies for academic drug discovery projects: From bench to start-up

Translation of scientific bench-top discoveries into a commercial enterprise can be one of the hardest transitions for academic groups. Additionally, there are very few therapeutic options for neurodegenerative diseases, and a great need exists for the development of new drug candidates to treat diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Our proposal seeks to continue with the development of new neurodegenerative therapeutics, while simultaneously analyzing and developing commercialization strategies for the translation of drug discoveries into start-up enterprises. Specifically, our proposal seeks to continue with the development of our new ALS therapeutics, using animal models of the disease, while also devising a commercialization strategy for translation of the intellectual property generated as part of this project.

Design and fabrication of metamaterial energy absorber, generator, vibration isolator

Our main aim is to design and fabricate lightweight mechanical structures to show high energy absorption capacity with as low as initial reaction forces, electricity generation via embedding smart materials (piezo patches), and isolate external dynamic excitations. The designed mechanical structures could be applied in the automobile and motorcycle industries. In a car crash, the designed mechanical structures could absorb a significant amount of kinetic energy with low initial reaction forces simultaneously, that could provide safety for the passengers. Also, the structures can be placed beneath the drivers’ seats, to isolate vibration during driving and generate electricity. In addition, the multi-functional structures can be embedded into the cyclist’s helmet, to avoid brain injuries during cycling. By fulfilling those objectives mentioned above, the humans’ safety could be guaranteed during driving or cycling.

Production of cellulose esters in ionic liquid

Cellulose is the most common natural polymer available. The project aims to produce esters from cellulose fibers employing green solvents, such as ionic liquids. Ionic liquids’ properties are tunable by changing the anion and the cation to dissolve simultaneously the cellulose and the esterification agent. The esterification agent is a free fatty acid which can be bio-derived. We will vary: the source of cellulose (microcrystalline and nanocellulose), the free fatty acid (fatty chain length from 12 to 18), the ionic liquid (methyl and ethyl-imidazolium acetate salts), the ratio of free fatty acid/cellulose.

We will analyze the samples collected during the reaction by chemical structure (chromatography and NMR), rheological and mechanical properties. We anticipate being able to produce cellulose esters with applications as thermoplastics, which carry hydrophobic properties and can be shaped in films.

Evaluating augmented reality technologies for the inspection of pre-fabricated concrete panels

The components to be embedded within a precaset concrete panel must be inspected prior to concete placement. To the untrained eye, this inspection appears to be the process of comparing an actual 3D tangle of mesh, rebar, and other metal components with neat 2D design drawings on paper. Even for highly trained and experienced inspectors, it is time consuming and challenging to identify and count components, as well as verify their sizes and locations with centimeter accuracy. The proposed research will test and evaluate the use of augmented reality (projected and holographic) technologies which allow inspectors to view 3D designs juxtaposed on the actual 3D embedded components in the casting bed. Participants will use the augmented reality technologies to identify discrepancies between the design and actual assembly in this laboratory/field experiment and thereby gain insight into the relative advantages and disadvantages prior to adoption of these technologies.

Digital Twin for Civil Engineering Design Workflow

McElhanney provides Engineering and Surveying services across Canada. They want to leverage the AI feature extraction work conducted in 2021 – 22 (Mitacs Accelerate IT23104) whereby the University of Alberta interns helped to extract physical municipal assets (fire hydrants, street lights, manholes, curbs, etc.) from detailed terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data, i.e., LiDAR point-clouds. This work led McElhanney to be able to run Machine Learning based algorithms on LiDAR captured point-cloud scenes to identify and extract asset features for use in civil engineering design workflows. While this work achieved substantial progress with publications, we want to go beyond the labour-intensive feature extraction and begin to associate engineering attributes to those features so that they can be accurately represented in a digital twin, which will be used for a more efficient object annotation framework for professional surveying purposes. To achieve this attribution, we propose to deploy the use of AR/VR technology on the premise that the immersive experience can expedite and enhance attribute annotations and scene understanding.

Efficient, cost-effective purification of soybean peroxidase for industrial applications

Pharmaceutical contamination of water systems poses direct threats to human health and the environment. Unfortunately, wastewater treatment plants are not always capable of sufficiently removing pharmaceutical contamination, particularly where drugs are disposed of in high concentrations – such as pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. When some residual drugs are released into the environment they can persist and disrupt important functions in humans and wildlife.
Soybean hulls are generally considered waste products in soy production; however, they contain an important compound which could be used to efficiently and effectively destroy numerous pharmaceuticals in wastewater. Using a cheap, efficient purification method of this compound (“soybean peroxidase”), we will test its ability to remove several key drugs that have been found to contaminate the environment. As new and stricter regulations require drug manufacturers to improve their water decontamination processes, this cheap and effective way of treating wastewater using soybean peroxidase may be viewed favorably by many pharmaceutical industries. Agricultural companies may also be interested in using this technology in decontaminating residual pesticides which are an increasing problem, particularly when considering agricultural runoff.

Autonomic, cardiovascular, respiratory, muscle oxygenation regulation during postural transitions and acute exercise in females and males living with frailty

This research aims to: (1) determine how the brain, heart, vessels, lungs, and muscle oxygenation regulation in female and male frail older adults. In study #1, participants will perform three postural transitions: (a) sit-to-stand, (b) lie-to-stand, and (c) lie-to-sit, and three identical constant workload walking tests. The autonomic (brain, e.g., sympathetic and parasympathetic activity), cardiovascular (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac output), respiratory (e.g., oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide output, ventilation) and muscle oxygenation (near-infrared spectroscopy) will be assessed in females and males with different frailty statuses. Homeostatic dysregulation compromises rapid adjustments in the autonomic, cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscle oxygenation regulatory mechanisms affecting maintenance of homeostasis, especially in vulnerable populations (e.g., older adults). The dysregulation exposes them to higher risks of frailty, chronic diseases, and falls. Frailty is characterized by the degradation of biological and functional reserves to tolerate stressors resulting in high vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. People living with frailty are under-recognized, under-served, under-appreciated, and poorly understood. This research proposal is critical because it will inform the future development of more robust early frailty risk detection assessments, frailty preventative, and rehabilitative treatment/intervention strategies considering sex differences.

The manufacture of mycelium-based bio-foams using upcycling waste materials and the study of the Canadian market potential for small-size products

This project will produce mycelium-based bio-foams (MBFs) using waste materials and edible mushroom strains. MBFs are a type of eco-friendly material, which has the potential to replace EPS in terms of foam packaging properties. The manufacturing of the product is a self-assembling process, without mining natural resources and generating wastes. It can also be crushed easily and thrown into the backyard as fertilizer at the end of its life cycle. Therefore, using MBFs as packaging materials will reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and solid wastes sent to landfills. Commodities using MBFs as packaging may be more popular because customers are more inclined towards greener products with the increasing awareness of environmental protection. Companies using MBFS instead of EPS show more social responsibility and may get greenhouse gas offset credit.

Indigenous Foodlands Conservation Areas

The Indigenous Foodlands Conservation Areas Project will conduct participatory action research with Elders, Indigenous knowledge holders and Indigenous law/governance experts to support the BC Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty and the IISAK OLAM Foundation in the process of mapping out and advocating for Indigenous Foodland Conservation Areas in Neskonlith Secwepemc territory.

In the Neskonlith Secwepemc territory, the project will appreciate and inquire into the integrative strategies and conservation methods of traditional harvesters (Indigenous hunters, fishers, farmers and gatherers) in relation to some of the last remaining fragments of biodiversity and cultural heritage in Interior Salish territories. The project team will also develop and deliver training and infrastructure for a network of Secwepemc hunters to conduct environmental monitoring of the migration corridors of Elk, wild salmon, and other culturally important animals. The project is based on a decolonizing food system framework that will outline a matrix of key conditions necessary for having the rights of Indigenous hunters, fishers, farmers and gatherers recognized in decision making matters impacting the hunting, fishing and gathering corridors that transcend political boundaries and privatized plots of agricultural land.