Innovative Projects Realized

Development of a digital system of MyCobot 280 Pi

Reinforcement learning has caught significant attention in the past decade with landmark successes including deep Q-net applied to video games and AlphaGo for the game of go. However, the gap is still wide when it comes to application to real world problems mainly due to high training cost. We propose to develop a digital model of a physical system for the purpose of training an autonomous agent. This way, reinforcement algorithms can be trained on the digital model at a fraction of cost. This project will focus on a specific system: MyCobot 280 Pi from elephantRobotics. The digital model will mimic the dynamics of the physical system, and the calibration of the digital model will be done by a reinforcement learning algorithm itself. This project will be a groundwork for subsequent investigation.

Generating internal threat intelligence feed as well as creating an incident response playbook

These days, there is growing concern about the security of confidential data in organizations. There is no doubt
that organizations with high-security measures will witness cyberattacks. Therefore, the question is how we can
prepare our infrastructure and cybersecurity team to deal with these challenges. The incidents response playbook
is a comprehensive plan which has been prepared with a clear understanding of the detection & analysis process,
team responsibility, and recovery plan. The Playbook will help the organization take urgent steps and action in
time to prevent deleterious effects on sensitive and confidential data and infrastructure. In addition, we need to
evaluate our infrastructure based on real threats. By feeding an appropriate threat intelligence into our current
security controls, we can ensure that our security measures have high performance in dealing with threat actors,
and if there are any bugs and gaps, we can find them before they bring about data breaches.

Développement d’un procédé de prévention de la formation d’ocre ferreuse dans les drains français

L’ocre ferreuse est un dépôt visqueux d’hydroxyde ferrique ayant généralement la couleur orange, qui se dépose sur la surface des systèmes de drainage et colmate les drains. La déposition de l’ocre résulte de deux processus, biologique et chimique, qui peuvent se produire seuls ou en concomitance. Compte-tenu de l’importance de cette problématique, l’entreprise Soleno, en collaboration avec Les Entreprises Carl Tarini inc. et Polytechnique Montréal, développe une méthode de traitement électrochimique de l’eau souterraine. Celle-ci vise à prévenir le colmatage, des drains français notamment, et à limiter les opérations d’entretien.

La priorisation vaccinale des communautés vulnérables par les pharmaciens communautaires

La vaccination demeure une des interventions les plus efficaces pour réduire la mortalité associée aux maladies infectieuses telles la pneumonie et l’influenza (CCNI, 2020). Depuis mars 2020, les pharmaciens communautaires Québécois se sont joints à l’effort collectif de vaccination grâce à l’obtention du droit de prescrire et d’injecter les vaccins (ASSNAT, 2020). Selon l’expérience de différentes provinces canadiennes, les pharmaciens constituent des professionnels de la santé de confiance et accessibles (Buchan et al. 2017). Depuis 2017-2018, les pharmacies représentent l’endroit le plus populaire au Québec pour obtenir le vaccin contre la grippe (Buchan et al. 2017). De plus, la vaccination par le pharmacien permet d’augmenter la couverture vaccinale dans la population et de mieux rejoindre les populations à risque (Buchan et al. 2017).

Or, le Québec peine à atteindre les seuils établis de 80% de la population à risque lors de la vaccination contre l’influenza (Gouvernement du Canada, 2020). Bien que plusieurs études se penchent sur les gains population apportés par la vaccination en pharmacie, peu d’étude tentent d’élucider la manière dont les pharmaciens identifient, ciblent et priorisent la clientèle à risque. Étant vu par plusieurs acteurs de la santé publique comme des entreprises privés, l’implication des pharmaciens dans la

E-commerce and Digital Place-making: The Craft Chocolate Industry

This proposed research seeks to better understand how people make decisions on purchasing consumer goods online. Due to COVID-19, we have seen a massive acceleration of online shopping, especially for essential items such as food. As such, consumers are increasingly relying on digital information to connect to food (and the places it grows). By studying single-origin chocolate, a packaged consumer good product deeply tied to land, we aim to better understand how ‘moral markets’ are using place-based cacao origins to market chocolate in digital spaces. This will lay the groundwork for understanding how the digital spaces of the craft chocolate movement are
influencing consumer awareness and subsequent behavior given the continued need for ethical consumption.

Provision and Exploitation of Biosolids in Quebec

The project consists of a study on the disposal and upgrading of dried and dehydrated sludges from the treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater. The study would be limited to the province of Quebec. As a specialist in the treatment of wastewater, Degrémont supplies high performance technologies for the dehydration and drying of wastewater treatment sludges. The most appropriate system for handling the sludge needs to be optimized. The project consists of a review of the regulation for biosolids disposal, define the authorized levels of toxic metals, pathogens, etc, define the certification process (BNQ), evaluate the different ways of elimination and upgrading the sludge, evaluate the costs of the various options and evaluated the different storage options adapted for Quebec. The different technologies will need to be evaluated based on ecological, social and economic aspects.

Data Communication Optimization between Mobile Devices and Servers

With data being the new digital currency, consumption of data is growing at an exponential rate. Data communication between mobile devices and servers generates a massive cost to businesses because of the high throughput. The business impact becomes exponentially large with respect to cellular bills and additional resources handling elevated server workloads. The objective of this project would be to research various methodologies for data compression, understanding existing data transmission algorithms and applying new techniques to reduce the size of data being transmitted. During the project, we would first establish a baseline for the current transmission models and other techniques. Then we could start to research areas where newer compression, serialization, and data differential techniques could be applied. Finally, the experimental result could be integrated into products to facilitate faster transmission between mobile devices and servers.

Optimization of a Vertically Mounted Dual Wind Turbine

Energy collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale is called renewable energy. One of the most reliable sources of renewable energy is the wind energy. Using wind to produce energy has less environmental impacts than other energy sources. In other words, wind turbines do not produce emission that can pollute the air and water. Also, they do not need water for cooling and are more sustainable than other renewable energy forms such as solar energy. In the current proposal, it is planned to develop and validate the design of a new vertically mount wind turbine. This will be achieved using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations followed by an experimental wind tunnel or on-site validation.

Toward Restorative Sport in Nova Scotia

Taking a restorative approach to sport reimagines how we can respond to the crisis of maltreatment in sport and athletes experiencing harm. This project will be an extension of restorative justice work on going in Nova Scotia which sees justice as concerned with securing and sustaining just relations. A restorative approach to justice supports responses to harm, conflict, underlying cultural issues, as needed, to ensure just relations in future. In these ways, a restorative approach pays special attention to the relational nature, impact, and context of harm. Taking a restorative approach to maltreatment in sport begins by acknowledging the central role of relationships in sport and in turn the importance of sport in building strong and healthy relationships and communities. With these principles in mind we will design and begin to implement a new way of attending to maltreatment in sport which prioritizes people and athletes over systems and organizations.

Testing of a novel cooling boot to deliver continuous digital hypothermia in horses for prevention and treatment of equine laminitis

During the proposed summer research project, the intern will be working together with researchers from the University of Saskatchewan Western College of Veterinary Medicine and a Saskatoon-based engineering company, RMD Engineering. The intern will test the initial prototype of a novel cooling boot intended to reduce and maintain hoof temperature below 10oC (continuous digital hypothermia). This procedure, called cryotherapy, is used in equine veterinary medicine for the prevention and treatment of laminitis. Laminitis is a painful condition in horses and can result in serious, sometimes irreversible, damage to the tissue layer (lamina) that maintains the hoof bone in suspension within the hoof capsule. The initial prototype testing to be completed by the intern will help the partner organization with moving the development of the novel cooling boot forward.

Open source Layer Batching For Waste Reduction In Multi-Material 3D Printing

The most popular type of 3D printing globally uses plastic filament. Historically, this has been done with only one plastic at a time. 3D printers can now use multiple materials and/or colors to be part of a single print. Unfortunately, today multi-material 3D printing results in a lost of waste plastic and the associated environmental problems. Each time a material change happens, waste is produced through nozzle priming and/or purging to get rid of the last material. 3D printing software typically changes the material on each layer meaning that every layer, a lot of plastic is wasted. The goal of this project is to develop solutions to radically reduce this waste and to apply it into open source software so that all multi-material 3D printers can reduce their waste. This will allow for material changes to be done less frequently than on each layer using a strategy called “layer batching.

Ground validation of aerial detection technology to determine urban forest tree health for use in municipal urban forestry programs

The use of aerial drone sensing (remote piloted aerial surveillance) technologies has greatly expanded over the last decade into the agriculture/forestry, construction, mining, engineering/surveying, and public safety sectors. One such area of growth has been in the detection and assessment of plant condition and health in the agriculture and forestry industries. The use of this technology has the potential of providing improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the management of insect and disease pests in municipal urban forestry programs. The purpose of this project is to determine the effectiveness of remote based multispectral technologies using drones to identify the presence of Dutch elm disease (DED) in elm trees in the City of Winnipeg. Speed and the ability to cover large areas through disease detection surveys afforded by remotely piloted aircraft systems surveillance would be useful in charting the spread of the disease in urban neighbourhoods, and allow implementation of control methods within shorter time frames.