Innovative Projects Realized

Boreal Ecosystem Recovery and Assessment (BERA) #2

The boreal ecosystem in the Northern Alberta is strongly segmented by linear exploration corridors for petroleum exploartion, calles seismic lines. Unfortunately, many of these lines are in a state of arrested succession and are unlikely to recover without active intervention. An essential variable to the understanding of regeneration of forest cover is the hydrology and moisture dynamics of these ecosystem. The first objective of this project is to determinine, if there is a predictable relationship between micro-topography and the water table through a variety of environments. The second objective is to use remote sensing data to measure the water table heights and ultimately to scale up the water table measurements, in order to create larger water table maps. This will help industry partners in developing more effective and efficient restoration methods.

Boreal Ecosystem Recovery and Assessment (BERA)

The boreal ecosystem in the Northern Alberta is strongly segmented by linear exploration corridors for petroleum exploartion, called seismic lines. Unfortunately, many of these lines are in a state of arrested succession and are unlikely to recover without active intervention. Restoration planning for such a large affected area demands knoledge about the possibility and the necessity of reforestation. This project will create a model to predict solar irradiance on lines since this is the key factor influencing soil temperature, plant growth and other parameters and processes in the ecosystem important for the restoration. Furthermore it can be a second approach to develop a strategy for creating an inventory of existing vegetation since locations of advanced-regeneration won’t require management interventions. The expected outcome include the basis for further development of predicting important ecosystem parameters based on the solar irradiance and the basis for decision making for efficient and prioritised restoration of the boreal forest.

FlexMOSS: A Flexible Multicore Operating System Scheduler model for power efficient embedded devices

Battery life is a key concern for smartphone makers, and the power consumed by smartphone applications is directly tied to battery life. In this project the intern will develop fast, early and accurate models of smartphone power consumption, before the hardware and the operating system are available. These models will be useful for early optimization of smartphone applications and operating systems, thereby improving battery life, while meeting time-to-market constraints.

Scale-up manufacturing of dendritic plasmonic material

The proposed research will scale-up the current manufacturing methods to produce cost-effective substrates for application in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. The substrates will be made using dendritic plasmonic materials on a large area substrate. The nanoscale material will provide high sensitivity as a SERS substrate for detection of specific chemicals. The developed SERS substrates during this project will be applied by the industrial partner for detecting adulterants in drug samples using a simple point of care hand held device.

Gamification of language learning

Everybody Loves Language (ELL) is a language learning solution which provides all the necessary tools and features for organizations to deliver a complete language program to inspire learners at home, in schools, and workplaces around the world. Today, one of the active and student-centered teaching methods is gamification-based learning which is the result of scientific efforts to provide an environment for students to learn a new skill in an enjoyable, engaging, motivating, and successful way. Gamification refers to using game elements such as mechanics, aesthetics, and game thinking in the non-gamified learning environments that can increase the interest and motivation of learners to learn a new language. To date, studies have shown that gamification and game-based learning can increase students’ motivation to learn and engage, and achieve the learning outcomes. In this project, gamification and game-based learning will be integrated into the ELL learning system., which is aimed to increase students’ motivation and engagement with ELL’s products.

Lichens, lichenivorous gastropods, and acidification at clearcut and natural forest edges

Clearcut logging and acid deposition affect lichens and slugs (lichen consumers). The main research goal of this project is to improve our understanding of clearcutting and acidification impacts on lichens in Nova Scotia. The effects of forest logging on ecological communities may extend beyond the edge of the clearcut into the forest. We will: (i) identify the responses of lichens to clearcut and unharvested wetland forest edges; (ii) determine how lichens relate to acidity; and (iii) examine the influences on lichen survival and health on a landscape scale. The findings will estimate the edge effects on lichens and contribute to the development of sustainable forest management practices.

QoE of XR Applications over 5G Networks

The project investigates how to design and implement high quality user experiences for extended reality (XR) applications that are deployed over 5G networks. Interns will elicit high level quality of experience requirements for such applications, determine appropriate metrics to reach these goals and micro-service based software architectures to build such applications. We are in particular investigating cloud, edge and fog-computing approaches to reach a high-quality users experiences and how to migrate services across the network. Interns will be able to work with Telus on evaluating their approaches in real-world 5G environments while Telus gains a deeper understanding on how to provide appropriate XR-oriented services for their clients.

Managing Geo-Location Data from Long-term Care: Pipeline Development and Administration

Shannex is presently piloting a geo-navigation system in some of its enhanced care homes. It is anticipated this data, once brought in-house, will have data mining capabilities to impose prevention/mitigation tactics on adverse health outcomes and ultimately improve the quality of life of residents. Our present challenge is the existing reporting system is not robust and mainly designed for clinical practice rather than analytical purposes. To best leverage the location data for improving resident care, Shannex requires expertise to develop a means to house this data internally to allow for advanced analytics. Presently, the magnitude of data being collected, and stored, in cloud storage exceeds Shannex’s capacity (by both infrastructure and internal skillset). We require a professional with data engineering skills to create a data pipeline, right-size processing needs/ capabilities, define storage capacities, and access requirements to perform analytics and visualizations for better care planning.

Analyzing team dialogue to enhance collaboration and psychological safety

The proposed research project will be to examine Reticle Venture’s current system and its links to the current literature on psychological safety and team functioning. The overarching goal is to establish content validity of their current system by assessing whether their current framework is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring in line with current research. This will consist of two primary activities. First, an intensive literature review of the psychological safety literature with a focus on understanding how Reticle Venture’s system maps on to the current literature and identifying what is not currently reflected in their system. Second, an assessment of content validity by subject matter experts from the Industrial Organizational Psychology field. SMEs will be recruited and provided definitions of what Reticle Venture’s is trying to measure and the way they are trying to measure it. The expected benefits to the partner organization is an improved system that is research-based that encompasses all of the current standards for psychological safety and team functioning.

Modelisation du comportement des sablles ameliores par vibro-remplacement (renouvellement)

Le projet s’inscrit dans une série d’études portant sur le thème du vibro-remplacement. Il s’agit d’une technique de renforcement des sols consistant à insérer des colonnes de ballast à intervalles réguliers dans un sol de faible portance. Le stagiaire, qui est étudiant à la maîtrise, sera impliqué dans des chantiers de vibroremplacement en vue d’instrumenter le processus et de mesurer la réponse du sol. Les données de terrain seront intégrées dans des modèles numériques visant à reproduire et prédire les phénomènes liés à la technique de vibro-remplacement. La densification et la répartition des contraintes seront au coeur de la campagne de modélisation de l’ensemble sol-colonnes. Le partenariat entre Geopac Inc. et le centre de recherche universitaire permet de mettre en commun des données expérimentales issues des chantiers et l’expertise en modélisation numérique requise pour les interpréter, positionnant ainsi le partenaire industriel en chef de file dans le domaine de l’amélioration des sols.

Lifeguard.org MVP Development

Lifeguard.org (URL: www.joinlifeguard.org) is a unique ESG venture that represents the first ever effort to provide the infrastructure, collaboration tools, and incentives needed to enable and encourage peer-reviewed science, focused on complex public health and environmental issues, on a massive scale. Our vision is to create a world where multi-disciplinary teams of scientists and subject-matter experts collaborate to conduct peer-reviewed scientific research that finds defective or harmful products and by-products and prevents them from ending up in the hands of consumers, being exposed to workers in occupational settings, and harming the environment.

With impressive investment from the reinsurance industry and support from the scientific community, Lifeguard.org has the opportunity to build a web application for our growing waitlist of users across disciplines, geographies, and expertise. This project will enable the efforts of our technical development team to be augmented with additional software development talent, so that we can accelerate our time to market to release our web application.

Stage Comptabilité intégration ERP

Le stagiaire comptabilité et intégration SGI sera responsable de réviser les procédures comptables actuelles, de pousser la réflexion au niveau de l’amélioration des processus en vue d’optimiser l’intégration du nouveau système de gestion intégré et d’assister lors de la migration et l’intégration de ce système dans les opérations de l’entreprise. Il sera impliqué dans la réflexion et le développement et l’implantation des nouveaux tableaux de bord. Finalement, il sera responsable la passation des savoirs et des procédures pour l’impartition des tâches opérationnelles comptables vers un service externe. Le projet aura comme focus l’innovation dans les façons de faire et l’optimisation des processus afin de solidifier la croissance d’EcoloPharm.