Innovative Projects Realized

Trends, opportunities and adaptive strategies in the natural fiber market

As the consumption of cigarettes declines in North America and Europe market, a company that specializes in manufacturing specialty papers is seeking new opportunities with its natural fiber productions. This research intends to identify new market trends and opportunities for natural fibers in the competitive environment; provide a comprehensive analysis in worldwide natural fiber industries; and to develop strategies by applying marketing segmentation strategy and differentiation strategy to respond to the market. This research benefits the partner company as it analyzes market demand for their product. The Partner expects the result of this study to reinforce their vision in the production of advanced materials from crops in the Prairies like Flax and Hemp. TO BE CONT’D

The Benefits of Understanding Information Behaviour and Cognition for Data Mining: A Case Study in France

The pilot project aims to study the relations between information behaviours (searching and retrieving information and also communications) and cognitive process in Rennes, France. Naturalistic observation, daily interaction with the public, and unstructured/semi-structured interviews will enrich knowledge in information behaviour and analyze trend. The expected outcomes include a holistic recognition of the relations among IT products, information behaviour, and cognitive process and how the social and cultural realities may explain some trends and characteristics. Findings will contribute to data mining in terms of better understanding data by understanding human behaviours and better designing in order to organize data. Future research includes an international comparison of information behaviour between France and Canada. Moreover, knowledge and techniques learned from this project can be applied to many areas, such as informing the Canadian governments to understand behaviour in order to more effectively use and manage IT products in the long run.

Expert Gestures for Multi-touch Interaction

Modern smartphones and tablets, and many notebook computers rely on multitouch interaction to augment keyboard and mouse input. Multi-touch gestures typically consists of taps and swipes – simple gestures that don’t exploit the full range of technical and human capabilities. In earlier work, we determined that users are willing to learn expert-level gestures, but often find them difficult to discover and challenging to learn without formal training. However, when an expert version of a standard gesture is demonstrated, they are willing to adopt and use it.

Our proposed research explores two questions:
1. How can we make these gestures more discoverable, so that users are aware of them?
2. Once users are aware of them, are expert-gestures more effective at solving common tasks?

We will implement three expert-gestures which are improvements on standard pinch-to-zoom. We will run a controlled study where users need to (a) discoverability and notification mechanisms, to help users discover these gestures, and (b) use these gestures to perform common tasks (e.g. map navigation or drawing) to determine their effectiveness.

A Novel approach for Renal Cell Carcinoma Classification Using Vascular, Morphological and Spatial Information

Kidney cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. The number of patients with kidney cancer is increasing every year due to aging of the population, obesity, diet, and lifestyle. The death rate due to kidney cancer is also increasing despite the introduction of new and advanced detection devices; also these methods are expensive, time consuming, subjective and might result in under/over treatment. We plan to develop cheap, fast and reliable methods to classify normal vs. kidney cancer and cancer sub-types. Our method makes the classification decision based on information from tissue structure and comparison with normal tissue. Success with this work will significantly improve assessing kidney tissue and provide clinically important information about the kidney tissue structure. Moreover, we envision that this method can be generalized to detection of another cancer types.

The prevention of gender-based violence among school-aged adolescents: a nursing educational intervention

The project aims at contributing to the reduction of gender-based violence amongst adolescent boys and girls attending schools in cities such as Hyderabad. To do so, the knowledge, attitudes and practices of community health nurses and school teachers will be explored in relation to gender roles, healthy relationships and gender-based violence. The way they conceive their professional identity regarding these issues will also be adressed. Through selected literature, practices to promote gender equality and healthy relationships will be identified in order to implement a pilot educational intervention by community health nurses working in the school setting of cities such as Hyderabad. The project also hopes to contribute to the larger development of primary health care nursing in India as well as the advancement of the nursing profession by mobilizing the full potential of the nurse clinician through the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Nursing’s 8 competencies framework (2015). The project will be conducted by Sandrine Chauveau-Sauvé, senior undergraduate nursing student and will be co-supervised by Professor Bilkis Vissandjee at University of Montreal and Dr. Varalakshmi Manchana at University of Hyderabad.

Évaluation environnementale d’une approche multifilières dédiée à la valorisation des matières résiduelles organiques

Le projet proposé s’inscrit dans un contexte de préservation de la qualité de l’eau en misant initialement sur une approche préventive basée sur une mise en valeur des rejets altérant les milieux récepteurs plutôt que sur une approche curative (traitement). L’étude portera sur le cas de la municipalité de Miahuatlán (région de Xalapa, Mexique). Le projet vise à établir, dans un premier temps, une cartographie des gisements de matières résiduelles organiques en fonction des différentes classes de générateurs (élevage, laiterie, fromagerie, municipal, etc.). Par la suite, il s’agit d’identifier des filières de valorisation potentiellement applicables (production de fertilisants, énergie, sous-produits industriels) afin d’établir des scénarios soit à filière unique ou multifilières. Ces scénarios seront évalués sur la base d’une analyse multicritère afin d’évaluer leur potentiel à répondre aux enjeux environnementaux (rejets détournés des milieux récepteurs) et socio-économiques (identification de synergies entre acteurs du territoire et création potentiel de valeur économique).

Development of Tar Removal Technologies for Biomass Gasification

Nowadays, the sustainable supply of energy is challenging due to growing concerns over climate change and increasing global demands. This leads to an urgent need for developing sustainable and renewable biofuels and bioenergy. Biomass gasification is a very promising route for bioenergy production. However, syngas from this process normally contains unacceptable level of tar. Tar can cause operational issues in syngas downstream applications. Hence, the elimination of tar has been the biggest obstacle in the successful commercialisation of the biomass gasification technology. The key aspects this study are the determination of the key and optimized design parameters for different tar removal techniques and the performance test of these techniques. In addition, it is expected that this project will deliver a new combined tar removal technology that will be able to effectively remove tar from syngas. TO BE CONT’D

Conception d’un véhicule autopropulsé

Les mesures géophysiques dans les galeries souterraines et en forage permettent d’accroître la profondeur d’investigation en tirant profit des connaissances géologiques et géophysiques de surface. Il y a plusieurs limitations qui ont freiné l’application des techniques géophysiques en forage ; notamment les forages subhorizontaux rendent l’avancement de sonde difficile. L’objectif de notre étude est à concevoir un véhicule autopropulsé flexible pour déplacer dans les deux sens (vers le fond et vers la surface) la sonde géophysique dans un trou de forage subhorizontal, dans les conditions environnementales imprécises et agressives, l’espace confiné.

The Effects of a Deep Pressure Therapy Device on Anxiety, Attention, andBehaviour

The purpose of this research project is to test the effects of an inflatable garment (vest) for providing Deep Pressure Therapy to children with autism spectrum disorders and other health disorders. The vest provides overall, evenly distributed pressure to the torso, and pressure can be adjusted through a pump and monitored through a pressure sensor. We are interested in how the vest will affect a child’s anxiety, attention, and inhibition, and their general behaviour. We will measure physiological, subjective, and performance-based measures of distress, attention, and behaviour, and compare these measures when children are wearing the vest, when they are not wearing the vest, and when they are wearing the vest in its inactive form (deflated). We will be testing children with autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Optimisation du remblai en pâte cimenté selon la zone minéralisée de la mine Westwood

L’exploitation souterraine par la méthode de la charge concentrée ou VCR (vertical crater retreat) consiste en la création d’un vide qu’on vient par la suite remplir par un matériau constitué d’un mélange de résidus miniers, d’un agent liant (ciment) et de l’eau. Ce matériau est appelé remblai en pâte cimenté. Ce dernier doit développer une résistance mécanique suffisante à partir d’un certain temps de cure qui correspond au temps du cycle de minage. La résistance mécanique développée par le remblai dépend de la quantité et du type de l’agent liant utilisé, de la quantité et la qualité de l’eau, ainsi que des caractéristiques physiques et minéralogiques des résidus miniers. Il a été observé pour le remblai de la mine Westwood une baisse de la résistance. L’objectif du présent projet et d’analyser les caractéristiques des résidus miniers afin d’expliquer et de pouvoir prédire une éventuelle baisse de cette résistance.

Instrumentation de deux chantiers à remblayer à la mine Westwood et suivi des mesures

Les gisements profonds sont exploités selon différentes méthodes de minage dépendamment de la qualité de la roche encaissante. Une des méthodes d’exploitation en souterrain la plus sécuritaire et la plus fiable est la méthode par chambre remblayée. Elle consiste à remblayer la chambre (chantier ouvert) qui contenait le minerai. Le remblai minier le plus efficace est le remblai en pâte cimenté constitué d’un mélange des résidus fins, d’un agent liant et d’eau. Ces ingrédients sont utilisés à des proportions prescrites afin d’obtenir une résistance visée. Ce remblai est préparé en surface à l’usine et transporté par pipelines jusqu’aux chantiers visés pour remplissage. Ce remplissage peut se faire en continue ou en différé selon la confiance que portent les ingénieurs aux barricades rocheuses de retenue du remblai. Nos instruments installés serviront à mesurer les pressions dans ce remblai et à proximité des barricades dans le but d’améliorer la sécurité des chantiers.

Microgrid Protection Design Investigation using Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop

The electric power grid in Canada provides energy to the country. In order to provide more reliable power, to include more clean energy and to supply energy to remote Canadian communities, part of the power grid may be required to operate autonomously. At the distribution level, microgrids, which can be isolated from the main grid, are being deployed for this purpose. Protection schemes in microgrids are very different to those in conventional grids. This project deals with the design and deployment of microgrid protection schemes. It uses real-time simulators to investigate and test microgrid fault scenarios in a cost effective, time-saving and safe manner. Realistic microgrid protection scheme will be proposed to solve the major protection challenges. The industrial partner will be in a position to make available microgrid protection schemes to developers, owners and operators of microgrids.