Innovative Projects Realized

Anti-Fouling and Anti-Fibrotic 3D Bioinks for Printing Implantable Tissue Constructs

While 3D printing has been hyped as the solution to the current shortage of organs available for implantation, the very limited scope of hydrogel-based “inks” that are available to print an implant has limited the practical implementation of 3D printing in regenerative medicine. In this project, we will combine the materials expertise of the Hoare lab at McMaster University in the design of spontaneously-gelling hydrogels that quickly convert from liquid-like materials to gels upon mixing and the printing expertise of Aspect Biosystems, a rapidly-growing Vancouver-based company that has developed a unique microfluidic 3D printer ideally suited to print spontaneously-gelling hydrogels, to develop new bioinks that can support high-resolution printing, high cell viability, and significantly improved tissue compatibility and stability in the body following implantation. The successful execution of this project will result in at least 1-2 candidate bioink designs that can be marketed by Aspect Biosystems to its printer customers as well as used internally for creating implantable regenerative therapie

A systematic characterisation of galactic planetary nebulae with a novel Fourier transfrom spectrograph

Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, making them perfect laboratories to study galaxy
formation and evolution. This evolution is closely influenced by the environment of a galaxy and sometimes, when two galaxies
are so close to one another, a merging event unfolds. Such an event leaves long lived fossil records in the outer part of the
resulting galaxy, detectable long after the merging took place. Thus, the main goal of my internship project is to use a special kind
of celestial object, i.e. planetary nebulae, to probe the population of stars inside galaxies as well as the merging history of these
galaxies. This will be done using data from a large sample of galaxies taken by the Canada-France-Hawai’i telescope. The
expected outcome of my project is to write a scientific paper showing the results found regarding the link between the properties
of planetary nebulae with the properties of the stars in the perspective of merger histories.

Drivers of Time to Resolution and the COVID-19 Pandemic

ATB conducts enterprise-wide stress tests regularly in line with regulatory requirements such as for the annual Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) and for quarterly reporting purposes. This requires forecasting a conditional pro-forma financial statement over a three-year period and the resulting key risk ratios. Credit losses tend to have the largest impact under most scenarios but an important secondary factor is the expected changes to net interest income. As more loans move from performing to non-performing it can have an important impact on net interest income because the times to resolution can vary with the business cycle and other economic factors. There is both a funding cost and a capital cost that has to be absorbed by the organization as the backlog increases. The focus of this project is to analyze the relationship between the business cycle, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the time to resolution using different survival analysis modelling approaches and machine learning methods.

Modélisation et caractérisation à la pression atmosphérique de lentilles électrostatiques à focalisation forte de type quadripolaire

Le projet de maîtrise consiste à faire l’essai d’un certain type de lentilles électroniques spécialisées, appelées lentilles à focalisation forte, que sont les lentilles quadripolaires électrostatiques. Ces lentilles sont généralement utilisées dans des appareils analytiques comme les microscopes électroniques, les spectromètres de masses, les accélérateurs de particules qui fonctionnent tous à de très basses pressions. L’élément particulier de ce projet est celui d’opérer ces lentilles à la pression atmosphérique et d’en découvrir les caractéristiques opérationnelles afin de pouvoir les utiliser dans certaines sources ioniques qui elles aussi opèrent à la pression atmosphérique, dans le but d’augmenter leur luminosité. L’entreprise Phytronix fabrique une source ionique de ce type et désire à améliorer son produit. L’essai d’un doublet ou d’un triplet optique sera au coeur des expériences qui seront effectuées. C’est dans un mode pointe-plan d’une décharge couronne que seront effectuées les mesures de focalisation de ces lentilles quadripolaires.

Décrire l’expérience de décision partagée de diverses parties prenantes entourant la question de cesser ou poursuivre un traitement antipsychotique après 18 mois de suivi chez la clientèle de premier épisode psychotique

Le premier épisode de psychose, un trouble du cerveau qui entraine une perte de contact avec la réalité, survient généralement au début de l’âge adulte. Les médicaments de type antipsychotiques sont très efficaces pour traiter les symptômes de la psychose, mais une fois le contrôle des symptômes obtenus, ces médicaments servent plutôt de police d’assurance pour éviter les rechutes. La poursuite ou non de ce type de médicament à long terme fait l’objet d’une controverse parce que la balance risque-bénéfice à long terme est incertaine dans certains cas. Cette étude mise à explorer l’expérience des patients et de leurs proches concernant la décision de cesser ou poursuivre ces médicaments, de voir leur niveau d’implication dans celle-ci et de mesurer leur confort suite à la décision. Ce projet vise ultimement à améliorer les services et les soins en santé mentale ce qui s’inscrit directement dans les objectifs de la Fondation CERVO.

Automation of task sequencing and allocation

The National Bank of Canada (BNC) is integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in their software development processes. Within their software projects, the team is continuously improving solutions and integrating them within the organization. A key issue in the development and integration cycle is allocating team resources to different tasks. Short-term development tasks (completed under “sprints” in the agile development terminology) can be assigned to different team members based on factors such as current workload, skillset, experience and interests. These factors are manually collected to optimize task sequencing and allocation.
The goal of this project is to automate the integration of such factors into the current project management toolset at BNC. The project will utilize machine learning techniques to learn from previously completed tasks and propose a decision support system that recommends the most suitable team members to be allocated for each specific task.

Mechano-chemically and microwave-assisted catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of sugar alcohols to polymer components

Sugar alcohols such as Xylitol and Sorbitol are an abundant and renewable carbon resource obtained from plant-generated sugars and starches or – preferably – the breakdown of (hemi-)cellulose into the soluble sugars Xylose and Glucose. Already established industrial processes currently running at > 2 million tons/year allow the facile conversion of these sugar to the corresponding C5 (xylitol) and C6 (sorbitol) sugar alcohols. The linear carbon-chain structure of these sugar alcohols predisposes them for conversion to the corresponding alpha,omega-diols 1,5-pentane-diol and1,6-hexanediol, which can be directly used in polyesters (fabrics) and polyurethanes (foams) and, with further modification, in polyamides (Nylon) displacing the non-renewable fossil hydrocarbon (i.e., crude oil) based feedstocks. This goal is however contingent on developing new green chemistry that uses a catalytic process to selectively remove the oxygen atoms connected to the internal carbons in the sugar alcohols, while leaving the terminal oxygens in place.

Sales and Marketing Internship

Market research – Research North American and European cannabis industry / Bee and honey products and by-products (food products, lipbalms, topicals, etc.), identify price points, competitors, target consumers, consumer needs and preferences. Intern will gather as much information as possible from online sources as possible.

Sales Approach – Identifying and contacting retailers (NL Cannabis, OCS, etc.), advertising cannabis/hemp and bee/honey products, selling product, work with “white label” processing companies. Based on this, intern will recommend the most innovative and relevant sales approach to be used.

This project will benefit our business in terms of providing an innovation-based approach for us to enter the market. It will involve identifying our target consumers, determining market values for our products, defining market price points (low-high), selecting appropriate rates/unit, and determining effective and efficient marketing/advertising strategies. The overall objective for this project is to sell quality cannabis/hemp and bee/honey products for top market value and expand into new markets.

Understanding and managing the contraction of infrastructure for internal combustion engine vehicles

The transportation sector is responsible for 25% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to address climate change by electrifying transportation will reduce the demand for gasoline and diesel fuels. At some point in the decline internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle owners will face the same challenges that have plagued electric and hydrogen vehicle owners – namely insufficient fueling infrastructure to allow for convenient operation of the vehicles. This raises a number of potential issues, from the risk of stranded assets for owners of the ICE vehicles, to implications for land use planning for gasoline station locations, that will require policy interventions. This project will examine the process of contraction of gasoline station infrastructure to build a better understanding of how the contraction will progress, identifying potential risks and laying out solutions the Transition Accelerator can develop to manage the transition.

« Partir ou rester: Comprendre l’immobilité climatique et les populations « coincées » aux Etats-Unis ». / Trapped Populations’ in The United States: Understanding Climate Immobility and The Reluctance to Relocate

Ce projet de recherche porte sur l’immobilité climatique et vise à comprendre pourquoi les personnes les plus vulnérables aux changements climatiques ne se déplacent pas toujours, malgré l’intense dégradation de leurs lieux de vie. À travers le cas du sud de la Louisiane, cette recherche s’interroge sur les conditions politiques, économiques, idéologiques et émotionnelles de l’adaptation et de la mitigation des risques climatiques. Nous employons une méthodologie qualitative axée sur un travail d’observations de terrain, d’entrevues, et d’analyses de textes de lois et de documents gouvernementaux. Nous cherchons à identifier l’impact des pratiques de l’Etat et des institutions sur la manière dont les louisianais perçoivent leur propre vulnérabilité et s’adaptent aux changements climatiques, pour comprendre les fondements de l’immobilité dans son contexte.

Actualisation du guide de mise en marché de la musique québécoise francophone (MQF)

Le guide de mise en marché de la musique québécoise (Guide MQF) consiste en une vaste étude de marché visant à permettre aux responsables de la commercialisation de musique enregistrée et de spectacles musicaux en français de bien cerner les habitudes de consommation de musique des Québécois et Québécoises dans le but de maximiser leur stratégie de mise en marché.

L’organisme partenaire, l’ADISQ tirera parti des connaissances et de l’expertise d’un étudiant qui viendra remplir des mandats ponctuels dans les diverses étapes devant mener à cette nouvelle mouture du guide MQF. Ensuite, cette collaboration permettra à l’ADISQ de bénéficier de l’expertise en recherche propre au milieu universitaire pour enrichir sa réflexion autour de la démarche et développer de nouvelles perspectives sur les problématiques de commercialisation à l’origine du projet.

Pour l’UQTR, cette collaboration avec l’ADISQ permet d’offrir une expérience terrain à un étudiant et d’enrichir la réflexion de ce dernier grâce à une expérience tangible. Elle lui offre l’occasion de tisser un réseau de contacts qui lui permettra de disposer d’une meilleure cartographie du milieu, ce qui aura un impact considérable sur sa perspective de l’écosystème musical québécois et sur les enjeux qui préoccupent ses acteurs, auxquels son projet de maîtrise souhaite proposer des pistes de réponse.

Evaluating St. Lawrence River waves and shoreline erosion with application to fish habitat

Large ships routinely pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway. These ships generate waves that could exacerbate erosion of the St. Lawrence River shoreline. This research project will measure waves continuously during a shipping season and simultaneously measure turbidity of the nearshore water to link ship waves to sediment mobilization events. Bank line recession rates will also be monitored using high resolution surveying techniques. Sites with and without exposure to ship waves will be sampled to distinguish erosion due to ship waves versus other river erosion processes. The outcomes of this research will provide greater insight into St. Lawrence River sediment transport processes, which the River Institute has been researching for many years.