Innovative Projects Realized

Helicopter Wake Modeling and its Interaction with Pesticide Droplet Transport

MISSING!!

The objective of the research to be conducted under the present research grant is the development of a CFD based model of a helicopter wake for the purpose of tracking pesticide droplet
transport. The fluid velocity field, once obtained, can be used for tracking spray releases for an unlimited number of combinations of droplet size spectrum, volume flow rate, or spray boom design. Helicopters fly at low altitude and low speeds (compared to fixed wing aircraft), they often apply herbicides in the form of relatively large droplets, and they have a very strong rotor downwash that has a significant influence on droplet deposition. As a consequence, computing the trajectory of the spray droplets released from a helicopter pushes the idealized assumptions that are used in the AGDISP model to its limits and beyond. Hence the helicopter problem is an excellent application for high order modelling approaches. The computational model to be developed under this research grant will be based on the Reynolds Average Navier Stokes (RANS) formulation. Air turbulence in the wake of the aircraft will be determined using a Reynolds Stress based turbulence model (RSM).

Project Pennyworth

The project shall improve the status reporting and process compliant working within automotive embedded projects by connecting and automating existing tools, procedures and solutions.

Synthesis, characterization and In-vivo measurement of bone-seeking metal oxide nanoparticles

Dynamic bone turnover is associated with most bone disease, such as stress fractures (e.g., tibial shin splints), often seen in athletes and new military recruits. The key to successful diagnosis and treatment of bone stress fractures is early detection by diagnosis of excessive bone turnover. However, measuring bone metabolism using medical imaging is challenging, and usually only obtainable using radionuclide tracers, which are expensive and involve patient exposure to ionizing radiation. Thus, a non-ionizing alternative to accurately diagnose bone metabolism would be of enormous value. We have developed a new class of bone-targeting imaging tracers based on metal oxide nanoparticles, for use in imaging of bone turnover with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Similar to classical radionuclide bone scans, our novel contrast agent uses a chemical “bone hook” to impart bone-seeking properties, but replaces the former radioisotope with non-ionizing metal oxide nanoparticles. Our novel imaging tracer will greatly improve the diagnosis and management of bone stress fractures, during the same visit to the sports medicine clinic, without the need for referral to the hospital nuclear medicine department for a follow up radionuclide bone scan.

InvestorCOM Marketing Analyst

The Marketing Intern will assist with generating awareness of InvestorCOM’s regulatory compliance platform in the US and Canada.

Federal Nutrition Policy and Advocacy

The Heart & Stroke Foundation (Heart & Stroke, H & S) is a Canadian charitable organization that actively engages in advocacy, education, and funding, and has been dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke (HDS) for over 60 years. These diseases combined are the number one cause of premature death in Canada.1 Diet is one of the main determinants of HDS, with consistently poor nutrition over a number of years significantly increasing the likelihood of occurrence. Strategies for preventing HDS that include targeting younger populations have strong potential for being effective.2 H & S is a founding member of the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition (SM2K), which aims to build awareness about the effects of food and beverage marketing to children in Canada.3 The practicum student will support the work of the coalition, including taking a lead in the coordination of the Youth M2K Coalition’s advocacy and engagement activities. The student will also support policy research and provincial nutrition priorities. Currently, no clear theory of change for organizing the public to engage in healthy public policy development and advocacy exists in Canada.

Développement d’une plateforme d’accompagnement au loisir autonome en plein air destinée aux personnes ayant des incapacités

L’Association Régionale de Loisir pour Personnes Handicapées (ARLPH) de la Capitale-Nationale souhaite développer une plateforme de ressources et de jumelage destinées aux personnes ayant des incapacités et à des accompagnateurs afin de rendre plus accessible la réalisation d’activités physiques récréatives de plein air par les PAI. L’ARLPH de la Capitale-Nationale s’est associée avec des chercheurs du Centres interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et intégration sociale du CIUSSS de la capitale-Nationale pour développer et évaluer cette plateforme. Le projet proposé suivra une approche de recherche-action, c’est-dire une approche qui vise à mener, en étroite collaboration avec un ou des partenaires, en parallèle et de manière imbriquée l’acquisition de connaissances scientifiques et des actions concrètes et transformatrices sur le terrain. C’est ainsi que l’équipe de recherche et des représentant de l’ARLPH de la Capitale-Nationale identifieront les facteurs à considérer pour le développement de la plateforme, implanteront la plateforme, exploreront le processus d’implantation de la plateforme et ses effets, et enfin étendront la portée de la plateforme.

Développement d’une stratégie de gestion des actifs Cintech

En raison d’une croissance qui n’est pas constaté qu’en terme de RH mais bien d’actifs divers l’organisation doit se réorganiser et surtout bien se préparer pour valoriser cette période de grands changements. Si à une petite échelle la gestion des investissements en actifs est facile, il en est tout autre lorsqu’on parle d’investissement 5-10 fois plus grand que d’habitude, de façon constante et durable. Tout ceci représente la nécessité du développement d’une stratégie de gestion des actifs qui demeure à développer en totalité. L’efficience des actifs, la rentabilité de l’opération de ces derniers ainsi que la rotation à prévoir pour que l’organisation maintienne une attractivité et utilité maximale aux yeux de ses clientes, les PME, est conditionné par ses employés et ses actifs.

Conversion web de la solution IsoVision

IsoVision est reconnue comme un joueur de calibre international dans le domaine des solutions logicielles intégrées de gestion de l’excellence, de la qualité, de l’environnement, du développement durable et de la santé et sécurité.
Depuis quelques années, IsoVision est confrontée à une rapide évolution des technologies vers le web et la mobilité. Le défi auquel elle doit faire face est donc la nécessité d’un modernisation par la migration rapide vers les nouvelles plate-formes technologiques.
La migration apportera non seulement une mise à niveau des technologies mais également de nouvelles opportunités d’innovation au sein de la solution.

Thales: Description d’images en Langage Naturel

L’interprétation des images dans le sens où on établit la relation et l’interaction des entités de ces images est une étape essentielle dans des tâches comme la description textuelle d’une image. Un graphe de scène est une façon bien positionnée pour établir cette information. Pour cette raison, ce projet proposé par Thales vise à explorer des méthodes pour transformer l’information d’un graphe de scène en texte de langage naturel utile pour supporter la tâche des préposés 9-1-1. Ce projet tentera également de regarder des méthodes pour exploiter l’information et les biais des scènes capturées dans le graphe de scène pour générer des descriptions textuelles avec des inférences contextuelles et des biais de langages.

Development of solutions for clothing consumption: reduction at the source and recycling of textile waste

It’s very likely that shoppers have experienced many choices when browsing their favorite clothing store, more than they can keep up with. Whether these clothes end up being bought or not, they are likely to have a similar fate, ending up in landfills as waste and contributing to climate change. An alternative to face this undesirable scenario proposed in this research project is to increase the life cycle of clothes through recycling. And for that, these clothes will be shredded in their fibers to be studied for possible new applications. For the partner organization, the main benefit is to increase its expertise in textile recycling, a different source of raw material and develop new applications.

Biosurfactants for Greener Consumer Products

Surfactants (including emulsifiers) are a group of molecules that are critical for the function of many industrial processes and commercial products. Conventional surfactants are produced from non-renewable sources (e.g., petroleum products), can persist in the environment for long periods of time, and can be toxic to various plants and animals. “Biosurfactants” are surfactants that are naturally produced by harmless bacteria and have the potential to provide the same functionality as conventional surfactants, while also being environmentally compatible. This project aims to enable and advance the use of these biosurfactants in place of conventional surfactants, which will result in cleaner technology over a wide range of commercial sectors.

Novel Specific Coagulant/Flocculant Pairs for Mineral Tailings Treatment

Water management and treatment of mineral tailings and oil sands tailings are becoming critical challenges for the sustainable development of natural resources exploration. Reclamation of these tailings is challenging due to a solid phase composed mainly by very fine particles and many other chemicals. With these characteristics, the tailings form a very stable colloidal system and needs to be stored in open ponds. If left untreated, these tailings take decades to settle the recovery of water and large areas occupied by the tailing’s ponds. Coagulation and flocculation have been used to promote the sedimentation of these particles and enable the separation of released water and solid sediments. Duo to its complex composition, there is no mature technology capable of effectively treating tailings and completely eliminating the use of tailings ponds. This project aims to develop an innovative method that selectively bridge the fine particles suspended in tailings, forming aggregates with low water retention, precipitating at the bottom of the pond.