Innovative Projects Realized

Séjour de recherche au Berlin Center for Humanities and Social Change

Le Center for Humanities and Social Change (HSC) de l’Université Humboldt est un centre de recherche dirigé par la professeure
Rahel Jaeggi qui étudie les relations entre les crises du système capitaliste et les défis contemporains de la démocratie. Dans le cadre de la Maîtrise en philosophie et du Diplôme complémentaire en études allemandes dans le contexte européen, je suis invité à effectuer un séjour de recherche dans ce centre. Durant ce séjour, j’étudierai le développement du concept philosophique de « contradiction » dans l’œuvre du penseur allemand Karl Marx et je rédigerai un mémoire de philosophie sur le même sujet.
Effectuer cette recherche au HSC enrichira grandement mon travail, puisque ce concept est utilisé par Karl Marx notamment pour comprendre les crises qui affectent la société capitaliste ainsi que la transition possible vers une société plus équitable et plus démocratique. Plus précisément, ce séjour de recherche qui me donnera accès aux bibliothèques et aux fonds d’archives de l’Université Humboldt ainsi qu’aux colloques de spécialistes en philosophie critique allemande mettra à ma disposition des ressources précieuses pour mener à terme mon projet de recherche.

Expanded Marketing and Publicity for On Cue Performance Hub Productions

The application ensures that a PhD student (Critical Performance and Creative Writing) gains opportunities suited to pursuing a career in publicity within the creative industry. Poised to enter the job market but (due to COVID) lacking the necessary real-world experience to be competitive, by linking with On Cue, this doctoral student will be given valuable opportunities to learn on the job in a dynamic working environment made up of culturally diverse performing artists (dance, music, theatre, and spoken word) who need to market their work in order to earn a living. The publicist will work closely with On Cue’s Steering Committee to set in motion the marketing strategy developed in the context of our Business Plan (developed also by a BSI intern). The intern will be a critical lynch-pin in familiarizing the community with the new organization; generating strong audiences for the first full season of live performance and on demand video releases; and expanding audiences beyond the older, white and financially well-off individuals who dominate audiences at most live performing arts events.

The impact of women-led market networks on the sustainability of global fish

My proposed project intends to investigate the export of dagaa (dried fish) from the African Great Lakes to Canada. My research examines the ecological impacts, the consumption patterns, and sustainability of both ends of the dried fish value chain. This builds on my doctoral research which looked at the sustainability of fisheries-based livelihoods on Lake Tanganyika. Now I wish to expand this to Lake Victoria, the borders of which are shared by Tanzania, Congo, Uganda and Kenya, and to include in the analysis, the economic activities of sub-Saharan African migrants to Canada. The transnational networks of this trade have been built by women. Research into these activities will shed light on the growing importance of this trade in various retail markets in Canada and how these networks shape consumer preferences. Thus, the project will link economic development in Africa, the need for natural resource conservation, and the potential problems of long-term sustainability of the fisheries resources of the African Great Lakes. One element of this project will investigate the potential substitution of Canadian-sourced fish to meet the demands of this market.

Operations & Communications Lead – 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 operations and communications talent, so that we can accelerate our time to market to release our web application.

Observations of atmospheric stability and threedimensionalturbulence for wind energy developmentapplications

In 2012, wind energy in Canada grew by nearly 20% and wind is expected to supply 20% of Canada’s electricity by 2025. Accurate measurement of the wind resource is essential for future wind energy development but current wind resource assessment practices do not adequately measure atmospheric turbulence or stability. These variables affect average windn speeds, wind energy turbine performance, and energy production. The research proposed here will deploy advanced instrumentation (a 3-d sonic anemometer) to provide highresolution measurements of 3-d atmospheric turbulence and stability. These measurements have potential to improve wind speed models and reduce uncertainties in energy production estimates at a proposed wind energy production site in British Columbia.

Immersive experience with object recognition at the Museum of fine arts

To discover how art connects us to our cultural heritage is to understand the world and our place in it. Our content platform, Cilia, is designed to allow visitors to use artificial intelligence (A.I.) based object recognition in order to obtain content about an artwork or artifact. A prototype has been successfully tested with visitors, during this Mitacs we will develop an artwork recognition engine that can work in a web browser to enhance its accessibility and portability.

Tastet – Optimisation des processus

Tastet est une plateforme de recommandations de bonnes adresses ainsi qu’un média spécialisé. Nous faisons rayonner la culture gastronomique du Québec et la soutenons tous les jours. Aucun restaurant, café ou bar ne paie pour apparaître sur notre site, par souci d’intégrité et de transparence. Nous devons donc optimiser nos processus afin de pouvoir nous implanter dans d’autres villes. Avec la situation extrêmement précaire des restaurants en raison de la pandémie, ainsi que le milieu des médias qui est également en grande difficulté, comme la fermeture du Magazine Voir l’année dernière en a tristement témoigné, il est impératif pour Tastet d’améliorer ses processus afin de satisfaire les attentes commerciales de ses partenaires et ainsi poursuivre sa mission d’expansion.

Exploring the Facilitators and Barriers to using Food Industry-Initiated Knowledge Translation Activities among Registered Dietitians: A Qualitative Study

Research continues to suggest that there is a strong association between literacy and health. Health literacy requires writing and reading skills, as well as general health knowledge. Unfortunately, printed patient education materials are often written at higher reading levels with technical and/or dense texts that are not easily understood by people with low literacy levels.
Working with the Canadian Sugar Institute (CSI), this project aims to assess nutrition education tools that center on the topic of “sugar and health”. We will conduct a mixed-methods study that uses validated surveys to assess the acceptability of a selection of nutrition education tools. Interested registered dietitians (n=35-45) will be recruited to participate in focus group discussions where barriers and facilitators to using the tools in practice will be explored. Data analysis will determine how to modify the tools which will translate into a “resource checklist”. Results from this study will inform the creation of a series of recommendations to CSI on how to improve their resources.

Gestion sécuritaire des données d’une solution de maintenance préventive utilisant des capteurs intelligents

Nous sommes une jeune entreprise québécoise qui offre une solution de capteur assistant la maintenance prédictive. Le projet vise à développer des capteurs spécialisés et les mettre en application pour le suivi d’équipement des manufacturiers alimentaires. Grace à la capacité des capteurs d’utiliser l’intelligence artificielle pour l’auto-apprentissage, nous nous démarquons de nos compétiteurs par la simplification significative dans l’installation et l’utilisation du système.

De-Palletizer for Stacked Rubber Strands (“Wig-Wag”)

In this project, we will solve a challenging material handling problem encountered by our industry partner in a labour-intensive step of their production process, which will help compensate for current and future personnel shortages and enable expansion of production. The main challenges in this project include object detection, grasping and manipulation of heavy material, and integration into an existing production process that is currently heavily dependent on manual labour and expertise.

The material to be handled in this process is a thick, wide rubber strand that arrives at the station in a folded pile on a palette, called wig-wag, with one irregularly-shaped free end exposed at the top of the stack. This project requires the successful detection, grasping, movement, and insertion of the irregular free end of the wig-wag into an existing machine to continue the production process. There are several key challenges in this project related to the detection and handling of the wig-wag.

First, the shape, position, and orientation of the free end of the wig-wag must be detected, which will require either the modification of an earlier production step to include labelling or advanced optical sensing (e.g., laser, infrared, video) to sense it directly.

Printing Ideas: Prototyping Interior Design Solutions with 3D Printers

This research attempts to find the best 3D printing technology and 3D printing material (filament) that matches with a local urban community’s demand for customized interior design solutions, including furniture, tailored walls, personalized partitions, lamps and decorative elements. By investigating proper hardware and technology for public use, this research will foster the culture of creativity and will help communities find 3D printable solutions to improve the quality of their built environment. The partner company can use this research to establish a 3D printer center that is capable to respond to the local community’s demand in building customized and affordable interior design solutions.

Toronto Recognition Audit”: Examining Representation in the Public Realm

Toronto City Council received a petition signed by close to 14,000 individuals calling for Dundas Street to be renamed, citing its namesake Henry Dundas’ role in delaying the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The petition has led to a broader review of how the City commemorates public figures and events in place names, monuments, and other civic assets. This project is known as the “Recognition Review” and seeks to understand who or what is represented in the public realm in Toronto; uncover how systemic racism may be embedded in monuments and the naming of civic properties; and inform strategies to create public spaces that are more welcoming, inclusive, and reflective of Toronto’s rich diversity, culture and heritage. It is not clear what voices are not well represented in our monuments and memorials which means our collective history might be misinformed.
The proposed project sets out to undertake a “Recognition Audit” to better understand the histories that are represented in Toronto’s monuments, street and place names. Researchers will examine a mix of primary and secondary sources to identify and classify themes represented in the public realm along with gaps in representation.