Innovative Projects Realized

An Investigation into Travel Demand Management Policies for Land Development

Single occupancy vehicle travel leading to congestion in urban areas is a significant problem. Congestion has numerous economic, social, and environmental impacts that negatively impact the prosperity and vitality of an urban area. One method for counteracting these negative impacts is known as travel demand management (TDM). TDM is a broad set of strategies that work to improve the efficiency of the transportation system by prioritizing the efficient movement of people instead of motor vehicles. This project will investigate how effective a set of TDM policies are at reducing congestion for new urban developments to allow land developers to implement these strategies into their projects. This investigation will involve the use of a type of travel survey. The survey will collect information about respondents’ current travel patterns as well as how those travel patterns might shift in response to hypothetical scenarios. These scenarios will involve some or all the TDM strategies under investigation being implemented and then will ask how the respondents travel behaviour will change.

Les nouveaux contours de la demande dans le secteur de la restauration : exploration des changements de comportement des consommateurs après la crise de la COVID-19

La crise de la COVID-19 a frappé durement le secteur de la restauration au Québec. Les fermetures de salles et le télétravail ont conduit les consommateurs à adopter de nouvelles pratiques d’achat. En réponse, les restaurateurs ont adapté leurs offres et se tourner, notamment, vers la restauration livrée. La valeur que les consommateurs accordent à ce qu’ils achètent au restaurant s’est ainsi transformée.

Parmi ces changements, lesquels vont perdurer à la levée des restrictions?

Aujourd’hui, à l’aube de la sortie de crise, les restaurateurs ont besoin d’anticiper les évolutions de la demande à venir afin d’adapter au plus vite leurs modèles d’affaires à ce nouveau contexte et saisir les opportunités.

Cette étude s’appuie sur une enquête réalisée auprès de 800 consommateurs québécois, afin d’examiner les nouvelles caractéristiques de la demande pour les produits de la restauration, et de proposer des scénarios d’évolution possible des comportements, à court et moyen terme.

Assessing the effects of neurofeedback through a comprehensive systematic review

Recently, principles gleaned from research on learning have been applied to change people’s brains. Specifically, there is evidence that how the brain communicates can be changed through the application of positive and negative reinforcement, a concept known as neurofeedback. Importantly, researchers claim that by changing how the brain communicates, neurofeedback can change behaviour and reduce clinical symptoms. As these techniques have grown in popularity, companies such as Neurotech Forty have applied neurofeedback to serve Canadians. However, due to variations in research quality, it is difficult for companies to discern quality research and where true neurofeedback effects are present. In the present work, we will undertake a systematic investigation of the literature to determine where consistent neurofeedback effects lie and provide an assessment of the quality of this work. The review undertaken for Neurotech Forty will allow the company to produce scientifically sound neurofeedback services, which in turn will allow Neurotech Forty to remain innovative and cutting edge.

Leviers de changement pour une transition du secteur alimentaire canadien vers une offre de produits zéro déchet pour les consommateurs

Ce projet cherche à mieux comprendre les freins à l’intégration du zéro déchet (ZD) dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement et les solutions les plus appropriées pour l’ensemble des parties prenantes. Ce projet va permettre de:

1. identifier les leviers de transition pour l’implantation de solutions ZD dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement des aliments;
2. dresser une liste préliminaire des produits les mieux adaptés au ZD, de recommandations et de pistes de solutions;
3. ouvrir le débat entre les acteurs clés sur l’intégration de la hiérarchisation des déchets dans leurs pratiques.

La recherche comprend une recension de la littérature, un sondage et des entrevues de groupe semi-dirigées, l’observation d’une recherche-expérimentation par études de cas. L’étude aidera à développer des pistes de solutions concrètes adaptées aux besoins du consommateur et des épiceries et sans créer de déplacements d’impacts, ainsi que des recommandations de politiques publiques qui guideront le gouvernement dans ses programmes de formation et de soutien des consommateurs et détaillants alimentaires.

Developing cultivars for the plant-based sector in Quebec: Phase i – breeding program construction and agronomy trials

It is critical for farmers to have cultivars so that they can make decisions on the best practices to undertake when growing a new crop and maintain productivity and competitiveness in the marketplace. Pulse production is growing in demand and is an established market in Canada. In addition, plant based protein products are growing in popularity. We are working on developing a set of tools and information and varieties that will enable farmers to grow more pulses in Quebec. We will also determine basic agronomic parameters that will maximize crop yield and minimize risk of crop failure.

Geoscience Communication in British Columbia & Saskatchewan: Effectiveness of Place-based, K-12 Educational Resources for Educators and Students

The intent of this research is to increase accessibility for educational opportunities and identify best practices to weave Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Earth science educational resources in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. I hope to achieve this by 1) researching existing resources and their accessibility in B.C. and SK; 2) determining how readily applicable these resources are to teachers’ unique circumstances; 3) creating new or revised educational resources focusing on accessibility and Indigenous perspectives; and 4) evaluating the effectiveness of these resources using student’s and teacher’s feedback. Earth science is imperative to a well-rounded science education. By making it accessible to everyone, and inclusive to all, we can encourage greater interest and support for the Earth sciences.

Graph Representation Learning for Drug Discovery

Traditionally, drug discovery is a long and costly process, which consists of many stages and on average takes a total of more than 10 years, because it screens huge amount of drug candidates by conducting chemical and biological experiments which are expensive and time consuming.
This project aims to apply graph representation learning technologies to drug discovery. These technologies suit the drug domain since molecules can be well represented as graph structures. They can be used to predict the properties of drug candidates, to predict how to synthesize drug molecules, and to predict how to generate new drug candidates. All based on AI models that learns from large amount of drug molecule data that exists in the pharmaceutical industry, without conducting chemical experiments. Thus, it benefits the partner organization both in terms of reduced cost and shortened time required for discovering new drugs.

Éducation 4.0 axée sur le développement des compétences d’avenir.

La transition vers l’industrie 4.0 a amené avec elle un ensemble de bouleversements non seulement au niveau de l’activité économique, mais aussi au sein de la société. Afin d’évoluer dans cette nouvelle réalité, les individus ont besoin de nouvelles compétences non techniques. Ainsi, des adaptations sont indispensables au niveau de l’éducation et la formation
professionnelle, basées notamment sur une étroite collaboration entre les instituts d’enseignements et le milieu professionnel. En se basant sur les approches de l’éducation 4.0, les projets présentés dans cette demande proposeront des solutions innovantes afin de répondre à une problématique en lien avec la réalité de l’industrie 4.0 articulés autour de deux grands
volets : formation et sélection du personnel hautement qualifié et pédagogie ludoéducative des enfants. Une liste de recommandations basées sur les résultats de recherche va être adressée aux partenaires leur permettant de développer leurs outils numériques qui seront validés à partir des expériences-terrain.

Development of optimized contact materials for interconnect layers in reversible solid oxide fuel cells for the conversion of CO2 and H2O to syngas

SeeO2 Energy has developed world-leading catalysts for reversible solid oxide fuel cell (RSOFC) systems with promising performance to produce syngas from H2O:CO2 feeds. The company has scaled-up the technology and has moved closer towards commercialization by building larger cells. However, assembling the RSOFC stack presents challenges due to issues associated with contact materials especially at the oxygen side of interconnects. The contact material connects the respective electrodes and interconnect and provides high electrical conduction paths between the interconnect and electrodes. To this end, SeeO2 Energy has been working towards optimizing contact materials for use in assembling a RSOFC stack. Finding an optimized contact material for RSOFC stack is an important step towards commercialization. Proposed project aims to develop a highly electrically conductive, chemically and thermally stable contact material for RSOFC stack, which can facilitate long-term operation. The optimized contact material will fulfill following requirements: high electronic conductivity and matching thermal expansion coefficient values with other cell components, and appropriate sintering activity.

Novel Microwave Isolator

A microwave Isolator is a two-port device that acts as a unidirectional trap, protecting sensitive components in a system from signal reflection. It is analogous to the diode in a DC circuit or the check valve in a fluid-flow system. Isolators are commonplace in power amplifier, radar, antenna, and transceiver systems, making them essential in laboratory, commercial, military, and even space applications. Commercial isolators are offered as discrete devices in shield metal cans with limited isolation (10-25 dB, the larger, the better protection). Considering the bulk may be incompatible with today’s miniature products, we have proposed novel isolator prototypes based on the fundamentally different nonreciprocal scheme, which offers significantly higher isolation along with the compact size and cost-effectiveness. We plan to (USE WHAT METHODOLOGY) to optimize other performance characteristics (bandwidth, for instance) that make the prototype genuinely competitive with the current commercial devices available on the market.

Avian biodiversity in Earth’s most imperilled ecosystem, the tropical dry forest: innovative strategies for conservation monitoring of migratory and resident birds

The use of new monitoring technologies such as the Motus wildlife tracking system and autonomous recorders currently allow detection of animals and their movements in a variety of ecosystems. Although, the biology of migratory birds in northern latitudes is well understood, there is a lack of information on migration routes, stopovers, and overwinter sites in tropical regions. In this project, the intern will combine state-of-the-art tracking technologies with acoustic data in parallel to monitoring migratory and resident birds in a unique ecosystem: the tropical dry forest. The intern will install and maintain two Motus stations, record night flight calls of migratory birds, and diurnal songs of residents’ birds using autonomous recorders filling information gaps in Central America to inform further conservation actions. The intern will also test the recorders in creative ways, which will provide to Wildlife Acoustics data on sound meters performance in the tropics.

Modélisation CFD d’un éjecteur au CO2 transcritique intégré dans une pompe à chaleur

Le dioxyde de carbone (CO2) est un remplac?ant approprie? aux re?frige?rants conventionnels en raison de son impact limite? sur le changement climatique. Cependant, le cycle de compression au CO2 offre une faible performance thermodynamique en raison d’importantes pertes d’expansion associé au fonctionnement transcritique du système. Un e?jecteur est un dispositif avantageux qui permet d’utiliser le CO2 et d’autres re?frige?rants e?cologiques.
Le but de ce projet est d’approfondir la connaissance des structures d’e?coulement interne qui se produisent dans un e?jecteur supersonique. Plus pre?cise?ment, on se concentrera sur la conception d’un e?jecteur au CO2 transcritique diphasique inte?gre? dans une pompe a? chaleur, afin d’ame?liorer le coefficient de performance de l’ensemble du syste?me. L’analyse sera basée sur des calculs CFD, de la modélisation 1D et une campagne expérimentale.