Innovative Projects Realized

Co-investigating the utility of Radarsat Constellation Mission polarizations for SmartICE Inuit community ice travel safety maps

Inuit communities are reliant on sea ice travel to hunt and fish to get nutritious food and maintain their culture. Search and Rescue incidents are on the rise with changing sea ice conditions due to climate change. Information to support Inuit travel needs at community scales are currently limited in Inuit Nunangat (Simonee et al., 2021). To meet these needs SmartICE (www.smartice.org) has co-developed the Sikumik Qaujimajjuti program to build local Inuit expertise in satellite interpretation and digital mapping skills.
Due to polar darkness and cloud cover in Canada’s North, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery is widely used to monitor ice. Discriminating ice from open water in SAR is a known challenge. However, Canada’s Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) provides advanced imaging techniques, known as polarimetry, that shows promise for improving the interpretation of ice and open water in SAR imagery. This research will co-investigate with Inuit these advanced techniques for sea ice mapping at community scales, and co-develop culturally contextual training and workflows for the utilization of this imagery for Inuit SmartICE mappers.

Improving the monitoring of submerged aquatic vegetation using satellite remote sensing using machine learning and object-based image analysis

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) are important in aquatic ecosystems as they represent hotspots of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Earth observation technologies (EOT) constitute a cost-effective monitoring tool for environmental variables at large scales but their use in freshwater environmental monitoring remains limited because of the optical complexity of inland waters. This research develops and builds upon an innovative open-source machine learning and geographic object-based image analysis approach to characterize and map SAV. Associated field work performed near the Port of Montreal’s expansion site at Contrecoeur allows for research into how construction disturbances impact nutrients at the landscape level within the project and supports future SAV-related EOT developments. This research benefits the partner organization, Hatfield Consultants, in its work to develop EOT to support environmental variable monitoring in fluvial systems.

Risk-Informed Condominium Reserve Fund Study: from BIM-Based Performance Evaluation to Financial Planning

Current condo reserve fund studies use a lot of subjective judgment, many unrealistic assumptions, and a biased analysis horizon. As a result, many condo corporations have found their reserve fund inadequate to addressing the maintenance, repair and replacement needs of the common elements of the condo buildings they manage. The research project aims to change the current reserve fund study culture by developing a risk-informed approach established on solid assumptions and empirical data as well as condo owners’ risk aversion attitude in the determination of the condo fees and the optimal minimum reserve fund. The project will develop a practical Microsoft Excel-based computer application for condominium reserve fund studies.

Sensor technologies for cardiac arrest

Using simplified language understandable to a layperson, provide a general, one-paragraph description of the proposed research project to be undertaken by the intern(s) as well as the expected benefit to the partner organization. (100-150 words) In more than 75% of all Sudden Cardiac Arrests, no one is there to witness the event and call 9-1-1, and resultant survival is near 0%. Sudden Cardiac Arrest death is a significant and unrecognized epidemic in Canada, affecting over 20,000 people annually. We hypothesize that modelling the implementation of wearable sensors in the population will provide evidence that key clinical and system metrics in the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation system in British Columbia can be improved, and that such improvements will be worthwhile and cost-effective. We anticipate our models will forecast a significant increase in rates of survival to hospital discharge and survival with favourable neurological outcomes and will provide a framework for technology innovators and clinicians to develop clinical trials evaluating wearable sensors for impact on cardiac arrest outcomes.

Matching services to need in children with speech sound disorders: A Caregiver Administered Tool

Speech sound disorders (SSD) impact a child’s ability to accurately use the sounds of their language. Depending on the type or severity of the error(s), these disorders can be treated through a wide range of services which may include one-on-one or group sessions with a speech language pathologist. When children are referred for SSDs, health authorities are faced with the challenge of quickly matching an individual child’s need to the appropriate service. One way of accomplishing this is to initially group children based on basic information provided by their caregiver, instead of having each family wait for an in depth assessment by a speech language pathologist. The purpose of this research project is to develop a questionnaire that caregivers can complete when they have concerns about their children’s speech development. The tool will collect key indicators of the type and severity of the concern to quickly and efficiently match a child’s individual needs to the available services. The tool will be developed in consultation with content experts including researchers, speech language pathologists and caregivers. This project is being sponsored by Alberta Health Services, the health authority responsible for providing services to over 3 million Albertans.

Development of optimal joint strategies and an intelligent decision model for lockout/tagout, maintenance and production in a smart manufacturing context

This four-year research project aims to develop a strategic and operational implementation plan for an intelligent approach to integrate safety management processes of production systems in factories. Such safety protocol management is needed for e.g. equipment maintenance operations in manufacturing plants. The involved graduate students will develop novel safety management strategies using Artificial Intelligence, based on available, practical data. Two industrial partners in the field of manufacturing and safety management, Conformit and Cascades, will be involved in this study. Intelligent instruction and decision tools for joint safety management, production and maintenance optimization will be developed, implemented and validated using Cascades cardboard and paper plant as testbed.
The strong involvement of experts at both industrial partners, their vast client portfolio and strategic planning will allow to efficiently transfer the knowledge achieved by this research project to other manufacturing plants across Canada and beyond to increase the safety of workers.

Optimisation de la salubrité des produits de viande de poulet par un meilleur contrôle de Salmonella et de Clostridium perfringens entérotoxinogène en production avicole

Malgré les normes les plus strictes, la viande de volailles se retrouve en tête de liste comme source d’exposition des consommateurs à des bactéries pathogènes zoonotiques responsables de toxi-infections alimentaires au Canada, où chaque année plus de 4 millions de cas d’infection sont déclarés aux autorités de santé publique. Clostridium perfringens entérotoxinogène figure parmi les bactéries causant le plus de ces cas et est porté de manière asymptomatique par les volailles pendant l’élevage, contaminant la viande lors de l’abattage. De plus, cette même bactérie est responsable de l’entérite nécrotique aviaire, une maladie dévastatrice en résurgence dans les troupeaux de poulets de chair commerciaux ayant réduit l’usage des antibiotiques. Ainsi, un meilleur contrôle de ce pathogène s’impose. En caractérisant les marqueurs génétiques contribuant à la capacité de C. perfringens de coloniser les volailles, les résultats de ce projet supporteront l’industrie avicole canadienne dans le développement de stratégies de contrôle efficaces.

Oculomotor function in adults with concussion: A synthesis of evidence and clinical trial

Concussions are a frequently occurring injury with diverse clinical manifestations and an often-challenging recovery. Oculomotor deficits are commonly occurring in persons with concussion, both as an early symptoms and impairment long after the injury. Early assessment and rehabilitation of oculomotor deficits resulting from concussion have the potential to expedite recovery and improve affected individuals’ functioning. One novel and promising technology to assess and provide individualized treatment is using virtual reality technology. This project aims to evaluate the utility of the NeuroFlex software in delivering eye movement-based therapy to individuals who have sustained a concussion. The effectiveness of this therapy on various clinical and functional indicators will be reported. Presented results will be sex-specific.

Design and development of an automated indoor position tagging system and autonomous navigation for a contact-based flying robot using sensor fusion and machine vision

Providing three-dimensional (3D) coordinates and more importantly drone navigation in GPS-denied environments has been always challenging. Limiting factors such as signal reflection from walls (multipath), lack of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals in confined spaces and non-line of sight (NLoS) communication with orbiting satellites, build a barrier to navigate indoor drones. In this work, we propose to add a navigation feature to Avestec’s tethered-drone along with extracting the 3D coordinates of the drone with centimeter accuracy while flying inside metallic enclosed spaces. These features include inspection data tagging and eliminating the entrance of human operators in confined environments by providing assistance to (semi-) autonomous navigation.

Matières secondes – Valorisation du rejet industriel

Comment redonner la juste valeur aux matières résiduelles issues de la production des objets?

Le projet est une collaboration entre le fabricant de luminaires Lambert et Fils et l’équipe de recherche de Guillaume Sasseville, professeur en design des objets à l’École de Design de l’UQAM.

Le projet consiste à concevoir, à analyser les opportunités et les impacts de la mise en place d’un écosystème interne de recyclage circulaire des matières résiduelles en réintégrant celles-ci dans la fabrication de nouveaux luminaires. Un thème sous-jacent au projet consiste à explorer l’esthétique de la viabilité environnementale. Il est proposé ici de considérer les variations propres aux matières recyclées comme des opportunités participant au langage formel des objets.

Development of an integrated CO2 capture and conversion system for methanol, DME and ethanol production

The main objective of this project is to design an effective CO2 capture and conversion technology for alcohols and DME production. The process is based on microwave-assisted CO2 adsoprtion process integrated with hydrogen and syngas. The modelling of the novel microwave adsorption system will be performed. The process simulation tool will be provided to determine the properties of the products and operating conditions of each section. Moreover, the energy consumption and specifications of the microwave heating system from the flow data and other operating conditions will be defined. This system will be integrated with the CO2 conversion process to By incorporating the practical data provided by SyncoBiofuels, the equations describing the phenomena, including movement, mass and energy transfer equations, and Maxwell’s equations, will be solved using the simulation model.

Adult Third Culture Kids’ (ATCK) Concept of Belonging and Identity Creation: Can Spiritual Self-Leadership be a Solution?

Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCKs) are adults who have been shaped by their mobility and cross-cultural experiences as a result of spending a significant part of their developmental years in a country other than their passport country. Although these experiences have provided ATCKs with valuable characteristics and skillsets, ATCKs struggle with identity creation and a sense of belonging which can detract from their development, both personally and professionally. This study will explore the impact of inner life and spiritual self-leadership by investigating the question “How can spiritual self-leadership encourage identity development and sense of belonging in ATCKs in order for them to fully realize their potential and value contribution in the workplace?” Although this proposed research focusses on ATCKs, the impact could be felt by other demographics who have had similar experiences, such as immigrants, second generation immigrants, expatriates, and bi/multi-cultural adults.