Innovative Projects Realized

Évaluation du programme d’intervention résidentielle – mérule

L’objectif général de la recherche consistera à évaluer l’efficacité du programme d’intervention résidentielle – mérule sur l’accessibilité des propriétaires québécois confrontés à cette problématique. Ce programme vise principalement à fournir un soutien financier aux propriétaires de bâtiments contaminés par la mérule, à assurer la durabilité des bâtiments et à suivre la situation au Québec (SHQ, 2024). L’étude permettra d’obtenir les premières données sur le programme recueillies dans un contexte rigoureux et scientifique. Mérule Québec pourra utiliser les conclusions de l’étude lors de ces différentes représentations auprès des élus et gestionnaires de programme.

The Political Evolution of Parental Rights: Class, Education, and2SLGBTQIA+ Backlash in North America

The parental rights movement, which gained traction in the 1930s (largely in reaction to child labour reforms), has long resisted progressive reform. By the 1990s, the movement found renewed momentum amid heated debates over charter schools, further embedding the rhetoric of government overreach, privatization, and ethnonationalism into its public messaging4. Although considerable scholarship was produced on movement in the 1990s5, today’s engagement with the topic has remained generally disconnected from this initial historiography. Whilenleading scholars like Cris Mayo, whose “Distractions and Defractions: Using Parental Rights to Fight Against the Educational Rights of Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Students”, (2021)6 rightly frame the parental rights movement as a broadly conservative movement that obscures transphobia by situating its concerns as religiously based parental rights claims, Mayo – along with a variety of other contemporary scholars – have tended to deemphasize how the movement gained traction in the first place7. This is consequential in that the roots of the movement – understood as a fusion between Christian nationalism and a broader coalition of market-driven educationalists – find their seeds in
the mid-20th century. In order to understand how British and American right-wing coalitions imported the rhetoric of parental rights into Canada, we must consider both that literature which documents contemporary iterations of the movement, whilst considering the movements historical antecedents. This broadly historiographical approach, when applied to an interprovincial scan of the parental rights movement, will make a novel contribution to the field by mapping the movement whilst framing it as a part of a wider historical process. In essence, if the parental rights movement has evolved as a right-wing coalition bent on dismantling public education with an explicit agenda of white revivalism, how has it consistently regained legitimacy after being deemed illegitimate in the past? By tracing the disinformation propagated by the movement, and linking it to its historical evolutions, we will examine how this longstanding pattern of reinvention has found a new life in the contemporary Canadian context—highlighting questions of the ongoing cross-border flow of anti-progressive rhetoric. In what follows, we will survey some of the literature which sets the stage for this emphasis.

Santevia Water Systems

Santevia Water Systems Inc., a Canadian leader in mineralized water filtration, is on a mission to promote healthy living through accessible, great-tasting water. While Santevia has built a strong reputation in the health and wellness space, its brand identity and visual communications require innovation to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. The challenge lies in modernizing and unifying the brand’s media strategy to enhance consumer engagement and position Santevia as a cutting-edge wellness brand. This project goes beyond routine content creation by aiming to reimagine and elevate Santevia’s visual presence across all platforms—digital ads, social media, and video content—using compelling storytelling and innovative design techniques. The intern will be expected to leverage their knowledge of graphic design principles, digital media trends, and creative software (Adobe Creative Suite) to support the design and implementation of a refreshed brand strategy. This initiative will not only increase brand visibility but also streamline internal creative workflows, thereby improving overall marketing efficiency.

Camions de déneigement, sécurité et leur résilience

Le stagiaire travaillera sur l’amélioration de la sécurité et de la connectivité des véhicules industriels en intégrant des technologies IoT (Internet des objets). Concrètement, il s’agira de concevoir et tester des systèmes intelligents permettant de suivre en temps réel l’état des véhicules, de détecter d’éventuels problèmes techniques et de sécuriser les données échangées. Une attention particulière sera portée à la cybersécurité pour protéger les informations sensibles contre les menaces extérieures.
Ce projet apportera à l’entreprise une meilleure gestion de sa flotte, une réduction des coûts d’entretien grâce à une maintenance prédictive et une sécurité renforcée pour les données et les opérations. En combinant technologie et innovation, l’objectif est de rendre la gestion des véhicules plus efficace, fiable et sécurisée.

«Shallow Water Extensions to Complex Fluid Dynamics»

The realism and interactivity of large water bodies—such as oceans and rivers—are essential for creating immersive and dynamic open-world environments. With the rapid advancement in GPU computing power, physical simulation techniques are now a feasible solution for significantly enhancing the realism of water systems in real-time applications. Shallow water simulations, for example, provide efficient 2.5D methods for modeling water flow propagation in both a believable and computationally cost-effective manner. However, these techniques are primarily limited to the simulation of shallow fluid heightmaps. This project seeks to build on existing research to enhance the visual fidelity of such simulations, focusing on creating more engaging and lifelike water effects for interactive applications such as video games and simulators. We will explore advanced effects, including crashing waves, foam, splashes, and more realistic solid/fluid interactions. Through a comprehensive review of both real-time and offline graphics literature, we will identify innovative techniques to improve the visual quality and performance of these simulations. We will then implement, refine, and extend these approaches, pushing the boundaries of what is currently possible for interactive water simulation.

Optimizing STAR-RIS Deployment for Next-Generation Wireless Networks

This research project focuses on improving wireless communication systems by studying and optimizing new technologies called Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). These surfaces can control how wireless signals travel, helping expand coverage and improve connection quality in urban and rural areas. A special type of RIS, known as STAR-RIS (Simultaneously Transmitting and Reflecting), allows signals to be sent in all directions at once, which can greatly improve network performance.
The intern will work closely with LATYS Intelligence Inc. to develop models and simulations that show how to best place and configure these smart surfaces in real-world environments. The goal is to make wireless networks—such as 5G and future 6G systems—more reliable, energy-efficient, and cost-effective. LATYS will use the results to improve their products and bring better wireless solutions to the market. This project also supports the training of a highly skilled graduate student, helping to build Canada’s future in advanced wireless technologies.

Training Generative Tabular Foundation Models

Layer 6 is a machine learning research and engineering company owned by The Toronto-Dominion Bank. Most of TD’s transactional data is stored in relational database management systems in the form of tabular datasets, structured as rows and columns. While Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized the handling of unstructured data (such as text, audio, and images) they still lag behind in processing tabular data. Recently, Layer 6 developed a novel tabular foundation model called TabDPT. To advance research in this emerging area, Layer 6 is collaborating with the team at Polytechnique Montréal to explore some of their ideas aimed at enhancing both the training processes and understanding of performance characteristics of these models. Models like TabDPT are designed to enable the reuse of pre-trained models across projects and use in-context learning, offering both potential economic advantages and gains in accuracy over traditional methods. These improvements can translate into performance boosts in critical downstream tasks containing regression and prediction for applications such as fraud detection.

Investigating the finite temperature behaviour of polarons through the Momentum Average method and the Generalized Green’s function Cluster Explansion method.

The description of solid state systems form an intractable many-body problem as every particle is pushed and pulled due to Coulomb’s law by the other particles. It is almost impossible to directly describe every particle in a macroscopic system (with 10^24 particles). A clever solution involves simplifying the many-body problem into a problem of hypothetical non-interacting or weakly interacting ‘quasiparticles’ .

One such quasiparticle is the phonon, which represents the quantised vibrations of the lattices sites. When electrons propagate through the lattice, it interacts with phonons. The composite system (i.e the electron dressed by a cloud of phonons) has particle-like properties and are known as ‘polarons’. This leads to important consequences in electrical and thermodynamic properties of materials. However, describing the behaviour of polarons has remained one of the most challenging problems in quantum matter. Furthermore, at non-zero temperatures, there is an arbitrary number of thermal phonons in the system which further complicates the study of polarons.

Using a method known as the MA approximation and GGCE, we seek to advance our present understanding of polarons at finite temperature. Outcomes from this study have broad ranging consequences from understanding decoherence in solid-state quantum computing hardware to engineering the materials of tomorrow.

Structural Barriers Faced by Women Entrepreneurs Impacting Their Ability to Start and Scale up Their Businesses, Identifying solutions and Best Practice Models

This project explores the challenges women entrepreneurs face when starting and growing their businesses, focusing on structural barriers such as access to funding, networking opportunities, and business support. By identifying practical solutions and best practices, the research will provide valuable insights to help women succeed in entrepreneurship. Expertise Hub Cooperative (EHC) will benefit from this study by gaining evidence-based recommendations that align with its mission to address systemic barriers and promote equity in the labor market. The findings can support EHC’s initiatives, helping them design better programs and policies to assist women entrepreneurs, particularly immigrant professionals, in overcoming these challenges

Development of highly flame-retardant polyurethane composites for pipe liners

Polyurethane is a flammable polymer that can release toxic gases when exposed to fire, restricting their application in areas such as pipe liners. This project aims to develop fire-proof polyurethane composites pipe liners with a long cycle time and good stability in harsh environments.
Given the increasing demand for advanced materials in industry, we will conduct a systematic feasibility study of different additives (fillers and flame retardants) that will reduce the fire hazard for polymeric materials pipe liners and at the same time, more environmentally friendly. We will use sophisticated laboratory tests to evaluate the feasibility of different formulations of materials. One of the key measurements for fire-resistant of materials is limiting oxygen index (LOI). LOI measures the quantity of oxygen needed burn the material at ambient temperature. We will find materials that do not burn at ambient conditions. We will scale up newly discovered products and fabricate at Rosenxt’s facility in Calgary for use in short pipes.

This project aligns with Canada’s focus on industrial safety, environmental protection, and sustainable materials development. The development of flame-resistant polyurethane coatings will enable industries to enhance fire safety, reduce maintenance costs, and extend material lifespan while meeting stringent regulatory standards. By integrating these innovations into real applications, this collaboration between University of Calgary and Rosenxt will make the company a leader in polyurethane coatings technology and protective solutions, and also benefit Canada’ economy.

Digital Twin Technology in Urban Planning: Housing, Biodiversity, and Infrastructure – The case of Dieppe & Moncton (NB)

Rapid urban growth challenges cities with rising populations, infrastructure demands, and environmental sustainability. Traditional urban planning, based on outdated models and fragmented data, struggles to address these complexities. Digital Twin (DT) technology offers a solution by creating dynamic virtual models of real-world environments using real-time data. By integrating sources like geographic information systems (GIS), sensors, and demographic databases, DT enables data-driven decision-making.

This project examines how DT can enhance urban planning in Dieppe and Moncton (New Brunswick), focusing on housing densification, mobility, urban development, and student housing. The goal is to develop strategies for building resilient cities that accommodate population growth while maintaining high living standards and environmental sustainability. Through DT and AI-driven approaches, the research will provide insights to help the cities plan for future growth, improve traffic management, and conserve biodiversity.

Development of Hybrid Flow Diverting Stent

Our primary mandate at API is to advance basic research and innovation to commercialization by providing access to world-class industry expertise, services, and infrastructure. Our activities focuses on engaging and supporting drug discovery and development initiatives, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and driving innovation and commercialization through collaborative research and clinical studies. The project aims to research the mechanisms of action in how flow diverting brain stents function and also further the development of a first-of-its-kind flow diverting brain stent, made of both polymer and metal components – leading to new areas of potential design and development pathways for improved products. The anticipated social and economic benefits come from enhanced patient outcomes from effectively treating brain aneurysms.