Innovative Projects Realized

L’optophysiologie plasmonique

Certaines protéines peuvent réguler les parcours moléculaires dans le cerveau. Ces protéines pourraient avoir un impact sur la fonction cérébrale associé aux maladies d’Alzheimer, à l’épilepsie et à la schizophrénie. Cependant, il est actuellement impossible de vérifier ces hypothèses avec les outils modernes. Pour mieux comprendre l’impact des protéines sur le cerveau et développer ainsi de nouvelles thérapies pour des neuropathologies telles que l’épilepsie, nous développerons un microscope unique au monde, s’appuyant sur l’optophysiologie plasmonique pour effectuer la mesure dynamique de protéines dans des tissus. Pour y parvenir, nous visons à démontrer les premières mesures avec un premier prototype de microscope, de la protéine S100? dans des coupes de cerveau. Ce projet permettra d’obtenir les résultats préliminaires pour la démonstration de l’optophysiologie plasmonique et d’en démontrer le potentiel dans des tranches de cerveau de modèles animaux.

Neuro-inspired cognitive architectures for artificial metacognition and social learning

Since artificial intelligence will play a crucial role in our daily lives, it is important that, along with increased task performance, socially intelligent agents will be able to cooperate efficiently with humans. However, human social cognition is a recent evolutionary event that relies on an advanced cognitive architecture. While the unconscious brain, also referred to as system 1, aligns well with the current successful applications of deep learning (statistical invariance and value-based decision-making), the conscious brain, also referred to as system 2, involves higher-order cognitive abilities that perform much more complex computations than what deep learning can currently do (compositionality and metacognition). This project will investigate how AI can benefit from system 2 as well as its relationship with sociality and it will provide new applications of AI for testing player-vs-player games.

Intersections of HIV and COVID-19 vulnerabilities and strengths among marginalized populations: A mixed methods study

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected communities that are already vulnerable to negative health, mental health, and economic outcomes, such as young people of colour and young sexual and gender minorities, including those at risk for and living with HIV. This project will train youth, age 18 to 25 years, from marginalized communities as collaborators in community-based research to engage other young people and learn about their experiences, as well as resources and resilience, amid the pandemic. Findings will contribute to Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre’s provision of tailored services for young people. The project’s youth-engaged process will also facilitate recovery from the pandemic, and preparedness for future pandemics and emergency situations.

Fairness-aware Matching for Dynamic Predictive Behavior Matching

Web-based chat services are widely used by millions of customers today. However, few of them satisfy both service providers and recipients (customers).For instance, customers are continually complaining about long wait times and inadequate service. The technical challenge is to keep both the customers and the agent happy. To solve these difficulties, we plan to model predictive matching as a dynamic Learning-to-Rank problem. In order to maximize the success rate of matches between agents and consumers, we offer a dynamic fairness-aware learning-to-rank approach that takes into consideration agents’ fair working restrictions. Regarding assessment, we plan to develop a new, unbiased A/B testing procedure that takes into account the unique limits of our contact center operations. Our system is aimed to achieve Pareto optimal in terms of both precision and fairness compared to other systems. The project will provide novel solution for deploying fairness customer-agent behavior matching technique into real-world applications.

Continuing the Implementation of Accounting Software, Dispatch software and the related processes

Heartland Disposal & Recycling is a waste disposal & recycling business offering waste disposal bins, portable toilets, and temporary fencing to residential, commercial, and industrial companies. Heartland also provides ongoing accounting and financial reporting services to Hape International Inc., which is a multinational toy manufacturing business.
Heartland Disposal is affiliated with Solv.x Enterprises Inc. also rents and services portable toilets to various construction and paving companies, as well as supplying parts washers and bio-degradable solvents to mechanic shops and large and medium-size machine shops in Central and Northern Alberta.

Both Heartland Disposal and Solv.x Enterprises are in the process of implementing dispatch software for the waste bins and portable toilets, as well as tracking all the assets. This process has taken longer than anticipated, due to many issues with transferring the data from Quickbooks to ServiceCor. The major problem/gap in the current processes is that the current accounting software for Heartland Disposal and Solv. x does not allow for asset tracking or driver route optimization.

ShotMarker Custom Target Face Software

ShotMarker is a product designed and manufactured in New Brunswick for long-range target competition shooting that measures the location of a bullet passing through a target. Each shot is measured at the target, transmitted wirelessly, and displayed on a smartphone or tablet at the firing line. This technology has changed the way long range shooters practice for and run competitions.
Shots are displayed on a virtual target, which is a vector graphic that represents the paper target the competitor is aiming at. The product currently includes approximately 100 targets which the user can choose from; however, it is unable to create new and customized targets.

This project focuses on developing a software that will allow the users of the product to design their own custom target faces. This will involve building a web-based graphical interface to define the size and position of circles, lines, polygons, text, and scoring zones. This project will require intermediate level JavaScript. The objective is to build a web based UI which will allow a user to design their own target faces. The output is a JSON data structure that describes the shape of the target.

Privacy in the digital age: comparative analysis of data protection policy dynamics in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland

Over the last three decades, with the development of the Internet and information and communication technologies (ICT), the number of ways of collecting and processing personal data has exploded. In the digital age, privacy issues have become more internationalised, more technically complex and therefore less transparent to non-experts. As a result, the traditional privacy regulation of the liberal nation state became progressively obsolete. By studying the broad evolution of state protection of this fundamental right since the emergence of the World Wide Web in 1989, and particularly after a mass surveillance focusing event with worldwide impact, this research aims to understand why and how does the privacy issue reach the agenda in the digital age. Theoretically, this research proposes an original analytical model focused especially on the political and societal attention given to the privacy issue. Methodologically, this work makes use of a comparative multi-method design, combining process tracing and qualitative comparisons, based on a triangulation of sources (official documents, press, and interviews with experts).

Élaboration de la stratégie de marchés nationale d’une plateforme numérique du module « étudiants » de la plateforme numérique CRD

Afin de permettre la poursuite des développements liés à sa plateforme il est impératif d’établir une stratégie de marchés à l’échelle nationale afin de qualifier et quantifier hors de tout doutes possibles les différents impacts anticipés sur ses utilisateurs.

Vers une formation intégrée 4.0

En s’appuyant sur les expertises de Famic Technologies et de ses logiciels de gestion de l’industrie 4.0, ce projet vise à développer des modules de formations immersives à l’industrie 4.0 sous forme de cas de simulation réel.

Advancement of Artificial Intelligence for Family Medicine Research

The growth of data and computer technology are paving the way for artificial intelligence (AI) to transform health care. Family medicine is the foundation and entry-point to the Canadian health care system, and AI applications applied in family medicine have the potential for widespread benefit. However, family medicine leadership is needed to mitigate potential harms and maximize successes. The Mitacs fellow, Mahzabeen Emu, will contribute to ongoing AI-related initiatives at the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC). Currently, the CFPC has been engaged in an investigation of AI in family medicine with the TechForward program, supported by Associate Medical Services and led by the TeachForward Fellow Jaky Kueper. The Mitacs Fellow will contribute to the expansion of the AI investigation for family medicine practice, education, and research. More specifically, the Mitacs project will develop a framework comprising AI work currently performed in Canada specific to family medicine research, and including considerations on further work that could be performed given near-term capabilities of AI and the work and values in family medicine, particularly supporting the importance of the patient-doctor relationship and the provision of compassionate care. The framework will be used to guide future research and involvement of the CFPC in supporting a positive future of AI for family medicine.

Stratégie d’allocation de ressources appliquée à la robotique collaborative

La robotique collaborative est une condition préalable à l’industrie 4.0. La tendance actuelle est de produire et de programmer des robots qui ont la capacité de travailler ensemble, ou à proximité, avec des humains dans un environnement partagé. La suppression d’une barrière physique (ou virtuelle) pour le robot entraîne de nombreux défis, dont le plus critique est de garantir la sécurité et d’éviter les collisions, sans que le robot ralentisse son travail. Ce contexte amène de nombreux défis, à savoir (i) les mesures intermittentes et bruyantes de la position des acteurs, soit par des capteurs statiques, soit par des capteurs montés sur les robots, (ii) les réseaux de communication sans fil qui peuvent être défaillants et interrompre les communications entre les robots, (iii) les exigences strictes en matière de sécurité, car les humains et les robots se déplacent librement dans le même environnement, et (iv) les exigences en matière de temps de réponse des robots et du réseau. Avec ces défis en tête, une stratégie d’allocation dynamique des ressources dans le réseau est nécessaire pour s’adapter aux conditions variables de l’environnement. Le projet évaluera l’effet de la mobilité des robots et des utilisateurs sur les stratégies d’allocation des ressources.

Élaboration d’une stratégie de développement de l’application dorsale (‘back end’) d’une plateforme web et de son premier module de maillage intelligent

Le projet cible principalement l’élaboration d’une stratégie de développement de l’application dorsale (‘back end’) d’une plateforme web et de son premier module de maillage intelligent. L’objectif central de cette cible est la planification du développement des fonctionnalités de l’application, de la conception architecturale du modèle et des données de l’application dorsale à la mise en place d’un environnement de tests et de production.