Innovative Projects Realized

Detargeting Protein-Protein Interactions For Cellular Design Applications, Using 3D Structure-Based Deep Learning Models

Rational protein design has had a tremendous impact on pharmaceutical, agriculture, and chemical industries over the past 30 years, by focusing exclusively on individual proteins and their intrinsic activities. The next generation of protein design tasks will seek to modify function inside living cells, competing and interacting directly with pre-existing cellular machinery. Modifying systems in living cells will open a new wave of biotechnology applications, such as living drug implants and diagnostic tools. However, effectively introducing new or engineered proteins into a living cell system requires attentive coordination to ensure that designed protein surfaces do not inadvertently interact with other host cell proteins and disrupt otherwise vital activities. Biological pathways are also very sensitive to perturbation, which can often result in cell death or functional failure. This partnership aims to build a predictive computational technology to ensure that designed protein surfaces do not display recognition features of proteins in the host cell that will minimize these unwanted interactions.

Accelerating quantum variational methods using Bayesian optimization

Quantum computers hold the capability to solve problems that are out of the computational reach of classical computers. The race to finding and testing such problems on a smaller scale is currently on. Variational methods are one of the candidates leading this race. These methods are hybrid, meaning that they require quantum as well as classical computers working together. As the size of the problems increases and becomes relevant to the current needs of society, they also become more challenging to solve. This project is about improving the variational methods by combining them with a special technique known as Bayesian optimisation. The combination will accelerate variational optimisation by reducing the required quantum computational resources. Ultimately, this project will contribute towards solving the problems of interest to society, e.g. simulating large molecules, faster and more reliably once a powerful enough quantum computer is operational.

Soil microbial community in cropping systems integrated with Urochloa spp

Nitrogen (N) is essential in agriculture, but has caused environmental pollution problems, demanding improvements in N use efficiency by crops. Tropical grasses like Urochloa spp. conserve N by biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) and mitigate N losses in soils. However, little is known regarding the effects of BNI plants on soil microbial diversity and functions, especially those related to nitrification. This project aims to assess the effect of cultivation of Urochloa spp. on the soil microbial community in grain crops (maize and soybean). The soil microbial community’s structure and predicted functionality will be accessed using advanced molecular tools and biostatistics. We expect to understand the effects of BNI plant Urochloa spp. on the soil microbial diversity and functions, especially those related to N transformations in soil. These results will support further studies on soil management practices for achieving more sustainable production systems in terms of N dynamics.

Optimisation des flux logistiques dans une entreprise agroalimentaire

L’entreprise québécoise YourBarFactory, spécialisée dans la conception et la fabrication de barres de céréales sans allergènes, connait ces dernières années une forte croissance. Cette croissance s’est matérialisée fin 2018 par la construction d’une nouvelle usine. Afin d’anticiper la pleine utilisation future de ce nouvel outil, il est temps d’étudier l’efficacité des processus, et notamment la manière dont sont gérer les flux logistiques de la compagnie.

Dans un premier temps, nous procéderons à l’analyse des processus logistiques afin de déterminer les points bloquants. Par la suite, nous travaillerons à la rédaction d’un plan d’action proposant des solutions concrètes à ces problèmes. Pour finir, nous mettrons en place ces actions de manière concrète sur le terrain et évaluerons l’impact de ces nouveautés sur les flux logistiques de l’entreprise.

Addiction Neuromodulation System

In the prior Mitacs funding cluster, a clinical trial of opioid addiction was initiated and approved by both Health Canada and the ethics board of the Saint Joseph General Hospital.
This research project expands upon that work. A smoking cravings reduction program using SmartStim transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been initiated by NorDocs, and Quit4 (an established smoking cessation program) is an early adopter. The projects in this cluster all focus upon optimizing and studying this new business. Each intern’s project is related to investigating this novel paradigm for reducing cravings with tDCS, and investigating the details of the efficacy of this program. The benefits of this project to NorDocs include 1) the potential for improved adoption of SmartStim technology by customers, 2) a better understanding of how to improve procedures related to SmartStim

The Future of Teamwork: Leveraging AI-Based Chatbots to Enhance Organizational Collaboration

Teamwork is at the heart of most organizations today. Many organizations (four in five) have begun to use Enterprise Social Media (ESM) platforms in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of communication and collaboration between their employees. Yet, many challenges remain, such as the lack of engagement with ESM as well as the lack of adequate support of ESM for collaborative work. This research project aims to map out the challenges associated with team communication and collaboration in the context of ESM and leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based chatbots to enhance such team communication and collaboration in organizations. Based on the analysis of an extensive ESM dataset, we identify opportunities for chatbots to support team communication and collaboration activities. Subsequently, we design, develop, and implement chatbots for these activities and integrate them into an ESM-based system. Finally, we analyze how these chatbots affect team communication and collaboration in ESM and, in turn, various individual, team-level, and ultimately organizational-level outcomes. Our research project will generate novel findings on how companies can leverage AI technology in the context of ESM platforms and provide design guidelines for chatbots that support team communication and collaboration.

Development of durable hydrocarbon-based proton exchange membrane for fuel cell applications

This MITACS project aims to investigate the durability of IONOMR’s PEMIONTM membranes in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)-based fuel cells for automotive and other applications. Specific test conditions and protocols for use at IONOMR based on industry standards will be developed and the materials will be benchmarked against current state-of-the-art materials in order to prioritize development efforts and aid in customer adoption efforts. IONOMR will benefit from access to specialized equipment available at UBC in addition to expertise in regards to the testing and optimization of PEM fuel cell solutions provided through the Wilkinson lab and research group.

L’influence de la consultation publique sur la gouvernance et la planification urbaines : retour sur 20 ans de pratiques innovantes de l’OCPM

L’objectif de ce projet est d’évaluer les pratiques de l’Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM), un organisme indépendant chargé de recueillir l’avis des citoyens, qui a été créé en 2002. La longévité et la permanence de l’OCPM permettent d’évaluer sur un temps long 4 thématiques : la participation et les pratiques pour favoriser l’inclusion; l’articulation entre la consultation et la décisions publiques, les effets de la consultation publique sur le cadrage des enjeux publics et les coalitions d’acteurs et la transférabilité du modèle de l’OCPM. Le tournant participatif dans la gouvernance publique est en constant développement depuis trente ans mais il existe peu d’études longitudinales des pratiques d’une organisation innovante, telle que l’OCPM. La recherche permettra à l’OCPM de profiter d’une évaluation indépendante de ses pratiques et de faire connaître les effets des innovations que l’organisation à apporter au fil des ans aux méthodes participatives.

Algorithmic Interventions in India’s Healthcare : Promises and Prospects

Through my research I will seek to explore a context-sensitive framework for responsible deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics in the domain of healthcare in India, and juxtapose it with the healthcare technology ecosystem of Canada. In doing so, I will invoke the concepts of responsible AI, data governance, knowledge-making, state-accountability and citizen-entitlements. Such an endeavour will hopefully contribute to the discourse regarding the judicious integration of AI applications in the realm of healthcare, configured in a manner that is fair, inclusive and transparent.

Drug Release and Antimicrobial Activity of Cannabinoids and Silver from Solvent-Cast Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) Films In Vitro

This research project will determine the specific combination of two naturally-occurring anti-infective agents that gives the strongest antibiotic effect against a multi-drug-resistant bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA. As MRSA is a leading cause of skin infection, the anti-infective agents will be incorporated into a specialized wound care film, designed to heal wounds and prevent infection by MRSA and other bacterial pathogens. First, films will be tested in order to determine the best composition of non-medicinal ingredients which will allow formation of a wound-healing hydrogel, maintain film integrity, and sustained release of the anti-infective agents over a five day period. Finally, the optimal amount anti-infective agents to be used in the films will be determined by testing for elimination MRSA and other bacterial pathogens over a continuous five day period. The partner organization will benefit from the development of an anti-infective wound care system which it can further develop for use in medical care settings.

Artificial Intelligence for Accelerator Control

TRIUMF accelerator complex enables world class research in fields ranging from nuclear physics to material sciences, life sciences and nuclear medicine offering a major advantage in probing nuclear physics processes and uniquely place TRIUMF as a leader in experiments at the “precision frontier” to address some of the fundamental scientific questions of our time.
To deliver isotope beam produced by the ISAC facility and ARIEL in the future, with the desired intensity and quality to various nuclear physics experiments, multiple parameters of the accelerator need to be tuned during a lengthy, manual procedure. Tuning process must be performed after any adjustments or maintenance of the accelerator. During the course of the project the visiting researcher will develop automated control of a beam line section of the ISAC accelerator utilizing deep reinforcement learning techniques. Simulation environment of the beam line section will be developed for trials of the techniques. Provided successful automated tuning is demonstrated in simulated environment interface to existing accelerator will be developed and automated tuning trialled.

Developing m-health application framework

e-Questionnaire system is a cross-platform and client-server interactive mobile application. The partner company can apply this single project on different platforms of mobile devices, such as Android, IOS, Blackberry and so on. In this project, the main scenario is that students use their smartphones and tablets to download and store questionnaires from remote server into local storage of mobile device. And locally interact with these data. Finally, collect and upload results from local storage back to remote server. As this application works in the wireless connection environment, low-bandwidth, latency and loss of connection are the main challenges. These issues will cause application lost connection, data inconsistent between client and server, and transmission data work with low rate. To overcome these challenges, e-Questionnaire system will provide offline capability, database synchronization, scalability and reliability.