Innovative Projects Realized

Gestion de l’eau en Grèce à l’époque romaine

Je m’intéresse au sujet de la gestion de l’eau, particulièrement à l’époque romaine. La période romaine est l’âge d’or de l’hydraulique urbaine. J’ai choisi de faire une étude comparative entre les systèmes de gestion de l’eau en Grèce, en Égypte et en Syro-Palestine. À la Grèce, je vais me consacrer à deux régions, la Thessalie et la Macédoine. Les Romains ont utilisé les aqueducs pour se procurer une plus grande quantité d’eau à côté des autres moyens utilisés par leurs prédécesseurs comme les puits et les citernes. À Thessalonique, trois aqueducs furent construits par les Romains. L’objectif principal de cette recherche est double. D’abord, de me familiariser avec les techniques de construction régionales et les particularités architecturales liées à la gestion de l’eau grâce à un stage sur le site archéologique d’Argilos, dont les recherches sont menées conjointement par le ministère grec de la Culture et l’Université de Montréal. Ensuite, de faire des études de cas spécifiques, grâce à la visite et à l’analyse, sur place, des installations hydrauliques conservées sur les sites archéologiques d’époque romaine.

Agri-food processing opportunities for Indigenous farmers -Optimization of fish waste fertilizer sourced from local integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) operations

Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) is a technique by which the environmental impacts are minimized while efficiency is increased. However, these aquaculture activities can put a strain on their surrounding environment, as operations encroach on valuable wetland areas, act as a stressor on local water resources, and effluent waste can increase the concentrations of pollutants in nearby waterbodies. Hence, development IMTA system that can produce fish and marketable co-products without drastic water demands will improve operations. This project seeks to optimize an in-tank IMTA process designed for remote northern populations, providing economic opportunities, a source of healthy nutrition, and increased sovereignty over food sources for First Nations. We will develop an algal remediation protocol that will treat aquaculture wastewater that can then be used to produce a highly nutritious wild rice, historically harvested by Indigenous people as a traditional food source. Outcomes will be leveraged to develop agri-food processing opportunities for Indigenous farmers.

Novel method of propulsion pattern recognition in a manual wheelchair simulator

Propulsion pattern recognition in a manual wheelchair (MWC) simulator contributes to better identify the users’ propulsion techniques. It can provide them with appropriate feedback and training, in order to prevent chronic shoulder pain. Recent work in our lab has focused on the development of an affordable wheelchair simulator, which provides force feedback (gravity, inertia) during propulsion in a virtual scenario, as well as visual feedback on propulsion performance. We now aim to add important feedback information about propulsion style, using a low-cost approach. Objective. The first objective will be to track and find the coordinates of the user’s wrist in a recorded video. The second objective will be to classify the set of wrist coordinates, which is associated with one push cycle, to one out of four possible patterns. Methods. We will use a simple webcam to record users from the side view, while they propel the pushrim. Then, by using the open-source DeepLabCut library, we will track and extract the wrist position.

Machine Learning for Auto-Scaling Corda Node Containers

We are looking to drive the operational cost down for Corda R3 nodes. Corda R3 is a smart-contract Distributed Ledger technology. Our strategy is to do so by minimizing the cloud computing resources. Using machine learning and historic data we can proactively orchestrate a large number of nodes on behalf of our clients. The interaction between nodes is a type of social network lending itself to machine learning. In our first phase we are aiming at setting up the simulation environment.
Ultimately by brining the operational cost we can provide a more compelling value proposition to our customers and an easier entry to the market by offering a freemium service.

Remediation and recovery of metals from mine effluents using genetically engineered microbial systems

Mines generate metal-contaminated wastewater that needs to be cleaned before it can be re-used by the mine or discharged into the environment. There are several ways to remove this metal, but many of these technologies are expensive and require non-renewable materials to work. Biological methods to remove these metals are promising renewable alternatives, but they have their limitations too: a lack of specificity for metals and the need to destroy the biomass to recover the metal for profit. The goal of this project is to use synthetic biology to engineer microbes to specifically capture low concentrations of nickel from Sudbury mine wastewater and return it to the mine in a concentrate that can eventually be purified.

Adaptation et optimisation d’une machine de dépôt et degravure par pulvérisation cathodique

Le dioxyde de titane (TiO2) est un oxyde d’un métal de transition. Le dépôt en couches minces de ce matériau trouve différents domaines d’applications tant dans le domaine de la catalyse qu’en électronique ou en optique. Dans cette étude, le matériau sera déposé par pulvérisation cathodique à partir d’une cible de TiO2-x ou de titane combinée à un plasma d’oxygène. Les propriétés du matériau dépendent fortement des conditions de dépôt. Il sera donc important de contrôler les conditions opératoires telles que la température du substrat, la tension de décharge, la polarisation du substrat, le flux de gaz O2, la vitesse de dépôt, etc, pour déterminer les propriétés structurales (stoechiométrie, structure cristalline du matériau, porosité, rugosité) mais également les propriétés optoélectroniques. Les caractérisations seront réalisées in situ (spectroscopie d’émission optique) et ex situ (conductive AFM, Raman, DRX, XPS) afin d’identifier les propriétés du plasma et du matériau déposé, respectivement.

Improving glycerol utilization in E.coli for heme biosynthesis

Heme is a naturally occurring molecule found in our blood and as well as in animals, responsible for carrying oxygen throughout our body. Interestingly, heme has been commercially used in various products such as in cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and food. The traditional production of heme however often involves animal slaughter and harsh chemical processing, which is costly and ultimately limits other potential applications. The proposed project will investigate a different method of producing heme by fermenting microorganisms; much in the same way that beer, wine, and insulin are made. Specifically, the proposal will explore the use of cheaper starting material to be converted/fermented into heme using common industry-grade microbes.

Saccade Concussion Diagnosis System

The underlying technology will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze oculomotor (eye movement) data to learn and extract human translatable features/symptoms of concussion. The software is computationally light-weight that is capable of running on portable hardware with minimal computational power. The intern will examine the system’s commercialization by conducting interviews with potential customers and identifying the additional critical features needed by end-users. The intern will also research a potential decision-making framework that will help end-users determine if additional medical attention is required. The research project will provide a complete working beta prototype that the partner organization can demo to potential customers. A business plan will also be provided to the partner organization to outline the communization of the saccadic concussion diagnosis system.

Silicone-mounted fiber-Bragg grating sensor for cardiac pulse-waveform monitoring

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality internationally. Current CVD diagnostics are limited to basic tools that provide a generalized number without quantitative indication of overall health, such as blood pressure, or lifestyle risk scores. More invasive diagnostic imaging can be done, but at great cost to the healthcare system. We have developed a basic optical device capable of non-invasively studying the cardiac pulse-waveform, thus potentially allowing for direct measures of cardiovascular risk and health. In this project, we will expand on the functionality of this system by optimizing design for anatomical application, and extending functionality through the integration of multiple sensors in a single system. This improved functionality should allow for a system ready to potentially be used in general observational clinical trials to study potential clinical utility.

Assessment of the Seismic Vulnerability of GFRP Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls

The applicability of reinforcing shear walls with FRP bars in resisting wind loads and small to medium magnitude earthquakes has was validated through several investigations. The most significant advantage of the FRP-RC is the considerable elastic deformation capacity and the self-centering ability of up to near failure. However, Current limitations of FRP design codes concerning the seismic resistance may lead to a highly conservative and uneconomical design due to the lack of sufficient studies.
Therefore, this project consists of developing analytical models for FRP-reinforced shear walls (validated with experimental data) which will be used to conduct seismic performance assessment to investigate the safety and accuracy of current design methods. The main objective is set to support North America’s codes with essential experimental and analytical data towards developing a clause for FRP-RC shear walls and to provide engineers with reliable design guidelines and confident in adopting such element in construction. This in return will benefit the industrial partner (Pultrall inc.) as a leading producer and supplier of FRP bars worldwide.

« Produire » la judéité en contexte francophone, entre transmission, reproduction et innovation

Mon séjour israélien s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un projet doctoral portant sur la légitimité dans le judaïsme francophone. Il vise à élargir l’état des connaissances sociologiques sur les judéités contemporaines transnationales mais aussi dans des domaines tels que le rapport du politique au pluralisme ethnoreligieux. Il sera question de mener une série d’entrevues avec des acteurs franco-israéliens (intellectuels, rabbins etc.) et de réaliser un travail d’observation au sein d’une institution religieuse. Les données collectées viseront à répondre à plusieurs questions permettant d’établir des comparaisons entre les judaïsmes français, québécois et francophone israélien :

Le judaïsme est un facteur de minorisation en France et au Québec, il est au contraire celui d’un rattachement à la population majoritaire et à l’État en Israël. Ce rapport étant inversé pour la langue, quels effets ces différences produisent-elles sur la “production” de judéité ? Quel effets les interactions avec la société israélienne (séjours, liens familiaux etc.) produisent-elles sur l’autorité dans les judaïsmes français et québécois ? Ce séjour sera aussi l’occasion d’être conseillé et de me familiariser avec les sciences sociales israéliennes.

Intraocular Pressure Monitoring Microfluidic Contact Lens

The proposed research project is to design a microfluidic contact lens that will be used to track the fluctuations in intraocular pressure. Intraocular pressure is the primary factor to monitor the progression of glaucoma, which is a chronic disease that leads to permanent vision loss and currently has no cure, making early and frequent testing essential. By utilizing microfluidic channels embedded into a soft contact lens, the changes in corneal curvature can be captured and the intraocular pressure can be determined, as it is directly proportional. This device will track the pressure more frequently, non-invasively and inexpensively. As the contact lens mimics the increasing change in shape to the eye, the embedded microfluidic channel will increase in volume and an indicator fluid will shift in position. Thus, tracking the shift in position of the indicator fluid within the microfluidic contact lens can directly determine the fluctuations in intraocular pressure.