Innovative Projects Realized

Définition d’une méthode d’analyse structurelle statique et dynamique pour un système de traction par chenilles de machinerie agricole

Un système de traction à chenille pour la machinerie agricole est un mécanisme complexe composé de plusieurs joints, glissières et de matériaux déformables avec un comportement complexe (caoutchouc). Pour cette raison, Camso, fabricant de système de chenilles, utilise beaucoup les essais en laboratoire et sur terrain pour valider la fiabilité et la durabilité des pièces de ses produits. Le projet vise à développer des outils de simulation numérique pertinents et fiables qui permettraient à Camso prédire rapidement, en phase de conception préliminaire, les efforts transmis à chacune des pièces du système. Camso pourrait alors à la fois économiser des coûts de développement et optimiser la performance des produits en ayant la possibilité de prédire celle-ci en amont.

Optimisation des parcours de drones afin de maximiser la probabilité de détection d’une cible en détresse sur l’eau

Ce projet vise à optimiser les déplacements d’une flotte de drones qui sont utilisés pour détecter et reconnaître des personnes ou des bateaux sur une étendue d’eau permettant de minimiser les pertes humaines en intervenant le plus rapidement possible lors d’une situation d’urgence. La flotte de drones est reliée à une base et à une antenne 5G ce qui permet à l’équipe de secours de prendre des photos dans différentes zones de recherche. Le modèle d’optimisation vise à maximiser l’information obtenue tout en tenant en compte la capacité des drones en termes d’énergie électrique, la capacité de mémoire maximale de la caméra, et l’absence de communication possible avec le drone une fois qu’il est hors du rayon de l’antenne. Pour résoudre ce problème, un algorithme exact et une heuristique seront développés.

Measuring the Economic Impact of Social Cohesion in New Brunswick: A Proof of Concept

The intern will review past approaches which have endeavoured to capture the concept of social cohesion as a numerical index. Additionally, they will examine methods which have attempted to better understand the value of non-monetary benefits such as civic engagement or social support networks. Having examined such previous work, the intern will select a social cohesion index method and given the data available, examine its impact on societal well-being. This work will directly benefit Dialogue New Brunswick as the organization recently expanded upon its mission, broadening its scope in order to address the inclusiveness and acceptance of all New Brunswickers.

Adaptive Dialog Techniques for Chatbots

This research focuses on the development of machine learning and natural language processing
techniques for adaptive chatbots that can converse with users and learn about the world. The
outcome will be a generic bot that can be instantiated with different personalities and knowledge
bases to entertain users of the popular Kik messenger about different topics. It will improve the
dialog abilities of Kik’s current chat bot, which receives more than 1 million messages per day.
The immediate benefit will be higher user engagement. The second benefit will be a proof of
concept for future chatbots that celebrities may use to entertain their fans or companies may use
for one-on-one interactions with their customers. This work will propel Canada at the forefront
of automated dialog systems, which are seen as the key for improved user experience in
smartphones, personalized marketing and video-gaming.
Mitacs

Optimized Controllers for Second-life Battery Energy Storage Systems

The world’s electricity grids need affordable batteries to store large amounts of energy and allow for increased renewable power sources like wind and solar. Instead of building new batteries from scratch, millions of used batteries from retired electric vehicles can be given a second life on the electricity grids for a lower price and a smaller environmental footprint. This research project will develop a new computer program that can manage large groups of second-life batteries so they work effectively together as a team and even outperform more expensive batteries. Ultimately, this will help make renewable energy more affordable and more sustainable. Partnering with the Lab2Market program will contribute to the development of innovative technologies in Canada.

Comparative analysis of real-time weld quality monitoring camera systems working in visible, IR and NIR spectra

Real-time weld monitoring system helps prevent the rejection of large portions of defective welds. It is likely that monitoring camera systems that work in infrared light may be able to reveal some weld defects better than the visible light cameras. The project goal is to perform a comparative experimental study on the ability of the infrared and visible light cameras to detect weld imperfections. The partner organization for this project is Xiris Automation Inc., a company that produces real-time welding control and monitoring systems. The results obtained within this project will help the partner to produce better customers-oriented systems that will increase the productivity of the manufacturing processes of the Canadian industry.

A low-power remote IoT device to sense ultrasonic signals for multiple channel system

In the end of this project, the proposed design will be published in two peer-reviewed journals. Also, the measure the data will be saved and analyzed in the UW-STREAM lab. After the analysis, the data converter speed, the channel selection capability and also the power consumption will be summarized and reported. From those data, both the partner and we can make a commercialized strategy. The desired applications and also the way to integrate the proposed design with the current product can be decided. In conclusion, this design can be commercialized into a product which will help the ocean monitoring consumers build up a dynamic monitoring system.

Forecasting Single Detached Residential Heat Demand byMonitoring Central Thermostat Response to Weather Conditions

This research seeks to find a method of predicting how much heating is required to maintain comfort in homes. By collecting information such as outside weather conditions and inside temperatures along with thermostat ontime, a method of predicting the needed heat for the home will be determined. Research involves installing devices in homes that record this information which will then reported to the researcher to create a mathematical representation of how unique home heating systems respond to outside conditions. This research would lead to the development of control devices that will reduce heating costs for homeowners while maintaining comfort, especially in homes that use multiple heating devices or take advantage of time-of-day power rates.

Polynomial Process and Polynomial Regression Model with Interactions of Electricity Prices

Electricity is vital to our modern life. Different from other commodities, electricity prices show seasonal patterns with mean reversion and ‘short-lived’ spikes. It is significantly important for market participants to model power prices (both spot prices and forward prices) for risk management. Polynomial process is a class of time-homogenous Markov processes with the property that expectations of polynomial functions (of degree n, say) of the future state of the process, conditional on the current are given by another polynomials (of degree <=n) of the current state. Once we could model the observed factors such as market demand and unit costs of generating power by different energy commodities with polynomial processes, then we could apply polynomial regression to model the spot prices of electricity and this great property enables us to find the explicit formula for forward prices. Finally we expect to conveniently capture the dynamics of electricity market and price the related derivatives.

Harnessing the potential of land-based Aquaculture by-productsthrough the use of aerobic bioreactor technology

The overall project goal is the adoption of ensiling and aerobic bioreactor system used within recirculating aquaculture systems, a developing industry within aquaculture. RAS, produce waste streams incorporating various fish wastes. Some RAS operations integrate fish processing facilities onsite, further increasing waste products. Currently waste products form these systems are disposed of through outside contractors at cost. Through ensiling and aerobic processing, the overall aim is to bring control of waste processing in-house and create additional revenue stream from the waste. While the technology is proven, the adoption of the technology from a financial, operational and technical acceptance perspective is yet to be explored, this project aims to answer the question of whether such technology would be accepted by RES operators. This project aims to achieve this through conducting market research with the RES industry and other stakeholders as well as conducting a waste analysis to understand waste flow throughs from individual operations, through generalized data obtained through interviews and through an aon-site evaluation of a Nova Scotia RES operator.

Statistical perspectives on the use of pharmacovigilance data and electronic health records to verify predicted chemical hazards of drugs from in-vitro toxicological data

The liver is considered as one of the organs that are highly susceptible to drug-induced toxicity, leading to a diverse set of responses such as acute liver injuries, black-box warnings, and possible market withdrawal of medications in spite of having first appeared non-toxic and effective in animal and clinical studies. Over the last few decades, drug safety assessment have been limited to animal studies and human clinical trials. These types of drug safety studies have suffered from low rates of predicting drug-induced toxicities with animal/human concordance less than 60% in major human organs. Screening electronic health records (EHR) and spontaneous reporting systems (SRS) for adverse drug reactions has gained a lot of attention recently. This project will explore a novel approach to use EHR from large population hospital data and SRS as principal human data to verify drug safety data from in-vitro toxicology studies. The main focus will be on assessing how much these laboratory data can truly predict drug induced hepatic toxicity in humans, while examining two case study drugs: Rosiglitazone and Troglitazone.

Modular Energy Storage and Control Systems

The excessive burning of fossil fuels into our atmosphere is causing our climate to change rapidly. This change in climate will have detrimental effects on home security, crop yield, energy security, and water scarcity. Many geopolitical and social pressures are present to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As of now over 70% of electricity in Nova Scotia is being generated by fossil fuels, more specifically over 50% of all electricity in Nova Scotia is coming from coal fire power-plants, one of the heaviest GHG emitting sources of energy. Renewable energy is emerging as the best solution to mitigate the amount of fossil fuels burned for production of electricity. Throughout the last few decades Nova Scotia has implemented a variety of renewable, most abundantly wind from wind turbines. Nova Scotia has ideal conditions for wind generation; however, the weather and environmental patterns are very difficult to predict which lead to high intermittency in generation of wind.

Due to the intermittency or renewables, energy generation does not always coincide with energy consumption. Thus, with an energy mix heavily favoring renewables it is necessary to use energy storage.