Innovative Projects Realized

High Average Power – Frequency domain Optical Parametric Amplifier (HAP-FOPA)

The goal of this proposal is to make the most advantage of the recently developed technique of Frequency domain Optical Parametric Amplification (FOPA) by pushing this technology to unprecedented levels. The IP has been protected by the group of prof. François Légaré from INRS_EMT. The main inventor, Bruno Schmidt, has founded few-cycle Inc. to commercialize this disruptive technology in Canada. Prof. Légaré and few-cycle Inc. are the partners of the current proposal.
One particular aspect of this laser is its incredibly short pulse duration consisting only of few cycles of the electric field. The current state of the art of few-cycle infrared (IR) laser at the research level operate at average powers of a few watts. A commercial product is not yet available at IR wavelengths. The aim of this 2 year project is to increase the average power by one order of magnitude. Furthermore, the final setup shall fulfil all criteria associated with a commercial product, safe operation, remote control and reliable operation.

Single Frequency RTK Technology for Handheld GPS

Traditional GPS RTK requires two receivers one of which serves as base station. Assuming in-between separation is not too long, spatial correlations for GPS observation errors are pretty significant. Base station can be used to correct rover observations. As a result, 2-cm horizontal and 5-cm vertical positioning accuracy within 5-minute initialization time is available at rover.

However, two dual-frequency receivers are required in this mode. For applications concerning economical cost more than high accuracy, dual-frequency RTK is not optimum choice. Therefore, we propose to design a single-frequency GPS RTK system providing 5~10 cm positioning accuracy within 5-minute. The proposed work can reduce receiver costs by half. Moreover, this system can even save costs for base station installment if network RTK is already set up

In a word, our work is to design a low-cost single-frequency GPS RTK system with at most half price but comparable performance compared to traditional dual-frequency RTK.

Torsional Effects on Structural Self-Tapping Screws in Canadian Douglas Fir

With a growing concern to reduce carbon emissions, timber construction has is experiences a rebirth in Canada and abroad. The availably of engineered wood products, innovations in manufacturing, and changes in the building codes are some incentives for timber becoming a materials choice. Connecting these large timber members is done efficiently with the help of structural self-tapping screws. These steel screws, developed in Europe, are capable withstanding relatively high loads due to their unique design. They are rapidly installed without the need for pre-drilling hole with the help of the self-cutting tip on the screw. When inserted into timber, a considerable amount of torsional stresses are produced. The purpose of this study is to understand how these stresses impact the ultimate capacity of the screws. A series of experimental tests will be performed before and after the screws have been inserted into Canadian Douglas Fir under dry and wet conditions.

A Quality Assurance Framework for Care Process Management

Online business processes are different from traditional web applications and typical healthcare applications. Online business processes involve the collaboration of multiple user roles interacting with multiple services in parallel. They are usually implemented using Business Process management (BPM) technology that defines an explicit business process model to flexibly combine forms delivered through a web browser with services accessible through Internet protocols.
A quality assurance framework for BPM has been proposed in our previous work that will be adapted and extended for use at The Ottawa Hospital in partnership with IBM. It specifies formal modeling of requirements in terms of goal models and business process scenarios coupled with a well-defined service-oriented architecture. Test campaigns are model-driven from requirements, the business process model, user forms and the service-oriented architecture. The test campaigns are defined and supported by a test orchestration workbench that allows for flexible integration of tools to address multi-user, multi-service testing.

Evaluation of cyanide and thiosulphate lixiviant systems for KSM Seabridge gold circuit

Most of the gold that is produced by hydrometallurgical processes is recovered by cyanide leaching. However, the reactive nature of some minerals questions the applicability of cyanide technology for selected applications. The current research is designed to evaluate the cyanide technology as well as an alternative processing path for a particular material through extensive experimental program. The project will yield the mathematical models describing all chemical processes in each circuit, as well as mass and energy balances based on laboratory data and scientific reasoning. The models will assist identifying the most economical solution for the particular processing plant in BC.

Surgical prehabilitation of cancer patients undergoing surgical resection. Modalities to mitigate the level of anxiety and depression prior to surgery

There is emerging evidence from studies at the Montreal General Hospital supporting the effect of prehabilitation (also referred to as preoperative conditioning) on postoperative outcomes. Increasing physical fitness and optimizing nutrition in cancer patients before surgery can help patients feel physically stronger, return to their community functions sooner and potentially undergo adjuvant cancer treatment earlier than expected. However, a great level of preoperative anxiety and depression exists in our cohorts, and standard strategies, such as deep breathing exercises, are not enough to mitigate the impact of psychological distress. As the literature suggests, high preoperative anxiety and depression are associated with prolonged functional recovery, depressed immune function, more complications, and poorer quality of life. The present study has been designed to assess patients’ psychological status before beginning a 4-6 week prehabilitation program and to determine the impact of structured psychological intervention on functional, clinical and societal aspects of postoperative outcomes.

Travaux préliminaires à l’implantation du Learning Analytics Lab pour optimiser et monitorer l’engagement et l’apprentissage dans des environnements numériques

Si les TIC ont permis à la formation de devenir plus accessible et favoriseraient l’engagement et la motivation, les faibles taux de réussite en formation à distance (FAD) posent problème. Les environnements numériques (EN) utilisés dans les formations en ligne enregistrent systématiquement les traces informatiques des activités des apprenants, qui peuvent être combinés avec des données de questionnaire dans une approche de Learn Analytics. Le projet vise notamment à développer des systèmes et des interventions soutenant l’apprentissage, la collaboration et l’engagement des apprenants; à comprendre les stratégies d’apprentissage et de collaboration déployées par les apprenants ainsi que les usages qu’ils font des ressources d’apprentissage ; à mieux comprendre l’engagement et la motivation des apprenants; et enfin à développer et mettre en place un cadre d’évaluation de la qualité. Les résultats permettront d’évaluer les processus d’apprentissage en fournissant des éléments pour rendre optimaux l’engagement, l’apprentissage, et ultimement, la réussite.

Enhanced and Conformation Specific G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) Expression for Autoimmune Diagnostics

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are proteins present on the surface of a cell that are the targets of >30% prescription drugs. These GPCRs are involved in various diseases ranging from hypertension, airway diseases to taste disorders. Detection of antibodies for GPCRs in various disease states is a challenging task. The main goal of this project is to develop novel methods and improve existing methods to overexpress a couple of GPCRs for potential use in diagnostic assays. The industry partner, Acudex Inc. has a strong interest in the outcomes of the proposed research project and has the capacity to validate the assays and commercialize the findings.

Deep learning for tooth wear monitoring of mining shovels

The main objective of this project is using deep learning algorithm to enhance the current state of the art tooth wear monitoring system used in mining shovels. Unlike the current approach, the proposed deep learning method operates by building a model from input images in order to make data-driven predictions. We use deep learning approach to identify the pixels that belong to the teeth-line in each video frame taken by camera located on the mining device. Consequently, the extracted teeth will be registered to a template in order to compute all the changes happened to the teeth length during time.

Non-Stationary Time-Series Analysis based on Geometric Signal Modeling

High dimensional signals may arise in many fields of science. For example, biomedical signals such as EEG and EMG can be modeled by few latent processes measured by a large set of noisy sensors. In such applications the goal is to identify the latent intrinsic variables, which describe the true, intrinsic state of the system, e.g. disease state, sleep stage, performed action. Such real signals are commonly hard to analyze due to nonlinearities and rapid state changes in time (non-stationarity). In this project we plan to address these difficulties and construct a framework which is based on manifold learning techniques. These techniques provide a compact and reliable representation of the system by exploiting the structure and patterns in the data. This compact representation describes intrinsic properties of the analyzed system. We plan to develop new mathematical tools which will give rise to a new analysis framework for problems involving rapidly changing signals that existing tools fail to handle.

Metal-free Carboxylation of Electron Rich Substrates with CO2

Carbon dioxide, a green-house gas that contributes to global warming. It is overabundant and therefore inexpensive. Nowadays, there are many attempts to use carbon dioxide as carbon source in variety of products, such as plastic, foams, fuel etc., which will reduce its amount in atmosphere. However, for now most of these methodologies are not efficient enough and usually very expensive due to use of very expensive compounds used in this processes. In this project we aim to develop new inexpensive and environmentally friendly methods for using carbon dioxide in a variety of different chemical processes and products. Therefore, the approach we aim to develop is of high environmental importance as well as have high industrial potential.

Engineering human muscle tissue with PEGylated fibrinogen

Loss of skeletal muscle integrity arising from disease, injury, or genetic conditions is debilitating to human health and happiness. Efforts aimed at identifying drugs that improve skeletal muscle strength and form relies on assays of cells grown within two-dimensional culture dishes. While this format has served the community well for several decades, three-dimensional tissue models are emerging as more faithful models of human tissues. The Gilbert Lab (Canada) recently developed a 96-well custom built screening platform that supports the growth and maturation of miniature human skeletal muscle tissues. The Seliktar Lab (Israel) created a semi-synthetic polymer that is well suited to support muscle maturation. In this Student Mobility Innovation Initiative, the Gilbert lab will test the utility of the Seliktar Lab polymer to replace a costly component of their platform thereby overcoming cost and reproducibility issues that hinder widespread adoption of the system.