Innovative Projects Realized

Overcoming the Challenge of COVID-19: How entrepreneurs in Rural NL can understand and face the pandemic

The response to COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders have led to skyrocketing unemployment and various economic impacts. Entrepreneurs are coping up with challenges and conflicts that require solutions to sustain rural communities. With researchers based in Grenfell Campus, Memorial University (MUN) of Newfoundland in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), this study will focus on how enterprise hubs could help entrepreneurship development in rural communities. With the support of personnel at the partner institution, the researchers will identify the assets contributing to entrepreneurship initiatives in rural communities, establish an enterprise hub in a pilot community to build capacity, and evaluate and analyze the impact of the enterprise hub. The research results will bring out the feedback, thoughts, and experiences of the entrepreneurs within the community to ensure that their feedback is mapped out in decision making on new policies, procedures and reforms post pandemic COVID-19.

Filling the learning gaps caused by the pandemic: Supporting teachers and their diverse students with digital technology

The closure of schools across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed significant gaps in educational provision. In addition, K-12 teachers have had difficulty finding learning resources related to the programs they are responsible for teaching. When students fall behind in school, they develop a learning gap with their peers. Learning gaps are relatively common and invariably require, at some point, a strategy to help the student catch up. In this project, we will examine the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing an innovative online tool that addresses the common challenge of the learning gap in education. We will explore how this innovative online platform can support the accelerated catch-up phase of students with a learning gap and strengthen the digital skills of teachers.

Myant Response To COVID-19 Pandemic – Research and Technology Development for Smart Textile Solutions

A textile-based solution to remotely and continuously monitor COVID-19 symptoms
Myant proposes to create a wearable textile solution with a compact electronic module able to record ECG, breathing movements, chest motion and sound, skin temperature, and blood pulse (oximetry and pulse shape to estimate blood pressure) in order to monitor key physiological metrics for individuals with and without Covid19, from their residence, geriatric care, or hospital ward, and communicate those metrics to health care professionals to detect health changes and support medical decision.
Building A Novel, Innovative, Scalable and Sustainable Canadian Filtration System for PPE Facemasks
Develop and scale the manufacturing of PPE surgical masks and N95 respirators that are washable and reusable, utilizing multi-layer filtering, anti-viral, and anti-bacterial fabrics. They are knitted using automated robotic machinery with N95 equivalent textile structures introduced in the production of the mask, minimizing post processing and additional labour or materials. As part of this project the developed solutions will be tested and validated to ASTM F2100 standards/specs.

Up-scalable production of high efficiency perylene diimide (PDI)-based organic light emitting devices using slot die coating methods

With respect to large-area display applications, it is desirable to have not only the active layers but also the electrodes in the OLEDs that can be formed by solution fabrication process. To address the manufacturing challenges of high-performance OLEDs, several scalable techniques such as doctor blading, ink-jet printing, and ultrasonic spray coating have been developed or employed. Hence, OLEDs provide a wider scope for researchers to either develop or demonstrate a variety of new methods that are cost-effective, large-area, and roll-to-roll (R2R) compatible, and more importantly, have excellent efficiency.
As OLEDs technology becomes more established, further improvement in device performance can be expected. However, successful and timely commercialization of this technology to replace already-existing but expensive LCD technologies depends on how some of the critical issues, such as (1) providing strategies for optimization of OLEDs, (2) combining facile synthetic methods with greener processing for efficient polymer-perylene diimide based OLEDs and (3) employing efficient, high performance slot die coating technology for OLED applications, are addressed.

Secure Infrastructure for Improved Logistic and Communication in Healthcare Facilities Dealing with COVID-19 Patients.

The ability of the health system to manage a massive influx of patients such that caused by the COVID-19 spread is based on the combination of four factors: the personnel, the equipment, the physical spaces and the system in place. A combination better known in jargon as the 4 “S” (staff, stuff, structure / space, system). A fifth factor that is often misunderstood is synchronicity. With great adaptation to the workspace and team structures, a newly trained staff with new equipment, and a system of critical processes that evolve according to the evolution of the environment and the healthcare system status, synchronicity is essential. This synchronicity requires real time data and automations to enable already pressured teams and a stressed healthcare organization to adapt to unforeseen requests and needs, as well as to respect additional procedures and protocols such those implemented during the COVID-19 crisis.
In this project, we want to study the automated verification and deployment of a Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) infrastructure to improve communications and logistics in healthcare facilities treating COVID-19 patients. The assistance of such a flexible ICT infrastructure can play a key role in successfully implementing the fifths “S” within medical personnel operations.

Future Safe: Designing Efficient Face Masks in the Era of COVID 19

With the surreal times we are living in the context of Covid-19, wearing face masks has become a global public necessity. While many people are wearing face masks, not all masks are created equal. From very expensive high-tech respirators with multiple layers of filtration, to homemade face masks using less than ideal fabrics, the general public has become aware that covering their faces is a big factor that can reduce contagion. For the general public, effective face masks are difficult to breathe in, and those that let too much air flow are not effective. Our interdisciplinary research team from Engineering, Fine Arts and Arts and Science is aiming to design efficient face masks that without compromising comfort. The partnership unites strengths from Concordia’s Filtration Aerosol Laboratory, the Milieux Institute for Art, Culture and Technology and IRSST to follow three streams of inter-related research: Mask Design, Materials Exploration and Public Pedagogy.

Wirelessly COVID-19 Patient Tracking and Risk Assessment Using Edge AI Platform

The ability of the health system to manage a massive influx of patients is based on the combination of four factors: the personnel, the equipment, the physical spaces and the system in place. A combination better known in jargon as the 4 “S” (staff, stuff, structure / space, system). A fifth factor that is often misunderstood is synchronicity. With great adaptation to the workspace and team structures, a newly trained staff with new equipment, and a system of critical processes that evolve according to the evolution of the environment and the healthcare system status, synchronicity is essential. This synchronicity requires real time data and automations to enable already pressured teams and a stressed healthcare organization to adapt to unforeseen requests and needs.

In this project, we want to rapidly assess the risk of COVID-19 infection of people living in a building or healthcare facilities through analyzing their distance to other people who might or might not have been in contact with COVID-19 patients. This will be achieved with the help of wireless data collection, and artificial intelligence algorithms running on the hardware and software platform located within or in proximity to the building.

North Perth Ontario: Developing a Response Plan

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are far-reaching and extend beyond the spread of the disease and efforts to quarantine it. With emergency management efforts underway, opportunities exist to develop more effective and efficient response measures to increase the resiliency of our communities amidst this and future public health crises. Developing impactful resilience strategies requires a regional- and community-scale focus. While most Canadians live in urban centres, nearly 20% of the national population resides in small and/or rural centres. Across Canada’s rural landscape are communities facing unique realities, complex challenges, and numerous opportunities. In partnership with The Salvation Army – Listowel, this project will examine North Perth County as a case study to explore what planning activities are required in small and rural communities to best support ongoing recovery efforts and to increase resiliency and well-being over the long-term. Outcomes from this project will support rural communities to develop effective local policies and planning strategies to respond to the coronavirus pandemic and future disruptive events.

Development of Machine Learning Algorithms for Inferring Biomarkers Underlying Multi-Modal Physiological Signals of Patients with COVID-19

COVID-19 is a global pandemic disease and the best way to stop it is controlling its spread and treating the infected individuals. Detailed measures of clinical characteristics and outcomes in patients with COVID-19 like Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) are not accessible to a large population and require patients to spend hours waiting at the hospitals. As well, it is not yet known that the lung is the only host of this virus; an inflammation of the heart has been recently reported in patients with COVID-19. Most recent studies imply that COVID-19 might directly impact on the heart. Therefore, relying on one method for detecting COVID-19 is not sufficient, multi-modal sensors indicating different physiological activities are required. There is no unique solution to capture different but relevant physiological signals underlying COVID-19. Given medical imaging techniques (chest CT scans), pulmonary function tests (PFTs), and electrophysiological recordings (e.g., ECG and blood pressure) of patients with COVID-19, we, in collaboration with Dena Corporation and University of Toronto, aim to develop machine learning and signal processing algorithms for detecting biomarkers underlying COVID19 and inferring their correlational patterns.

Optimizing Pretrained Clinical Embeddings for Automatic COVID-related ICD Coding

We are building a machine learning algorithm to be able to better understand the unstructured clinical notes that doctors write about patients. This will help hospitals and healthcare systems standardize and extract insights from these notes to make them more useful for determining how sick COVID patients are and how they are improving over time.

Moving Beyond BMI: Cardiovascular fitness as biological marker of reproductive health

The Healthcare Foundation plays an active role in improving patient experiences across Newfoundland and Labrador. The significant findings from research funded by the Healthcare Foundation helps improve the way we diagnose and treat our population. After a grant is received a board member from the foundation is updated on the findings of the research, who then examines how the results will improve healthcare practices in the province. If our study yields significant results, offline resources may become available to the patient population, which can be accessed without seeing a physician. The survey will also provide information on the patient demographics to help inform future research of Infertility in our province.
Our original study entailed a comparison between obese-fit fertile women and obese-lean fertile women that we will use to determine the effects of cardiovascular fitness on biomarkers of fertility. We will work with the Healthcare Foundation to apply our findings to incorporate a new element into the standard care procedures at Eastern Health. Additional resources will be highly beneficial for fertility patients while enduring the long waitlists to help improve treatment outcomes.

Development of applications of the NanoCleanSQ surface coating in the fight against COVID-19

Envision SQ Inc. (EnvisionSQ), in a joint effort with the University of Guelph, is currently working on applications of their NanoCleanSQ disinfectant-sanitizer to help slow down the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus that causes COVID-19). NanoCleanSQ is a clear coating material and acts as a photocatalytic disinfectant that can be easily applied to virtually any hard surface to help prevent spread of viruses. While initial testing results indicate the coating kills bacteria and viruses, additional research is needed to understand how it can be deployed in various situations such as hospitals and long term care facilities. The results of the research undertaken by the interns is expected to lead to new product development and commercialization opportunities for EnvisionSQ.