Innovative Projects Realized

Optimization of an Industrial-scale Water Atomization Process to Produce High-Grade Metal Powders

Powder Metallurgy (PM) and Metal Additive Manufacturing (Metal AM) are sets of processes to produce net-shape or near-net-shape metal parts from metal powders, and so they offer material and energy saving. These processes, however, require powders of strict specifications like particle size distribution and shape. Water Atomization (WA) of a molten metal is a cost-effective approach to producing metal powders. With the advances in PM and Metal AM, water atomization also needs to be enhanced to produce higher quality powders. In this project, we investigate routes to optimize the design and operating parameters of an industrial WA process, to produce high-grade and controlled powders. The study includes computer simulations and lab-scale experiments (at the University of Toronto, ON), and plant trials (at Rio Tinto Metal Powders, QC). The expected outcome is to control the size and shape of water atomized powders; thus, to benefit Rio Tinto Metal Powders by expanding their market.

Project ABCI: Authorization, Booking and Coordination Internships for widespread Testing and Vaccination for COVID-19

Ensuring efficient and effective disease testing during a pandemic requires the integration and automation of complex, versatile assessment, scheduling, and planning tools. Project ABC, funded by Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster, will deploy technologies that enable the BC health system to deliver a high volume of COVID-19 tests to the patients who most urgently need them, and when available, vaccination/immunization. This MITACS proposal, Project ABCI, is the companion internship package led by SFU faculty Gromala and Shaw and three interns. The interns will work on two projects: needs analyses to gather the knowledge and flexibly assess information needs and capabilities with respect to the ABC Project systems being developed; and usability testing to experimentally validate the usability and accessibility of the ABC Project systems, such as the online booking system, to ensure that these systems are accessible and responsive to citizen’s needs.

Modélisation de la consommation d’un robot-tracteur 100% électrique à conduite autonome effectuant des tâches au champ sous diverses conditions

Le projet consiste à modéliser la consommation d’un robot prototype autonome entièrement électrique. Le robot se veut un porte-outil auquel plusieurs équipements agricoles peuvent y être harnachés ce qui le rend très polyvalent. Les tâches pouvant être accomplies sont aussi variées que la cartographie des caractéristiques physiques et chimiques du sol, effectuer des semis ou faire du désherbage mécanique. Le suivi de la consommation électrique du robot en temps réel permettra de concevoir un logiciel de gestion de tâches afin de maximiser l’autonomie énergétique en fonction des tâches à effectuer. La modélisation de la consommation du robot permettra de prédire les superficies qui pourront être couvent pour le robot selon son environnement de travail et les tâches à accomplir. Les données recueillies serviront également à la conception des bornes de recharge mobiles qui seront disposées dans le champ

Interactive Visualization of Design Stories for Parametric Design Systems

This project involves the development and implementation of a visualization, analysis and exploration prototype for a parametric CAD tool. The prototype focuses on the design process; that is, the collection of actions taken by designers as they develop solutions. The visualization will allow designers to analyze, understand and make better decisions based on single actions and/or patterns across time. Designers using the prototype will be able to explore new design solutions derived from this knowledge using the visualization itself. The partner organization will benefit by having a prototype that allows designers of the built environment to view their design process, the highlights and pitfalls, and enable further exploration to find better solutions based on these insights

Navigation and Control of Drones over 5G networks: Enhanced Communication, Adaptive Control and Drone Swarm Collision Avoidance

The current generation of cellular networks, i.e., 4G, made possible multimedia applications such as music and video streaming in the palm of your hand. The upcoming generation of cellular networks, i.e., 5G, enables new types of applications beyond what 4G offered such as augmented virtual reality, Internet of Things, cloud computing, autonomous vehicles, connected health equipment and connected industrial robots. Communications with drones are expected to be one of the important applications of 5G networks. With 5G, pilots maintain communications with drones across arbitrarily large distances over the cellular network. This is a little revolution, a significant technological advancement and an enabler for drone applications that need wide geographical area coverage such as the delivery of parcels or medical supplies. The interns involved in this project are trained in this burgeoning field together with the worldwide 5G equipment leader Ericsson.

Développement d’une plateforme graphique pour illustrer les données dans l’espace et le temps afin d’identifier le cycle optimal d’entretien et dé réhabilitation des routes et de suivre la conformité de l’exécution

Le réseau routier favorise la mobilité des personnes et des marchandises, et est vital pour l’économie aussi bien à l’échelle nationale que municipale. Les villes sont confrontées à un budget limité pour maintenir les routes dans un état acceptable et le développement d’un système pour aider les municipalités à mieux administrer leurs actifs est crucial. Le projet consiste à développer une représentation graphique avec des outils de décision sur Microsoft Excel pour l’entretien, la réhabilitation et le suivi de réseau routier des municipalités. Les villes pourront saisir des données sélectives et obtenir une vue graphique de l’état du réseau routier au fil du temps. Avec ces informations, ils peuvent analyser, comparer et sélectionner la solution la plus économique pour entretenir et améliorer la qualité des routes.

The road network supports the mobility of people and goods, and is vital to the economy at both the national and municipal levels. Cities are faced with a limited budget to maintain roads in an acceptable condition and the development of a system to help municipalities better manage their assets is crucial. The project consists of developing a graphical representation with decision tools on Microsoft Excel for the maintenance, rehabilitation and monitoring of the road network of municipalities. Cities will be able to capture selective data and obtain a graphical view of the condition of the road network over time. With this information, they can analyze, compare and select the most economical solution to maintain and improve the quality of the roads.

The International Centre for Northern Governance and Development Masters Degree Cluster 2012-2013

The Master in Northern Governance and Development (MNGD) is a project-based, interdisciplinary program meant to build capacity among northerners in northern Saskatchewan through a blended delivery model including face-to-face, videoconferencing, online and international field school instruction. The 2012-2013 internship research project will contribute to the MNGD graduate students’ research through the examination of community-based responses to rapid change and the development of the local capacity to respond. The project will evaluate the current and potential capacity of northern stakeholders to engage in relationships and implement processes, policies and practices that build resilient and sustainable communities. This analysis will function at the level of the community, and thus, will be informed by their values and interests. Specifically, the objectives of this research cluster are to: assess current community-based, capacity-building programs.

Remote Matching and Hiring

Remote Talent Matching for Fit:
The project will research the feasibility of a dynamic matching engine that will enable job seekers and employers to better predict the probability of fit to a specific role and context prior to face-to-face contact. The objective is not to replace human recruiting, but rather to provide a mechanism for pre-qualification that eliminates bias and allows each side to evaluate the other before proceeding. The project will test a new language of performance drivers, designed to describe the “hidden attributes” that cause people to excel in a particular job and work context. Alpha Insights, a Canadian executive search firm is working with Traustr Inc., a technology partner to develop the solution. Minoo Selseleh, a post-graduate student and Professor Mark Podolsky are the participants in this Mitacs sponsored research.

Towards Automating Ore Sorting with Rich Sensors

To make mining more efficient and environmentally friendly, transportation of rock should be minimized. Ideally we would only transport those rocks that contain economically extractable amounts of minerals. MineSense has developed sensors that can detect the level of minerals in rocks and, in particular, can detect very low levels with high accuracy. This proposal is to use MineSense’s sensing technology to make decisions about which rocks to keep, and which to discard, as they pass over an array of sensors via a moving belt. Part of the decision is to determine where the rocks are and how many there are. This project will apply some of the latest artificial intelligence techniques, in particular techniques from relational probabilistic modeling, to this problem.

2020 MBA Internship with Amii

By working on the assigned project activities, the intern will have the opportunity to learn more about the AI/ ML industry, from the industry-specific knowledge to how Amii would be able to help solve business problems through many offerings that we have regardless of where the partner organization is in their AI/ML adoption journey, of which the intern will be able to familiarize themselves with and learn more about through having valuable conversations with many organizations which include startups, SMEs, and enterprises on what their problems are. Afterwards, the intern will work with the team to identify the immediate needs and how Amii will be able to support. Other than that, Amii also has available resources and subject matter experts that the intern will have access to. Through this collaboration, Amii would be able to gain fresh perspectives from the intern to identify and audit some of our current processes as well as have an increased capacity which will help contribute to higher efficiency and productivity.

LinguAI

In this project our main goal is to conduct a comprehensive market research to understand the market better (i.e. size of the market, buyer’s persona, needs and gaps and analysis of competitors).

Analytics of Rehabilitation Medicine

The goal of this project is to address major knowledge and research gaps on the impact of gender in the practice of rehabilitation medicine. A gender analytical approach to rehabilitation medicine will be crucial to understanding stroke representation and improving quality of life outcomes for survivors. Focusing on the impact of gender can improve the generalizability and effectiveness of best practices. This research project involves developing a new approach to improving the strategy and processes around rehabilitation medicine through a gender lens. The project will use value chain analysis to better understand strategic and process improvement opportunities in rehabilitation medicine. Value chain analysis disaggregates an organization, such as rehabilitation medicine, into its strategically relevant activities to understand the behaviour of costs and the existing and potential sources of differentiation. The appropriate degree of disaggregation depends on the nature of the activities and the purposes for which the value chain is being analysed. The project will be unique in that it will use process improvement approaches in business, as well as strategic analysis to better understand the value that rehabilitation medicine gives its patients as well as the health system.