Innovative Projects Realized

Building the capacity of mainstream services to support newcomers to Alberta

Canada welcomes approximately 300,000 immigrants and refugees each year. In order for these newcomers to be successful in Canada, it is important that service providers are able to support the unique needs and contributions of this diverse population. This research is aimed at understanding how specific service providers support immigrant and refugee clients. This includes focusing on sectors that are not traditionally viewed as immigrant-serving organizations, such as the health care, criminal justice, child welfare and family violence sectors. The MITACS intern will work with one of Alberta’s largest immigrant serving organizations, Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS) to better understand the role that these sectors play in supporting newcomers to Alberta. This internship will produce two beneficial research reports for CCIS to help them work more effectively with these other organizations, in turn improving the outcomes for immigrants and refugees in Alberta.

Identifying and Prioritizing Difficult Systemic Sclerosis Health Care Decisions to Inform the Development of Patient Decision Aids

When faced with complicated treatment decisions, patients and health care providers can use patient decision aids to gain information about options and potential outcomes. Treatment for rare autoimmune diseases like systemic sclerosis can be overwhelming as there may be more than one treatment option, without one being clearly better than another. There are currently no patient decision aids for those with systemic sclerosis so this project aims at working together with individuals with systemic sclerosis and health care providers to develop one that can be distributed to members within the community by the Scleroderma Society of Ontario and the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network.

Les critères d’éligibilité à l’aide médicale à mourir au Québec et au Canada, suite au jugement de la Cour supérieure du Québec de 2019 : quels impacts et enjeux en éthique des soins de fin de vie?

Les lois québécoises et canadiennes encadrant la pratique de l’aide médicale à mourir ont été respectivement adoptées en 2014 et en 2016. Quelques modifications mineures à ces lois – et aux critères d’éligibilité – peuvent avoir des impacts significatifs en éthique des soins de fin de vie. La recherche vise à effectuer un suivi des cadres éthiques, dans un contexte de consultation publique. De plus, entre 2017 et 2020, plusieurs rapports d’experts ou avis d’experts ont été publiés dans la littérature canadienne et internationale. Il est nécessaire de scruter toute cette littérature afin de comprendre les expériences étrangères, ce qui peut avoir un impact significatif dans les délibérations et l’élaboration de cadres éthiques au Québec et au Canada.

La recherche est chapeautée par le Centre justice et foi, un centre d’analyse sociale, de recherche et de réflexion posant un regard critique sur les structures sociales, politiques, économiques, culturelles et religieuses. Cet organisme partenaire bénéficiera de la recherche de pointe sur cet enjeu médical, ayant une portée politico-sociale.

Automated Parametric Design of Custom Hydraulic Fittings

Digital manufacturing and industry 4.0 are recognised as critical contexts for remaining competitive in the manufacturing sector. Unfortunately, small and medium sized enterprises (SME) have not been able to exploit new opportunities to their full potential due to the high costs and complex implementation processes required. This project proposes to develop a flexible manufacturing system with the objective of implementation by SMEs for the purpose of custom manufacturing. This is done through the automation of the design and process planning of metallic fixtures meant for use within hydraulics and instrumentation systems. This system will reduce the resources required for repetitive tasks and build capacity for further implementation of flexible, intelligent manufacturing within SMEs.

Le riborégulateur guanine comme nouvelle cible antibiotique contre les infections au Clostridium difficile

Les antibiotiques utilises de nos jours reposent en grande partie sur des architectures

chimiques mises au point il y a plusieurs decennies. Le probleme de resistance aux

antibiotiques crolt a un rythme alarmant, ce qui laisse presager que les antibiotiques courants

pourraient bient6t devenir inefficaces. Notre equipe de recherche a recemment elabore une

nouvelle famille d’antibiotiques ciblant des elements de regulation genetique, les

riboregulateurs. Le present projet de recherche propose d’optimiser une molecule prototype

(PC1), ainsi que plusieurs analogues, dans Ie but d’ameliorer Ie profil antimicrobien. Au cours

du projet, nous proposons aussi d’identifier de nouvelles families de composes de maniare a

renforcer la propriete intellectuelle entourant Ie projet. Un stagiaire de recherche est

demande afin de participer a un criblage virtuel a haut debit pour identifier des nouvelles

classes de composes. Trois autres stagiaires sont demandes dans Ie but de faire la synthase

chimique de molecules dont les proprietes antibacteriennes seront ulterieurement testees…

Key standards, Industry Best Practices, Future Development for Cyber Security Strategy on BC Hydro’s Industrial Control Systems

Cyber security is fundamental to guarantee the reliable operation of the electric power systems. As the energy industry migrates to the digital space with information and communication technology (ICT), managing the electricity delivery is becoming complex and increasingly dependent on industrial control systems (ICS). The heavy reliance on ICT and the rapid penetration of ICS devices, however, have exposed the power systems to new cyber security challenges. In this project, we aim to investigate the key standards and industry best practices for BC Hydro to develop its cyber security strategy that can continuously improve its ability to detect and respond to cyber security threats to ICS. Based on the risk assessments and security requirements of BC Hydro’s ICS, we aim to provide customized solutions for BC Hydro to implement cyber security technologies and processes that comply with existing and future legal requirements to enhance the cyber resilience of its ICS.

Portrait de l’écosystème startup du Québec

Le nombre de jeunes entreprises ainsi que les structures qui les accompagnent se sont multipliées ces dernières années au Québec. Plus que jamais, tous les acteurs (entrepreneurs, structures d’accompagnement, décideurs publics, etc.) ont besoin de parler un langage commun, d’avoir une vue d’ensemble et d’accéder à des statistiques et des analyses pour prendre des décisions éclairées. Le projet du Portrait de l’écosystème startup du Québec vise à combler ce besoin par la combinaison d’outils structurants panquébécois et d’analyses thématiques multi régions qui permettront d’approfondir la compréhension de cet écosystème au moyen de données probantes à jour et de la recherche appliquée. L’approche adoptée pour la création et le renouvellement de ces connaissances à mesure que se transforme l’écosystème, sera celle de la co-construction, c’est-à-dire, en collaboration avec les différents acteurs et univers qui gravitent autour des startups incluant : les chercheurs, les structures d’accompagnement, les acteurs de développement économique, les entrepreneurs, les décideurs, etc.).

Vibration Analysis: Fault detection, classification, prediction

Vibration analysis is probably the most widely used technique to perform health monitoring of mechanical machinery. Specifically, we are interested in monitoring ‘Vibrating screens’, machines that are for example used by the mining industry to sort aggregate by size. Over the last 10 years the research group of Dr. v. Mohrenschildt has developed hardware, software and theory to accomplish this. The goal is to further the understanding of feature extraction and classification to perform effective predictive maintenance. Several activities contribute to this overall initiative: Data Mining: perform feature extraction on the data sets we recorded data sets to obtain machine health information. These topics are very timely as recent successes in machine learning sparked significant interest in industry and academia. Develop methods to perform additional machine measurement: impact based modal analysis: determine the resonance frequencies of a machine and bearing analysis again with the goal to determine bearing health.

Étude de la faisabilité des huiles électrostatiques pour la protection contre les rouilles automobiles

Antirouille Métropolitain est une compagnie québécoise fondée en 1976. Depuis ses débuts, elle prend l’innovation très aux sérieux. Œuvrant dans un marché très compétitif où elle est le chef de file, elle doit sans cesse chercher des moyens de s’améliorer. La méthodologie d’opération préconisé exige des aires de travails spacieux et une quantité minimale de clients afin d’assurer la rentabilité, ce qui limite son expansion potentiel. De plus, les normes de CSST obligent de plus en plus d’ajout de matériel qui servent à diminuer les particules en suspensions dans l’air. Ces normes augmentent les coûts d’opération et complique l’utilisation de l’espace de travail. Plusieurs recherches internes ont été effectuées et des contacts avec des fournisseurs d’équipement ont été faits. Cependant ce sont uniquement des fournisseurs œuvrant dans le domaine de l’application de peinture industrielle et le transfert de connaissance ne s’appliquait pas au domaine de l’antirouille. La volonté des compagnies telles Graco inc (graco.com), Spraying System Co (spray.com) de faire affaire avec Antirouille Métropolitain était très basse, dû principalement à l’ampleur de la potentialité financière basse du marché Québécois.

Evaluation of a test system to measure safe force thresholds on delicate tissue

Able Innovations is creating novel technology that eliminates the need for human involvement in transfers of individuals with restricted mobility replacing existing sling transfers systems that require significant physical labour by clinical staff that frequently results in staff injury and missed work. Sling systems are also undignified for the patient and can injure the patient with delicate skin because of the forces applied. Able Innovations has been collaborating with Carleton University to develop a “skin” force sensor that can measure the normal and shear forces applied by lift systems. This project will apply the sensor to evaluate forces in existing lift systems and the novel Able Innovation systems. The goal of the work is to specifically evaluate sheer forces in existing lift systems that have had limited study. The long term goal is assessment of the Able Innovation lift will ensure that the system operates within a safe range.

Optimizations of AC/DC Converters for Powering 5G Network

The telecommunication industry is rapidly evolving towards providing faster services to accommodate the global surge in network demand. The next-generation (5G) network aims to increase the current network speed by more than twentyfold. This transition brings enormous benefits for the economy and society. A main challenge faced by network providers, however, is that the existing infrastructure cannot fulfill the new requirements of the 5G network. For example, the future 5G small cells need to be more powerful than the conventional 4G network architecture. Thus, further research and development are required in powering future 5G network. The research and development at Alpha Technologies Ltd. in Burnaby is currently focussed on developing new two-stage power converter for powering 5G small cells with power 3KW. The work involves layout of power converters optimized for electrical and thermal performance. In addition, the converter will be evaluated in terms of its EMI performance.

Probiotics Counteract Gut Microbial Dysbiosis and Long-Term Neural degeneration in Male and Female CD1

Changes in the intestinal microbial composition (dysbiosis) during development have an impact on the progression of neuro-inflammatory and neuronal degenerative disorders. Probiotics have been shown to reduce these effects. However, the current literature lacks research on intestinal dysbiosis during the maturation of the intestine and the brain and does not recognize the sexual dimorphism of the neuro-inflammatory and degenerative neural pathways either. The objective of our research is to determine the mechanisms of neuro-inflammation induced by dysbiosis during development and its relationships with neurodegeneration. Bacterial dysbiosis will be induced via antibiotics in mice. Subsequently, the mice will receive probiotics. Then, an acute immune response will be induced by injection of lipopolysaccharide or saline solution. The microbial composition as well as the immune responses and neuro-inflammation will be assessed. Then, microglial activation will be monitored over the long term, as well as neural oxidation, necrosis and cognitive measures. This research will expand our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the development of neurodegenerative diseases.