Innovative Projects Realized

Inter-annual evaporation fluxes for four different land use types in the Greater Toronto Area

The proposed research will investigate the inter-annual variability of evaporation rates of four different urban land use locations within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) – rooftop (impervious), industrial (partially impervious), residential (partially pervious), and grass field (pervious). There will be regularly scheduled meetings with TRCA representatives to enhance my technical proficiency, data analysis capabilities and communication skills. The information presented in the final report will benefit the TRCA, providing the longest time record of evaporation data for the GTA. The outcomes from this research can be utilized in watershed modeling and land management. This type of research represents a benchmark for measuring evaporation, which is the largest portion of the water budget and the one most often ignored.

Assessing the Effect of Emotions on Online Word of Mouth and Retention

This project aims two answer two research questions. First, we respond to nearly 15 years of call for research to understand how word of mouth communication is used in B2B settings. Specifically, we conduct a qualitative research to identify what drives B2B customers to get engaged in online word of mouth communication. Second, we examine how emotions expressed in written interactions between B2B customers and suppliers affect customers’ engagement in online word of mouth communication and customer retention. We test the effect by using the organization partner’s archival data and using a statistical model. Findings from this project will add to the literature of word of mouth communication in B2B contexts and literature of emotions. For the partner organization, this research helps them to choose the effective strategies to handle customers’ interactions when emotions are expressed and to encourage customers to get engaged in online word of mouth communication.

User Interface with analytics for Mini-substation monitoring

The project entails the creation of a web based application that will monitor sensors on substations. The application will graph data from the sensors with warning thresholds. It will notify specific users via text and email when thresholds have been met. The app will also store sensor data and look for trends using machine learning. For example if the substation goes down when the humidity and temperature are at a certain level.

Développement de modèles de détection d’anomalies pour les parcs éoliens et solaires

Power Factors offre une plateforme de suivi de performance de parcs éoliens et solaire. Cette plateforme collecte

les données opérationnelles des parcs, les archive, puis les traite (calcul d’indicateurs de performance) pour

ensuite les transmettre aux exploitants et propriétaires de ces parcs. Power Factors utilise déjà quelques modèles

de détection d’anomalies à travers sa plateforme d’analytiques avancées. Ces modèles ont pour but d’identifier

des anomalies et des tendances alarmantes telle que la détection précoce d’un bris ou d’une sous-performance

et par la suite, aider les exploitants de ces parcs dans leurs opérations de planification de la maintenance. L’objectif

du projet est de développer de nouveaux modèles de détection d’anomalie pour les parcs éoliens et solaires, ce

qui permettrait à Power Factors de garder un avantage concurentiel considérable.

Catalytic oxidative desulfurization of tire pyrolysis oil, fuel oils and their distillates

Thermochemical conversion of waste tires to useful energy resources is attractive to obtain pyrolysis oils with potential economic value. However, the high sulfur and nitrogen contents prevents its direct application as a drop-in fuel in refineries. Though, catalytic hydrotreatment can reduce these heteroatoms, the prohibitive costs of high pressure equipments and harsh reaction conditions necessitates other options including oxidative desulfurization to be explored. This work package with AirScience Technologies proposes to: 1) develop a protocol to fractionate the virgin pyrolytic and fuel oils; 2) develop catalysts for the upgradation of the various cuts via oxidative desulfurization; 3) develop adsorbents for the removal of oxidized heteroatoms; 4) perform regeneration study of optimized catalyst and adsorbent; and 5) scale-up the process from 100 mL to 2 L batch using the optimized catalyst and adsorbent. The proposed project will be beneficial to our industrial partners and Canadian Waste Recycling Industries.

Validation d’un modèle de la connectivité écologique

La connectivité écologique est un des attributs les plus importants pour le maintien de la qualité de l’habitat et de la bioiversité présents sur le territoire. La mission de la compagnie Eco2Urb est d’assister les grands propriétaires d’écosystèmes et d’infrastructures naturelles pour augmenter la résilience de leur réseau écologique au bénéfice de la biodiversité ainsi que le bien-être et la santé des citoyens. Ainsi, la compagnie développe une plateforme informatique visant à calculer la diversité et la connectivité d’un territoire en se basant sur les modèles développés récemment par l’équipe du Dr. Andrew Gonsalez. Afin de paramétriser la plateforme à l’aide de données de terrain, la compagnie souhaite incorporer les données d’utilisation du territoire par la faune, recueillie sur le territoire de la MRC Papineau. Plus précisément, ce modèle sera utilisé au sein d’un contrat de recherche pour la MRC de Papineau au Québec, pour paramétriser le modèle à l’aide de l’utilisation réelle du territoire par les espèces fauniques, d’identifier les infrastructures naturelles les plus utilisées par la faune, et de raffiner la portée du modèle.

Data-Driven and Anthropometric Local Editing of Facial Polygon Meshes

Editing the faces of 3D avatars is a difficult and important task. We will develop an approach that enables users

to perform local edits of faces through means of adjusting the values of anthropometric measurements. Such

measurements are derived from well-established research about the shape and proportion of faces. Based on a

data set of 3D scans of faces, our approach will understand trends among the measurements and the shape of

faces. With our approach, editing the face will be easier and more predictable. Furthermore, editing a specific

region of the face, for example the nose, will not have unexpected side effects elsewhere on the face, as is

common with current methods. Our new tool will enable artists to create faces that match their intent.

Microelectromechanical Low-power Strain Sensor for structural health monitoring applications

Structural health monitoring (SHM) of airplanes requires very compact and low-power stain sensors. Therefore,

IPR wants to investigate how a commercial micro-fabrication process can be used to implement its MEMS sensor

design, particularly using the electro-conductive properties of doped silicon vs. metal-coated crystalline silicon or

polysilicon. The project will consist 0f e conceptual study of the current design provided by IPR and the design

and evaluation through simulations of that design implemented in different technology. Moreover, design variants

of different geometries will be investigated.

This project aims at the design of an adapted sensor for the PiezoMUMPS and PoIyMUMPS offered by the

MEMSCAP fou ndry and the investigation of several design variants to improve yield and performance. Moreover,

it will also provide a custom process flow that could be implemented as an alternate approach to fabrication at the

C2MI.

Étude des paramètres physico-chimiques affectant le procédé de fabrication du fondant

La fabrication de produit issu de réactions chimiques pourra bénéficier des retombées de l’industrie 4.0. Cependant, pour arriver à un grand degré d’automatisation et le choix approprié des paramètres à contrôler par l’acquisition de données en temps réel, il est important de déterminer et de comprendre l’impact des variables sur la qualité du produit final. Dans le cadre de ce projet, les caractéristiques des réactifs impliqués dans la production de fondants seront étudiées. À l’aide d’outils d’analyse chimique, nous pourrons connaitre l’impact individuel et synergétiques de certains paramètres clés affectant les caractéristiques des produits de synthèse.

Development of a commercial preservation technology to minimize physiologicalinjury and assure quality attributes of apple fruit

The ripening of fleshy fruits such as apple, pears and tomatoes results in a coordinated

change in texture, nutritional characteristics, color, flavor and aroma, and initiates

senescence processes that reduce shelf life. Fresh market apples are often treated with 1-

methylcyclopropene and stored under controlled atmosphere conditions to delay ripening and

extend the supply period to consumers. However, there is always some degree of economic

loss due to external injury and flesh browning of the fruit. In this proposal, we intend to

investigate mechanisms responsible for these physiological disorders in two popular

Canadian apple cultivars (‘Empire’ and ‘McIntosh’). The fruit will be stored under various

conditions of temperature and carbon dioxide with or without 1-methylcyclopropene treatment

and fruit quality and biochemical and molecular parameters will be assessed. The overall goal

is to contribute to the development of a reliable commercial preservation technology to

minimize physiological injury and assure quality attributes of apple fruit.

Development of converter based electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, modeling and data processing tools for fuel cell stack diagnostics and servicing

Heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles as a clean energy transportation solution have attracted much interest over the last few years. However, they still suffer from various degradation and faults and a relatively short lifetime, hindering their wider market adoption. Better diagnostics tools are highly needed to obtain information from the fuel cell stacks of the industrial partner, Ballard Power Systems. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been established as an important technique for fuel cell diagnostics. Linear power amplifiers were used previously as an excitation source for EIS with limited power rating and efficiency, restricting their applications to only single cell or short stack testing. This project therefore aims to develop a converter based EIS tool with higher power capability for Ballard’s fuel cell diagnosis at the stack level. It also aims to develop new models and data processing techniques to augment and generate EIS data for hydrogen leak predictions.

Novel heavy oil separator design

Heavy oil reservoirs experience complex production problems when polymer gels are used to control water produced from the reservoir. Produced gels destroy facility equipment and can be a potential physical or environmental hazard. The current project will address this issue and propose mitigation measures that may include pre-treatment of the produced fluids prior to entering the water/oil separators, or alternative separator designs. One M.Sc. student will be trained alongside engineers of the industrial partner. The industrial partner will get a methodology and/or a design for a novel separator.