Innovative Projects Realized

Textile-Based Wearable Assistive Devices

Neuromuscular impairments resulting from conditions such as spinal cord injuries, strokes, and multiple sclerosis can greatly affect the quality of life of those affected, preventing them from carrying out typical activities of daily living. A number of active assistive devices have been proposed to provide upper limb assistance for such neuromuscular conditions. These devices primarily rely upon rigid linkages and conventional electromechanical motors to exert forces on the body, and therefore do not conform to the user’s body and can become prohibitively heavy, often requiring the devices to be used in a stationary setting such as in a rehabilitation clinic, typically with additional assistance from therapists. Recent work has sought to develop soft, conformal devices using inflatable textile balloons to provide similar assistance. Textiles are a natural material for such an application given their high strength, minimal weight, and capability to adapt to complex 3D geometries such as those of the human body. The mechanical properties of the textile greatly affect the performance of the assistive device. These properties are difficult to tune, however, and are typically limited by what options are commercially available from textile manufacturers.

CFD Modeling of Combustion System / Slinger Combustion of Gas Turbine Engines

The proposed research program involves the development of a slinger combustion system for small gas

turbine engine application. Development of slinger combustion system allows eliminating individual

nozzles in the combustor, simplifying fuel system, reducing combustor temperature pattern factor,

more uniform combustor flowfield that leads to lowering engine emissions.

A relatively new combustion approach will be intensively studied to develop and proof the Slinger

concept with the collaborating partners, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) and

National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) in Bangalore, India. Eventually a prototype will be built with

various detailed measurements. The main objective of the work at Université Laval is to study

numerically this new concept and to integrate spray measurements into CFD calculations to improve

their reliability in terms of more accurate results to provide the best predictive tool with the required

technological advantage of any innovative progress.

Modeling of membrane fatigue in fuel cells

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells are a clean source of energy and a promising candidate for replacing internal combustion engines in automotive applications. However, the commercial use of fuel cells in such applications faces significant challenges on cost and durability. This project aims to address the concerns around fuel cell durability with a focus on the degradation of the polymer electrolyte membrane, a key component of the fuel cell. Specifically, the aim is to develop a deep understanding of how the typical fuel cell in-situ conditions, such as temperature, relative humidity, and cell voltage govern the chemical and mechanical degradation of composite fuel cell membranes.

Sillage de systèmes de propulsion en soufflerie

Les véhicules aériens à décollage et atterrissage vertical (VTOL en anglais, pour Vertical Take-Off and Landing), grâce à leur capacité au vol stationnaire, sont particulièrement bien adaptés aux applications d’observation et d’inspection de structures, mais leur efficacité énergétique en vol “de croisière” est généralement médiocre. Ce travail porte sur l’étude expérimentale des caractéristiques du sillage d’un systèmes VTOL en soufflerie. Les essais en soufflerie permettront de mesurer les champs de pression pariétale autour du profil et de mesurer les forces et le moment agissant sur les hélices. Des visualisations de l’écoulement autour du profil faciliteront la compréhension des résultats obtenus et apporteront des éléments nouveaux.

Amélioration des performances d’Automation Studio TM et communication avec des systèmes embarqués

Automation Studio™ offre un environnement convivial pour la simulation. Il peut échanger de l’information avec l’environnement externe via OPC. Toutefois les logiques de contrôle restent internes et ne donnent pas la possibilité de transfert vers un contrôleur industriel cible. Une communication avec l’environnement externe donne un avantage à Famic technologie pour interagir avec les contrôleurs industriels ou avec les PLC. La génération de code est la solution la plus naturelle pour optimiser l’opération de la plateforme cible. Deux objectifs seront visés dans cette demande et se déclinent en 3 différents projets. Le premier objectif est relié à la génération du code pour cibler des plateformes temps-réel (microcontrôleur, PLC, …) et le second vise à développer une nouvelle boite à outils pour la modélisation et simulation robotique. L’objectif du premier aspect est donc de développer un nouveau module de génération de code pour 2 plateformes cibles : un microcontrôleur de type Arduino et un PLC. Le deuxième est celui de développer un nouveau module de robotique.

Impact of garlic supplementation and Residual Feed Intake profile on the occurrence of liver abscesses in feedlots

Feed efficient finishing cattle with none or less severe cases of liver abscesses (LA) will improve the competitiveness and sustainability of the beef industry. The antimicrobial properties of garlic have not been evaluated towards mitigating the severity of LA. Studies evaluating the association between feed efficiency and LA and the integration of emerging feeding strategies such as garlic supplementation are sparse. This project will evaluate the relationship between garlic supplementation strategies and residual feed intake (RFI) profiles on the severity of LA in finishing cattle. The project will recruit approximately 200 feedlot steers for the 2-yr project where each steer will be assigned to 1 of 4 garlic-supplementation groups. Individual feed and supplement intake will be measured while the RFI profile of each steer will be calculated. The finished steers will be harvested at an approved facility where LA scores will be collected by an expert assessor. This project will determine the associations between performance and LA scores.

Cognitive Powertrain and Metaveillogrammetric sensing for transportation

There is massive growth in the area of smart cities (e.g. sensors in streetlights), smart cars, and “smart people” (sensors on people, e.g. wearable computing). In some cities like San Diego, there are cameras and microphones in nearly every streetlight in the downtown core area. Most cars made now have one or more cameras in them, and numerous other kinds of sensors are being invented. These sensors are important regarding autonomous vehicles as well as technologies for extended human intelligence and safety. We will research sensing and metasensing (the sensing of sensing) and develop new forms of sensing (camera-based sensing as well as phasecoherent sensing with active vision like sonar, and other sensors), and meta-sensing. Whereas there exists a large body of research on quantification of physical quantities like sound and light (e.g. illumination standards), the quantification of sensing has not been explored to the same degree.

Cognitive Radio for Multimedia Traffic in Wireless Mesh Networks

In a cognitive wireless mesh network, licensed users (PUs) may borrow surplus spectrum from

other PUs and rent them to unlicensed users (SUs) for getting some revenue. For such spectrum

sharing paradigm, maximizing the revenue is the key objective of the PUs, while that of the SUs

is to meet their requirements and getting a good quality of service from the rented spectrum. PUs

exchange channels dynamically based on the availability of neighbor’s idle channels in a

cooperative manner in order to maximize PUs total revenue and utilize spectrum efficiently. We

need to develop a control policy that considers different requirements such as rewards for PUs,

wireless requirement (channel interference), the cost of spectrum renting and SUs satisfaction

(waiting time) and finds the optimal size and price of rented spectrum for each licensed user

under different radio environment conditions. Routing based on cognitive radio, power

management in wireless mesh networks, and spectrum pricing are other aspects that need to be…

British Columbia – A History

British Columbia – A History is a 4-part documentary television series and an interactive online historical timeline of the past 150+ years of BC history that will be comprised of interviews, archives and news research that will explore methods of historical recreation and knowledge production by incorporating an inclusive and multi-narrative approach to major historical events in the recent past and during the formation of the province, for Knowledge Network.

Through purposeful, deep archival and historical news research interns will learn how to scrutinize materials for an inclusive and pluralistic approach to dig up nuanced representations that fully represent our complex and interwoven cultural histories in Western Canada. Interns will also develop a comprehensive database design with easily searchable metatags, an easily designed interface of the web portal, written content and curation of pluralistic resources in each of the individual chapters of the episodes.

Caractérisation du vieillissement de l’isolation de masse de barresd’alternateur soumises à des décharges partielles d’encoche sous différentes contraintes

La fiabilité des alternateurs hydrauliques est un sujet d’importance pour les utilitaires afin

d’assurer la fiabilité de l’approvisionnement en énergie électrique. La maintenance de ces

équipements est donc un outil important dans la gestion et l’exploitation d’un parc

d’alternateurs. Après un certain nombre d’années de fonctionnement, l’usure de ces

equipements peut mener a I’apparition de decharges partielles entre I’isolation de masse des

bobines et Ie circuit magnetique. Le sujet de ce stage est plus specifiquement la mesure de

la tenue dielectrique residuelle ainsi que la dissection de chacun des sites vieillis par des

decharges partielles d’encoche sous des contraintes electriques, thermiques et mecaniques

Goaltender leg pad fit, responsiveness and performance

Sport equipment, particularly ice hockey goaltender equipment, development and advancement is due to professional player feedback, advances in material engineering and through following equipment rules and regulations. Often these advances occur at a faster pace than equipment evaluations, which results in a gap in the understanding of the effects that this equipment has on an athlete’s safety and performance. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to test a new CCM stiff lightweight leg pad for fit, responsiveness and performance and compare those findings to CCM’s popular flexible leg pad model. A secondary objective of this research is to identify the ideal location for the elastic lower-leg strapping. This data will be collected using passive motion capture cameras to observe leg pad responsiveness and performance, and pressures sensors to quantify fit. The outcomes from this research will ensure CCM’s new stiff lightweight leg pad model is continuing to advance ice hockey goaltender safety and performance.

FÉMINISME(S) 2.0 ET TRAJECTOIRES MILITANTES : INTERSECTIONS DES VIOLENCES EN LIGNE ET HORS LIGNE

Le processus de cyberne?tisation des socie?te?s a modifie? de manie?re pre?gnante les structures communicationnelles, politiques, e?conomiques, culturelles et sociales, alors que le Web 2.0 a profonde?ment bouleverse? la nature et la porte?e des interactions sociales ainsi que les usages sociaux du cyberespace.

Les pratiques d’exposition en ligne comportent toutes un risque et un coût social pour les utilisateurs et utilisatrices en vertu des codes d’usage et des spécificités de cet espace de cybersocialisation. Par ailleurs, l’espace numérique est particulièrement violent pour certaines catégories d’actrices et d’acteurs sociaux de telle sorte que le Web 2.0 représente une « manopshère » particulièrement hostile aux discours féministes. Cette recherche s’intéresse aux violences en ligne qui sont dirigées contre les militantes féministes à partir d’une analyse intersectionnelle des cyberviolences. Cette recherche a deux principaux objectifs : 1) cartographier les cyberviolences contre les militantes féministes afin de les caractériser par rapport aux autres formes de violences en ligne et par rapport aux violences hors ligne envers les féministes ; 2) mesurer les conséquences de ces évènements violents sur les parcours des individus dans la sphère militante en ligne et hors lige.