Innovative Projects Realized

The Panjiao (Doctrinal Classification) Practice of Huayan Chinese Buddhism

Panjiao ??, or “doctrinal classification” is a practice unique to Chinese Buddhism that was established during the early period when Buddhism spread to China. Panjiao allows a Buddhist school to envision its place (usually at the supreme position) in the overall Buddhist tradition. Panjiao represents the broadest look of a philosopher vis-à-vis the entire doctrinal landscape of Buddhism and is therefore a valuable source to see the panorama of the early intellectual history of Buddhism. Panjiao also offers rich insights into the self-perception of a tradition, as to what unites and separates it from other traditions. In the act of comparing and ranking doctrines, doctrinal nuances often become clearly articulated, which are missing in the formal teaching of that tradition.

The present study focuses on the panjiao of Huayan Buddhism through the texts of Fazang ?? (643-712), the third Huayan patriarch. In particular, I will translate and annotate Fazang’s youxin fajie ji ????? and passages from other texts that bear on panjiao.

Élaboration d’un système manufacturier intelligent pour le pilotage des processus de production dans l’industrie de valorisation du bois : cas du processus de reséchage de précision dans une scierie

L’industrie de la valorisation de bois fait face aujourd’hui à des défis de plus en plus complexes. En plus de leur quête continuelle de performance et de compétitivité, des facteurs tels que les changements climatiques, la disponibilité des ressources, l’augmentation des sources de variabilité ou bien même la rareté des compétences augmentent la pression sur ces industries. Pour rester compétitives et performantes et répondre aux exigences du marché, les industries doivent devenir agiles et flexibles. L’émergence de l’industrie 4.0, via la disponibilité de nouvelles technologies et l’amélioration de la capacité prédictive des méthodes issues de l’intelligence artificielle, a permis d’améliorer la productivité des processus industriels. Ce projet de recherche a pour principal objectif d’exploiter les méthodes d’intelligence artificielle et de l’optimisation pour concevoir un système manufacturier intelligent pour piloter la performance des processus de production dans une scierie.

Production Planning and Optimization in Eden Valley Poultry

Eden Valley Poultry (EVP) is one of the main suppliers of chicken products in Atlantic Canada with 10.3M broilers and turkeys processed in 2018. Currently, the EVP planner manually manages various factors that contribute to the selection of barns for broiler pick up to be processed every day. This research proposal aims to improve the current procurement planning process by finding a way to optimize the procurement planning of broilers and turkeys processed in the EVP’s plant. For this to happen, mathematical programming techniques will be utilized extensively and novel solution approaches that combine heuristics and exact solution techniques will be developed to deal with the large-scale models. The outcomes of this research project are expected to enable the company to improve its order fulfillment, improve efficiency and productivity, and thereby enhance its competitiveness in the market.

Exploiting Experiences and Priors in Semantic Visual Navigation

This fundamental research project investigates semantic visual navigation tasks, such as asking a household robot to “go find my keys”. We seek to enhance the efficacy of repeated search tasks within the same environment, by explicitly building, maintaining, and exploiting a map of locations that the robot had previously explored. We also seek to exploit prior location-tolocation, object-within-location, and object-to-object relationships from similar environments (e.g. within a common cultural region) to improve semantic visual navigation in unseen environments. These advances will benefit the partner organization’s fundamental scientific research efforts, as well as open up potential business opportunities to deploy such efficient robot agents within household, warehouse, retail, and diverse other industries.

End of Life Studies of Coated Cathode Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries

Electric vehicles have been adopted around the world as an alternative to combustion engine vehicles. It has been a focus for academic and industry research efforts to develop battery materials with reduced cobalt, but the removal of cobalt comes at a cost. Reduced cobalt often decreases the stability of these materials. Further improvements to the power and stability of materials with reduced amounts or no cobalt will require establishing scalable methods for incorporating custom coatings. This partnership will enable a further evaluation of large-scale techniques (e.g., kg scale syntheses) to prepare coated battery materials, including assessing their stability after their use within batteries.

Data Science in Pilot Performance Assessment

Automatically assessing a pilot performance during a flight training session is a capability that can enhance the flight instructor during his duty. From data gathered during a flight maneuver, we are looking for a way to automatically assess pilot performance to augment instructor performance and provide objectivity during flight training assessment.

Plant community responses to climate change in the northern boreal mountains

Globally, mountain regions (especially those at high latitudes) are undergoing rapid environmental change and plant communities are expected to respond by changing their locations or timing of flowering. Exactly how future plant communities in these regions will look and function is unknown but has important implications for local animals and human communities. Through this project, we will focus on understanding the response of high-latitude plant communities to ongoing warming and predict how these communities will continue to change. This project will provide detailed information about the state of mountain plant communities in Yukon and an understanding of how they may change in the future and influence local wildlife and human communities.

Atomic layer deposition of platinum nanoparticles on nanoporous carbon scaffold for fuel cell applications

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are the power generators in hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that can help to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions in the form of sustainable, zero-emission transportation. However, there are still multiple factors that are hindering FCEV commercialization, including the high cost and short lifetime of electrodes and catalyst layers, consisting of platinum (Pt) nanoparticles deposited on porous carbon powder. In this research project, a novel material, a self-supported nanoporous carbon scaffold (NCS) with a tunable pore size and wettability will be loaded with Pt nanoparticles using, a new technique, passivation-gas-incorporated atomic layer deposition (PALD), to tune the Pt nanoparticle activity, size and loading. The planned research activities include: (I) PALD training and (II) assembling and testing the Pt/NCS catalyst layers using a fuel cell test station that operates under real conditions. The anticipated outcome is determining how different variables (e.g., NCS pore size and wettability, PALD cycles) will affect Pt nanoparticle distribution, activity and stability under real fuel cell operating conditions.

Aging In Place Ergonomic Kitchen Design

Most Canadians prefer to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, or “age in place”. One important area of daily living is meal preparation. The opportunity to age in place is likely to be higher where kitchens allow for the changing functional ability of people as they age. Décor is a Canadian kitchen cabinet design and manufacturing company committed to innovation that means the products that their clients buy today, will function long into the future. This project brings together industry partner Décor Cabinets with multidisciplinary academic partners from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences and the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. The aim of the project is to advance our understanding of the ergonomic fit between older adults and key kitchen task zones to determine design guidelines for age-friendly kitchens. The project also provides the opportunity for graduate students to develop the professional skills required in providing services and products in today’s growing Silver Economy.

Caractérisation structurale de l’hémocyanine de crabe des neiges

L’objectif de la recherche est de caractériser au niveau moléculaire et 3D deux macromolécules marines. L’idée est que cette maîtrise serve de premiers pas au développement d’une plateforme de structural chez Merinov. Les données recueillies les deux principales protéines seront utiles aux travaux de Merinov. En effet, une meilleure connaissance de ces macromolécules permettra de facilité les travaux de purification afin d’augmenter la pureté et peut-être également de trouver d’autres applications thérapeutiques pour l’une d’entre. Cette dernière sera principalement utilisée dans les vaccins pour son potentiel adjuvant et ses propriétés immunostimulantes. De plus, ce projet mettra également de l’avant la valorisation des coproduits marins issus de l’industrie de la pêche.
Sur le long terme, l’établissement d’une plateforme de structurale chez Merinov pourrait servir à faire du criblage de molécules d’origines marines afin d’identifier (par comparaison de structure avec des médicaments actuellement disponibles sur le marché ou encore avec la structure de récepteur humain) de nouveaux médicaments venant de la mer.

Amélioration de la mesure des propriétés élastiques de matériaux poroélastiques suivant la norme ISO 18437-5

Ce projet vise l’amélioration d’une méthode de mesure, utilisant la norme ISO 18437-5, permettant de mesurer les propriétés élastiques de matériaux poreux à squelette élastique. Ces matériaux sont couramment utilisés en combinaison avec des panneaux métalliques ou composites pour contrôler leur comportement vibratoire et acoustique. De tels panneaux forment notamment les coques d’avions et panneaux d’automobiles. En particulier, les caractéristiques minimales des capteurs et actionneurs nécessaires à la mise en oeuvre de la méthode de mesure seront identifiées dans ce projet. Différents capteurs et actionneurs seront testés et permettront de mieux comprendre l’effet de leur sensibilité et de leur précision sur la mesure des propriétés élastiques finales. Une validation de la précision et du contrôle de l’écrasement sera réalisée sur un échantillon poreux conçu par fabrication additive.

Building Navigation Skills Through a Health Literacy Program for Immigrants Living in Rural Communities

This project involves adapting and delivering a health literacy program for immigrants living in rural British Columbia. The goal of this program is to build confidence and knowledge about health care. Participants learn about the health care system and how to access health services in their community. After attending, participants will report feeling confident in their abilities to navigate the health care system. A second outcome will be the addition of this program to the regular community programming so future newcomers to the community will have a chance to learn about health care.