Innovative Projects Realized

Using oxygen-17 of lake gastropods as a novel tracer of palaeohydrological change

Water in lakes has a certain triple oxygen isotopic composition depending on the amount of precipitation and evaporation. Snails use oxygen from lake waters in order to mineralise their shells, thereby locking in the isotopic composition so that when snails die, they accumulate in sediments and can be analysed in order to build a record of climate change through time. We will test this new isotopic method in the modern day, by analysing snail shells collected along a climatological gradient from the northwest to the southwest of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

The Lowland Maya living in central America over the past 3,000 years were affected by climate change, and are hypothesised to have declined as a result of a series of droughts. We will analyse the snail shells from a lake core and by determining how wet or dry it was in the past we will be able to determine how they responded to climate change. This knowledge could have profound implications for society, given that we are inhabitants of a warming planet.

Enquête sur l’évolution des représentations sociales de l’intelligence artificielle en contexte d’intégration d’outils de l’intelligence artificielle

Se représenter ce qu’est l’intelligence artificielle (IA) pose trois problèmes : 1- le mot contient « intelligence » et ce terme est connoté, flou, et toujours matière à débat. 2- l’IA sert à prendre des décisions, ce n’est pas une fonction qu’on laisse à n’importe qui dans nos états de droits et nos démocraties libérales. 3- l’IA est un domaine scientifique pointu. Comme pour toutes les sciences, vulgariser est difficile et parfois même risqué. Ce projet cherche à aider la réflexion sur l’arrivée de l’IA en étudiant sa représentation sociale à travers les discours au sein d’une équipe d’Ubisoft travaillant sur un produit pédagogique visant à vulgariser un modèle d’IA pour le Centre de Science de Montréal. Ubisoft pourra bénéficier de l’aide de la stagiaire pour la création de l’interface d’utilisateur alors que celle-ci pourra être aux premières loges pour observer les échanges de l’équipe à propos de l’IA.

Optimizing Return to Sport and Return to Performance After Knee Injuries in Winter Slope Sports: Evidence Based Timelines for Return to Sport and Return to Performance

This project aims to increase the scientific knowledge base on recovery and rehabilitation after knee injury. Noninjured winter slope sport athletes will undergo a battery of baseline testing including quadriceps and hamstrings maximum strength and rapid force producing abilities, lower body power endurance, workload capacity and fatigue tolerance at the start and end of the off-snow training periods. Athletes suffering knee injuries will be identified and assessed at time points throughout their rehabilitation to evaluate the association between athlete performance level, baseline testing indices, injury mechanisms, injury characteristics, surgical procedure, and the time-course recovery in neuromuscular function. The findings of this proposed research project will benefit the Canada Sport Institute, Alpine Canada, Banff Sports Medicine Clinic and Group 23 Sport Medicine Clinic by improving rehabilitation and testing after traumatic knee injuries in athletic and recreational populations.

Statistical machine learning for urban transportation system

In general, the goal of project is to investigate the train travel data and figure out the main factors affecting train travel time. Moreover, we will use machine learning algorithms to predict their arrival time to stations and forecast when delays will happen. Specifically, to figure out what factors are affecting train travel times, we will investigate several possibilities according to prior empirical knowledge. Among them, useful factors will be chosen from the data exploration process and undergone statistical significance tests. Until then, we represent the entire railway map as a graph and build a convolutional neural network based that. The convolutional neural network is a machine learning model can take into account of all affecting factors and generate accurate train arrival time as output. The overall solution can be generalized to any similar railway systems and thus be integrated as a product for the partner organization.

Development, simulation and validation of hybrid energy generation-based isolated microgrid models suitable for the minimization of fuel expenditure and CO2 emissions of an oil and gas drilling rig

This project will involve the development and validation of simulation models suitable for studying, designing and implementing a small-sized power system with reduced fuel expenditure and carbon (iv) oxide emissions, for oil and gas extraction activities. The successful implementation of the project will further Audacious Energy Corp.’s knowledge to launch and test a Minimum Viable Product.

Preparing Mountain Tourism for a Warmer and Decarbonized Canada

Global climate change represents a grand challenge for society, and the risk for Canada’s ski tourism economy is no exception. Climate change impacts on ski tourism’s profitability will have far-reaching consequences for sport, employment, culture, real estate, and community economic development in Canada’s tourism-dependent rural and mountain communities, yet there is currently no analysis on carbon risks, national competitiveness, or sustainability transition opportunities. This hinders a strategic climate response, but how ski tourism engages in climate change is critical and viable strategies to be part of the decarbonized economy are essential to future development of the visitor economy. This project will assess Canadian ski tourism climate and carbon risks at the national scale using a world leading ski operations climate risk model and new sector applications of carbon accounting methods. Collaborating with industry and community members this project will assist transitions towards a decarbonized tourism industry and climate resilient mountain communities. The proposed research will be the first of its kind in any country and will develop new methodologies and insights that can be exported to other major ski markets worldwide.

Speaker Diarization for Audio Transcription

This research is concerned with speaker diarization for the purpose of facilitating automated speech transcription. This problem has multiple depths depending on the prior knowledge provided to the system. The type and amount of information about the number and characteristics of the speakers can differentiate this problem in a range from a 1-to-N matching, where the voice is compared against different templates, to a clustering problem, where no prior knowledge is available. We intend to find a solution for the speaker diarization problem by incorporating state-of-the-art supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods. This internship will help the interns gain professional work experience in the field of natural language processing with the help from experts in both industry and academia. It is an opportunity for them to practice and improve their industry skills and gain a better understanding of what they are learning in the academia.

Amélioration de l’instrumentation tibiale lors de l’arthroplastie du genou

Le système iASSIST® Genou est un système d’assistance par ordinateur conçu pour l’arthroplastie totale du genou. Ce système est composé d’instruments réutilisables, d’un contrôleur ainsi que de senseurs inertiels (des PODs) permettant de déterminer les axes d’alignement du fémur et du tibia par rapport aux repères anatomiques. L’objectif de l’outil est d’aider à positionner avec précision les instruments d’alignement et composants d’implant par rapport à ces axes osseux. Le but de ce projet est de finaliser le développement de iASSIST2 par la conception d’un système guidant l’installation de la prothèse tibiale lors de l’arthroplastie totale du genou. Cette dernière fonctionnalité représente actuellement un frein à l’adoption du produit complet.

Testing Mechanisms for Electrical Distribution Systems in Buildings

Nexeya is an innovative industrial group that provides test, integration and control-command solutions mainly in the Defense, Aeronautics, Energy, Railway, and Automotive sectors. Nexeya’s current products are able to test characterise wiring harnesses and detecting and localising wiring defects, in the Aeronautics, Automotive, Railway, and Space industries. This proposed research project aims to advance the existing products of Nexeya to provide testing and detections of poor contacts and wiring defects in energized low-voltage electrical installations in buildings before and after failure. To that end, the existing Nexeya products will be evaluated for the aforementioned functions, where product updates/upgrades and recommended changes in the design will be investigated.

Hydrogen Production From Utility-Scale Electrolysis for Fuel Cell Electric Bus Supply in Ontario

Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology is actively pursued as a viable, sustainable and long-term solution for resolving transportation-related emission issues on a global scale. While Canada has a strong presence in this technology space in various parts of the world such as Europe, the USA, and China, hydrogen technology integration at the transit level is still not a reality in this country. CUTRIC’s leadership through the Pan-Canadian Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Demonstration & Integration Trial Phase I is enabling Canada to regain its leadership in hydrogen technology innovation by utilizing electrolytic hydrogen as a fuel source. This proposed research project aims to evaluate the technical and economic challenges and opportunities to electrify Ontario’s transit bus networks using hydrogen fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs). The production and storage of hydrogen in Ontario from large-scale power-to-gas technologies will be investigated in order to supply the required hydrogen to power FCEBs. Several models will be tailored and/or developed in this project to study the technical and economic feasibility related to the production of hydrogen to supply FCEBs in Ontario.

Development and Understanding of ‘old’ and ‘new’ initiators for cationic polymerization

Butyl Rubber has become one of the most important polymers in the modern world, impacting everyone’s daily lives. Interestingly, the processes to make butyl rubber can be convoluted and while they are effective, it makes it difficult to fine tune the production to systematically improve yields. This project will use newly developed methods in our lab to explore this process in order to better elucidate the reaction in order to optimize the reaction conditions and develop new catalysts for the synthesis of butyl rubber. As a global leader in butyl rubber production, Arlanxeo will greatly benefit from the knowledge generated from this project, allowing them to more efficiently make butyl rubber, increasing the yields and reducing their energy requirements.

Accelerate development of new technologies and applications for advanced water treatment

Global population growth, urbanization and changing climate patterns have increased the demand for potable water, wastewater reuse and value recovery from wastewater, and treatment of industrial process water. Population growth also results in increased demand for the shipping of goods by ocean freight, with the associated risk of the transport of unwanted marine life from one location to another by the discharge of ballast water. Also, the increasing sophistication of food and drug production requires a corresponding development of fluid protection technologies to prevent contamination by undesirable microbes. Consequently, there is increased demand for improved technologies that can provide sustainable treatment of water and wastewaters, protection of the water supply, and development of new fluid treatment methods. This research project will develop knowledge and technologies to allow the development of new Trojan Technologies products in these three areas. Treatment technologies to harvest energy from wastewater, treat ballast water with ultraviolet light and filtration to treat invasive species, and remove harmful bacteria from liquid foods and drug fluids, are examples of proposed outcomes of this project.