Innovative Projects Realized

Structuration d’un accélérateur d’entreprise spécialisée en intelligence artificielle : Thales AI@Centech

Thales vient de lancer son accélérateur AI@Centech. Situé à Montréal, l’accélérateur a pour objectif d’accompagner, sous forme de cohortes de 6 mois, des start-ups qui fournissent des solutions basées sur l’intelligence artificielle (AI). Cette grappe Mitacs, qui réunit des stagiaires de l’ÉTS et de Polytechnique Montréal, vient appuyer Thales dans la structuration de son accélérateur, autant d’un point de vue de gestion de l’innovation que de gestion de développement de logiciel (DevOps). Les stagiaires auront notamment à cartographier l’écosystème d’innovation, identifier des partenariats potentiels, recenser les meilleures pratiques, créer des outils d’accompagnement pour les cohortes et soutenir les start-ups dans le développement de logiciel.

Industrialisation des processus de pilotage et d’exécution de la construction

L’industrialisation du secteur de la construction suggère une transformation qui s’appuie sur diverses technologies visant à collecter des données en temps réel lors de l’exécution de projet, notamment via l’emploi de drones, caméras, outils télémétriques, capteurs et puces à radiofréquences. Ces technologies tendent à changer les façons de faire des entreprises de construction. La recherche proposée vise à définir les processus de pilotage et d’exécution des projets de construction et développer des modèles de collecte, de traitement, de fusion et d’exploitation des données liées à l’évaluation de la performance, au suivi de projet et au retour d’expérience. Ce projet de recherche permettra l’intégration de diverses technologies à des fins de réingénierie et d’automatisation des processus de pilotage et d’exécution des projets par le développement de modèles de données capables de capter, traiter et exploiter les informations pertinentes pour optimiser la prise de décision durant l’exécution de projets de construction.

Acoustic Emission Testing of Fibers Exposed to Different Environmental Conditions

This research project investigates methods for detecting damage and breakage in fibers used in fiber-reinforced polymer composite pressure piping. Of primary interest is Acoustic Emission (AE) technology to isolate and identify damage types and corresponding AE features for fiber reinforcement rupturing when exposed service loads and different environmental conditions. Sound signals produced by fiber rupture shall be detected, recorded, and analyzed. In this context, the design and manufacture of suitable fiber specimens shall be undertaken, followed by controlled experimental testing applying different loading scenarios. Identifying and characterizing different types of AE signals related to fiber damage will conclude the project.

Electro-optical chip development for secure satellite optical communications networks

Free-space optical inter-satellite communication has become an area of key interest in global research and development towards satellite-based communication networks. The aim of this project is to research and develop a thermally stable, multi-watt, optical phased array for the purpose of coherent mechanism-free beam steering in inter-satellite communication systems. Development of this electro-optic chip is part of an ongoing effort headed by Honeywell Aerospace to develop low cost technologies to support secure satellite optical communication networks, including the determination of the effectiveness of the use of terrestrial parts for use in space environments.

Evidence-informed Planning and Evaluation of Community Transitions: Impact on Health and Quality of Life (Phase II)

Many of St.Amant’s services are shifting to provide the most inclusive, supportive, community-based services with the intention of enhancing health, accessing to healthcare, and improving the quality of life of persons supported and that of their families and caregivers. As part of its vision statement, St.Amant is supporting a number of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout their move from St.Amant Health and Transition Services to a variety of community-based residences. Our research team is conducting a longitudinal evaluation study to assess the process of community transitions as well as the impact that these community transitions have had on the health and quality of life of people who were transitioned. This is Phase II of the study, which involves conducting two annual post-transition follow-up assessments so that the longer-term impact of the community transitions on the health and quality of life of the transitioned persons with disability could be better understood.

Optimization of Bioink Composition for Efficient Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Chondrogenic Differentiation in an Animal Component-Free Culture

Culture of cells in three-dimension (30) allows cells to interact with their surrounding and grow in all directions and behave in a manner that is more closely associated to how they would in vivo as long as their nutrient and environmental requirements are maintained. In this context, bioprinting offers an advantage over 20 cell cultures as it allows cells to be mixed with growth factors and biomaterials that can be printed into structures that mimics the natural tissue characteristics. Cartilage repair due to trauma or disease has been proven difficult in vivo by traditional methods. Herein, we propose to develop and optimize a 30 system to improve cartilage formation in vitro, and several “bioinks” are commercially available with pro-chondrogenic activity. Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) are progenitor cells able to differentiate into cartilage-making cells that can be easily extracted from a variety of tissues in the body. MSCs will be incorporated into bioinks in the presence of factors known to stimulate cartilage formation and printed into a structure that allows for evaluation of cell activity, health and extent of differentiation.

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.