Innovative Projects Realized

Paving the way to concrete 3D printing for sustainable housing in cold regions

These two first units are sub-projects of a larger feasibility study that looks to solve the challenges that prevent the construction of housing in remote northern areas of Canada despite overwhelming need. Using 3D printing to accomplish quality housing projects in remote climates requires further research prior to being deployed. The larger context pf this project is to establish the technology, methodology and practices of building appropriate housing in Northern communities.

Développement, implantation et étude des retombées de capsules vidéoorthophoniques sur l’autonomisation des personnes vivant avec la maladiede Parkinson

La maladie de Parkinson touche plus de 1,5% des personnes de plus de 65 ans et jusqu’à 90 % des personnes atteintes développent des difficultés à avaler ou à s’exprimer au courant de leur maladie. Ces difficultés nuisent aux relations sociales des personnes qui vivent avec cette maladie. Des thérapies en orthophonie peuvent aider à préserver les fonctions d’avaler et de parler, mais l’accès aux soins est limité au Québec et dans le monde.
Le projet consiste en la création de capsules vidéo, en collaboration avec l’association Parkinson Québec, qui expliquent et démontrent des exercices et stratégies orthophoniques, mise à disposition des personnes vivant avec la maladie de Parkinson via le site de Parkinson Québec. Cela pourrait avoir des retombées positives sur le sentiment d’autonomie et sur le maintien des fonctions d’avaler et de parler qui sont cruciales pour la participation sociale.

Corporate Behaviour and Voluntary Energy Programs: Influences on Voluntary Participation.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the factors that motivate firms to participate in voluntary energy programs, with reference to the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Toronto Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) Program. The program directed incentive funds to reduce electricity demand in large Toronto commercial buildings and provided a $60 million subsidy for building owners and tenants to conduct energy conservation projects. The study will examine whether the subsidy was the primary motivator in a company’s participation, or whether there were other underlying influences, such as public recognition/publicity, competitive advantages; to strengthen a company’s environmental practices; or to improve stakeholder relations. The results will aid Hydro One in determining the strengths and weaknesses of this particular energy program and may offer solutions in the improvement of current or existing voluntary CDM programs.

Detection and recognition of crisis using Markov models and Case-based reasoning

This project pertains to the modeling, detection and monitoring of crises in geopolitical

dynamiC environments. As risks are inherent to crises, we need tools to cope with the

uncertainty factors involved in these situations. The objective of this project is to conduct

research activities to support the understanding of crisis situations and to model their

potential evolution. Our main goal is to explore how to find patterns from episodes of

conflicts that can be reused as templates by human operators in th~ir analysis process.

The technologies targeted for this project are Markov models and Case-Based reasoning

. (CBR). Markov models are efficient tools for modeling sequences of events as they

capture the uncertainty inherent to a process. Various extensions, such as Hidden Markov

models (HMM), are available for modeling complex stochastic processes with partial

information. CBR is a framework, originating from artificial intelligence, which can be used

to find similarities in situations and to help in the interpretation~ of these situations….

La responsabilité des grandes entreprises en matière sociale et environnementale à l’aune du devoir de vigilance. Analyse comparée avec les droits français et OHADA.

Ce projet de recherche, dans le cadre de mes recherches doctorales, à la Faculté de droit de l’Université de Montréal, sous la supervision de Professeure Julie Biron, me permettra d’approfondir les recherches en ce qui concerne la conformité dans les sociétés canadiennes dont certaines opèrent en Afrique subsaharienne dans le secteur minier. A cet effet, ce stage de recherche aboutira à déceler la gouvernance d’entreprise de ces sociétés canadiennes, leur responsabilité sociétale et question relative à l’investissement socialement responsable. Autrement dit, appréhender comment les sociétés canadiennes exploitant les ressources naturelles assurent la gestion des risques sociaux, environnementaux et de gouvernance.

Advanced rechargeable zinc lithium-ion battery – Part 3

There is a growing demand for the electrochemical energy storage system (EES) to store the energy generated by renewable resources of energy such as wind and solar. However, renewables are intermittent in nature meaning that the energy can be produced only when the sun is shining, and the wind is blowing. Therefore, there is a high demand for an EES to store the energy during generation time and give it back to grid later. Recently, zinc lithium-ion batteries (ZLIBs), which operate using much safer aqueous electrolytes rather than organic counterparts as in lithium-ion batteries, have gained tremendous attention due to their cost effectiveness and higher durability compared to typical lithium-ion battery. The current project focuses on the development of an electrolyte system specifically designed for ZLIB to furtherly improve its cycle life. For operating and install necessary infrastructure such as flanges and fittings in remote project locations, the industrial partner Pro-Flange, demands uninterrupted supply of electricity for power tools and equipment. However, the current power supply usually suffers either from unstable grid supply or unavailable grid at the project sites.

Production of animal feed using Methylophilus methylotrophus

This project aims to identify an efficient fermentation strategy that will enable Cvictus to generate a protein-rich animal feed using methanol as the nutrient source. The key advantage of the production platform proposed by Cvictus is the use of a proprietary technology that can convert coal to methanol with ultra-low CO2 emissions. Initial research in this project will examine an advanced fermentation system that will facilitate growth of high-density cultures, leading to improved productivity relative to existing fermentation approaches. Furthermore, the animal feed generated in these studies will be assessed for protein and amino acid content to determine their nutritional attributes. Finally, downstream processing of the animal feed will be studied to examine their effect on the nutritional value of the final product. Taken together, the proposed research will strengthen the environmental benefits and economics for the integrated production platform of Cvictus.

Development and Optimization of a Pile Integrated Geo-Exchange System

Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) are a clean and sustainable alternative to conventional heating and cooling technologies. Currently, the high upfront costs and technical complexity of drilling and installing GSHPs is preventing their widespread adoption. Innovia GEO Corporation is developing a novel GSHP system that integrates directly into building structural piles. While these piles are used extensively in the construction industry as a building foundation component, their use as part of a GSHP is unexplored. Their dual-use has the potential to reduce costs and remove logistical barriers of implementation. This project will include experimental and computer simulation research to characterize the functionality of the proposed technology. Computer modelling will be used to gain further understanding of the system. The interns will work with the industry partner on two experiments; a laboratory scale experiment, and a demonstration site . These studies will be essential towards Innovia’s commercialization of structural pile GSHPs.

Development of tools to assess genetic and age structuring of the Atlantic Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa)

As fisheries for the Atlantic Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa) develop in Atlantic Canada, effective management will require a thorough understanding of the underlying genetic relationships within and between different populations to assess “genetic health.” Detecting genetic structure, such as differences in allelic frequencies and heterozygosity, is challenging in marine invertebrate species like C. frondosa due to having a highly dispersive and long larval stage, which results in high levels of gene flow between populations. Through the use of a Next-Generation Sequencing technology known as Restriction Site-Associated DNA Sequencing (RADseq), sufficient amounts of genetic data can be generated to detect significant levels of genetic structuring based on studies of other marine invertebrates. Applying this technique to C. frondosa will help better define subpopulations and allow more thorough assessments of population health and adaptability, both of which are necessary for effective fisheries management.

Computational Nanoscale Design of Advanced Lithium Iron PhosphateBattery Cathodes

Advanced energy storage materials are essential to the continued economic prosperity of our society,

as we move towards the electrification of the transportation industry and the further development of our

renewable energy resources. Accelerating the pace of discovery and development in advanced energy storage

materials will therefore be vital to maintaining economic competitiveness in the twenty-first century. These

interships will help train students in the development of an urgently needed economic engine for rapid materials

innovation through the combined computational design, synthesis, and characterization of novel energy storage

materials. The discovery and synthesis of new lithium-ion iron phosphate based battery materials will be

facilitated by combining materials modeling at McGill University with the empirical investigation of battery

materials at Hydro-Quebec. Through this synergistic approach these Mitacs interships will fuel the Canadian

driven discovery, development, manufacturing, and deployment of advanced lithium-ion battery materials (with

high energy density and fast charging) at least twice as fast as possible today, at a fraction….TOBECONTINUED

Causal drivers of post-bleaching coral reef regime shifts

Coral reef regime shifts occur when environmental stressors result in the benthic composition abruptly transitioning from a coral dominated reef to one dominated by macroalgae. These shifts are a key conservation concern and have led to substantial degradation of coral reefs worldwide. In particular, climate-induced coral bleaching is now a leading threat to coral reefs, and can result in coral-algal shifts that are often detrimental and difficult to reverse. Yet not all reefs shift towards algal domination after a bleaching event, and a causal understanding of the conditions under which reefs recover vs regime shift is currently unknown. The aim of this project is to create a causal model that determines how different environmental conditions (e.g. depth, structural complexity, herbivorous biomass) have influenced recovery vs regime shift trajectories after a widespread climate-induced bleaching event in Seychelles. By applying causal inference to a 17 year dataset collected across 21 reef sites in Seychelles, this project provides a unique opportunity to study causal mechanisms affecting post-bleaching recovery potential on coral reef ecosystems.

Effect of probiotics on reducing diet-induced inflammation and atherosclerotic plaque formation in APoE-knockout mice

Diets which reduce carbohydrate intake and increase protein intake, such as Atkins diet, are popular and effective for weight loss. However, such diets may negatively affect cardiovascular health by increasing atherosclerotic plaque formation, and overall lead to higher mortality. Vuckovic and Bergdahl previously used mouse model that mimics spontaneous formation of atherosclerotic plaques in humans to investigate the effect of a low carbohydrate-high protein (LCHP) diet on plaque formation. Their results identified the involvement of inflammatory pathways in adverse effects of LCHP diet in comparison to control and high-fat diets. We hypothesize that the administration of anti-inflammatory probiotic supplements can regulate the levels of inflammation and thus reduce the plaque formation in this animal model. Our findings will play an important role to better understand if the risks of LCHP diets can be minimized using probiotics and to understand more generally what effect this probiotic formulation has on diet-induced chronic inflammation.