Innovative Projects Realized

Processus d’amélioration continue dans les mines – optimisation de la gestion des stériles miniers

Durant les années où les prix des métaux ont permis une hausse des revenus pour les minières, ces dernières ont constaté que cette hausse ne s’est pas traduite par des profits substantiels pour les investisseurs. Ce constat a amené les minières à réfléchir à leur mode opérationnel et à développer un processus d’amélioration continue inspiré de celui utilisé dans le domaine manufacturier. Ce développement consiste à adapter les pratiques actuellement utilisées en grande partie dans le domaine manufacturier et surtout à développer des indicateurs de performance propres à l’industrie minière. Ce projet s’intègre dans cette philosophie et permet d’avoir une vision plus complète de la chaîne des valeurs du processus minier en intégrant la géologie et les gestions des stériles miniers. Ce projet, piloté par groupe MISA, impliquent une compagnie minière productrice d’or.

The effect of peer-to-peer video modeling (VM) on socialization and physical literacy in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

According to literature, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can imitate movements since they have learned many social, vocational, speech, and academic skills. However, motor skill deficiency has been mentioned as one of the contributing factors to social isolation, reducing opportunities for people with ASD to be connected to society and peers. Improving motor skills increases their confidence to participate in social interactions. This research project has two aims: (1) to teach fundamental motor skills through video- modeling with tablet technology and (2) to encourage socialization where participants with ASD interact and discuss their performances with peers with ASD through peer-to-peer learning using a structured format. The Asperger Autism Friendship Society (AAFS) provides support to a large Autism population in Calgary. This project will provide support for a research-based program that will increase the validity of various kinds of interventions, attract more clients to be a part of intervention programs, and increase the social skills and physical literacy of persons with ASD.

Multi-modal intention detection for robot repositioning based on physical human-robot interaction

The proposed project aims to look at different ways of combining touch and visual stimuli to enhance the awareness of a humanoid robot during interaction with humans. The goal is to have the robot capable of reacting to more complicated forms of touch. For example, allowing the robot to be physically repositioned through different combinations of human touch and visual cues, while maintaining certain criteria about body positioning. The expected outcome is a robot that is smarter and more reactive during physical human-robot interaction, and as a result safer to interact with.

Stable Isotopes and Animal Movement

The purpose of the project is to advance training in isotopic analysis. This will be achieved by a comparative isotopic pilot study to assess the degree to which techniques used can nuance the origins of modern animals in Australia, in advance of a larger study of material from the Early Bronze Age Middle East. The objective of the pilot study will be attained by using teeth from modern cattle obtained from locations in the Australian state of New South Wales. The different geographical areas will provide different isotopic profiles that can be compared, while also allowing for refinement of the scientific methodology for a future PhD program on ancient cattle remains. The program will be undertaken collaboratively with Dr Karin Sowada (Dept of Ancient History) and Dr Olivier Alard (Dept of Earth and Planetary Sciences) at Macquarie University, Sydney, under the auspices of Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Project ‘Pyramids, Power and the Dynamics of States in Crisis’ (FT170100288).

The foraging behaviour of King Penguins under extreme climatic events

The sub-Antarctic region hosts rich waters created by the current systems originating from Antarctica meeting the warmer water of the tropics. The convergence of those two water masses, combined with the complex bathymetry of certain sub-Antactic regions, creates distinctive aquatic habitats where the marine fauna is abundant. However, these current systems are very sensitive to extreme climatic events, which have become more common with global warming. To understand how dramatic disturbances in the sub-Antarctic currents affect the marine wildlife, we will study the foraging behaviour of the king penguin, a seabird of the sub-Antarctic waters, in relation with climate. King penguins are top predators, meaning their foraging behaviour is highly affected by the lower trophic levels. By understanding how its behaviour (foraging location, foraging effort, etc.) changes in years of extreme climatic events, we could infer how the prey themselves (fish, squids, etc.) are affected by those climatic events. Furthermore, loggers attached to the penguins can give information real-time on the thermal gradients of the different water masses. King penguins would therefore provide us on how climate influences the trophic chain.

CFD methodology for analysis of multiphase flow process

Oil that has passed through the bearings and gearboxes of aircraft engines is recycled by a specialized oil scavenging system that separates droplets dispersed from the shaft from air and particulate matter. This process helps to mitigate the emissions of aircraft engines, greatly improves oil consumption and Improves working life by improving the cooling capabilities of the lubrication system. Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations are used to design the oil-air separation process In order to maximize it’s efficiency, and therefore the challenging task of modelling the multi-phase behavior of the fluid mixture is a critical step in the design of the air-oil separation system. The study aims to establish an optimal methodology to maximize predictive accuracy of the performance parameters relevant to oil-air separation using computational fluid dynamics simulations, valid over a range of operating conditions.

Analysis and Matching of Donors and Charities Using Machine Learning and Data Mining Techniques

Dexterity Consulting is a company that aims to maximize the impact of donors’ donations to charities. Dexterity Consulting offers a service to match donors to charities, based on the alignment of the donors’ preferences and the charities goals. This matching process is currently being done manually by an expert in the field, working at Dexterity Consulting. The proposed research aims to develop an automated system to replace the current matching process. In addition, the research aims to validate the current process used by the expert, by using various data mining approaches and comparing their results to the results from established algorithms. In the end, we will produce and recommend a set of data mining techniques for more advance and in depth analysis of the donor and charity characteristics.

A generic microgrid controller with rule-based dispatch

In order to provide more reliable electricity, facilitate clean enery integration and supply energy to remote communitites, part of the power grid may be required to operate autonomously. Microgrids which can be islanded from teh main grid, are deployed for this purpose. However, the compositions and objectives of microgrids vary in different applications and operating modes. This project aims to design a generic microgrid controller with modular rule-based dispatch to address these challenges. Teal-time simulation and controller-hardware-in-the-loop test will be conducted to validate the basic dispatch. The proposed generic microgrid controller will help standardize the microgrid controller design and save the engineering effort of designing microgrid controllers in different applicaitons. The industrial partner will thus be able to make available provisions of developing and testing microdgrid controller to developers, owners and operators of microgrids.

Comment la mobilisation des employés peut augmenter le recrutement et favoriser la rétention du personnel dans une PME ?

Le projet se veut de comprendre la mobilisation des employés dans une PME et ainsi trouver des moyens efficaces et des outils ou bien des comportements qui mèneront à l’attraction et la rétention de la main-d’oeuvre. En effet, nous faisons face à une pénurie de la main-d’oeuvre devenant de plus en plus alarmante. C’est pourquoi lors de cette recherche, il sera intéressant d’analyser un échantillon particulier d’une PME pour compléter la recherche étant donné leurs ressources limitées. L’essentiel de cette recherche est de pouvoir trouver des outils qui mèneront à la mobilisation des employés dans les PME pour attirer une main-d’oeuvre particulière

Pour en finir avec les labyrinthes: vers une complémentarité des services en violences sexuelles soutenant les survivantEs LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit

Cette recherche vise à comprendre comment mieux soutenir les personnes LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit survivantes de violences sexuelles. Elle permet d’explorer deux sous-thèmes : les particularités des violences vécues et les barrières rencontrées lorsque les survivantEs LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit recherchent du soutien, ainsi que les approches, rôles et ressources offertes par les acteurs concernés (la sécurité publique, la santé et les services sociaux, les ressources spécialisées en violence sexuelle et les ressources pour les personnes LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit). Ce travail de recherche permettra de rassembler l’ensemble des connaissances sur ces réalités. Puis, différentes activités de diffusion rendront les fruits de la recherche accessibles pour la communauté scientifique comme pour les ressources offrant du soutien et le public. L’organisme partenaire bénéficiera de ce projet en acquérant des connaissances et une expertise qui orienteront par la suite les approches qui seront choisies dans une démarche de concertation, d’éducation et de communication auprès de des acteurs du milieu.

Enzyme-instructed siRNA release and functional self-assembly of peptide-based delivery system

RNA interference mediated gene silencing provides one of the most effective treatments for many genetic diseases such as cancer and viral infection. However, due to the many difficulties siRNAs would face during systemic pathway, a delivery system is needed to protect it from degradation and endosomal entrapment, and also to facilitate the unloading of the cargo. In such case, the main objective of this project is to produce a phosphorylation-mediated peptide-based siRNA delivery system. For such system, the connection between the siRNA and the peptide would be reduced by phosphorylating the peptide, leading to siRNA release, which would result in higher RNAi efficacy. If this delivery system can be proved efficient in vitro, it could have potential feasibility to become a pharmaceutical drug eventually.

Investigating Waste Disposal Options for Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Management Plan

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the challenges the urban communities are facing throughout the world. Identification of optimal MSW management option(s) is difficult because of the complex and variable nature of MSW and the various environmental and economic criteria for a particular community. This research will mainly focus on studying Metro Vancouver MSW management plan alternatives that can be categorized as three main groups: (1) waste-to-energy incineration, (2) landfilling, and (3) refuse derived fuel (RDF) for combustion in a cement kiln. The main propose of this research is to support sustainability strategies of Cement Association of Canada (CAC) for using RDF as alternative energy source in cement manufacturing. State-of-the-art assessment methods such as environmental impact assessment (EIA), lifecycle assessment (LCA), and cost benefit analysis (CBA), will be used to evaluate

both short- and long-term environmental burdens and economic impacts of various options and to identify the more sustainable solution.