Innovative Projects Realized

A National Study of Trans Men and Non-Binary People’s Sexual Health and Wellness

Sex Now is a community-based health survey for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in Canada. It is one of only a few studies of GBMSM to be inclusive of transgender men and non-binary people which presents a novel and exciting opportunity to understand these groups’ sexual health and wellness outcomes and needs in order to create public health interventions that are targeted and appropriate to them. Working with the Community-Based Research Centre, the intern will analyse data specific to these groups and determine ways in which the data can be shared with communities in meaningful ways. The intern will develop a public community report as well as an academic manuscript for peer-reviewed publication.

A methodological approach to the use of data-supported environmental factors in support of the introduction of autonomous air vehicles in a shared airspace

The evolution of aerospace technologies and automated systems has been accompanied by the phenomenon of “de-crewing”. A large body of current research focuses on how to move to single-pilot operations (SPO), but a major barrier to the implementation of SPO and other autonomous commercial aircraft operations is that advances in human-machine interactions and human factors have not kept pace with technological change. The objective of the research project that is the subject of this proposal is to develop a methodology to simulate autonomous flight in a real-time, virtual environment. The project focuses on the introduction of a fully autonomous aircraft into a shared airspace in a simulated environment that enables the acquisition of data to support the development of a shared manned and un-manned airspace. The project proposes the implementation of a case study in which autonomous flight in shared airspace is simulated using the virtual representation of an unmanned air vehicle flying in a virtual airspace that is populated with real-time data. The research is based on, and extends, recent research in the area of situation awareness, ontological knowledge representation, next-generation Air Traffic Management and user-centered design.

Automatic Classification of Security Events

IBM QRadar needs to be able to categorize events generated by hundreds of different network devices in order to function as a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). This categorization is currently a manual process and our aim is to automate this task. We have a database of over 579,000 events coming from over 300 devices that have been manually classified over the years. We also have the classification categories: 18 high level categories, broken down into 500+ subcategories; these categories broadly correspond to security threats.
The goal of this research is to use this database to develop a model that can then be used to assist in the classification of future events as new devices, or new versions of existing devices, are introduced.
Each “event” is parsed by QRadar’s “Device Support Module” (DSM), which outputs a unique identifier along with other useful information e.g. Source / Destination IP/Port, event generated time, user responsible for generating the event, and so on.

Geomagnetic indoor positioning based on smart phone sensor

This project aims at solving the difficult problems faced by indoor positioning and related issues, which are part of the future development direction. For different positioning environments and positioning requests, the project will explore the corresponding positioning schemes, conversion mechanism sand switching strategies. The project will use the geomagnetic-based technology that does not require additional facilities, choose the best indoor positioning algorithm to meet the requirements of indoor positioning accuracy under different scene areas; and publish relevant papers about the study results.

Dynamic Determining of Time-window Parameters in Spatiotemporal Association Rules Mining

This project will address the problem of time-window parameter adaptation in the process of sequence association rules mining. During the proposed internship in Canada, the main task will be to develop the method and algorithm for implementing time-window adaptive parameters. The advantage of the algorithm is that the identification of events does not rely on the fixed-size time windows. It can reflect the dynamic evolution characteristics of different geographical phenomena. This research can be applied to other fields and allows for publication of papers on research results.

Adaptive operating room (OR) scheduling and control

McCaig Tower, as one of the largest sites of Foothills Medical Centre, provides the world’s

safest and most accurate surgeries to patients, and a SmarTrack system, an interactive

patient tracking system, helps the operating room (OR) management. However, due to the

dependence of ORs on pre-operative preparations and post-operative capacities, the

disturbances that come from patients and ORs themselves, and the lack of integration of

healthcare systems with IE and MSc, the OR management in McCaig Tower is faced with

difficulties in handling exceptions. Consequently, only manual adaptive control can be carried

out by experienced nurses or directives for peri-operative (peri-op) activities. Such manual

adaptive peri-op control is based on priority rules (some informal) and is not efficient in most

cases, because of the limitation of information sharing for decision making. This project is to

develop and implement OR scheduling and adaptive peri-op control to improve the response

time and efficiency in the management/scheduling of ORs in McCaig Tower.

Use of Recycled concrete Aggregate to Produce Concrete Masonry Blocks

Concrete—the most common construction material in the world—represents the main component of construction and demolition waste. The excessive extraction of virgin aggregate from Canadian lands and water bodies destroys the habitats of many species and affects the natural flow of streams in lakes and rivers. One solution to address the growing solid waste challenge and preserve natural aggregate resources from depletion is the adoption of large-scale recycling of concrete waste into aggregate. Concrete block is a very common building material that is used in almost every commercial and residential project. As such, it is critical to investigate the use of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) in concrete blocks. This project focuses on developing techniques and design mixes for producing concrete blocks with RCA from masonry manufacturing waste. The Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association (CCMPA) is the representative voice of the Canadian concrete block manufacturing industry. The scientific data resulting from this study will allow the CCMPA’s members to produce concrete blocks made with RCA that have similar strength and durability as those made with natural aggregate.

Design and manufacture flexible strain gauge for high reliable application

The partner organization (Forcen Inc) wants to design and manufacture a strain gauge that is stretchable, flexible and sensitive to different types of strain (tension, compression, shear and torsion). Unfortunately, the current metal foil and semiconductor strain gauge is brittle. That is why Forcen Inc partnered with University of Toronto to develop new generation of strain gauge that is flexible enough to be inserted into surgical and manufacture robot and it can detect strains from mult-directions.

Childhood Healthy Weights Early Intervention Program: Scale-up

The Early Intervention Program (EIP) is a family-based intervention targeting families of children who are off the healthy weight trajectory. The EIP is a 10-week program offered at community centers across BC where children and their families meet once a week for 90 minutes as well as online. Parents will be provided with healthy lifestyle content and will engage in discussions on how to engage in health behaviours, and children will participate in physical activities aiming to enhance their motor skills. Families will also have access to a web portal with content and suggestions of activities to be completed. The Childhood Obesity Foundation will benefit by working with experienced graduate students (M.Sc and PhD) to evaluate the implementation and the effectiveness of EIP. The intern will contribute with previous experience and innovative perspectives on the use of technologies to promote behaviour change in low income and diverse populations.

Supersingular Isogeny-Based Cryptography

In the near future the way that we encrypt and authenticate information online may not be safe. For this reason, we need to create new tools that will enable secure communication for many coming years. The proposed research is to create such tools from a certain algebraic object called isogenies. These are functions that take one elliptic curve to another. Breaking isogeny-based encryption is thought to be difficult, and so we will be able to create other cryptographic tools from them besides encryption. In addition to constructing such tools, the proposed research includes making them have fast performance on computers and mobile devices without any loss of security.

Système de vision de robots industriels pour manipuler des pièces sur une chaine d’assemblage industrielle

Face à la quatrième révolution industrielle et à une concurrence à l’échelle mondiale, l’industrie canadienne affronte des défis de taille pour augmenter sa productivité, améliorer la qualité de ses produits et réduire ses coûts. Imperial Manufacturing Group comme plusieurs entreprises du Nouveau-Brunswick, souhaite innover dans ses processus de fabrication pour être plus compétitif et productif tout en offrant des produits de grande qualité et d’excellentes conditions d’emploi. Le groupe Imperial souhaite développer deux systèmes de vision pour robots industriels. Le premier concerne la palettisation intelligente de lignes d’enroulement. Ce processus est actuellement manuel et l’entreprise souhaite utiliser des robots industriels avec des systèmes de vision qui peuvent détecter automatiquement l’arrivée de produits et effectuer une palettisation automatique. Le deuxième système concerne les machines d’injection de plastique qui fabriquent un grand nombre de produits qui nécessitent un assemblage. Le système de vision permettra à un robot industriel d’effectuer les opérations appropriées.

Development of passive sampling devices for natural and artificial radionuclides in the context of pre- and post-deployment of small nuclear reactors in remote areas

Small nuclear reactors (SMRs) are a major option for electricity production in remote areas. Environmental impact assessment and monitoring will be needed, however this might be difficult because of the remoteness and the anticipated low levels of radiocontaminants, especially that laboratories with modern instrumentation might not be available on-site. We are proposing (1) to adapt and replace our current classic methods with new and modern technology, for monitoring radioactivity at natural levels; (2) to develop and test small samplers that are easily deployable and rugged to withstand harsh cold conditions; and (3) to improve our detection limits and quality assurance, along with data security. At the outcome, this project will deliver a new rugged monitoring method to analyze for radiocontaminants, with modern instrumentation. The personnel will be trained with enhanced quality assurance credentials, who can be specialists for independent verification, at arm’s length from an SMR operator.