Innovative Projects Realized

AccessiBelt – Car Seatbelt for Users with Limited Hand Dexterity

Our hand function can be affected by different diseases and disorders, such as arthritis and neurological injuries. Having limited hand function will immensely affect our life and will make everyday simple tasks challenging. There are about 1 million Canadians who reported struggling with daily activities due to this limitation. One task that is challenging for a person with limited hand function is buckling and unbuckling a car seatbelt. Car seatbelts are life-saving devices and are crucial for the protection of passengers in a car. Creating an accessible device such as AccessiBelt will allow individuals with limited hand function to easily and independently buckle and unbuckle their car seatbelt, and will thus improve their overall quality of life. Rick Hansen Institute aims to improve the life of individuals with spinal cord injuries, and partnering with them will contribute to this mission.

Design, testing and optimization of a new energy exchanger

More than 30% of the energy used in Canada is directed to control the indoor comfort

conditions and to provide an adequate supply of conditioned ventilation air for buildings. For

commercial buildings, 20 to 50% of the energy used may be used to condition outdoor

ventilation supply air to maintain comfort conditions. Using commercially available energy

wheels, heat and moisture exchange between the supply ventilation air and the exhaust air

can reclaim 80% of the waste energy in the exhaust air; however, it may be not cost effective

for retrofitting existing buildings because the supply and exhaust air ducts are not side-byside.

The purpose of this project is to design, test and optimize a new run-around,

membrane energy exchanger (RAMEE) system for buildings that will transfer heat and

moisture between remote supply and exhaust ducts. This novel RAMEE system is expected

to be cost effective in both new and retrofit applications.

Over-The-Air (OTA) Testing System For 5G Wireless Devices – Year two

Over the air (OTA) test is the standard procedure for wireless devices to verify the transceiver and antennas performance together in specified conditions. Any wireless device such as tablets, phones and laptop must go under OTA testing. Furthermore, regulatory organizations require OTA testing before the wireless device being certified.
Due to the time-consuming procedure of OTA testing, currently manufacturers and vendors limit themselves to a small sample of devices for testing. However, in 5G, the next wireless revolution, that needs 10-20 times more transceiver path than 4G, the OTA testing for sample products is not sufficient and each device has to be tested.
This project focuses on solutions for testing these devices with a proprietary mass production compatible OTA techniques.
DVTest company is extremely interested in the viability of these technologies because it opens up product development opportunities in the growing 5G marketplace and PCB fault detection.

Over-The-Air (OTA) Testing System For 5G Wireless Devices

Over the air (OTA) test is the standard procedure for wireless devices to verify the transceiver and antennas performance together in specified conditions. Any wireless device such as tablets, phones and laptop must go under OTA testing. Furthermore, regulatory organizations require OTA testing before the wireless device being certified.
Due to the time-consuming procedure of OTA testing, currently manufacturers and vendors limit themselves to a small sample of devices for testing. However, in 5G, the next wireless revolution, that needs 10-20 times more transceiver path than 4G, the OTA testing for sample products is not sufficient and each device has to be tested.
This project focuses on solutions for testing these devices with a proprietary mass production compatible OTA techniques.
DVTest company is extremely interested in the viability of these technologies because it opens up product development opportunities in the growing 5G marketplace and PCB fault detection.

Development of a highly accurate machine learning algorithm constrained by well-log data and its application in Lithological classification

The drilling success rate is the most important goal for any oil/gas company. For a start-up company, any failure in drilling will be a disaster. To this end, the Petro-Lin Energy Corp. wishes that through the combination of mature hydrocarbon prediction techniques and new research results such as machine learning, the success rate of hydrocarbon prediction, the theoretical basis for well placement can be provided in Roncott oil-field, which will improve the success rate in drilling. The University of Calgary is one of Canada’s top research institutes, especially in the areas of exploration geophysics, seismic data processing and petroleum engineering. On the other hand, Petro-Lin Energy Corp. will collaborate with researchers from University of Calgary to access the most up-to-date research results and the most advanced technology available in precise well placement, so that the drilling success rate can be improved to reduced drilling cost and environment impact, and it can effectively save the partner’s research cost. In addition, through the two-year project, the intern will receive hands-on industry problem and other training activities.

Effects of a Virtual Reality Exercise Program on Sleep Quality in Assisted Living Residents

Older adults are the largest growing segment of the Canadian population. Almost 40% of men and 59% of women aged 65 to 79 years experience sleep disturbances. Non-pharmacological interventions, such as educational programs and exercise, can improve quality of life of older individuals by enhancing sleep quality. Although strong evidence suggests that virtual reality (VR) programs are effective for improving mood, memory, and cognitive performance, little is known about the effect of VR exercises on sleep quality. This project aims to (i) understand the association between sleep quality, quality of life, cognitive performance, and function capacity in assisted living residents and (ii) quantify the effects of a VR exercise program on the treatment of sleep disorders. Sleep quality, quality of life, cognitive performance, and functional capacity will be assessed before and after a VR exercise program through subjective (questionnaires) and objective (wearable devices) instruments. The expected benefits of this project to the partner organization are the increase in quality of life of assisted living residents and the decrease in operational costs associated with sleep medication and staffing. For instance, a previous study has shown that a non-pharmacological intervention was efficient in decreasing by 29% the costs of sedative prescriptions.

How does starch content in starter impact calf gastrointestinal health and development during weaning?

There are gaps in our knowledge concerning calf nutrition when producers feed high amounts of milk to calves along with starter feeds differing in nutrient composition. Mainly, how these calf diets alter lower gut development and health during the pre- and post-weaning periods. This research will utilize pre-weaning calves to assess the effects of diets differing in milk replacer nutrition as well as starch/fiber content in starter on gastrointestinal function and structure as well as overall calf growth. The partner organization will benefit from this research by gaining valuable knowledge on calf nutrition that will be able to be implemented in their own business helping dairy producers.

Amélioration de la gestion des coûts avec le BIM 5D dans une entreprise intégrée verticalement

Ce projet de recherche est effectué chez le Groupe Dallaire en partenariat avec BIMOne, entreprise spécialisée dans le développement du BIM. Depuis quelques années, le Groupe Dallaire a entrepris l’intégration du BIM dans la gestion de ses projets. L’entreprise souhaite réaliser une transformation numérique rapide en interne, ce qui impose de rapidement mener des actions et des innovations. Le but de ce projet de recherche est d’améliorer la gestion des coûts avec le BIM 5D pour une entreprise avec une intégration verticale. Malgré l’existance à l’heure actuelle de nouveaux outils permettant d’améliorer et d’optimiser la gestion des coûts, un des problèmes majeurs commun dans tous les projets de construction reste les dépassements de coûts. Le développement de la modélisation des données du bâtiment (BIM)a permis l’amélioration des extractions de quantités depuis les maquettes, offrant ainsi une simulation efficace des coûts, tout au long du cycle de l’ouvrage.

Beta testing an electronic detector for liquid chromatography and developing an electronic detector for gel electrophoresis in partnership withend users

In this internship, UNS-Tech will partner with Profs. Cynthia Goh and David

McMillen to use UNS-Tech’s electronic detection technology to detect molecules,

including proteins, polymer nanoparticles and DNA, that are of interest in their

research. UNS-Tech’s state-of-the-art electronics-based detectors for HPLC and

gel electrophoresis will be employed in Prof. Goh’s and Prof. McMillen’s labs,

respectively. Head-to-head tests between UNS-Tech’s technologies and stateof-

the-art detection will be conducted, the results will be analyzed and the

findings will be published in scientific journals. The interns will benefit from this

internship by gaining tremendous knowledge of electronics-based detection and

beta testing of electronic detectors. The host company will benefit by having an

opportunity to beta test its technology in a cutting-edge application and to

evaluate its electronic detectors against present art detectors, hopefully proving

superiority over present art detectors. The supervisor will benefit by having

access to state-of-the-art detection technology that will enhance the performance

of their HPLC and gel electrophoresis.

Sentiment Analysis for the Assessment of Financial Fitness (SAFF)

We apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Sentiment Analysis for the Assessment of Financial Fitness (SAFF), which can help an individual to understand one’s latent feeling and reservation towards money saving, spending and planning. The SAFF framework can be applied to not only financial institutions, but also other sectors, e.g. healthcare, rehabilitation and education. Sentiment analysis can alert current situations, as well as to monitor long term financial development. The SAFF system can help providing better services to the public, help individuals achieve personal satisfaction and enjoy financial stability. Since the user communication tool is web-based, the framework supports user mobility. The system can be deployed across provinces, nationally and internationally. We believe that the current revolution in financial sectors is towards AI innovation, including Chatbot mediated sentiment analysis, and we want to make sure Canada is the leading country in AI adoption.

Fibre in IBD: Feeding Our Microbes vs. Fuelling Inflammation – Year two

While studies show that dietary fibres are beneficial in many diseases, they are not digested or absorbed directly by the host, but rather fermented by gut microbes. Fermentation byproducts (mostly short-chain fatty-acids; SCFAs) are responsible for health benefits. Only select inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) patients benefit from fibres; many patients report sensitivity to high fibre foods, especially during disease flares. Dietary fibres resemble structures found on the surface of pathogens that induce host cell inflammation. We hypothesize that the hallmark gut microbe imbalance in IBD leads to dysregulated fibre fermentation, increased interactions of unfermented fibres with host cells, and reduced beneficial byproducts, resulting in worsened inflammation. This study aims to define how fibres are processed in IBD and identify novel dietary/microbe-altering therapeutics, offering safer therapeutic options for IBD patients. The Weston Foundation has offered partnership for funding our research, and providing a panel of experts to assist regularly with the translational aspects of the study. Our research program has been identified as a priority by the Weston Foundation and they are interested in further developing our findings to aid in improving the lives of Canadians, and o
thers, suffering from these chronic and severely debilitating gastrointestinal diseases.

Fibre in IBD: Feeding Our Microbes vs. Fuelling Inflammation

While studies show that dietary fibres are beneficial in many diseases, they are not digested or absorbed directly by the host, but rather fermented by gut microbes. Fermentation byproducts (mostly short-chain fatty-acids; SCFAs) are responsible for health benefits. Only select inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) patients benefit from fibres; many patients report sensitivity to high fibre foods, especially during disease flares. Dietary fibres resemble structures found on the surface of pathogens that induce host cell inflammation. We hypothesize that the hallmark gut microbe imbalance in IBD leads to dysregulated fibre fermentation, increased interactions of unfermented fibres with host cells, and reduced beneficial byproducts, resulting in worsened inflammation. This study aims to define how fibres are processed in IBD and identify novel dietary/microbe-altering therapeutics, offering safer therapeutic options for IBD patients. The Weston Foundation has offered partnership for funding our research, and providing a panel of experts to assist regularly with the translational aspects of the study. Our research program has been identified as a priority by the Weston Foundation and they are interested in further developing our findings to aid in improving the lives of Canadians, and o
thers, suffering from these chronic and severely debilitating gastrointestinal diseases.