Innovative Projects Realized

Achieving energy efficiency and quality control during veneer drying with data-driven approaches

Minimizing energy consumption is essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With that in mind, the industry partner wants to transition to a quantitative monitoring approach to simultaneously manage product quality and energy consumption. The intern will work to understand the relationship between raw material characteristics, process parameters, product quality indices, and energy consumption. They will use industrial data and various data-driven approaches to develop an energy consumption prediction model that could then be adapted into an online monitoring system. From the model, the intern will be able to recommend operational guidelines to the industry partner, who will benefit by increasing their understanding of the veneer drying process. This should result in a reduction in production costs and greenhouse gas emission.

Valorization of pyrolytic oil obtained through pyrolysis

Pyrolysis results in the production of biochar and value-added materials such as bio-oil. Pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is a convenient source for the production of bio-oil and other valuable hydrocarbons. Pyrolysis of organic feedstocks will produce three products including a liquid (bio-oil), a syngas, and a solid (biochar). Bio-oil is created during pyrolysis because natural polymeric constituents (i.e., lignin, cellulose, fats) are broken down into volatile gasses. These gasses can be later condensed along the pyrolysis continuum into bio-oil or recycled to facilitate energy required for upstream feedstock drying and carbonization. However, often in many pyrolytic plants, bio-oil becomes a source of potential contamination. Bio-oil is acidic in nature and rich with organic contaminants such as phenolics. The raw disposal of bio-oil can lead to unwanted environmental problems. Thus, on-site management of bio-oil become an important criterion for many pyrolytic plants. This project aims to develop methods for the treatment and/or bio-valorization of bio-oil through various biological methods (mycoremediation, anaerobic and aerobic digestion).

Détection de contaminants dans du minerai

Les arrêts de production coûtent cher dans toutes les industries, mais particulièrement dans le domaine minier où les activités ont un coût horaire très élevé. Ainsi, le présent projet MITACS vise à atténuer une des sources d’arrêts de production dans ce domaine : la présence de contaminants dans le minerai. En effet, la présence de contaminants est présentement difficilement détectable et mène bien souvent qu’autrement à des bris d’équipements. Il est donc proposé de repenser la méthode de leur détection et de la bonifier avec de nouvelles technologies, telle que l’intelligence artificielle.

Accelerating database storage engines using Processing In Memory

A notorious phenomenon limiting general-purpose computing today is memory wall. Memory – the hardware used to store the data- is located relatively far from the central processing unit (CPU), so applications spend a lot of time waiting on data to travel from memory to the CPU. New memory hardware, such as the one addressed in this project, aims to address this problem at a fundamental level by adding processing units to the memory itself. This way, the data can be processed right where it lives, instead of being shuffled to and from the CPU. This idea is called Processing In Memory (PIM). The proposed project will experiment with novel PIM hardware with the goal of understanding how to adopt the software to make the best use of it.

Development of High-Fidelity Computational Continuum MechanicsSoftware

Due to the potential for significant cost-savings, many companies are turning their attention to digital simulations to improve their products and develop new ones. Although software is available to support these efforts, there is a growing need in industry to improve the accuracy of predictions from these codes. The goal of this project is to conduct research required for the development of a new prototype software package for engineering simulations in continuum mechanics (e.g., fluid flows, heat transfer, electromagnetics, etc.) based on an innovative concept known as “cut-stencils”. Compared to existing computational technologies, the cut-stencil approach is well-suited for the design and implementation of algorithms that generate high-fidelity solutions. SOTAES, which has licensed the patent on the cut-stencil technology, is well-positioned to develop this product.

Élaboration de stratégies durables pour l’élimination de nutriments, de pesticides et de produits pharmaceutiques contenus dans les eaux usées et les eaux de surface à l’aide de formulations enzymatiques et bactériennes

Les municipalités ont de plus en plus de difficulté à respecter les normes sur le rejet des contaminants. Cela est dû en partie au resserrement des normes gouvernementales sur le rejet de certains contaminants. Afin d’adresser ce problème, le partenaire industriel du projet souhaite développer un produit efficace pour le traitement des eaux usées municipales. L’objectif est de décontaminer les eaux usées et réduire le volume des boues à l’aide d’une bactérie choisi. Le développement d’une approche biologique de traitement des boues s’avère essentiel afin d’offrir une alternative technologique aux municipalités pour répondre aux exigences de la Politique québécoise de gestion des matières résiduelles. Ce développement permettra à l’entreprise partenaire d’optimiser ses produits biotechnologiques pour de traitement des eaux usées et des boues municipals.

Uplink Resource Allocation in Wireless Backhaul Networks

The internship project involves performance improvement in current cellular networks through wireless backhaul

interference mitigation. In particular, the problem of RBM to hub assignment and resource allocation amongst

the hubs are tackled in the uplink transmission of wireless backhaul networks. The intern is expected to

investigate current developed algorithm at BLiNQ Wireless Inc. as well as promising solutions in the literature

and adjust these schemes to the uplink communication. The work is motivated by the sponsoring company’s

interest in interference mitigation and performance evaluation of current wireless backhaul networks. This work

will serve as an initial step towards investigation of novel schemes as well as the schemes currently in use by

BLiNQ in the uplink of wireless backhaul networks.

Advanced Multi-camera vehicle identification, tracking and geo-localization system

The proposed project proposes design solutions for a Multi-camera vehicle identification, tracking and geo-localization system. The systems is constrained to use video streams from inexpensive surveillance cameras, and leverages image recognition software trained to detect and track vehicles in a controlled area. This will allow apps to pinpoint vehicles easily and reliably. Such technology works well in controlled environments but faces serious challenges when deployed in the real world. Anisotropic image backgrounds, distorted and noisy camera images, dirty vehicles, and difficult meteorological conditions make object recognition and object tracking more difficult. The artificial intelligence modules will be part of a robust distributed platform that offers strong back-end services and user-friendly interfaces, to support many sites and many cameras.

Affine Multivariate GARCH Models

The objective of the proposed research program is to develop a flexible and unified multivariate framework for modeling the returns of financial assets. The program is innovative since it establishes closed-form formulas for an efficient and reliable calculation of risk measures and derivative prices. For financial institutions and government regulators, who are performing pricing and risk management calculations very frequently with thousands of assets, closed form solutions are of immense importance. The proposed research program is applied to the stock market since this is the centerpiece of financial markets and the only market for which the necessary comprehensive data are currently available, though generalizations to other markets are obvious.

Optimisation de la gestion d’une flotte de vehicules de service specialises

L’objectif principal de ce rapport d’achevement est d’optimiser la gestion d’une flotte de

vehicules de services specialises.

Pour cela deux missions seront faites chez notre organisme partenaire. Premierement une

analyse comparative des pieces OEM versus les pieces du marche secondaire (aftermarket)

nous permettra de detinir quelle est I’option la plus interessante en termes de coOts et de

qualite. Des tests seront effectues sur les freins de plusieurs camionnettes chez notre

partenaire.

Deuxiemement une etude sera lancee sur Ie cycle de vie des vehicules afin de determiner

I’age economique ideal, sous plusieurs criteres. Des analyses comparatives seront

notamment effectuees pour situer I’entreprise face a ses concurrents, mais aussi pour

differencier la flotte montrealaise de notre partenaire, de celie qu’il dispose en region (types

de pannes differents? frequence des pannes? age economique different?).

Suite a ces deux (2) missions, je developperai des capsules de cours pour completer Ie futur

projet academique (programme court de quinze (15) credits que souhaie lancer I’ETS en

partenariat avec plusieurs entreprises….TOBECONT’d

Relevance of security intelligence data for cyber insurance risk quantification

Cyber insurance is a relatively new and growing insurance product that provides companies with compensation following cybersecurity incidents involving data breaches, business interruption, digital asset loss and/or cyber extortion. The ever-changing nature of cyber technology combined with the lack of a large history of cyber insurance claims makes it challenging for insurance companies to rapidly assess risk and determine appropriate premiums for all of their cyber insurance clients, especially for small-to-medium sized enterprises. This project aims to investigate how security intelligence data products and security-related events at can be leveraged to help The Co-operators better quantify the relative cyber risks faced by its cyber insurance clients.

Investigation of the Foam Airbag Performance For Wheelchair Application

Wheelchairs are one of the most important devices in rehabilitation that have immensely improved the

quality of life for people with disabilities and impairments. Wheelchairs are subject to tips and falls,

that can cause injuries. For a person who relies on a wheelchair for mobility, such injuries can have

significant short and long-term effects on quality of life and independence. Implementation of safety

measures in wheelchairs has not advanced to the extent utilized in automobiles. Despite their

overwhelming advantages in automobiles, airbags are not utilized for wheelchairs mainly due to their

high cost, weight, and being single-use. This project proposes to facilitate the development of a fall

injury protection device for wheelchairs, using our novel foam airbag technology. The irreversible

process of chemical reaction or compressed air containers for airbag deployment is replaced by foam

for its high compressibility and fast shape rebound characteristics.