Innovative Projects Realized

MULTI-LEVEL CONCUSSION MITIGATING FOOTBALL HELMET: A NOVEL DESIGN

A novel design of football helmet to mitigate the concussion is proposed here. The jerk transferred to brain, due to the collisions between players and due to falling on the field, will be reduced, attenuated, decomposed, and directed away from reaching the brain. Multi-shell made of composite materials, along with speed-dependent padding between head and inner shell will be used. Relative motion between shells will be attained though a specially designed structure made of strong material bars. Therefore, the force of collisions will be controlled by a number of safety layers. It is, therefore, intended that highest level of safety against concussion will be achieved with cost-effective, reliable and long-life football helmet.

Monitoring System for “Flushable” Consumer Products in Urban Wastewater Collection Systems

This research project explores the application of an artificial intelligence-based monitoring system comprised of image-based sensors and processing algorithms to detect, identify, and monitor the incoming presence of wet wipes and nonwovens in urban drainage systems in near real-time to pre-empt the effects of the damages caused by users’ disposal of these products in toilets. The AI-based system, to be employed in a number of monitoring locations simultaneously, will be used to establish a library of detected materials to identify and categorize incoming products (e.g. baby wipes, paper towel).
By running the Lab2Market program and participating in Mitacs E-Accelerate, the partner organizations are driving innovation and technology development in Canada. The work conducted by each intern will inform the broader community about industry trends, the impact of different present and emerging technologies on various industries, as well as foster the growth of innovative technologies within the Canadian economy.

Development and Commercialization of Photoresponsive Red-Shifted Gene-Silencing Agents

We have a technology that can potentially inactivate a class of pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical side-effects can have a detrimental effect on the health and wellbeing of individuals. Pharmaceutical companies can suffer significant monetary loss when drug candidates do not pass clinical trials. Given that the pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion-dollar industry, we believe there is significant interest in utilizing a technology that can control the activity of a pharmaceutical. We will use the Lab2Market initiative to learn start-up methodologies and take a scientific approach to entrepreneurship for our start-up company, AzoSolutions. We will continue primary market research and speak with stakeholders to validate or reject our hypothesis. We anticipate scaling up our product for commercialization and will learn to contact potential clients.

Year of the Gusher Virtual Exhibit

The project to be undertaken by the intern is multifaceted. The principal part of the

project is the creation of an online interactive virtual exhibit to commemorate the 150th

anniversary of “The Year of the Gusher.” This is the designation given to the year

1862, as there were 33 free flowing wells drilled in Lambton County, many covering the

area in oil before they were brought under control. This project will organize and

interpret research conducted by previous interns. In addition, the intern will conduct

original research to incorporate into the new exhibit. This research will focus on the

independent oil refineries that operated in Oil Springs, Petrolia, Wyoming, and Sarnia

prior to Imperial Oil, as well as those that remained after Imperial opened. Finally, the

intern will continue the oral history project initiated by a previous intern.

Portable Thermo-Photonic Device for On-Site Detection and Quantification of Cannabis Consumption

With recent changes in legalization of cannabis around the world, there is an urgent need for rapid, yet sensitive, screening devices for testing drivers and employees under the influence of cannabis at roadside and workplace, respectively. Oral fluid test strips have recently been explored for such application. While these strips offer simple and non-invasive detection of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), their detection threshold is about 25 ng/ml which is well above the 1-5 ng/ml per se limits set by regulations. We have recently developed a thermo-photonic measurement system which utilizes the commercially-available low-cost saliva strips but offers detection of THC at unprecedented low concentrations down to 2 ng/ml with 96% accuracy. In this project, we will package our low-cost, but accurate, technology into a hand held device which can be used at roadside or workplace for rapid, but reliable, detection of THC at legally relevant concentrations to enable proper enforcement of driving and workplace safety regulations.

Graduating from the Integrated Periphery: Turkey’s Attempt to Becomea “Core” Automotive Nation and Its Implications for Non-CoreAutomotive-Producing Countries like Canada

The automotive industry contributes significantly to the Canadian economy as well as to the economies of many other countries, providing substantial employment opportunities. In recent decades, the sector has gone through
significant restructuring with some countries like Canada unable to prevent declining employment and production figures. The general strategy of policymakers in Canada has been to provide incentives to firms that manufacture
or conduct R&D activities in the country, but this has not brought growth to the industry. This project aims to explore the strategies deployed by Turkey with regard to the development of a new domestic electric vehicle under the brand ‘TOGG’ and draw an lessons for the Canadian stakeholders as well as for other automotive-producing nations.

A Wide Bandgap Based Step-up Power Converter With Enhanced Self-Reconfigurability for Medium Voltage Renewable Power Network

Wind and solar photovoltaic energy are the fastest growing sources of electricity in Canada, targeting to reach 10% of Canada’s total generation by 2040. Aligned with Canada’s energy transition, this research aims at developing a novel, highly efficient, compact, and reliable power electronics interfaces for high power renewable energy resources. The use of power electronics converters is an attractive solution to significantly reduce the weight and size of the step-up voltage conversion unit in today’s high power renewable energy systems. However, the existing converters fail to maintain a stable grid voltage efficiently against a wide range of solar irradiation level or wind speed. To address this issue, a high frequency converter with four modes of operations is proposed that employs newly available high voltage wide bandgap (WBG) transistors. The structure of the proposed converter can be changed according to the atmospheric conditions by using a single switch. Hence, high efficiency for a wide range of solar irradiation level or wind speed can be obtained.

Optical device for accurate and real-time assessment of liver fat content in human subjects

A novel technology that will allow transplant surgeons to obtain accurate measurements of liver fat content during donor surgeries has been developed. These results will be immediate and will guide the transplant surgeon in deciding whether the liver is acceptable for transplantation. This will lead to fewer discarded livers, reduced waitlists for liver transplantation and improved quality of life for many individuals with end-stage liver disease. Our alpha prototype has been proved to detect fat at concentrations greater than 5%. Further research aims at reliable detection of the more clinically relevant low concentrations of fat (<5%). Our intention is to license to a local NS company, led by intern Hao Guo.

Spinning Multi-Beam LiDAR (VLP-16) new mapping scheme and the effect on the generated 3D point cloud : Point density and Thin features extraction in a Mobile mode of operation

Maps are vital in our life. Three-dimensional (3D) maps are essential in traditional and new applications, such as smart cities, autonomous vehicles and augmented reality. The number of end-users who require 3D maps has expanded exponentially in recent years and is anticipated to expand even more in the future. LiDAR scanners are the main sensors in 3D mapping systems. The commercially available 3D LiDAR-based mapping systems tend to be bulky, expensive and thus out of the reach of many end-users. Recently a relatively low-cost LiDAR scanner has been introduced for autonomous vehicles. This LiDAR scanner has been integrated to develop a unique LiDAR-based 3D mapping system. The developed 3D mapping system has a substantial cost reduction compared to the commercially available. This project proposes and validate a novel setup for the system in the data collection process maximising the benefits of its usage despite using relatively low-cost sensors.

Mobile Health Application Validity and Efficacy Study

The first MITACS internship for this project focused on design of the “Be Kalm” Anxiety App. The second internship will focus on the programming, implementation, and evaluation of the resulting design. The App will combine several interactive methods of diffusing anxiety with the use of images, music and heart rate monitoring. The HeartBeats music player will contain a selection of predetermined music that will speed up or slow down in tempo along with the user’s heart rate. The breathing feature will display an animation of a balloon, filling up and deflating rhythmically, which will help set the timing of the users breathing. Images representing different types of negative thoughts will act as buttons. When clicked, these images will log the thought, helping the user keep track when and how often these thoughts occur. Methods of analyzing, filtering and illustrating feedback from the various features of the application will be tested…………….

Multiplexed confocal FLIM microscope for Drug Discovery

Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is an emerging technique that is used drug discovery by universities and pharmaceutical companies. The research team developed a multiplexing technique that can improve the imaging speed by 1000 times. However, matching 1000 focal points to 1000 detectors individually is very difficult. In this project, the team plans to develop a self-adaptive online alignment technology that can optimize the alignment between the 1000 point foci array and the detector array. Successful of the proposed development will significantly strengthen the technology and pave the path towards a startup or joint venture for the next phase commercialization activities with the industry partner.

Automobile Purchasing Behaviorial Data Collection, Management, and Analysis

This project investigates automobile purchasing behavior of female millennials. In order to achieve the goal of understanding and making use of purchasing behavior, data are to be collected, managed, and analyzed. In addition to using existing data and third-party data, two major tasks of data collection are the use of questionnaire and web crawling to gather region, product types, and consumer market segment specific information relevant to the partner organization. Customizable tools for data collection and analysis are to be designed, implemented and deployed in collaboration with the partner organization. If meaningful analysis results are obtained, a recommendation system can be designed to match a client’s behavior to potential products of their desire, and targeted marketing and promotion schemes can be devised.