Innovative Projects Realized

Pistes d’améliorations de la logistique du commerce électronique au Québec par l’implantation d’un réseau de casiers intelligents

Le commerce électronique est de plus en plus prisé par les consommateurs québécois, mais une majorité d’entreprises accusent un retard technologique pour répondre adéquatement à cette demande croissante. La multiplication de la livraison de colis à travers le Québec engendre des défis logistiques tant pour les entreprises, les consommateurs que les villes et les entreprises de livraison.
Une des pistes avancées par la littérature actuelle concerne l’implantation d’un réseau de casiers intelligents qui permettraient de réduire la congestion urbaine tout en assurant un système de livraison simple, rapide et efficace pour chacune des parties prenantes, de l’expédition du colis à la livraison.
Si les consommateurs semblent intéressés par cette alternative, il est important de valider si elle peut s’intégrer adéquatement dans la réalité des entreprises de services et comment en favoriser l’implantation.

Machine Learning Approach for Real-time Assessment of Voltage Stability Using Multiple Indicators Derived from Wide Area Synchrophasor Measurements

Voltage instability is one of the major causes of many blackouts such as Canada-United State blackout (2003), Sweden-Denmark blackout (2003), India blackout (2012), and Turkey blackout (2015). If reliable methods are available for online voltage stability assessment, operators can be warned and automated corrective actions can be initiated to prevent voltage collapse. Although, a large number of Voltage Stability Indices (VSIs) are reported in literature, they are not practically applicable for real-time monitoring or not sufficiently reliable under all operating conditions. This research proposal envisages the development of Composite Voltage Stability Indices (CVSIs) combining the strengths of previously proposed Voltage Stability Indices computable from wide area synchrophasor measurements. Advanced machine learning techniques will be applied to derive CVSIs. It is expected that such a CVSI would be more reliable and applicable under wide range of conditions. The machine learning based algorithms for calculating CVSIs would be trained using the data generated through offline simulation and then tested using synchrophasor data generated through real-time simulations performed on RTDS real-time simulator. The proposed research will provide training opportunities for one M.Sc. student, while demonstrating and testing the synchrophasor capabilities of the simulators developed by the partner organization.

Pathways for Deep Decarbonization in Cities: Mechanisms, tools and governance structures for transformative climate action

As the urgency for action against climate change increases, local governments around the world are committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through deep decarbonization targets. Cities are the largest place-based sources of GHG emissions and therefore have great potential to reduce emissions on a global scale. In order to reach meaningful reduction levels, transformative change is not only needed to create deep decarbonization pathways, but also to disrupt the current path dependency on carbon that most cities face today.

This qualitative study will examine pathways within climate action plans. It will also identify the actors, governance mechanisms, and tools that cities are using in order to achieve their decarbonization targets by mid-century. Through a partnership with ICLEI Canada, the student intern will gain access to relevant internal research data and resources needed for the study, while the partner organization expects that the academic research will be useful to their existing and ongoing projects. The purpose of this project is to inform the creation and implementation of deep decarbonization plans for cities.

Utilisation de Bois Raméal Fragmenté (BRF) pour faciliter le recrutement et la croissance d’essences de la forêt boréale sur des roches stériles minières non génératrices d’acides

Le rétablissement de la forêt boréale sur les sites miniers après leur fermeture est indispensable pour que les services associés à cet écosystème soient rétablis (puit de carbone, chasse, industrie sylvicole, etc.). Les essences forestières font face à des contraintes d’établissement et de développement sur un substrat rocheux (stériles miniers) sans dépôt de matière organique. Ce manque en matière organique change considérablement les propriétés physiques, chimiques et biologiques du sol et entrave ainsi la recolonisation du site par les essences forestières. L’utilisation d’un paillis organique comme le Bois Raméal Fragmenté pourrait être une solution naturelle pour rétablir ces propriétés et faciliter ainsi la régénération d’un écosystème forestier. L’objectif général du projet sera d’évaluer cette approche restauratoire de l’écosystème forestier avec le BRF. TO BE CONT’D

Sleep Disorders among a Population with Traumatic Brain Injury from aWorkplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Clinic

The proposed research will study the best way to evaluate sleep disorders among persons

who suffered a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the workplace. We will draw

upon the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board-insured workers being evaluated at Toronto

Rehabilitation Institute, approximately 300-400 annually, for mild to moderate TBI. This study

will provide a better understanding of the evaluation of sleep disturbance among workers with

this condition which serves to inform better assessment and treatment. This study is of

utmost importance to this institution and the population served. More successful and early

treatment of patients will improve daytime performance and wellbeing, early return to the

workforce, and an overall shorter duration of disability for patients with TBI. Identification of

the prevalence of sleep disorders in this population will raise awareness of the possible

underestimation of its influence on poor rehabilitation outcomes.

Evaluation and optimization of a mine water treatment system

Currently, mine water treatment systems within the Sydney Coalfield extract and treat mine water from depth with the aim to gradually ‘flush’ the mine pools of its acid-generating products and achieve good water quality over the long-term. However, since the deep, lower quality mine water is always being treated, significant annual operational costs (>$1 million) are being incurred. This project will evaluate the hydrodynamics and hydrogeochemistry of the mine pools and investigate treatment approaches that instead focus on the shallow, higher quality mine water. It is envisaged that this project may lead to a more efficient and cost-effective approach to treat mine water, both within the Sydney Coalfield, and throughout other mining regions throughout Canada.

Development of Efficient Methods Preprocessing Large Lidar Data Sets for Application to Road Design and Optimization

Technological improvements, competition in the survey services industry and the increased use of UAV’s (drone) has driven down the cost of LiDAR acquisition. As a result, LiDAR is rapidly gaining popularity in application in road planning and design. LiDAR data sets typically contain tens of millions of points. Efficiently processing this data efficiently presents challenges for software.

The proposed research seeks to investigate methods for preprocessing LiDAR data sets for road design and optimization. Included in this are algorithms and data structures for rapid conversion between TINs (Triangulated Irregular Networks), raster grids, and cross section models. The application of these methods would be tailored to civil engineering calculations such as contour generation earthwork calculations and alignment optimization.

Flow Weaver Virtual Reality Research Project

This project is intended to further the videogame industry’s understanding of user presence and immersive game design, where the player feels that they exist in a virtual space and can control a virtual environment with their physical body. Rather than trying to achieve immersion in a virtual world by escaping from the body, this project engages the player’s body on the other side of the screen through motions and mechanics enacted through virtual body ownership. The goal is to make the player feel that they actually exist in the game world and can affect it with actions that correspond to their on-screen virtual appendages. The Interns involved in this project will foreground their research by conducting tests and creating variations using the game Flow Weaver. TO BE CONT’D

Development of a New Test Method to Evaluate the Impact of Curing on the Near-surface Chloride Penetration Resistance of Concrete

The rate at which chlorides from deicer salts penetrate into concrete towards the reinforcing steel has a strong influence on the time-to-corrosion and service life of concrete structures. Thus, the permeability of the concrete cover layer protecting the reinforcement has to be minimized especially in severe exposure conditions. In addition to the type of concrete, the permeability of the concrete cover is influenced by early-age curing (keeping the concrete warm and wet to maintain cement hydration that fills in pores). There are currently no standard test methods for evaluating the impact of curing on surface durability and resistance to chloride ingress, so the purpose of this research is to develop a test method that can allow precast concrete manufacturers and owners of structures to determine adequate curing regimes. This will help prevent premature corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete structure

Spatio-temporal patterns of snake bite and suicide in India

In epidemiological studies, most of the existing research tried to investigate the long-term trends (e.g., yearly) in the disease data. However, in this project we will investigate the spatio-temporal patterns of snake bite and suicide in India, both of which are the significant health concerns in India. For both snake bite and suicide, the seasonality interacted with space is likely to expect and the current existing modeling framework is not appropriate any more. This introduces new statistical problems and the epidemiological modeling framework needs to be extended. The India’s Million Death Study (MDS) provides the daily disease data related to snake bite and suicide, which enable us to investigate the spatial variation in seasonality, and the short-scale variation related to weather, wild life and economics. In addition, we will make useful conclusions about snakes, suicide, and the proposed methods will be broadly applicable.

Entrainment in turbulent round jets

Turbulent jets of gas or liquid play a crucial role in combustion of fossil fuels, the delivery of aerosols to the human airway and lungs and various industrial applications. One of the main features of a turbulent jet is that as it evolves from its point of origin it engulfs fluid from its surroundings. This entrainment enables the jet boundaries to spread. The turbulent entrainment process and the mechanisms that control the transport of mass, momentum, and scalars from a turbulent region of a fluid to a non-turbulent region are of widespread interest in science and engineering. Despite decades of research on turbulent flows, there still remain open questions regarding the entrainment mechanisms and as to whether small-scale or large-scale turbulent motions are dominant in the entrainment process. We propose to address this issue by comparing entrainment in jets emanated from origins with different boundary conditions created by placing different control rings at the jet exit nozzles. Accurate optical velocity and concentration measurements will reveal the entrainment coefficient and various length scales in different nozzle cases allowing for discovering a direct link between scales of motion and entrainment in turbulent jets.

Realistic Canadian wind power assessment and electricity cost

where the best sites, and combinations of sites are, is critical to facilitate private investment in wind

electricity. The proposed research with Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners L.P. will determine the

most desirable locations for large-scale wind farm deployment, as well as the cost of electricity

supplied by such farms to a selection of Canadian demand centres.

To accomplish this goal, simulated wind data from the US National Centres for Environmental

Prediction will be gathered from the past five years, at regular three-hour intervals, and used to predict

the amount of wind-generated electricity at each location in areas of predetermined high wind. This

output will be heavily dependent on realistic constraints, such as topography, seasonal effects and

manufacturer specifications. The cost of electricity will be calculated using input from Brookfield’s

experience with energy and transmission infrastructure, to ensure accuracy. The work provides a

backbone around which Brookfield can structure their portfolio of renewable generation assets.