Innovative Projects Realized

Analysis and Matching of Donors and Charities Using Machine Learning and Data Mining Techniques

Dexterity Consulting is a company that aims to maximize the impact of donors’ donations to charities. Dexterity Consulting offers a service to match donors to charities, based on the alignment of the donors’ preferences and the charities goals. This matching process is currently being done manually by an expert in the field, working at Dexterity Consulting. The proposed research aims to develop an automated system to replace the current matching process. In addition, the research aims to validate the current process used by the expert, by using various data mining approaches and comparing their results to the results from established algorithms. In the end, we will produce and recommend a set of data mining techniques for more advance and in depth analysis of the donor and charity characteristics.

A generic microgrid controller with rule-based dispatch

In order to provide more reliable electricity, facilitate clean enery integration and supply energy to remote communitites, part of the power grid may be required to operate autonomously. Microgrids which can be islanded from teh main grid, are deployed for this purpose. However, the compositions and objectives of microgrids vary in different applications and operating modes. This project aims to design a generic microgrid controller with modular rule-based dispatch to address these challenges. Teal-time simulation and controller-hardware-in-the-loop test will be conducted to validate the basic dispatch. The proposed generic microgrid controller will help standardize the microgrid controller design and save the engineering effort of designing microgrid controllers in different applicaitons. The industrial partner will thus be able to make available provisions of developing and testing microdgrid controller to developers, owners and operators of microgrids.

Comment la mobilisation des employés peut augmenter le recrutement et favoriser la rétention du personnel dans une PME ?

Le projet se veut de comprendre la mobilisation des employés dans une PME et ainsi trouver des moyens efficaces et des outils ou bien des comportements qui mèneront à l’attraction et la rétention de la main-d’oeuvre. En effet, nous faisons face à une pénurie de la main-d’oeuvre devenant de plus en plus alarmante. C’est pourquoi lors de cette recherche, il sera intéressant d’analyser un échantillon particulier d’une PME pour compléter la recherche étant donné leurs ressources limitées. L’essentiel de cette recherche est de pouvoir trouver des outils qui mèneront à la mobilisation des employés dans les PME pour attirer une main-d’oeuvre particulière

Pour en finir avec les labyrinthes: vers une complémentarité des services en violences sexuelles soutenant les survivantEs LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit

Cette recherche vise à comprendre comment mieux soutenir les personnes LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit survivantes de violences sexuelles. Elle permet d’explorer deux sous-thèmes : les particularités des violences vécues et les barrières rencontrées lorsque les survivantEs LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit recherchent du soutien, ainsi que les approches, rôles et ressources offertes par les acteurs concernés (la sécurité publique, la santé et les services sociaux, les ressources spécialisées en violence sexuelle et les ressources pour les personnes LGBTQ+ et Two-Spirit). Ce travail de recherche permettra de rassembler l’ensemble des connaissances sur ces réalités. Puis, différentes activités de diffusion rendront les fruits de la recherche accessibles pour la communauté scientifique comme pour les ressources offrant du soutien et le public. L’organisme partenaire bénéficiera de ce projet en acquérant des connaissances et une expertise qui orienteront par la suite les approches qui seront choisies dans une démarche de concertation, d’éducation et de communication auprès de des acteurs du milieu.

Enzyme-instructed siRNA release and functional self-assembly of peptide-based delivery system

RNA interference mediated gene silencing provides one of the most effective treatments for many genetic diseases such as cancer and viral infection. However, due to the many difficulties siRNAs would face during systemic pathway, a delivery system is needed to protect it from degradation and endosomal entrapment, and also to facilitate the unloading of the cargo. In such case, the main objective of this project is to produce a phosphorylation-mediated peptide-based siRNA delivery system. For such system, the connection between the siRNA and the peptide would be reduced by phosphorylating the peptide, leading to siRNA release, which would result in higher RNAi efficacy. If this delivery system can be proved efficient in vitro, it could have potential feasibility to become a pharmaceutical drug eventually.

Investigating Waste Disposal Options for Metro Vancouver Solid Waste Management Plan

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of the challenges the urban communities are facing throughout the world. Identification of optimal MSW management option(s) is difficult because of the complex and variable nature of MSW and the various environmental and economic criteria for a particular community. This research will mainly focus on studying Metro Vancouver MSW management plan alternatives that can be categorized as three main groups: (1) waste-to-energy incineration, (2) landfilling, and (3) refuse derived fuel (RDF) for combustion in a cement kiln. The main propose of this research is to support sustainability strategies of Cement Association of Canada (CAC) for using RDF as alternative energy source in cement manufacturing. State-of-the-art assessment methods such as environmental impact assessment (EIA), lifecycle assessment (LCA), and cost benefit analysis (CBA), will be used to evaluate

both short- and long-term environmental burdens and economic impacts of various options and to identify the more sustainable solution.

Improving protein-ligand binding models using multidimensional, mixed-confidence training data

Artificial Intelligence is powered by data. In general, the predictive power of AI improves with higher data abundance and higher data quality. However, real-world datasets vary greatly in quality and quantity. In drug design, like many other tasks, there is an abundance of low quality data and scarcity of high quality data. This project will be developing new computational approaches to balance data quality and quantity to make the most out of all available information. These computational innovations will help boost the predictive power of Cyclica’s computational drug profiling and drug design software. Cyclica is a Canadian startup named by Deep Knowledge Analytics as one of the top 20 AI in Pharma companies globally.

Diagenetic history porosity evolution of the sandstones and carbonates around the Labrador?Port au Port Group boundary, Belle Isle, Western Newfoundland

The proposed project investigates the diagenesis of the lowermost Port au Port carbonates in Western Newfoundland. Few earlier studies suggested that the carbonates vary from lime mudstones of low energy to grainstones and rudstones of high energy shallow-shelf settings. The study will allow the reconstruction of full diagenetic history of the basin and factors that controlled the precipitation of cements and dolomitization that influenced the net rock porosity as well as the timing of precipitation of those cements during basin history.

Identifying and validating rational combinatorial therapies for treatment-refractory Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and deadly form of primary brain cancer in adults. After diagnosis, GBM patients undergo standard therapy, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Unfortunately, disease relapse is inevitable and patients face a median survival of less than 15 months. A small population of tumor cells, known as brain tumor initiating cells (BTICs), have been shown to resist standard therapy and lead to relapse. Using a multi-pronged approach, we are developing novel and rational combinatorial therapies against treatment-resistant GBM BTICs. We begin by identifying novel and rational combinatorial therapies that can be administered alongside standard therapy to GBM patients. In our arsenal of therapies, we are developing a GBM-targeted immunotherapy that harnesses and redirects the immune system to target BTICs. Together, our work aims to characterize and develop therapies against GBM BTICs to alleviate tumor burden and increase patient survival.

Feasibility Study of High Temperature Pyrolysis for Producing Drop in Diesel quality Fuel

The proposed research investigates an opportunity of developing renewable bio-based diesel fuel as an alternative to petroleum based fuel to lower the emission of greenhouse gases. High temperature pyrolysis of wood chips will be investigated in multi-stage pyrolysis and fluidized bed system and the quality of liquid oil will be compared for diesel substitution.

Improving the magnetic properties of electrical steels – Year two

This project is intended to help the industrial partner, Stelco, to develop electrical steels with improved magnetic properties through controlled thermomechanical processing. Electrical steels are widely used in the manufacturing of stators and rotors of electric motors used in general rotating machines and electric vehicles. Improving the magnetic properties of electrical steels would result in more efficient traction motors, and consequently extending the driving range of electric vehicles. This is of particular importance for Canadians as the driving range of an electric vehicle is considerably reduced in cold weather. The research will focus on investigating the effect of the steel processing parameters on the final magnetic properties of electrical steels, both in pilot scale and in industrial production. Experiments will be carried out at CanmetMATERIALS, Natural Resources of Canada, using its pilot-scale rolling mill and other facilities. The results from the pilot-scale experiments will then be used to guide the production of electrical steels of the industrial partner, Stelco Holdings Inc. The research will involve both theoretical and experimental studies on the relationships among processing parameters, microstructure (texture), and final magnetic properties of the electrical steels.

Improving the magnetic properties of electrical steels

This project is intended to help the industrial partner, Stelco, to develop electrical steels with improved magnetic properties through controlled thermomechanical processing. Electrical steels are widely used in the manufacturing of stators and rotors of electric motors used in general rotating machines and electric vehicles. Improving the magnetic properties of electrical steels would result in more efficient traction motors, and consequently extending the driving range of electric vehicles. This is of particular importance for Canadians as the driving range of an electric vehicle is considerably reduced in cold weather. The research will focus on investigating the effect of the steel processing parameters on the final magnetic properties of electrical steels, both in pilot scale and in industrial production. Experiments will be carried out at CanmetMATERIALS, Natural Resources of Canada, using its pilot-scale rolling mill and other facilities. The results from the pilot-scale experiments will then be used to guide the production of electrical steels of the industrial partner, Stelco Holdings Inc. The research will involve both theoretical and experimental studies on the relationships among processing parameters, microstructure (texture), and final magnetic properties of the electrical steels.