Innovative Projects Realized

Trajectoire des pratiques transgressives, dans le contexte de la construction du Nouvel Aéroport International de la Ville de Mexico

Le projet consiste à comprendre la trajectoire des pratiques transgressives des militant.e.s qui vivent dans les municipalités de San Salvador Atenco, Texcoco et Chimalhuacán, dans le contexte de la construction du Nouvel Aéroport de la Ville de México, au Mexique, dans l’État de México. À partir de la collecte des histoires de vie de 5 à 7 participant.e.s, l’objectif principal de la recherche est de construire et valoriser un savoir autour des pratiques politiques de résistances, depuis l’expérience et la voix des personnes directement impliquées. C’est parce que nous considérons que la littérature existante sur les mouvements sociaux est trop mécanique que nous proposons d’adopter une perspective décoloniale ainsi qu’une perspective de genre, remettant ces pratiques dans un contexte historique holistique qui prend en compte l’aspect colonial des territoires affectés par la construction de l’aéroport. TO BE CONT’D

Automated Credit Risk Assessment Systems in Small Business Lending Decisions

Small businesses account for 89.6% of the total private labour force in Canada and, despite the vital role they play in the Canadian economy, fewer than half of small businesses will survive 10 years. One of the most commonly cited causes of small business failure is the inability to raise capital to finance its operations. This occurs, in part, because banks and lending agencies lack the tools necessary to draw valid conclusions from credit risk assessments. This application proposes two projects that will help build risk scoring system that the partner organization, Espresso Capital Inc., can use to make small business lending decisions. The goal is to recommend ways to improve the user experience and accuracy of the system so Espresso can predict if issues will arise in borrowing firms before they become a problem.

Self-sovereign identity data of persons living with dementia at risk of getting lost: how can personal data be protected, owned by individuals, and used to keep dementia clients safe, and inform research and policy?

Three out of five Canadians with dementia wander, raising concern as to how it can be managed. Current information describing best practices to find missing persons living with dementia however, is inconsistent and can cause police difficulty in choosing search and rescue strategies for this population. The purpose of this project is to develop and promote the exchange of best practices to quickly find a lost person with dementia through the development of a guideline. It will involve a literature review and surveys with police across Ontario. The information collected from these two activities will be used to develop the anticipated guideline. The Alzheimer Society of Ontario wants to be a leader, enhancing the reputation of the Finding Your Way program, and reduce the risk of people with dementia going missing. Partnering with researchers, such as the intern, to have credibility and have police partnerships will help make that happen.

Faisabilité et caractéristiques d’un Parcours innovation visant à développer les compétences en management de l’innovation des PME dans un contexte régional

Considérant que l’un des défi clé en matière de gestion de l’innovation consiste à comprendre l’écosystème dans son ensemble ainsi que les facteurs déterminants qui s’y rattachent et de réussir à développer des stratégies permettant d’en tirer profit, cet écosystème et ces facteurs environnementaux représentent donc des éléments importants à prendre en compte dans le développement d’un Parcours d’accompagnement. Il y a donc lieu de bien définir l’écosystème entrepreneurial régional dans le but de mieux comprendre et caractériser les différents constituants de cet écosystème, d’évaluer leurs impacts potentiels sur le mode de gestion de l’innovation des PME et ultimement être en mesure d’adapter un Parcours de formation et d’accompagnement qui sera pertinent pour les PME régionales. C’est ce que vise à répondre ce projet.

Reconnaissance et estimation de la pose de différents types de boulons sur les parois de mines souterraines par apprentissage automatique

Les boulons servant au soutènement des galeries de mines souterraines ne respectent souvent pas le patron de boulonnage défini par les ingénieurs dû à diverses raisons telle la complexité de la pose des boulons sur le terrain dans un intervalle de temps limité. Les galeries ne sont alors pas aussi renforcées qu’elles devraient l’être et les risques d’effondrement sont ainsi accrus. La recherche proposée a pour but le développement d’une méthode permettant l’évaluation efficace et automatique des patrons de boulonnage. Le projet fera appel à l’intelligence artificielle pour résoudre cette problématique. Nemesis bénéficiera de ce projet par l’intégration de la technologie développée durant ce projet dans ses solutions de vision numérique adaptées au domaine minier. Cette recherche ouvrira la porte vers d’autres produits et services offerts par le partenaire où l’intelligence artificielle pourra être incorporée.

Recycled HDPE/wood composite foams

Wood plastic composites (WPC) are a family of composite materials in which wood particles are mixed with a thermoplastic resin (polyethylene) to offer weight reduction, good thermal properties, acoustic insulation, cost reduction, as well as high stiffness and strength. Virgin thermoplastics are generally used in the WPC industry, but plastics are seen today as one of the main global solid waste. To reduce their environmental impact and the consumption of virgin plastics, recycled plastics are suitable to manufacture WPC at a lower cost. Also foaming the composite is another method to expand their applications by reducing weight and increasing thermal/acoustic insulations. The objective of this work is to produce different WPC structures and relate their processing conditions to their final properties by optimization of their composition. In particular, uniform foams will be compared with density graded foams in terms of performance/weight.

Development of a Remotely Controlled Data Acquisition System with Wireless Sensors for Bogie Dynamic Load Monitoring

The proposed research focuses on bogie dynamic load monitoring using intelligent sensor networks.

The existing monitoring systems have several problems including inability to monitor precisely,

difficulty in integration with the existing units, and high cost. The proposed research will examine

these issues in detail focusing on five main areas: wireless sensors, product definition, prototype

development, field testing, and industrialization. Sensors based on Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS)

and Nanotechnology will be examined with regard to cost and performance. The proposed research

will finally lead to the design and development of a condition monitoring system for increasing

operating safety and lifespan of the existing and new bogie subsystems while simultaneously reducing

costs of monitoring.

Development of an Autonomous Pipeline Control System

Autonomous operation of oil and gas pipelines is being introduced to the marketplace by utilizing advanced process control and Artificial Intelligence. This Project will explore the use of advanced optimization algorithms in combination with autonomous operation to further increase efficiency of pipelines by continually driving pumps, compressors and valves to achieve the lowest cost operation.
Expected benefits of these efficiencies will be to increase the effective pipeline capacity without building new pipelines, while reducing the amount of energy required in a pipeline’s operation. In the current environment in which building new pipelines is increasingly difficult, maximizing existing assets is critical to both the pipeline operator and upstream producers.

Coupling the liquid pool and wellbore hydraulic module of the “Prediction and Optimization Software Package” – Part 2

In the last decade optimization is expanded in many applications from food production to sophisticated applications such as engine fuel efficiency. In the proposed package, it is tried to apply optimization techniques along with physics based analytical and semi-analytical methodologies to create a compelling framework which can help thermal-process based oil industry to reduce their GHG and also better evaluate their CAPEX. Many SAGD projects are overspent on their facilities due to under prediction or overprediction of their oil production expectations. this package will help operators to predict their expectations and improve their predictions as more inputs are provided such 4D seismic, temperature and pressure observation wells, production data, and geological characterization.

Urgence environnementale et stratégies de persuasions: Le cas de Greenpeace Canada et Greenpeace France

Je m’intéresse aux stratégies de communication sur les médias socionumériques du groupe d’intérêts environnement Greenpeace Canada et Greenpeace France. Je porte mon attention, plus particulièrement, sur leurs campagnes liées aux changements climatiques dans ces deux pays. Je désire comprendre comment ils plaident et sensibilisent à la cause des bouleversements climatiques.
Pour ce faire, j’étudie les différentes stratégies de persuasion utilisés par Greenpeace Canada et France afin de sensibiliser les citoyen.ne.s. Mon attention se portera sur leur site web, leur page Facebook et Instagram. Une fois la collecte de données effectuée, j’analyserai l’ensemble des informations recueillis. Par la suite, j’interrogerai des représentant.e.s de Greenpeace Canada et France afin de connaitre leurs perceptions de leur propre communication des changements climatiques.
De ce fait, ce projet de recherche est porteur et possède à la fois une pertinence sociale et scientifique.

Investigating Coastal Disturbance Contributions to Climate Change Acceleration

Wetlands can store carbon 30-40 times faster, and for longer periods of time, than terrestrial ecosystems. As a result, coastal wetland ecosystems are known to play a crucial role in combating climate change. Activities such as dredging and shoreline erosion have potential negative impacts on these coastal environments, hindering their capacity to store carbon. Not only this, but it is possible that the aforementioned disturbances cause the breakdown of blue carbon via microbial activity, subsequently releasing greenhouse gases to the Earth’s atmosphere and accelerating climate change. The proposed project will involve simulation of the aforementioned disturbances in laboratory mesocosms, and subsequent monitoring of microbial activity and carbon decomposition, in order to quantify greenhouse-gas-release response. The laboratory simulations will be supplemented with field visits to coastal wetland environments in the Melbourne area. TO BE CONT’D

The Dark Ground of Metaphysics

I propose a one semester research stay (Fall 2019) at KU Leuven with Dr. Henning Tegtmeyer. I will study nothing. That is, I will study the philosophical concept of nothingness – how nothing defies and confounds thought. The concept of nothing emerges prominently in the works of Martin Heidegger, a 20th century German philosopher, and F.W.J. Schelling, a 19th century philosopher of German Idealism. In their searches for a ground (of meaning, existence, life, being, etc.), Schelling and Heidegger find nothing. They find an abyss, which comes from the German abgrund or the negation of ground. Nothing is a groundless ground. In other words, they each ground metaphysics in the dark, inscrutable groundless ground of nothing. My ultimate goal is to produce a dissertation proposal on the relation between the thought of Schelling and Heidegger through the idea of nothing. TO BE CONT’D