Innovative Projects Realized

Advanced Characterization of Zirconium Hydrides in Zr-2.5Nb Pressure Tube in CANDU Reactors

In the operation of CANDU reactors, the Zr-2.5Nb pressure tubes holding the cooling water and fuel bundles are susceptible to hydride cracking-induced crack initiation mechanisms, known as delayed hydride cracking and overload crack initiation. For structural integrity evaluation of CANDU pressure tubes, of fracture toughness and hydride crack initiation models were developed. However, the hydride morphology input for the model is still based on microstructures taken decades ago. By applying more advanced electron microscopes and establishing corresponding sample preparation procedures on hydrided pressure tube samples with similar thermo-mechanical history of real in-reactor components, better data input will be generated for the models to ensure more success tube integrity evaluation. Findings from this project will also benefit the industry partner with established sample preparation method for imaging hydrides at different length scales.

Development of a novel plant biostimulant made of encapsulated Rhodopseudomonas palustris

The agricultural sector is currently facing a conundrum, whereas the needs to produce more (food, fiber, bioenergy) are ever increasing, the land and resources needed to produce them are diminishing. Furthermore, consumers and legislators pressure for environmentally friendly products are increasing accordingly, the development of sustainable alternatives such as the use of plant growth-promoting rhyzobacteria (PGPR) for improving agriculture production is gaining interest. Bio-inoculants thus represents an open and growing market.
The overarching goal of this work will be to isolate and select potential bacteria and develop a microcapsule formulation for the development of a commercial bio-inoculant formulations by Ulysse Biotech in the near future.

Breadth of the Wild: global patterns of niche across latitude in the marine realm

A widely recognized pattern in ecology is the latitudinal diversity gradient: increasing biodiversity with decreasing latitude. However, why there are fewer animals at the poles than in the tropics remains poorly understood. The latitude niche-breadth hypothesis (LNB) suggests that stable climates of the tropics allow for increased specialization (smaller niche), which in turn allows for more species to occupy the total available niche space. At the same time, the highly dynamic climate of the poles drives the evolution of generalists that can adapt to a wide range of conditions (larger niche), limiting the number of species that can occupy the total niche space. While the fundamental question of “What drives species richness?” on land remains debated, it is even less understood in the marine environment. The oceans are characterized by high species mobility and dispersal, movement into the depths and across latitude, and variations in temperature driven by water stratification in addition to seasonality. The difficulties of monitoring such an immense, dynamic ecosystem have limited the LNB hypothesis from being formally tested in the marine realm, and only recently have modern tools become widely available to do so. TBC

Modelling rainfalls by dynamic copulas

Supervisors: Mélina Maillhot (Concordia University, Montreal) and Elena di Bernardino (CNAM, Paris).
Postdoctoral Fellow: Fátima Palacios Rodríguez (INRIA Sophia Antipolis- Méditerranée, Montpellier)

The main aim of the project is to provide adequate models for rainfalls time series by representing the time dependence related to flood events with Vine copulas. Copulas are easily understandable multivariate models allow for defining any type of dependence structure between random variables. Vine copulas are characterizes by trees of copulas. Firstly, we will concentrate our study on rainfall in Paris, since data and models (excluding copulas) are available and will allow a comparison of the methods. Secondly, in order to quantify the risk of floods in the considered geographic area, we aim to provide appropriate estimators of suitable multivariate risk measures using our proposed models. Finally, we would like to help to improve insurance’s regulation in Canada to ensure considerable prices of flood risk coverage.

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

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.

Caring Beyond Borders: Policies Impacting Transnational Families in Canada and Around the Globe

With the current trends in population aging and migration, comes very real everyday questions for families all around the globe. Who in the family will require care as they age? What will that care entail? Who will provide that care? Now imagine if these questions must be negotiated between families separated not only by vast distances, but also geographical, political and cultural borders.
We currently lack the knowledge about the needs and experiences of these diverse families of migrants, which have also been neglected to date in policy-making in Canada and worldwide. The main goal of my project is to conduct a scan of relevant Canadian and international policies and migration regimes that impact migrants’ and their ability to exchange care to loved ones both near and far. TO BE CONT’D

How does Canada succeed in the ultra-short triathlon events: examining the physiological characteristics and recovery strategies to enhance performance in the mixed relay event for 2020 and beyond

Triathlon races are usually longer than 2 hours, but a new short distance team event has been added to the Olympics. This new event, the mixed relay, requires 2 men and 2 women to complete a short course which takes about 20 minutes each to complete. We want to know how the triathletes perform because no research has looked at this new event. We will use both simulated races and other laboratory measures to determine the triathlete’s physiology in this event and what factors are important to success (for example being the fastest swimmer or having the best aerobic fitness). This will give us useful information to help Canadian triathlon coach’s work with those triathletes who might compete at the Olympics. TO BE CONT’D

Integrating Digital Design + Prefabrication Processes into Calgary-based Architecture and Design Firms (continued)

Many architecture and design firms in Calgary have a strong desire to incorporate parametric software (BIM) and digital manufacturing (CAD-CAM) technologies into their design processes in order to meet evolving client demands, regulatory requirements, and sustainability performance targets. These are necessary criteria that constitute high-quality built environments capable of meeting the needs of multiple stakeholders including clients as well as the general public. This proposal asks how architectural projects can be used as a platform for digital design and fabrication research that bolsters in-house digital prefabrication expertise while identifying alternatives to conventional trade-based construction practices. The general objective of the research project is to catalyze the adoption of digital design and prefabrication in Calgary-based architecture and design practices.

Identifying species and planting conditions to revegetate mixed mine tailings at the Whabouchi site operated by Nemaska Lithium in Northern Québec

The long term objective of this project is to develop methods of revegetating mine tailings sites (in this case, a very large tailing mound in northern Quebec) using natural vegetation, and without transporting soil long distances. The specific objective of this project over the next year is to (i) conduct field trials to determine the causes of mortality of transplanted tree saplings using our method and (ii) to identify easily-measured traits of naturally growing plant species that increase the likelihood of such species surviving in these harsh environment. When successful, this will allow our partner organization (Nemaska Lithium) to fulfil its legal obligation to revegetate the site using a cost-effective method.

Assessing the effects of emerging contaminants to fishes native to North America using proteomic profiling

Current environmental risk assessment approaches rely on animal tests which are tedious, expensive, and of ethical concerns. This is constituting a significant problem for governments and industries as they are mandated to test the tens-of-thousands of chemicals currently used by society globally. This serves as impetus to develop novel alternative approaches that enable high-throughput testing of chemicals while being predictive and not relying on live animals, all of which are characteristics of ‘omics technologies. My thesis project is conducted under a Genome Canada Large Scale Research Project termed EcoToxChip (http://www.ecotoxchip.ca/) that aims to develop an advanced tool for the characterization and prioritization of environmental chemicals in support of chemical risk assessment. Specifically, my thesis research utilizes whole transcriptome and proteome analyses to characterize the molecular toxicity pathways of 8 model contaminants of concern, and which informs the development of the EcoToxChips. TO BE CONT’D

Integrating prefabricated structural design + engineering solutions toward more energy-efficient buildings

The candidate will study multiple configurations of buildings made with steel modular units and analyse their structural performance under seismic loads. This will allow the company Entuitive Corporation to expand their area of operation as well as their client base.

Fabrication of Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cells

Fabrication of heterojunction solar cells has shown great promise in the past few years, with such solar cells reaching record efficiencies of up to ~26.7%. Hence, research in this field is much necessary to make the dream of accessible solar energy for all, a reality. The research that we propose here, would focus on specifically analyzing the process of passivation in solar cells. To increase the efficiency of solar cells, we need to make sure that most of the light that enters the cell is trapped inside and is utilized to it’s fullest. The idea of this research is to perfectly tune all the parameters involved in the process using state-of-the-art fabrication and characterisation facilities. TO BE CONT’D