Innovative Projects Realized

Obtention et caractérisation de mélanges de polymères dans le cadre de la valorisation du polyéthylène recyclé

Dans un contexte où la protection de l’environnement et l’économie des ressources deviennent de plus en plus importantes, Soléno en partenariat avec l’ETS de Montréal développe une voie de recyclage innovante pour les déchet plastiques non recyclables par les méthodes conventionnelles.
Ce projet est un travail préparatoire à l’industrialisation de cette méthode et permettra de définir les mélanges de polymères à utiliser ainsi que les caractéristiques des plastiques issus de cette voie.
En plus de l’aspect écologique, les retombées économiques pour Soléno sont potentiellement importantes puisque cela va permettre à Soléno de s’approvisionner en partie en plastique souillé, beaucoup moins cher que le plastique propre

Using Sensory Ethnography to Explore Nature-based Proximity Tourism and Family Vacations

Within the tourism field, family vacations are increasingly recognized as an important and growing area of study. Family vacations have the potential to reunite and reconnect individuals outside of every-day life; building social capital, influencing family bonding, and creating important memories. Today’s fast paced, technological world creates many challenges for families in finding the time and resources to experience family vacations. For the green-consumer, there are also ethical challenges in choosing reliable sustainable tourism options that avoid tourism practices that contribute to the global climate crisis. The purpose of this study is to explore how family nature-based proximity tourism in Finnish Lapland can enhance family vacation opportunities. A new and growing area of study, nature-based proximity tourism involves families experiencing nature spaces close to home from a tourists perspective. This study involved researchers accompanying English-speaking Finnish families on a hike during their nature holiday. TO BE CONT’D

Exploring the Final Frontier in Earth-Moon system: Low-energy Transfer to Triangular Libration Points

The ambitious goal of my proposal is to explore low-energy transfers to triangular libration points that is the final frontier in Earth-Moon system. As an innovative idea, the role of solar gravity in transfer mechanism will be revealed by chaos theory.
With the development of space technology, the booming desire on triangular libration point urges low-cost and high-robust transfers for spacecraft serving for solar wind surveillance mission. It will benefit the whole world by protecting the Earth and satellite from geomagnetic storm. The unique location of triangular libration points will contribute to future interplanetary exploration.
For the first time, my project presents systematical investigation on the Sun-perturbed transfers to triangular libration points.
I will introduce finite-time Lyapunov exponent to describe performances of motion near triangular libration points. TO BE CONT’D

Mapping the Alt-Right during the Canadian Federal Election

The project is designed to analyze the influence that alt-right political commentators have on the Canadian 2019 Federal Election through YouTube and other mainstream social media platforms. Underneath the discourses and social profiles of mainstream social media platforms lies a web of mostly anonymized, ideologically far-right deep web communities tied together by primary discourses of ironic banter, conspiracy theories, and fake news narratives. Over the last two years, deep web products such as QAnon, Pizzagate, and others have made their way onto mainstream platforms through YouTube commentary, and these discourses perpetuate themselves due to YouTube’s specific platform affordances such as the autoplay algorithm, the related videos algorithm, and the bonds created by consuming news through audiovisual commentary – a phenomenon that projects to grow as an increasing supermajority of younger generations use YouTube as their primary source for political and current event news. TO BE CONT’D

Connecting migrant stories & digital humanists in Canada & Australia

This is a project about migration narratives in Canada and Australia, two countries that have many similarities, from their historical links to the United Kingdom, to the quality of their current economies, to their stature as top migrant destinations. Both countries as we know them today are the product of migration. Stories of migration and resettlement are a core part not only of Canadian and Australian history, but of humanity itself, and understanding them is essential to confronting ourselves, our societies and our future, particularly in a warming world where environmental factors will contribute to the flow of people from place to place. The digital humanities is a rapidly developing discipline that allows scholars to study questions of art, culture and society using big data, statistics and computational methods. TO BE CONT’D

Développement d’un banc d’essai universel pour la production en laboratoire de copeaux spécialisés et la détermination des paramètres de coupes

L’industrie du sciage génère des volumes importants de copeaux dont la majeure partie est utilisée par l’industrie des pâtes et papiers, un secteur qui vit une décroissance structurale en raison de l’essor des technologies numériques. C’est dans ce contexte que le SEREX, FP Innovations et l’UQAR collaborent avec le milieu industriel pour identifier de nouvelles avenues et développer les équipements qui permettront aux scieries de transformer les résidus de sciage pour les nouveaux marchés. Le projet de stage s’inscrit dans ce contexte et vise le développement d’un banc d’essai universel capable de produire des copeaux spécialisés et d’étudier les conditions de coupe de ceux-ci. Le banc d’essai pourra être utilisé pour fabriquer de petites quantités de copeaux et soutenir le développement de panneaux isolants ou structuraux. TO BE CONT’D

Planification et développement d’algorithmes d’interprétation d’images spectrales

L’entreprise Logiag (pour logiciels agricoles), en partenariat avec le Conseil national de recherches du Canada (CNRC) a mis au point une technologie LIBS (« Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy ») pour la réalisation d’analyses agricoles (sol, feuille, fourrage). L’appareil, déjà certifié par la norme ISO 17025 (qui reconnaît la compétence des laboratoires d’essais et d’étalonnages), permet d’effectuer les analyses d’une façon efficace, précise et sans l’utilisation de produits chimiques. Cependant, les algorithmes de prédiction des résultats d’analyse doivent être optimisés pour que les coefficients de détermination (r2) entre les méthodes d’analyse conventionnelle (spectroscopie de masse à plasma à couplage inductif, en laboratoire) et les prédictions issues de la technologie LIBS soient d’au minimum 70% pour tous les éléments. TO BE CONT’D

Behavioural finance profiling for financial advisors and clients

The purpose of this study is to develop a structural model that enhance the effectiveness of the financial advisory services. The primary value proposition Betterworth wants to demonstrate to the financial institution is how the betterworth platform will make financial advisors’ more efficient, enabling them to attend to more clients, cut their operational costs, target better solutions, enhance retention and sell additional products/services – ie. boost and extend the CLV (customer lifetime value). The platform will be leveraging financial and nonfinancial data inputs to recommend product/services that the client needs and provide the most appropriate financial advice to the client in a motivating and engaging style they will appreciate and respond to. Thereby increasing the probability of acting or executing on the provided recommendations. We anticipate long and engaged sales cycles where we work collaboratively with institutions. We believe there is a significant market opportunity with our product.

Mass Timber Floor Vibration Design Guide and Validation

Mass timber floors are increasingly becoming an attractive option for floor system when compared to concrete or steel floors. This is particularly significant for multi-story buildings, where floor framing represents a large amount of the buildings cost and material use. Currently, these flooring systems are largely made out of concrete or steel, so there is significant room for the use of mass timber to grow. However, unlike steel or concrete, mass timber floors are often susceptible to serviceability issues such as detection or vibration. In particular, vibration of mass timber flooring is a problem that often will limit how long floors can span. This problem is made worse by a knowledge gap in the industry; currently there is little information that designers can use to efficiently design mass timber floor systems. TO BE CONT’D

Searching for Tasks: A Study on Online Searchability for Situated Action

The project is the start of a bigger vision to help improve ‘Employability in an ever-changing, global and digital economy.’ The Partner organization and SFU Communications lab has a larger vision for where we may take this innovation initiative over the long-term, however initial pursuits will start out to develop a better understanding through an applied research project to explore ‘just-in-time learning practices impacting employability’. The insights from this will start informing relevant modern-day learning frameworks, content types and channel delivery solutions that may be most valuable in securing employability in a fast-changing world. The insights from this project can also be applied backwards to inform teaching practices and frameworks at colleges and universities/ secondary institutions to become more agile / ‘just-in-time’ as well. TO BE CONT’D

Prix du carbone et élasticités

Les réchauffements climatiques sont causés par les émissions de carbone. Les états se sont entendus pour réduire leurs émissions afin d’atteindre un objectif d’augmentation de la température (typiquement +2°C). Pour atteindre leurs cibles de réduction d’émissions, les gouvernements se doivent de prendre action : tarifer le carbone, investir dans le transport en commun, etc. Pour mettre en place une politique optimale de réduction des émissions, il importe de connaitre :
1) Le prix optimal du carbone qui permettrait de limiter le réchauffement, prix qui correspond au dommage qu’une tonne de carbone peut causer;
2) Les élasticités prix des biens qui sont liés à l’émission de carbone : l’essence, l’automobile, et tout autre type de transport.
Le prix optimal du carbone permet de mettre un juste prix sur les émissions, par exemple, sur l’essence. Mais les gouvernements aiment également agir sur le front des transports en subventionnant, par exemple, les autos électriques ou les transports en commun. Afin de bien cibler leurs interventions, il est crucial de connaitre les élasticités prix directes et croisées de ces modes de transport.

Calcium Supplements, Elemental Bioavailability, and Uptake by Bone

The goal of this Mitacs research proposal is to develop and apply experimental methodology capable

of distinguishing the influence of calcium supplement dosage form upon elemental calcium uptake,

plasma concentration and spatial distribution in the bone of laboratory rats. In order to achieve those

endpoints, we plan to utilize the compound strontium ranelate, which serves as a consistent, highly

bioavailable dosage form of elemental strontium. Elemental strontium is found in the same column of

the Periodic Table (Group IIA alkaline earth metals) and has the same divalent cationic charge as

calcium, and has been shown to have a natural affinity for uptake by mineralizing bony tissues. Thus,

strontium in effect serves as a surrogate for calcium when given in bioavailable dosage form, with the

advantage that it is not usually found in patient bone, due to the trace amounts present in our dietary

intake. Very much like calcium, strontium will localize to bone where it will become incorporated in………………………………

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