Innovative Projects Realized

Gender Testing in the International Olympic Committee

The International Olympic Committee (ICO) has been conducting sex tests since 1968, with a hiatus from 1990 to 2009, to determine the biological sex of self-identified female athletes. There have been three iterations of these tests: visual examinations, chromosomal tests, and hormonal tests. This research seeks to understand the justifications used in favor a particular test when it came to determine which would be best and develop a policy based on that decision. To do so, I will first work on archives which hold documents that pertain to the genesis of endocrinology. This will help understand the state, and genealogy, of the knowledge on which these decisions were founded. The focus in this part of the research will be on testosterone, its’ discovery, and the treatments and experiments it was used in in the early 20th century. TO BE CONT’D

Estimation and detection under differential privacy constraints: applications to air transportation systems

Large scale monitoring and control systems are being increasingly deployed around us, from intelligent transportation systems to smart grids. In exchange of the benefits supplied by these systems, participating agents are required to continuously share data with these complex systems. This data often consists of highly privacy-sensitive information, including but not limited to location, power consumption traces or medical records, which can be used to compromise these agents’ privacy. For example, crowd-sourced road traffic prediction and routing applications, such as Waze and Google Maps, improve their accuracy by using
location data provided by smart-phones, but also continuously leak location information about the users of these devices. In the last few years, we have started to understand how to design signal processing schemes that formally preserve the privacy of data providers when some aggregate signal derived from this data must be shared. TO BE CONT’D

Driver behaviour in response to potential hazards in a simulated environment

Driver error is a contributing cause of most motor vehicle collisions. Consequently, accident rates are much higher in scenarios where safe transit requires increased reliance on driver ability and decision-making. Intersections, for example, are potential conflict zones, because unexpected hazards are common. For accident reconstructionists, like those at Kodsi Engineering, understanding hazard response enables comparison of ongoing assignments with typical driver behaviour. This analysis further helps to inform expert opinions during insurance claim litigations and can affect the distribution of liability and compensation. While some experiments have been conducted to investigate unexpected hazard scenarios, there is limited research on right-turning and left-side approaching vehicles. Given the risks associated with studying driver behavior, these studies are most safely conducted in a simulator like the Oktal complete driving simulator at the University of Guelph. TO BE CONT’D

CFD Simulation of a Gas Turbine Combustor

The work to be conducted in this intemship consists of the transient numerical modeling of a

combustion device using commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. Validation

of the various sub-models is required and once the final model is complete various design

changes can be researched. The model will allow for variations in geometry, spray and

ignttion characteristics and timing of the combustion device. The work will coincide with a

current new engine project being carried out by the partner organization. The academic

supervi.ors have a wealth of knowledge with combustion and fluid modeling and will serve to

support the intem along with the partner organization in the completion of several tasks. In

completion the partner organization will have gained a useful combustion model and design

insights while the intem will have gained valuable research experience.

Health Data Extraction Review Analysis Learning Device in Nephrology (HERALD-RENO)

Data has become a central part of any organization’s day-to-day operation. Organizations are looking to turn this information into actionable insight. The Dialysis Measurement, Analysis and Reporting System (DMAR) is designed to track healthcare quality indicators where changing practice will have high impact. The DMAR system applies rigorous methods to measure key health care performance measures and efficiently implement and measure change. By developing and implementing an engine like the Health Data Extraction, Review and Analysis Learning Device (HERALD), information could be automatically programmed directly within DMAR. OMM will benefit from research using HERALD because DMAR software would be perceived as more innovative and better able to scale since many of the organizations struggling with data quality do so because of high data volumes and manual preparation. Furthermore, using machine learning would ensure that data is coded and validated consistently.

PetriCORE : Un outil pour aider à l’optimisation du code sur un supercalculateur

En recherche académique, les besoins d’analyse des chercheurs dépassent souvent les capacités de leurs ordinateurs à effectuer ces analyses. Calcul Canada est un organisme qui s’assure que les chercheurs canadiens puissent avoir un accès gratuit à des serveurs de calcul performants à la grandeur du pays. Nous tenons non seulement à un accès équitable aux ressources pour tous et à une utilisation efficace des ressources par nos membres, mais aussi à assurer une formation adéquate des nouveaux utilisateurs. C’est pour cela que nous aurons besoin d’un étudiant qui travaillera à l’élaboration d’un portail qui permettra aux chercheurs à la fois d’en apprendre plus sur leur code, mais aussi d’apprendre comment utiliser nos ressources plus adéquatement. Nous pourrons également cibler les utilisateurs ayant plus de difficulté pour leur offrir le support dont ils ont besoin pour éviter de reproduire des erreurs fréquentes.

An assessment of the welfare and productivity of slow growing genotypes of broiler breeders

The meat poultry industry is facing concerns about sustainability and animal welfare at the same time as productivity increases to satisfy the growing global demand for chicken meat. The current fast growth rate of modern meat chickens (broilers) is negatively associated with the reproductive performance of their parent stock (broiler breeders). Current feeding management of broiler breeders involves feed restriction to limit growth rate. However, feed restriction is a welfare concern as broiler breeders display signs of chronic hunger and high feeding motivation. Some of these behavioural signs include overdrinking and drinker pecking (high water usage), feather pecking and aggressive behaviours. Indeed, the level of feed restriction increases every year as broilers are continually selected for fast growth. In order to solve this problem, this project proposed to examine the sustainability (in terms of productivity and welfare outcomes) of alternative strains of broiler breeders in North America.

Magnetorheological Fluid Actuators for various industries (part 2)

Exonetik designs, develops and manufactures magnetorheological (MR) actuator systems that enable novel functionalities to satisfy unmet customer needs. In collaboration with Exonetik engineers, interns will participate in the design, development and testing of customized magnetorheological actuators for robotics applications. The expected results of these subprojects will be prototypes that will be tested to demonstrate the added value that the technology can provide.

Préparation et utilisation d’une phéromone sexuelle pour piéger la punaise terne dans des cultures de fraises

La punaise terne (Lygus lineolaris) est un insecte causant de lourds dommages aux récoltes de fraises, entre autres. Pour limiter les dommages, il faut détecter les infestations d’insectes rapidement. Ainsi, l’agriculteur appliquera un traitement efficace, si nécessaire. L’utilisation d’une phéromone sexuelle (substance émise par les femelles afin d’attirer les mâles pour l’accouplement) permet de piéger certains insectes sélectivement. À l’été 2019, le stagiaire MITACS préparera un appât via la synthèse et le mélange de trois (3) substances volatiles, imitant ainsi la phéromone sexuelle de l’insecte. Cet appât sera utilisé dans des pièges placés en milieu de culture fraisière et l’efficacité des captures sera comparée à des pièges témoins, sans phéromones. Dans ce projet collaboratif, le Prof. Chapdelaine trouve une application aux petites molécules organiques, le CRAM développe de nouveaux dispositifs de détection des infestations et enfin, l’étudiant développe des expertises variées : chimie organique et analytique, comportement animal et agronomie.

Conception optimale et réalisation de filtres harmoniques pour atténuer les effets du phénomène d’empiètement d’un pont à thyristors

Les sources de production d’énergie font appel à des éléments d’électronique de puissance permettant une gestion de l’énergie électrique produite. Il peut s’agir par exemple de convertisseurs transformant une tension alternative en tension continue, ou inversement. Ils servent de plus à définir correctement les caractéristiques électriques (tension et courant) mises en oeuvre dans les réseaux (typiquement Hydro-Québec). Certains de ces convertisseurs utilisent des commutateurs (éléments ON/OFF) qui génèrent un phénomène inévitable appelé empiètement. Celui-ci déforme la tension en entrée du convertisseur, ce qui a pour effet de dégrader la qualité de l’énergie du réseau électrique. D’autres élément connectés au réseau seraient alors impactés par cette dégradation, il est donc nécessaire de la limiter au maximum. TO BE CONT’D

Community Building for New Housing Co-operatives: Innovating to address scale, inclusion, and contemporary living

Due to the lack of investment from the Federal and Provincial governments for affordable housing and the low number of housing cooperatives formed in the last 30 years the co-op housing model is outdated. In response to a need for affordable housing in Vancouver, BC the Community Land Trust (CLT) has recently opened two newly built housing cooperatives. This research project aims to identify tools and best practices to foster a sense of belonging, ownership, and community in newly formed housing co-ops with members from mixed socio-economic backgrounds. This project is intended to specifically support the Fraserview and Railyard housing cooperatives while adding to the body of research regarding community connection and social cohesion in multi-unit buildings and alternative housing options.

Securing elastic radio access networks – Year two

G networks have emerged as a promising solution for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to offer ultra-fast mobile broadband and ultra-low latency services with exceptional reliability for consumers. By leveraging softwarization, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), MNOs can offset the high capital and operational expenditures incurred due the additional deployment of legacy equipment. Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) is a novel mobile network architecture that offers centralized operation of BaseBand Units (BBUs), and scalable deployment of lightweight Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Elastic-RAN (E-RAN), Ericsson’s implementation of C-RAN, leverages SDN and NFV to offer flexible and elastic 5G network slicing to meet the different end-users QoS. Though virtualization facilitates flexible coordination between BBUs and RRHs, it introduces new security vulnerabilities in E-RAN. For instance, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack can cause severe degradation of the QoS/QoE by compromising the availability of resources and the integrity of data. In this proposal, we: 1) employ Machine Learning (ML) to develop novel techniques for anomaly-based DDOS detection, 2) devise mitigation measures to protect against DDoS attacks and zero-day threats using ML, and leverage the flexibility offered by NFV and SDN to automatically reconfigure network slices across the multi-tenant E-RAN infrastructure.