Innovative Projects Realized

Prioritizing salmonid connectivity through the removal of barriers in a highly urbanized landscape

Systematic conservation planning tools allow us to use data on species distributions, habitat quality, and cost to and identify optimal areas to invest conservation and restoration resources. These tools can be particularly helpful in highly contested biodiverse landscapes where pressures from growing populations and economic development compete with conservation objectives. The Lower Fraser River represents an ideal location for the application of systematic conservation planning, it is home to Canada’s third largest population centre, and acts as the conduit for 56 Federally managed conservation units of pacific salmon, 16 of which spawn directly in the Lower Fraser. In support of Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s “Vision for Salmon in the Lower Fraser”, we intend to map historical salmon habitat, and apply the Marxan spatial analysis tool to identify priority areas for restoration. Historical baselines can quantify this “Vision” and Marxan can help chart a path towards achieving it.

CardiAI Point-of-Care Device for High-Caliber and Rapid Diagnosis of Biomarkers from Blood of Patients for Early Heart Failure Detection

The aim of this research and development project is to design and develop a bedside point-of-care device to be equipped with the CardiAI’s machine learning technology for heart failure management. Our POC system will include disposable cardiac biomarker strips and an electronic reader. Once implemented, it will be connected to the AI platform that will continuously collects patients’ health information from patient’s daily manual log, electronic medical record, and remotely monitor the patient’s quality of life (QoL) and their medication adherence, thus helping patients manage their condition better.

Développement d’outils pour le pilotage de la production fromagère artisanale du Québec à l’ère de l’industrie 4.0

La recherche proposée vise à améliorer le rendement des PME fromagères québécoises. Des modèles de pilotage et de valorisation des données d’exploitation seront développés pour la prise de décisions basés sur des données probantes en temps réel. Cette recherche permettra de développer un modèle d’exploitation des fromageries, commun et optimisé, qui inclura l’identification de différents indicateurs de performance (KPI) adaptés au secteur industriel fromager. Elle s’appuiera sur une analyse et une définition des éléments nécessaires au développement d’une plateforme de pilotage des exploitations fromagères. Un outil sera développé pour permettre l’échange et le traitement de données, pour le pilotage de la chaîne de valeur (comprenant la chaîne logistique pour les fromageries, les producteurs, et le transport), afin de maximiser la productivité, les profits, identifier l’impact des prises de décisions et en mesurer les impacts financiers

Optimizing meta-parameters for quantum machine learning

Variational quantum circuits allow to do machine learning on near-term quantum hardware. The success of the algorithms strongly depends on the choices made during the model design. These choices can be quantified and are called meta-parameters. Examples are the number and type of quantum gates in the circuit, the number of layers of circuit template, the choice of training data, the optimization algorithm, and the optimization strategy. Francisco will be studying these in the context of the compression and classification of quantum data and will try to propose a best practice. This research fits in a larger project about detecting quantum phase transitions in spin chains. The expected outcomes are twofold: we will advance the knowledge of efficent algorithms in quantum machine learning and we will gain understanding of the quantum phases encoded in the wave function of our test system.

Opportunities for climate change adaptation: comparative research on Indigenous fisher communities in the Canadian Arctic and Eastern Sri Lanka

The aim of the study is to examine the opportunities for adaptation to climate change in rural fisheries communities. Rural Indigenous fisher populations in particular have been identified as being uniquely sensitive to the effects of climate change, reflecting their often-close relationship to the environment and their dependence on natural resources for their livelihoods, culture, and well-being. This applies to both the Indigenous fisher populations of the ‘Inuit’ communities in the Canadian Arctic and the ‘Vedda’ communities in eastern Sri Lanka. Field data were collected from both locations using a series of face-to-face interviews and participant observation to understand how people experience and respond to climate change impacts. TO BE CONT’D

Modelling of Ecosystem Services Provided by Agriculture in Hungary

The aim of this project is to evaluate non-marketed ecosystem services that arise in Hungarian agriculture when producing market outputs by implementing and calibrating the Biome-BGCMuSo 4.0 ecosystem model adapted to the Hungarian setting (AgroMo), and by developing econometric models for evaluating the impact of rural development support schemes in facilitating the provision of environmental public goods and ecosystem services. Following an extensive review of theoretical and methodological literature in 2019, this multiannual project is modelling specific agricultural ecosystem services utilizing the various databases at Research Institute of Agricultural Economics (AKI’s) disposal and evaluating rural development measures relevant to the study. The visiting student will participate in filtering the database of agri-environmental measures and in preparing and running econometric models and scenarios. TO BE CONT’D

Evaluating dining improvements in Schlegel Villages

This project is focused on evaluating dining improvements being implemented by the partner organization, Schlegel Villages (SV). The first study involves one SV where the CHOICE+ Program is currently being piloted. CHOICE+ is a team-based approach to making physical and psychosocial improvement. The team is guided by Champions to make these changes over time; changes include small physical improvements (e.g. music), as well as education and training to support relationship-centred principles for dining. Interviews and questionnaires with residents, families and staff will be completed to determine their perceptions of these improvements. A second study will be conducted to compare the impact of blue and white dishware on resident food intake (the primary outcome). It is hypothesized that the darker colour dishes will provide greater contrast and will thus improve intake. Evaluation is timely for these initiatives as the partner organization and will support its scale and spread across 19 homes.

Noise estimation in real world video signals and its integration into noise reduction

The project is about removing noise from video signals, for example,

those taken by a professional cinema camera. In this project, we propose to develop a

commercially capable noise reduction framework based on one of our patents to noise

reduction. A commercial noise reduction is required to automatically recognize the type of

noise piesent in the input video signal. Then it should adapt the way the noise reduction is

done to this recognized type of noise. Also a noise reducer should work on both gray-scale

and color images and be capable to accept input image from different color spaces (for

example, RGB or YUV). Finally, a commercial noise reducer should be effective on images of

different numerical precision such as 8-bits or 16-bits. Our proposal outline how we plan to

achieve such a commercial noise reducer.

Visualization of lipid and protein deposition on contact lenses in a sophisticated in vitro eye-blink model

Contact lens discomfort is one of the primary reasons that cause people to stop wearing them. The discomfort may be due to the buildup of tear film components on the lenses during lens wear. The purpose of this project is to understand where most of the tear film components are depositing on the lens, such as the back or front of the lens. These findings will help researchers and companies develop better and more comfortable contact lens materials in the future.

Paper-Based Weather Resistant Membrane for Building Applications

Currently, petroleum-based water resistance membranes are used in the construction industry in order to create a barrier against water. These make recycling a challenge during building demolition, as well as create a significant carbon footprint of their own. The purpose of this project is to develop a paper-based water barrier to replace the petroleum-based alternatives. In partnership with FPInnovations, two postdoctoral scholars will develop and benchmark the technology, working both at UBC and FPInnovations in Vancouver and Pointe-Claire. One postdoc will focus on the water repellent barrier technology development while the other focuses on forming the paper basesheet with the physical properties necessary to be used as a weather membrane. FPInnovations, whose mission involves the use and valourization of forest products, benefits from this project by opening up a new use for paper – in the building envelope space.

WP 2.1.2: Advanced, Intelligent, Analytics Driven Apps for Software Defined and Functionally Virtualized Networks

Networks are moving towards being adaptive. This means that automation will be used to replace processes which are today highly manual. This project proposes a development of knowledge in the area of algorithms required to enable adaptive networks. The project will train two PhD students to understand optical networks and devise optimization algorithms in the areas of interest. In particular, the algorithms will be devised to be fast and near-optimal to enable their implementation in the network in accordance with operator’s goals of making the network near-optimal and adaptive. We anticipate that the algorithms will be implemented in the network and used to make 5G networks work near-optimality.

Living More with SMART Technology: Exploring the feasibility, usability, sustainability and scalability of SMART solutions to support increased quality of life in Continuing Care.

Older adults value autonomy and independence as key features of healthy aging. SMART technology has enormous potential to foster healthy aging and independence by combining elements of gerontology and rehabilitation with technology to create solutions for disability related to impairment and/or aging. The goal of Living More with SMART Technology (LivMoreSMARTech) is to support technology development and use that is transdisciplinary and ‘fit for purpose’ for improving the independence, functioning, wellbeing and quality of life of older adults in continuing care. Our aims are: 1) to understand the lived experience, needs and desires for well-being among older adults with complex conditions in continuing care; 2) to implement and evaluate off-the-shelf technology solutions, individually customized to maximize well-being, that are supported and sustainable; and 3) to understand how best to incorporate sustainable, person-centred technology solutions into long term care and continuing care settings that result in scalable outcomes including adoption into organizational policies, procedures, programs and care planning.