Innovative Projects Realized

Local Sustainability Partnerships: Understanding the relationship between partnership structural features and partners’ outcomes

Over 10,000 cities around the world have implemented LA21s through partnerships involving public, private and civil society organizations. Organizing large cross-sector partnerships requires structures for ensuring collaborative action (such as decision-making processes, communication systems, monitoring and reporting systems, etc.). Being involved in the partnership results in outcomes for the partner organizations (e.g., sustainability progress, legitimacy, relationship building, skills development, etc.). This research aims to understand the relationship between partnership implementation structures and partner outcomes.

Data was collected on partner outcomes through a survey from three large sustainability partnerships (Gwangju, South Korea; Montreal, Canada; and Barcelona, Spain), each with over 100 partner organizations. 186 partners completed the survey, for a response rate of 33%. Data was collected on the partnership structures through interviews and documents. Results will show if the design of the partnerships’ structure, and specific structural features are critical for achieving desired outcomes at the partner level. Understanding these partnerships and their partner relationships is critical for addressing sustainable community plans, and thus achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) # 11.

Baseline Carbon Stocks in Nova Scotia Forests: Role of the Forest Floor

The forWater Network, funded by the federal government as well as industry partners and provincial governments, is a national research network looking into the impacts of forest-management strategies on drinking-water source quality and treatability. forWater Network researchers at Dalhousie University (including Duinker, the supervisor in this application) are working with Halifax Water and Westfor Management Inc. to determine how the Pockwock forested watershed can be managed to improve water treatability. A key issue here is the movement of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC movement from the land to the water has increased in recent decades, and that increases the cost of treating drinking water to acceptable standards. The Halifax study centres on integrated simulation modelling to build and analyze long-term scenarios of forest management and climate change and their effects on DOC levels in Lake Pockwock. TO BE CONT’D

Machine learning algorithms utilization for business process optimization and enhanced predictive symbiotic matching within the logistics transportation management ecosystem

In this project, various business challenges within the transportation management industry will be studied to look for ways to optimize and improve the current practices. Artificial intelligence-based algorithms will be developed in order to automate manual intensive processes, optimize route planning and demand management, including price fluctuations, adverse weather events and seasonal impacts, and finally attempt to improve shipper and carrier relationships via improved transparency, dispute resolution and better methods for matching based on a trusted statistically validated ratings engine.

L’intégration des fondations subventionnaires dans l’écosystème de la finance socialement responsable du Québec

Si les fondations sont habituellement reconnues pour les donations qu’elles distribuent aux organismes de bienfaisance ou aux organismes communautaires, plusieurs d’entre elles développent une finance socialement responsable dans le but que leurs investissements financiers produisent eux aussi un impact social. Cette recherche reconstituera les trajectoires de deux fondations québécoises qui ont mis en oeuvre une finance plus responsable et solidaire afin de mieux servir leur mission sociale. Pour ce faire, nous ferons des enquêtes au sein de ces fondations en menant une série d’entretiens auprès des principaux instigateurs de ces stratégies. Par les données recueillies, nous voulons répondre à deux grands questionnements de recherche : (1) en quoi la mise en place de ces stratégies vient-elle redéfinir le rôle des fondations dans la société et (2) comment se présente les processus par lesquels les fondations intègrent l’écosystème de la finance socialement responsable du Québec?

Radio-frequency Thermal Plasma Assisted Solid Waste Conversion to Energy using Thermochemical Process Technology

The field of plastic waste management is essential for sustainable society that utilizes plastic waste for energy production. Land filing and incineration of plastic waste has large environmental impacts due to GHG emissions. Thus, pyrolysis is considered a low environmental impact process with high value end products. RF thermal plasma technology will help reduce operating cost, cleaner thermal source, shorten reaction time and provide high quality hydrocarbon gasoline and diesel. The research project involves developing a highly efficient RF thermal plasma system that can work in pyrolysis reactors. The partner organisation will start to utilize thermal plasma systems in their chemical reactors and drive the waste management industry forward by reducing operating cost of plastic to oil.

Developing a Metrics Program for London’s Million Tree Challenge

As a part of the Million Tree Challenge, the MITACS intern will work with ReForest London staff and partners to conduct research to determine how many trees are planted in the City of London this year. As a part of this work, they will conduct of review of the best data collection practices of other cities that are or have attempted to plant a large number of trees. They will determine what data to collect and how it will be collected, and develop, test, and refine a statistical model for using this data to estimate the total number of trees getting planted each year. Once the data is collected and analyzed, they will work with ReForest London staff to develop educational and marketing materials around their findings which will help Londoners to see the tree planting progress that has been made and to motivate them to plant more.

Identifying SMEs’ Barriers to Electronic Payment Adoption

During the past two decades in Canada, use of electronic payment has steadily increased. However, despite the downward trend in the volume, the value of cheques has steadily increased, with the five-year average volume growth increasing by about 2% due in large part to their common presence in the business-to-business space. These trends indicate that even with emerging of EFT payment instruments and online transfer options as substitutes for cheque, there are yet some barriers to electronic payment adoption specially for small and medium businesses. In this research we aim to not identify the possible SMEs’ barriers to electronic payment adoption, prioritize them, and find the instrumental and psychological mechanisms behind them.

Safe and Low-cost Robot Grasping through Impedance Control and Deep Learning

Grasping skill is significant in modern service robot that requires interaction with object under manipulation. Grasping of a new object is a trivial task for human operator while it is challenging for robot manipulators. Inspired by the grasping process of human operators, grasping control algorithms based on the integration of vision, tactile sensing. Deep learning, as an emerging technique successfully applied in many areas will be utilized to combining the advantages of both vision and tactile sensing. To guarantee the safe interaction between the robot manipulator and object, a robust interaction control scheme-impedance control will be applied. Force sensor is required in impedance control to detect the interaction force. To make the whole system affordable, the interaction force conventionally sensed by force sensor will be reconstructed by software observers.

Accelerated materials development via materials genomic approach and machine learning

In much the same way that silicon in the 1970s led to the modern information technology industry, the development of advanced materials will fuel many of the emerging industries that will address challenges in energy, national security, healthcare, and other areas. Yet the time it takes to move a newly discovered advanced material from the laboratory to the commercial market place remains far too long. This project aims to accelerate the discovery and design of advanced materials by high throughput computing and machine learning.

Uncovering Cuban-Irish historical links

As part of the research for my MA thesis, I will need to conduct research in archives and collections abroad. I will travel to Ireland and the United Kingdom from the end of June to mid-September, 2019. The information I will retrieve is key to properly developing my research questions, which focus on the Irish diaspora in Cuba during the 19th century. My thesis will look into how the Irish in Cuba were able to navigate multiple empires, religious militancy, languages, identities, racial attitudes, social status, and gender. Tentatively, my thesis will be titled: “Irish migrants to 19th century Cuba: The Faloon, Wright, and McNinney Families as Case Studies”. My methodology will draw from postcolonial theory, cultural studies, Irish diaspora studies, transnational networks and social history. All these interdisciplinary methods have rarely been applied to Irish migration history in Cuba. TO BE CONT’D

Cryoprotecant toxicity accumulation models in mollusc oocytes

Cryopreservation of aquatic species’ gametes and embryos would enable stable and sustainable resources for genetic management in species preservation and breedstock for aquaculture. Cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos is of considerable financial interest to both Spanish and Canadian aquaculture, yet there have been no industry-scale successes in their cryopreservation. The Paredes lab at the University of Vigo is developing cryopreservation techniques for mussel oocytes, and the Benson Lab in the University of Saskatchewan uses mathematical modeling to predict optimal cryopreservation protocols in mammalian gametes. While the phyla are different, the underlying principles for protocol optimization are similar and have not been applied to aquatic species. Therefore, the student, Dominic Olver, who has been a part of the Benson Lab, will use data previously collected from the Paredes lab to develop a mathematical model of cryopreservation. TO BE CONT’D

Study Hot Cracking Susceptibility of Critical AA6111 Aluminum Alloys during Direct Chill Casting

AA6111 aluminum alloys possess a combination of excellent strength, good formability and good corrosion resistance that are widely use in the car panel manufacture. Direct chill (DC) casting process is typically employed for producing such alloy ingots. Despite its advantages, AA6111 alloys are considered as “hard-to-cast” alloy among 6xxx alloys because of high susceptibility to hot cracks. The present project will investigate the effect of chemical composition and grain refinement on hot crack susceptibility. Preventing one of the major cast defects, hot cracks, in aluminum ingot production not only increases the productivity of DC casting but also significantly reduce the production cost. This project will provide the best guideline to the industrial partner for improving the industrial production of aluminum alloys. The knowledge gained through this study would be highly beneficial for all aluminum industry in Quebec and Canada.