Innovative Projects Realized

Strengthening capacity of Canadian civil society organizations and their partners in the Global South to address gender inequality: Engagements, perceptions and uses of feminist approaches in international development

The goal of this project is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian civil society organizations (CSOs) working around the world to combat gender inequality. The Mitacs post-doctoral candidate, working closely with the Canadian Council of International Co-operation, a coalition of over 80 CSOs in Canada, will examine how different feminist approaches are applied in international development work. Through surveys and case studies, this project examines how organizations and their partners in the Global South implement feminist approaches into planning and programming. From this research, tools and resources highlighting successful strategies to gender equality and women’s empowerment will be developed and shared among CSO networks, thus fulfilling a key demand from the sector. Ultimately, this project will contribute to more efficient and long-term impact from public and private donor investments.

Corpus-based Examinations of L2 Integrated Writing: Reporting verbs and Personal Pronouns

The goals of the present project are to (a) identify how second language (L2) learners make use of reporting verbs (e.g., think, mention, argue, etc.) within the context of integrated (source-based) writing and (b) examine types and functions of personal pronouns (I, we, etc.) in their academic texts. The project will use corpus-based analysis to investigate 926 essays written by L2 learners at an English-medium university in Montreal across two academic genres: argumentative, and cause and effect.

The results from the study will illustrate the differences across L2 writers with different native language backgrounds pertaining to authorial voice (personal pronouns) and source-text integration (reporting verbs) in two frequent genres in academic writing. Therefore, the findings will hold implications for L2 writing classes. Identifying rhetorical and semantic functions of reporting verbs and personal pronouns will help L2 writing instructors address L2 learners’ challenges with academic writing within the classroom environment.

On Mechanisms of Water Flooding in Heavy Oil Systems

Water flooding is the most widely applied enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process in both light and heavy oil reservoirs. In this process, water is injected into the reservoir through an injection well to displace oil in front of it towards the production well. As discussed in the attached proposal, it is generally accepted that theories explaining water flooding performance in light oil reservoirs are not applicable to heavy oil reservoirs; nonetheless, there is a lack of detailed studies investigating the underlying mechanisms of water flooding in heavy oil systems. The goal of this visit research is to validate the mechanisms speculated based on the observations made in the core flood experiments, already done in this ongoing PhD research. The physics of two-phase flow during heavy oil water flooding at pore scale will be investigated using a lab-on-chip microfluidics. The results of this research may provide us with a better understanding of the physics and mechanisms responsible for heavy oil entrapment in pores at different wetting conditions during injection of water, as the cheapest and most available EOR fluid, into heavy oil reservoirs.

Uncovering novel genetic interactions for fungal adhesins and implications for virulence

Combating infectious disease pathogens is a pressing global health challenge. Due to limited treatment options, fungal pathogens pose a unique challenge, and are emerging as a leading cause of human mortality. Focusing on Candida albicans, the most common cause of fungal infections, our research project aims to understand how different genetic factors play a role in the virulence of fungal pathogens and the progression of fungal infectious disease. We will use a worm model for infectious disease that was been developed and optimized by the host laboratory (Dr. Natasha Kirienko), and screen >100 fungal genetic mutant strains (generated by Dr. Rebecca Shapiro’s laboratory) to establish which genetic factors play an important role in virulence and survival of the worm host. Together this work will yield novel insight into the genetic mechanisms by which Candida species cause life-threatening disease.

Nonlinear Dynamic Phenomena in Long-Span Bridges

Since the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows, bridge engineers are greatly concerned by the dynamic behavior of bridges under wind actions especially when designing long-span bridges, i.e., suspension or cable-stayed bridges. Considering that very long spans are planned such as the Messina Strait Bridge, a suspension bridge in Italy with a main span of 3.3 km, unexpected nonlinear dynamic phenomena that might cause large motion of the bridge structure might be problematic as it has been demonstrated theoretically by mathematicians for simplified structures. However, long-span bridges are complex structural systems, and these phenomena would be more realistically simulated using a structural analysis software, an engineering tool. Therefore, the objectives of the research are to develop numerical models of existing bridge designs and to assess their susceptibility to nonlinear dynamic phenomena using either a simplified static analysis technique or nonlinear dynamic analysis. The most important expected outcome will be to demonstrate whether nonlinear dynamic phenomena can be critical for the design of long-span bridges and under what circumstances.

Path Planning for Resilient Multi-robot Connectivity

Robotics and automation are radically transforming industries—from manufacturing to services—as well as societies.
Collaborative multi-robots, in particular, have the potential to greatly improve the performance of any spatial task (e.g., exploration and surveillance) much like distributed computing impacted information science.
One fundamental, enabling property of these systems is the ability for their members to exchange information with one another.
Until today, researchers have often combined sophisticated “connectivity maintenance” approaches (i.e., algebraic connectivity, spring-damper models, etc) with relatively trivial exploration strategies.
In this project, we intend to merge our home institution’s expertise in multi-robot connectivity with the host institution’s research on multi-robot path planning.
We will also pay special attention to the resilience of our methodology to cope with the non-idealities of a real-world deployment.
In our vision, this project will create a multi-robot system capable of autonomously implement a complex exploration strategy that respects connectivity constraints, even in the presence of hardware and software errors.
Our deliverables will include: (i) theory for a new robotic controller, (ii) its implementation as multi-(robotic-)platform software, and (iii) the analysis of an experimental campaign in actual robotic hardware.

Intégration du processus des estimations de coûts lors d’un projet deconstruction au moyen des outils de BIM 5D

La prédictibilité des coûts est la principale attente des clients quand ils se lancent dans des

projets de construction. La décision d’entreprendre un projet est basée sur sa faisabilité

financière. Or l’industrie de la construction, malgré un investissement important que d’autres

industries dans la gestion des coûts, présente une piètre performante à respecter cet objectif,

entraînant un gaspillage important en ressources pour des actions correctives. Ce projet vise

à implanter une approche unifiée de gestion des coûts basée sur les technologies BIM. Les

resultats preliminaire de projets-pilotes realises aux Etats-Unis semblent demontrer que ces

technologies reglent Ie probleme de predictibilite, mais ce a la condition que les processus

traditionnels d’estimation soient repenses. Ce projet est une opportunite unique

d’experimenter et de definir les processus inherents a une utilisation du BIM dans Ie contexte

d’une entreprise generale de construction, une premiere au Canada.

Haptic API/SDK for Distributed Full Body Haptics

The research seeks to develop an easy to use and program SDK in the Unity software framework for the design and integration of expressive haptic effects for a distributed series of worn haptic actuators. The project’s central objective is to develop a cross platform composition tool for designers that makes it easy to integrate haptic effects into new kinds of XR-based immersive experiences ranging from games and VR experiences to full body, immersive room-based environments.

Language Maintenance After Forty Years: Nahuatl in Mexico’s Huanchinango Towns

The aim of the thesis project is to explore the language behaviour and attitudes of Nahuatl communities in the face of language endangerment, and how they are contributing to the language maintenance and revitalization efforts. Nahuatl is one of 72 indigenous languages in Mexico with over one and half million speakers . The research project will focus on the Malinche Volcano region in Puebla-Tlaxcala, in central Mexico. It builds on Hill and Hill’s (1986) seminal work on the sociolinguistic situation of the Nahuatl-speaking population in the Malinche communities. It will investigate if such negative sentiments towards Nahuatl currently persist and have worsened especially after decades of globalization, urbanization, migration and modernization in Mexico. It proposes to contribute to the language maintenance, documentation and revitalization of endangered indigenous languages by providing insight into the language practices, beliefs and attitudes of Nahuatl communities and how these inform, maintain, and promote language use.

Mass spectrometry-based identification of post-translational modifications important for binding of bromodomain proteins

The objective of my research in the Fillingham Lab at Ryerson University is to understand how genes works since it is a fundamental process and its failure is implicated in many diseases. Understanding how genes works has shown to have promising outcomes in the treatment of many diseases since this research can reveal novel drug targets and scientists can produce molecules that can help with control over the genes causing disease to stop it. This project builds knowledge about gene function in a model system known for its abundant genetic material. The research is important for the pharmaceutical industry since the development of new drugs is of significant current interest to fight a variety of disease and infections. Finally, the proposed research benefits society by funding my training in the Taverna lab in Johns Hopkins University and in the Tackett lab in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to develop a skill currently under-represented in Canada. The Taverna and Tackett lab are internationally recognized experts in this research field. The Taverna, Tackett and Fillingham labs will continue to collaborate on elucidation how genes work.

Options spanning in sublattice spaces

Market completeness is a broad assumption used in economical finance. It is in which any portfolio payoff can be replicated by underlying assets, or “basic” assets. The completion of markets using options has been established by Ross (1976), using other methodologies, and the relationship of options and lattice spaces by Brown and Ross (1991). I will expand this idea to a model that has infinity many states, and to a multi-period model. I will show that we are able to complete markets with derivative assets, called options, using lattice theory.

Observations of Pedestrian Interactions with Driverless Cars

Automakers are investigating the autonomous vehicle as a replacement for traditional driving, not only to free up drivers from the task of driving, but in conjunction with a transition from owned to shared cars. In this scenario, people need no longer own cars or hire taxi/uber/lyft, but rather will be able to hire an autonomous car. This is seen to both reduce the number of cars on the road and to make taxi services affordable for patrons. However, it is unclear how the absence of a driver will impact feelings of safety and security, and how it may influence behaviors of passengers. Even if the self-driving technology were perfected, there may be profound social impacts presented by removing any driver from the loop. This research seeks to better understand those impacts to help avoid potentially negative experiences and to design more positive experiences for future passengers in driverless taxis.
The purpose of the study is to investigate the interaction between autonomous cars and vehicle occupants. It is unclear how vehicle occupants will regard, understand and interact with an autonomous car, and with each other (in cases of multiple occupants). TO BE CON’T