Innovative Projects Realized

Vibration-based Damage Diagnosis of Lifeline Bridges

B.C. is home to many of the largest bridges in North America, as well as the largest earthquakes in Canada and the world. The ongoing research efforts aim to implement an automated monitoring system that detects and localizes post-earthquake damage on bridges in real-time based on ambient vibrations. The vision is that in the event of an earthquake, the earthquake early warning system would trigger the damage assessment module, which ranks all bridges with respect to the severity of damage sustained, and facilitates both the coordination of immediate bridge closures to avoid further fatalities and subsequent repair measures.

For this purpose, the Department of Civil Engineering at UBC is currently investigating the suitability of one specific method, the so-called Stochastic Subspace Damage-based Localization. However, the leap from a lab experiment to real bridges holds some overwhelming challenges, the solution to which can only be found in a joint effort between experienced civil engineers and mathematicians with a deep understanding of the statistical properties of the damage localization approach, such as the developers at Inria.

The expected outcome of the planned student exchange is to show whether Subspace-based Damage Localization can be used to achieve the vision of an automated monitoring system.

Synthèse, caractérisation et étude du vieillissement de verre antibuée produit par décharge à barrière diélectrique

Ce projet consiste à la mise au point de nouveaux procédés de fonctionnalisation par plasma du verre. À travers la synthèse d’un film mince, nous modifierons la surface du verre et étudierons les effets antibuée produits. Cette étude permettra de développer un procédé alternatif aux solutions existantes. La nature chimique du film mènera à une durabilité plus importante des propriétés ainsi qu’à une réduction de la maintenance du substrat. Premièrement, nous procéderons à l’analyse approfondie des propriétés physiques des films produits à la surface du verre ayant subi un vieillissement artificiel. Pour la synthèse, nous utiliserons une décharge à barrière diélectrique en mode plan-plan en présence de précurseurs organosiliciés. Deuxièmement, l’élaboration de ce type de traitement sera étudiée sur des substrats de plus grande échelle. Du point de vue technologique, nous désirons obtenir un excellent contrôle des propriétés antibuée de manière qu’elles restent optimales sur des surfaces de taille plus grande.

Experimental and numerical study of the effects of pressure on soot particle size in laminar co-flow diffusion flames

Soot particles are carbonaceous aggregates which are produced as the result of incomplete combustion. They are mainly added to the atmosphere from coal power plants, chemical factories and motor vehicles and they account for approximately 10 to 15% of the total atmospheric aerosol mass. These particles are known to have a detrimental effect on both human health and environment and their toxicity highly depends on particle size and number of primary particles forming a soot aggregate. In spite that most industrial devices operate at high pressures, few studies have been performed focusing on the effects of pressure on soot morphology, mainly because the difficulty related to the design and implementation of high-pressure devices for lab-scale measurements. For this reason, an experimental and numerical study is proposed to obtain more insights of soot particle size at high-pressure conditions. This study will add valuable experimental data to the research community together with an analysis based on a detailed numerical soot modeling.

Applying advanced computer methods to understand genetic disorders

The Rett syndrome is a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder and one of the most common causes of mental retardation in females. Because males have a different chromosome combination from females, most males with Rett syndrome die before birth or in early infancy. It was not until 1999 that it was discovered that the Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in the gene encoding the methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2). MeCP2 belongs to a class of proteins called Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs). In contrast with globular proteins, IDPs do not have a well-defined secondary or tertiary structure and can adopt a wide range of conformations. This makes their structural characterization a challenge. We have studied MeCP2 and determined that there currently is no single method that can do it. However, combination of ABF and our metadynamics-based methods appears to offer the possibility to resolve the problem. If successful, this study would lead to a scientific breakthrough, helping us to identify the effects of reported mutations and potentially bring us one step closer to develop a treatment that may improve the lives of those diagnosed with Rett syndrome.

Interfacial Rheological Investigation of Polymer Soluition-nanoparticles/Oil

Polymer solution flooding is one of the most efficient methods of enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Polymer solution/oil interfaces have viscoelastic character, which plays a major role in the EOR performance. However, it should be borne in mind that the real-world condition in an oil reservoir (high salinity and high temperature) may strongly affect the fluid-fluid interfacial viscoelasticity, resulting in a decrease in EOR performance. Incorporating nanoparticles (NPs) (e.g., fumed nanosilica, and graphene) is a promising method to improve interfacial viscoelasticity of a polymer solution/oil (NPs can be localized at solution/oil interface, and they act as a surfactant). In all the past work, the combined effect of oil reservoir condition and existence of the nanoparticles as a surfactant at the molecular structure of the fluid-fluid interface has been neglected. Hence, investigation of the effect of the reservoir condition in the presence of nanoparticles on the interfacial viscoelasticity of polymer solution/oil will be reported for the first time in this work. The results of this work will help the oil industry in Canada to improve the EOR performance by polymer flooding in a real work situation.

Investigation de sources naturelles à la recherche de métabolites antipaludiques et anticancéreux

Investigation de sources naturelles à la recherche de métabolites antipaludiques et anticancéreux. Suite à un screening préliminaire au sein du laboratoire, une plante (Euphorbia griffithii) et un champignon (Stropharia squamosa) ont révélé, respectivement, des propriétés anticancéreuses et antipaludiques intéressantes. L’objectif du stage sera de réaliser tout d’abord un criblage phytochimique sur cette plante et ce champignon de manière à y détecter les classes principales de métabolites présentes. Ensuite, en utilisant une extraction de type PSE (extraction à solvants pressurisés), des techniques chromatographiques classiques et les tests d’activité in vitro disponibles dans le laboratoire, de réaliser un fractionnement bioguidé afin d’identifier les substances responsable des activités. Selon l’avancement du travail, les échantillons disponibles et les résultats préliminaires obtenus, le travail sera réalisé sur l’une ou l’autre ou les deux plante/champignon.

NLP sentiment analysis for contact and support centers

In today’s competitive market, customer service has become essential to any company willing to expand and increase its business. Companies cannot afford to fall short of consumer expectations. With the recent progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the impressive results in different industrial areas, companies are adopting AI techniques for customer service. Most of the applications of AI in contact centers are based on the use of chatbots. These conversational agents are trained to interact with the customer and answer questions. These AI solutions does not provide ways to measure customer satisfaction. This part is still handled manually through customer satisfaction surveys sent by emails, phone or online. However, on average, only third of the surveys get responses. AI can play an interesting role in measuring customer satisfaction by directly analyzing the customer-agent interaction. TO BE CONT’D

3D Cerebral Ultrasound Elastography Incorporating Spatial and Temporal Priors

The objective of our project is to assess the physiological condition of brain tissue by mapping it’s elasticity in 3D using ultrasound. We will have both technical and clinical contributions in this project. Technically, we will develop a 3D ultrasound elastography method incorporating more than two volumes of ultrasound Radio-Frequency (RF) frames collected while tissue is undergoing deformation. A non-linear cost function consisting of data terms, spatial (axial, lateral and elevational) continuity terms and temporal regularization terms will be globally optimized to obtain frame to frame 3D displacement fields. Our clinical contribution will involve applying the aforesaid algorithm to ultrasound 3D RF data acquired during a brain surgery. Since any sort of abnormality causes a shift in the stiffness of the local tissue, the frame to frame displacement map will distinguish pathological tissue from the normal one. Having no regularized optimization based elastography been applied to characterize brain tissue in 3D thus far, our method will open a new window for helping clinicians in anomaly detection and image guided brain surgery.

Architecture d’unification de mitadonneees dans un moteur de recherche semantique

Elaboration d’un modele de classification permettant d’unifier au sein d’un ensemble taxonomique unique des

etiquettes de classes issues de corpus separes. Appliquer Ie nouvel ensemble taxonomique sur l’ensemble des

corpus pour finalement obtenir un ensemble unique de documents et d’etiquettes. Le prototype mis au point sera

utilise par Ie partenaire dans Ie cadre de son offre produit de type moteur de recherche.

Participants

MITACS –

The Centralization of Social Need: what has been the impact on the affected populations of the centralization of social services into Windsor’s downtown core?

This study will explore how the centralization of social services and those who use them impact the environment of Downtown Windsor. The goal of the project is to understand how the location of social services effects the movement of people who are using these services. Stakeholders, businesses, and residents will be surveyed in order to understand the perceived impact on these groups. The project will also use mapping in order to analyse the physical locations of the services, service users and other environmental factors which may have an impact on this movement. The Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association will use the data in order to further advocate for businesses and stakeholders.

A Conceptual Aerodynamic Design for a High-Lift Electric Hybrid Airship

Hybrid airships with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability have the potential to drastically simply the commercial transportation system by picking up payload from the pick-up points and delivering it directly to the pre-set destinations. Development of new electric hybrid airship designs for the Canadian and global transport industry will lead to lower shipping costs, where the ultimate goal is to cut shipping cost by at least 50 percent per kg of payload and by at least 10 percent of the present-day cost of ground and marine transportation per kg of cargo. This study proposes a new conceptual aerodynamic design for a hybrid airship capable of lifting at least 25-ton cargo up to a distance of at least 1000 km on a single battery charge while cruising at a speed of at least 100 knots (185 km/hr).

Design Development for Prefabricated Building Components using Nano/microfibrillated cellulose (NMFC) produced from Industrial Hemp and Old Corrugated Cardboard (OCC)

The intern will work with a multi-disciplinary research team from architecture, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, business development and materials research in the design development phase of a project to create a structural insulated panel prototype from cellulose. As the most abundant organic polymer on the planet, cellulose is currently emerging as a sustainable material alternative to plastics and other non-recyclable materials. Using sustainable feedstocks (industrial hemp and old corrugated cardboard) and water, this research project uses a matrix of nano/micro fibrillated cellulose to create components for a prefabricated building system: flat stock and aerogels combined as a structural insulated panel (SIP). SIPS are currently used in the construction industry using combinations of spray foams, toxic adhesives and non-recyclable materials. TO BE CONT’D