Innovative Projects Realized

Brain and Mind Laboratory Research

Mind reading emotional states of the participants will be done using FMRI machines and self report. The participants will be exposed to various stimuli to trigger an emotional response. These emotional responses will be examined using FMRI machines as well as the self report in order to help classify and locate area’s of the brain associated with each of the 14 human emotions. Social cognition is also being examined in attempt to determine if social situations and perception effect the emotions experienced. This proposal is extending on research that my host supervisor and the Brain and Mind lab at Aalto University have already conducted on the neural basis of social cognition.

Building Fog Applications for Smart City: a Coordination Approach

The project deploys and try out a coordination model and platform that helps developers to build smart city applications that run in large scale, dynamic fog computing infrastructure. Fog computing is a computing infrastructure that involves devices across the edge network such as smart phones, smart cars, the access network such as Wi-Fi routers, modems and the cloud servers. The coordination model being evaluated takes into account the physical context of the computing elements, such as the location of a car and provides context-dependent primitives that can be used to express the application logic. The project involves the setup, provision and deployment of smart city devices on smart city infrastructure, such as lamp posts or traffic elements. Several application scenarios are developed using the computing infrastructure. The coordination model and platform are evaluated based on packet delivery ratio and the coverage of participating devices in one application.

PET/MRI Imaging Development for Pre-clinical Neuroimaging Applications

The field of nuclear medicine relies on positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanners to visualize molecular processes in normal and disease states in the living human. These imaging technologies have significant potential to enhance our ability to diagnose disease, develop appropriate disease-modifying treatments and for non-invasive monitoring of these therapies.
Canadian medical device company Cubresa Inc., has developed and commercialized new PET/MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technologies for use in pre-clinical (small animal) imaging research. These high-performance scanners provide exceptional detail and permit rapid evaluation of emerging disease diagnostics and therapies that can be more readily translated to use in humans. Characterizing the performance, validation and optimizing the capabilities of this PET/MRI technology in a variety of brain imaging applications will ultimately accelerate Cubresa’s product development, generate tools/approaches that have potential to be patented/licensed and help position them as major players in the global medical device market.

RESPOND (Resource Efficient Smart Packet Optical Network Design): A Novel Packet-Optical Design and Optimization Framework for Next Generation Networks

The focus of the project is to develop an packet-optical network resource optimization model that minimizes the total network cost across IP-optical platform while meeting the following requirements: (i) Offers full protection from any network node and link level failure. (ii) Ability to handle large scale networks and traffic demand (i.e., network scalability). (iii) Meets end-to-end latency requirement. (iv) Provides efficient link utilization across the packet-optical networks. (v) Ability to forecast network capacity augment requirement. (vi) Provides machine-user interactivity during the run time. (vii) Ability to improve the performance of the software (i.e., model) over time.

Design and evaluation of Child Health Index of Life with Disabilities(CHILD) asperceived by children with severe developmental disabilities

Cerebral Palsy(CP) is a brain developmental disorder and a major cause of chronic childhood

disability. It affects about 2 to 2.5 children per 1000 live births. Children with CP have varying

symptoms affecting communication, health and specially mobility depending on the severity

of the disorder. Children with severe CP usually have very limited mobility and are non-verbal

but have normal or above average levels of intelligence though mental retardation is

sometimes associated with them. To improve their quality of life often health

interventions(corrective measures) in terms of surgery or assistive devices are administered

to them which may be useful from the surgeon’s perspective. There is no evidence whether it

actually is useful for the child. At present there is a questionnaire which evaluates the

effectiveness of the intervention from the caregiver’s perspective as majority of children with

severe CP are unable to communicate. The proposed project aims at developing an

interactive audiovisual interface which enables the child to answer the questionnaire…….

Image-based Visual Analytics for Estimating Particle Size Distribution and Permeability of Drill Core

Accurately estimating permeability is critical for being able to properly predict fluid flow in an oil reservoir. Typical approaches, such as estimating permeability using well production data or in the lab using core samples are impractical or expensive in the Alberta Oil Sands. An alternative approach is to infer permeability from particle size distribution that is measured using core samples. However, collecting these samples in the large number of appraisal wells in the Oil Sands is time consuming and expensive. In this project we are proposing to estimate permeability directly from images of drill core using visual analytics techniques that are available in computer science domain. We collaborate closely with our industry partner, Suncor, and will use an extensive dataset from the McMurray oil sands. Research outcomes will include determining the lowest-cost images to use and contributions to fundamental research in visual analytics applied to reservoir engineering and geoscience.

Fatty liver assessment with Attenuation Coefficient Estimation (ACE)

One in every five people will develop liver disease in their lifetime. Few people think about liver disease until the disease has progressed and has permanently damaged the liver. Fatty liver disease falls into this category with obesity as the most common cause. Given more than 50% of Canadians are overweight and 75% of obese individuals are at risk of developing a fatty liver, this is a widespread problem. Canadians with fatty liver and other liver diseases need a tool for detecting and monitoring their liver health. Analogous to blood pressure numbers, we need numbers for liver health. This MITACS project proposes to provide these numbers: one number for liver fat that is related to risk, and one number for liver fibrosis that is related to damage. We will develop the algorithms that calculate the numbers and implement the algorithms on a low-cost portable ultrasound system. TO BE CONT’D

Evaluation of NanoDendrixTM stability; phytoglycogen resilience in simulated oral cavity conditions

NanoDendrix™ is a completely natural form of glycogen, sourced and produced from plants by a patented green process developed in Guelph, Ontario. Recent studies have revealed many valuable properties and performance characteristics of NanoDendrix, such as its antimicrobial effects, which have wide-ranging implications for clinical use. The proposed internship will evaluate NanoDendrix for use in combating periodontal disease. First, the intern will evaluate the stability and functional performance of PhyoSpherix in conditions that mimic those of the oral cavity. Second, the potential to enhance the antimicrobial effects of NanoDendrix through combination treatments with other active ingredients commonly found in oral rinses and/or chemical modification of its molecular surface will be investigated.

Nanoscale toolset for formatting and visualizing single molecules: validating applications and miniaturized flow cells

The “CLiC” microscopy technique was invented and developed by Prof. Sabrina Leslie and her lab at McGill. It is ideal for formatting and visualizing single molecules, like DNA and proteins, with advantages that overcome the limitations of other single-molecule techniques. Due to the increasing interest in the technique from academic and industrial researchers, Prof. Leslie has launched a start-up company called ScopeSys to commercialize this valuable research tool. The launch product consists of a small add-on device to a microscope and consumable flow cells, which the company is currently making available to a handful of early-access researchers in the biophysics, nanotechnology, and biomedical research fields. An obstacle to CLiC’s commercialization is that the flow cells are fabricated using standard-size (25-mm) glass cover slips and assembled by hand; a process which is time-consuming and expensive. TO BE CONT’D

CCREST: Cold Cracking by Resonance Energy for Sustainable Technologies – Year two

The project is a demonstration of Advanced Energy Technologies (AET)’s patented refining process for upgrading heavy oil products without diluent or extreme heat treatments. This produces lighter, higher value oil that is easier to work with throughout the process stream, with greater efficiency and less cost. AET will be conducting demonstration runs of the Hydrogen Activator Technology (HAT) on Albertan feedstock, partnering with local oil companies to secure heavy oils, bitumen and refinery residues. The initial objective is to have a final, robust technology package, consisting of the HAT device and the resonance cold-cracking mechanism, that is validated, certified, demonstrated and ready for commercialization by the end of December 2018. The company also intends to improve its knowledge of the science behind the HAT technology by refining the testing process to achieve consistent, reproducible results under local conditions with local Alberta feedstock. Such results will help provide reliable, quantifiable benefits to support commercialization efforts. Successful demonstration of the HAT with a variety of feedstock and the subsequent deeper grasp of the basic science behind the process will lay the groundwork for further development efforts with a Sulfur Activator Technology (SAT) and a Carbon Activator Technology (CAT) , currently in development.

CCREST: Cold Cracking by Resonance Energy for Sustainable Technologies

The project is a demonstration of Advanced Energy Technologies (AET)’s patented refining process for upgrading heavy oil products without diluent or extreme heat treatments. This produces lighter, higher value oil that is easier to work with throughout the process stream, with greater efficiency and less cost. AET will be conducting demonstration runs of the Hydrogen Activator Technology (HAT) on Albertan feedstock, partnering with local oil companies to secure heavy oils, bitumen and refinery residues. The initial objective is to have a final, robust technology package, consisting of the HAT device and the resonance cold-cracking mechanism, that is validated, certified, demonstrated and ready for commercialization by the end of December 2018. The company also intends to improve its knowledge of the science behind the HAT technology by refining the testing process to achieve consistent, reproducible results under local conditions with local Alberta feedstock. Such results will help provide reliable, quantifiable benefits to support commercialization efforts. Successful demonstration of the HAT with a variety of feedstock and the subsequent deeper grasp of the basic science behind the process will lay the groundwork for further development efforts with a Sulfur Activator Technology (SAT) and a Carbon Activator Technology (CAT) , currently in development.

Conception d’un système d’atterrissage automatique pour un drone

Les drones de petite taille sont de plus en plus considérés pour des applications civiles. Un exemple particulier de ces applications serait à des fins de livraison. Un des scénarios proposés serait de couvrir la plus grande partie de la distance de livraison par moyen de transport conventionnel (camion, train, etc.) et de faire le « last mile » de la livraison avec le drone. Les drones devraient être ainsi capables de décoller automatiquement du véhicule en mouvement pour livrer le colis, et de revenir y atterrir sans pour autant arrêter le véhicule. Un autre exemple serait d’utiliser les drones pour des missions de sauvetage en mer où les conditions environnementales sont extrêmes (forts vents et hauteur de vague importante).TO BE CONT’D