Innovative Projects Realized

Development of CardiAI: An AI-Assisted Point-of-Care Device for Heart Failure Management

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’un prototype de bracelet pour l’analyse en temps réel des données médicales

Technologies EllenSee Inc. se veut devenir un acteur majeur dans le domaine de Ia securite des aines. Pour ce faire, un bracelet permettant de detecter les chutes. de reconnaitre des activites physiques journalieres et de surveiller les donnees medicales du porteur doit etre COn9U. Un tel outil permettra de reduire le temps de reaction du personnel medicallors d’accidents plus ou moins graves, et d’augmenter les chances de survies par exemple dans le cadre d’un AVC (Arret Vascufaire Cerebral). D’autres dispositifs existent. majoritairement bases sur des boutons. Cependant, lors de problemas provoquant une inconscience, ces dispositifs deviennent completement inutiles. C’est pourquoi Technologies EllenSee Inc. veut creer un outil detectant automatiquement Ia majorite des problemas pouvant arriver a nos aines.

Maximizing Access to Mental Health Resources

The current project is a partnership between the University of Western Ontario and the London-Middlesex Canadian Mental Health Association, and will aim to increase the equitability of access to mental health services by investigating the barriers that prevent certain populations from such access. To do this, two key areas of service delivery, crisis services and case management, will be assessed in order to determine whether participation rates vary by age, gender, ethnic identity/language, or income. Using two complementary psychological frameworks, The Health Belief Model and The Theory of Planned Behavior, we will assess the attitudes and beliefs that discourage certain populations from seeking out mental health resources, and will use these findings to develop a psychological basis for interventions to increase equitable participation. The final product will be a report to the CMHA describing the research findings and providing recommendations in order to promote equitable access. TO BE CONT’D

A Novel Approach for Rotor Angle Stability Prediction of Power Systems with High Wind Power Penetration

Power systems are becoming more open, stochastic and dynamic nonlinear as the integration of renewable energy sources are keeping increasing. On the other hand, power systems are usually confronted with various weather conditions and fortuitous events that may lead to incidents causing instability of the networks. This research will propose an on-line transient stability prediction approach for power systems with high penetration of renewable energy, which aims at fast detecting the potential instabilities in systems thus saving more time for remedial controls and in further, prevents unintended islanding, cascading outages, and widespread blackouts. Applications of statistical machine learning in power system stability analysis and control would be studied in this research to support the achievement of a safe, reliable, and sustainable power grid.

Self-Assembly of Redox-Active Receptors

The discovery of new chemicals and materials with unique optical and structural properties is the driving force behind the manufacturing of the innovative devices for electronic, sensing and medicinal applications. In this research project, novel compounds will be synthesized and incorporated into self-assembled cages as building blocks on a large molecular scale. These cages will be investigated with respect to their structural composition, physical properties for potential use as receptors in sensing and medicinal applications. This project will result in the development of the new protocols for synthesis, assembly and characterization of these large self-assembled molecules. These findings will be published in the peer-reviewed journal as a collaborative study of the two groups, Profs. Storr and Sallé.

Pilot Study of micro-OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) Device for the Detection of Invasive and Pre-invasive Cervical Lesions Ex Vivo

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical imaging method providing 3D in vivo optical tissue biopsy noninvasively. OCT studies in gynecology has revealed its capabilities for cervical screening due to its high resolution imaging, and sensitivity to both morphological and functional changes, and customized probes. Micro-optical coherence tomography (µOCT), a technology developed at Tearney Lab at Harvard Medical School, captures images of four-dimensional (x, y, z, t) cellular and sub-cellular biological structures with an isotropic 1 µm spatial resolution and 10 ms temporal resolution. The bench top microscope uses a visible broad bandwidth supercontinuum light source to achieve high axial resolution as well as new software and optics that maintain high lateral resolution over an extended focal depth. Studies have shown that µOCT is capable of resolving individual sub-cellular features and their function, all without requiring exogenous contrast agents. TO BE CONT’D

Facilitating Human Interaction with a Robotic Exercise Coach using Smart Objects

The project builds upon prior work done by Prof. Katherine Kuchenbecker’s former Ph.D. student Naomi Fitter and current Ph.D. student Mayumi Mohan in the field of human-robot interaction. They investigated ways of using an upper-body humanoid robot (a Rethink Robotics Baxter Research Robot) to play physically interactive games with elderly adults in order to motivate them to exercise. The objective of the project is to improve the existing platform by facilitating the human user to interact with the robot through smart objects that trigger specific robot behaviors. Smart objects in this scope are any engineered device capable of producing dynamic physical interaction between a human and the robot, e.g., a smart glove that cues the robot to initiate a boxing game with a human. This open-ended design research project encompasses mechanical, electrical and computer engineering to achieve following milestone objectives: TO BE CONT’D

Determination of Maneuvering Coefficients Using RANS Solvers

The objective is to develop the best practices for the determination of manoeuvring coefficients by solving RANS equations. The commercial CFD package, Star-CCM+, will be employed. Results will be used to develop mathematical manoeuvring models. Studies will be carried out for three ships with and without appendages. Various scales will be used to investigate the scale effect in CFD simulations. Steady and unsteady RANS simulations will be performed for steady drift and planar motion mechanism cases. In the simulations, effects of y+ value, grid distribution and resolution, domain size, free-surface modeling, turbulence model and time step will be investigated to quantify uncertainties and use this insight to recommend best practices for efficient and practical predictions of manoeuvring coefficients.

Modélisation “high-rise” du système Noyau Porteur Richardesign

En raison des initiatives gouvernementales de construction industrialisée afin de solutionner la pénurie de logement à Hong Kong, l’Université Polytechnique de Hong Kong collabore avec Roger-Bruno Richard, architecte et professeur titulaire à l’Université de Montréal, en vue d’une application « high rise » du système constructif hybride de type « Noyau Porteur » qu’il a développé. À cet effet un assistant de recherche de l’Université de Montréal est requis pour la modélisation numérique des composants.

Further to the governmental initiatives towards industrialised construction to solve the housing shortage in Hong Kong, the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong is collaborating with Roger-Bruno Richard, Architect and Professor at the Université de Montréal, in order to propose a high-rise application of the Load-Bearing Service Core hybrid building system he has developed. For this purpose, a research assistant from the Université de Montréal is required for the digital model of the components.

Pediatric Intensive Care Unit nurses’ lived experience of environmental and quality improvement changes in the context of a major hospital transformation

Massive public and private funding is being invested in building new healthcare infrastructure. Hospitals who take part in building new facilities often take this opportunity to improve their practices through quality improvement projects. The organizational transformations that result create a lot of changes for individuals who work, visit and receive care in these hospitals. Nurses as recognized experts in leading change are often solicited to participate in projects and are often impacted professionally and personally by the changes that these projects bring about. The main objective of this study is to explore pediatric intensive care unit nurses’ lived experience of environmental and quality improvement changes in the context of a major hospital transformation. The Mitacs project will focus on the data analysis phase, with leading experts in organizational spaces, project management and healthcare environments at the host university. TO BE CONT’D

Bridging immunology and within-host ecology in malaria infection

Linking proximate mechanisms of immune responses to host health and parasite burden is key to predicting individual infection outcome. However, existing mathematical models fall short as they leave out mechanistic details of host responses. My work bridges the gap between mechanistic immunology and infection ecology by incorporating a process-based description of host responses into a dynamical model of within-host malaria ecology. I will fit the models I have been developing to time-series data of rodent malaria infections obtained experimentally from several strains of mice and malaria parasites. Using this approach, I will propose plausible regulatory hypotheses of host responses and provide quantitative predictions about innate immunity and recovery from anaemia. TO BE CONT’D

Addressing obstetric violence in Brazil: Multi-stakeholder perspectives, empowerment, and care in the context of Brazil’s National Humanization of Labour and Childbirth Policy

This research will explore the vision of professionals, women, partners, and decision –makers about the implementation of the Brazil national policy of humanization of childbirth. This research will review the specific roles of health promoters, nurses, physicians, social workers, psychologists and midwives in different health care organizations to educate women about their rights during the pregnancy, child delivery and post-partum. The research will promote a debate about the needed changes to improve the quality of care for those women and the collective level of awareness about the obstetric violence against women at their most vulnerable condition.