Innovative Projects Realized

Identification of potential areas and associated benefits of MUT on the territory of the city of Montreal

The City of Montreal desires to evaluate the potential for the implementation of Multi-purpose Utility Tunnel (MUT) within its territory and to assess the overall benefits it could derive from it. This exercise would be initiated by a review of the state of the art to identify the criteria of choice and the associated benefits of developing MUT that have been used in the places around the world where MUT have been built. In a second step, we will work with the city to analyze the opportunity of building MUT by involving all the partners associated to the project. The result of this opportunity analysis will mainly be the creation of a multi-criteria grid that can be applied in future infrastructure projects to determine the locations where it would be appropriate to install MUT. TO BE CONT’D

Conception d’un système intelligent pour l’analyse en temps réel des efforts dans la main

Le projet consiste à concevoir un système portable pour la mesure de la force des doigts, adapté à la production à grande échelle. Ce système permettra d’étudier la progression physique d’athlètes et de patients issus de centres d’escalade et de cliniques de réadaptation.
L’entraînement de la force des doigts, pour des fins de performance physique ou de réadaptation après blessure, est complexe et encore très peu d’information est disponible quant aux résultats des protocoles d’exercices existants. Les blessures aux doigts sont fréquentes et il n’existe pas encore de plans de réadaptation standardisés efficaces.
Le système développé permettra de numériser l’information sur les exercices de la main pour former une base de données accessible pour tous. Les facteurs menant à une récupération plus rapide, à de meilleurs résultats d’entraînements et de prédiction des blessures pourront être déterminés à l’aide de ces données. Cela engendrera une meilleure compréhension de la progression de la forme physique des doigts.

The Greater Toronto Area Watershed Readiness Pilot Project: Gaging how climate and land use change might impact aquatic ecosystems in urban environments.

Cities are often located near sources of water such as lakes, rivers, and oceans. Due to their location, the effects of climate change and urbanization will introduce unique challenges to aquatic habitats located within cities. These challenges could range from flooding, extreme wind, ice storm damage, extreme heat events, and drought as well as long term climate changes. Not only will climate and land use change impact everyday life and personal property, but these changes will impact the ecosystem components and services of urban drainage systems, i.e., species diversity, water flow systems, nutrient export, dilution of pollutants, habitat for water-based plants and animals. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how to address these environmental impacts before they become too severe to ameliorate. This project will provide the TRCA with innovative research that will allow the conservation authority to measure, mitigate and respond to potential impacts of climate change on aquatic ecosystems in urban environments.

Analyse des méthodes participatives et collaboratives pour appliquer de meilleurs pratiques à laréalisation de projets de développement durable en aménagement

Le CHSLD des Pommetiers du Groupe Champlain a monté un comité post construction LEED de

leur nouveau bâtiment .Presque deux ans plus tard, certains aspects de l’aménagement restent à

être pensés et conçus afin d’exploiter le bâtiment de façon plus écologique et économiquement

rentable mais surtout de procurer à leurs occupants des milieux de vie et de travail sains.

La stagiaire-chercheure étudiera et proposera d’implanter des méthodes

participatives et collaboratives afin d’élaborer de nouvelles façons de penser et

de mettre en place des structures de projet donnant place aux diverses parties

prenantes dans le cadre de l’élaboration d’un projet d’aménagement.

Il s’agira de voir comment les pratiques de réalisation de projets plus intégrées,

plus participatives et plus adaptatives sont nécessaires afin de répondre aux

enjeux sociaux, économiques et environnementaux dans l’optique de réaliser un

aménagement durable de qualité qui répond aux besoins de chacun.

Développement d’outils minéralogiques pour l’amélioration de l’efficacité de la séparation magnétique

La concentration des minerais de fer peut être effectuée grâce à différents procédés (ex : séparation physiques, flottation, etc.). Ces procédés requièrent au préalable la fragmentation, parfois très fine, du minerai ce qui représente souvent la plus importante dépense énergétique des usines de concentration de minerais.
L’efficacité de la séparation magnétique, au-delà de la finesse du broyage, dépend des caractéristiques des minéraux composant le minerai. L’importance de chacune de ces caractéristiques est méconnue en termes d’influence sur les performances du procédé.
Le présent projet permettrait de comprendre et de prédire le comportement des minéraux pendant la séparation magnétique pour un minerai donné et surtout d’établir la granulométrie de broyage requise pour libérer efficacement les minéraux magnétiques de valeur.
Le projet se poursuivra afin de développer un procédé de séparation magnétique plus efficace utilisant une intensité magnétique adaptée à chacun des stades de concentration ainsi qu’aux caractéristiques minéralogiques spécifiques du minerai à traiter.

Translation of a Personalized Genetic Medicine Vector Production System

Mediphage Bioceuticals aims to leverage its DNA ministring platform for personalized genetic medicine. Mediphage Bioceuticals Inc. greatly appreciate Mitacs Accelerate program in providing support to (1) validate msDNA for gene delivery by carrying out a two-phase study, (2) develop and validate phage display libraries for the specific targeting and delivery to target host cells, and (3) determine potential targets for gene therapy in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease with examination of potential negative effects of bacteriophage vector platforms. The research efforts in these key areas will enable Mediphage Bioceuticals to further advance genetic medicine.

Do Physical Activity Levels Predict Functional Improvements following a Structured Exercise Program for Women Undergoing Breast Cancer Treatment?

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canadian women, representing 26 percent of all diagnostics. The overall cancer survival rate has increased from 25% in the 1940s to 60%. Thus, the proportion of breast cancer survivors is increasing significantly. There is a consensus that survivors benefit from exercise during and after treatment. However, the benefits of exercise may vary as a function of the stage of disease, the nature of the medical treatment, and the current lifestyle of the patient. Based on a review of the oncology-exercise programs in Canada, there is no formal exercise program offered as an adjuvant therapy for cancer survivors in Atlantic Canada.
• Create opportunities for women currently being treated for breast cancer to exercise;
• Raise awareness of the benefits of exercise during breast cancer treatment; TO BE CONT’D.

Contribution to reshaping concept design – a general approach incorporating the state-of-the-art in design theories and model-based systems engineering

Subject:
Concept design is the first phase of the design process, the time needed to make basic decisions that set the specifications for a proposed artifact and begin to determine its ultimate shape. Starting from very general and very high level requirements (desires and needs), a first set of requirements is created; several concepts are evaluated, to the point where a concept can be retained for the detailed design and potentially for a setting-in-production.
Like all subsequent design phases, concept design is affected by the concurrent engineering trend with its wide range of stakeholder perspectives and design issues to consider. As concept design becomes more demanding, it is becoming increasingly important that the results of the design concept can be transparently and easily taken into account in subsequent development phases. To better support this first phase of design, the use of model-based systems engineering is studied. TO BE CONT’D

Machine Learning Modeling for Autism Spectrum Disorder Handling and Treatment

The project is about developing a decision support tool to provide a personalized handling and treatment for Autistic Syndrome Disorder patients. This decision support tool will integrate machine learning modeling that will be used to suggest optimal and personalized guidelines for a very large spectrum of ASD patients, not available so far. Theses guidelines will be used by concerned parents, teachers and therapist that are in charge of these patients. The partner is a company that offer accompanying and training services to ASD patients’ parents and therapists. Consequently, the expected outcome of this research work will allow the partner to provide services to ASD community not offered so far in any country, letting this company becoming a pioneer in this field.

Power transformers reliability modeling with data obtained in structure monitoring using fiber optics sensing

The intern will work on building power transformers’ aging models based on reliability theories and actual field test data collected using optic fiber based health monitoring technologies. This is part of a novel solution to handle the accident prevention and maintenance for major power and grid equipment. The novelty lies in that the model verification and execution will be realized with physical parameters directly obtained from transformers in real-time. The data used will be those collected on in-service transformers. While the candidate will take advantage of his prior experience in acoustic sensing technologies, his work for the model development will benefit from the industry co-workers who will assist the candidate with their expertise in the insulation aging. The work will make the data processing, modeling and analysis and customer report writing all computer-automated. The partner company will ensure a punctual delivery to customers of the outcomes from a service, including a report on the custom’s asset health condition and recommendations of maintenance actions.

Economic Implications of Policy Change in Rural Regions: Implications of Legalizing Cannabis in the Kootenay Region

How does policy created by the federal government impact local rural regions? What are the positive and negative implications of policy changes made in Ottawa? This research focuses on understanding the economic implications of changes in federal policies in rural areas. With better understanding, businesses and community serving organizations can better plan for economic implications emerging from policy change.
The Government of Canada has indicated the legalization of cannabis will take before summer 2018. As the federal government moves towards legalization, questions have emerged about how these federal and associated provincial and local government policies will impact rural regions. This research will investigate the economic implications of the proposed policy change of cannabis legalization in rural Canada. Through this research, the economic implications of this policy will be conducted in the Kootenay Region of British Columbia. The outcomes of this research will benefit regional stakeholders in the Kootenay region, including Community Futures Central Kootenay, to build enhanced economic strategic plans.

The impacts of agricultural insecticides and new regulatory schemes on the health of wild and managed bees.

Agricultural pesticides are one of several stressors contributing to the global decline of insect pollinators. More specifically, there is strong evidence of harm from neonicotinoid insecticides. Many jurisdictions are implementing new rules to restrict use of these common pesticides. While regulators have largely focused on reducing pollinator exposure to neonicotinoids, other insecticides also have the potential to harm pollinators. There is a need to analyze the full suite of agricultural insecticides to better understand the “pesticide stressor” and avoid regrettable substitutions as farmers reduce reliance on neonicotinoids. Furthermore, little is known about the extent to which restrictions on neonicotinoids will in fact support recovery of insect pollinators. Our research will address this gap in our knowledge through two objectives. First, we will produce a comprehensive review of the literature on the effects of currently registered insecticides on insect pollinators. Second, we will execute an experimental study of the impacts of new regulations on native bee communities.