Innovative Projects Realized

Développement de traitement de surface des FC et de l’amidon

Ce projet vise à développer des applications pour les filaments de celluloses (FC) de Kruger Biomatériaux (KBI) comme fibres de renforcement au sein de polymères thermoplastiques (PTP), thermodurcissables (PTD) et polyuréthane (PU. Leurs bonnes propriétés mécaniques, faible densité, faible abrasivité et biodégradabilité en font une alternative verte de choix pour remplacer les fibres synthétiques comme, par exemple, les fibres de verre. Cependant, la faible compatibilité entre ces filaments qui sont polaires et les matrices apolaires, leur inflammabilité ainsi que leurs grandes capacités à absorber l’humidité nous conduisent à développer différentes stratégies de modification de surface de la cellulose. La structure enchevêtrée des FC ainsi que leur sensibilité thermique les rendent difficiles à disperser au sein de différentes matrices polymériques par procédé de plasturgie classique. TO BE CONT’D

Civic Duty and the Socialization Role of Schools

My doctoral research focuses on the extent to which the school contributes to the development of a sense of civic duty to vote. Previous research has shown that civic duty constitutes a very important motivation for voting. Individuals who consider voting a duty are much more likely to participate in an election than individuals who believe otherwise. Little is known, however, about where civic duty comes from. In a paper, I offer evidence that individuals who are exposed to politics at school are more likely to perceive voting as a citizen duty than those who are not. I also show that civic duty is a very stable political attitude. During my research stay in Belgium, I will collaborate with Prof. Marc Hooghe on paper that examines the long-term impact of schools on civic duty. As such, my doctoral thesis contributes to the understanding of the origins of civic duty. It also contributes to politics, by pointing out how the school can instill a sense of civic duty to vote, and, thus, increase electoral participation. Given the low level of turnout that plagues most advanced democracies and its negative consequences, this is a particularly important contribution.

A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study of Heterojunction Photocatalysis

Heterojunction Photocatalysis is currently considered as one of the promising routes to produce eco-friendly hydrogen fuel by exploiting the solar energy. The idea is based on the conversion of the solar energy to perform fuel-producing (e.g., hydrogen) electrochemical reaction that can split water into its ingredients. This technology has the potential to provide scalable, non-toxic chemical fuel that can sustain the renewable energy economic paradigm. Particularly, this technology utilizes a junction of two different semiconductors and exploits the junction properties to facilitate/accelerate the transfer of the photogenerated carriers to water to perform the desired photoelectrochemical reaction (acts as a catalyst). Nevertheless, the practical realization of highly efficient heterojunction photocatalysts is yet to be accomplished as the fundamental governing process of semiconductor photocatalysis has not been fully understood. This project aims at developing computational model capable of delivering crucial insights of the governing process. These theoretical results will be further coupled with experimental data in the case of practical heterojunction photocatalysts such as WO3/TiO2 system. A collaborative theoretical and experimental study of this nature is expected to offer indispensable knowledge/guideline to realize cost-effective and efficient heterojunction photocatalysts in future.

Rehabilitation Approaches for Steel Structural Plate Bridges

Structural steel plate products such as buried bridges, culverts, and pipes, are entering states of distress. Present day, little is known about the severity of the different deterioration mechanisms occurring in these structures and even less is known on how rehabilitate them accordingly. The following proposed research project will investigate the deterioration and rehabilitation of these structures. The project will summarize commonly encountered deterioration mechanisms, assess the suitability of state-of-the-art rehabilitation practices, and identify future research and development opportunities. With an understanding of how corrugated steel culverts behave near the end of their service lives, products may be designed more effectively and better guidance on infrastructure management of these asset will be made available. As a result, the project will lead to economic and social benefits to Canada and the partner organization.

Re-contemplate the apocalyptic sublime of images of genocide

From the contemplation of beauty, understood as a disinterested experience of the work of art, to the neutralization of reason in the face of an image that petrifies it, prevents its revolution, the sublime has joined, with Lyotard, the postmodern categories of the contemporary aesthetics. He oscillates between the infinite of an inhibited aesthetic experience and the dynamics of the gaze, which is being skewed, rightly and wrongly, into the data of an intelligible real. In the case of figurative narrations of genocide, the genocidal subject of fiction, as much as the reader-spectator or reader-contemplator, returns to the scene of the event to reactivate his memory. In doing so, he plunges back into the darkness of incomprehension, of the indeterminacy of a past that refuses to be grasped by the senses, which goes beyond the categories of the sensible. How is this singular mode of sublime modulated by the image? What happens to the image of genocide when the sublime pushes it out of its contours? This project will help to understand how investigating the apocalyptic sublime can give a better understanding of images of genocide in our global mediascape.

Synthesis of Novel High Affinity Sex Hormone-binding globulin competitive inhibitors

Sex Hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) is a plasma protein that controls access of sex steroids, testosterone and estrogen, to their target tissues. Plasma SHBG achieves this by binding sex steroids and controlling their ability to freely enter cells. The disruption of this control is focus of this research project. I aim to synthesis a series of novel organic compounds based on our previously characterized crystal structures of non-steroidal lead compounds that inhibit SHBG steroid binding. It is predicted that these compounds will have an enhanced ability to inhibit the binding of sex steroids to SHBG, and greater potential to accentuate their biological activities. It is anticipated that these novel compounds will be useful in increasing the exposure of tissues to endogenous steroids providing a novel approach to hormone replacement therapy without the negative side effects of exogenous steroid administration.

The International Dimension of Canada’s Museums

Our proposed research seeks to examine the contemporary role of museums, their agency, and international agendas within a cultural diplomacy framework that recognizes the role of non-state actors in international relations. The purpose of this project is to asses how international cultural work is understood by, and at, cultural institutions in Canada. By documenting and analysing the international activities of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art/Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal (MMFA/MBAM) and nine other selected museums and art galleries across Canada, through interviews and archival research, this project seeks to investigate the official, institutional record of international cultural work, as well as the perceptions and understandings of this work throughout the institution. TO BE CONT’D

Moving targets: Marine Protected Areas and Migratory Species in a Changing World

To help protect the oceans and ensure that we can carry out activities such as fishing sustainably in the long term, countries around the world are creating marine protected area (MPA) networks that incorporate the movement of species (connectivity) in their design.

Whilst most MPAs are typically designed around species that stay in fairly small areas, my project focuses on the challenge of creating MPA networks for highly mobile species. Such species move between many different locations throughout their lives, but do not necessarily visit the same locations year in year out. Furthermore, changing conditions in the ocean related to climate change may fundamentally alter where they go. This makes drawing boundaries for MPAs difficult. I will devise MPA network design principles that can mobile species under our changing climate. This may include both static measures (continual protection of a fixed location) and dynamic protection measures (protection that may shift in space and time).

Assessing the Potential for Bike Parking at Park-and-Ride Lots

This project examines the business case for implementing secure bike parking at park-andride lots in Metro Vancouver, and identifies a set of generalizable criteria for assessing the viability of secure bike parking at park-and-ride lots and other transit interchanges. There is growing evidence that combining cycling and transit can increase access to and use of both modes. Metro Vancouver’s transit agency, TransLink, like many transit agencies in North America already has a number of park-and-ride spaces. Many of these are in low-density suburban areas that are difficult to reach by walking, but cycling may be an option. This project benefits TransLink by providing a practical assessment of the business case for installing bike parking at its park-and-ride lots, providing site assessments for bike parking at Metro Vancouver park-and-ride lots and delivering a set of criteria for helping to plan bike parking at park-and-ride lots in the future.

Développement de mycofiltres à partir de déchets textiles pour la décontamination des eaux de surface polluées par les hydrocarbures pétroliers

Au Canada et au Québec, la contamination de l’eau par les hydrocarbures pétroliers représente un problème environnemental actuel et sérieux. Un autre problème est l’accumulation des matières résiduelles des textiles rendus à la fin de leur vie utile, un des éléments importants des déchets urbains au Québec. Cette étude évalue la faisabilité de l’utilisation de déchets de textiles pour la production de mycofiltres afin de décontaminer les hydrocarbures polluants des eaux de surface. Le produit résultant pourrait constituer une solution combinée pour les deux problèmes environnementaux mentionnés.
L’entreprise à but non lucratif Certex gère les déchets textiles. Les méthodes conventionnelles incluent le transport vers des sites d’enfouissement, le recyclage ou l’incinération. Cependant, d’un point de vue environnemental et probablement économique, la biodégradation est la solution la plus acceptable.
Les espèces fongiques peuvent décontaminer l’eau par la percolation de celle-ci à travers un réseau de mycélium fongique. TO BE CONT’D

Development of an Auxetics Smart Textile for Applications in Healthcare Products

Smart wearable biomedical technology has a wide range of application in health monitoring during life activities or in traumatic situations. This technology can provide a practical and convenient solution for continuous health monitoring of elderlies, and patients suffering from different types of dementia like Alzheimer’s Disease. Additionally, the technology can facilitate trauma medicine by providing compact, portable, and easy to use devices to monitor patients in traumatic situations and can help emergency management by real-time data transfer. Comfort is an important factor for smart wearable biomedical devices. Auxetic materials, a novel type of material with counterintuitive deformation behavior, has attracted great attention in the field of medical devices. These materials exhibit improved mechanical characteristics and are in high demand for various applications in the field of medical textiles which can benefit most people. However, very few types of auxetic materials have been implemented for practical applications. TO BE CONT’D

Few-Shot Image Recognition with Device-Cloud Collaboration

Deep learning has shown great success in a variety of tasks with large amounts of labeled data in image classification. These achievements have relied on the fact that optimization of these deep, high-capacity models requires many iterative updates across many labeled examples. This type of optimization breaks down in the small data regime where we want to learn from very few labeled examples. In this project, we are interested in the few-shot learning problem. In particularly, we focus on two challenging scenarios which are 1) to deploy on both the device side (e.g., mobile phones) and the cloud side collaboratively, and 2) to deploy on end devices only. The intern will work closely with Huawei Canada to develop advanced algorithms and delivery prototypes.