Innovative Projects Realized

Terahertz Distributed Sensing Platform Based on Waveguide Bragg Gratings

Distributed sensing is an advanced technology that enables real-time monitoring of variations along the entire length of a waveguide, and offers the possibility of sensing from a long distance. In the optics domain, distributed sensing based on optical fibers has been successfully demonstrated. However, the realization of distributed sensing in the terahertz domain is still at an embryonal stage. This project aims at introducing the concept of distributed sensing into the terahertz domain, and developing, for the first time to our knowledge, a prototype of novel terahertz distributed sensing platform by integrating multiple THz Bragg grating sensing units into a low-loss and high coupling-efficiency THz two-wire waveguide. TO BE CONT’D

Study of thermal energy storage solutions for a long-term, eco-friendly and cost-effective adiabatic compressed air energy storage system

It is vital to reduce today’s consumption of fossil fuels by using renewable energies like wind energy, solar or photovoltaic. However, majority of renewable energies are intermittent and not in phase with human electricity consumption cycle. It is therefore essential to develop energy storage systems to capture renewable energies when they are available and distribute them when needed.
Adiabatic compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) is a very promising technology. These systems are one of the few storage technologies capable of delivering several hours of high power. However, they need a device where a large amount of thermal energy can be stored. Also, this energy must be stored at a very high temperature in order to reach a good system efficiency. TO BE CONT’D

Application of Cold Spray Coatings for Repair of Aerospace Parts

There are currently no practical-economical repair methods for many aerospace parts made

of aluminum/titanium. The Cold Spray technology produces metal coatings by accelerating

metal powders onto the substrate to be coated using high velocity jet at supersonic speeds.

Upon impact the particles plastically deform and produce a dense coating. Metals such as

aluminum/titanium can be applied by this process without damaging the parts to be coated.

As such, it is believed that Cold Spray can be used to restore/repair damaged

aluminum/titanium aerospace coatings/parts as well as other parts. Its successful

implementation as a restoration/repair technology will result in major cost savings and reduce

schedule time and thus will allow the Canadian technologies developed and commercialized

by Centerline to be adopted by aerospace companies such as Boeing and generate

considerable revenues from selling the equipment, parts and know-how. The interns will

perform intensive research and development activities using the Cold Spray technology in

order to develop and complete the feasibility and qualification-certification testing….

Les enjeux éthiques et juridiques en intelligence artificielle appliquée à la santé

De nombreuses questions éthiques, juridiques et de politique publique en matière de régulation se posent dans le domaine de l’intelligence artificielle et restent encore sans réponse, celles qui nous intéressent s’énoncent dans le domaine de la santé mentale. En effet, la création des machines d’apprentissage se fait par l’entrée de données massives traduites en algorithme afin de prédire un diagnostique ou un traitement. La prise de décision de la machine est autonome et autant les développeurs que les utilisateurs ne peuvent l’expliquer. De ce fait, des questions se posent en matière de responsabilité si la machine fait une erreur de prédiction On se demande qui est responsable dans tel cas, le développeur, le médecin utilisateur ou la machine intelligente? Déléguer la décision à une machine, est-ce finalement un choix éthiquement responsable? Qu’en est-il de la protection des données personnelles des patients ? TO BE CONT’D

Facteurs influençant l’utilisation et l’efficacité d’une technologie d’assistance nouvelle génération pour le membre supérieur: le bras robotisé JACO

Les individus ayant des incapacités limitant l’usage de leurs membres supérieurs sont quotidiennement confrontés à des difficultés restreignant la réalisation de leurs activités de tous les jours. Leur autonomie, leur participation sociale et éventuellement leur qualité de vie en sont par conséquent affectées. Les technologies d’assistance nouvelle génération telles que les bras robotisés ont le potentiel d’aider grandement ces individus dans leurs activités et habitudes de vie. L’entreprise québécoise Kinova Robotics est un chef de file mondial des technologies d’assistance nouvelle génération ciblant le membre supérieur. Depuis 2009, l’entreprise commercialise le bras robotisé JACO, maintenant utilisé par des individus présentant des incapacités partout dans le monde, et est fortement engagée en recherche et développement (R&D) pour l’amélioration de ses produits existants et le développement de nouvelles technologies d’assistance et de services associés. Afin d’aider cette entreprise à centrer ses activités de R&D sur les besoins de ses clients potentiels, le projet proposé permettra d’évaluer l’utilisation actuelle du bras robotisé JACO, ses impacts sur les utilisateurs primaires, leurs proches aidants et les utilisateurs ressources ainsi que les attentes et besoins des différentes catégories d’utilisateurs en matière de technologies et de services associés à l’aide d’un devis mixte.

Évaluation de l’éco-efficacité par simulation de procédés dans le domaine de la transformation laitière. – Year two

Un prototype de logiciel d’évaluation de l’éco-efficacité des procédés de transformations des produits laitiers par simulation numérique de procédés industriels a été développé dans le cadre des travaux de doctorat de S. Benoit. Le présent projet vise à rendre cet outil utilisable par l’industrie laitière et à l’enrichir de fonctionnalités supplémentaires. En plus de quelques tâches d’améliorations des algorithmes, plusieurs fonctionnalités élargissant les capacités du logiciel seront ajoutées pour le rendre plus performant, la bibliothèque de procédés unitaires sera enrichie afin d’autoriser la modélisation de procédés plus variés, et la simulation des unités de filtrations par membranes fera l’objet d’une modélisation plus avancée dans le but d’améliorer le réalisme des résultats de simulation.
Sur la base du prototype développé, l’outil permettra d’évaluer parallèlement les dimensions environnementales et économiques des procédés laitiers modélisés afin d’en déterminer l’éco-efficacité et d’identifier les opportunités d’améliorations. TO BE CONT’D

Évaluation de l’éco-efficacité par simulation de procédés dans le domaine de la transformation laitière.

Un prototype de logiciel d’évaluation de l’éco-efficacité des procédés de transformations des produits laitiers par simulation numérique de procédés industriels a été développé dans le cadre des travaux de doctorat de S. Benoit. Le présent projet vise à rendre cet outil utilisable par l’industrie laitière et à l’enrichir de fonctionnalités supplémentaires. En plus de quelques tâches d’améliorations des algorithmes, plusieurs fonctionnalités élargissant les capacités du logiciel seront ajoutées pour le rendre plus performant, la bibliothèque de procédés unitaires sera enrichie afin d’autoriser la modélisation de procédés plus variés, et la simulation des unités de filtrations par membranes fera l’objet d’une modélisation plus avancée dans le but d’améliorer le réalisme des résultats de simulation.
Sur la base du prototype développé, l’outil permettra d’évaluer parallèlement les dimensions environnementales et économiques des procédés laitiers modélisés afin d’en déterminer l’éco-efficacité et d’identifier les opportunités d’améliorations. TO BE CONT’D

Smart TECHnology for better shared decision making about prenatal testing for pregnant WomEn (TECH4WE)

Whether or not to undergo prenatal screening to assess the risk of certain genetic conditions in the fetus, and if so deciding among available prenatal screening tests, is a difficult decision faced by all pregnant women and their partners. However, few are aware of the implications of the various options. With shared decision making (SDM), patients and doctors share health decisions based on the pros and cons of all the options and on what matters most to the patient, so decisions reflect this knowledge and the preferences of those involved. SDM reduces decision regret and reduces overuse of diagnostic testing. A mobile app could be a cost-effective, and efficient way to help patients make decisions. My research (Rahimi.2017,PMID:28838306) found little evidence of the use of mobile apps to support SDM, and none that support prenatal testing decisions. TO BE CONT’D

Electrification planning with limited information – A case study on Ethiopia

Globally, 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Countries across these regions rely on techno-economic models for electrification planning, which help them take relevant decisions under financial constraints and resource limitations. Optimization models are one of the most commonly used models in the domain of energy access. However, they are based on assumptions of perfect foresight with respect to future information i.e. perfect competition, market equilibriums, future costs, population and GDP projections. In reality there are a lot of uncertainties with respect to the information available and the foresight is far from perfect. The uncertainties are even higher in the context of electricity access today, given the multitude of technology options available – centralized grid, mini-grids, or standalone systems. With Ethiopia as a case study, this project applies a limited foresight approach with a shorter decision horizon, to a spatial electrification model called OnSSET . By doing so, we can understand the spatial progression of energy development with sequential decision making.

Investigation of erosion/corrosion resistance/mechanisms and heat treatment effects on themechanical and tribolo gical properties of superalloys and their coatings

Superalloys are a group of high-perfornlance alloys which are widely used for high stress, high

temperature, and severe wear and erosion/corrosion environments. Erosion and corrosion

constitute one of the most challenging problems limiting the service lifetime of superalloys.

However, due to the complexity of testing procedures and multiplicity of affecting factors as

well as the long test duration, the studies of erosion and corrosion resistance/mechanisms for

superaUoys are very limited, which significantly limit the application and improvement of these

alloys. To tlus end, the proposed research is aimed at investigating the erosion and corrosion

resistance and understanding the damage mechanisms of superalloys and their coatings in

erosion and corrosion environments. Heat treatments may modify the microstructures and thus

the properties of superalloys, as they do for carbon steels. To confirm this, the response of the

superalloy performance to heat treatments will also be investigated. The research results will

guide the application of existing superalloys and will help with the design of….

Splicing alterations: from pathogenic variant discovery to next generation therapeutics development

Many human genetic diseases are associated with defects in post-transcriptional gene regulation and alternative splicing. Despite rapid technological advancements, successful diagnostic rates for rare genetic disorders are still low and clinical interventions and treatments unavailable for most patients. This project aims to address this challenge by developing novel antisense RNA therapies based on the splice-switching oligonucleotide (SSO) technology. SSOs allow correcting aberrant transcript splicing by targeting disease mutations at the transcript level. This project comprises three aims. First, discovery of candidate target genes for SSOs will involve transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) of patient samples and identification of potentially pathogenic genetic variants using public databases. Second, a set of SSOs for top-ranking candidates will be designed and tested experimentally in vivo in human HepG2 cell line. TO BE CONT’D

Non contact monitoring of glucose level in blood using mmWave systems

Glucose monitoring has improved significantly over the last few years. Devices have become smaller, and today wireless wearable devices offer a seamless solution for people who require to monitor their glucose level multiple times daily. However, wearable devices are not always well accepted by people. Furthermore, monitoring solutions that are completely autonomous face acceptability issues and are not always very convenient to wear. Consequently, there is still a need for monitoring devices that are not wearable and yet very easy and comfortable to use.
In this context, Karly Smith, an undergraduate student in biomedical engineering at the university of Waterloo will work on a project to tackle the specific issue of non-contact glucose-level monitoring. So far, devices require access to people’s blood to perform this measurement. For people suffering from diabetes, this is an issue since the glucose level needs to be monitored several times a day. New solutions came up but they still necessitate wearing a patch that embeds a probe beneath the skin. […]