Innovative Projects Realized

Improving Situation Awareness for a Collaborative Service Robot in Care Environment – Year two

Development of Collaborative Service Robot (CSR) technologies usually targets a certain population group like seniors or people with developmental disabilities (DD) and requires tailored and dedicated research and development. This project is ultimately seeking to provide a proof of concept of a CSR platform that can assist people with DD. The overall project involves research and development focused on two broad robotics themes: autonomous navigation and situation awareness. Through previous Mitacs Accelerate and NSERC Engage programs, Developmental Disabilities Association (DDA) and JDQ Systems Inc. as the industry partners have established the basics of a CSR through collaborations with academic experts. Therefore, the expected outcomes of this project are to advance the existing features and add new features to the existing CSR prototype. TO BE CONT’D

Improving Situation Awareness for a Collaborative Service Robot in Care Environment

Development of Collaborative Service Robot (CSR) technologies usually targets a certain population group like seniors or people with developmental disabilities (DD) and requires tailored and dedicated research and development. This project is ultimately seeking to provide a proof of concept of a CSR platform that can assist people with DD. The overall project involves research and development focused on two broad robotics themes: autonomous navigation and situation awareness. Through previous Mitacs Accelerate and NSERC Engage programs, Developmental Disabilities Association (DDA) and JDQ Systems Inc. as the industry partners have established the basics of a CSR through collaborations with academic experts. Therefore, the expected outcomes of this project are to advance the existing features and add new features to the existing CSR prototype. TO BE CONT’D

A Framework for Robust, Fast, Efficient and Configurable Navigation of Video Game Characters

We will create new software technology for generating intelligent-looking movement behavior

of virtual characters in video games. When characters move around in game worlds, they

typically plan their path around fixed obstacles and use some simple rules to avoid dynamic

obstacles, such as other characters. Recently a family of methods based on the concept of

Velocity Obstacles (VO) has been developed at the University of North Carolina. These

algorithms have been shown to produce collision-free navigation in theory and in practice.

We aim to extend these methods in two ways: (1) find approximate methods with very fast

and efficient implementations for real time games; and (ii) make the character behavior

“tweakable”, i.e. provide good behavior over a range of parameter settings so that different

virtual characters have perceptively different behavior while still navigating sensibly.

Optimization of novel antibacterials targeting the ATP synthase of difficult pathogens

The proposed research project aims to optimize novel antibiotics for difficult-to-treat bacterial infections, particularly those involving Staphylococcus aureus or Escherichia coli. Toward that end, three post-doctoral fellows will be recruited, two working on the synthesis of analogues of two classes of molecules in the lab of Pr E Marsault (Université de Sherbrooke), the third on the biological evaluation of such analogues in the lab of Pr F malouin (Université de Sherbrooke). The first class of molecules involve derivatives of a natural product, tomatidine, which has been identified as a promising lead molecule against persistent strains of S. aureus. The second class is a synthetic product identified via a recent screen. The ability to kill bacteria, the inhibition of the molecules’ target, the protein ATP synthase, and the toxicity of the molecules will be assessed, to ultimately deliver a lead candidate for subsequent preclinical evaluation.

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).