Innovative Projects Realized

Neuro-scientific investigation of pain perception & placebo/nocebo treatments

Blue Engineering – Engineers with social and ecological responsibility

Investigating the role of daf-7 on host identification within Strongyloides

Neurobiology of Depression

Development of a scalable battery management system for electric vehicles

Internship offer in Bioorganic Chemistry

Point Cloud processing for Smart Iceberg Management System

Newfoundland oil and gas industry needs unique engineering solutions for offshore structures and operations because of harsh environment. Drifting icebergs, if collide with an offshore structure, may cause serious damage leading to economic losses, ecological problems and loss of human lives. To protect the structure, icebergs can be towed away; however, it is a complicated process, especially when the underwater part of iceberg is hidden. This project contributes to a new technology that can be used onboard of towing vessels to assist captains when taking their decisions regarding towing. The Smart Iceberg Management System is able to obtain full iceberg shape in only 20 minutes, helping to decide where and how to tow. This should significantly improve success rates, safety and cost-effectiveness of the complicated towing operations.

Mobile Transaction Initialization, Authentication and Cooperation

The intern and organizational partner are looking for unique and interesting ways of using mobile devices

to help authenticate users and methods of cooperation between a mobile device and another device, a

PC for example. The intern will research and implement different authentication techniques on mobile

devices. Additionally, it is prudent to study and develop a way of simplifying user interactions while

maintaining a high level of security at all times.

Scale-up Synthesis of New-Generation Chiral Cyclobutane-based Bisphosphane Ligands

This research project deals with the development of the next generation of a set of chemicals on an industrial scale that form a catalyst in conjunction with a metal. The new catalysts are intended to be employed by Digital Specialty Chemicals’ customer in the manufacture of plasticizers, paints, and detergents. The intern will focus on the optimized chemical synthesis of critical components toward the final products, as well as the identification of commercially more viable options in terms of solvents used for the process. The new design of the target compounds of this project is expected to lead to more chemically-efficient and cost-effective processes, which will help solidifying Digital’s position as the main supplier of this product series for their customer.

Multiscale In-Silico Screening of OLEDs: Simulating the Formation of Organic Glasses and Computation of Optoelectronic Properties

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) are thin layers of organic chemicals with that emit light. As a novel form of technology, OLEDs can be used to manufacture flexible and ultrathin visual screens for mobile phones and televisions. They are extremely efficient; they produce very bright lights while producing very little heat. Designing better and cheaper OLED technologies requires that we understand the structure, behaviour and properties of OLEDs at the molecular level. As of now, this is a work in progress. This project seeks to develop an integrated collection of computer programs that can simulate the way in which OLEDs form and predict how efficiently they convert electricity into light. Our grand objective is to have a sophisticated piece of software that can analyse thousands of molecules to see predict the ones that can produce the “best” OLED.

Pulse Radiolysis studies of nanoparticles for future radiation therapy applications

Although radiation therapy has come a long way in the successful treatment of some cancers, there are still problems that arise. The radiation used to treat tumors not only targets malignant cells but healthy cells as well, wreaking havoc by creating reactive free electrons in the aqueous cell environment. We propose the study of gold nanoparticles functionalized with ionic liquids using the radiation chemistry technique, pulse radiolysis, in order to test their viability as a mitigating “shield” against the collateral damage during radiation therapy. Gold nanoparticles have already been shown to have favorable radiation chemistry, quenching free electrons and preventing radical reactions however the radiation effects on the proposed ionic liquids are unknown. Furthermore our ionic liquids have shown increased stabilization of the gold nanoparticles in solution (lasting months) as well as antimicrobial properties. TO BE CONT’D

Étude de faisabilité technique des solutions de stockage thermique dans les bâtiments démonstrateurs de la livre Tree

Pour réduire efficacement la consommation énergétique dans le bâtiment, la nouvelle réglementation thermique 2012 impose de construire des bâtiments ayant une consommation inférieure à 50kWh/m².an. Dans cet optique, le projet de recherche constitue à évaluer si l’utilisation de matériaux à changements de phase dans la structure ou l’enveloppe d’un bâtiment serait pertinent comme solution de stockage thermique dans les bâtiments, autant d’un d’un point de vue d’économie d’énergie que d’un point de vue économique. Le projet a également pour objectif de développer des solutions permettant d’augmenter l’inertie de l’enveloppe du bâtiment ainsi que d’intégrer des systèmes de génération et de stockage d’énergie aux réseaux de distribution d’énergie.