Innovative Projects Realized

Supporting Light Steering Technology within the Future Cinema Ecosystem

With rapidly improving display technologies used in the home, cinema needs to remain competitive in terms of achieving the highest image quality on screen. While increasing the quantity of pixels is currently rolled out, so far nothing has been proposed to improve the quality of those pixels. Emerging prototype cinema displays are currently being show-cased which brings significant improvement over traditional cinema experience. However new display technology with different pixel quality require modification to the traditional cinema workflow. This project aims at estimating the limits of the human vision system capabilities within a controlled environment to help define the specifications of future cinema display systems. Additionally, algorithm will be designed to allow inter-operability between the difference cinema displays that will exist in the future cinema ecosystem with particular focus on light steering, a revolutionary technology capable of greatly increasing pixel quality for similar power requirements than traditional displays.

Experimental testing of employing large grains as a bank erosion mitigation technique

Traditional engineering approaches to stabilizing stream’s (e.g. dams and cemented banks), typically alter a stream’s natural function and are expensive to maintain. Using large grains naturally found in a stream, could provide a way to stabilize the channel’s banks while still allowing natural system movement. To test if treatments of large grains could be used in river engineering projects, a physical model will be built. The large grain treatments will be subjected to environmental conditions typically experienced by river engineering projects. If successful, these experiments could provide the basis for the partner organization incorporating large grains into future river engineering projects.

Soutenir les entrepreneurs : peut-on faire mieux ?

La recherche porte sur la formation des entrepreneurs naissants et nouvellement démarrés et possède trois volets distincts mais complémentaires. Le volet 1 porte sur la santé des entrepreneurs et son impact sur l’engagement de ces derniers dans une démarche de carrière entrepreneuriale. Un outil (Capital santé entrepreneur) sera créé et deux expérimentations seront menées pour voir l’effet d’une prise de conscience par questionnaire ainsi que l’effet d’ateliers sur la question. Le volet 2 porte sur l’efficacité de la formation des entrepreneurs. Un bilan des besoins auprès des entrepreneurs sera réalisé, puis sur la base des travaux recensés, un nouveau parcours de formation sera proposé puis testé via une expérimentation. Finalement, le volet 3 concerne les compétences numériques et fera le bilan des connaissances pour développer et valider un outil d’évaluation pour ensuite investiguer la perspective de la formation et de l’accompagnement des entrepreneurs souhaitant améliorer leurs compétences numériques.

eChaperone Computer Vision Application in Healthcare Analytics

Providing high quality healthcare service is important in a society not only for the patients but also for their families and friends, who devote time to take care of their loved ones. In order to meet the healthcare demands of citizens, especially for the baby booming generation, an increasing number of long term care facilities are necessary. There are many challenges to run these facilities to ensure safety and care compliance. The echaperone project will apply state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning techniques in video analytics. The goal is to monitor residents’ safety and alert the facility management when suspicious events occur, while at the same time protecting the residents’ privacy. The echaperone alert system will also be available on mobile devices so that authorized supervisors, families or friends can be informed just-in-time if attention is needed. TO BE CONT’D

Validation du modèle d’arthrose provoqué par la MIA chez la souris

Il y a peu de traitements efficaces pour réduire les symptômes de douleur associés à l’arthrose. Ceci est en partie dû à nos connaissances limitées sur le sujet. Plusieurs modèles ont été développés et celui qui se démarque est celui de l’injection intra-articulaire de mono-iodoacétate (MIA). Bien que le modèle de MIA chez le rat soit bien établi avec des résultats cohérents et fiables, il ne représente toutefois pas un modèle adéquat pour l’étude de différentes molécules. Le but de ce projet est de valider le même modèle chez les souris. La validation se fera en 2 phases. Dans la première, nous déterminerons la bonne souche de souris ainsi que la concentration adéquate de MIA. Dans la deuxième, nous établirons la dose optimale d’un produit de référence utilisé en tant que contrôle positif. Le développement de ce modèle nous permettra de pouvoir étudier chez différentes espèces l’effet de molécules thérapeutiques.

A digital technology platform for supply chain: Development of scenario planning and forecasting models and tool for the engine build program to assess the impact of variations in sales forecast on inventory planning

Industry 4.0 is the digitization of a company’s physical assets and the company’s integration into digital ecosystems with its value chain partners, from suppliers to customers. It uses smart technology and the use of real-time data to increase flexibility, customization, efficiency and productivity, and to reduce time, costs and innovation cycles. This project will focus on adapting novel concepts to an enterprise to meet these challenges, with an emphasis on smart processes as a means to achieve the transition to Industry 4.0. This research aims to provide new light and help our partner industry to generate different problems in their supply chain by developing scenario planning and forecasting (Sales & Operations Review Board (SORB)) approaches and tool for inventory management to optimize the working capital and increase response to customer demand. This project will allow partner to identify and implement a tool that consolidates data and achieve visibility across the supply chain to support supply chain improvement and growth, highlighting exposure to inventory liabilities and increasing transparency between supply chain partners.

Product Modularity Enhancement and Engineering Analysis for CPP Dredge

Canada Pump and Power (CPP) Corporation has approached University of Alberta (UofA) to conduct

a joint research program by leveraging MITACS Accelerate Internship Cluster Program on “product

modularity enhancement and mechanical engineering analysis” for CPP’s existing dredges with its

uniquely selected pumps for different user requirements. The methodology adopted includes

parametric feature-based design and system simulation-based engineering analysis. The research

novelty is the associative engineering analysis with product selections, and configuration

management information model that can be reused for different product configurations with minimum

reengineering effort. This research has a 2-year period; 16 intern units are planned for graduate

students. The key benefits for CPP are the development of a well investigated modularity framework

with reusable engineering and computerized design models. These benefits will enhance CPP’s

flexibility in satisfying the variety of user requirements and reduce the risks and costs of reconfigured

systems which will lead to direct efficiency and profit gains.

Mapping associations between drought and simultaneous fires across space and time within the Southern Canadian Cordillera

The sequence of costly wildfires that burned at multiple locations in British Columbia and Alberta during fire seasons in 2003, 2015, 2016 and 2017 remind people that fires play an important part in forests of southwestern Canada. However, people are also increasingly recognizing the role of fire in providing ecological renewal and diversification. As a testament to this growth in understanding, forestry companies are embracing practices which include emulating historical fire regimes that exhibit a wide range of spatial and temporal characteristics such as fire shape and severity. Unfortunately, for the most complex fire regimes, those of mixed-severity, climate drivers remain poorly understood. Since many forests in the Southern Canadian Cordillera have evidence of these fire regimes, increasing our knowledge of fire-climate relations across these forests can help identify patterns of fires over space and time. Such knowledge can also help anticipate changes to fire regimes due to human driven climate change.

Characterizing wetlands of different restoration ages in central Alberta using drone-based information (an extension to current Mitacs project: IT10213)

Wetlands provide important ecosystem services to human communities, such as groundwater recharge, storing floodwater, and supplying fishery resources. In Alberta, wetlands cover ~21% of the province, forming one of the Canada’s largest wetlands reserves; however, many of these wetlands have been impacted or lost through human activities. Over the past 30 years, there have been efforts made by the government and partner agencies to restore wetlands, but little is known about the rate of recovery and the state of these restored wetlands, relative to a natural reference condition.. The aim of this research is thus to understand how well wetland ecosystem function recovers after restoration using new and emerging technologies, including Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Results of this research will help the public and policy-makers better understand the effectiveness of wetland restoration methods in Alberta. Fiera Biological Consulting Ltd. will also benefit from this research in enhancing their expertise in wetlands monitoring.

Credit Portfolio Management and Stress Testing Models Research & Development

Consistent with industry norms, ATB Financial conducts both mandatory and discretionary stress tests of the whole institution and of its credit portfolio. This project aims to contribute to the refinement of the in-house expertise on methodologies employed to measure credits risk and the overall level of risk of the institution. These activities normally requires management to provide an estimate for ATB’s financial performance, capital and liquidity position conditional on a set of predefined scenarios. The focus of the research project is on the estimation of default probabilities and loss given default.

Security and Resiliency of Prairie Industrial Water Supplies

This research problem examines the security and resiliency of prairie industrial water supplies in a changing climate. The water-consumptive industries in the Prairie Provinces are a major contributor to the national economy, but they depend on secure and reliable water supplies in a region characterized by dry climate. The most challenging future scenario for these industries, and the prairie economy in general, is a prolonged drought in a warmer climate. The objective of this project is to support planned adaptation to climate change in the Prairie Provinces’ energy and mining industries. The research will involve using tree rings to reconstruct past water levels in the Souris, Saskatchewan and Qu’Appelle River basins, and using climate models to predict future climate and water supplies. This new scientific knowledge will be translated so that it can be applied to risk assessment and adaptation planning in the mining and energy sectors.

PHASE II Mapping for Change – A Case Study of Enhancing Informational Exchange and Collaboration Through Geoweb Technology

‘Mapping for Change’ Phase II is a continuation of a case study of best practices in the use of Geoweb as a mechanism for enhancing informational exchange and collaboration between homelessness stakeholders including non-profits/charities serving the homeless. Building upon the web-based mapping application (isearchkelowna) developed/evaluated in Phase I, Phase II will extend the broad-based consultation with relevant homelessness stakeholders in order to refine isearchkelowna to align with the ‘Journey Home’ Strategy. The ‘Journey Home’ Strategy is a community-based homelessness strategy intended to coordinate, on a system-level, homeless services in Kelowna. The primary focus of the next phase of ‘Mapping for Change’ is readying isearchkelowna, both in terms of structure/function and its long-term positioning within the broader community, for hand-off to the community once Phase II is complete.