Innovative Projects Realized

Dynamic cost modeling for mega projects

There is a recurring problem of cost overrun on mega engineering projects with a budgeted cost of $1 Billion or more. Examples of mega projects include dams, hydro electric projects, and high speed rail projects.

The basic reason for cost overrun can be attributed to underestimation of project cost, increases in material and labor cost, increases in financing cost, and problems with project management and environmental factors.

Construction Management deals with how to effectively plan and control construction activities such that the total project can be delivered within schedule and under budget. Using mathematical models, the best possible time and resource for each activity with consideration of both engineering and financial factors can be decided; as such, the entire project delivery is kept on time and under budget.

The basic reason for this thesis based research is to find ways to improve and apply proper analytical techniques in construction management and in financial…

An Analysis of Participatory Politics in Canada: Emerging strategies in media-based organizing

As young people increasingly move away from institutionally-driven “dutiful citizenship” (Bennett, 2008), political participation is no longer only defined by voting in elections, volunteering with civic associations and town hall meetings but increasingly manifests through participatory politics – peer-based acts like citizen journalism, podcasting, video production, art projects, tech-based activities, digital activism and lifestyle politics (vegetarianism, localism, boycotting). These approaches are expanding the boundaries civil society through new forms of citizenship. Indeed, as civic engagement shifts toward greater use of networked and mobile communication, there is an increasing demand among government agencies, non-profits, labour groups, and businesses for research into how participatory politics is being used to empower citizens and make government more accessible and accountable. TO BE CONT’D

Advanced lithium-ion zinc battery

Recently, lithium-ion zinc (LIZ) batteries, which operate using much safer aqueous electrolytes rather than organic counterparts as in LIB, have gained tremendous attention due to their cost effectiveness and significantly higher energy density compared to typical LIB. This novel LIZ battery system is very well suited for electrical energy storage (EES) application. For operating and install necessary infrastructure such as flanges and fittings in remote project locations, the industrial partner Pro-Flange Ltd., demands uninterrupted supply of electricity for power tools and equipment. However, the current power supply usually suffers either from unstable grid supply or unavailable grid at the project sites. To address this, LIZ battery technology can be effectively utilized to provide power for off-grid sites and improve power reliability and utilization.

Cinema Sidewall – Aircraft Sidewall for Projection of Visual Content

With the rise in fuel prices, operators are constantly pushing aircraft manufacturers to find new ways to reduce their aircraft’s operating costs. One of the objectives of this project is to create a Bombardier toolkit for the C Series. This will allow the operators to input parameters such as the miss-rigging present on their control surfaces, missing components, damage that occurred to the aircraft during flight or on the ground. Using Bombardier’s proprietary information, the fuel burn occurring due to these issues can be computed. This data allows the operator to judge whether to undertake the corrective actions or to continue to fly the aircraft in an aerodynamically unclean state. Furthermore, this analytical data can be transformed into statistical data providing a great detail to the operators on how they C Series fleet is performing. TO BE CONT’D

Characterization and Pelletization of Refused Derived Fuel (RDF)

The key objective of this research is to test the Refuse-Derived Fuel supplied by ICC and investigate parameters Involved In making durable pellets from these residues. This will include conducting a series of pelletization tests with different mixture recipe, pre-conditioning of material as well as adding binders. The produced pellets will then be tested for their calorific value, chemical composition, chlorine content and ash content ICC plans to convert RDF to heat, and electricity through gasification. To develop the technology, this research focuses on providing the optimum operating conditions to produce durable pellets for use in gasification systems. A successful project would allow ICC Group to provide such a system for conversion of waste to energy.

Design, Analysis and Optimization of an Aircraft Seat

The certification of aircraft seats is a very costly process, and such the design of these seats is a detailed and time-consuming task. All new aircraft seat designs must go through rigorous physical testing to be certified as airworthy as per the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs). Because of this, many seats are overdesigned to avoid failing certification tests. This is detrimental to the lightweight design of components, which is increasingly important in the aerospace industry. The reduction in aircraft weight leads to reduced operational costs, reduced emissions and increased aircraft range. The objective of the proposed research project is produce new aircraft seat designs with reduced weight and manufacturing cost, while remaining safe for passengers. Novel design methodologies will be used to produce lighter and cheaper aircraft seats, and advanced computer simulation will be used to model the crash certification requirements to ensure safety.

Topology validation, Error detection, and Correction of rooftops 3D models from LiDAR point clouds and Photogrammetry

The last few years have seen a tremendous increase of the collection and use of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data for 3D modeling of cities, forest surveys and autonomous driving. In the context of 3D cities, buildings are reconstructed separately, sometimes with the help of aerial images. The accuracy assessment of these 3D models is not straightforward. However, end-point users need to know how reliable the models are for using them for tasks such as roofing quotes and solar installations design. The aim of this research is to design a reliable method for validating the rooftop model structure and its quality, and for automatically diagnose potential errors. Their localization will allow the design of auto-correction rules for improving the models.TO BE CONT’d

L’impact des changements climatiques sur l’industrie du ski alpin au Québec : une analyse économique de la perte de bien-être des skieurs

Le projet de recherche proposé est une analyse économique des impacts des changements climatiques sur la satisfaction des skieurs dans l’industrie du ski alpin au Québec. Les changements climatiques affectent grandement l’industrie du ski alpin, principalement en raison d’une dégradation de la qualité des conditions de ski et d’une réduction du nombre de jours skiable, le tout ayant pour conséquence d’affecter la satisfaction des skieurs. Ce projet de recherche vise donc à quantifier la perte de satisfaction que subissent les skieurs et à projeter cette perte de satisfaction jusqu’en 2050 selon plusieurs scénarios climatiques. Ce faisant, cette recherche complètera la littérature existante sur les effets des changements climatiques sur l’industrie du ski alpin ainsi que l’étude en cours par Ouranos, le tout permettant une vision plus complète des conséquences des changements climatiques.

Evaluating the effectiveness of video as a medium of delivery and consumption of large quantity of digital information

The goal of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of video as medium of delivery and consumption of large quantity of digital information. The team will create an automated way to generate videos for properties and rental information so as to reduce costs on manual video creation and build user profiles based on smart questions to present tailored information based on users’ needs in a video format. Through researching, implementing technologies, designing analytics tools and developing a prototype we hope to evaluate the effectiveness of dynamic video information delivery. The benefit to Roomview Technologies Inc. is relevance through innovation in understanding user behavior and improving user experience to be competitive in the market.

Ecology, Conservation and Welfare of Captive and Wild Animals

Animal welfare and behaviour is a concern in captivity but is also a factor affecting conservation success. An animal ability to cope with stressors, which varies between and within species, can affect survival of individuals and compromise a population’s viability. Human-induced stressors impact individuals differently depending on their personality, which applies to captive and wild settings. Ignoring this variation in animal behaviour can diminish the efficacy of costly conservation plan or, even worse, permanently alter the survival probability of a species by artificially selecting some behaviour trait or lead a population toward domestication. This project’s goal is to evaluate the adaptive value of different personality facing human induced stress in captivity and in the wild.

Advanced Modeling for Diagnostics and Optimization of Oil Wells

Several thousand new pumpjacks are installed in Alberta oil fields each year. Hence, for obvious reasons, developing

efficient Pump-jack technology is important to the oil and gas community. The project investigates the process and control

systems with particular applications in dynamic modeling of oil and gas well pump-jacks which is also known as the

sucker-rod pumping systems. The objective of the MITACS Accelerate Internship is to develop a robust data- driven, realtime

modeling methodology of pump-jack systems using the data of the gathering downhole well characteristics. The

information from the developed real-time monitoring system will play an important role in designing and implementing

suitable control schemes to optimize the pump-jack process. The anticipated results will be potentially useful to oil and gas

industry in developing an efficient pump-jack system so that the productivity can be maximized.

Évaluation et évolution des services écosystémiques dans la région de Québec

Le projet vise à évaluer la valeur de la biodiversité, des écosystèmes et de la végétation de l’agglomération de Québec afin de créer des indicateurs de planification stratégique face aux impacts des changements climatiques. Le projet se décline en trois activités de recherche spécifiques. D’abord, pour identifier la valeur des écosystèmes et de la biodiversité, une démarche combinant analyse cartographique et analyse economiquepermettra de mesurer la valeur du capital naturel (i.e. forêts et boisés, milieux humides, friches, agroécosystèmes) par le truchement des services écosystémiques qu’ils génèrent (e.g. séquestration de carbone, réduction des surverses, contrôle des eaux de ruissellement, réduction des îlots de chaleur, pollinisation, activités récréotouristiques). Ensuite, la deuxième étape vise à mesurer les services fournis par les arbres urbains de la ville de Québec et à les quantifier monétairement. TO BE CONT’D