Innovative Projects Realized

Amélioration des systèmes CPV par micro/nano structurationa

Les systèmes photovoltaïques sous concentration (CPV) sont actuellement les systèmes photovoltaïques présentant l’efficacité la plus élevée. En concentrant les rayons lumineux du soleil sur une petite surface de cellule solaire à très forte efficacité (>40%), des performances au niveau module supérieures à 30% peuvent être obtenues. Cependant, ces systèmes nécessitent de pointer à tout instant vers le soleil, ce qui réduit l’efficacité dès que l’alignement est imparfait. Dans ce projet de recherche collaboratif et industriel, nous proposons d’utiliser des procédés de micro/nano structuration de surface pour réduire la sensibilité du système à l’alignement face au soleil, et ainsi augmenter l’efficacité des systèmes CPV.

Core Values & Core Work: Recognizing the Person in the Employee

An organization’s greatest strength are employees who live their values, who feel valued, and whose ideas are valuable to the continued success of their workplace. On an individual level, the alignment of personal values with the work undertaken is essential to achieve personal and professional potential as well as job satisfaction and general well-being.
In the current study we assess engineering employee’s core values and how they are realized in their work environment by applying a multi-method approach. Furthermore, links will be drawn from the alignment of these values to the employee’s job satisfaction and also between employees’ personality traits and values.
Envisioned outcomes include discovering how engineering employees’ values align with their roles/positions and what that means for the impact on society they can have. TO BE CONT’D

Innovation in Journalism and Academic Knowledge Mobilization: Changing Practices, Partnerships, and Economic Models

Journalism in Canada and elsewhere has been disrupted by changes in technology, in markets, and in people’s habits of news consumption. This disruption has been bad for business, and over one-third of journalists have in Canada lost their jobs in the last decade. It’s also been bad for public knowledge, as seen by the rise of fake news and misinformation. This project will examine whether journalism organizations can collaborate with academic institutions to address both challenges. Can such collaborations help address revenue or capacity problems that journalism organizations face? Can these collaborations generate high-quality stories that audiences enjoy, trust, and benefit from? And can they help universities make their knowledge more publicly accessible? TO BE CONT’D

The Development of an Improved Model for Start-up Accelerators

The goal of this study will be to develop a new and improved model for start-up accelerators. These accelerators can be defined as programs that help start-ups develop their business model and acquire capital such that they can grow and thrive in today’s business environment. To create the new model, start-ups that are part of the Masters in Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (MTME) program will be examined. This way, it will be possible to find which program characteristics have the greatest effect on start-ups and how they can be improved. Overall, this study will allow accelerators to be more efficient and produce a greater number of successful businesses.

Investigating the Change Management Process in High Performance Sports Organisations Related to Performance Management

Organisational change is part of life for sports teams, however, research suggests that despite how often change initiatives occur, the success rate for organisations achieving their desired outcomes is less than 30%.
The aim of the study is to investigate how top level sports organisations manage change and to compare the different approaches adopted by various sports in countries around the world.
This study will interview sporting directors and general managers from around the world in order to:
1) identify how sporting directors identify, research and plan change initiatives, with a comparison between ge-ographical and cultural practices;
2) explore the process of change in relation to planning, challenges of implementation and integration, and bar-riers to success;
3) establish how change is audited and evaluated;
4) provide a number of recommendations for i) applied practice for and ii) research with sporting directors

The Unintended Outcomes of Performance Management Systems in the Higher Education Sector

This study explores the unintended outcomes that have emerged following the performance management interventions enforced by university boards and the government on academics in the United Kingdom. To understand how these unintended outcomes are caused or controlled by universities, social learning and social contagion theories are used to analyze the contextual conditions that influence the occurrence of such outcomes. To collect data, 67 semi-structured interviews were conducted in 13 research intense universities in the United Kingdom. Of these, 63 were with male and female academics at different levels of seniority, and four were with human resource directors working in different universities. TO BE CON’T

Impact Fatigue Testing for Soil Openers

This project focus on designing a fatigue cycling machine to test soil openers for low cycle, impact fatigue. This process begins by identifying and characterizing the load in case, and then continue into detailed design, fabrication and commissioning. Characteristics such as robustness, reliability and safety will be strongly emphasised. This testing machine will then form a basis for further research on opener design.
It is very important to test the soil openers before releasing them, to assure that the customers that acquire them will not have problem during their seeding period. The outcomes of having the openers tested are beyond profit, it’s maintaining the company’s reliability in the present scenario.

Development of a novel stem cell-seeded extracellular matrix for treatment of chronic wounds

The bedsore or pressure ulcer is a serious health problem that affects many individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). These ulcers mostly develop on skin that covers bony prominences of the body, such as the hips and tailbone. Pressure ulcers are often very difficult to treat and not only negatively affect patients’ health, but also have profound impact on their quality of life. This speaks to the need for finding more effective treatment methods to address this problem. Our aim in this research project is to find a novel method to improve the healing of pressure ulcers. We specifically plan to develop a novel method to fabricate a liquid skin substitute. This liquid skin can then be applied to the wound site to cast inside the wound bed and fill the ulcer pockets similar to patching a pothole with liquid concrete. TO BE CONT’D

Investigating the Geochemistry of Selenium (Se) in the Residual from Biological Wastewater Treatment

Although selenium is an essential element for human and animal health, it has a narrow concentration range before becoming toxic. Industrial practices, such as mining, can result in elevated levels of selenium to be introduced into surface water bodies, hence, treating mine processing water and wastewater is commonly done to reduce the potential for environmental impacts. Bacterially mediated redox processes are currently used in the mining industry to remove selenium from wastewater. The byproduct of this treatment is a solid state residual which contains high concentrations of selenium. The objective of this research is to investigate how selenium is occurring in the residual which will aid in understanding the risk it poses. This improved understanding of selenium within the residual will support the decision making process for managing the residuals in terms of disposal options and thereby reduce risk to environmental receptors.

Offshore Pipelines and Risers in Deepwater

Exploration and production of oil and gas in deepwater increases the demand for offshore research not

only in Canada but also in other parts of the world. In deepwater, large floating platfonns are attached

to the seafloor by steel catenary type risers. The risers are generally highly stressed near the touchdown

point at the seabed. Stonn loading could increase stresses in the riser to unacceptable levels. Moreover,

deepwater offshore pipelines for transporting oil and gas are usually laid on the seabed but penetrate

partially due to their own weight and laying operation. In addition, the potential failure of deepwater

slopes is a major concern for oil gas industries and regulatory agencies. The main objective

of the proposed research is the development of newlimproved design tools for pipelines and risers in

deepwater. The budget will support training of 4 inte~.t (graduate students at Memorial University of

Newfoundland) research.

Analyse statique du code logiciel : Réduction des fausses alertes

Les développeurs/auditeurs utilisent régulièrement des outils d’analyse statique pour trouver des vulnérabilités logicielles. Malheureusement, ces outils sont loin d’être parfaits: une personne doit passer en revue ces vulnérabilités et décider de les traiter ou non. L’objectif de ce projet de recherche est d’augmenter les performances d’outils d’analyse de code statique tel que FindSecurityBugs (logiciel libre permettant d’évaluer la sécurité des applications Java et Android) en intégrant des concepts d’apprentissage machine afin de classifier automatiquement et de façon plus précise les alertes de vulnérabilité logiciel générées. L’utilisation d’une telle solution augmenterait l’efficacité des développeurs/auditeurs logiciels en réduisant drastiquement les erreurs de leur outil de diagnostic.

Assessing trust of artificial intelligence technology in the context of workplace relations

The goal of the project is to gain insight into individuals’ reactions to an artificial intelligence (AI) product currently in development at Kiite. The product is designed to fulfill some of the role responsibilities typically occupied by a manager. Trust is an important factor in both leader-employee relationships and in user experiences with AI-based systems. Thus, the partnership with Kiite offers a novel research opportunity to contribute to an emerging area of research on when and why humans are liable to (dis)trust AI technology in the workplace. We will conduct one-on-one interviews with participants from several organizations where Kiite is testing their AI product. The main outcomes will be communicating the findings in the form of a paper for an academic journal, a knowledge-translation piece for a trade-level publication, and an executive report prepared for Kiite, which will include actionable recommendations for improving their product.