Innovative Projects Realized

A Novel Combination Therapy to Target Primitive Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Modern molecular targeted therapies have shown promise in treating some blood cancers, but a cure remains elusive for most acute leukemia patients. This is largely due to the survival of some leukemic cells that possess unique properties and can cause treatment failure or relapse, warranting identification of new, distinct targets for improved therapies. In collaboration with Signalchem Lifescience Corporation (SLC), we aim to develop and test a new drug combination strategy to target acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patient cells that are resistant to current therapies. This pre-clinical study will evaluate the efficacy of novel inhibitors (developed by SLC), alone or in combination with available chemotherapeutics, to target primitive AML cells and their survival pathways in vitro and in vivo. We expect that this new combination will be more effective in eliminating critical leukemic patient cells compared to traditional single drugs, and provide directly proof-of-concept for a subsequent clinical trial.

Full-body Modeling and Tracking for Embodiment in VR Dark Rides

Real-time full-body tracking based on single or multiple commodity depth sensors are an integral part of many applications such as motion transfer in 3D games, 3D virtual and augmented reality, and human computer interaction. The proposed project directly derives from practical needs expressed by the partner organization, DreamCraft Attractions (Victoria) in developing fully immersive VR dark rides (i.e. for amusement parks). Our research targets highly robust and low-latency full-body motion capture in the presence of interfering geometry such as chairs or props used in VR dark rides, using a multi-view camera system. In particular, the proposed project would adapt articulated tracking algorithms developed in [Tagliasacchi et al. 2015; Tkach et al. 2016] to build a highly robust, accurate and efficient prototype for full-body motion tracking, while addressing the research challenges specific to this application domain. TO BE CONT’D

Development of an infrastructure for AAL technology data exchange to inform policy and governance guidelines

The UbiLab and the CSA Group are collaborating on the development of a roadmap for a data integration infrastructure that will enable Ambient Assisted Living technology to share data at a wider scale. The current technology landscape has resulted in manufacturers of Internet of Things and Ambient Assisted Living technologies generating siloed data that provide limited benefits and insights to the final users. The infrastructure being proposed in this project will enable data to flow seamlessly between Internet of Things, mobile health, and Ambient Assisted Living technologies, empowering innovators to leverage larger amounts of data for their product development. We will explore the technical infrastructure, as well as the necessary policy and governance guidelines to enable innovators to integrate the data generated by their new technology with the platform being proposed. This project will enable the UbiLab and the CSA group to become leaders in Ambient Assisted Living data integration.

Faster on the bobsleigh race track

The intern will support the Canadian Bobsleigh Team in its efforts to reduce ice friction between a bobsleigh and the race track. Therefore, a numerical heat transfer model will be developed, and novel procedures to attain the smoothest possible runner surfaces will be researched. Furthermore, we will apply concepts underlying lubrication theory to runner surfaces bycombining hard and soft coatings through micromachining. All these efforts will result in a better understanding for the variables that are most relevant to ice friction in the context of international bobsleigh competitions. The novel developments coming out of this project will help the Canadian athletes to also compete in the race for the best sporting material and ultimately result in a higher medal count for Canada.

Application of Neural Speech Synthesis Techniques to Improve Lyrical Audio Recordings

2012 marked a pivotal milestone in the field of neural networks. The intersection of general purpose computing using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), labelled big datasets, and very large neural networks (called deep neural networks) enabled a break-through in machine learning that has led to impressive results in many fields and applications, such as self-driving vehicles and real-time language translation. Recently, the advances offered by these techniques have been applied to the areas of music and speech synthesis, which have opened up exciting new areas of applications. The work proposed in this application is one such example, namely to create an application to modify and improve audio recordings of amateur singers using the latest developments in artificial recurrent neural networks.

Optimization of Blow Heat Recovery

AV Nackawic is part of a new and innovative group of companies (AV Group), which are

focused on producing specialty pulp products to service the textile and paper industry.

The blow heat recovery system, more popularly known as “The Black Hole,” is one

popular area where the pulp and paper industry has utilized the energy of the blow

vapors from the digesters to produce process hot water for use in the washing and

bleaching operation. The blow heat recovery system at AV Nackawic has dual benefits:

provides heat recovery of hot blow gases as they are released from the digester and

reduces the vapor volume of the gases for non condensable gas incineration. This

internship will help optimize the blow heat recovery system. It will also look at reducing

operating costs through efficient heat recovery strategies that will make the process

more economic and produce another link between AV Nackawic and the University of

New Brunswick, providing AV Nackawic…

Linking the eco-systems of Montreal’s aerospace and ICT/AI clusters: Implications for Innovation

The purpose of this project is to map the networking structure of Montreal’s aerospace and ICT/AI clusters, and most importantly, the linkages that exist between these two clusters. As the global Aerospace industry continues to embrace digitization, Canadian Aerospace industry needs to act fast to hold a leading position in the international market. Montreal hosts the third largest Aerospace cluster in the world, Aéromontreal, and a booming artificial intelligence cluster that is quickly becoming a world leader. Montreal has recently attracted a lot of public and private investment in its technological sectors, notably in artificial intelligence segment. This project will help to analyze existing complementarities between the two clusters and potential for new opportunities with structural wholes to be filled in. TO BE CONT’D

Evaluation of Measures to Control and Prevent Clostridium difficile Infection

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has become the leading cause of hospital acquired nosocomial diarrhea worldwide. The prolonged hospital stays associated with CDI has enormous impact on the healthcare systems in terms of costs and patient outcomes. While treatment of CDI is an important area for ongoing research, prevention efforts will need to be enhanced to interrupt CDI transmission. Given the current efforts for the development of an anti-CDI vaccine, research to evaluate vaccine and its impact along with the existing intervention measures is a key component of the healthcare system approaches to combating CDI. We develop a state-of-the-art simulation model to assess the effectiveness of measures currently in practice, including

Reducing birdstrike risks at airports by integrated pest management of insects – Year two

Birds at airports present danger to moving aircraft and other vehicles using the area. Some of the higher risk bird species are ducks, gulls and shorebirds who come to the grassy areas surrounding the runways to feed on insects. We are attempting to reduce the numbers of these high-risk birds using the Vancouver International Airport by reducing the numbers of the insects they feed on. By changing the way we manage the grassy areas of the airport, we hope to reduce insect abundance, and therefore bird presence. Our study is focused on discovering what kinds of measures are most effective at reducing insect abundance.

Reducing birdstrike risks at airports by integrated pest management of insects

Problem: Airports are increasingly important, both economically and socially, for the movement of people and goods. A major risk faced by airports is the potential for collisions between aircraft and birds (bird strikes). Bird strikes are dangerous and expensive, with costs including the repair of damaged aircraft and of closed runways delaying flights and leaving planes in the air until they are cleared.
Objective: We will determine whether pest control of insects around airfields can decrease the abundance of foraging birds near runways and reduce the risk of bird strikes.
Expected results: By mapping insect abundance and bird activity at Vancouver International Airport, we will determine which insect species attract birds into areas of the airport that create a high risk for bird strikes. TO BE CONT’D

Understanding and Improving Knowledge Flow in Software Organizations – Year two

Software engineering practitioners recognize that good documentation and effective knowledge sharing are critical to the success of a project and also to developer productivity. Yet, writing and maintaining documentation is often an afterthought for software engineering teams. What is more, managing knowledge or spending time to share information with others is typically not part of the reward structure for software developers, leading them to give it a low priority. This causes breakdowns in the flow of knowledge, duplication of effort, and reinvention of workarounds.
Microsoft builds complex software products and its engineers use a variety of tools during development. This project aims to identify the root cause of low satisfaction with knowledge flow by studying developers’ information search and retrieval habits when solving problems, and how they perceive information management and sharing. TO BE CONT’D

Survey Design for the Borehole Induced Polarization Method: A Modelling and Inversion Study

The Induced Polarization (IP) method of exploration geophysics can sense the depth, size and

composition of certain metallic ore bodies. Measurements from within boreholes that surround an ore

body can help determine its size and hence its economic worth. Such geophysical methods of

determining the economic viability of a deposit are cheaper than doing so by drilling boreholes. Abitibi

Geophysique, inc., offer as a product to the mineral exploration industry a novel way of carrying out a

borehole IP survey. Abitibi Geophysique can make measurements using any locations within any pair

of boreholes that are available. However, there is a redundancy of information: doubling the number of

measurement locations, while doubling the length of time for a survey and hence its cost, doesn’t

necessarily provide twice the information about the ore body. The goal of this project, therefore, is to

determine the measurement configuration for Abitibi Geophysique’s borehole IP surveys that provides

the most information about an ore…