Innovative Projects Realized

Photons to Fish (PHISH): Ecosystem indicators of fish productivity

Recreational fisheries in Canada are estimated to provide over $2.5 billion dollars to local economies each year. There is a growing concern that industrial activities, climate change, and other factors may negatively impact the productivity of these fisheries and the freshwater ecosystems that support them. However, direct estimates of fish productivity are extremely challenging to undertake, especially in remote locations like Canada’s north. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of major ecosystem disruptions on fish communities and provide a suite of indicators that can be used to monitor for potential changes in fish productivity, especially in locations where it cannot be measured directly. The information generated in this project will assist the IISD Experimental Lakes Area in providing strong, scientifically based, guidance to industry and policy makers on the protection of fish communities and the freshwater ecosystems that support them.

NRTEE 15 year update study: A comprehensive review of progress implementing the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy’s 2003 National Brownfield Redevelopment Strategy for Canada

After the NRTEE 2003 National Redevelopment Strategy for Canada, an in-depth review of the progress and status of the 14 recommendations offered will be completed through interviews of Canadian municipal and provincial governments and other stakeholders in the Brownfield Industry. Outcomes and recommendations will be formulated for consideration. This study will be presented at the CBN conference in June 2018 and the report will be made available to all participants and stakeholders through the CBN website and electronic avenues.

Structure-Property Relationships of Ethylene Polymers for Sealant Applications

Heat sealing is the most widely used sealing method in film packaging applications specifically in food industry. In this technique, two layers of film are melted and bonded together with the application of heat and pressure. In this project a rheological study (rheology and peeling) of a series of ethylene polymers will be performed to derive correlations between rheological properties and sealability for identification of optimum product properties. Good sealability of packaging of food products is crucial to public health as it ensures safety of the packaged goods and minimizes any leakage during transportation and handling. Good leak-free packaging also results in minimizing food waste for the consumer providing economic benefits and improves Canada’s sustainability efforts by reducing carbon footprint.

Évaluation du potentiel éco-énergétique d’un bassin hydrodynamique souterrain combiné à des panneaux solaires thermiques et une pompe à chaleur pour la production d’eau chaude, le chauffage et la climatisation de bâtime

La consommation d’énergie pour le secteur des bâtiments, supérieure à celle des secteurs du transport et de l’industrie, s’élève à environ 40% de l’utilisation d’énergie au niveau mondial. Plus de la moitié de cette consommation correspond au chauffage des édifices, la climatisation et la production d’eau chaude domestique. Ces besoins qui requièrent de l’énergie de faible qualité sont actuellement satisfaits le plus souvent par de l’énergie de haute qualité, telle que combustible fossile ou électricité. Le confort à l’intérieur des bâtiments peut être obtenu, en partie ou totalement, en utilisant la chaleur collectée dans le sous-sol ou par des panneaux solaires thermiques. L’efficience de ces sources d’énergie renouvelables augmente avec l’utilisation un bassin hydrodynamique souterrain, pouvant servir de stockage thermique et capable d’échanger de la chaleur avec le sous-sol. TO BE CONT’D

Prediction of Insurance Coverage and Wait Times

The purpose of this project will be to develop a flexible and statistically sound methodology for leveraging BPI’s database of current and historical publicly available coverage information to model coverage trends in the U.S. health insurance industry. The project will also include the development of an R Markdown template for future predictive analytics reports. The templates and methodologies developed for this project will be integrated into BPI, Inc.’s custom consulting division. The outcomes will also be utilized to solicit interest in new predictive analytics projects or used to develop reports to sell in a syndicated version.

Improving Research to Practice: Investigating the Feasibility of Community Organizations Developing Methods to Ensure Implementation Efforts Address the Needs and Priorities of the Spinal Cord Injury Community

Members of the SCI community must be involved in the process of designing and implementing SCI research to ensure the largest impact possible. SCI Ontario, an organization that supports people with SCI, is strategically planning their efforts to ensure research is used in practice. Understanding the needs and priorities of SCI communities and their families is a key step for their strategic planning. They aim to develop a method that can establish agreement among over 2500 SCI community members about areas of research that need be implemented in practice. Our research will help develop this method and examine the feasibility of using the method to establish agreement on priorities within the SCI community. As a whole, our research will contribute to a growing body of research that aims to ensure research is used in practice.

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.