Innovative Projects Realized

A ubiquitous positioning solution for head-mounted sensors

While GPS has become the de-facto standard for positioning, its availability and accuracy are hindered by attenuations. Positioning using vision-based systems is becoming an attractive solution due to its infrastructure-less architecture and its wide integration into portable devices. This work aims to develop novel vision-based algorithms for head-mounted sensors that would solve various problems such as finding the user direction of travel irrespective of their head orientation, finding the presence of obstacles and navigating away from them, and evaluating the performance of combining vision and inertial sensors algorithms and comparing them in terms of accuracy versus complexity. The proposed research is at the core needs of the sponsoring company, Recon Instruments, as the developed algorithms will be directly applied to the company’s suite of goggles and eyewear that comes equipped with a vision-based system. The algorithms developed will promote a safer ride and a more precise navigation solution.

A big data approach to schedule optimization

Workforce scheduling algorithms are used by businesses around the world, including hospitals, factories, and retail stores, to determine when and where employees should come to work. Usually, the needs of organizations change over time, but the scheduling algorithms used in these systems usually do not change. Kronos is an industry leader in scheduling software, and has access to a lot of data reflecting schedule changes in many organizations. This research project leverages big data methods in order to mine this data for interesting patterns, and to provide scheduling algorithms that adapt automatically in response to new requirements. In particular, we aim to learn a model of scheduling user intentions from the data, and use it to infer changes to the schedules provided by Kronos’ software that the user would be likely to desire.

Control of Imploding Metal Liners

This project will help the industrial partner design tests to prove a concept for fusion energy production. In the tests, metal cylinders (and other shaped liners) are dynamically collapsed to compress a high temperature plasma to fusion conditions. This highly dynamic event, however, may result in some of the metal from the cylinder contaminating the plasma. A strong shock wave can result in material leaving the wall of the cylinder, or the impact of one metal surface on another can result in jetting of metal. The metal liner can also buckle or rupture. All of these undesirable processes would contaminate the plasma and terminate the test. The process by which this metal debris is generated will be studied and techniques to control it developed.

Remediation of Contaminated Soil and Groundwater using Nanotechnologies

In recent years, the remediation of residual and historical soil and groundwater contamination has become a priority for the oil and gas industry. Due to increasing public awareness and media attentions, the exploration and implementation of cost-effective and environmentally friendly approaches for remediation of contaminated sites has increased significantly as a mechanism to demonstrate social accountability and environmental sustainability. In order to remove contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), toxic solvents (sulfolane and chlorinated compounds), spilled oil, creosote, and etc., from groundwater and soil, this project will investigate novel methods, systems and apparatus which allow remediating impacted soil and groundwater media. The proposed remediation method utilizes novel nanomaterials and high energy irradiations that are cost effective and efficient.

Safety and Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCAA) of a Network of Dual-Lane Multi-Modal Roundabouts

Modern roundabouts have become a subject of great interest and attention over the last few years. Compared to regular signalized intersections, roundabouts have the potential to reduce vehicular delay, emissions and increase safety. The objectives of this study is to conduct a life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) to examine the short and long term benefits from a multi modal perspective. This research aims to articulate a more thorough understanding of safety and operational performance of multimodal roundabout based on LCAA. Using real observed data from the vehicular traffic, pedestrians, cyclists and transit vehicles and complimenting it with microsimulation data, this research will assess the delay, environmental and safety impacts associated with all the stages of the roundabout life. Alberta Motor Association (AMA) is always keen to focus on research on the safety perspective of new innovative transportation solution. Also, ISL Engineering has a desire to be proactive in transportation planning and create sustainable engineering designs for its clients. Therefore AMA and ISL engineering would like to engage with researchers and new technologies at the University of Calgary.

Simulating heat transfer mechanisms for additive manufacturing processes

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process family which is widely used for deposition of thin protective layers of novel alloy materials on components operating in severe conditions, and also for fabrication and repair of complex 3D parts. The scope of this research is to establish a process planning framework for metal based bead deposition processes that considers the various machine, materials, and process parameters. The study proposes a validated simulation tool by which, the design time can be significantly shortened and process parameters such as heat input, travel speed, and boundary conditions can be adjusted in order to minimize the negative effects of the high-temperature process. The goal is to achieve a component with highest strength based on their functions with minimum developed stresses and distortions.

Optimization of Composting Processes

This proposal concerns with monitoring of composting processes at the Edmonton Waste Management Branch Utility. The ultimate purpose is to establish a practical framework and plan to examine the current state of composting processes and to identify potential areas for improvement. To gain a comprehensive overview of composting, all involved unit operations will be monitored via respirometric techniques which consider waste organic biodegradation. Hence, this research concisely includes: a literature review on respirometric methods; select and build a standard and one most promising respirometric method(s) in the R&D laboratory; develop the capacity to carry out the above methods; conduct a comparative study of the selected method(s) and standard methods currently used in Canada. This project enables the Edmonton Waste Management Branch to develop their in-depth knowledge of the current composting process and identify potential areas for improvement with respect to compost quality, process efficiency and sequentially reduce the environmental footprints.

CryoVent – Low or zero carbon cryogenic ventilation for deep mines

The main purpose of this research project is to integrate wind power with cryogen production, which could be one of the most low-carbon and economic methods to generate and store energy. As it can be transported and stored relatively easily, the cryogen becomes an energy vector, like a fuel, that can be used to transport energy from one place to another. The major motivation for the development of this concept comes from the need for high volumes of cold ventilating air for deep mines. Liquefied air mixed with ambient bulk mine ventilation air (autocompressed and geothermally heated) would cause the liquid air to evaporate and the ventilation air to cool and both components to end up in the same state, with unchanged chemistry. The ‘coolant’ is non-toxic, and direct contact evaporative heat exchange, with no need for component separation post contact is the most effective method of heat transfer. The techno-economic analysis of the CryoVent concept would be the major benefit to the partner
organization.

Building Community Capacity on Local Energy: Extending the Community Energy Explorer Web-tool

(CEE) is a unique, interactive and visually compelling web-resource to build capacity of citizens, decision-makers, and local government staff on community energy and related land use issues. The objective of this 2-year project is to improve, expand and launch a public version of CEE in the Metro Vancouver region, and initiate a process to foster uptake and replication across BC. If successfully adopted by practitioners and NGOs, CEE should seed new conversations within communities, and embolden municipal staff & decision-makers, accelerating community action and decision-making for better land-use management and meet provincial energy/GHG reduction targets.

High-rate anaerobic digestion of ozonated waste activated sludge at low temperature

This project will investigate the challenging possibility of operating anaerobic digesters at 20 ºC without the supply of any external heat source by combining anaerobic digestion with sludge ozonation. The hypothesis is that such combination will enable the operation of anaerobic digesters at 20 °C, and achieve higher biosolids reduction, more biogas production, and increased energy gain, than the conventional standalone anaerobic digestion at 35 °C. This will be undertaken by operating anaerobic digesters under different configurations and monitoring their performance. Finally, an optimized version of the technology will be proposed to our industrial partners for possible upscaling. Air Liquide Canada currently commercializes the ASPALSludgeTM system using ozone to reduce excess sludge production from wastewater treatment facilities. The project will benefit both partners by proposing to them a novel technology that will solve the main problems associated with biosolids handling and disposal, and at the same time enhance energy production from anaerobic digesters. Hence, this new technology, if feasible, will provide a promising strategy for wastewater utilities to ensure environmental as well as economic sustainability.

Numerical simulations of global atmospheric composition for the purpose of improving air quality modelling

Where observations of air pollution are unavailable, e.g. from emissions of future facilities or in remote areas, air pollution is simulated with computer models. These models require input of emissions from nearby sources but also of
background concentrations that are caused by sources outside of the modelling domain, because the domain is limited
by computational power and the need to resolve air quality at a fine spatial resolution. The objective of this project is
to generate air quality output from a coarse global computer model to provide background concentrations for smaller
regions over historical (and potentially future) periods. This output would improve regulatory air quality modelling,
which is currently performed on the basis of crude assumptions of constant background concentrations. Improved regulatory modelling benefits regulators, industrial emitters, and the general public by providing improved guidance on
policy, emission control, and protection of human, animal, and ecosystem health.

A Framework for Creating and Managing Virtual Organizations in a Distributed Environment Using SOA Infrastructure

In this research, we propose a framework to create and manage virtual organizations (VO) in a distributed environment based on service oriented infrastructure. The proposed framework enables networks of organizations to form virtual workflows based on their software infrastructures, and share and monitor their performance metrics without the need for a central authority. An abstraction layer for services (service zone) will enable organizations to share their designated services with other partners while keeping their own core competency private to themselves. The proposed solution will be applied to a network of organizations in healthcare systems with interactions between hospitals, laboratories, insurance companies and government agencies.

As the IBM is one of the major providers of Service Oriented Architecture based solutions offering a wide range of B2B solutions to organizations, the proposed framework in this research will help IBM to extend their B2B solutions to handle automated agile virtual organizations.