Innovative Projects Realized

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 internship 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 benefit regulators, industrial emitters, and the general public by providing improved guidance on policy, emission control, and protection of human, animal, and ecosystem health.

Green Codes: Alternative Means of Approval when Building Green in Non-Charter Municipalities

Given tre extraordinary natural resources used for the construction, operation and demolition of buildings and the extensive impact that buildings have on natural cycles and the environment, there is an urgent need to shift towards greener buildings. In Canada, regulation presents obstacles to building green. This project will investigate the building code variances used in the top performing green buildings constructed in non-charter municipalities. Since non-charter municipalities have limited legal authority to make policy exemptions for green building compared to Charter cities like Vancouver and Toronto, this project will examine the alternative building code approvals used to construct green buildings these jurisdictions. In doing so, best practices will be aggrega;ed and shared among green building practitioners to facilitate uptake and construction of high performing buildings in Canada.

Assainissement et accès à l’eau propre en milieux défavorisés

Au cours des dernières années, le Brésil a amélioré ses services d’assainissement et d’accès à l’eau à travers tout le pays toutefois plusieurs localités sont encore très en retard par rapport à ses services. Ces localités sont majoritairement les milieux défavorisés où de nombreuses personnes sont pauvres : ce sont les favelas. Ce retard a un impact sur la santé publique et donc sur le développement de manière générale. Le projet est donc une recherche appliquée afin de trouver des solutions pour que ces milieux
défavorisés puissent aussi avoir accès a l’eau propre et aux mêmes services d’assainissement que les autres quartiers. À la fin de cette recherche, l’amélioration des services, l’amélioration de la santé publique et limiter les pertes en eau sont les résultats attendus.

Développer et calibrer un outil de prédiction aéroélastique d’ailettes assujetties à des excitations vibratoires induites par les sillages amont et aval des redresseurs adjacentes dans un compresseur

PWC effectue des tests sur les compresseurs lors du développement de ses moteurs afin de mieux connaître les niveaux vibratoires des ailettes en fonctionnement. Le but de ce projet de recherche est de développer une méthode numérique basée sur des considérations aéroélastiques et capable de prédire efficacement ces niveaux vibratoire afin de limiter la voie expérimentale. Des logiciels performants de dynamique des structures et dynamique des fluides seront mis à contribution pour le calcul des effets d’un écoulement d’air sur une structure vibrante. Une fois cette méthode de calcul développé, le seul test nécessaire sera celui de la certification du moteur. PWC économisera les coûts habituellement engendrés par ces tests et deviendra plus compétitive.

Conception d’outils informatiques pour le suivi de la performance d’éolienne

Avec une infrastructure construite et en opération, les activités principales d’EDF EN Canada passent de la phase développement vers l’opération. Cette nouvelle phase nécessite un suivi des performances de toutes les éoliennes de toutes les centrales éoliennes d’EDF EN Canada. Les outils qui seront développés et validés durant ce projet seront des éléments essentiels pour réaliser un suivi efficace des investissements en opération d’EDF EN Canada. Différentes procédures standardisées [IEC 61400-12-1, IEC 61400-12-2] existent afin de quantifier la performance durant une plage de temps spécifique. Dans ce projet, des outils informatiques seront développés et utilisés afin de reproduire ces procédures rapidement et efficacement sur des éoliennes. Par la suite, des validations et analyses seront effectuées afin de valider la précision des différentes procédures.

Silver recovery from scrap materials: the security and longevity of raw scrap, and the development of a sustainable business model

Essential Silver Incorporated is a recycling business looking to expand it’s operations in North America. The company’s specialty is recycling silver and a specific type of plastic called PET from x-rays. In order to justify the additional investment in the business ESI needs to have a better understanding of the market and it’s operations. ESI require research in the following three areas:

1) Raw Materials – Research the ongoing supply of raw x-ray materials in North America

2) Research alternative uses for the recycling by-product PET.

3) Geo-expansion and Optimization Strategy – Research best practices to establish a Canadian and United States network to acquire, transport and process raw materials in multiple locations. Develop a strategy for ESI’s expansion based on these findings.

Identifying source population of European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) through geochemical fingerprinting in Okanagan valley of British Columbia.

This work identifies the origin of source population of bird named European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) which makeup the winter population of Okanagan-Similkameen valley. These pest birds are aggressive and destructive in nature. At once, thousands of them fly in a group and destroys fruits in orchard. In this project, I plan to collect bone samples of migrant winter birds of Okanagan-Similkameen valley and the juvenile birds from outside of the Okanagan and analyze trace elements (micronutrient). Trace elements are preserved in bone tissues, which represent the geographic regions. Since the geology of British Columbia is very diversified, geochemical fingerprinting technique would be best to identify the origin. The comparison between the early summer reference birds and the fall potentially migrant birds collect in and out of Okanagan- Similkameen valley will provide us a clear indication of the bird’s origin. Once we find the origin of the source population, Starling Control Program (SCP) in Okanagan can act further for an
effective management of these pest birds.

Prototyping for Manufacturing Point-of-Care Instruments

Remote health settings require affordable blood tests to provide care. ChipCare aims to reduce the cost of these tests by producing a user-friendly device the size of a credit-card reader. Disposable cartridges that go into the device will bring down costs. One aim of this project is to improve the design of the reader in a 3D modelling software. The newer version of the reader can then accept multiple sized cartridges. This will expand the detection scope by allowing multiple diseases to be detected. The other aim of the project is to develop a manufacturing method that will allow the above cartridges to be produced quickly. This involves using a
manufacturing tool called the Hot Embosser. The tool allows the cartridge design to be imprinted onto any plastic material. The turnaround time for the cartridges will be drastically reduced which will shorten the development time. The attainment of these two aims will allow ChipCare Corp to eventually mass-produce inexpensive medical testing kits.

Increasing energy conservation through tenant engagement in high rise buildings in Toronto

Residential high-rise buildings consume large amounts of energy for their cooling and heating needs. A large portion of this energy is wasted due to aging infrastructure, lack of proper maintenance, and occupants’ lack of awareness about energy conservation measures. While the economic and environmental benefits of physical retrofit of aging high-rises is well understood in terms of return of investment (ROI), the same understanding is very limited as it relates to economic, environmental as well as social benefits of engaging occupants. In recent years, a number of case studies have focused on strategies for engaging tenants in order to achieve additional savings beyond typical physical upgrades, however, there is still no coherent established practice that would identify a framework and tangible processes for a sustainable service involving tenant engagement strategies. Hence, this proposal aims to
identify, review and synthesize successful case studies in order to shed light on this area of research and inform the development of tenant engagement processes. This project benefits Imagine My City as it increases their capacity to advance its mandate to enable and increase productive and meaningful community-based research on issues related to the built environment.

Interactive visualization tool for managing advertising campaigns

The goal of this research is to investigate, design and evaluate user-adaptive visualization systems, which personalize interaction based on the individual needs of a given user. In order to achieve this goal, a visualization system is required as a starting point with which to carry out this research. As a first step, this research aims to build an interactive visualization tool that will better support East Side Games Studio at managing advertising campaigns. Proposed functionality will consist of aggregating data across multiple sources, better real-time tracking of ads, and ability to manage multiple ads within and between various advertisers. The overall
goal of this project is to increase the number players in their games as well as user spending and also providing the visualization tool for user-adaptive visualization system research of the intern’s PhD.

Development of novel electrospun nanofibrous membrane incorporating cellulose nanocrystals for wastewater treatment.

The proposed research project aims at developing a novel nanofibrous membrane incorporating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) for wastewater treatment. Sustainable nanomaterials such as CNCs possess many interesting properties like high specific surface area, good mechanical strength, biodegradability and large amount of primary hydroxyl groups for surface functionalization. Hence incorporation of these CNCs can have synergistic effects on the membrane performance. Nanofibrous membranes can be created by electrospinning of polymers and CNCs incorporated into these nanofibres can be surface functionalized with noble metal nanoparticles or monolayer protected quantum nanoclusters to improve their sensitivity and selectivity to contaminants in water. Thus the proposed project will help in creating a novel wastewater treatment platform based on sustainable nanomaterial and an initiation of a successful international collaboration between prof. Michael Tam’s research group at University of Waterloo and Prof. Pradeep’s research group at IIT Madras.

Problème de conception d’horaire en sécurité aéroportuaire

Le problème de conception d’horaire en contexte de sécurité aéroportuaire consiste à établir un horaire qui minimise le nombre d’employés qui sont nécessaires pour faire fonctionner un nombre de points de contrôle, dans le but de desservir le flot de passagers qui se manifeste en réponse aux multiples départs d’avion. Le problème s’apparente au Nurse Scheduling Problem, qui est connu comme étant NP-difficile. Nous cherchons donc à créer de nouveaux algorithmes spécialisés afin de résoudre le problème de manière plus efficace que l’approche courante basée sur la recherche locale.