Innovative Projects Realized

Exploring usability of an app environment to deliver transformative professional development

Professional development (PD) refers to an individual’s growth throughout a professional life cycle. Generally, the intent of PD is to deepen understanding and improve practice within a standardized professional life cycle. Given the personalized nature of PD, program evaluations are frequently based on participants’ satisfaction rather than evidence of professional learning or change in practice. At the same time, online programs provide more convenient and flexible PD opportunities without geographical barriers. Some PD programs are meant to disrupt current practices and potentially introduce new standards to a professional life cycle. Many of these programs are delivered in a classroom where facilitators may observe evidence of professional learning or change in practice. This study explores how to design an app environment for a PD program only available in a traditional face-to-face delivery.

A holistic assessment of the impacts of beef cattle production on ecosystem services in Alberta

This study examines the impacts of beef production on ecosystem service provision, focusing primarily on rangeland induced biodiversity and habitat provision and related services including recreation, water filtration, soil carbon and soil quality preservation provided to different beneficiaries in Alberta. Research on the impacts of beef production has focused on land use change and greenhouse gas emissions. We propose a holistic approach to evaluate the industry’s impact, positive and negative, on Alberta, with an opportunity to extrapolate conclusions to a global scale. This study contributes to sustainable management of the Alberta beef industry as per the objectives of the Canadian roundtable on sustainable beef production. The research will: 1) review national, provincial, and local data resources to identify assessable ecosystem services; 2) estimate trends in ecosystem services and biodiversity affected by Alberta beef production at local and provincial scales 1960-2014; and 3) identify data gaps and future research opportunities.

Modeling Low Impact Development Technologies and Their Integration for Improving Urban Stormwater Management

When natural pervious lands are replaced by impervious areas due to urbanization, rainfall – runoff processes are altered and in turn have negative impacts on urban water environment. Low Impact Development (LID) technologies such as permeable pavements and bio-retention systems offer a promising solution to urban stormwater management. In order to develop more efficient urban stormwater management, it would be necessary to integrate various LIDs. Therefore, this research aims to modeling stormwater quantity and quality performance of various LIDs with focus on the benefits of their integration in urban areas. Westhoff Engineering Resources Inc. (Westhoff) specializes in water resources engineering services especially in the field of stormwater system design. As the City of Calgary and many municipalities across Canada promote the uses of LIDs for enhancing stormwater management, this research will be beneficial to Westhoff’s future projects of urban stormwater drainage system design.

Behavioral Analysis of H1 Reconstruction in New Software Environments

The precise prediction of fluid behavior is required in many fields of engineering. Fluid flows are governed by a complex system of continuous partial differential equations (PDEs) which rarely have an exact analytical solution. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has emerged as a leading method of analyzing fluid flows, by numerically solving the respective PDEs. Current methods in finite volume schemes of CFD on unstructured meshes have two major sources of errors: noise in the reconstructed gradients and lack of cancellation during flux integration. Our new second-order “H1 reconstruction” scheme produces a smoother, more accurate gradient than traditional “Least-squares reconstruction” when applied to smooth solution data. We will be analyzing the behaviour of this new reconstruction when implemented in a different software environments. This would provide very valuable insights into the behaviour and adaptability of
the new scheme. Successful application of our proposed new scheme entails substantial improvement in the accuracy for the flow solver of ANSYS Ltd. (FLUENT), with an affordable increase in computational cost.

Discovering the mechanism of action of a novel immunotherapy, Cat-SPIRE, using a network analysis

Allergic rhinitis is an inflammatory condition of the nasal passages induced after allergen exposure in sensitized individuals. Approximately 20-25% of Canadians suffer from allergic rhinitis, with cat allergy affecting up to 15% of people with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma. Although existing immunotherapies have some effectiveness, these have safety problems and require long-term treatment. A novel immunotherapy, Cat-Synthetic Peptide Immuno-Regulatory Epitopes (Cat-SPIRE), composed of seven synthetic molecules related to cat allergen, acts on allergen-specific immune cells to induce subsequent clinical tolerance to cat allergen with

reduced side effects and a shorter treatment time. Its specific mechanism is not yet fully understood. Young Woong Kim will participate in a study to discover the mechanism using blood samples and clinical data obtained from research participants who have undertaken Cat-SPIRE clinical trials at Adiga Life Sciences, Inc. The investigation of the effects of Cat-SPIRE will allow us to find significant gene expression signatures for diagnosis and effectiveness of the treatments.

Stem cell-based regenerative therapeutics

Mesenchymal stromal / “stem” cells (MSCs) are found in adult tissues such as bone marrow and fat and also in neonatal tissues such as the placenta and umbilical cord. Among these sources, Human Umbilical Cord PeriVascular Cells (HUCPVCs) are the richest source of MSCs described. Importantly, they possess immunomodulatory and immuneprivileged properties which enable them to be delivered
from one donor to another, evading immune detection. Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics (TRT) Inc. is developing MSC products with prophylactic properties for use in biodefence and immunomodulation applications by genetically modifying the cells to secrete therapeutic antibodies, however we lack inhouse expertise in this area. This project will enable the laboratory of Dr. Bernhard Ganss, in
collaboration with TRT Inc., to carry out pilot collaborative work to address these and other challenges associated with designing, engineering, producing, and testing this novel class of MSC-based therapeutics in animal models of disease for use in biodefence.

Design and implementation of wideband and low-side-lobe-level antenna array in LTCC technology for automotive millimeter-wave radar sensor applications

This project is a collaboration between MMSENSE Technologies and the Centre for Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems (CIARS) at the University of Waterloo to research, investigate, and design an integrated radar module at millimeter-waves. These sensors, which will be utilized in automotive applications such as forward collision alert, rear traffic crossing alert, blind spot detection, bike, motorbike, and pedestrian detection, require a wide field of view, operation from near range of 30 cm to about 300 m as well as high resolution in
distance and angle measurements with scanning of the traffic scene. To address these technical requirements, a planar wideband antenna array in LTCC will be designed to be utilized in the automotive radar sensor technology. MMSENSE Technologies is currently developing products in millimeter-wave band for sensing and communication markets and this project will resolve some of the challenges they have encountered in this area. It will help MMSENSE Technologies to stay competitive and develop efficient products for emerging automotive applications.

Visual Histories of Decision Processes for Business Intelligence: Part 2

The current study is a part of the project on designing a solution to support decision processes for collaborative Business Intelligence (BI) through the use of dynamic visual histories and linked repositories of collaborative decision-making. The research project includes design investigation of collaborative history tools, specification of requirements for, design and evaluation of visualizations of ongoing processes and history to facilitate collaboration in the sense-making and analytical process.

The goal of this study is to discover, prioritize, validate and identify issues and requirements for designing collaborative history visualizations.

Social Enterprises as Revenue Generation for the Non-Profit Sector in Canada

IL Canada would like to increase their revenue streams through inititating market-based approaches. The organization has struggled to identify appropriate social enterprise opportunities that can be replicated across the country. Examples of social enterprise opportunites for a NFP include: adding fee-for-service consulting; starting a new for-profit company that donates all profits to the organization; and offering new products which will be sold by the organization. This Mitacs intern will conduct a study and prepare a report that outlines social enterprise options for IL Canada. Specifically, data will be collected from within IL Canada on examples from one location that might be replicated elsewhere, and also data will be collected from other organizations regarding best practices that might be replicated. Based on the findings, IL Canada can then implement business activities. The ultimate benefit for IL Canada will be new products or services, and thus an increased revenue. IL Centres are looking for models that make up for the loss of core funding (around $50,000 per centre), as other funding streams do not cover operational costs. Increasing revenue activities would help make up for these loses.

Effet des hautes pressions hydrostatiques sur la stabilité d’une purée d’ail biologique

Végétamix Inc, commercialise des jus de légumes traités par des hautes pressions (HPP) et désire développer une purée d’ail biologique pour l’ajouter à sa gamme de produits. L’ail transformé est très instable et on doit ajouter des agents de conservateur pour palier à plusieurs problèmes comme la diminution de la valeur nutritive et le changement de goût du produit, ainsi que la modification indésirable de la couleur. Celui-ci (changement de couleur) qui passe du blanc au vert fluorescent est dû à la réaction de l’alliinase avec l’alliin et l’isoalliin. L’objectif du projet est de sélectionner la variété d’ail biologique apte à la transformation adéquate, déterminer la période appropriée de transformation et appliquer les HPP pour inhiber la réaction de coloration et assurer la stabilité de la purée biologique sans sel ni agents de conservation. Des analyses microbiologiques et physico-chimiques seront réalisées pour mettre au point le produit final.

Photoredox Fluorination: Selectively Synthesize 2-fluoro-2-methyl-2-deoxyarabinolactone Derivatives via a Radical Pathway

Nature’s ability to convert solar energy to chemical energy in photosynthesis has inspired the development of a host of photoredox systems in efforts to mimic this process. The capacity of fluorine atoms to engender a variety of useful properties in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and performance materials has driven significant research efforts toward the invention of novel fluorination reactions. We
proposed to construct C-F bonds by photoreodox catalysis via a radical pathway. Our project will bring potential benefit to academia and industry. (1) Due to the novelty of the proposed idea using photoredox catalysts in C-H functionalization, it will be a highly efficient process to construct C-F bonds and applicable to a broad range of academic fields. (2) 2-fluoro-2-methyl-2-deoxyarabinolactone derivatives were selectively synthesized, which has many intrinsic advantages such as higher atom economy, cheaper starting materials, easier manipulation and more environmentally benign. Undoubtedly, this project will be of considerable interest for chemical industry and other related fields

Structural, Vibrations and Aerodynamic Analysis of Composite Trailer Tail System

The proposed project is to develop a design tool box with the cooperation R&D team in Transtex Composite, research fellow and academic supervisor. The design toolbox help the engineers in design department of Transtex Composite to design the trailer tail structure based on finite element analysis to be developed by research fellow. Therefore, this package saves time and design cost for different trailers which is added value for Transtex Composites. In addition research fellow will gain industrial experience in studying design requirements and standards for new product in North America market. This product improves the fuel efficiency of the trailer trucks which is beneficial for Canada environment. The proposed study will reduce the design cost, and the product market price which makes this product more popular.