Innovative Projects Realized

Converting glycerol to hydrogen using MECs

Glycerol, a byproduct from biodiesel production, is a low value chemical because of excessive supplies on the global market. Current market prices in the European Union is estimated at $300 US/tonne. Glycerol can be converted into higher value chemicals using chemical, thermal and biological processes. Chemical and thermal processes are disadvantaged because they normally operate at high temperatures and pressures. In comparison, biological processes operate at low temperatures and pressures and hence, are more economically attractive. In the proposed work, a ‘microbial battery’ will be developed to produced hydrogen, a higher value chemicals, from glycerol. Our intention is to develop the technology utilizing naturally occurring microorganisms. The ‘microbial battery’ or microbial fuel cell (MFC) will consist of an anode and cathode with microorganisms growing in the cathode compartment. In this particular case, the technology is designated as a microbial electrochemical cell (MEC). By applying a small voltage, glycerol is converted into hydrogen plus other carbon byproducts.

Mechanisms and physiological significance of iron overload induced adiponectin resistance in skeletal muscle

To investigate whether IO alters skeletal muscle adiponectin sensitivity and the mechanisms involved. 1. We will use L6 skeletal muscle cells treated with iron to determine if excess iron leads to adiponectin resistance. 2. We will examine temporal regulation of i) NLRP3 inflammasome and ii) oxidative stress by IO and using gain or loss of function approaches we will examine their significance in mediating effects of IO on adiponectin resistance. 2. Using a mouse model of IO we will examine changes in skeletal muscle adiponectin sensitivity as well as mechanisms involved as in i-ii above.

Life Cycle Analysis of Kakwa Derived LNG for Power Generation and DistrictHeating in China

Natural gas is one of the cleanest fuels for heat and power generation. But in China, coal is still the dominant fuel
but burning coal has caused severe and damaging air pollutions. The partner organization of this project, Seven
Generations Energy Ltd., is a significant Canadian producer of natural gas. This project will comprehensively
assess the overall environmental performance of natural gas production (by Seven Generations) and exporting it
to China to replace coal. The expected results include an environmental dataset of the natural gas from its
extraction to end use and quantifying the benefit of replacing coal for district heating in China. The identified intern
is a current Master’s student working on similar analysis for biofuels. His skills and interest match well with this
project. And this project is initiated by the partner organization therefore they will get the study results to answer
the research questions they set.

Investigating Distributed Ledgers for IoT and Connected Vehicles

With the fast-moving pace of the auto industry moving to more and more computing units, connected infotainment, pairing of on-board equipment to mobile devices, cloud connectivity, V2V, V2X, and autonomous functions, architects and developers need all the help they can get to address security and safety concerns in the systems. This internship will look at existing software protection technologies and their application to a trusted distributed environment. Taking layered robustness approaches like runtime application self-protection and integrity verification we will apply these to a distributed network to establishing trust in its components.

Neurophysiological risk factors in Adolescent Sexual Offending

Sexual offending is a major public health concern in our society, with 21% of those

charged with sexual offenses being adolescents between 12 and 19 years. Characteristics

of these youth include antisocial attitudes, and problems with self-regulation and

intimacy, problems that interfere with learning, social maturation, and appreciating the

rights of others. To date, theories of sexual offending have focused primarily on social

influences and have largely neglected biological mechanisms, providing incomplete

explanations of the phenomena. Partnering with Pathstone Mental Health, the Niagara

regional treatment centre for child and adolescent mental health, the aim of this study is

to integrate neuroscience measures with clinical research to identify individual

variability in adolescent sex offenders that is not measurable at the behavioral level.

Results from this study will inform developmental theories of sexual offending, provide

greater insight into risk and resilience for committing further offenses, and inform

treatment strategies.

Découpe virtuelle interactive de corps élastiques déformables par une méthode de particules

La simulation chirurgicale offre un environnement de pratique sécuritaire pour la formation de nouveaux chirurgiens. De nombreux défis techniques doivent être relevés pour élaborer un environnement virtuel réaliste et utile. Ce projet aborde en particulier la simulation du comportement biomécanique des organes lors de leur interaction avec l’utilisateur, avec une attention particulière apportée au problème de la découpe.
Nous voulons simuler de façon précise les déformations et les forces ressenties par les organes lors de leur contact avec les outils chirurgicaux. Les approches les plus courantes reposent sur la méthode des éléments finis, qui représente les organes en les divisant en éléments géométriques interconnectés. Cette interconnection rend difficile la simulation d’une incision sur un organe étant donné qu’elle nécessite de créer de nouveaux éléments pour remplacer ceux qui se font découper. En contraste, nous voulons représenter les organes avec un nuage de particules non connectées, ce qui rend beaucoup plus facile la simulation d’une incision. Puisque les méthodes avec particules sont souvent plus lentes que celles avec éléments finis, nous utiliserons une carte graphique (GPU) pour accélérer les calculs.

Nouvelle approche pour l’optimisation quadratique sous contraintes de bornes

Le projet de recherche concerne l’étude et de développement d’algorithmes pour l’optimisation de fonctions différentiables sous de simples contraintes de bornes. Ces problèmes présentent un intérêt intrinsèque par leur structure. Des algorithmes d’application plus générale utilisent fréquemment des sous-problèmes avec contraintes de bornes. Plusieurs applications, par exemple dans les problèmes d’imagerie, comportent systématiquement des bornes de non-négativité correspondant à la réalité physique qu’un pixel à valeur négative n’a pas de sens.

Depuis la cinquantaine d’années que la discipline de l’optimisation mathématique a pris son essor, l’intérêt pour les contraintes de bornes a été maintenu au fil des progrès dans le domaine algorithmique. C’est l’esprit de ce projet de recherche, d’exploiter des résultats modernes sur les algorithmes pour l’optimisation sans contrainte dans le traitement des bornes. Une piste d’algorithme avec bornes sera développée, un algorithme sera implémenté et validé au sein du logiciel Qpalm.

Bounds on LDPC codes

Quantum circuit components will always be unreliable. To protect quantum information from becoming corrupted, we require quantum error correcting codes. The drawback is that quantum error correcting codes necessitate a trade-off – the better the code protects information, the more resources it requires to be sustained. Our current resource estimates to construct useful quantum circuits seem insurmountable.
It was recently shown that if a certain class of error correcting codes, called quantum LDPC codes, were to exist, then they could potentially lower resource requirements significantly. However, it is unknown whether these codes exist and the hunt for these codes has become an active area of research.
By borrowing ideas from the theory of classical error correcting codes, we hope to explore the limits of quantum LDPC codes. These methods are abstract yet powerful tools that exploit the mathematical structure of LDPC codes to bound their performance. By establishing what is (im)possible with quantum LDPC codes, we help move towards answering an important open problem towards the realization of quantum computation.

A unique and continuous tractography for both brain and spinal cord

As a part of work between the hospital of Rennes and the VisAGeS team, the EMISEP project focuses on multiple sclerosis (MS) which affects the spinal cord. We address the evaluation of the potential of focal lesions and diffuse lesions observed using diffusion MRI early in the disease course to predict the EDSS at 5 years in relapsing-remitting MS patients. The diffusion MRI data will be pre-processed prior to the beginning of the internship: distortion correction, diffusion model estimation, fiber tracking of the brain and spine separately. We will focus on the development of a strategy to join both tractograms to obtain a continuous representation of fibers for brain and spinal cord. We will first evaluate state-of-the-art registration method to identify the main challenges in the task of gluing together brain and spine tractography. The processing will be performed on the whole EMISEP dataset, and the results will be evaluated based on the total length of the reconstructed fiber bundles. Last, the results of fiber tracking will be used to perform track-based statistical analysis of the diffusion parameters along the reconstructed fibers and correlated with clinical scores.

Interoperability of proofs with Dedukti and Beluga

Critical systems such as transportation systems require a high level of safety that can only be achieved with formal proof. Such formal proofs are typically expressed in some logic that can be verified by theorem provers. The diversity of theorem provers and logics has a negative consequence: the same theorem is proved many times and it is difficult for these systems to co-operate, because they do not implement the same logic. Logical frameworks are a class of theorem provers that overcome this issue by providing a generic framework in which we can represent and specify various logics. The logical framework Dedukti developed at INRIA shines when it comes to compactly represent logics using user-defined rewrite rules, but lacks the ability to write proof transformations between logics. The logical framework Beluga developed at McGill excels in writing such proof transformations, but does not allow user-defined rewrite rules. This project aims at building a new logical framework combining the strengths of Dedukti and Beluga. Concretely, we plan to first design a unified logical framework that supports both user-defined rewrite rules and the ability to write proof transformations. TO BE CONT.

Deployment of wireless sensor networks for air pollution monitoring

Air pollution is one of the main environmental applications where Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are widely used. Using WSN for air pollution monitoring usually targets two main applications: 1) regular mapping and 2) the detection of high pollution concentrations. Both of these applications need a careful deployment of sensors in order to get better knowledge of air pollution. We have already proposed for both applications novel deployment approaches allowing to minimize the deployment cost of the monitoring system while ensuring an effective monitoring of air pollution and maintaining the network connectivity. Nevertheless, in our existent work, we do not take into account the energy consumption of nodes and the effective routing and collection of pollution data. Also, our solutions are not adapted to 3D regions. The aim of our collaboration project is therefore to cope with these limitations while integrating into our approaches the aspects of energy consumption, effective data collection and routing in addition to 3D deployment. Thanks to the remarkable knowledge of the host Professor A. Boukerche through his numerous contributions in the field of WSN deployment and data collection, we believe that our collaboration would be fruitful.

Modeling the Risks and Damages from a “Potential” Invasive Plant Species: Yellow Starthistle in British Columbia

The purpose of this research project is to forecast the timing and estimate the costs of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) invasion into southern British Columbia. Yellow Starthistle is an invasive plant that has caused tens of millions of dollars of damages to agricultural production in the United States as well as millions of dollars of costs in the form of reduction of soil moisture, losses of biodiversity and tourism. YST has been detected in states immediately adjacent to the Canadian border (Washington & Idaho), and due to climate change, the spread of YST into Southern British Columbia and Alberta is not a question of if but of when and where. Based on an extensive literature review pertaining to invasive species prevention and control, and bio-economic modelling we will outline a set of policy recommendations that minimise the risk of invasion and therefore control costs. The above recommendations will be passed on to the invasive species societies whose mandate is public education, as well as prevention and control of biological invasions.