Innovative Projects Realized

Cozy Games and Character-Driven Narratives as an Effective Tool for Pediatric Voice Therapy

This project explores the development of new media and technology to aid speech-language pathologists (SLPs) specializing in voice therapy. Existing vocal therapy resources lack effective game interactivity and compelling character-driven narratives, both of which are known to increase motivation and engagement in learning. Clinicians do not have the expertise or know-how to utilize game mechanisms in the media they are developing, nor are they experts in the realm of story, fantasy and experiential learning. Incorporating these missing elements to voice therapy games can potentially produce more effective rehabilitation tools that are more reliably used by children, leading to better treatment outcomes. The intern’s research and prototype development will lay the groundwork for future commercial products to be developed by Studio Amiko Inc. in the vocal therapy space.

Manufacturing the smart Acoustical/Thermal Insulation (ATI) ceiling tile with recycled plastic for building applications

Global population and economic growth increase the demand for more buildings and, thus, more construction materials. Increases in the production of construction materials also lead to greenhouse gas emission rise and depletion of natural resources. Therefore, by increasing the awareness of the reduction of non-renewable sources, more resource-efficient and sustainable waste management is required. Moreover, attributes of the building elements have a significant impact on energy consumption to maintain comfortable room temperatures. Besides, in an open or closed office, classroom, cafeteria, patient room, hospital lobby, and nurse station noise control is critical. Hence, in all residential and commercial buildings, thermal and acoustic insulation parameters are essential. For this purpose, we are developing the Acoustical/Thermal Insulation (ATI) tile, which can be used in the wall and ceiling at any residential and commercial building. ATI tiles developed by composite materials made entirely from renewable resources that have properties capable of serving in a specific application. This is a very lightweight product with having a competitive price in the market. ATIs consist of one outer skin sandwiching an inner core made of insulating material. Together they form a tile that is flexible in design and color.

Design, Development of an Automated Hipot and Continuity tester for Novel Catheter

A novel medical device is designed and built by the partner organization. The medical device must go under certain safety tests during the manufacturing process, which are currently performed manually. However, manual tests are too time consuming due to the special structure of the device. On the other hand, the device is now being approved to be used in in Europe and will start a controlled Clinical study in the USA under a PMA filling. Because of this, the partner organization wants the intern to undertake a research project whose objective is to decrees the testing time of the device. The main benefit to the company is that the total production time is going to be decreased, enabling the company to make the supply meet the high demand in the future.

How to set up effective incentivization to scale open banking usage in Canada

When making purchases or carrying out daily banking tasks, consumers (individuals and small businesses) generate a stream of information based on their transactions. This financial transaction data is currently held and controlled by individual financial institutions. Open banking is a framework where consumers and businesses can authorize third party financial service providers to access their financial transaction data using secure online channels. The benefit to consumers is that it allows them to access new products and services that enable them to better manage their financial affairs. Open banking holds the potential to reduce costs, improve Canadians’ ability to manage financial services, and gain access to a wider range of services that the digital economy has to offer. Of course, the technical design of infrastructure and the required regulation to ensure successful implementation of open banking and security of consumers’ data are the first requisite of this service. However, achieving the benefits of open banking above all requires widespread adoption by individuals and businesses. This adoption needs consumers to change their habits and adopt new financial practices. In this study, we will investigate consumers’ adoption to open banking and find effective interventions to scale its usage in Canada.

Modeling the Grid Impact of Long Haul Electric Vehicles (LHEVs) in Ontario

Electric Long Haul (LH) Transport Trucks may feature batteries that are 10 or more times the capacity of passenger electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Charging these enormous Trucks could put a major strain on our electric grid. Conversely, these massive batteries could offer valuable services and put power back onto grid at strategic times and places. A study will examine the potential grid impacts of LHEVs on the Ontario grid. Archetypal long-haul routes of existing transport patterns across Ontario will provide a foundation for the analysis. Critical variables such as state of charge, charging rates, and charging times will be parameterized to assess impacts on the size and shape of electricity demand at a distribution, and wider grid level. Finally, a regionalized case study will examine the potential for LHEVs to function as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) while serving in Ontario’s rapidly growing, and electrically intensive, Indoor Agricultural sector.

Operator space situation awareness in space object tracking tasks

In the field of space operation and monitoring, there is an increasing need to build space situation awareness (SSA). That is, how well an operator can understand the position and operation of all space objects and satellites. It is critical to organize and present all the data in a proper way to support human understanding of the situation. The current project aims to conduct literature review and help understand what information and knowledge operators need to successfully complete space object tracking tasks, as well as review existing methods that can be used for measuring operator SSA, for the evaluation of the goodness of display designs. Regarding the expected benefit to the partner organization, this engagement will provide a competitive advantage (with respect to usability and human factors requirements) for scaling/market success within Canadian Space sector which is totaled at $5.3 Billion.

Prototyping of a large-area heater on a PVC membrane with inkjet-printing of silver ink

A novel approach using inkjet-printer will be used for fabricating low-cost and large-area heaters on a Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, laminated on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane. The PVC membrane with a laminated heater will be used as a de-icing material for roofs in buildings. Silver nanoparticle inks will be printed and patterned to create a unique design that is electrically activated. This project will investigate a method to reduce the printing process time, uniform large-area inkjet-printing, and temporal control the inkjet-printed heater. The acquired information will be used to demonstrate the feasibility of using printed metal lines for large-area heater applications and understand the requirements for designing and implementing the dynamic heater on a flexible PVC substrate. The successful outcome of this project will help further understanding to scale this technology using additive manufacturing approaches and for enhancing the functionality of conventional building materials.

Automating an Infosec Question Answering Function

Tugboat has 1000s of questions and responses submitted by clients. Users upload questions which can be answered using the “Auto Answer” functionality. The “Auto Answer” technology leverages weighted search vectors to search answer databases and prioritize which answers to recommend for a given question.

The objective of the project is to leverage this dataset by training a machine learning model to automate and improve the “Auto Answer” functionality described above. The current approach uses ideas from the information retrieval domain serving as the baseline. Improving this benchmark is the primary goal. The task of the model is to, given a question, recommend an ordered list of similar questions with known responses from the available databases, along with confidence or probability levels of the answers.

Investing in Recovery: Strengthening Employer and Policy Roles in Labour Market Integration of Canada’s Immigrant Women in STEM

The goal of our project titled Investing in Recovery: Strengthening Employer and Policy Roles in Labour Market Integration of Canada’s Immigrant Women in STEM will be to produce new research rooted in a power analysis around the specific challenges that Canada’s immigrant women in STEM face, including the perspective of STEM employers on the opportunity costs for their growth if these barriers are not addressed (particularly in a time of pandemic recovery) as well as exploring and documenting the various kinds of support employers may need in order to sustainably improve the labour market outcomes of highly-skilled immigrant women in STEM. The strategic partnership between University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information and TechGirls Canada aims to produce research that is relevant and actionable, while inspiring the stakeholders to envision more equitable and economically just alternative futures in this fiercely competitive global environment.

Who’s at the Top? How racialized female newcomers ascend to top management teams

our overall objective is to explain the process by which FRNs move beyond attaining starter
jobs to advancing into senior leadership positions. Employment within a top management team means
newcomers are likely to make a strategic impact on business. We focus on the Greater Vancouver area
to leverage earlier research conducted in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), allowing for cross-provincial
comparisons of quantitative data (Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council, 2019). The project
will focus on two research questions to further our overall objective:

1. To what extent are female newcomers represented in senior leadership positions in Greater
Vancouver?
2. What factors at the firm and individual levels explain any gaps or patterns revealed by the first
question, especially focusing on career progression of female racialized newcomers?

Advancing Fatigue Risk Mitigation with EEG Fatigue-Detection: A Field Study

Fatigue has been acknowledged as a priority issue in human factors contributing to injury in most industries. Of significant concern are drivers operating haulage equipment in the mining industry, who are exposed to monotonous working conditions. This risk exposure might be mitigated if fatigue can be detected and managed. Recent advancements in wearable technologies proport to detect fatigue through electroencephalography (EEG). Since fatigue detection technology cannot prevent fatigue from occurring, and it cannot mitigate fatigue once it is detected these devices should be implemented within the context of a broader fatigue risk management systems (FRMS). This project will: determine whether live-feedback from an EEG fatigue-detection device can enhance a FRMS; this includes an assessment of usability and uptake by mobile equipment operators.

Effects of reducing the omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio in milk replacer on intestinal health in neonatal calves

Dairy calves are generally fed whole milk or milk replacer during the first weeks of life. Compared with whole milk, milk replacer containing vegetable oils has a higher polyunsaturated fat content. More specifically, it is high in omega-6 and low in omega-3 fatty acids, making the omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio ten times higher in milk replacer compared with whole milk. Omega-6 fatty acids are precursors for pro-inflammatory molecules and therefore, the hypothesis of this project is that milk replacers with high omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio may induce inflammation and compromise gut barrier function. The objective of this study is to evaluate effects of reducing omega-6 and increasing omega-3 fatty acids in milk replacer on intestinal health and inflammation in calves from birth up to 3 weeks of age. The results of this study will contribute to our knowledge regarding milk replacer formulations to improve dairy calf health on farm.