Innovative Projects Realized

Identification, localization, and characterization of human body inflammation using thermographic imaging

The research project undertaken by the intern is to investigate the relationship between inflammation and temperature, use that knowledge to define thermal metrics and develop a standard operating procedure for 3D thermal body imaging. During the project the intern will build a phantom to evaluate and optimize the performance of a commercially available 3D thermal imager for the identification, characterization and localization of inflammation. By the completion of the project, the intern will have a pathway towards a human study and a validated technology to perform accurate 3D thermal data collection. The expected benefits for the partner organization is a validated use case for inflammation related to back and spine health that can be offered as a solution to their customers.

Identifying Service Quality Considerations and Market Forces in the Mobile Auto Repair Business

Humankind has always been creative in evolving and adapting to a convenient and comfortable lifestyle. One of the common problems most of us face is vehicle maintenance. This service overlaps with work schedules and requires pick-up and drop arrangements. Our company proposes Mobile Auto Repair that provides customers with their vehicle maintenance performed at their preferred location and time by the certified mechanics. This project will aim to identify barriers that mobile auto repair businesses face while launching in Canada. The intern will identify the regulations for Mobile Auto Repair that obeys Canadian and North American regulations and standards for the automobile industry.

Business Analyst (BA) Impact on Business Agility and Data Analytics

Digital Transformation of business, combined with globalization through outsourcing, has create an increasingly fast-paced, competitive environment for most businesses. Additionally, new disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain are just beginning to open new opportunities for the next wave of Digital Transformation. Agile concepts have accepted in information systems (IS) development for more than two decades. Today, many organizations dedicate agile teams to create new digital products for rapid implementation, while many business units have begun to adopt an agile approach to accelerate how the business unit operates.
In parallel with agile business, the rise of data analytics (sometimes called Big Data) has been apparent for over a decade. 80% of executives believe their businesses will be disrupted by digital technology soon, about two years, and they believe that data and analytics will be the key to their corporate survival. This research will explore how business analysis can contribute to enterprise agility and data driven decisions.

Improved Brazing Processes for Attaching Sintered Carbide Tiles to Steel

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CCREST: Cold Cracking by Resonance Energy for Sustainable Technologies – Phase 2

Did you know that Partial Upgrading of bitumen and heavy oil can boost Alberta and Canada’s economy? The most cost effective high volume mode for transporting crude oil over land is by pipeline and most Alberta bitumen moves on the existing pipeline network. Viscosity maxima and API gravity minima are specified by pipeline companies to ensure efficient operations and maximize movement of heavy oil from Alberta. To satisfy these specifications, Alberta bitumen and heavy oil must be diluted by diluent, which reports as a cost to the bitumen producer. This project proposes concrete solution to the heavy oil/bitumen producers who face severe challenges to treat and transport their products to the market as well as refineries with low value, heavy products which have difficulties with converting into higher value products. It introduces a patented novel technology that uses an economic and green methodology to partially upgrade heavy oil and bitumen products that facilitates their transportation and further upgrading process.

Behavioral mapping Using Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to Predict Individual Behaviors and Team Dynamics

This project tackles the issue of knowledge incompleteness and lack of domain coverage in resume and job posting matching caused by the exploitation of domain-general resources. A variety of co-operative semantic/ontological resources will be used to filter out irrelevant resumes. A two-way (candidate to job and job to candidate) semantic-based automatic suitability ranking is proposed. The suitability is determined by the semantic distance of resumes and job postings, evaluated by their word embeddings. An efficient semantic space created through the Convolutional and Recurrent Neural Networks will be utilized with different word embedding mechanisms along with different classification methods. The project also investigates the potential of knowledge graphs in illustrating inconsistencies between the resumes and job postings will be investigated. This study improves an automatic system capable of precisely detecting, extracting, and visualizing the resume and job posting’s relevant skills as well as the implicitly encoded semantic dimensions of applicant resumes.

Developing a Field Deployable Assay System for Environmental Monitoring

There are currently over 9,000 potentially contaminated sites in Canada that require environmental assessment. The Field Deployable Assay (FDA) is a simple and cost-effective method for performing accurate environmental monitoring and site assessments. The FDAs are composed of a stationary main body and a variety of interchangeable cartridges. These cartridges act as miniature greenhouses, easily allowing for the monitoring of the growth of plants and fungus over an extended period. Based on the rate of seed germination, seedling growth and plant-fungal interactions, the degree of contamination of a site can be determined. The goal of the research is to refine the existing cartridge models as well as developing new models. New species will also be added to the list of suitable candidates that can be used, allowing for more robust environmental assessments.

Bridging the Gap: A Research Evaluation of a High School to Post-Secondary Preparatory Program for At-Risk and Underrepresented Groups

Mathstronauts’ NEXUS Program is a 12-week program in which grade 11 and 12 students from underrepresented groups gain fundamental technical skills in the areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and soft skills (time management, note taking, etc.) to support their transition into post-secondary education. To investigate the impact of this intervention, our intern will use surveys and focus groups to identify the feasibility of the program in an online format, the short-term impacts of this program on the technical and soft skills of participants, and the long-term impacts of the program on post-secondary attitudes and decisions six-months after program completion. These assessments will contribute to a final NEXUS Program report which will be used by Mathstronauts to inform future improvements on the program. Additionally, the report will be a tool for school boards, community organizations, and research institutions to make similar programs widely accessible to students.

Coaching Mental Health Providers and Adults to Achieve Optimal Sleep

Millions of Canadians struggle with insomnia, but common methods of dealing with poor sleep (e.g., medication) have poor side effects, do not have lasting effects, and are not preferred by patients and providers. Although cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the gold-standard treatment, there is limited access because most mental health practitioners (MPHs) do not have sufficient training to deliver CBT-I. To address this problem, Dr. Colleen Carney, one of six recognized behavioural sleep medicine trainers in the world, developed a sleep optimizing algorithm (SOA) to coach MHPs, as well as to create a product that adults can use to optimize their sleep. The project will demonstrate the usefulness of this program in improving sleep and increasing access to effective insomnia treatments. Because of how common poor sleep is in the population, the partner organization is expected to benefit from an extremely valuable intellectual property that has been scientifically shown to improve sleep.

Cultural Diversity and the Persistence of the BIPOC Community in the Chemical Sciences

The representation of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) community decreases at higher levels of education/academia. This phenomenon is proverbially referred to as the ‘leaky pipeline’ and has been studied extensively with various populations in multiple disciplines. However, despite scholars identifying some key factors that contribute to the persistence of the BIPOC community in STEM fields in general (e.g., stereotype threat), there is a limited understanding of how the cultural composition of the learning and working environments in the chemical sciences contributes to this phenomenon. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand how the cultural composition of chemical science faculties at post-secondary institutions in Canada influences the persistence of BIPOC students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty members. The findings will be used to create webinars designed to maximize the retention of the BIPOC community in the chemical sciences and enhance the diversity of the CIC’s membership.

Building a Mobile Application to identify Factors that Impact Student Success and Mental Health Amongst Living Arrangements: Part 2

This research seeks to inform the development of, and fully test and develop a mobile application designed to improve the process in which students’ find accommodation and roommates. I will develop wireframes and ask users to provide feedback on how to improve the platform. Then I will take the information collected to develop a prototype that can successfully match students based on preferences to help them in selecting a roommate.

CO2-less hydrogen gas production via RF (radiofrequency fields) methane pyrolysis

One of the major challenges today is reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) into the atmosphere and the increasing demand in the hydrogen energy sector. Currently, Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) is the industry standard in producing H2. Unfortunately, the H2 produced here is classified as “grey hydrogen” as the reaction between methane and water also produces carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane pyrolysis (MP) offers an alternative approach to H2 production as it decomposes methane molecules into H2 and solid carbon only, making the process significantly cleaner than SMR. In addition to CO2-less H2 production, solid carbon co-production has its market value, making the MP a more economical and greener alternative in H2 production. This project proposes the MP using high electric radiofrequency (RF) to trigger methane decomposition. Acceleware Ltd. aims to commercialize this technology, and this project is centered on proving its feasibility on the laboratory scale.