Innovative Projects Realized

Evaluation of Visual Analytics Requirements Gathering Methods

The goal of this research is to define an information acquisition strategy for use in the definition and development of visual analytics (VA) tools relevant to the domain of interest. The strategy will account for task and job requirements gathering and incorporate a wealth of human factors issues known to be important in critical system design, e.g., workload, situation awareness, automation, etc. Another goal is to provide valid information for the design of laboratory and field studies using existing or new VA tools or components as the study apparatus. The methods developed for information and requirements gathering are to be evaluated in the context of a Boeing visual analytics project focused on the analysis of vast amounts of maintenance and safety data about Boeing aircraft. Methods will be evaluated by AeroInfo/Boeing analysts in order to gather user and system feedback that can be mapped to the design and development of visual analysis tools, techniques and systems.

Investigation of Cyclosporiasis Outbreaks in British Columbia

The outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a foodborne or waterborne disease caused by the microorganism called cyclospora, was first documented in the province of British Columbia in 1999. From 1999 to present, there have been 5 documented outbreaks of cyclosporiasis in BC and they were found to be associated with locally produced or imported produce. However, there is no increase in cyclospora cases nationally. The objective of this project with the BC Centre for Disease Control is to determine if cyclosporiasis is endemic to BC or if it is a reflection in the difference in laboratory detection and reporting mechanisms in Canada through the conduction of surveys. The irrigation methods and agricultural practices of the lower mainland farming areas in BC would also be evaluated to investigate if they are potential causes of contamination of the locally-grown produce.

Identifying Marketing Opportunities for New Cancer Detection Products, LungSign(TM) and OralAdvance(TM)

The interns will conduct marketing research to design, develop and deliver an integrated marketing plan for two new cancer detection products, called LungSign™ and OralAdvance™. Each intern will conduct a competitive analysis using visual tools in order to identify underutilized market opportunities. Based on the analysis, the interns will deliver recommendations for a marketing mix and communications plan and design a creative strategy for increased use of these early detection products.

Executing the Quartz Analysis Engine on a Cell Processor Based Cluster

The aim of this project is to assist Flagstone RE, a global reinsurer in evaluating whether the Quartz Analysis Engine, which is currently running on a conventional cluster, could benefit from being ported to a cluster of cell processors. Improved performance could allow for timely processing of larger data sets, resulting in better prediction accuracy.

Establishing Native Plant Communities on Severely Disturbed Sites: Investigating the Limiting Factors to Restoring Slash Burn Scars

In many actively managed forest ecosystems, the most disturbed locations are the areas where excess woody slash has been piled and burned. Burning slash creates barren patches, which may provide locations for the invasion of exotic plant species. The intern will study the restoration of native species to these sites where slash piles have been recently burned, with the intent of preventing the entry of exotic invasive species into the area or, if invasive species are already present, preventing their further spread. Three possible limiting factors to native plant establishment will be investigated: seed availability, seed herbivory, and the availability of soil mycorrhizal inoculants. This experiment will be performed on three different field sites in Kamloops, Clinton, and Riske Creek, BC.

Development of game schedules for university sports in Quebec

This project aims to develop mathematical models, resolution algorithms, and a decision support tool for the development of game schedules for university sports in Quebec such as football, soccer, volleyball and basketball.

An Algebra-Based Approach to Program Verification

We want to study the feasibility of using an algebra-based approach to performing program analysis. In particular, we are interested in the code comparison problem: tackling this problem enables us, among other things, to identify differences between two versions of a code or to check whether an optimized code is equivalent to its non-optimized version. We aim to reduce the comparison of programs to a simple algebraic manipulation similar to those that are constantly performed in classical algebra. Moreover, the proposed approach could be used in other programming contexts such as program analysis; two examples are program synthesis and model checking.

A Wireless Wearable Multi-parameter Physiology Multi-sensor System

Miniaturization and microintegration is well known for their potentials in providing microsystems and sensors with unmatched performance, reliability, and lower costs. Current technologies in implementation of microsensors, however, span a large variety of platforms. It is thus common for microsensors measuring differing parameters to exist on different combinations of substrates, not to even mention the associated signal conditioning, processing, and data communication electronics. It remains a challenge to integrate multiple sensors with complex electronics into a single high-density microsystem, particularly for certain applications in medical diagnostics and healthcare where flexibility of the substrate and biocompatibility become crucial considerations. Traditional microintegration technologies such as system-in-package, system-on-chip, and advanced assembly and packaging, are often inadequate. It is the goal of this research project to develop a mutliparameter single locus integrated multilayer polymer microsensor system to address the fundamental issues of high-density integration, flexibility, biocompatibility, easy application, high sensitivity, and reliability for medical grade diagnostics and other physiological monitoring applications.

Development of Multi-criteria Decision Support and Analysis Tools to Assist Community Economic Development and Environmental Planning

Yield Management to Optimize Expected Revenues

Yield Management refers to a method of dynamically-pricing products such as airline seats and hotel rooms in such a way as to optimize revenues. While this technique is best known to the public from its application in the airline industry, it has a fact been employed in the hotel business since the early 1990s, managing room pricing strategies according to forecasts of supply and demand. However, these techniques are less well developed in the convention side of the business, especially in the case of opportunities that span multiple facilities. This project, in partnership with IGENO, a company which provides analytical management consulting & education to the retail, hospitality and tourism industries, will attempt to expand and transfer yield management theories to the particular case of a large tourism association by developing and testing various hypotheses and algorithms to dynamically forecast demand for the available resource. In addition, the intern will adapt the principles of yield management to the bulk sales models employed in the various convention booking scenarios and then develop, modify and test various pricing strategies against the developed mathematical models of supply and demand.

Whole Genome Association Strategy for Unbiased Candidate Gene Selection in Inflammatory Diseases

Susceptible individuals for inflammatory diseases could be targeted for either preventative measures or care if we could identify them by obtaining their genetic code. However, to date, there is no effective method of discovering which of the more than 5 million genetic variants are important in determining disease susceptibility. A common approach is to test every genetic variation, in every patient, for its correlation with some disease (called Whole Genome Association orWGA), but this is extremely expensive and slow. The intern will use a different approach that consists in conducting WGA analysis in tissue culture (rather than patients) where the response of every gene (rather than every disease) is measured. Therefore, thousands of WGA will be performed, one for each gene, using a cluster computer to run the analysis in parallel and speed up the process. By considering every gene included in a microarray chip, it will be possible to identify, in an unbiased way, candidate genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that appear to regulate expression of important other genes in response to the prototype inflammatory stimulus. These candidate genes and SNPs will then be tested in critical ill human population in future studies.

Railcar Automated Coupling and Switching

Pacific Coast Terminals (in Port Moody, BC) is a highly-automated terminal for the transshipment of bulk materials from railcars to cargo ships. A rotary dumper empties the bulk material in the railcars by tipping their contents onto a conveyor system, in preparation for subsequent shipment. The dumper requires three people for operation: the dumper operator remotely controls the positioning of the railcars from an operator’s cab, and two switchmen serve to break and couple the railcars on adjacent incoming and outgoing tracks. The switchmen’s jobs are undesirable because of the short duration of required activities combined with a long-term exposure to potential hazards from possible unexpected movements of the cars. This project is aimed at increasing the level of automation of the rotary dumper system to allow automatic coupling and decoupling of railcars, thus allowing switchmen to be reassigned to safer and more productive work.