Innovative Projects Realized

Meeting the needs of African refugee youth in Metro Vancouver

Although there is an identified need among African refugee youth for programs that can improve their social and economic settlement outcomes, evidence suggests extremely low levels of participation among African refugee youth in programs designed for young people. The proposed collaborative research seeks to provide an overview of existing programs, explore the extent and nature of African refugee youths’ participation in those programs, identify barriers inhibiting their participation, and generate program and policy recommendations that can improve their access and enhance service provision and settlement outcomes. The key research questions concern what services and programs are needed, and how they can be better coordinated so as to most effectively meet the needs and concerns of African refugee youth. A final report which incorporates recommendation generated in a community forum will be compiled and made available to youth, parents, service providers and policy makers.

Verification, Validation and Expansion of the Business of Carbon Sequestration Through Land Reclamation and Afforestation

Fair Trade Carbon Limited (FTC) and its subsidiary Fair Trade Carbon Uganda are companies founded by UBC graduate students, Canadian tree planters and Ugandan educators in an effort to develop forest carbon markets in both countries based on a for-profit, community direct investment model. FTC Uganda currently manages eight tree plantations and with water scarcity in some areas, the company desires to know the effect of tree plantations on local water resources. The Plant 2010 Water Balance Model internship, a partnership with MITACS, will provide the company with high quality watershed research. The intern will produce a tool to guide land use planning in Uganda when considering long term water supply around new plantations. The intern will conduct a preliminary on site assessment of the watershed, install measurement equipment, and collect data and process results into the water balance model planning tool. The research will take place in multiple catchments in Ibanda District, Western Uganda. The water balance model will then be used by FTC managers when conducting site assessments and feasibility studies on prospective Carbon Park sites in Uganda.

Using Native Plants to Treat Municipal Wastewater for Small Communities in Saskatchewan

A rural Saskatchewan resort community has contracted with Erin Consulting, Ltd, to offer environmentally friendly solutions to their wastewater treatment and management challenges. To that end, an intern from the University of Regina has been identified to help offer design options using native Prairie plants that can remove nutrients and pathogens from the water. The use of native Prairie plants is preferred so that the treatment system will operate under normal climate conditions (extreme cold and hot, as well as dry) in Saskatchewan. The process is anticipated to include several steps or stages in which different types of plants and microbes are growing and remove different nutrients and waste materials from the water prior to discharge to the environment. The overall project goal is to design and test a new “living” wastewater treatment plant process for Saskatchewan that is chemical‐free and sustainable.

Role of Teneurin C-Terminal Associated Peptides in the Stress-Induced Reinstatement of Cocaine Seeking

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is a chemical found naturally in the brain that plays a key role in the stress response. CRF is also known to be involved in anxiety and mood disorders, as well as various aspects of drug dependence, including long-term relapse to drug use. Pathological symptoms in the form of mood disorders and substance abuse occur, at least in part, as a result of aberrant activity within CRF systems. From this perspective, CRF is a logical target for drug development in the treatment of these disorders. The recently discovered teneurin C-terminal associated peptides (TCAP) comprise a chemical system in the brain that naturally regulates CRF activity. More specifically, TCAP is believed to have inhibitory effects on CRF and may, thereby, have important therapeutic implications in the treatment of mood and substance abuse disorders. The present work will be carried out to determine whether TCAP administration can, specifically, interfere in the effects of stress on relapse to cocaine use, an effect that is known to be mediated by CRF. In a first set of experiments, an animal model of relapse, known as the reinstatement procedure, will be used to study how exposure to TCAP affects the ability of stressors to reinstate cocaine-seeking behavior in rats. A second set of experiments will explore how exposure to TCAP alters brain activity in response to those stressors. Overall, it is expected that this work will help to establish the potential of TCAP as a target for the treatment of drug relapse and, thereby, extend the initiatives of PTI to a characterization of the role of TCAP-CRF interactions in drug dependence.

Mattamy Homes Green Initiative Program

This research project proposes the exploration of various mechanical systems configured in two residential homes in Milton, Ontario. The primary goal is to determine the energy consumption and monetary costs associated with integrating new technologies of both heating and cooling requirements of a new home. Refinement of previously collected data and software modeling are keys to providing successful long term projections on potential savings in energy usage and economic payback periods. Conclusive results of this project will accommodate industry partners by providing quantitative prediction on the consumption patterns of home owners on different utility configurations with respect to energy costs and emissions.

Mathematical Investigation of a Balance Metric using Hypergraphs: Part 2

This project is a continuation of last year’s project in which a backend system was design to calculate Fit Brains fitness index that is a way by which Fit Brains can assess clients’ progress. Now that the system has been designed it needs to be implemented, that is each game and database has to be assigned all appropriate description so client’s gaming patterns can be tracked. In addition we will examine if it is possible to find out what exactly makes some of Fit Brains game more popular than others.

Literature and database evaluation and compilation of evapotranspiration in Ontario, Canada

Evapotranspiration is a fundamental component of the hydrologic cycle. According to Environment Canada, on average, as much as 40% of precipitation in Canada is evaporated or transpired. Since evaporation makes up a considerable portion of the water budget, its variability will therefore have proportionally larger impacts on all other related processes. For example, evaporation impacts flood prediction, irrigation, crop growth, hydroelectric production, water navigation, diseases, indigenous peoples’ health and food supply and the carbon budget (Bonan, 2002). A literature and database evaluation on evapotranspiration within the Ontario, Canada region will better inform the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) on their future endeavours to study evaporative fluxes, a critical component of the water budget of watersheds like the Humber River watershed. Future TRCA projects that incorporate the collection of hourly data on evaporative fluxes can provide a better understanding of the hydrology of watersheds including factors generating floods. The measurement regime in identifying the causes for the variability in evaporative losses can thereby strengthen land‐use planning and management decisions. The missing gaps in existing data will identify the potential for enhanced measurement programs in the province.

Incorporating randomness into the PROMETHEUS Fire Growth Simulator

Forest fires are a natural feature of the Canadian landscape, but they pose a threat to individuals and property. Being able to predict the behaviour of a given forest fire is an important element in successfully managing fire suppression resources. Alberta Department of Sustainable Resource Development is responsible for PROMETHEUS, Canada's foremost fire growth modeling tool. PROMETHEUS is a program which simulates the growth of a fire from a single ignition. Currently, it doesn't allow for any kind of randomness or uncertainty. The internship will be devoted to enhancing this growth simulator using modern statistical techniques to incorporate uncertainty into the predictions that PROMETHEUS produces. Probability maps will ultimately be constructed for given fires indicating danger at particular locations. Such probability maps will be of value to fire managers, not only in Alberta, but across the country.

Development of three-dimensional models for analysing mid-rise wood frame buildings

Starting in April 2009, six storey (mid‐rise) high wood frame buildings will be allowed in certain regions of Canada. This will be a new experience to design engineers in Canada, and research is required to support this new development which will expand the use of wood products beyond the traditional low rise, primarily residential construction market. Specifically, engineers have expressed the need to develop innovative connection detailing for these mid‐rise buildings so that applied design forces can be transmitted effectively and sagely between structural components such as beam, wall, floor and roof. This project will develop 3‐dimenstional models of mid‐rise buildings. At the outset of the project with FPInnovations, a survey of engineers in Vancouver will be conducted to identify potential construction detailing that can be further evaluated in this project using the develop computer models.

Data mining on social network applications for entertainment industries

The focus of this project is to investigate the possibility of applying data mining techniques to answer high level design questions specific to the development of high quality multi©player first person shooter games. The industrial partner, Threewave Software, works on game development of multiplayer first person shooters. The company has developed a technology that enables the real©time instrumentation and storage of game play data and is hoping to use basic data analysis techniques to answer high level design questions. Examples of such questions are:

• Weapon X is deemed imbalanced and/or not fun given the data, if we make change Y what will the results Z look like and does it solve our original issue with weapon X?
• Can the system automatically detect negative experiences and notify the developer that people are generally not having fun with weapon X and the reason is most likely Y?

This project will apply data mining techniques to game play data to extract answers to such questions, which can be used to design and develop high quality games.

Data Visualization for query about preferred paths to favourite points of interest based on an abstracted local model for location aware Mobile devices

This internship proposes an abstract model, based on a local of the node where the users are located, instead of a global navigable map. This model is concerned about satisfying users’ transactional need to compare modes of transportation and the costs and outcome of each mode, rather than understanding contextual information about each POI (location). The research team proposes a model that is similar to the way ants find navigation routes. Study shows that ants follow routes that other ants follow. The research team believes, similarly humans, are more inclined to follow routes that are already taken and established, in other words, they follow other people’s footsteps. In this model, what users need is not a global view of space and its’ possibilities; but rather a local view of routes that are ratified and solidified based on trend following. In the course of the research, the team will build a prototype that represents their model, and assesses its usability in context. Several variables that are worthy of investigating in their evaluation of the model are cognitive understanding of the abstract model, ease and transactional speed of use, portability across various hardware platforms, and user’s subjective satisfaction in terms of way‐finding and developing a mental model of real spatial connectivity.

Assessing the feasibility of industry wide incorporation of eco-certification into the Sustainable Winemaking Ontario initiative

This project will assess the potential for a certification program to enhance the Wine Council of Ontario’s voluntary initiative Sustainable Winemaking Ontario. This will involve an investigation of the barriers to implementation and acceptance, consumer interest and purchasing behaviour, the optimum format for a certification program and corresponding labelling and the types of indicators that are deemed important by members of the wine industry and wine consumers. Data will be collected on these three issues from wine industry members through structured interviews and from wine consumers using surveys at winery retail stores and LCBO stores. The Wine Council of Ontario will be able to use this research to decide whether there is sufficient support in terms of potential industry participation, which will drive environmental improvements, and in terms of consumer acceptance to implement a certification program to supplement the Sustainable Winemaking Ontario initiative. Additionally, this research will provide the Wine Council of Ontario with a platform on which to develop a certification program.