Innovative Projects Realized

Bioinformatic Tools for high throughput design of Environmental Immunodiagnostics

Environmental Proteomics NB is a biotechnology design and production company that develops systems to measure levels of important proteins, in particular proteins involved in major environmental and industrial processes. Environmental Proteomics uses computational analyses of genetic and protein data, or bioinformatics, to develop these molecular systems to detect and quantitate specific proteins, even in the presence of complex contaminating mixtures. The proposed intern will work on these design projects, and will develop new computational approaches to acclerate the design and production of these valuable systems. The products are marketed around the world, with rapidly growing demand. Improved bioinformatic design processes will help Environmental Proteomics maintain and develop a leadership position in this niche market.

Aspects of Current Measurement with Single-site Long Range High Frequency Radar: Part 2

High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) is one of many istruments that may be used to measure characteristics of the ocean surface. These radars transmit radio waves which scatter from the ocean. Some of the scattered wave energy, which is received at the radar site, contains information on ocean surface currents, waves and winds. For about three decades researchers have been developing models to better explain the actual scattering process and how to extract the ocean characteristics which are imprinted on the radar signal. Because of the complex nature of the whole scattering process and the environment in which the radars operate, there are still many intersting research problems which need to be addressed. Among these is the determination of the limitations on the measurements themsevles. In particular, in the proposed work, the intern will investigate the precision with which ocean currents can be measured with HFSWR.

Northern Radar Inc (NRI) has been involved in HFSWR for over twenty years. While their primary focus has been on using the radars are surveillance tools for tracking ships and low-flying aircraft, ocean surface information is a by-product of interest. The work being proposed here will enhance NRIs capabilities to market HFSWR as an ocean remote sensing tool. Furthermore, as NRI seeks to enter the market from small HFSWRs whose primary purpose is for ocean measurements, it is important to establish the capablities and limitations of the systems. The proposed internship fits precisely into these aspects of the company’s initiatives and continues the works of a Mitacs Accelerate Internship begun in September 2009.

CFD Model of a Grease Interceptor

The research project will be to develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the Proceptor. The function of the Proceptor is to separate grease from contaminated water streams. The objective of this research is to study the separation process in greater details to reinforce and enhance the company’s understanding of the Proceptor design. Two commercial software products, Fluent and CFX, will be considered for building the model. The model will be validated using available experimental data. Simulations will be run for different interceptor configurations, and the pressure head loss and removal efficiency will be measured for different inlet flow rates. In addition, the flow pattern inside the reactor tank will be studied to determine the design criteria resulting in longer retention time, and thus greater removal efficiency. The study will attempt to explain the inconsistencies between the theories and some of the experimental results, and to yield information that will allow the company to improve the Proceptor design.

Practical Methods for man-made feature extraction from remote sensing imagery and applications to national topographic map updating

The objective of this project is to participate in the development of automated methods for the extraction of cartographic features from satellite images with high spatial resolutions. Emphasis will be placed on man-made features of interest, including roads, settlement extent and large infrastructures, etc. This will involve review and performance assessment of existing methods, data preprocessing, software implementation and evaluation of new image processing methods suitable for high resolution images. In addition, the potential achievements of this project will be summarized for publishing on academic journals. The results of this project will be useful for updating the national topographic mapsystems of Canada. The partner organization, i.e. MDA, will benefit from the development experience and methods resulted from this project for processing the satellite images and extracting features. The possible result of this project is believed to be helpful for generating and improving the products of MDA.

Global and Local Stress Analysis of Coke Drum by New Temperature-dependent Elastoplastic Constitutive Material Model

Coke drums are major petroleum refinery and oil sands upgrading facilities associated with the processing of oil sands bitumen. The service lives of current coke drums are limited and frequent repairing is required due to severe cyclic thermal-mechanical load experienced. The objective of this project is to find root causes causing the damage/failure through more accurate global and local elastoplastic analyses on the coke drums by using new developed material constitutive model. Based on deeper understanding of the damage mechanism, potential improvements on the design, fabrication, operation and maintenance of coke drums will be proposed. The industrial partner of this project is a major user of the coke drums. Application of the proposed improvement measures will results in extending service lives of their existing equipment and in future building more robust coke drums.

Performance Assessment of a Vertical Kinetic Turbine in a Wake Zone

This internship will numerically simulate the impact of flow structures on power production from river kinetic turbines. These turbines extract renewable energy from rivers from flow velocity rather than from a drop in river levels. To date, a proper mathematical approach of how to place these turbines in a river is not available. Mathematic tools are required to estimate the power reduction when these turbines are subjected to large flow variations in river applications created by river bank profile changes, turbines located upstream, and due to localized changes in the river levels. To help achieve this objective, flow structures generated by cylinders located upstream of turbine blades will be numerically simulated; turbulence models will be used to predict the interaction between the flow structures and the turbine blades. The research will enhanced the ability of New Energy to better understand how to place kinetic turbines when deploying commercial turbines to generate renewable power in rivers.

Software Tools for the Compression of Sets of Satellite Images

In conjunction with Iunctus Geomatics Corp, we propose to develop a storage system for collected satellite image sets. The properties of typical sets of satellite images will be used to reduce the overall storage requirement for the image sets. This is expected to lead to reduced hardware requirement for storage, as well as a reduction in transmission time for image sets. Software tools to manage the image sets will be developed. Furthermore, we will study the feasibility of incorporating different types of image sets (corresponding to different products based on the same image sets) into a single storage system, so that the images corresponding to the different products can be stored together efficiently as well. Since the different products are not treated independently, we expect additional reduction in storage requirement and transmission time. The proposed systems will be evaluated based on both storage space reduction and the amount of computationally overhead incurred.

Masonry Wall Systems: The Strategic Placement of the Masonry Product and Design Decisions for Wall Systems in an Industry Evolving Towards Sustainability and Environmental Concern

This internship project will research how trends of environmental sustainability within the commercial construction industry may affect design decisions for building envelopes. To remain competitive in the global marketplace, commercial construction players are increasingly challenged to adapt their businesses within an industry evolving with new standards and regulation. The Saskatchewan Masonry Institute (SMI) has identified the need to determine the role of masonry products within these evolving trends. A project with SMI is currently underway to quantify the full Life Cycle Cost (LCC) of various masonry envelope systems and competitive alternatives. The internship project will work in tandem with the broader LCC study. The specific objectives of the project are: (i) to research the evolution of industry standards for building envelopes in the context of environmental footprint, (ii) to model, quantify and compare energy consumption of buildings with a masonry envelope system and other alternatives, and (iii) to quantify the performance of the alternative building envelopes in terms of relevant environmental standards and integrate these findings within the broader LCC study.

Development of a Dynamic Model for In Vitro DNA Ligand Selection

Aptamers are single stranded DNA molecules that due to their sequence bind to specific target molecules. The process for the identification of aptamers for a specific target involves exposure of a large number of random sequences to the target followed by selection of sequences that bind. This process requires several several selection cycles for success. Selection is based on two overlapping factors, strengh of binding and specificity of binding. Mathematical models that provide some explanation of the effect of selection pressure on the strength of binding exist, but these models do not include consideration of selection for specificity. This project is focused on the development of a broader model that will include consideration of selection for specificity and the effect of this selection on the probability distibution of the population. NeoVentures requires this understanding to establish selecyion protocols that optimize specificity for their selection of DNA ligands for commerical targets.

Development of a Commercial Preservation Technology to Minimize Physiological Injury and Assure Quality Attributes of Apple Fruit

The ripening of fleshy fruits such as apple, pears and tomatoes results in a coordinated change in texture, nutritional characteristics, color, flavor and aroma, and initiates senescence processes that reduce shelf life. Fresh market apples are often treated with 1-methylcyclopropene and stored under controlled atmosphere conditions to delay ripening and extend the supply period to consumers. However, there is always some degree of economic loss due to external injury and flesh browning of the fruit. In this proposal, we intend to investigate mechanisms responsible for these physiological disorders in two popular Canadian apple cultivars ('Empire' and 'McIntosh'). The fruit will be stored under various conditions of temperature and carbon dioxide with or without 1-methylcyclopropene treatment and fruit quality and biochemical and molecular parameters will be assessed. The overall goal is to contribute to the development of a reliable commercial preservation technology to minimize physiological injury and assure quality attributes of apple fruit.

Defining a Business Strategy for MDIT Innovation’s Clinical Management Software

Clinical Management Software (CMS) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are key components of today’s life sciences and healthcare organizations. They are particularly relevant to Clinical Trial Management Systems (CTMS) used in the development of pharmaceuticals. The collection and management of patient information in CTMS is facilitated through Electronic Data Capture (EDC) systems, which can coordinate vast amounts of detailed statistics and reduce the costly expenditures of poor quality data and the delays associated with resolving inconsistencies. MDIT Innovations Inc. of Vancouver, BC is a highend technology company that provides integrated software solutions applicable to clinical management, CTMS and EDC system. A comprehensive assessment of MDIT’s current business plan will be conducted to test key assumptions and validate their strategic direction. The analysis will include an evaluation of the competitive landscape, market opportunities, and general industry trends. Ultimately MDIT hopes to use this information to generate innovative product strategies and resolve the problems delaying EMR adoption in health care systems and drug discovery processes.

Thermal and Electroluminescence Imaging and Application to the Location and Classification of Defects in Crystalline and Multi-Crystalline Solar Cells

When a solar cell is illuminated by light from the sun, a current is generated that can be used to provide electrical power. Conversely, if we apply a current to a solar cell, light is generated and this process is called electroluminescence (EL). In Silicon solar cells the EL is very weak and in a perfect cell is extremely uniform. Defects inherent in the material, such as dislocations which degrade its performance or those created during the cell fabrication process, such as microcracks which affect its long term reliability can be clearly observed in EL imaging. We will investigate EL imaging in detail, by experiment and simulations, for the purposes of developing a production level tool to image defects in silicon solar cells and classify them using machine vision techniques to provide feedback to the manufacturing process and predictive information to module manufacturers.