Innovative Projects Realized

L2M QC Spring 2025 | Social Worker Safety and Reporting Application – SafeSocial

SafeSocial is a mobile and web application designed to improve the safety and efficiency of social workers during home visits. By providing real-time monitoring, emergency response, and AI-powered incident reporting, the app helps social workers feel more secure and supported in the field. Key features include a panic button, live location tracking, risk assessments, and voice/video recording. This project will benefit social work organizations by enhancing worker safety, reducing administrative burdens, and improving response times in critical situations.

Advanced Methods in Neuroimaging and Applications to Reward Processing

L2M – Automated Weight Monitoring for Free-Range Beef Cattle

The beef cattle industry faces significant challenges in cattle weight monitoring, particularly in free-range systems where traditional methods are labor-intensive, inaccurate, or infrequent. This results in delayed growth, increased feeding costs, and a larger environmental footprint, requiring the development of innovative and sustainable technologies, as well as collaborative efforts. To address this, we propose an automated, non-invasive weight monitoring system that combines vision-based sensors and machine learning to track cattle growth in real time without disrupting farm operations. By providing data analysis and insights, this solution will enable farmers to make data-driven decisions and optimize herd management to sustainably and efficiently improve livestock quality of life and health, optimize resource use, and boost productivity. Through the L2M Launch program, the proposed solution will be refined from a market perspective by tackling specific commercialization challenges and developing a comprehensive business model that reflects the economic and operational realities of the beef cattle industry to ensure product-market fit, while also promoting entrepreneurial skills and enabling research discoveries to move out of the laboratory and be commercialized, thereby accelerating and growing the translation of research excellence to impact the Canadian economy.

Behavioral Analysis Internship: Assessing Gerbil Personalities through Behavior and Vocalizations

Nutrition and Microbiota

Testing of Fibre Properties for their Biomedical Applicability

Natural fibres have been used in many industry sectors such as automobiles, aerospace,
construction, etc., but their use in the biomedical industry is relatively new. The major obstacle to their use is the lack of information on relevant fibre properties. This project focuses on testing three critical properties: antimicrobial properties, antioxidant properties, and water sorption in flax, hemp, canola, and sweet clover fibres. Testing these properties will be a stepping stone for proving the applicability of natural fibres in biomedical applications. This research will provide the industrial partners with data and information regarding the biomedical properties of natural fibres, and can help them open a new door for future research on other natural fibres in biomedical applications.

Auxetic-geometry sleeve of a continuum soft robot for stiffness variation

The project aims to the improvement of a soft robot dexterity by adjusting its stiffness while performing a task, through an auxetic shell. This project will address current limitations in design and control of these types of robots. By combining the expertise of McGill University and CINVESTAV, researchers will explore auxetic geometries, design and manufacturing of pneumatic soft robots, with experimental validation of the resulting stiffness variation. The result of this project will lead to new knowledge, improved soft robot design methodologies, and a stronger foundation for future collaborative research in soft robotics, benefiting both institutions through technological advancement and a fruitful partnership.

Optimization of Carbonyl Produced Powder Metal Based Filaments for Low-Cost 3D Printing – Verification of Printability, Debinding Conditions and Application Potential.

The objective of this project is to create and improve metal-infused filaments for low-cost 3D printers by including recyclable elements. We combine recyclable and bio-based polymers with eco-friendly metal particles, including carbonyl nickel, to provide a durable and sustainable 3D printing material. During the first phase, we produce and test these metal/polymer filaments to ensure they print easily and have equal particle dispersion. Next, we improve the debinding and sintering processes required to convert printed green pieces into solid metal products. By investigating the strength and structure of these completely sintered components, we hope to contribute to a circular manufacturing process that supports recycling and low-cost 3D printing.

Optimizing Mobile Unit Deployment Based on Accessibility and Risk Indicators

This project will extend the Maximal Covering Location Problem with Accessibility Indicators (MCLPA) by incorporating mobile units (MUs) to enhance service areas and optimize accessibility. The proposed Maximal Covering Location Problem with Accessibility Indicators and Mobile Units (MCLPAMU) will consider facilities and MUs with varying service areas and capacities, as well as customer mobility areas. The model will aim to optimize six accessibility indicators: coverage, minimum access, mobility costs, proximity of service, number of opportunities, and geographical segregation. The MCLPAMU will be applied to the context of COVID-19 testing centers in Mexico, demonstrating its potential to improve the efficiency of medical services during a pandemic. By integrating data analytics, the model will optimize the locations and capacities of testing centers, forecast future outbreaks, and enable proactive resource allocation, ultimately enhancing the response to public health crises.

Just in Time Compilation for Quantum Devices

Xanadu’s mission is to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Our company was
founded in 2016, and has grown to approximately 200 employees today, with headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Xanadu
develops the full stack of quantum computing (QC) technology: theory, hardware, cloud service, software and applications.
This project is in Xanadu’s Software team, who develop and maintain the open-source PennyLane toolkit.
Current software is capable of compiling and optimizing small circuits for today’s QC hardware. Meanwhile, the industry is
working towards the construction of much larger QCs which will be capable of running full error-correction and applications
that are far beyond the reach of today’s systems. Current compilers are not able to compile codes of interest for those future
hardware systems or simulators, and Xanadu has launched the Catalyst compiler specifically targeting this domain. There
are many unanswered questions about how to best compile large-scale quantum programs onto large-scale hardware, and
this project will work to address some of them, as part of the larger Xanadu team developing Catalyst.
Xanadu anticipates significant near-term benefits through the successful completion of this project by improving the
capability and performance of our compiler software, to assert a leading position as the software toolkit of choice for today’s
researchers and future generations of QC users.

Design and Characterization of Filter Inductors for Wide-Bandgap Power Stages

Urban tree growth & soil analysis in the Upper Rhine Valley