Innovative Projects Realized

Sustainable Development through the Effective Production and Use of Bio-Fuels and Integrated Bio-Refineries

The project concentrates on developing a holistic approach to integrate bio-refinery with multiple feedstocks. The proposal is directed towards the use of all types of renewable raw materials except food. The project examines the possibility of retrofitting an existing petroleum refinery and petro-chemical complex into integrated bio-refinery to emphasize the utilization of existing infrastructure for bio-fuels; bio-products and direct bio-energy production. The integrated bio-refinery is an integration of a number of processes combined with each other in an optimal process synthesis manner to produce marketable bio-fuels; bio-products and direct bio-energy integrating the sugar platform using bio-chemical routes and the syngas platform using thermo-chemical-catalytic routes. This will positively contribute to sustainable development and clean environment especially with regard to the green house gases achieving net zero CO₂ emission and even negative CO₂ emission in some cases. This will reduce the operational costs and benefit the industry and municipalities in Ontario and Canada.

Computational modeling of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Ultrasound Detection and Targeted Hyperthermia of the Sentinel Lymph Nodes

Breast cancer tumors spread to the rest of the body through the sentinel lymph nodes (the first lymph node to receive lymphatic drainage from a tumor). The metastases of breast cancer can be controlled by the detection and removal of these nodes.  The surgical removal of the auxillary lymph nodes and perform biopsy tests is the only reliable way to detect and remove the nodes.  This procedure can result in significant morbidity. This project is for developing a minimally invasive procedure for the combined detection and destruction of the sentinel lymph nodes using magnetic nanoparticles (magnetite).  It has been shown that by injecting magnetite preparation injected near a breast tumor, the nanoparticles accumulates in the sentinel lymph nodes.  It is proposed that the magnetic nanoparticles can tracked to the sentinel lymph nodes using ultrasound imaging techniques.  Next, alternating magnetic fields (400-600 kHz, ~0.01 Tesla) will heat the particles and the nodes to ~ 43 ° C which induces tumor cell death. This thermal therapy is known as hyperthermia.  Computational models will be developed to predict the efficacy of this method and to provide insights into the physical basis of this treatment.  The mathematical models will be a guide in the building of prototypes devices, from the bench-top, to pre-clinical and to the clinical stages. This project will develop technology for the detection and destruction of the sentinel lymph nodes using magnetite nanoparticles. 

Development of MEMS auto-focusing mechanism for cell phone cameras

Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) refer to integrated mechanical & electrical systems in micron scale that are now growing in numbers due to a miniaturization trend. An advanced actuation method proposed for MEMS in University of Toronto and Ryerson University will be applied for an auto-focus mechanism in cell phone cameras. This research will build on work conducted by a six-member research team in both universities. The proposed MEMS autofocus not only has larger depth of focus, but also is faster than the current technologies, and is easier to implement. The larger focus depth is achieved by using a repulsive electrostatic force between the two MEMS electrodes with the same potential, and the better speed is obtained by using a closed-loop system. A new prototype for camera autofocus will be designed and characterized during this PDF Project. The results of this research can revolutionize cell phone cameras in terms of recording speed and imaging quality.

Commercialization of a cell stretcher/incubator device

Nowadays, most of cell biomechanics studies based on cell stretching have focused on small stretching magnitude, without the ability to visualize cell behavior and morphology during stretch. We therefor decided to build a cell stretcher/incubator providing the physiological conditions of cell culture (37°C, 5% CO2) while also allowing the application of a wide range of stretching magnitudes. The device consists of a cell stretcher/incubator designed specifically to be mounted on a microscope stage and thus, allows long term (several hours) in situ visualization of cell morphology. The commercialization of our stretcher device will facilitate researchers to investigate and characterize the biomechanics and pathophysiology of several diseases as well as allow companies specializing in biomechanical instrumentation to expand their services to a cellular scale, knowing that most of these biomechanics companies provide data collection services at the organ or tissue scale already.

Methods for Network Service Recovery in Large Scale Failure Scenarios

The objective of this research is to develop methods for protection and restoration of critical infrastructure and services in face of large scale failures resulting from natural or man-made disasters, multiple equipment failures, or security attacks.  The impact of such failures on Ontario’s ever-increasingly wired economy can be enormous, and the proposed solutions so far have been costly and inefficient. Therefore, exploring more efficient solutions could provide many benefits to critical service providers. This proposal includes several steps toward addressing the problem, starting with a comprehensive analysis of various scenarios that could lead to large-scale critical service failure, performance analysis of various detection and restoration mechanisms in different layers of the network, investigating potential benefits of network coding as an emerging solution for network protection, and proposing an integrated solution for maintaining service continuity at all layers of the network. The results of this research could help protecting Ontario’s infrastructure against potential threats.

D-Cubed: Driver Drowsiness Detection

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has indicated that driving while drowsy is the cause of 22 to 24 percent of car crashes, and results in a four- to six-times higher crash/crash risk compared to driving while alert. Therefore, the use of assistive systems that monitor a driver’s level of vigilance and alert the driver in case of drowsiness can be significant in the prevention of accidents.  In this project, I will study, design, and implement a system to detect drowsiness by recognizing yawning from mouth geometry and facial movements, based on CogniVue APEX™, which is a programmable embedded platform offering multi-camera solutions installed in cars.

Eco-Friendly coatings and formulations for the wood industry

Ecoatra is applying new developments in nanotechnology to solve the long-standing problem of hazardous substance use in the wood industry- one of our oldest and largest industries. Ecoatra’s formulation uses nanotechnology to enable deeper and more uniform penetration into wood, versatile application,  increased performance and potency at lower material quantities translating to reduced costs, multifunctional properties including water repellence, antimicrobial properties, and protection from UV light

Unlike current hazardous and toxic treatment formulations, Ecoatra’s technology is non-toxic, green, contains no volatile organic carbons, contains no heavy metals, and contains no synthetic biocides

During the course of the fellowship, Ecoatra will carry out lab and field tests to evaluate the performance of their formulations

Heterojunction colloidal quantum dot based solar cells

Solar power is one of the most promising renewable energy sources and its terrestrial abundance is several orders of magnitude higher than world’s consumption. Conventional solar cells, however, collect only a portion of solar energy – mostly visible sunlight. Our technology is capable of collecting the entire solar energy spectrum by using semiconducting nanocrystals (NCs) as the photovoltaic material.

The use of NCs has shown potential to harness solar energy at high efficiencies and at low cost, constituting an attractive alternative to silicon-based solar cells. NCs exhibit spatial confinement of electronic carriers. This quantum optical property permits tunability of the NCs absorption properties, enabling collection of the entire solar spectrum in contrast to silicon solar cells which absorb only a portion of the solar spectrum.

The overall aim of the project is to develop solution-processed quantum dot-based infiltrated three dimensional nanostructure bulk heterojunction (BHJ) architecture in which the quantum dots (e.g. PbS) active layer is thick enough to absorb all available photons and maximize the efficiency of infrared photon absorption and to implement an optimum architecture of the electrode so that the we can increase the interaction length of photons with NCs (photon recycling) without increasing the depletion width of the device.

Integrated Pulse Shaping Devices

Pulse shaping devices are the key elements for optical signal processing that are capable of reshaping the temporal waveform of optical pulses.  The applications of pulse shaping devices include ultrahigh-speed optical telecommunication, ultrafast all-optical computing and information processing, biomedical imaging, and electronic and photonic signal/device characterization and monitoring. For these applications, ultrafast optical waveform shapers capable of synthesizing temporal waveform features down to the sub-picosecond regime are required. These are the optical analogues of electronic function generators, which provide arbitrary user-specified waveforms, but on much longer time scales than those needed for optical purposes.

Optical temporal waveform shaping techniques have been extensively developed in free space (with the use of discrete optical components), as well as in fibres (by means of fibre Bragg and long-period gratings).  Integrating the existing pulse shaping techniques on an optical chip is important for developing integrated optical circuits capable of performing a full spectrum of tasks for all-optical signal processing.  The proposed research will deal with developing the pulse shaping devices in two material platforms, namely the femtosecond-laser-written glass waveguides and aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs) semiconductor. The first material platform has the benefit of being fibre-compatible, while AlGaAs is a very promising material for integrated optics as it can be made active and used for monolithic integration of the laser sources and detectors on the same chip with other integrated optical devices. Thus, developing integrated pulse shapers for both material platforms is important.

Using Electronic Health Records to Predict Key Patient Health and Organizational Outcomes

One of the proposed benefits of adopting electronic health records is the development of a comprehensive database which can be used for epidemiological, clinical, and health services research. The main purpose of this project is to develop strategies and provide case examples of how data from these extensive electronic databases can be used to improve healthcare services outcomes. TELUS Health Solutions’ Oacis (i.e., Open Architecture Clinical Information System) has been in use in a large health care organization for approximately 15 years. A completely anonymized version of the database will be used to develop and test predictive models for key health services outcomes. We will present three case examples that will demonstrate how data derived from electronic health records can be used to identify gaps in quality of care and identify potential mechanisms to address these gaps.

Evaluation of the remedial actions in the Toronto and Region Area of concern

The Toronto and Region Area of Concern (TRAOC) has been one of the most polluted sites in the Great Lakes posing health risks to millions of people. The Remedial Action Plan (RAP) has made significant progress towards restoring the system and meeting the delisting targets. Yet, several critical questions still need to be addressed, such as: How close is the Toronto ecosystem currently to meeting the TRAOC RAP delisting criteria? What additional research and assessment will be required to guide remedial actions? Which attributes best reflect the integrity and health of the ecosystem? To answer these questions, my plan is to apply a novel modelling framework that combines the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) software with Bayesian analysis. The results of this research will be particularly useful to local stakeholders and regulatory agencies when making decisions regarding the progress of TRAOC toward reaching a sustainable desirable state.

New tools to study enzyme penetration and activity dynamics within wood cell walls

The main challenges in bioconversion of lignocellulose arise from our limited understanding of the heterogeneous chemistry of the substrate and poor accessibility of enzymes within dense wood cell walls. It is clear that our limited appreciation of enzyme penetration into cell walls and catalysis dynamics is partly due to the constraints of the techniques employed previously. Unlike these other studies, which addressed such questions by examining model substrates, I propose to examine and develop new tools for use on complex solid wood substrates. I plan to use time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF‐SIMS), quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM‐D), and epifluorescence microscopy in conjunction with Alexa™ fluorophores. This suite of techniques is uniquely useful to simultaneously monitor both penetratability and chemical changes of the substrate (TOF‐SIMS), to differentiate between chemical modification and degradation of wood (QCM‐D), and to distinguish penetration of different enzymes (Alexa™ fluorophores with epifluorescence microscopy).