Innovative Projects Realized

Runtime user-space-based protection of containers against unpatched vulnerabilities

Mobile networks are critical infrastructure and essential in our daily lives. Containerization is the go-to solution for deploying mobile services over cloud managed by third parties. Containerized applications might suffer from unpatched software vulnerabilities resulting in impact on the security and privacy of the end users and the operations, potentially leading to financial and reputation losses. This can be exasperated by the fact that time between vulnerability discovery and patching can be counted in weeks and more often in months, leaving a large attack time window to the perform more damage. The main objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate a runtime and non-disruptive tenant-level scalable and efficient solution to temporarily patch vulnerable containerized applications. The main benefit is to offer telecom operators an efficient solution for handling unpatched vulnerabilities to support their service continuing while avoiding security risks and damages related to vulnerabilities exploits. This will allow economical benefits to both the telecom vendor (who will be able to develop security patch) and the operators, who can provide secure mobile networks solution while waiting for the official patch.

Hydrodynamic perception in pinnipeds

Research Consortium: Advanced Computational Methods for Geophysical Electromagnetics Modeling, Inversion and Integration

Electromagnetic (EM) methods are commonly used for geophysical exploration in various applications such as mineral exploration, hydrocarbon detection, management of fresh and salt water and CO2 and reservoir monitoring. While in the past, EM methods suffered from expensive data collection, new systems now collect massive amounts of data over space and time, and new instrumentation allows for higher quality and accuracy of the data. In particular, the research proposed here will enable the processing of large-scale geophysical data and provide exploration companies with additional tools to reduce the risk of exploration.

Accessible Transportation Services: Customer Travel Satisfaction

Canada’s population is rapidly ageing. One sector that is important to older adults’ quality of life is transportation. Indeed, the lack of safe, reliable, and accessible transportation can be a barrier to healthy ageing and increases people’s risk of social isolation. For many older adults, driving is no longer an option, and fixed-route public transports is not accessible. Recognizing this need, many North American cities have created paratransit programs, which provide individualized rides to certain segments of the population that are scheduled ahead of time. In Hamilton, the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) runs two programs for people with disabilities, both of which fall under their Accessible Transportation Services (ATS): DARTS, a bookable, door-to-door, accessible, shared ride service) and the taxi script program (subsidized taxi fares). Paratransit services, however, are understudied, and within this small body of work even fewer studies have considered users’ experiences. Given this, this research will explore paratransit users’ travel satisfaction through a mixed methods analysis of a survey distributed to ATS customers in Hamilton, Ontario. Results will shed light on how to enhance paratransit user satisfaction in Hamilton and beyond.

Synthesis of Novel Coumarin Derivatives with Anti-Neuroinflammatory Activity

Using Thermal Feedback for Spatial Awareness in Virtual Reality

In this project, we will utilize thermal feedback for target position identification in a virtual environment, e.g., allow users to know the location and distance of a virtual object with respect to their position based on the location and intensity of the thermal feedback. Our goal is to design and develop a new VR application for collaboration that increases user immersion in the experience by allowing them to know the position of the other users around them using thermal feedback. The Dalhousie intern will travel to Aarhus University to help develop the VR application using a thermal device designed and created by the Aarhus University team members. The benefits to the intern include learning new fabrication skills they can later apply in their thesis. They will also benefit from working with a collaboration expert while creating the application.

Exploring Load-Flexible Ammonia Synthesis for Power-to-X processes

Support électronique et développement d’un ECG portable pour la mesure de pression ambulatoire.

Le stagiaire participera au développement d’un bracelet intelligent visant à améliorer la mesure de la pression artérielle (PA) en y intégrant un capteur d’électrocardiogramme (ECG). Ce projet repose sur les travaux d’une doctorante qui développe un dispositif innovant pour suivre la PA au quotidien, et d’une postdoctorante qui cherche à affiner la précision des modèles d’estimation de la PA. Le rôle du stagiaire sera de concevoir l’électronique nécessaire pour intégrer un capteur ECG dans le bracelet, incluant le choix des électrodes, le développement des circuits d’amplification et de filtration, ainsi que la validation sur des sujets humains.

Sediments as recorders of past climate dynamics and environmental change

Combustion Kinetics of electro- Fuels: Insights from JSR Experiments with TOF-MS and FTIR

Synthesis and Investigation of new Sodium Solid Electrolytes for Batteries

Low power optical sensing system to monitor tree canopy development