Innovative Projects Realized

Farrow Memory Training Study

Parallel Computing with Graphics Processing Units to Reduce Computational Overhead Associated with Math Simulations and Predictive Model Building

Operationalizing quality evaluation for heterogeneous legacy systems

Development of an Advanced Communication Earplug

Performance assessment of a high efficiency 1000x concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system

Meeting the growing energy demands in a sustainable fashion is one of the greatest challenges of this century. This projects aims to evaluate a promising renewable energy source: concentrated photovoltaics (CPV). The configuration developed by our partner promises to offer utility-scale solar power at competitive prices, making it a viable alternative. It is based on large steel and glass structures that focus the incident light to reach over 1000x concentration onto a large array of high performance triple junction photovoltaic cells. The viability of this approach depends on structural, optical, optoelectrical, and thermal aspects, that will all be studied in this project. We will experimentally and numerically study the deformations due to meteorological loads, and evaluate their impact on non-uniform illumination of the cell array. The electrical behaviour of the cells under these conditions will then be characterised, along with the cooling performance. Integration of CPV into an urban grid will also be evaluated. If successful, this type of CPV….

Development of a Factory Model of Steel Production through Electric Arc Furnace

Development of invertebrate behavior bio-indicator assays for contaminants in honey

SN-38 (or 5-FU) drug encapsulation in liposomes transported by magnetotactic bacteria for localized colorectal cancer treatment

Cancers are treated today with the appropriate combination of chemotherapy drugs, surgery and radiation. Chemotherapy is almost invariably dosed intravenously, and enters the systemic blood flow where it circulates around the whole body, coming into contact with healthy cells as well as cancerous ones. This systemic dosing has two big problems: too little drug gets to cancer cells, and too much drug comes into contact with healthy cells, causing side effects. Frequently, these dose-limiting side-effects prevent us from delivering the maximally effective anti-cancer drug dose.

Professor Sylvain Martel of École Polytechnique de Montreal’s Nanorobotics laboratory has pioneered an approach using special bacteria that can be directed by a magnetic field to deliver chemotherapy directly to the site of tumors, reducing side-effects. With the support of a team of co-investigators from McGill University (Drs. Te Vuong, Gerald Batist, Maryam Tabrizian, Nicole Beauchemin, Danuta Radzioch) and the Université de Montréal (Dr. Louis Gaboury), Dr. Martel has successfully applied for a grant from the Quebec Consortium of Drug Discovery, known by its French acronym as CQDM. This novel approach holds significant promise of improving cancer targeting with chemotherapy

Improving the bending stiffness of multi-ply folding boxboard with maple HYP

BCTMP (Bleached chemi-thermo-mechanical pulp) or HYP (high-yield pulp) is an important sector in the Canadian market pulp business, and most of them has been exported to Europe and Asia and over half of it is used as middle-ply furnish in Folding Boxboard (FBB). FBB requires high bending stiffness for crush resistance, z-directional strength for preventing delamination, surface smoothness for good printing, and good die-cutting performance for conversion. Maple HYP has been known to be the premium pulp in the middle ply of FBB since it has a very high bulk. In this project, we will determine the difference in fiber stiffness and compressibility as well as bulk formation mechanism between maple and eucalyptus HYP. This will help identify the potential advantages of using maple in FBB and develop practical strategies to maximize the contribution of maple HYP to bulk and bending stiffness as well as other properties of FBB.

Scheduling of agents from forecasted future call arrivals at Hydro-Quebec’s call centers

Development of semiosNET biopesticide system

Valuation of an oil processing facility