Innovative Projects Realized

Étude de l’évolution de l’architecture fonctionnelle de logiciels durant la maintenance pour proposer du réusinage empêchant la dégradation de l’architecture

Ce projet de recherche a pour objectif d’analyser l’évolution de l’architecture fonctionnelle des logiciels au cours de leur maintenance, une phase souvent sujette à des modifications qui peuvent altérer la qualité et la cohérence du système. En étudiant ces transformations, le projet vise à concevoir des approches de réusinage intelligent capables de prévenir la dégradation architecturale et de maintenir la robustesse en se basant sur la théorie de langage , la performance et la clarté du code. Les résultats attendus permettront d’améliorer la durabilité, la maintenabilité et la fiabilité des logiciels, offrant ainsi aux entreprises des solutions plus stables, évolutives et économiques à long terme.

Wind turbine wake mitigation with active control in a utility sized wind farms under varying thermal stratifications of the atmosphere

Among renewable technologies, wind energy offers some of the lowest levelized costs of energy in Canada and therefore holds significant potential to contribute to the nation’s clean energy transition. However, the large-scale deployment of wind energy in wind farms presents new challenges that are not encountered with standalone turbines. When downstream turbines operate in the wake of upstream turbines, their generated power drops significantly, resulting in substantial losses of the wind farm’s efficiency and ultimately affecting its profitability and delaying the return on investment. One promising method to reduce the intra-farm wake effect is helix active wake control, which achieves power gains of up to 12% in small-scale wind turbine arrays. However, modern wind farms are orders of magnitude larger and therefore interact differently with the atmosphere. This research project assesses the potential of helix active wake control to improve the efficiency of wind farms and enhance their economic viability. Overall, the research directly contributes to Canada’s Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and addresses broad challenges in renewable energy integration, which are also top priorities for the partnering university and nation (Netherlands).

Assessing extractive development in Kaska Dena territory

The project will transfer academic research findings about extractive development on Kaska Dena territory to Kaska Dena organizations. It will involve three activities: 1) making research findings accessible to community members, policy-makers, and government organizations involved in impact assessment through reports and other tools; 2) supporting the development of a database of Kaska Dena knowledges that Kaska organizations can use in their own assessment processes; and 3) transferring raw data and data management tools to Kaska organization to support future research and assessment activities. The mobilization and integration of this material will strengthen Dena Cho’s and the Tu Lídlini Dena’s capacity to advocate for Kaska interests and implement Kaska-led IA, land use planning and IPCA systems.

Exploring the Mass-Metallicity Frontier for Gas Giant Planets Around Low Mass Stars

With now more than 6000 planets discovered outside of our Solar system, one of the next major frontier is to determine the chemical make-up of exoplanet populations, a tracer of their formation processes. Dominating the planetary system by mass, gas giants are a determining factor in the final architecture and composition of planetary systems: no planet formation theory is complete without understanding this crucial piece of the puzzle. Gas giants are formed primarily of hydrogen and metals, with a level of metal enrichment set by the formation mechanism as a function of planetary mass. We aim to measure precise masses and metallicities for the poorly-explored population of gas giants orbiting low mass stars. This will shed light on the process responsible for one of the most extreme cases of planet formation while enabling robust statistical comparison with the population of gas giants orbiting Sun-like stars, providing an important benchmark for planet formation models around a diversity of stellar hosts.

The project consists of an mutually-beneficial exchange of expertises: while the home institution provides technical knowledge in measuring precise masses of planets around low mass stars, the host institution offers scientific expertise in gas giants interior structure and planet demographics.

Technical Interns working within cross functional teams to commercialize AI-powered solutions in the Agriculture Tech industry

AltaML builds artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled solutions to business problems. We work with organisations, bringing together their data and domain expertise with our AI expertise, to develop AI solutions that are deployed in their operations. We also commercialize AI-enabled products business via industry-specific ventures, yielding scalability from our investment in the first solution. AltaML’s Venture Studio is an incubator program that works with founders and co-founders in the emerging tech industry to scale ideas, build venture products, and launch AI/ML startups across numerous industries; this includes our venture partners at Brilliant Harvest who are striving to innovate the Agriculture Technology space.

The interns listed (Marcus Eshleman) on this particular application will be working alongside the Government of Alberta team to streamline the deployment of “Smart Document Extraction Agents” using Machine Learning. The goal of a Government of Alberta Redaction Assistant would be to empower the government to handle sensitive information and access requests with greater efficiency and security.
? Focus: using the SDP application template to create an Automated PII Redaction Tool. The main reason for the project is to automate the identification and masking of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in high-volume, unstructured public sector documents, such as those related to Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests. This automation replaces the current manual, time-consuming, and error-prone redaction process, directly addressing the growing volume of digital data and the increasing regulatory burden under new privacy legislation.
? Value: The Value of the project is substantial in terms of financial savings, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency. The automation of redaction provides financial benefit by freeing up highly skilled FOIP analysts and records management officers from repetitive, manual tasks, allowing them to focus on complex policy interpretation and disclosure decisions. The solution brings value to citizens by ensuring the GoA is compliant with the Protection of Privacy Act (PPA), drastically reducing the risk of accidental PII disclosure (data breach risk).

The interns listed (Zongxin Liu, Reuben John) on this particular application will be working alongside the Government of Alberta team to streamline the deployment of “Research Assistants” using Machine Learning. The Government of Alberta is undergoing an organizational shift towards data-driven search capabilities to provide better service for Albertans.
? Focus: Leveraging natural language processing, large language models, RAG searches, graphs and prompt engineering to analyze and interact with government policies and documents. Deliverables will include an end to end pipeline for data ingestion, modeling and output to a chat system.
? Value: Focusing on assisting duty offices and other roles that require search, access and responses to detailed, complex policy and regulatory documents in order to respond to public requests. An AI-based assistant will provide responses to basic questions, which allows the duty offices to focus on the more complex questions that require subject matter expertise. The solution also brings value in upskilling new hires as staff retirements or transitions occur.

The intern listed (Chase Lloyd) on this particular application will be building on the work completed with one of our Venture Partners in his current internship (IT47641), Brilliant Harvest, to further develop and scale the ‘Performance of their AI Assistant,’ where they will look to further innovate and revolutionize the technology in the AgTech industry:
? Focus: The focus of this project will be the ongoing effort to enhance the application stack by expanding on its features, increased leverage of our AI Assistant. Chase will continue working on the FE apps, where he has already made a substantial contribution in his first internship with them.
? Value: With numerous and varying kinds of documentation floating around the industry, this can make it difficult for those in the industry to accurately and efficiently find the information they need. This includes operating manuals, policy documents, product specifications, and everything in between, when it comes to documentation in the Agriculture industry. By being able to train the model to be able to analyze and classify these documents, the value of this solution comes with the newfound ability of those in the industry, to be able to quickly find answers and information related to their most pressing needs. Further, optimizing how the AI Assistant interacts with the end user reduces friction and increases the value of service overall. Chase has contributed significantly to the advancement of their web app and we look forward to continuing scaling the application with his input and expertise. Chase will also provide a valuable contribution as he supports and helps onboard the new interns coming onto this project.

The intern listed (Misbah Ahmed Nauman) on this particular application will be working with one of our Venture Partners Brilliant Harvest, to further develop and scale the ‘Performance of their AI Assistant,’ where they will look to further innovate and revolutionize the technology in the AgTech industry:
? Focus: The focus of this project will be the ongoing effort to enhance the application stack by expanding on its features, hardening some of the core components of the stack and some work in furthering their test automation efforts.
? Value: With numerous and varying kinds of documentation floating around the industry, this can make it difficult for those in the industry to accurately and efficiently find the information they need. This includes operating manuals, policy documents, product specifications, and everything in between, when it comes to documentation in the Agriculture industry. By being able to train the model to be able to analyze and classify these documents, the value of this solution comes with the newfound ability of those in the industry, to be able to quickly find answers and information related to their most pressing needs. Misbah’s work will contribute to their success in several ways. 1) new features enhance the value of the app to brilliant Harvest’s customers. 2) Stack hardening improves reliability, reduces maintenance costs resulting in better customer experience. 3) Test automation reduces the cost of development and improves product quality.

AI Patient Intake and Screening

TxtSquad will develop an AI-driven intake and screening system that begins over SMS and continues in a secure web portal. Patients can upload documents and describe their symptoms, which are processed using OCR and AI to generate structured, FHIR-compatible records for EMR integration. The project will reduce administrative effort and improve intake quality for healthcare providers.

GIS and AI for the recognition and mapping of power grid assets

(1) ESMIA offers expertise in modeling integrated 3E (energy-economy-environment) systems for strategic decision-making at the municipal, regional, national, and global levels. ESMIA’s expertise is recognized by numerous private sector clients and various levels of government in Quebec, Canada, and around the world. ESMIA’s goal is to provide solutions that enable the achievement of energy security and transition objectives while ensuring sustained economic growth.
(2) The energy transition and power system planning increasingly require accurate and up-to-date spatial information on existing infrastructures. Unfortunately, publicly available inventories of power grids, such as transmission lines, substations, and generation facilities, are often confidential, incomplete, heterogeneous, or limited in spatial resolution. The main challenge of this project is to leverage recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in image recognition applied to satellite and aerial imagery, to develop and automated, scalable, and reproducible mapping of power grid assets.
(3) The resulting information will serve as valuable input for ESMIA’s strategic and operational optimization models. An accurate mapping will improve the representation of transmission constraints in NATEM (North American TIMES Energy Model), and by identifying the actual routes of transmission lines and the location of substations, the model will better capture regional transfer capacities, potential bottlenecks, and associated losses.

Designing and Promoting a Balance & Mobility Program for Seniors: Strategic Growth for Physio and Co.

Physio & Co. provides multi – disciplinary care and rehabilitation to several communities in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). We have operational clinics in St. John’s, Bay Bulls and Placentia with a large variety of age groups with a multitude of injuries and issues. Our therapies consist of Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Occupational Therapy, Acupuncture, Massage Therapy, Reflexology, Counselling, Kinesiology and Yoga. We work tirelessly to improve our patients physical, mental and emotional well being in order to support a healthy, happy and active lifestyle.

Senior citizens make up a high percentage of our patient caseload in each of our 3 clinics. This age group seek our services for many reasons but falls, effects of inactivity and overall muscle weakness are most common. Adults aged 65 years and older are at increased risk for falls. This risk can be attributed to a number of factors, which can include decreased mobility and balance, muscle weakness and visual impairment among individuals (Government of British Columbia. What Contributes to Falls? 2023 October 11). Fall-related injuries among older adults can have serious health and social consequences, impacting the quality of lives and even causing deaths.

For these reasons, we are very enthusiastic to create a Balance and Mobility program for the focus of fall prevention for seniors.

Machine Learning developer and technical business interns working within cross-functional teams to develop and commercialize AI-powered solutions in the Public Services sector – AltaML

The project comprises internships in a variety of technical and business roles within our organization and within our GovLab program. Within the organization, roles include associate machine learning developer, business development associate, communications associate and finance associate. Within GovLab specifically, roles include associate machine learning developer, associate business solutions consultant, and project delivery associate. The difference is mainly that in GovLab, there is a focus on public sector problems, whereas in AltaML overall, we work across sectors.
The intern listed (Marley Cheema) on this particular application will work alongside the Government of Alberta on the Smart Document Extraction Agent team. The goal of a Government of Alberta Redaction Assistant would be to empower the government to handle sensitive information and acc eresqsuests with greater efficiency and security.
? Focus: using the SDP application template to create an Automated PII Redaction Tool. The main reason for the project is to automate the identification and masking of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in high-volume, unstructured public sector documents, such as those related to Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIP) requests. This automation replaces the current manual, time-consuming, and error-prone redaction process, directly addressing the growing volume of digital data and the increasing regulatory burden under new privacy legislation.
? Value: The Value of the project is substantial in terms of financial savings, risk mitigation, and operational efficiency. The automation of redaction provides financial benefit by freeing up highly skilled FOIP analysts and records management officers from repetitive, manual tasks, allowing them to focus on complex policy interpretation and disclosure decisions. The solution brings value to citizens by ensuring the GoA is compliant with the Protection of Privacy Act (PPA), drastically reducing the risk of accidental PII disclosure (data breach risk).

Building Trustworthy AI at Scale: An Integrated XAI and MLOps Framework for VLT Innovation

Through a current co-op project, International Game Technology (IGT) and the University of New Brunswick are developing a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) model to predict the performance of Video Lottery Terminal (VLT) games. However, the model currently functions as a “black box,” making it difficult for business teams like game designers to trust its recommendations without understanding the reasoning behind them. Furthermore, the process to generate these valuable insights is manual, slow, and not scalable for day-to-day use. This project aims to solve these challenges by building a single, integrated software tool. This tool will provide a user-friendly dashboard that clearly explains why the AI predicts certain game features will be successful, bridging the trust gap for creative teams. In the background, the tool will be powered by a fully automated and reliable system that ensures these data-driven insights are generated efficiently and are always up-to-date. The expected benefit for IGT is the transformation of this collaborative AI project from a complex data science asset into a practical, trustworthy, and scalable business tool that will accelerate innovation and lead to smarter, data-informed game design decisions.

TopQAD Web portal

1QBit is midway through our effort to create a software suite (Topological Quantum Architecture Design (TopQAD)) that automates quantum architecture design and enables you to study the impact of quantum algorithm and FTQC component design choices on resource requirements. It can be used to support scientific research, product development, and quantum computing policy and investment strategy.

Etude de marché : Les sources d’approvisionnement stratégiques dans l’économie circulaire

Le projet consiste à réaliser une étude de marché pour aider Trolet, une jeune entreprise montréalaise spécialisée dans la revalorisation de chaussures usagées, à mieux comprendre et développer ses sources d’approvisionnement. L’objectif est d’identifier où et comment collecter davantage de chaussures ayant un bon potentiel de revalorisation, afin de soutenir la croissance de l’entreprise. Le stagiaire analysera différents marchés, partenaires et modes de collecte, puis testera des pistes concrètes pour améliorer l’approvisionnement.
Ce projet permettra à Trolet de trouver de nouveaux canaux d’approvisionnement, d’accroître le volume et la qualité des chaussures collectées, et de renforcer sa position d’entreprise innovante dans le domaine de l’économie circulaire.