Innovative Projects Realized

Improved veterinary diagnostics for tapeworms

Dogs can be infected with several species of tapeworms, but show no obvious symptoms. Tapeworms are generally diagnosed by detection of microscopic eggs produced by the parasites that are passed in the dog’s stool. However, this technique is not ideal, as eggs are not always passed in stool, different tapeworms produce visually similar eggs, and this requires an experienced diagnostician. Therefore, false negatives are common. There is increasing interest in techniques to directly detect DNA of parasites in stool of dogs. Aquila Diagnostics Systems Inc. has developed a point of care tapeworm test for use in veterinary clinics that would enable rapid detection of DNA of tapeworms in dog stool samples (the AccutasVET Tapeworm DNA kit). TO BE CONT’D

Development of an integrated microfluidic technology platform to assess fluid parameters at reservoir-relevant conditions

Recovering oil from underground reservoirs carries environmental and financial risks that can be minimized with prior knowledge of what fluids are there and how to efficiently extract them. Currently, fluid flow behaviour can be measured at reservoir conditions in large pressurized vessels capable of up to 150 atmospheres and 300°C, but measurements can take weeks to complete. As an alternative, Interface Fluidics is developing a miniaturized pressure vessel where fluid behaviour can be completely visually mapped in under a day and at comparatively low cost. This research project will improve all aspects of this prototype technology – the pressure/temperature operation range, the quality of visualized data, and automation of the data analysis – to accurately predict the outcome of oil recovery operations before they begin.

Cognitive and well-being impacts of tunable LED lighting in secondary school students

The current project aims to examine how tunable LED lighting influences productivity and well-being in students at the Port Coquitlam’s Riverside secondary school. The project aims to identify the optimal lighting conditions in order to maximize productivity and well-being in healthy students as well as students with special needs. We hypothesize that the tunable LED lighting that is consistent with the natural daylight cycle will be more beneficial to students than standard constant lighting condition in an average classroom. The project aims to provide psychological benefits of tunable LED lighting beyond electricity conservation for BC Hydro, and academic and well-being benefits of the lighting to students in the secondary school.

Combining Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to understand product and consumer behavior in retail environments

The project is about developing a «smart store» system that will allow understanding customer and product behavior. This system will be based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies allowing any object (product or person) to communicate automatically with its environment. Hence, our system will be used for tracking items and monitor consumer behavior in real time. In a retail environment, we will be able to answer questions such as (i) How many times an item has been picked up or tried by a customer? (ii) How long the item stayed off the shelve? (iii) How long the customer stayed in a specific zone? Near a specific shelve? (iv)What are the most/less visited zones?

Development of the Community Paramedicine Contact Assessment

In the absence of a standardized approach to patient assessment in community paramedicine programs, it is difficult to determine if these programs are helping patients when comparing one to another. Governments across Canada have invested in community paramedicine as an approach to provide care for patients in their homes rather than transporting them to the hospital emergency department. While these programs have shown a reduction in emergency calls, to continue delivery of care it will be important that they demonstrate that patients maintain or improve their health. This project is developing and testing a standardized assessment tool that can be used by paramedics in these programs to demonstrate these outcomes.

HAT TRICK: An innovative health promotion program for men

Despite the benefits associated with staying physically active and eating a healthy diet, men are less likely than women to engage in these behaviours. Healthy lifestyle programs that are offered in collaboration with professional
sport teams have been found to engage men in being more active and eating healthier. HAT TRICK was designed to specifically target men and is being offered with major junior ice hockey teams in the Canadian Hockey League
(CHL). Researchers at the University of British Columbia have partnered with the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation (CMHF) to expand and evaluate HAT TRICK in communities across British Columbia. The results of this research will provide evidence into the effective delivery of health-related information to men and directly support CMHF’s mission to inspire Canadian men to live healthier lives.

Benefits of VaR for capital management process of credit unions.

PRO Financial Solutions (PRO) is looking to investigate the benefits of actively including Value at Risk (VaR) in the capital management process of credit unions. Whereas Earnings at Risk (EaR) is a well-established risk measure, VaR still lacks understanding among credit unions. In this research project, the intern will illustrate the relationship between EaR and Duration of Equity, a VaR proxy, and therefor explain VaR in terms of EaR – a number credit unions are more familiar with. As a conclusion to the project, she will investigate the relative performance of PRO’s clients that actively use VaR for their portfolio management against the complementary group. In a second step, she will enhance the current model by implementing a stochastic VaR model. Based on the outcomes of this calculations, not only credit unions but financial institution in general will be able to actively include VaR in the risk management process of their non-trading portfolios.

A system for explainable recommendations

This research aims to develop a system that generates explainable recommendations. Mobio

currently allows merchants to offer items to users, but does not employ recent advances in

recommender systems. This project will allow Mobio to build on the expertise of Dr. Chiang in

related relational learning problems to create such a system, and provide a real-world domain

for him to advance the state-of-the-art. A core problem in recommender systems is building

models of user preference that are predictive and explainable. We propose to apply and

evaluate algorithms developed by Dr. Chiang to build models that are optimized for accuracy,

explainable to users, and recommend offers from merchants to the most appropriate users.

The expected outcomes of this work include (i) enhanced user engagement through

explainable recommendations, and (ii) improved effectiveness of offers by participating

merchants. Addressing the interests of both users and merchants directly increases the

commercial value of Mobio’s products.

Development of Smart Socks To Prevent Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Diabetic patients suffer from reduced sensation in their foot which will be leading to foot ulcers that are hard to treat, and often resulting in limb amputation. The existing health-care techniques usually fail to prevent foot ulcers because they cannot monitor the foot in real-time. In this work, we seek to develop smart socks based on textile technology to help patients to artificially feel sensory stimuli that they cannot realistically feel. In collaboration with Myant Inc, a leading company in advanced manufacturing of textile technology, this project proposes an innovative way to sense the forces at points across the foot and electrically stimulating the still-functioning nerve near the ankle once the forces exceed a “smart” threshold (painful stimuli). In short, we seek to create a simple closed-loop neural prosthesis for diabetic patients to reduce the incidence of foot ulcers. TO BE CONT’D

Flame retardant FRP systems for aircraft interior applications

Due to aircraft manufacture volume increase, there is a dramatic need for economic fiber-reinforced composite materials and processing technologies that fulfil – besides high mechanical properties and reliability – also specific fire, smoke and toxicity characteristics (FST). This project aims at developing thermoplastic pultrusion line to produce aircraft interior structures such as floor beams, panels, etc. In order to boost the mechanical properties of such structures, nanocellulose fibers will be added to the thermoplastic. The development of such a process will enhance the partner’s competitivity in the aerospace market.

Assessing and improving the performance of quantum annealing processors

Quantum computers are believed to offer significant advantages over classical computers, specifically in solving non-deterministic polynomially hard problems. One of the known schemes of quantum computation is quantum annealing, which is suitable for solving many types of hard optimization problems with a wide range of applications including machine learning, finance, security, and healthcare. D-Wave Systems Inc. develops the only commercially available quantum annealers, which are being successfully applied to solve certain types of problems. Developing quantum annealers with a high performance over a full range of hard problems requires both a better understanding of the annealing process and hardware improvements, which are this project’s goals. Using two of the prominent quantum-bit platforms, trapped ions and superconducting systems, we will investigate the factors that determine the computational efficiency and speed of quantum annealers. TO BE CONT’D

Cooperative economy in the era of collaborative economy platforms

This project’s overarching goal is to spur cooperative enterprises to move into the collaborative economy. Even though the “collaborative economy” shares many values with cooperative enterprises, too few of them have entered the pace in Quebec and Canada, but also globally. This paradox puzzles Quebec’s cooperation and mutuality council (CQCM). They want to reverse this trend and help old and new cooperative companies to offer services linked to the collaborative economy platforms. In order to do so, the CQCM want to know why there is such a paradox, and how to act upon it. The CQCM need academic expertise to collect solid evidence and requested help from Polytechnique Montreal to help them with their reflections.