Innovative Projects Realized

Natural and anthropogenic factors affecting the Nechako river watershed

Prince George Pulp and Intercontinental Pulp Company (both part of Canfor) are located in Prince George, the geographic centre of BC. The process of making Kraft pulp requires access to a considerable volume of water, which is why most pulp mills are located close to major rivers. Canfor Pulp clearly recognizes their dependence on the Nechako watershed and the role that Canfor must play in water management and stewardship. In order to manage this water resource effectively, we must understand the ways in which we use water now, as well as what our water needs will be in the future. Canfor is willing to gain knowledge about this watershed, and understand how climate change affects on this watershed as well knowledge if other sectors (e.g. agriculture or mining) affect on this watershed. Indeed, this project involves potential benefits for other environmental sectors that depend to the Nechako watershed, which can benefit the city of Prince George in general.

Managing shared state for video games in a networked multi-core environment II

Video Games require a vast array of different computations to present the desired experience. These computations must be completed consistently to make the software responsive to the user. The industry trend towards many separate processors (multi-core) in the same physical device and the mergence of network based ‘cloud’ computing have created many opportunities, but also many challenges for the game industry.

The goal of this project is to create efficient techniques to organize and schedule the computations to take advantage of all the processors available. These techniques must ensure that the results produced correctly and are obtained quickly enough to satisfy responsiveness. Each of these techniques will have a corresponding aspect that allows them to be used by programmers who are not experts in utilizing multiple processors.

While this project focuses on games, the benefits will be applicable to many domains, especially in the emerging field of mobile consumer-oriented applications.

Pattern classification of flow limited breathing via acoustic and vibration measurements

Snoring during sleep is common and is sometimes indicative of a mechanical impediment to breathing. The condition, called high upper airway resistance, is thought to be relatively common affecting roughly 15% of the population. It is characterized by complaints of daytime fatigue and/or sleepiness and is associated with a myriad of disastrous effects on a patient’s health such as high blood pressure, depression, atrial fibrillation, migraine, bruxism, temporal-mandibular joint disorders, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The exact incidence of HUAR is unknown with the majority of patients undiagnosed and left untreated. The principal reason for this is the lack of a convenient, non-invasive method for making the diagnosis of HUAR. The proposed research will use a complex analysis of snoring sound to identify the occurrence and distinguish it from simple snoring.

Optimizing thin film growth

Thin film deposition equipment is in wide demand amongst academic researchers in chemistry, physics, materials science and electrical engineering, not to mention manufacturers of semiconductor devices, medical consumables, storage media, and optics parts. Thus the size of the market can vary greatly from year to year due to its strong dependence on the health of these end-use sectors. Nonetheless, technological breakthroughs have often lead to large-scale growth. To this end, Angstrom Engineering Inc has strived to remain a leader in this field by constantly improving the ease of use of their systems as well as the quality of materials produced. The project will involve developing methods and models to further automate and optimize their thin film growth.

Extended Cloud Computing and Applications to April 2014

This Mitacs-Accelerate program will support a internships for graduate students in the areas of services and applications using next generation communications, Internet, and cloud computing. The interns will be placed in Canadian telecom and networking providers and vendors and will undertake research projects defined jointly with these partners. The program will prepare graduates to work in industry and will foster collaboration between universities and industry. The program will strengthen the Canadian industrial base in information and communications technology through the preparation of highly qualified manpower with expertise in the design and operation of globally competitive ICT infrastructure and the creation of innovative and disruptive products, services, and application.

Wide-area synchrophasor measurements based power system stability enhancement

The ability of observing the dynamics of an interconnected power system spread over a large geographical area in real time using synchrophasor technology enables the design of power system controllers against system wide disturbances which could lead to catastrophic failures. Currently, the synchrophasor technology is primarily used for monitoring applications and its potential for using in protection and stability control is not fully utilized. Therefore, this research is proposed with the goal of developing effective online application of wide area synchrophasor measurements for power system stability control. As a manufacturer of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), the partner organization ERL Phase Power Technologies can directly benefit from outcomes of this research. New applications of PMUs will increase the demand for PMUs and the company has the potential for developing products that can use the technology developed under this research. Also, the students trained through this project could become potential employees for the company.

Segmentation of SCG Signals

Research has shown that by monitoring the vibration of the heart using a simple sensor mounting on the human chest, the mechanical characteristics of heart can be measured. The purpose of this research is to design software that can automatically find some important points on the SCG signal. The software will be used to find hemodynamic parameters of the heart that will be used for diagnosis of ischemic heart patients. The outcome of this project is anticipated be extremely beneficial for both academia and the company. By successful completion of this project, multiple publications and patents will help improve the field of cardiac engineering.

Technical and economical evaluation of UASB reactor’s substitution

Lake Utopia paper mill as part of the J.D. Irving, Limited (JDI) is believed to be one of the leading mills in preserving the environment. Specifically water quality is very essential for the mill since the waste water of the mill is currently depleted to the Letang estuary after treatment. The mill production has been increased dramatically over the last twenty years. The total BOD level in the waste water to treatment plant has also increased significantly with the increase of mill paper production. The hydraulic loading rate of the UASB reactors is about 30 kg COD/m3/Day (20 kg removable COD/m3/D) which is almost double of max design value of 15 kg COD/m3/D. UASBs are designed to receive influent of less than 500 ppm solids, but our influent has over 2000 ppm suspended solids constantly. The other issue that the

anaerobic plant is faced with is the build-up of calcium carbonate in the reactor sludge which occupies the reactor volume and decreases its efficiency. Due to these various reasons, this project is intended to provide the mill with the most efficient solution to its waste water treatment system among the possible options. So far installation of new reactors which is not sensitive to incoming suspended solids and can handle higher hydraulic loads of waste water is proposed.

UASB reactors found widespread usage since their development in 1970s. However since then these reactors have been modified or some other reactors e.g. ADI hybrid reactors, IC reactors, EGSB (extended granular sludge bed) reactors etc. have been introduced based on the same idea to improve UASB properties (size, circulation, COD handling capacity…). Many publications have analyzed different methods for improving anaerobic waste water treatment systems in recent years including

comparison of various reactors. Some of the methods have been implemented in industry. This area still is being investigated constantly.

It is anticipated at least two publications will be derived from the present work, which gives the detailed system analysis of UASB reactors/others related to the Lake Utopia paper operations.

The duty of the intern is to investigate the system thoroughly, find other effective solutions and also analyze the solutions feasibility and economy and other aspects. At the end, it is mentionable that the Irving corporations have always had close connections with the University of New Brunswick and sought implementation of new knowledge in industry through this.

Neurological structures extraction and analysis for spinal disease diagnosis and intervention

31 pairs of spinal nerves, containing both sensory and motor nerve fibers, serves two important functions: pathway for sensory, motor impulses and are essential for spinal reflexes. Damage of spinal nerves has been one of the major concerns in diagnosis, treatment and spinal intervention. This project proposes to promptly and accurately extract neurological structures from MRI images. Once achieved, the partner organizations can use this for surgical planning and treatment. It will greatly improve their efficiency and reduce complications during surgical interventions.

Jim Green centre for innovation and inclusion

This Mitacs internship will determine the economic feasibility of the repurposing of 312/324 Main Street into a Centre for Social Innovation and Inclusion (CSII) in Vancouver. CSII is modeled on the successful Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto. CSII aims to create cooperative networks among different social groups, cultivating an environment of reciprocity.

CSII envisages the conversion of the former Vancouver Police Station at 312/324 Main Street for these purposes. The 60,000 square feet of leasable space would be rented out to a range of tenants similar to the Toronto model. In addition, the sponsors of the project – Vancouver City Savings Credit Union and Simon Fraser University will occupy some of the space with their related staff. Some of the space will be subsidized for local artists/artisans and NGO’s while other space will be of a relatively high return in the private sector.

Compressor load optimization

One of the main issues for automakers in today’s green economy is ensuring their vehicles have the highest fuel economy possible in order to deal with constantly increasing fuel costs. The improved fuel efficiency of vehicles provides money savings for customers, reduced carbon dioxide emissions, less dependency on oil, and lastly increased energy sustainability. The compressor load optimization project aims at improving the efficiency of the refrigerant cycle inside of a vehicle leading to improved fuel economy, reduced emissions, and lastly an extended comfort time in stop/start vehicle. This research project will provide technological innovation for the partner organization, which can be utilized for the benefit of the company on any current or future products. Not only will the partner organization benefit from the technology involved, but also customer benefits that will be induced from the results of this innovative research.

Development of a fully automated refuse collection system

The proposed project involves the development of a fully automated system for municipal waste collection. We will develop a ruggedized vision-based control system and a truck-mounted robot to pick up municipal waste containers and deposit their contents into the back of a standard waste collection vehicle. The solution is envisioned as an add-on for existing trucks that will not require municipalities to replace their entire fleets. Waterloo Controls estimates the annual market to be in the range of 5000 – 10000 units.