Innovative Projects Realized

Great Lakes phosphorus project

The intern will be a member of a team that will look at nutrient strategies for the Great Lakes. The intern will be responsible for collecting research dealing with legislation, policies and programs that deal with the reduction of phosphorus (and other nutrients) in the Great Lakes. The intern will help identify documents and experts and agencies that are relevant to this goal. From this the intern will contribute to creating a plan on how to proceed with existing and also proposing legislation, program and policies dealing with phosphorus management in Great Lakes. Furthermore the intern will be responsible for creating deliverables including a presentation for agencies that are responsible for the Great Lakes Nutrient Initiative. The expected benefit for Intersol is to get scientific expertise and consulting in regards to nutrient loading and environmental policy. Intersol will expect to benefit from the interns research skills in both science and policy.

Improvements in the Fock reactivity of Kraft-based dissolving pulp

AV Nackawic is part of a new and innovative group of companies (AV Group), which are focused on producing high-quality dissolving pulp and other products. For dissolving pulp, the pulp reactivity in the subsequent converting process is an important parameter, which ultimately determines the quality of the product. This internship will investigate the solutions to increase the pulp reactivity in order to improve the quality and market demand of the kraft-based dissolving pulp. The intern will use the UNB facility in carrying out the detailed experiments, and then do the initial engineering/process development to carry out the mill trial to improve the reactivity of dissolving pulp. It will provide a strong training opportunity to the intern.

PREDICT: Parallel Resources for Early Detection of Immediate Causes of Tsunamis

With this project we propose a re-thinking of ICT infrastructure to include a framework that exploits commodity many-core systems to evaluate models. The framework permits comparison, evaluation and improvement of competing and complementary models and appear to hold promise. Our proposal focuses on the computationally intensive tasks associated with near-field Tsunami detection, leveraging parallelism to process environmental conditions in real-time to deliver informed warnings to populations at risk. By keeping a human-in-the-loop, we include new services that support crowd-sourcing within the framework, allowing integration of sensor data with media-rich voluntary participant input. Monte Carlo simulations of relevant ocean models highlight necessary precursors and likelihood of potential threats.

Patient decision aids in hemophilia: tools to facilitate shared decision-making

Patients who have hemophilia, a rare blood clotting disease, often have to make important decisions about different treatments for their condition. Research studies have shown that if patients and their health care providers communicate openly about treatment options and preferences and make decisions together, then the chosen treatment can lead to better patient satisfaction and treatment. With this research project, we would like to create informational tools for patients and their health care providers that will allow them to come together and make a decision about treatment of hemophilia. We would like to make and test the usefulness these tools for three important decisions that have to be made in hemophilia treatment. Information for these tools would be based on the best evidence known from current research. To complete this project we would like to work with the company, Biogen Idec. After the project is completed, Biogen Idec would have unrestricted access to the created informational tools and the information used in these tools.

Consuming social media services on heterogeneous devices

Social media integration into enterprise-oriented workflows is gaining widespread adoption due to factors such as crowdsourcing and inter-organization collaborations. The partner organization has an existing system that is working for helping Saskatchewan businesses grow by bringing educated youth into the province. Their system is for providing opportunities for people all around the world to live and work in Saskatchewan. Our work will be to re-develop the existing infrastructure in a way that it can be integrated with social media with user generated content. Further, the improved system will be cross-platform independent and can be deployed in a desktop and mobile environments.

The partner organization IIBC will have the results generated by the research. This research could allow the partner organization to broaden out their offerings of products to different mobile devices and better satisfy their customer’s needs.

Dynamic mathematical modeling for control of film gauge for Tedlar® film casting

The objective of the proposed research project is to develop a mathematical model that can be used to predict, monitor and control the thickness profile of extruded Tedlar® film, particularly during product transitions and batch switches.  Development of this model will require a detailed understanding of the extrusion and film casting process, as well as identification of key polymer and process parameters that influence film gauge.  Existing and new process data from grade and batch changes will be collected and used to explore the influence of polymer properties and process conditions on dynamic changes in film thickness profiles.   This data set will be used to make decisions about the types of phenomena that will be included in the mathematical model, to estimate model parameters and to validate model predictions.

Evaluating impacts of social web-based networks on travel sharing

The specific aim of this study is to examine the demand for a social-network based dynamic ridesharing system called FacePorter. The study will also be focused on the role that social networks can play in facilitating this ride-sharing Program. The University of Calgary population will be examined as potential users for such service. A combination of stated preference and revealed preference survey would be conducted to examine the willingness of the University population to use this system and the factors which would contribute to its success.

Techna Nanotechnology cluster

The first successful clinical application of nanotechnology was the use of a nanoparticle container to deliver a drug to a tumour. That basic strategy of using a nanoparticle to carry a treatment or indicator molecule has a lot of potential, but requires continued research to determine the therapeutic effectiveness and potential toxicity of each container and payload combination. DLVR Therapeutics and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals focus on the development of nanotechnology-based chemotherapeutic and imaging agents. For each new formulation, the drug delivery characteristics, biological distribution and interaction with cellular targets in tumours need to be determined. These properties will be investigated in tumour models with various imaging techniques, including magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and optical microscopy. Successful testing of the properties of these nanostructures in preclinical models is a vital step for the industrial partners, as this allows them to readily translate new nanotechnology solutions to the clinic.

Methods for detection of emergent gameplay

Games are no fun to play if there is a perfect winning strategy so that a player can always win by playing it. Game designers are aware of this, but it is notoriously difficult to predict when such strategies exist for a given rule set. This project is about studying the effects of changing the rules of a game or adding new rules, especially non-traditional ones like giving away points, in order to predict the existence or likelihood of a perfect winning strategy. We are also interested in studying the effects of modifying traditional interactions between individual games within multiplayer tournaments to determine whether these changes, additions, or modifications lead to undesired emergent behaviour. We use virtual robots called agents to evolve strategies to determine whether a game or tournament is susceptible to perfect winning strategies. The research done in this project will help to design more interesting and robust games and tournaments.

Understanding Stress Signaling in Childhood Cancers: ROS signaling pathways

The Sorensen laboratory-based Childhood Cancer Research Program is specifically focused on elucidating the genetic and biological determinants of the metastatic process in childhood cancer. Metastatic disease remains the single most dominant driver of adverse outcome in most childhood cancers, particularly in childhood sarcomas. There are two basic strategies in the program for studying metastatic disease in childhood cancers. The first is to focus on cell stress signaling. Emerging evidence indicates that adaptation to prototypical forms of cell stress plays a major role in tumor cell selection and metastasis. 

Advanced Bio-composites for automotive sector

The proposed project seeks to develop biocomposite technology and products for the auto manufacturing industries. Eight graduate students under the supervision of Dr. Mohini Sain, will work on manufacturing processes, mechanical characterization and development of molds for various types of bio-composites which have direct application in auto-industries and can act as substitute for fossil fuel based composites. The two partner organizations will be the Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing (CBBP), Faculty of Forestry, Univ. of Toronto and the Center for Power Train (PERDC)

Ford Motor Co. based at Windsor. Ford Motor Co., Canada, has been interested in using biocomposites in automotive manufacturing and is therefore interested in collaboration with the University of Toronto and CBBP for the same. The above project proposal has been designed in consultation with representatives from Ford and matches their own priorities in bio-composites. 

Social-emotional development in early childcare programs

The Teaching Pyramid Model (TPM) was designed as a promotion, prevention, and intervention framework to support the social, emotional, and behavioral development of young children. Successful implementation of the TPM in ELC programs requires staff capacity (e.g., professional development, refresher courses for staff, performance feedback, staff support and family engagement (e.g., providing families with training to teach their children SE skills at home, enhancing parent-staff relationships). The objectives of this project is twofold: (1) to follow the behaviour of children enrolled in Early Learning Care (ELC) programs that have implemented the TPM to explore how it increases child social, emotional, and behavioral skills, and (2) to explore how quality implementation of the TPM intervention (staff capacity and family engagement strategies) will help support staff and families to promote SE skills during early childhood. This research will contribute to ongoing scholarship on early years prevention and intervention of SE problems. It will also inform provincial policy on quality care by training and supporting staff and families to promote SE development in children, thereby increasing access, support and meaningful participation to all children, regardless of a diagnosis.