Innovative Projects Realized

Design limits for carbon fibre reinforced polymers

Hudson Boat Works in London, Ontario is the only company in Canada that manufactures high-performance rowing shells. Hudson wishes to employ finite element techniques to optimize the design of their rowing shells and associated structures using advanced engineering techniques. Optimization of composite materials design requires a detailed understanding of their mechanical response, including how they fail. Researchers at Western will focus on studying these failure mechanisms, and in doing so will generate the material data required for finite element analysis. The fracture surfaces of Hudson’s single ply materials and sandwich panels will be evaluated using optical and scanning electron microscopy to characterize the failure mode.

The successful conclusion of this project will provide Hudson with the requisite capabilities to employ advanced engineering techniques to optimize their composite structures. Furthermore, improved understanding of failure mechanisms in composite materials is applicable to a wide variety of industries with requirements for tough, lightweight materials.

In-vitro simulation of fracture, wear, corrosion and distraction in total hip replacements

Reports of in vivo total hip replacement failures have raised concerns over their load bearing capacity, safety, reliability and service life particularly as hip arthroplasty is being extended to even younger patients. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure continual patient monitoring and develop proper testing standards. This study focuses on investigating retrievals and in vitro test samples with the objective of ensuring accurate simulation of in vivo conditions in a lab setting. Both currently used neck materials, Ti6Al4V and CoCrMo will be investigated. Fatigue life, corrosion and wear damage as well as distraction forces will be studied. Optical and scanning electron microscopy will be used to analyze damage and fracture features allowing direct comparison between retrievals and in vitro test samples on one hand, and Ti6Al4V and CoCrMo necks on the other hand. The study will serve as benchmark to test and improve implant performance and life through modification of implantation technique, neck material and design.

Strategic community investment – A tookit for junior exploration companies

After reviewing a plethora of toolkits published by industry organizations such as the ICMM and PDAC, a set of simple to use tools have been summarized in the toolkit. The aim of the toolkit is to help junior and mid-tier producers to understand the importance of sustainability programs and how to best engage with community members and partner with NGOs. This toolkit is useful for Keegan Resources because it provides management review tools and guidelines on how to establish key performance indicators to monitor and evaluate its own progress. Since the toolkit covers topic from stakeholder engagement to establishing partnership, it also means as the company expands and starts acquiring other exploration sites, its current community investment efforts is replicable as there will be simple guidelines to follow when entering a new community.

Calcium supplements, elemental bioavailability, and uptake by bone (Part 2)

There is an increasing number and variety of calcium supplements being made available to the Canadian public, often making claims regarding improved action over competitor products. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of drugs and nutraceuticals upon bone health, particularly if they contain elements (such as calcium) which incorporate into newly mineralizing bone. With the highly bioavailable calcium acetate supplement by the Canadian nutraceutical company Sino Veda, it would be possible to verify improved uptake and deposition into bone if competitive uptake of the SinoVeda product was contrasted against strontium salts, which are easier to trace systemically in comparison to calcium. A range of calcium salt and strontium salt compounds were examined, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) established to identify and assay from complex mixtures, including rat serum. The competitive nature of calcium-strontium mixtures was ascertained at a range of pHs, in Simulated Gastric Fluid (pH2), Media Buffer pH4.5 and Simulated Intestinal Fluid (pH6.8) in order to assess solubility and calculate uptake into the rat plasma after oral gavage with hourly blood sampling. We are in the fmal stages of showing that calcium and strontium salts can be used competitively in order to determine skeletal uptake of calcium salt dosage form.

Synchrotron imaging of ovaries ex Sstu

Conventional ultrasonography is limited in its ability to image small structures within the ovaries (eg. the eggs and surrounding cells, small fluid filled sacs that contain the eggs known as 'early antral follicles', the structure of the ovulation glands). Preliminary data obtained from our research team at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) have indicated that phase-contrast Computed Tomography (CT) synchrotron methods are effective for imaging bovine and human ovaries. Further research conducted by our group at the SPring-8 synchrotron facility in Japan has shown that phase-contrast CT imaging capabilities are significantly improved with the use of diffraction grating equipment. The objective of the proposed internship is to study the effectiveness of diffraction grating techniques for imaging bovine and human ovaries at the CLS. The intern will assist in developing lab safety guidelines for handling biological materials, which will enable the manufacture of synchrotron hardware (eg. sample stages and holders) by the industry sponsor, RMD Engineering. Diffraction-grating synchrotron equipment will be installed and tested at the CLS. We anticipate that this research project will lead to the development of high resolution tools for imaging reproductive tissues, and optimization of synchrotron techniques for biomedical imaging.

Development of social and economic indicators for sustainable remediation

The proposed research will develop and test a sustainable remediation framework and set of proposed social and economic indicators. The framework will build upon existing tools and complement current practices and regulations. The intern 's work is part of SRC's two-year project is to provide a new niche service that will help SRC's clients select the optimal remediation alternative. Objectives of the project are to deliver a technical report describing a framework, tools, methods and metrics to be used to support decision-making process to achieve sustainable remediation, and to test the framework and demonstrate expertise in this field through case studies. The additional understanding of social and economic indicators will allow SCR to initiate sustainable remediation for different industry resource sectors.

A community-orientated “skills for success” research project

This research internship project with Ms. Birdsall shall investigate and develop a functional plan for a corporate social investment (CSI) model that integrates: (i) Douglas College’s Skills for Success recommendations with the industry partner’s current CSI program and future Social & Labour Plan [SLP] obligations; and (ii) the capabilities and potential resources of the South African partners – Northwest University and Orbit College, located in Rustenburg near the industry partner’s WBJV mine. In order to assess the proposed projects for feasibility and priority, several methods will be used. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with both community members and key partners. The goal of the interviews is to determine whether these proposed projects are suitable for the local community and whether the key partners are able to fulfill their role in implementing the proposed projects. To gain a consensus on the priorities of the proposed project, the Delphi method and other decision-making methods will be used and adapted.

Molecular modeling module of the pharmaceutical platform technology

Pharmaceutical platform technology (PPT) was invented by Sinoveda Inc., the partner organization, to accomplish the tasks of identification, purification, and activity determination for the active ingredients of natural herbal remedies, with the goal of developing and optimizing the remedies. However, two issues remain to be tackled in the PPT process: first, there is as yet no systematic approach to take advantage of the properties of the ingredients of herbs; and second, there is a lack of appropriate methods to consistently understand their effects. During this internship the applicant will tackle both of these issues by developing a computer software method using an information-driven approach. The method will be tested initially by studying a well-known herb: red clover, which has been used to treat menopausal symptoms. The resulting method will improve the current PPT process and will allow Sinoveda Inc. to conduct more efficient, economical and consistent identification of the active ingredients of natural herbal remedies in the preliminary stage of product development.

Towards automating ore sorting with rich sensors

To make mining more efficient and environmentally friendly, transportation of rock should be minimized. Ideally we would only transport those rocks that contain economically extractable amounts of minerals. MineSense has developed sensors that can detect the level of minerals in rocks and, in particular, can detect very low levels with high accuracy. This proposal is to use MineSense's sensing technology to make decisions about which rocks to keep, and which to discard, as they pass over an array of sensors via a moving belt. Part of the decision is to determine where the rocks are and how many there are. This project will apply some of the latest artificial intelligence techniques, in particular techniques from relational probabilistic modeling, to this problem.

Predicting click-impression dynamics by an epidemic model

InferSystems Corp. develops fully automatic mathematical software to optimize Real-Time-Targeting and Real-Time-Bidding. No project summary submitted.

A Commercialization and Corporate Strategy for a Cultivator Planter machine attachment

The industry partner for this development internship is a company working in the area of Forestry and Agriculture Manufacturing located in Quesnel. The company is preparing to grow rapidly with a new product development (still in the R&D phase), market feasibility and commercialization aspects for the same. The new product being developed by the company- the VHCP (Van Horlick Cultivator Planter) is the next generation of mechanized tree planting systems. The VHCP is an attachment that can be fitted to the arm of any excavator/back-hoe loader etc and enable mechanized tree planting with expected planting rate of nearly 10 times that of a single person. The project centers around developing an aggressive corporate strategy for the market entry of the product, rigorous market research to demonstrate a demand for such a product and extensive economic research with product application.

Head-Up Display Applications of a Compound Micro-lens Array

The purpose of this project is to design a compact optical component that will be used in tandem with a display panel to use in Head-Up Display systems. The essence of the optical component design is the use of micro-lens arrays. Micro-lens arrays are thin, usually planar lenses composed of much smaller lens-lets with diameters usually in the order of 10 to 100 microns. Using micro-lens arrays, the optical system can be reduced to a couple of “sheets” of micro-lens arrays or less, allowing for compactness of the system. Designing with micro-lens arrays presents a set of challenges such as overcoming the minimum accommodation of the eye, and light interference between each lens-let on the micro-lens array. Over the course of the project, solutions to these challenges will be sought after. Also, the micro-lens will be computer modeled and simulated for validation of the design.