Innovative Projects Realized

Advanced Network Intrusion Detection Using Automated Algorithms and Threat Models

Computer attacks such as viruses, Trojans, etc. are a continuous problem for governments, companies, and individuals. The most common methods of detecting these computer problems like anti-virus systems rely on an attack being known and described before it can be detected. This opens a hole in computer security systems for new attacks that have not yet been detected. This project focuses on the use of mathematics and advanced anomaly detection algorithms to determine 'normal' and 'abnormal' behavior on computer networks, and attempts to detect attacks by detecting 'abnormal' behavior. For this project, the intern will be implementing a known anomaly detection technique and applying it to historical network data with known attacks. TRTech, an industry R+D consortium, is sponsoring this project so that this algorithm will then be used in Seccuris's network monitoring service. Seccuris is Western Canada's leading information assurance provider and member of TRTech.

Production Line Packaging Sensor Optimization

Automated production lines use in food, beverage and pharmaceutical manufacture can subject the product being produced and especially the product packaging to high levels of mechanical stress. These stresses can take many forms, be it impact, side pressure, vertical pressure, etc. Plant quality assurance engineers are constantly making adjustments to their automated systems to reduce these stresses to acceptable levels while increasing throughput. MASITEK's sensor packages help identify these stresses, especially those that are potentially damaging.

As consumers demand more environmentally friendly packaging, sizes of products decrease and speeds of automated handling systems increases it is important that the sensor packages be smaller, more sensitive and more accurate. This project will focus on increasing the sensitivity and repeatability of the sensor packages, significantly decreasing their size, and improving the radio link employed.

The research and remediation of the sensor deficiencies will help MASITEK retain existing market share and attract new customers. The acquired internal knowledge and alliances derived from this project will provide a blueprint for future research activities and commercialization opportunities.

Investigating the early marine dynamics of Skeena River sockeye salmon using scale pattern analysis

This project will address questions about the variable marine survival of different Skeena river sockeye stocks. Zooplankton sampling will be conducted along the smolt outmigration route to determine the timing of peak abundance of important sockeye prey items. The scale characteristics of a number of different Skeena sockeye stocks across different years will be compared to determine relationships between early marine growth and smolt size, migration timing, and zooplankton abundance. Statistical analysis of historical escapement data will provide insights about spatial trends in sockeye productivity and abundance. The Lax Kw’alaams fishing community will benefit from improved predictions of future sockeye abundance in order to plan for poor returns and identify new potential terminal fisheries. The data from the zooplankton project, combined with new knowledge about smolt migration timing and growth in the early marine environment will provide insights into the differential productivity of Skeena sockeye stocks, while the statistical analysis of escapement data will determine patterns of stability of small-lake stocks within Lax Kw’alaams territories.

Performance Evaluation for the Infer Engine–Optimization on Dynamic Advertising

Different from traditional online advertising, dynamic media campaigns show different impressions (visitors to a web page) with different advertisement based on the characteristics of the impression. Infer Engine is a system that optimizes bidding for media campaigns by maximizing total profit for every impression. The theoretical foundation of the Engine is a by statistics based learning theory for predictive models and mathematics analysis for optimization. The proposed project is on performance valuation of the Infer Engine with different learning algorithms. Comparison with other similar products will also be investigated. The metrics are the accuracy of the prediction and the learning time. The partner organization is the first company to apply these highly efficient techniques in this area. Performance analysis and comparisons will help the further improvement of the Engine.

Cloud-based Reengineering and Interoperability of a Primary Care EMR

Computer-supported Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems are increasingly replacing conventional paper-based information management in primary health care clinics. Recently, there has been a trend to make these EMR systems available in a Cloud-based, interoperable and network-centric architecture. The internship will research ways to increase the interoperability of an existing EMR product, with respect to emerging health information interchange standards and protocols.

Investigating Open Scholarship and Inclusive Practices in Higher Education

The objective of this project is to create a set of innovative business intelligence tools to enhance advanced data mining and data visualization capabilities of the Perspective PPM 2000 software system. The Perspective software is an incident management system that facilitates corporate incident data collection, reporting, analysis and management. Incident data is a post-event record of accidents, thefts, hazards, or other unusual events related to an organization’s infrastructure. The proposed business intelligence tools are implemented as unique analytical models, machine learning and data mining algorithms to apply across multiple client datasets. The tools will enable three (3) key feature enhancements: incident pattern discovery, report visualizations, and predictive modeling.

A Guide to Government Grant Applications

The Canadian Government offers many forms of support to start-up businesses and entrepreneurs. However there is no single, easily accessible source of information available to entrepreneurs to be able to determine which funding programs they are eligible for and which programs fit closest to their business. This research, in conjunction with Twothirds Water Inc. and the Sauder School of Business, aims to analyse the Government Funding Landscape, particularly in British Columbia as well as the experiences of current entrepreneurs who have been through the process of researching and applying for Government funding. The end goal of the research is to develop a conceptual framework for approaching Government Funding opportunities which takes into consideration the trade-offs between costs, the probability of success, application timing and the value of each grant.

Inversion of geophysical data

When using geophysical methods to gain insight into the structure of the earth, large geophysical data sets are collected. Since the earth is a 3D structure, the data must be interpreted and processed in 3D to be of the most value in the exploration process. This research will develop the capability to invert large gravity, magnetics, and airborne EM datasets accurately and in a reasonable timeframe. This requires the research and development of inversion software, data visualization and QC software, and inversion setup scripts. Currently much of the time spent on inversion projects is spent manipulating and formatting the data and additional inversion input files. By researching and developing efficient workflow procedures and robust and automated scripts to create the necessary inversion input files, this setup process can be streamlined and made much more efficient. The partner organization, Computational Geosciences Inc., provides modeling and data processing services for the resource sector. This research will allow the organization to improve the exploration process and chance of success by providing advanced 3D inversion service to industry.

Improving Efficiency of Operations in Paint Shop and Pre-flight Processes at Bombardier Aerospace Company

The principles of lean engineering design are well documented for the automotive industry – where they have served to revolutionize the efficiencies of North American manufacturing operations. Lean engineering has subsequently been transferred into other sectors – where it continues to generate impressive results. The aerospace industry is faced with demands for efficiency of operations, and the throughput of existing plant operations are being challenged to meet increased needs for aircraft to support the growth of emerging markets, and the need for more fuel efficient aircraft. The aerospace industry has a legacy of craftsmanship execution and knowledge transfer through skilled employees that have employed their trade in the industry for decades, and have developed a wealth of expertise and tribal knowledge. In order to increase efficiencies of operations – it is necessary to develop a rigorous documentation protocol to record the exact tasks performed at all stages of the assembly process – in a format that can be used by industrial engineers. Once this process is thoroughly documented through SOP – production bottlenecks and efficiency bottlenecks can be understood and measured – with opportunities for improvement clearly identified.

Subsea Pipeline Risk-based Integrity Assessment

The first objective of this internship is testing and validation of recently customised RISKWISE software for subsea pipeline application using a case study. Second objective is to develop a user manual for the software for future reference. Testing and validation of the software would help provide reliability and confidence in the tool usage that will help in decision making regarding optimal inspection and maintenance planning for risk mitigation. Also, this study assesses the overall risk to pipeline operation based on observed damage mechanisms and recommends mitigating actions to be carried out to minimise risk over life cycle. The proposed research and development would aid in pipeline risk mitigation through optimal inspection and maintenance planning. Probabilistic models for damage mechanisms and consequences reduces data uncertainty and hence, operational risk to pipeline life. Furthermore, the study would identify limitations of the tool and potential areas for improvement. Having such a tool will be a benefit for offshore oil and gas operators.

This research project was undertaken and completed with a grant from and the financial assistance of Petroleum Research Newfoundland & Labrador.

Subsea Pipeline Remnant Life Assessment

Many of the pipelines either offshore or onshore are nearing the end of their design life. Some of the pipelines show signs of deterioration and ageing as a result of corrosion and fatigue. There are situation where the operators desire to extend the life of an ageing pipeline beyond its life expectancy due to increased oil and gas demand or due to unforeseen increased oil and gas reserve. Other situations that force the operators to maintain the pipeline’s design life are the premature ageing of the pipe caused by the increased time-dependent deterioration.

The key objective of the business for any oil and gas operator is to have a pipeline system that performs the intended function in a safe and cost effective manner.

The objective of this research is to develop a structured and probabilistic model to assess and predict the useful and safe remaining life of subsea pipeline system. Applying this model will insure that the pipeline will perform satisfactorily, (i.e. complying with codes, maintaining integrity, etc.) and in line with predefined operating conditions.

This research project was undertaken and completed with a grant from and the financial assistance of Petroleum Research Newfoundland & Labrador.

A Model for Measuring Prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in Canada

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the leading cause of developmental disabilities in Canada and is an umbrella term describing the range of effects associated with alcohol use during pregnancy. Currently, we do not know exactly how many Canadians are living with FASD, but we estimate 350,000 and that 3,000-4,000 babies with FASD are born every year. The costs for health, mental health, social services, education, and productivity losses are estimated to be a staggering $5.3 billion per year. An accurate measure of the number of Canadians living with FASD (the “prevalence”) is important for many reasons, including justification for FASD programming, better planning for use of FASD resources, identifying those at risk for FASD and alcohol consumption during pregnancy, determining trends, calculating costs and measuring effectiveness of prevention, and intervention efforts. Determining the prevalence of FASD will take a national coordinated and collaborative effort across jurisdictions and sectors. The objectives of this proposal are to take the first steps toward developing a plan of action for measuring FASD prevalence in Canada by performing an environment scan to: identify the existing data sources, databases and the data fields that are collected; gather information about where information about a prenatal-alcohol related diagnosis is captured, capability of the systems to link to other databases/systems, standardized information that is captured and the current capacity of Canada to accurately measure FASD prevalence; and to explore ways of working with or expanding existing systems to gather information/data about FASD. The results will be used as a foundation to develop recommendations to measure FASD prevalence in Canada.