Innovative Projects Realized

Ice thickness measurement using P-Band radar

Sea ice thickness measurement is very important since it can be considered as an indicator of the state of ocean circulation and associated air-sea heat exchange within the Polar Regions. As a result, it can have a significant impact on global heat balance and ocean thermohaline circulation. However, obtaining sea ice thickness in a large area with sufficiently high accuracy and sensitivity is very challenging since it shows a great amount of spatial and temporal variability. The approaches reported in the past have significant restrictions in penetration depth, sensitivity and logistics. Airborne SAR radar systems provide information with high sensitivity and resolution. The microwave signals in P-band region are capable of penetrating the ice thickness by their relatively long wave lengths and thus provide reflections from air-ice and ice-water interfaces. The amplitude and phase characteristics of reflected signals possess important information on sea ice. The proposed research is aimed to understand physical ice-radar interaction at P-band and capture these reflections through filtering and smoothing and the information will be used to extract the thickness measurements with high accuracy.

The Communicative Challenges and Implications of Quantum Computing

The industry partner1QBit has access to a processor that uses an adiabatic annealing technique to address a special class of optimization problems for initial application in finance. Optimization problems have a long and broad relevance to challenges faced in the financial sector. The prospect of quantum annealing as a way to innovate in solving finance optimization problems has been an area of growing interest, though limited in practice due to the lack of suitable analog hardware. 1QBit is bringing together a group of researchers from physics, mathematics, computer science, engineering and finance to investigate the prospect of quantum annealing in financial applications. In this internship project, I will apply my research aims to trace the development of the diverse network that is being built to facilitate quantum computing, understand the communication challenges faced in interdisciplinary public-private technological production, and consider the implications posed by a quantum model of computing to theories of information and the material nature of communication.

Structure of near-zero carbon footprint sustainable community

The objective of this project is to conduct a feasibility study and build a business case for the design and deployment of an electric energy storage infrastructure from renewable and mostly solar energy sources. The feasibility study will follow a thorough benchmarking and evaluation study of the various existing choices an select the one(s) that are the most promising for new and large sustainable communities.

Developing Crop Consulting App

This project is to build a mobile application that will allow partner’s clients to use it on their mobile device to access their farm data and receive ongoing recommendations from consultants. The project will benefit the partner organization by improving the communication between consultants and their client farmers. Currently, consultants print out their recommendations for farmers or sent it through mail. It is not easy to get timely or reliable feedback from farmers using paper and regular mail. After this project is completed, consultants can forward their recommendations to the farmer via the mobile device application directly and get farmer’s feedback as soon as the farmer confirms from their device. This will improve the quality of their service and attract more customers for them, which can increase their market share.

Patient decision aid for musculoskeletal injuries in Mild Hemophilia

Hemophilia is a genetic bleeding disorder in which the blood flow is impaired from clotting. If you have hemophilia, you may bleed for a longer time  than others after an injury. The primary goal of our work is to enable patients with the condition to make effective decisions when injuries occur. For instance, our proposed application will aid the patient to seek either immediate attention from a healthcare provider if the injury is a major one. Moreover, if the injury is not severe, then the patient will be guided to perform some activities that will lead to other decisions as to whether the patient is well or needs some self-assessment. This research puts the partner organization in a strategic position to broaden out their campaigns and services to patients with the condition of mild hemophilia.

Implementation of collaborative regional sustainable development strategies: An international study on structure and outcomes

Global and local policy makers require realistic information about options to achieve sustainable development. To this end, this research project aims to improve understanding of the institutional dynamics related to implementing community sustainability strategies and the resulting plan outcomes. Plan outcomes are the concrete sustainability improvements, linked to the goals in the community sustainability strategies (e.g., reduction in  greenhouse gas emissions)(Clarke & Fuller, 2011; MacDonald, 2012). This research will inform future discussions around implementing community sustainability strategies globally (in developed countries, emerging economies, and developing countries), thus helping inform future international and local policymaking on the topic of sustainable communities and sustainable development. Through their involvement in this project, ICLEI will gain access to a large data set, which consolidates local knowledge from around the world about implementing sustainability strategies. Access to this knowledge will reinforce their position as a key informant to local and global policymaking in the realm of sustainability.

Arch-App

The intention of the Arch-App is to create a mobile app that utilizes geo-location and augmented reality technologies to access data (including imagery, videos, and text) on building projects throughout the city in real time. The infrastructure of the Arch-App effectively provides users a resources (ranging from historic imagery to notable interviews) and tour guides to any local landmark in the real world condensed into their smartphones.  Currently, there is no such infrastructure which, supports said goals of Arch-App. The Arch-App strives to empower people with more information on any given landmark they may come across including touristic, academic, and recreational initiatives. The intern will be conducting interviews, gathering content from the firms and compiling and uploading information to the app. The app will expose the industry to cutting-edge technology and firms involved will gain exposure to the public, educational and professional level and will have the opportunity to leave a legacy through their work.

Creating a new atlas of welding defects – Updating/editing ASTM Passport to Steel and ASME Code Interpretation databases

A visual atlas of welding defects (defects introduced in the material do to welding) will also be created to aid the weld quality inspectors, instructors, welders, or anyone taking a welding course identify the source(s) of defects, how to prevent defects from occurring, and how to repair weld defects. The ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) passport to steel database and the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) code interpretation database will be updated to make all the new updated standards and interpretations available to users.

Transition towards an automated and centralized staff scheduling system

The project includes the integration of a new software for crew scheduling at ViaRail, which will make uniform the crew scheduling rules. Crew scheduling is currently distributed over 5 geographical centers at ViaRail, with each center producing schedules independently. Consequently, the project will include three phases: collecting the current practices for crew scheduling in the five centers, analyzing the collection of those rules and proposing a unified process for crew scheduling across the five centers in view of the crew scheduling software purchased by ViaRail. While going through those three steps, the intern will need to keep in mind the optimization of the crew scheduling in terms of staff scheduling work blocks and bidding process. The project will also include the automation of the payroll from the collection fo the data from the crew members, up to the generation of the pay checks.

Esdilagh Development Corporation Business Action Plan Research and Development

Esdilagh Development Corporation (EDC) business Interns to perform business development research to inform the composition of business plans to ensure we have professional business guidance tools to assist EDC in engaging in business sectors as identified in the Esdilagh Economic Development Plan and Investment Profile completed in 2011. Project goals are to produce professional quality Business Plans for:

1. Aggregate Business, Business Plan
2. Gas Station and Convenience Store Business Plan
3. Agriculture Business Plan
4. Forestry Business Plan
5. EDC Business Plan
6. Mineral Resource Company and Oil and Gas Company Business Plan

Esdilagh Devleopment Corporation is owned by a ?Esdilagh First Nation who have land holdings and significant opportunities to engage in the natural resource sectors as well as manufacturing and services sectors.

Developing a Farm Management System: Migrating from iOS to Android platform

The project conducts a research to explore and investigate ways in developing a farm management tool that will assist farmers to have instant and secure access to information, and have the ability to update those information. Information updated on a device outside the coverage of wireless connection will be updated and synchronized when the device is within a coverage using application level synchronization technique. The research result will benefit partner organization in making an informed decision on their future development efforts as well as deliver a more complete solution to their customers, allowing them to optimize their service according to the customer need.

Programming Techniques for QUBO Compatible Processors

The main problem this internship project explores is the selection, conversion, and encoding of mathematical models that pertain to the finance industry for processing on available types of analog optimization processors. This research investigation aims to develop new algorithms and code that take advantage of an analog optimization process which acts as an “oracle” for a classical Turing Machine computer. This will be done by developing methods to translate a range of problems into the ideal form for currently available adiabatic annealing hardware. 1QBit will develop software applications to translate problems into quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems, enabling a broader range of practical problems to be addressed by a computer that has access to an oracle that answers a problem via an annealing process. This project is part of 1QBit’s exploration of how to best utilize an annealing oracle for various optimization problems. This research puts 1QBit and Canada in a leadership role as a software developer of this novel approach to computation and optimization.