Innovative Projects Realized

Analytical chemistry method development for lignin breakdown products

The partner organization MetaMixis Inc. is attempting to use biocatalytic ways to process lignin, the second most abundant biopolymer on earth, with microbiology methods to transform lignin into fine chemicals in useful quantities within a reasonable time frame. The process and end products need to be fully characterized using analytical tools to ensure the efficiency. The end products include vanillin, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, syringaldehyde, syringic acid, and vanillyl alcohol. The proposed research project to be undertaken is to apply state-of-art mass spectrometry based analytical chemistry techniques, including high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry to characterize the biocatalytic process as well as quantify the end products from the transformation to ensure the production quality and efficiency. The developed analytical method will be fast and robust to accommodate the partner organization’s demand for high throughput analytical methods in monitoring the products from overnight batch productions.

Estuarine reliance of juvenile salmonids in the Skeena River

Research on salmon in the Skeena River estuary in 2007 and 2013 quantified the abundance of different species of salmon in different locations of the estuary over time. These results indicate that the region where industrial development is proposed contained the highest abundances of Chinook and sockeye in both years surveyed, and coho in 2007. Furthermore, genetic analyses identified that the sockeye and Chinook salmon that were captured in the estuary originated from dozens of locallyadapted populations throughout the Skeena and Nass watersheds, highlighting the vast connections of these estuaries habitats to fish and their commercial, recreational, and First Nations fisheries. While our previous research illuminates the relative abundance of different populations and species in the estuary, the next step, proposed in this project, is to quantify their reliance on these estuary habitats.

By the North with the North: Community Building in Northern Saskatchewan

This research project will be conducted through internship research by students in the Master in Northern Governance and Development (MNGD). The MNGD is a project-based, interdisciplinary program meant to build capacity among northerners in northern Saskatchewan through a blended delivery model including face-to-face, videoconferencing, online and international field school instruction. The 2013-2014 internship research project will contribute to the MNGD graduate students’ research through the examination of community-based responses to rapid change and the development of the local capacity to respond. The project will evaluate the current and potential capacity of northern stakeholders to engage in relationships and implement processes, policies and practices that build resilient and sustainable communities. This analysis will function at the community, and multi-community levels, and thus, will be informed by their values and interests. Specifically, the objectives of this research cluster are to: assess current community-based, capacity-building programs; explore the viability of implementing new programs; evaluate the overall significance and prevalence of self-reliance and local ownership of community development; and evaluate the strategies for adapting, adjusting and accommodating to rapid change and identified risk factors.

Determination of the Mechanical Properties of Wheat Straw for Equipment Design

Harvesting wheat grains require that the plant be cut from the stem and threshed. When the stem (straw) of the wheat bend due to pest and other factors, losses are incurred during harvesting. To minimize losses, breeders have developed pest-resistant wheat (solid stemmed) as compared to the hollow stemmed. The solid stemmed varieties may lead to higher straw strength and energy requirement which consequently will result in higher harvesting cost. Also, farmers are faced with the challenge of increased cost of transporting the straw outside the farm due to their high volume. Further compression of the straw can reduced this cost. The research project sets to investigate the mechanical properties of wheat straw varieties (solid and hollow stemmed) at various moisture and stem height for similarities and differences to help the sponsor (CNH) develop new equipment or improve existing equipment that can harvest agricultural residues and meet farmer’s demand.

Model Development for Manitoba Hydro Regulating Reserve Management

The main objective of this research is to calculate Control performance standards in an interconnected power system without running the time domain simulation. Using a faster approach which requires probability distribution of load change. PSCAD and PSSE simulation tools will be used to carry out the research. System identification technique will be used to estimate necessary transfer function models. These transfer function models will be used to generate data for the calculation purpose. These models are expected to accurately evaluate the impact of external generation especially wind power generation to Manitoba Hydro system frequency performance. This research and development associated with it will benefit the partner organization in different ways. The project would help Manitoba Hydro to be able to meet the related existing and future NERC/MRO standards in the most efficient manner. Meeting these standards would provide exceptional value to Manitoba Hydro’s customers. It will help Manitoba Hydro to enhance its frequency control responsibilities with the interconnections while maintaining cost effective regulating reserve. This could enable Manitoba Hydro to increase its profit from expanded export market sales.

Energy audit and actions for St. Mary’s Cement Plant

The proposed project seeks to conduct an energy audit of the St. Mary’s Cement plant, study the energy inputs and outputs, and create integration plans that can result in the reduction of total energy usage, a better Energy Efficiency Index (EEI) and cost savings. A key component of this project is the engagement and training of an MESC student in energy auditing and management. The project serves as an ideal framework for advanced graduate training in thermodynamics, energy conversion, and energy management. The proposed work is to be undertaken by a graduate student at Western University working towards his MESC degree in Mechanical Engineering

3D CFD Investigation of biomass combustion of a commercial furnace

Biomass combustion, which is a growing business, is used to generate heat and power. It is a very attractive system because it provides energy at cheaper price compared to oil and gas fuels and also emits fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. As the name implies, the combustion system is fired using renewable fuels such as forest and agriculture residues. Biovalco Inc., which is a Canadian company, is gradually increasing its share in this energy market. The ultimate goal of Biovalco is to optimize the design of their system in order to increase its efficiency while improving its capability to combust a variety of solid fuels/feedstocks. To date, the biomass combustion system developed by Biovalco has been successful in combusting a number of feedstocks such as woodchips, wood pellets and agricultural residues (straw, flax shives) with its chain grate stoker design. However, there are still several challenges to overcome in order to bring the design of the combustion system to its maximum best performance, which constitute the research objectives of the intern.

Dynamic Modeling with Empirical Data for Hydropower Decision Support

Long-term decision making strategic investment planning under the condition of great uncertainty is of great importance to power utilities such as Manitoba Hydro. A review of standard and existing planning methodologies will be the basis for identifying and testing new formal methods to support the definition of robust investment programme planning. This project will address the long-term decision making problem typically facing power utilities like Manitoba Hydro; using dynamic modeling, model filtering techniques, and practical data fusion. This project is expected to result in a novel proof-of-concept framework and system that would be broadly applicable to dynamically exploit real data for decision making, execute in-time model intervention simulation, and visualize data in appropriate formats to support decision makers in assessing options. 

Admissions Sherpa – An Investigation of Agile Strategies for Modern Web Platforms

This project isto develop a new website which will provide an infrastructure for non-profit admission. The admission professionals will be using this websites to conduct the interviews, in terms of providing them with the guiding question. The use of check boxes and other visual tools, such as radio buttons, text boxes, etc. will help provide every individual's needs. The main goal is to provide a webpage as simple as possible in terms of handling and provide the best practice admission experience for a prospective student. The option to print/save the Personal Education & Career Plan report of the prospective student once he/she completes the above-mentioned interview form, is also available. The interview information is the major step to guide the student for his/her future task. Hence after the completion of the interview, the web page won't only allow saving the form but will also indicate the next steps/tasks for both the representative and the prospective student. The notification will be sent via mails (or any other method as required by the business) with all the information on WHAT NEXT. As the upstream system can be any CRM, the software should be intelligent enough to accept data from any CRM system.

Expressing Vibrancy Using Video-Based Systematic Social Observation Methods

Gearbolts / télécommande SteelGrip

Le projet vise à concevoir une nouvelle télécommande de jeu interactive utilisant des fonctions inédites parmi les consoles de jeu existantes. Le design sera développé selon une approche centrée sur les utilisateurs afin d’assurer leur confort et le plaisir de jouer. La methode prévoit l’analyse ergonomique des modèles de commandes offertes sur le marché, l’élaboration de concepts sous forme de sketchs et modélisations, des études de volume à l’aide de maquettes, de la modélisation 3D, du prototypage rapide et des validations, d’abord entre les concepteurs, puis avec une douzaine d’utilisateurs âgés entre 7 et 12 ans. L’analyse portera sur les postures fines et modes opératoires déployés lors de l’utilisation du jeu. Compte tenu de la vitesse d’exécution des mouvements et de leur récurrence, la forme, les dimensions et la résistance du joystick représentent un enjeu majeur sur le plan de l’ergonomie, notamment pour le pouce ; thème qui s’inscrit dans nos activités de recherche.

Evaluating the Confidence of Metabolite Rankings in NMR Metabolomics Data

The proposed project is for the intern to develop an algorithm to decide on the suitability of a group of chemical compounds to transfer from one detection instrument (low throughput) to another detection instrument (high throughput). For ease of use and cost considerations it is preferable for these chemical compounds to measured using a high throughput instrument. The company has validated a set of compounds on the low throughput instrument and would like to transfer these to a high throughput instrument. The value to the company is that experimentation is expensive and time consuming and the number of compounds the company is analyzing is large. If an algorithm can be developed to identify (prior to experimentation) which chemical compounds will have a higher chance of success, this will lower the cost and will speed up the time for the company to get its product to market.