Innovative Projects Realized

Creating a Best in Practice Athlete Services Program for Canadian Paralympic Athletes

The Canadian Paralympic Committee’s vision is to be the world’s leading Paralympic nation. Its mission is to lead the development of a sustainable para sport system in Canada to enable athletes to reach the podium at the Paralympic Games. In 2023, the CPC launched its new strategic plan which will guide the organization over the next decade as the CPC prioritizes becoming the best prepared team driven by a healthy culture of excellence with an emphasis on positive experiences and well-being. The noted accelerators to accomplish this strategic goal are collaboration with athletes and investing in innovative approaches to athletic development and nurturing necessary support systems. Specifically, the CPC is interested understanding, improving, and data tracking the best practices in training and development, coaching and support teams, financial support systems, holistic wellness programs and athlete support during major events (e.g., family and friends programs.

As outlined in its strategic plan, the CPC wants to extend its successful innovative lens to preparing Canadian athletes and those close to them succeed on the international stage. Therefore, the key objectives of this internship is to assist the CPC in gathering the insight to one develop a data tracking tool to achieve its strategic goals of becoming the best prepared Paralympic team and two create and pilot a best in practices support program.

GFIT

The general objective of this project is to provide an update to the GFIT application that will include the following:

The ability to automatically send the user a receipt to use for insurance.
To develop the integration between workout logs and workout plans.
To integrate the digital clinic with a direct booking system.
The ability to sync the GFIT app with wearable devices and receive notifications.

Design and Development of Azure cloud-based e-billing Web application for an Electronic Medical Record software

THIS IS A GENERIC TEXT PUT IN PLACE AS THERE WAS NO PROJECT OVERVIEW.

Development and Validation of Optimized Bioprinted 3 D Psoriatic Skin Models

Psoriasis is an inflammatory chronic skin disease for which we skin models to study.
Dr. Roxane Pouliot (academic supervisor) group at University Laval (Quebec) has previously developed a human psoriatic skin model using skin cells to which lymphocytes (from human blood) have been added. The goal of this project is to further optimize the skin model in collaboration with Axolotl Biosciences (the industry laboratory partner, British Columbia).
We will use cells from skin and blood to build a skin model of psoriasis using the technique of bio printing at the industrial partner (Axolotl Biosciences) lab. Axolotl Biosciences envisions delivering innovative products that enable the 3D bioprinting of humanized tissue models for advancing medicine. The challenges Axolotl Biosciences aims to solve through this project is to apply their techniques and expertise to contribute to the optimization/improvement of the human skin model developed at the laboratory of Dr. Roxane Pouliot.
This would allow us to develop a new model and validate it to study Psoriasis. This optimization will lead to a new generation of psoriatic skin models to study the disease pathogenesis, prognosis, and test potential therapeutic options. Results will be published and presented/publicized during scientific events.

A holistic approach including sound therapy and cardiac coherence for the management of chronic pain and tinnitus in Canadian Veterans

Chronic pain and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) are among the most common health conditions found in veterans. They both can significantly impair the quality of life of veterans and likely interact. To better manage these conditions an application combining respiration exercises, called cardiac coherence exercises (CC), and sound therapy was developed. CC consists in breathing slowly at a specific inspiration and expiration rate that is known to restore the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Sound therapy is used to mask the tinnitus sound and/or remove the person’s attention away from the tinnitus sound. The envelope of the sound stimulation, developed for the smartphone application, was designed to act as a guide for the CC exercise: the sound increases and then decreases to guide the respiration exercise (sound increase: inspiration, sound decrease: expiration). The main objective of the project is to evaluate the benefit of regular training of a 5-minute CC exercise on pain and tinnitus intensity and disability using the new application over a month (at least three times a day: before breakfast, before lunch around 12h00 and late in the afternoon).

Construire entre tradition et mutation : reconstitution numérique des plans et devis du XIXe siècle à Montréal

La construction est au croisement d’objectifs théoriques de performance et sa réalisation concrète. À partir de plus de 400 plans, devis et contrats entre 1820 et 1860 à Montréal, ce projet propose d’analyser le rôle de la construction et du patrimoine immobilier dans l’histoire sociale et économique. Ce volet complète un recherche sur l’amélioration des conditions de vie, dont le rôle des femmes dans l’immobilier. Ces documents décrivent les acteurs, les échéances, les conditions financières, les matériaux et les logiques d’assemblage entre l’apprentissage d’origine française et l’apport britannique. La méthode croise le recours de l’Intelligence artificielle et Transkribus pour lire et analyser les descriptions, traduire en dessins (SketchUp + Autocad) et l’expérience professionnelle d’architectes engagés dans le patrimoine bâti. Les résultats contribuent à la sauvegarde du patrimoine, tout en documentant les logiques d’une construction durable.

DISCO-Challenge Quantique

À l’aide d’algorithmes quantiques d’optimisation, développer des méthodes de tractographie sur des graphes, dans le vue d’avoir une méthode globale de déterminer des connexions dans le cerveau.

Smart Demand Control for the Enhancement of Grid Resilience

Canada and Germany have ambitious plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and 2045, requiring significant changes in the power system, such as substituting centralized fossil fuel power plants with distributed renewable energy resources and electrification of transportation, construction, and heavy industry. These changes have reduced system inertia, vital for grid operation. On the path towards net-zero emissions, modernizing the electric grid faces challenges to ensure reliable and economical operation. Load Sensitivity-based Demand Management (LSDM) schemes provide promising and cost-efficient solutions by extracting power flexibility from loads using existing devices. This collaborative project focuses on applying LSDM to enhance grid resilience, which implies the system’s ability to anticipate and withstand external shocks and quickly recover to the pre-shock state. To our best knowledge, no similar research has been conducted. Through this collaboration, a PhD student from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will expand her current research on LSDM to enhance grid resilience in cooperation with Prof. Wang from McGill University. Prof. Wang is an expert in power system analysis, including grid resilience assessment. Meanwhile, valuable measurement data from KIT’s EnergyLab 2.0 and new methods and ideas will be brought to McGill University, contributing to Canada’s path to net-zero emissions.

Green Manganese research project

The traditional way of making manganese chemicals for batteries causes large environmental problems in North America and the European Union because it uses harsh chemicals and creates a lot of pollution. The current methods only work well with oxide manganese ore, leaving the most abundant carbonate manganese unused and wasted. Our research is about finding a new way to get manganese from carbonate ores. Our method is better for the environment and makes it possible to use more of the available manganese. We’re aiming to develop a process that can extract manganese in a way that’s both efficient and doesn’t harm the environment. This could help make batteries and other products more sustainable and reduce pollution.

Vers un design social favorisant le bien commun et les pratiques sociales et durables: le cas de PME en design québécoises

Selon Design Montréal (2021), 89 % des entreprises en design et architecture au Québec sont des petites et moyennes entreprises (PME). Les travailleur(e)s du design sont reconnus comme un atout pour l’innovation et la créativité des entreprises québécoises (MÉIÉQ, 2011). De meilleures connaissances sur les caractéristiques de leur pratique aideraient à renforcer l’influence bénéfique du design sur la société québécoise et à encourager son adoption plus large dans l’économie du Québec (Ibid.). L’émergence d’un design orienté vers des approches participatives pour le changement collectif se définit sous l’angle du design social, dont sa finalité serait le bien commun d’une société, reposant sur un consensus d’éléments bénéfiques pour son ensemble. (Armstrong et al. 2014 ; Manzini, 2014 ; Manzini, 2015 ; Margolin, 2015 ; Dorst et al., 2016 ; Markussen, 2017). Nynke Tromp et Stéphane Vial (2022) ont développé un cadre théorique sur les pratiques distinctives du design social. Dans leurs travaux, ils suggèrent de valider leur cadre théorique à travers une étude de cas issue de la pratique, puisque le design social bénéficierait grandement d’outils de conception pour mesurer ses effets (Tromp & Vial, 2022). C’est dans cette perspective que cette recherche s’intéresse à comprendre les pratiques du design social dans les PME québécoises en design en se basant sur le cadre théorique proposé par Tromp et Vial. Plus spécifiquement, il s’agira de documenter ces pratiques de design social au Québec à travers un échantillon de 10-15 PME en design québécoises, en analysant leurs projets selon le modèle théorique de Tromp et Vial (2022).

Estimating trichinosis and toxoplasmosis prevalence in free ranging wild pigs in Alberta

Free roaming wild pigs are known to harbour diseases that are of concern to both humans and livestock. Both trichinosis and toxoplasmosis are diseases that wild pigs are known to have globally but less is known about whether free roaming wild pigs in Alberta are infected. Using samples collected as part of a provincial eradication program we plan to test for the prevalence of both trichinosis and toxoplasmosis. Our findings will be important for understanding the associated threats to Alberta’s public health and agriculture sector.

Extrusion et injection de composites bois-polymère

La compagnie Trevi Inc., le plus important fabricant de piscines hors terre au Québec, souhaite substituer une partie du polypropylène utilisé dans les composantes de piscines par de la fibre de bois dans une perspective de diminuer l’impact environnemental de ses produits, dont les composantes produites par injection. L’introduction des fibres de bois dans le procédé d’injection présente plusieurs défis dont la complexité de l’alimentation des équipements d’injection, l’optimisation des paramètres du procédé et les changements aux propriétés du produit. La fabrication de ces produits se fait par un procédé en deux étapes, l’extrusion des granules suivi par l’extrusion des composantes. Les paramètres des deux procédés devront être optimisés. L’extrusion de granules à haute teneur en fibres est faisable. Cependant, à ces teneurs élevées, l’injection des biocomposites nécessite des modifications importantes aux paramètres du procédé, notamment l’utilisation des températures plus élevées que celles de dégradation des fibres. Ainsi, ce projet vise l’optimisation des paramètres des procédés d’extrusion et d’injection des biocomposites à haute teneur en fibres pour la production de composantes de piscines. Les propriétés physico-mécaniques des biocomposites seront mesurées selon les normes en vigueur. Un test en usine permettrait de valider les essais d’optimisation réalisés au laboratoire.