Innovative Projects Realized

A system for explainable recommendations

This research aims to develop a system that generates explainable recommendations. Mobio

currently allows merchants to offer items to users, but does not employ recent advances in

recommender systems. This project will allow Mobio to build on the expertise of Dr. Chiang in

related relational learning problems to create such a system, and provide a real-world domain

for him to advance the state-of-the-art. A core problem in recommender systems is building

models of user preference that are predictive and explainable. We propose to apply and

evaluate algorithms developed by Dr. Chiang to build models that are optimized for accuracy,

explainable to users, and recommend offers from merchants to the most appropriate users.

The expected outcomes of this work include (i) enhanced user engagement through

explainable recommendations, and (ii) improved effectiveness of offers by participating

merchants. Addressing the interests of both users and merchants directly increases the

commercial value of Mobio’s products.

Development of Smart Socks To Prevent Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Diabetic patients suffer from reduced sensation in their foot which will be leading to foot ulcers that are hard to treat, and often resulting in limb amputation. The existing health-care techniques usually fail to prevent foot ulcers because they cannot monitor the foot in real-time. In this work, we seek to develop smart socks based on textile technology to help patients to artificially feel sensory stimuli that they cannot realistically feel. In collaboration with Myant Inc, a leading company in advanced manufacturing of textile technology, this project proposes an innovative way to sense the forces at points across the foot and electrically stimulating the still-functioning nerve near the ankle once the forces exceed a “smart” threshold (painful stimuli). In short, we seek to create a simple closed-loop neural prosthesis for diabetic patients to reduce the incidence of foot ulcers. TO BE CONT’D

Flame retardant FRP systems for aircraft interior applications

Due to aircraft manufacture volume increase, there is a dramatic need for economic fiber-reinforced composite materials and processing technologies that fulfil – besides high mechanical properties and reliability – also specific fire, smoke and toxicity characteristics (FST). This project aims at developing thermoplastic pultrusion line to produce aircraft interior structures such as floor beams, panels, etc. In order to boost the mechanical properties of such structures, nanocellulose fibers will be added to the thermoplastic. The development of such a process will enhance the partner’s competitivity in the aerospace market.

Assessing and improving the performance of quantum annealing processors

Quantum computers are believed to offer significant advantages over classical computers, specifically in solving non-deterministic polynomially hard problems. One of the known schemes of quantum computation is quantum annealing, which is suitable for solving many types of hard optimization problems with a wide range of applications including machine learning, finance, security, and healthcare. D-Wave Systems Inc. develops the only commercially available quantum annealers, which are being successfully applied to solve certain types of problems. Developing quantum annealers with a high performance over a full range of hard problems requires both a better understanding of the annealing process and hardware improvements, which are this project’s goals. Using two of the prominent quantum-bit platforms, trapped ions and superconducting systems, we will investigate the factors that determine the computational efficiency and speed of quantum annealers. TO BE CONT’D

Cooperative economy in the era of collaborative economy platforms

This project’s overarching goal is to spur cooperative enterprises to move into the collaborative economy. Even though the “collaborative economy” shares many values with cooperative enterprises, too few of them have entered the pace in Quebec and Canada, but also globally. This paradox puzzles Quebec’s cooperation and mutuality council (CQCM). They want to reverse this trend and help old and new cooperative companies to offer services linked to the collaborative economy platforms. In order to do so, the CQCM want to know why there is such a paradox, and how to act upon it. The CQCM need academic expertise to collect solid evidence and requested help from Polytechnique Montreal to help them with their reflections.

Predictive analytics for inventory planning and control

Business Intelligence (BI) describes the analysis of commercial data for optimizing business strategies. SimpleBI is focused on changing the way people use BI. They strive to make BI accessible, affordable, and manageable for every size of organization. With decades of experience specializing in enterprise-level BI solutions using industry-leading tool-sets, plus an intimate familiarity with the small and midsize business (SMB) market, they provide the most complete BI offering in the SMB space today.
SimpleBI is looking to expand its BI apparel solution with predictive capabilities, specifically in inventory planning and control. They have identified a need to improve how apparel manufacturers and retailers manage and plan their inventory levels, avoid stock outs, and minimize the need to discount items on the shelf because of excess stock.
SimpleBI has reached an agreement with Saint Mary’s University to leverage their data analytics team in a project capacity. TO BE CONT’D

From the ParticipACTION Physical Activity Report Card to the Global Matrix 3.0: Impact Evaluation and Strategy Development

Internationally, physical activity levels among children and youth are declining, while sedentary behaviours are increasing, leading to the global rise in non-communicable disease. This project aims to contribute to childhood physical activity promotion in Canada and worldwide, and to the international diffusion of scientific knowledge concerning childhood physical activity though three actions: 1. the evaluation of the impact of the ParticipACTION Report Cards since 2014; 2. the optimization of the development of the Global Matrix 3.0; and, 3. the contribution to the 2018 ParticipACTION Report card. ParticipACTION is a non-profit organization, which for over 45 years has existed to promote healthy active living among Canadians. The intern will contribute to the promotion of the ParticipACTION Report Card and undertake important comparisons between the Report Cards and Global Matrices. TO BE CONT’D

Wind turbine drive-train condition monitoring

As well as being green, wind energy is one of the cheapest ways of generating electricity and it is currently the most common generating technology for new installations in Canada. Wind farm owners, however, are finding that key turbine components, such as the generators and gearboxes, can fail long before the 20 year lifetime that is normally assumed. This project will develop methods to use the outcomes of monitoring those components to develop techniques to improve the detection of component faults and allow better and cheaper scheduling of maintenance. The project combines the skills developed at the University of Calgary in analyzing vibration signals with the operational experience and data provided by the 10 MW wind farm at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada.

The Cannabis Bioproducts Toolbox

Cannabis sativa (hemp or marijuana) produces a remarkable range of bioproducts that serve rapidly expanding markets for pharmaceuticals, nutritional products, and industrial fibre. With partners Supra THC Services (SUPRA) and Valens AgriTech Limited (VAL) (both wholly owned subsidiaries of Valens GroWorks), we will identify genes responsible for producing healthful oils and proteins in hemp seeds, new methods for identifying the chemicals in medical marijuana, and innovative, non-transgenic techniques for making improved varieties of hemp and marijuana.

Évaluation de la performance du système de traitement des eaux usées “ELAPS/EVC” dans l’élimination de la toxicité de produits organiques persistants

La densification des populations, l’agriculture intensive et l’expansion des zones industrielles posent d’importants défis techniques quand au maintient de l’intégrité des habitats aquatiques mondiaux. Ces différents domaines d’activités entraînent l’accumulation de contaminants dits “d’intérêt émergeant”. Ceux-ci incluent entre autre des produits pharmaceutiques et de soins personnels, des pesticides et autres produits organiques persistants. Ces produits présentent un risque non-négligeable pour la santé humaine et des écosystèmes. Le but général de ce projet est de documenter le processus de décontamination du système de traitement des effluents municipaux et industriels, mis au point par la compagnie Northern Watertek Corporation: ELAPS. Le premier objectif est de mesurer les effets toxicologiques chroniques des contaminants sélectionnés avant et après leur traitement avec l’ELAPS. TO BE CONT’D

Development of “Winter Condition” Operational Performance Functions (OPFs) for Ontario Highway and Freeway Road Segments for Ministry of Transportation Ontario

Many real-world industries depend on the safe and efficient functioning of transportation systems, facilities and infrastructures. One of the main concerns for such industries is vehicle accidents. The Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) currently uses very basic models to determine the operational performance functions (OPFs) for all highways. The drawback of the current models is that they do not account for changes in environment factors, such as adverse weather, which is abundant during winter months in Canada. Such environmental factors are important since the effects of rapidly changing winter weather conditions can have a significant impact on driving conditions. The main objective of this project is to develop a set of winter OPFs for highways in Ontario. The development of winter OPFs will provide a tool for the assessment of safety performance of highway infrastructures under adverse weather condition, and will allow for the identification of highway segments …

Electrical Design for Acuva Arrow systems

The Acuva Technologies Inc. has designed and developed UV LED-based water purification machines. These machines are in their optimization stage for cost, complexity, and manufacturing time reduction. Adding some features such as graphical user interface, wireless connectivity and being self-powered increase the public popularity of these machines. Graphical LCD provides much more user-friendly interface by which the user has more control over the machine operation. Using PV solar cells to power the device when it is not easily accessible provides versatility to the machine. Wireless connectivity, whish is a common way of communication, provides remote monitoring, control and data storage. Having access to academic potentials and researchers to effectively optimize the design will strengthen the company at its early stage.