Innovative Projects Realized

Enjeux et défis de la preuve électronique dans l’action déontologique de la Chambre de la sécurité financière

Ce projet vise à établir l’état des connaissances relativement aux exigences légales et aux meilleures pratiques en matière de preuve électronique. Outre l’étude documentaire des sources du droit de la preuve électronique et autres documents internes à la CSF, les stagiaires auront des rencontres avec le personnel de la CSF impliqué dans la manipulation de la preuve électronique. Ce projet permettra d’élaborer des outils pratiques utiles à l’action déontologique de la Chambre de la sécurité financière (CSF). Il fait suite à un projet déjà réalisé avec la CSF qui a permis d’établir les principaux enjeux juridiques sur l’intégration des technologies à l’action déontologique de la CSF.

Contact Centre Quality Assurance

The Canadian Mental Health Association – Edmonton Region is facing key challenges related to significant growth, limited processes and tools in place to measure and evaluate our service quality on this given scale, and the introduction of new technology and telephony system providing us with data required for quality assurance. Through auditing our current system and processes, identifying gaps, performing research surrounding our current tolls and market use, we are looking to devise a reliable mechanism for quality assurance within the contact centre. The desired outcome of this project would be the creation of a process that allows us to leverage the technology that we currently have innovatively so that we can effectively manage the call centre and ensure quality calls, along with overall improved effectiveness and efficiency in our program area.

Trulink Immigration Services Process Expansion and Upgrading

Trulink Immigration Services Limited is expanding its service internationally and facing the challenges of business processes and technology integration, this research project aims to optimize the current company processes and business operations to ensure efficiency, seamless processes across different units or departments, effective record management, and performance management among others. Moreover, set up a data-driven workflow to manage and increase the client base.

Using Somatic Embryogenesis and Cryopreservation to Generate and Preserve New Balsam Fir Lines

Christmas tree growers in Nova Scotia are experiencing high demand for trees along with increasing pressure to adapt to changing climate conditions. Trees well-suited to local climates showing preferred traits like enhanced needle retention, needle length/colour and later flushing dates is required. Testing and production of these trees requires cloning new lines and somatic embryogenesis (SE) is the key improvement tool with the most promising method. After seeds have gone through initiation and SE proliferation, embryos need to be matured and germinated in tissue culture (TC) to produce seedlings for evaluation. Protocols for maturation and germination in TC of Balsam fir are rudimentary and require optimization. In addition, healthy SE that has been proliferating in TC can begin to degenerate, causing a decline in embryo quality and yield. Stocks of healthy callus must be cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen a few months after being initiated from seed for future seedling production. The reliability, sustainability and success of the cryopreservation protocol needs to be optimized by modernizing the equipment (i.e. the rate-controlled freezer purchased by CTCNS) and therefore also the protocol used. Ultimately the initiation, proliferation, maturation, germination and cryopreservation of new SE lines directly benefits CTCNS in their efforts to perform mass clonal propagation of new Balsam fir genetic lines and seedlings. It will increase field testing of SE seedlings and identify new trees to maximize production and meet demand for live Christmas trees while allowing a quick turnaround time in growing trees with preferred traits in response to changing climate.

A digitalized method for finger dexterity test to evaluate and track neurological health base on daily activities

A digitalized method for finger dexterity test to evaluate and track neurological health base on daily activities, including a digital platform for finger dexterity assessment and a testing way base on the finger interaction between human hands, daily activities and wearables. This method can help XO Technology expand the application of motion analysis and wearable technology to the health field, and will provide XO Technology with an interaction strategy of motion analysis which can directly applied in its wearables products, and a software system for information display and transmission

Timed-Aware Proof Assistant for ASTD, CCSL and Event-B

Le numérique est désormais omniprésent dans nos activités quotidiennes. Nombreuses de nos actions sont numérisées, analysées et assistées par un ordinateur. Or, nous produisons de plus en plus de logiciels et les bugs (ou souvent les défauts de spécification) sont largement sous-estimés. La tendance en effet et à produire des mises à jour (parfois quotidiennes, souvent hebdomadaires) plutôt que de passer le temps nécessaire à développer un logiciel robuste et sûr. Tant que le logiciel reste sur un ordinateur qui manipule « seulement » des données, le risque reste limité. Quand le logiciel envahi nos hôpitaux, nos appartements, nos voitures, nos immeubles, cela pose un risque de sécurité majeur pour la société.

Notre projet s’intéresse à fournir un environnement de spécification formel pour une prise en compte systémique des exigences à la fois fonctionnelles et non fonctionnelles de tels logiciels dits critiques. Il vise à tirer profit de l’expertise des deux équipes qui y sont impliquées pour combiner assistant de preuve (Event-B) et modèles à la fois temporels et temporisés dans notre cas à travers les langages ASTD et CCSL.

Feasibility Study of Waste to Energy in Willow Creek

With an estimated population of 15,893, the Municipal District of Willow Creek is a small municipality. Willow Creek Regional Class II Landfill is the only waste management facility for the entire M.D. of Willow Creek region. The Willow Creek Regional Waste Management Services Commission (WCRWMSC) governs and manages this existing disposal facility. The Willow Creek region is seeing an increase of annual waste volumes as populations and industry increase. Increased waste volumes will eventually require the current landfill area to increase as well. Therefore, Willow Creek Regional Waste Management Services Commission (WCRWMSC) and the member municipalities are aiming for alternative waste management systems of the landfill which will provide green energy, will take less space, and have less adverse impacts on the environment.
The project will propose a highly efficient waste to energy facility which will produce green energy and will reduce amount of greenhouse gas compared to the existing waste management system. The recovered green energy can be used to heat waste mgmt. facility buildings at M.D. of Willow Creek region. Moreover, the project will help to decrease the utilization of large areas for landfill…

A generalizable bilevel reinforcement learning model to solve large-scale unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setups in real-time

Our research addresses the challenges in solving large-scale parallel machine scheduling, an important combinatorial optimization problem in computer science and operations research. With applications ranging from manufacturing to healthcare and supercomputing, our goal is to provide a real-time solution for instances exceeding 1,000 jobs. In this research, we explore the application of parallel machine scheduling to solve production scheduling in the manufacturing industry. Our innovative approach involves a two-level decomposition using two encoder-decoder deep neural networks trained through reinforcement learning. This model ensures scalability by training on small-scale instances and generalizing the learned policies for large-scale instances. The project’s impact is profound for manufacturing industries, promising optimal schedules within short timeframes. The anticipated outcome of this research for manufacturing industries is the achievement of superior production schedules, which can directly translate into a substantial increase in revenue, significant time savings in the preparation of future schedules, and an annual reduction in carbon emissions due to more efficient energy consumption. Furthermore, the development of a real-time production scheduling solution will contribute to the realization of agile manufacturing, empowering quick responses to unforeseen events such as machine breakdowns, job reworks, and urgent orders.

Climate change impact on groundwater quality in Southern Alberta

Access to clean and safe water resources is crucial for the progress and economic development of Alberta, Canada. Ensuring sustainable groundwater use can be a viable solution to address the regional scarcity of sufficient amounts of high-quality freshwater, particularly in certain areas of Southern Alberta where there is a moratorium on new surface water licenses. Given the limited freshwater resources in Alberta, it is imperative to understand the impacts of climate change on shallow groundwater quality and quantity. This understanding is essential for the effective management of both groundwater and surface water resources. This summer research project aims to leverage climate information obtained from climate models to predict changes in groundwater quality in Southern Alberta, Canada. The project aims to assess a comprehensive range of uncertainties arising from scenario selection, model choice, and natural climate variability. One subobjective is to familiarize with post-processing steps, such as the multivariate quantile mapping bias correction method, which proves beneficial in analyzing climate model output. Additionally, the climate information will be utilized to comprehend the surface hydrology of the study area by linking it with post-processed climate model data, thus contributing to the understanding of changes in groundwater quality in southern Alberta.

Gestion de l’énergie thermique pour l’optimisation de la fonctionnalisation des biocapteurs plasmoniques

Ce projet porte sur la compréhension et la gestion de l’énergie thermique apportée par un laser impulsionnel (excitation très courte) pour modifier la surface d’un biocapteur. L’étudiant s’intéressera au contrôle de cette énergie (répartition et durée) pour enlever les molécules d’une surface et optimiser ensuite leur position pour le développement d’un capteur plus sensible. Des simulations sur l’impact de la position des molécules seront également menées. Ces développements permettront d’améliorer les seuils de sensibilités des capteurs otpiques actuels dans le domaine de la santé notamment. Ceci permettra un meilleur diagnostic et de suivi des patients.

Large-scale 3D-vision-aided hybrid manufacturing system for welding, overlay and maintenance operations

The primary objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive additive/subtractive manufacturing system encompassing hardware, sensors, and software for the automated production and repair of non-critical custom
industrial equipment. This innovative system integrates AI and 3D computer vision to provide robust control, continuous monitoring, and effective failure identification. Featuring a groundbreaking PC/PLC-based communication architecture, it ensures a seamless workflow between the additive and subtractive units. Tailored for small and medium machine shops in Canada, this machine aims to facilitate mass customization production. By offering an affordable solution, it empowers these businesses to take a significant step forward into Industry 4.0 and advanced manufacturing, fostering growth and efficiency.

In vitro and in vivo evaluation of novel small molecules on post-surgical peritoneal adhesions.

Post-surgical peritoneal adhesions are the leading cause of the postoperative bowel occlusions and are often associated with increased morbidity and mortality rates. There is no successful treatment developed yet and adhesion re-operations are only a temporary solution. Therefore, there is a strong unmet clinical need to develop novel therapies to help patients. The Kubes lab developed a method to visualize adhesion formation in a mouse model and this method also allows to monitor how administering a blocking molecule prevents this process. Immune cells macrophages have been found by us to be the key players in the initial stages of adhesion formation, and we were able to prevent this by blocking specific receptors on these macrophages called scavenger receptors with a molecule polyinosinic acid (Poly(I)). While we have a core molecule that blocks the adhesions, the Kubes lab in a collaboration with a biotech start-up Medhesion Inc. aims to make better versions of this molecule so that it has fewer side effects and blocks adhesion formation more efficiently. Our ultimate goal is to develop a drug that could be given at the end of a surgical operation to all patients to ensure none develop adhesions.