Innovative Projects Realized

L’enrichissement du corpus MONA et la contribution à l’univers des données liées

Les données liées, une partie du web sémantique, sont des données structurées et liées entre elles pour permettre des services se basant sur ces données qui sont plus intelligents. Plusieurs formes de données incompatibles existent pour décrire les œuvres d’art et les artistes dans les bases de données sur Internet. Cette recherche servira à développer une manière d’unifier automatiquement ces différentes formes de données ainsi qu’enrichir certaines bases de données (LINCS, wikidata) facilitant ainsi la recherche en histoire de l’art.

Establishing a 2024 baseline inventory of native biodiversity found around Alberta’s second largest conservation facility.

The Edmonton Valley Zoo and its team is passionate about the natural world and are always looking to find ways to promote environmental responsibility and reduce its own environmental footprint. Our Conservation team works to conserve species in the wild, through endangered species breeding programs, instituting green practices on site, and inspiring action by our visitors to protect habitat and wildlife. As a large Municipally run conservation facility located within Edmonton’s river valley – a regionally significant wildlife corridor – we are working to find ways to minimize our impact on the surrounding natural environment by implementing more native plantings and other nature based solutions across the site. This project will establish a methodology and monitoring program from which the Edmonton Valley Zoo can monitor trends in native biodiversity use as we work to improve our site naturalization and model native vegetation restoration practices for the 350,000 visitors/year that we educate about local wildlife and habitat conservation.

Examining The Effects of Dogs on Soil and Vegetation conditions within Off-leash Dog Parks in Edmonton

Dog ownership is increasing within our cities along with increasing usage of dog parks and off-leash areas. This increased usage is likely impacting the environment within these off-leash areas. Effects may include chemical and physical changes to the soil and vegetation that could lead to soil erosion and mortality of vegetation ranging from grasses to shrubs to trees. These effects may also lead to drainage issues which is a significant concern within urban areas. Understanding these impacts is key to developing an effective turf management strategy.

Proposition de modèle d’affaires pour Nova Musique

L’objectif du projet est de discuter et d’identifier le modèle d’affaires le plus adapté à Nova Musique ainsi qu’en identifier toutes les composantes.

Ce projet va comporter les étapes suivantes :
– Revue de littérature et études bibliographiques sur les types de modèle d’affaires, sur la situation des OBNL numériques au Québec ainsi que sur le contexte de Nova Musique en tant qu’OBNL pour l’enseignement musical au Québec
– Analyse du modèle d’affaires actuellement adopté par nova musique et étude de sa pertinence en lien avec la revue de littérature précédente et l’expérience acquise dans les tâches quotidiennes administratives au sein de Nova Musique
– Élection du type de modèle d’affaires le plus pertinent plus complétion de celui-ci considérant tous les éléments vus précédemment dans la littérature et au sein de Nova Musique
– Proposition d’évolution du modèle d’affaires dans le cas du passage de Nova Musique de l’OBNL au INC.

L’impact espéré est la définition précise d’un modèle d’affaires pour NovaMusique afin d’affiner la direction à prendre pour l’OBNL et les plans sur lesquels devraient se concentrer les efforts en termes de business management et développement mais également en termes d’innovation.

Developing an Active Worker Strategy for Office Workers

The overall goal for the Active Worker Strategy is to increase movement within the workplace. Office workers tend to be inactive within their working environment, which may cause an increased risk of developing work-related pain later in life. This investigation is going to look into creating office layout guidelines in order to promote a more active worker, and provide an early intervention to possible pain developers. Using technologies such as FitBits, we will attempt to better understand the amount of movement an office worker performs in a day. Mobility strategies will then be introduced to half of the participants to determine if education improves in-office mobility. In addition, it will be determined if worker anthropometric measures, lumbar/pelvis flexibility tests, and eVAS self-report of pain have a significant impact on identifying pain developers from non-pain developers.

Evocult

One major problem in the field of Cultural Evolution Studies is to find a reliable way to integrate the insight of the different disciplines studying aspects of the phenomena (have been identified as the primary “Grand challenge” by the practitioner in the field (Brewer et al., 2017)).

The aim of the project is to offer a precise account of the problem through computer-assisted means by (1) evaluating how does the meaning of core terminology in the field (“fitness”, “selection”, etc.) vary across authors, schools of thought, or subfields and (2) identifying the social structure of the field, and it’s influence the dissemination of knowledge in it.

The project will bring together the expertise of Vincent Larivière (Université de Montréal, Québec), a highly recognized bibliometrician and Charles H. Pence (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgique), notably known for his work in experimental philosophy of science. That interdisciplinary collaboration will allow integration of both the social dimension and the epistemic one in studying knowledge integration dynamic in the field. By doing so, the expertise of both institution will be brought to light by increasing their respective visibility, especially in the domain of multilevel study of science.

Enhancing Concussion Care through Telehealth and AI: Integrating Brainbot with the Concussion Education and Self-Management (CESM) program for Optimal Symptom Management and Patient Empowerment

Brainbot and the TeleNeurorehab Centre for Acquired Brain Injury at the KITE Research Institute are partnering to explore how innovative digital solutions can expand access and enhance the healthcare experience. Interns will delve into the research of a cutting-edge digital tool aimed at improving patient care and management for concussion recovery. Brainbot will gain valuable insights into patient needs and preferences and the efficacy of the application. This project not only promises to elevate the standard of healthcare services but also offers a unique learning and development opportunity for our interns, who will gain hands-on experience in healthcare technology innovation.

Coherent control of spin in color centers found in wide-band gap semiconductors

Spin control is of great importance for characterization of optical emitters in a quantum system. Colour centers are fluorescence defects in a crystal, which can act as single photon emitters for quantum optics. As colour centres can operate at room temperature in an ambient environment, they hold great promise for enabling future small footprint quantum chips. This project will study the spin coherent control of colour centres in wide-band gap materials (such as diamond, boron nitride, Silicon Carbide). Students will learn optically detected magnetic resonance, study Zeeman splitting and Rabi oscillation of degenerate spin state under external magnetic field and measure their quantum coherent times.

Landmark Segmentation and Image Registration of Abdominal Point-of-Care Ultrasound Images using Deep Learning

According to the Canadian Liver Foundation, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in Canada, affecting 20% of the Canadian population. Over decades, NAFLD can progress to liver cirrhosis, with deceased liver function and decompensation associated with mortality and requiring consideration of liver transplantation. Thus, early diagnosis is crucial to implement therapeutic strategies that prevent further progression of the disease. Current early detection and diagnosis of NAFLD/NASH include invasive biopsies, elastography, and magnetic resonance imaging/computed tomography scans, all of which are expensive, requiring vast medical expertise and complex workflows. The focus of this research is to develop deep learning algorithms for image segmentation, registration and volume estimation of the liver using two-dimensional point-of-care ultrasound images. Oncoustics can leverage these potential algorithms to hardware agnostic software. Such technology would assist clinicians in observing and detecting possible liver disease to improve workflow speed.

Réalité virtuelle sur circuit logique reconfigurable appliquée aux troubles du comportement alimentaire

Avec les avancées technologiques, la réalité virtuelle devient de plus en plus accessible comme outil diagnostique et traitement dans le domaine de la psychologie en général et celui sur les troubles du comportement alimentaire en particulier. Le dispositif actuellement disponible est basé sur un ordinateur. Le manque de mobilité du dispositif et les ressources matérielles limitées constituent des restrictions non négligeables dans la définition et mise à jour des scénarios à utiliser. Cela limite également l’opportunité d’utiliser le dispositif dans différents milieux. Ainsi, l’objectif principal de ce projet de recherche est d’exécuter les calculs nécessaires à l’environnement de la réalité virtuelle dans un circuit logique reconfigurable dont la puissance de calcul est largement supérieure à celle d’un ordinateur

Enhancing Recruitment Application Processing Using Artificial Intelligence Technology

ApplyBoard is a Canadian company that offers an artificial intelligence-enabled recruitment platform to help international students apply for post-secondary studies abroad. Embarking on a collaborative venture with York University, this research project aims to improve the application processing framework at ApplyBoard through the integration of advanced AI technologies. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Natural Language Processing (NLP), we seek to streamline document evaluation processes. This involves enhancing data extraction accuracy, automating verification procedures, and standardizing document analysis protocols. The anticipated outcome includes substantial improvements in processing efficiency and accuracy, leading to reduced operational costs and enhanced user experience for both students and recruitment partners. Ultimately, our endeavor promises to propel ApplyBoard towards a more robust and efficient application processing paradigm, marking a significant stride in the realm of educational administration.

Speech Analysis for 9-1-1 Calls and Surveillance Audio

This research project has two goals. The first goal is to design and test software that will analyze the content of transcribed 9-1-1 emergency calls. We will use Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to perform an evaluation of the operator performance during the 9-1-1 call and generate an evaluation form in the format required by the Alberta government. The second goal is to improve existing software that automatically transcribes long surveillance audio clips into English text. Whisper, a new AI-based Speech Recognition package from OpenAI, will be applied to segments of calls and then adapted to better handle unique features of surveillance audio, such as noisy backgrounds, unintelligible speech, conversational speech, numeric values, and code words. The research project directly addresses the Edmonton Police Service’s two most pressing needs for cheaper transcription that cannot be met by existing software.