Innovative Projects Realized

Chain Certs: Development of a platform for organizational authenticity certificates creation

Blockchain is a decentralized and immutable data structure. The information stored on blockchain is tamper-resistant, immutable and transparent. Blockchain is an interesting platform for managing digital certificates without a central authority. Because paper certificates can be easily faked or tampered with modern computer skills. Additionally, using a central authority for issuing distributing certificates is inefficient.

In this project, we will analyze the security and scalability of different approaches to certificate management solutions using blockchain. This analysis will provide guidelines for certificate management in permissioned blockchains. The guidelines will be developed through the construction of a reusable and configurable testbed for blockchain performance testing and analysis of the results for the new configurations that exist within the certificate management space.

Development of a gas/liquid contactor for CO2 capture

High capital and operational costs together with the need of large process units remain a challenge for the widespread application of carbon capture and storage in carbon-intensive industries. Industrial Climate Solutions Inc have proposed the utilization of the Regenerative Froth Contactor (RFC) – a technology originally developed as a biological-chemical filter – as a process for carbon capture and storage. The use of a RFC could significantly improve the efficiency and robustness of the capture stage with significant size and cost reductions. The project aims to study the performance of a novel gas/liquid contactor for a range of applications and with a variety of proprietary and non-proprietary solvents in order to optimize its design and operation conditions. Specifically, this project will include development and execution of test & quality assurance plans, and modeling, analysis, interpretation and reporting of performance results.

Toward Urban Resilience using Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources

Sustained operation of sanitary pumping stations in Richmond BC is critical to the health and safety of its residents. The overarching goal of this research project is to investigate strategies to improve urban resilience by operating the sanitary pumping station loads in coordination with distributed energy resources (DERs), including renewable generation and energy storage. Particularly, this project aims to develop a decision-making tool to optimize infrastructure investment in DERs while promoting resilience of sanitary pumping stations. Insights gained through this research with Energy Canvas will enable the City of Richmond to optimally invest in DERs so that their sanitary pumping stations are more resilient in the face of external changes, such as severe weather conditions. The proposed project will highlight benefits of incorporating DERs in existing electric distribution networks, which will help to promote renewable integration, empower customer participation, and improve critical infrastructure resilience in Richmond.

Virtual Wind Tunnel Development for Optimizing Olympic and Paralympic Athlete Aerodynamics

Success in track cycling requires high athlete power and low aerodynamic losses. The latter is primarily dominated by rider position, and athletes and trainers will spend countless hours seeking any slight reduction. This is largely accomplished via trial and error either on the track or in an expensive wind tunnel. This project aims to help Canadian Olympic athletes improve their aerodynamic positioning using computational fluid mechanics. A rider is scanned into a computer model, which can then be rigorously tested in a variety of configurations. In this study, drag predicted through simulation will be validated against track data, after which the computational framework will be used for optimal bike component selection to help Canadian athletes Own the Podium.

Determination of quality changes in freeze-dried pet food products during atmospheric cold plasma treatment

Champion Pet Foods is a prominent pet food manufacturer in Canada. They manufacture high-end high quality dry pet food products. They are interested to use new processing technologies to eliminate the harmful bacteria from their products without damaging their quality. At University of Alberta, we are testing the effectiveness of new technologies such as atmospheric cold plasma to eliminate harmful bacteria from food products. As consumers do not like low quality foods, it is important to understand the quality changes in foods during processing of foods using new technologies. This project aims to study the effect on quality of dry pet food products when processed with atmospheric cold plasma, which is an advanced food processing technology. As part of the quality analysis, we will monitor the fat oxidation, color and hardness of dry meat based pet food products after atmospheric cold plasma treatment.

Diversity, Inclusion and Equity in Practice Research Project

The purpose of this project is to conduct a document review of select philanthropic foundations to investigate the policies and practices used by foundations to address DEI. The intern will also lead knowledge generation and knowledge mobilizations activities in the form of issue briefs and learning sessions to engage foundation staff and board members to their increase awareness and facilitate knowledge exchange and peer learning of DEI policies and practices.

A Regular Solution Based Model for Evaluating Asphaltene Stability of Upgraded Heavy Oils

Most of the heavy oil and bitumen produced in Western Canada is transported through pipelines to refineries in North America. Prior to transportation, the high viscosity of those fluids must be reduced by either dilution with a light solvent or upgrading. The high costs associated with handling diluents has increased the interest in upgrading; that is, the thermal conversion of high viscosity heavy oil or bitumen into a less viscous product. Upgraded heavy oils and bitumen require less solvent prior to pipeline transportation and have a higher market value compared to diluted heavy oil or bitumen. However, the changes in chemical composition of the fluid during upgrading can trigger the precipitation of heavy components which can then deposit on surfaces and cause fouling.
The aim of this study is to develop and test a Regular Solution based approach to model the precipitation of heavy components from upgraded fluids. An existing model will be modified as necessary based on a comprehensive database collected from a pilot plant. The proposed approach will be a valuable tool in the simulation and scaling of the BituMax™ partial upgrading process being developed by NEXEN Energy ULC.

Learning Jungle AI Recommender System for Enhanced Education

Devhaus Corporation operates 20 early child education centers across 5 countries including Canada, USA, Singapore, Cambodia and Philippines. To further implement its principle of Observation to Education, Devhaus is partnering with York University research team to develop an Artificial Intelligence Recommender System to help teachers across the world select optimal lesson plans for each kid based on the learner’s behaviors. The interns will analyze the set of existing lessons, historical recommendations, and experts’ opinions to better understand the temporal and logical dependence of the lessons; and more importantly, the interns will customize the state-of-art recommendation algorithms for this business problem. Devhaus shall get a powerful AI tool to implement its successful Observation to Education practice and principle in its learning centers in different countries and cultures.

Airway-On-A-Chip: Development and In Vitro Validation of A Microfluidic Cell Culture Model for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory disorder of the lung, and one that affects 2.6 million Canadians and 380 million people worldwide. Although the disease affects a large population worldwide the therapies used for treatment remain imprecise. With the lack of disease modifying therapies there is a pressing need to discover novel targets to promote new therapeutic discoveries and ultimately improve the care and health outcomes of patients with COPD. To date, the discovery of novel therapeutics has been greatly hindered by outdated cell models and costly animal models. Our group proposes that through collaboration between engineers, pharmacologists, biologists and physicians we can leverage Organs-on-chips (OOC) technology to discover and validate novel COPD therapeutic targets. Organs-on-chips are miniature devices mimicking aspects of the in vivo conditions of human organs. What we propose to do in this project is to build upon a previously developed airway-on-a-chip technology to better mimic the human airways.

Evolutionary history of Cannabis sativa L.

Cannabis sativa is a multipurpose crop, providing us with fibers, seeds and medicinal compounds. Its current economic importance will likely drastically increase following its legalization in Canada. However, despite its economic potential as well as its long history of use by humans, we know very little about the evolution of this plant.
The purpose of this project is therefore to elucidate the domestication origin(s) of this crop by tracing back evolutionary trajectories using genomic data in order to understand the beginning of our shared history with Cannabis as well as the traces that millennia of uncontrolled hybridization and human selection have had on its genome. In addition, we will study the genetic basis determining the development of female and plant plants, a rare feature among flowering plant and an important factor for Cannabis growers.

A React-on-Demand (RoD) Process for Printed Electronics

Frequency Selective Surfaces/Structures (FSSs) have great potential to be a mean for improving the capability of communication with Radio Frequency (RF) signals. Although the printed circuit board (PCB) technique is widely available for fabricating FSS, it is difficult to implement using flexible substrates. Its routine process is tedious, costly and environmentally harmful. Other emerging techniques using nano-particle inks also inherently involve large challenges, such as pre- and post-processing, dispersion, agglomeration, and final cost. Aiming to solve these limitations, a printed-electronics-solution building upon a react-on-demand (RoD) inkjet printing technology is proposed for printing high-performance FSS. The proposed method in this project offers a unique approach to fabricate FSSs through on-site synthesis of highly conductive silver polymer structures. This method not only can overcome the limitation sof existing fabrication methods, but also provides a flexible method for preparing multifunctional FSS from 2D, 2.5D to 3D as demanded.

Advanced Security and Privacy Schemes for Smart, Connected, and Autonomous Vehicles

Smart, connected, and autonomous vehicles enable crash prevention, enhanced safety, mobility and environmental benefits. Despite the potential benefits of smart, connected, and autonomous vehicles, significant security and privacy challenges remain to be addressed before widespread deployment for intelligent transportation systems may begin. In this project, we identify and analyze the risks and vulnerabilities associated with cyber-attacks related to smart, connected, and autonomous vehicles. We plan to develop and evaluate advanced security and privacy schemes in smart, connected, and autonomous vehicles that take into account system resource constraints, high mobility of vehicles, as well as security and privacy requirements for intelligent transportation systems.