Innovative Projects Realized

Assessing the incidences of positive and negative behaviour and interactionbetween stray dogs and the community of Campo Largo, Brazil.

A special group of stray dogs in Brazil known as ‘community dogs’ has been the centre of interest for scientific researchers. These community dogs may hold the key to controlling stray dog populations around the world, as well as mitigating disease transmission between animals and humans. My proposed project will look at the different behaviours and interactions that these community stray dogs experience throughout their daily lives. I will observe how these dogs behave around humans, as well as their interactions with other animals. The expected outcome of this project is to better understand stray dogs and how to properly manage them. By understanding the role of stray dogs in communities, we can come up with better ways of controlling these populations without taking away from their welfare.

Applications of machine learning to improve hydrological model regionalisation

Hydrological streamflow models are commonly used to warn populations of extreme events. The parameters of these models are typically calibrated to observed streamflow. The learned parameters can then be transferred to areas that are lacking streamflow observations, a process referred to as regionalisation. This project builds on previous work, which proposed using machine learning models to improve methods for regionalisation. Specifically, the project intents to expand previous work from local case studies to a large scale national model. Furthermore, the project aims to advance the machine learning component, exploring different machine learning algorithms and configurations.

Characterization of legacy and expected future mine rock at the Grassy Mountain Project site using traditional and advanced kinetic testing

Mining operations generate large amounts of unused geomaterials (e.g., mine rock) that are generally stored on site in mine
rock storage facilities (MRSFs). When mine rock is exposed to atmospheric conditions (i.e., atmospheric oxygen as air and
water) sulfide minerals oxidize and produce acid rock drainage (ARD). The acidic effluent can subsequently leach metal ions
from adjacent rocks (and the mine rock itself). The Grassy Mountain Project is a proposed metallurgical coal mine located on
previously mined land in the Crowsnest Pass near Blairmore Alberta. The previous mine was abandoned in the 1970’s with
no rehabilitation or reclamation. If not properly controlled and treated, the ARD and metal leaching (ML) can create
environmental and health concerns for wildlife and human populations reliant on local watersheds. The intern identified in
this proposal will undertake advanced testing of the legacy and expected future mine rock at Grassy Mountain to examine
how mine rock evolves with time using advanced customized leach columns (ACLCs) to quantify the production of ML-ARD.
The primary outcome of this project will provide the partner companies with a better understanding of mine rock evolution
and the controls that govern ML-ARD production in MRSFs.

Design Optimization and Prototyping of a Travelling Waves-Based Transmission Line Fault Locator

Modern power systems are expected to provide an uninterrupted supply of power to its consumers. Faults occurring in transmission lines can lead to extended outages if they are not quickly repaired. When a transmission line is hundreds of kilometers long and passes through difficult to access terrain, locating the faulted point is very important to reduce the repair time. The first step of this is to send the repair crews to the right location. Fault location by manual inspection is time consuming, costly and inefficient. These concerns make fast and accurate identification of the location of faults on transmission lines highly important. This project intends to optimize the design of the fault locating device that determines the fault location by measuring the arrival times of voltage and current waves created when a fault happens. This unit is to be integrated with the fault recorders manufactured by ERLPhase Power Technologies Ltd. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The project will train a Master’s student with multiple technical skills sought after in the industry.

The behavior of germanium in the purification of zinc sulfate electrolyte

Zinc is extracted from sulfide ore by roasting – calcine leaching and direct pressure leaching of zinc sulfide, followed by zinc recovery from sulfate solution via electrowinning. Impurity elements in zinc sulfate solution must be lowered to levels suitable for electrowinning. The removal of many impurity elements is achieved using zinc dust cementation. However, when germanium concentration in solution exceeds a certain value, certain impurity elements re-dissolve back into solution, leading to inefficient removal. This research will seek to understand how higher germanium levels impact the performance of a zinc cementation circuit and identify ways to mitigate these effects.

Encourager et soutenir la mobilisation des milieux de travail vers une transition juste au sein de la FTQ

En 2022, la Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses (FTQ) et plusieurs des syndicats qui y sont affiliés se sont dotés
de politique afin de participer à la transition écologique juste que nos sociétés doivent entamer pour répondre aux
enjeux écologiques. La FTQ souhaite mettre sur pied et offrir des formations accès sur l’apprentissage par les pairs à
leurs membres pour faciliter l’application de ces politiques. Cette formation aura pour but de répondre à des besoins
spécifiques des milieux de travail pour permettre aux personnes dans les syndicats d’organiser des projets en transition
juste et de mobiliser les personnes de ces milieux. Les personnes stagiaires réaliseront des entretiens et des sondages
pour cerner les besoins et donner des recommandations sur les formations à créer.

Contextual Momentary Assessments of the Auditory Environment by Wearers of Hearing Aids

We would like to investigate the use of hearing aids in real life environments. Retrospective questionnaires are often subject to memory errors and recall biases. In order to obtain more accurate momentary evaluations of sound and noise, our proposed research involves asking participants to complete real-time evaluations in the laboratory and in their everyday environments. The momentary assessments will be recorded using a mobile evaluation tool. If the system is found to be advantageous over retrospective questionnaires, it may be useful for clinical assessments and for optimizing hearing aids for users

SSE_DEMAEYER_PIVOT_ROLLANDBALZON – Développer le journalisme culturel dans un média indépendant

Titre : Développer le journalisme culturel dans un média indépendant.

Pivot est un jeune média indépendant offrant aux Québécoises et Québécois une autre option par rapport aux sources d’information existante. Fruit de la fusion des médias multi-plateformes « Ricochet » (fondé en 2014) et Majeur (fondé en 2020), avec la participation du média d’enquête « PressProgress », basé à Toronto, Pivot est un média dynamique, qui allie journalisme rigoureux et analyses uniques, à travers des sujets originaux traités sur plusieurs médiums (vidéo, balado, presse écrite, etc.). De par sa ligne éditoriale, ses thématiques et ses formats novateurs, le média s’est progressivement imposé sur la scène médiatique québécoise ces dernières années.

Les enjeux de justice sociale sont, entre autres, les thématiques privilégiées de Pivot qui se donne notamment pour objectif de participer à l’émergence de nouveaux débats et à la mise en place de solutions face aux problèmes socio-politique de notre époque. Néanmoins, de par sa ligne éditoriale plurielle, Pivot est un média qui cherche aussi à se diversifier dans les sujets qu’il couvre et à innover journalistiquement dans les formats qu’il propose. Si le média est très bien implanté dans la couverture de l’actualité socio-politique et environnementale au Québec, les enjeux culturels n’y sont pour le moment pas ou très peu couverts. Mon rôle au sein de Pivot serait ainsi de participer à cette ouverture journalistique du média en développant précisément et de manière novatrice son volet culturel.

Understanding Gen Z and Millennial Consumers’ Construction of Narratives and Imageries for the Eco-Conscious Collaborative Consumption Movement in the Fashion Marketplace: A Mixed-Method Study

As the “second skin” (Horn, 1981) for many of us, clothing has become an indispensable part of our everyday life. The growing awareness and interest in sustainable clothing allow us to examine the correlation between sustainable consumer culture and the recent “eco-conscious” cultural movements. The proposed three-component mixed-method will give us the opportunity to understand how Gen Z and Millennial consumers construct narratives and imageries about collaborative clothing consumption. The findings will help us identify ways to redefine and promote “sustainability literacy” among these consumer segments. The proposed research will shed light on consumers’ attitudes and perceptions of collaborative clothing consumption models. The mixed-methods analysis also offers to opportunity to develop a novel methodological approach to unstructured consumer narratives in the context of eco-conscious consumption. Finally, the proposed study will set a foundation for future research on collaborative consumption.

Long-term durability and weatherability of polymer-based passive daytime radiative cooling materials

Traditional space cooling using air conditioners is very energy intensive, creates a net warming effect to the globe, and involves refrigerants that are ozone-depleting and potent greenhouse gases. In Canada, 6% of all energy use in the commercial sector is for space cooling alone, and this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to global warming. Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) is an alternative approach that utilizes specialized coatings to selectively emit heat through the atmosphere into the cold of outer space. To enable efficient daytime cooling, such coatings must also be highly reflective to sunlight. PDRC therefore presents an interesting materials challenge that has proliferated promising new coatings which show high initial performance. The critical next step to bring this technology to practice is to demonstrate the long-term durability of these coatings in real-world conditions. This project aims to address this next step by investigating the long-term weatherability and durability of a polymer-based PDRC coating material. To achieve this, the optical and mechanical properties will be regularly monitored as the coatings are subjected to extreme environmental conditions both in a simulated laboratory environment as well as outdoors under real weather conditions. The proposed research will

Genotypic variation in Candida spp. isolates from recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (“yeast infections”) affect 75% of women at some point in their life. Approximately 10% of them will experience recurrent yeast infections, which have considerable emotional and economic ramifications and require prolonged antifungal treatment. Despite the prevalence of recurrent yeast infections, we lack an understanding of the human immune system and microbial population factors that cause some women to experience recurrence. During my internship, I will use genetic bioinformatic analyses to compare yeast isolates collected from symptomatic infections from women with a history of recurrent infections. I will quantify genetic differences among different vaginal isolates taken from the same person and at different time points during symptomatic infection episodes. This will help us to better understand what happens to the yeast populations between symptomatic episodes and provide genetic clues that may point towards improved treatments aiming to reduce or prevent recurrent infections.

L’influence des normes et croyances socioculturelles chez les hommes sensibilisés contre la violence liée au genre: regard croisé sur les modèles de masculinités dites positives en contexte innu et dakarois

Le rôle des hommes est devenu un aspect incontournable aux efforts pour l’égalité des genres, car les schémas de domination associés à certains modèles de masculinités sont souvent nuisibles. Dans ce contexte, certaines pratiques d’intervention psychosociale s’appuient dorénavant sur les modèles de masculinités dites positives et sur l’approche transformationnelle de genre. Ces interventions tiennent à répondre aux besoins des hommes en valorisant des modèles bienfaisants, tout en les sensibilisant aux rapports de domination nuisibles. Or, ces modèles sont diversifiés et s’ancrent dans les normes et croyances socioculturelles. Toutefois, peu de recherches ont abordé leur construction dans des situations culturellement ancrées. Ce projet veut donc combler ce manque en cernant les modèles de masculinités dites positives chez les hommes autochtones (innus) et sénégalais (Dakar) sensibles aux efforts pour l’égalité de genres et en analysant l’influence des normes et croyances sur le processus transformationnel de leur masculinité.