Innovative Projects Realized

Optimisation du poids de l’acier de la surperstructure de pont par la conception paramétrique

Au Québec, le processus de conception d’un pont allant de l’avant-projet préliminaire jusqu’à sa réalisation peut prendre plusieurs années. Durant ce processus, plusieurs hypothèses sont utilisées afin d’établir un dimensionnement sommaire des divers éléments. Lors du dimensionnement final, le concepteur utilisera habituellement les dimensions établies préalablement et fera de petits ajustements afin de s’assurer que l’ouvrage respecte les normes. L’argent et le temps étant limités, le concepteur ne fera pas d’optimisation poussée avec plusieurs alternatives afin de déterminer la structure la plus optimisée. La recherche vise donc à établir la paramétrisation complète de la structure d’acier (l’acier étant l’élément le plus couteux d’un pont) dans le but de combiner les différentes étapes de conception en un seul processus. En ayant une paramétrisation de la structure d’acier, il est possible de créer un algorithme d’optimisation enveloppant ce processus et d’ultimement diminuer le coût de construction des ouvrages d’art au Québec.
L’organisme partenaire disposera d’un outil de conception de pont permettant de guider rapidement le concepteur vers l’ouvrage le plus optimiser. De plus, l’outil développé pourra aussi servir de vérification en parallèle à une conception déjà réalisée afin de confirmer les dimensionnements de divers éléments.

Trail preference and use in Kananaskis: Advancing human-wildlife coexistence

Our study is designed to document Kananaskis visitors’ trail preferences and use patterns, their motives for visitation, their attitudes towards environmentally-friendly trail use practices, and knowledge of impacts on wildlife arising from trail use. This information will advance recreation-wildlife coexistence, by informing investment, communications and planning efforts – designed to promote more sustainable use of Kananaskis trails. Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2), our NGO partner, works to promote regional conservation work by providing the vision, leadership and data necessary to promote a healthy Yellowstone to Yukon landscape. Our Kananaksis Trail User data set represents a valuable opportunity to advance understanding of why hikers/bikers/runners sometimes make poor choices on hiking trails, leading to behaviours that put themselves at risk as well as the wildlife present in wildlands. In short, we believe the social science data collected from visitors using trails in Kananaskis this summer presents a terrific opportunity to promote more pro-environmental behaviors of visitors – this aligns strongly with Y2Ys interested in harmonizing the needs of people and nature.

Towards practical blockchain technologies for physical asset tokenization

Originating in 2008 with Bitcoin, blockchain technologies have reached recognition as the infrastructure powering cryptocurrencies. Smart contracts have provided the programmability needed to support a second generation of decentralized applications, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finances (DeFi). We are now ushering in a third wave, where the technology is crossing the digital boundary to manage physical assets as digital tokens residing natively on a blockchain platform. This process of “physical asset tokenization” has the potential to impact a wide variety of industries, such as real estate, medical records, and supply chain management.

Our objective is to research blockchain innovations and ensure readiness for these future applications. Specifically, we focus on two dimensions. First, modern systems are becoming increasingly complex, consisting of multiple specialized blockchains communicating with various other off-chain components. We will address interoperability issues and ensure the entire architecture is secure and efficient. Second, machine learning models are a core building block for automating asset tokenization. Our blockchain solutions will be seamlessly integrated with ML in enabling decentralized federated learning. This project will be realized in the context of a real estate tokenization application provided by our partner as a testbed for our research.

Séjour de recherche – Protection de la victime en droit pénal suisse et canadien : ses rapports avec la police et les centres de consultation

Ce projet de recherche portera sur un sujet précis : “La protection de la victime en droit pénal suisse et canadien : ses rapports avec la police et les centres de consultations”. Par une approche en droit comparé d’abord, il conviendra d’étudier la place de la victime en procédure pénale canadienne par rapport à la procédure suisse. Après avoir enquêté sur le statut, les droits et les obligations de la victime, des recherches plus approfondies seront effectuées sur les différents rapports qu’entretiennent les victimes, tant avec la police qu’avec les divers centres de consultations (les aides psychologiques, médicales, sociales, etc…). L’audition de la victime est un thème majeur de ce projet de recherche. Aussi, une place importante de ce projet sera consacrée à une analyse de la justice réparatrice au Canada, un axe juridique moins classique mais qui propose une ouverture du droit à de nouvelles formes de justice encourageantes et en lien direct avec le sujet de ce projet. L’objectif de ce projet sera donc de mettre en relation le système suisse et canadien et de rechercher ce que chacun peut apporter à l’autre dans ce contexte précis de droit pénal.

Towards Production of Industrial Oils from Camelina Year Two

In addition to food uses, vegetable oils are increasingly a source for renewable biomaterials and biofuels. Recent progress in the development of a biobased economy is focused on introduction and improvement of novel crop plants for non-food applications. The proposed project is part of an international collaborative effort to develop camelina as a new industrial oil platform. Our role is to increase oil content of camelina by (1) using a directed-evolution technique and our unique high-throughput screening system to boost the activity of the key enzymes in seed oil accumulation, and (2) introduce these variants into camelina. This project further advances the sponsor’s existing camelina development program aimed at developing a new crop alternative with economic benefits for producers and the emerging bioproducts industry. It has the potential to create new intellectual property and germplasm for both the sponsor and academic partner.

Libérer le potentiel des entrepreneurs par le mentorat : exploration de différentes pratiques

L’objectif général de ce projet de recherche consiste à mieux comprendre la contribution des différentes formules de mentorat (individuel et en groupe) à la réussite des entrepreneurs novices. Plus spécifiquement, ce projet de recherche en partenariat poursuit les objectifs suivants : 1) Documenter les retombées du mentorat pour entrepreneurs selon différentes formules identifiées; 2) Comprendre comment le mentorat, dans chacune des formules, répond aux besoins des entrepreneurs accompagnés; 3) Développer une nouvelle formule de mentorat (innovation sociale coconstruite) et en vérifier les effets auprès d’entrepreneurs; 4) Démontrer l’effet du mentorat pour entrepreneur et dégager les conditions les plus susceptibles de générer des retombées positives dans leurs parcours. Le partenaire privilégié pour réaliser ce projet de recherche est le Réseau Mentorat. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, le partenariat de recherche va réaliser quatre recherches distinctes mais imbriquées. Les perspectives originales proposées dans ce projet, couplées à l’opportunité de travailler avec le plus grand programme de mentorat pour entrepreneurs au Canada, sont susceptibles de générer des contributions variées et importantes pour comprendre comment mieux soutenir les entrepreneurs par le mentorat.

Combating Algorithmic Bias: responsible fairness measures, algorithms and toolkits in retail banking

Fairness has gained unprecedented support in a world of daily emerging scientific inquisition and
discovery, aiming to tackle algorithmic bias effectively. Extensive efforts have been devoted to defining
and embodying what is bias (discrimination) and developing tools that enable machine learning
practitioners to detect and mitigate bias during algorithm design. However, mysteries are yet to be
solved on the practical application of these fairness measures and toolkits. This research proposal
presents a systematic review of identified algorithmic bias issues and the proposed fairness solution
space, focusing on the development of novel approaches to attain fairness in the banking system. The
general objective is broken down into three sub-objectives. The first involves creating fairness
assessments on real banking datasets and implementing existing advanced toolkits to measure bias.
The second sub-objective focuses on deploying appropriate measures of fairness specific to the
available datasets, including group, individual, and causality-based fairness, while the third subobjective
aims to design novel approaches customized to stakeholders and the banking system to
achieve fairness. The methodologies outlined in this proposal offer a comprehensive approach to
measure and mitigate biases in the banking system. By addressing these issues, the insights gained are
to foster collaboration between practitioners and fairness experts, ultimately facilitating the
development of practical and user-friendly fair ML toolkits.

Prediction and management of the long-term environmental risk of mine waste rock piles via 5G-enabled instrumentation and monitoring

Mining activities generate large quantities of waste rock after valuable metals are extracted. Upon exposure to air and water, a diverse range of metals and metalloids are released and mobilized to the surrounding environment. There is an urgent need to manage the environmental risk posed by mine waste rock piles given the scale of the problem. A major bottleneck is the lack of data on waste rock pile properties. The main objective of this research is to understand how to best use 5G-enabled wireless sensor networks to monitor key characteristics of mine waste rock piles, and to use machine learning to predict drainage quantity and quality. Ultimately, this research aims to establish an industry-standard framework for risk assessment and management of mine waste rock pollution using 5G-enabled instrumentation and monitoring.

Enhancing smart thermostat performance through customer data analysis and the integration of AI techniques

Enhancing the efficiency of expanding HVAC systems is a complex task. Utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques like Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning offers promising solutions. ENA Solution’s smart thermostats provide the potential to employ AI methods for temperature control and energy optimization. In recent years, the company has made efforts to integrate AI for automated solutions in their smart products, but the research is still in its early stages. Moreover, considering recent advancements in AI algorithms, active R&D is essential to maintain product accuracy and performance leadership in the market.
The goal enhancing the efficiency of HVAC systems can be achieved by studying available methods, analyzing company resources, proposing practical solutions, and monitoring small-scale candidate approaches. Analysis of customer feedback and prototype data, recognizing vulnerabilities and technology bottlenecks, and applying stable, optimized methods on a large scale are also vital. The study will leverage practical knowledge of complex systems, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics to understand influential factors and design AI models based on scale and complexity. Potential approaches may include Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) for large-scale data or techniques like k-nearest neighbors algorithm (KNN) and decision tree algorithms for smaller scales. Alternative solutions will also be explored based on study outcomes.

Towards Production of Industrial Oils from Camelina

In addition to food uses, vegetable oils are increasingly a source for renewable biomaterials and biofuels. Recent progress in the development of a biobased economy is focused on introduction and improvement of novel crop plants for non-food applications. The proposed project is part of an international collaborative effort to develop camelina as a new industrial oil platform. Our role is to increase oil content of camelina by (1) using a directed-evolution technique and our unique high-throughput screening system to boost the activity of the key enzymes in seed oil accumulation, and (2) introduce these variants into camelina. This project further advances the sponsor’s existing camelina development program aimed at developing a new crop alternative with economic benefits for producers and the emerging bioproducts industry. It has the potential to create new intellectual property and germplasm for both the sponsor and academic partner.

Development of standard sample processing procedure for multi-omics analysis of small intestinal samples collected by an ingestible capsule and understanding of relationship between gut microbiota and IgA production

Recent studies have shown that the gut microbiome works as an organ of the human body which produces bioactive molecules and metabolites. Since the gut microbiome is in close interaction with the human internal environment and changes in the compositions of gut microbiota can impact host physiology through many pathways. Precise determination of gut microbiota compositions depends on the ideal sampling methods which are non-invasive, has little cross-contamination, and collect samples at different sites. The current investigational swallowable SIMBA capsule by Nimble Science can provide a non-invasive, inexpensive, and convenient sampling method to collect small intestine microbiota. The aim of this study is to optimize and evaluate the efficiency of SIMBA sampling capsule using optimization of sample processing procedures and the determination of microbial diversity followed by metabolomic profiling of samples from healthy controls and patients compared with samples obtained by endoscopy and feces.

Building a Digital Twin for the Pearson Airport

“THIS IS A GENERIC TEXT PUT IN PLACE AS THERE WAS NO PROJECT OVERVIEW”