Innovative Projects Realized

Shiga-toxigenic E. coli persistence mechanisms and surface biofilm detection using near-infrared spectroscopy on beef processing facilities

Contamination of beef by Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major problem affecting the North American Beef Industry. Environmental cross-contamination, among other contamination sources, has been shown to play an essential role in meat adulteration. Therefore, this proposal is aiming: a) to determine the capacity of the top-seven STEC to survive and transfer from single and multispecies biofilms onto fresh beef surfaces; b) to test the effectiveness of chemical sanitizers to eliminate wet and dry biofilms (single/multispecies); and c) to test the ability of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to detect biofilms. Multispecies biofilms composed of STEC and bacteria commonly found in meat packing plants will be tested in-vitro, as well as on stainless steel and polyurethane. TO BE CONT’D

Cultural Valuation of Innu Fisheries

As the Innu Nation in Labrador move towards finalization of their land claim, there exists a need to gather information about fisheries management and valuation within their traditional territory in order to inform the development of a future management strategy. This research will involve four phases to development a comprehensive review of existing literature and materials, to survey Innu individuals and households and an analysis of regulatory frameworks surrounding fisheries

Designing a virtual gym with innovative grammar recognition to develop an individualized exercise platform for older adults

Virtial-Gym motion-tracking-based system to exercise regularly and safely at home, guided by the expertise of physical therapists who can remotely monitor their clients’ progress. The innovative exercise grammar that therapists can use to describe personalised exercise regimens for their clients. The therapist’s exercise specification generates a coach avatar demonstration to the client, monitors the movements to provide specific feedback to correct the posture in real-time.
This proposal aims to extend the current Virtial-Gym version with a game user-interaction model: instead of a coach demonstrating the exercise, the user will have to move to interact with game-scene elements according to gameplay mechanics. The three phases proposal is to: (a) extending the grammar to include the specification of personal gameplay mechanics; (b) transforming the coach demonstration into the gameplay scene; and (c) evaluating the resulting Virtial-Gym in terms of whether it is more enjoyable and potentially more cognitively challenging than the original.

Real Estate Information System User Experience Analysis

Real estate information systems (REIS) provide real estate market participants with information that helps inform their decisions. Most prior REIS research has focused on price estimating and forecasting. Although price is important, it is not the only variable of interest.

This research seeks to investigate the needs of REIS users. Who are they? What information do they need? How should that information be presented to maximize its accessibility? How do users’ stated preferences for information differ from their revealed preferences? What challenges exist for providing REIS users with access to the information they want?

By surveying REIS users, and designing, developing, and validating a prototype REIS system designed to provide REIS market participants with the information they want, this research will provide valuable information that will help inform the development of effective REI systems.

Mitigating Ship Strike Risk in Southern Resident Killer Whale Habitat

The number and size of commercial ships transporting goods to and from ports in the Salish Sea continues to grow. Additionally, there are considerable industrial developments being planned in the region, including a major port expansion, and an oil pipeline terminal under consideration. These trends suggest more ship traffic, and with this comes an increase to cetaceans in the risk these vessels pose for collisions. Key amongst these cetaceans is the endangered population of 76 Southern Resident killer whales (SRKW), for whom much of their designated critical habitat overlaps with these shipping lanes. The aim of this MITACS proposal is to collate data from different existing acoustic hydrophones operating in the Salish Sea, as well as visual observer data from experts in the field to develop an advance warning system of potential ship-SRKW overlap. The spatial and temporal SRKW data from the region will serve as the foundation for how best to build a real-time movement model for an advance warning system predicting the location and direction of movement of any SRKW in or towards a ship’s path, thus allowing time for pilots to reduce ship speed and adjust their path.

Workplace of the Future

Applying advances in ambient intelligence technologies, this research aims to design and develop a smart workplace to optimize not only physical comfort in employees but also participant happiness. Through ubiquitous monitoring of ambient factors and affective states a number of important research questions associated with designing and developing a smart workplace will be tackled. By developing robust intelligent solutions, notably using deep learning networks, capable of detecting, analyzing, and acting in real-time on the acquired data in a context-aware approach, the research results will provide designs optimizing environmental and organizational parameters according to feedback from a human-in-the-loop system.

Instrumentation for Gauging Computational Thinking in Elementary Grades

Computational thinking is a recent and very popular addition to elementary school curricula. Computational thinking projects students undertake include five basic parts: identifying key features of a problem (decomposing), creating a model of relationships among factors (modeling) in a causal system or data, designing steps (algorithm) to solve the problem or analyze data, trying out and repairing missteps (debugging), and generalizing findings. Research on promoting young students’ (grades 1-6) computational thinking skills is sparse, as is work fusing computational thinking with self-regulated learning. Teachers and students need to know more about how to leverage this new focus in the school curriculum. This project will review research on these topics, develop tools teachers and students can use to observe how teaching and learning unfold in computational thinking projects, and investigate how those classroom practices relate to students growth in computational thinking.

Using a dynamic moment of inertia to increase bat speed in baseball players using the “Pro-Impusle swing trainer”

The common method of training and warming-up in baseball is by using weighted disks that are added to the player’s baseball bats. The current scientific evidences showed that the use of these devices doesn’t improve the performances of the players and actually slows down their swing speed and batted ball speed. Our partner developed a new device that focuses on increasing the swing speed in rotational sports such as baseball. The prototype uses elastics to allow a variable resistance and some timing aspect to the player’s training. We therefore want to know if this new device is more effective than using the current weighted baseball bats.

Development of clinical functional near-infrared spectroscopy device

In this project, Axem Neurotechnology will test a prototype of its first product—a brain measurement device to be used in rehabilitation following stroke. The prototype will be compared to an established device (currently used exclusively in research) using measurements on healthy people, and will also be used to take measurements on stroke patients in both a hospital and home setting. These activities will provide value to the company as they will result in validation of their technology, as well as publicity through publication in scientific journals.

Pricing and Resource Allocation in Edge Computing

The emerging edge computing (EC) paradigm promises to deliver superior user experience and enable a wide range of Internet of Things (IoT) applications by bringing storage and computing facilities closer to the end users. Virtualization technologies such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) will allow sellers and buyers to access the open EC ecosystem. We envision the emergence of a novel EC marketplace where the telecom operator, such as Rogers Communications Canada, can act as a platform to facilitate the resource exchange among the sellers and buyers. This project aims to understand the tremendous potential of this new marketplace and propose efficient pricing and resource allocation mechanisms for the EC platform. We will investigate various design objectives ranging from fairness, privacy, truthfulness, social welfare maximization, to revenue maximization. The project will take both static and online settings into account to propose a set of novel algorithms tailored to provide win-win solutions for all stakeholders involved in the edge computing ecosystem.

Failure analysis on X-750 CANDU spacer material using bulk mechanical test and ion-irradiation

The current project will focus on understanding the behavior of one of the most important CANDU reactor components when it is subjected to the reactor environment. This study will develop a fundamental understanding of the X-750 material’s behavior resulting in innovative technologies that benefit the nuclear industry in Canada. In the short to medium term the work will support the life management and refurbishment of CANDU nuclear plants, assisting CANDU owners to protect their multi-billion dollar investment and sustain the provision of economical electrical energy for the benefit of the Canadian consumer. In the medium to long term these technologies will support the development of improved reactor components, for improved reactor designs. This will help to assure future CANDU sales domestically and abroad and support the ongoing Canadian nuclear industry.

Targeting platelet-neutrophil axis: a novel therapeutic approach for Scleroderma

Scleroderma or Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disease characterized by progressive fibrosis of skin and multiple internal organs and prominent and often severe alterations in the microvasculature. Although SSc is the third most common systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease, there is currently no effective disease-modifying therapy for SSc. The overall objective of this project is to develop a novel therapeutic approach for SSc via the modulation of autophagy levels in disease-causing neutrophils. Recently it has been shown that that activated platelets from SSc patients produced microparticles and these SSc-microparticles induced neutrophil activation through autophagy. In this research we propose the interruption of this platelet-neutrophil axis via the modulation of autophagy and monitor its effects in the prevention of SSc disease pathogenesis and endothelial damage and. Therefore, the proposed research will shed light on the development of novel therapy for SSc.