Innovative Projects Realized

Work Zone Safety for Personnel in a Connected & Automated Vehicle Era

This project will investigate the use of automated and connected vehicle technologies as well as smart mobility technologies to improve Workzone Safety for Personnel undertaking road work in an urban or highway setting. In order to determine the most favourable technologies and how to apply them, the project will rely upon the use of resources available at Area X.O’s connected and autonomous vehicle test and demonstration facility.

Biodiversité et fonctionnement des herbiers de zostère du système du Saint-Laurent: nouvelle approche pour la restauration

Les relations entre biodiversité et fonctionnement des écosystèmes (BEF) constituent un cadre central pour comprendre comment la diversité biologique soutient la stabilité et la résilience des milieux marins. Cette approche permet de mieux anticiper les effets des pertes ou modifications de biodiversité sur les processus écologiques et d’orienter la conservation vers le maintien des fonctions clés plutôt que la seule composition spécifique. En restauration, appliquer un cadre BEF permet d’aller au-delà du rétablissement des espèces structurantes pour viser la reconstruction des fonctions écologiques essentielles à la santé des écosystèmes. La zostère marine forme des herbiers étendus dans le Saint-Laurent, soutenant la production primaire, le stockage de carbone et une riche biodiversité en zone côtière. Les herbiers sont présents dans des environnements contrastés, depuis les zones intertidales soumises au raclage des glaces jusqu’aux milieux subtidaux plus stables comme les barachois de Gaspésie.
Le stage vise à caractériser et comparer la biodiversité et la fonctionnalité des herbiers selon leur contexte environnemental. À partir d’échantillons collectés en 2024, il s’agira : d’analyser la composition spécifique des communautés, d’appliquer une approche par traits fonctionnels pour évaluer leur fonctionnement, puis de comparer diversité et fonctions entre herbiers afin d’explorer les liens BEF dans ces milieux.

Stage de recherche Archives d’exposition

Les expositions d’art sont essentielles pour comprendre notre culture, mais elles disparaissent dès leur démontage. Il reste souvent très peu de traces, ce qui rend difficile de préserver leur mémoire et de comprendre comment elles ont réellement été conçues et vécues.
Mon projet vise à mieux documenter ces expositions, en tenant compte non seulement des œuvres, mais aussi des choix curatoriaux, des relations entre les éléments, et de l’expérience du public. Grâce aux humanités numériques et à la modélisation sémantique, je propose de représenter une exposition comme un réseau complexe plutôt qu’un simple ensemble de documents.
En collaboration avec l’Université de Montréal et l’Université de Zurich, j’étudie l’exposition Le mammelle della verità de Harald Szeemann. Les archives suisses permettront d’alimenter Display, un outil innovant pour visualiser et modéliser les expositions.
Ce projet contribuera à préserver la mémoire des expositions et à rendre ce patrimoine plus accessible aux musées, aux chercheurs et au public.

Le projet PEPPS : analyse d’un levier d’innovation et son influence sur le parcours de vie des élèves Di – TSA évoluant dans une école-hôtel

Le projet PEPPS est une initiative novatrice visant à soutenir 9 adultes et 3 jeunes (15-17 ans) présentant une déficience intellectuelle (DI) ou un trouble du spectre de l’autisme (TSA). Il s’articule autour de deux volets : employabilité pour les adultes et transition école-vie active pour les jeunes. Ce programme se déroule dans le cadre unique d’une école-hôtel, le Manoir d’Youville en Montérégie, offrant un environnement inclusif et expérientiel où les apprentissages se construisent à partir de situations réelles de travail et de vie quotidienne. Face aux défis persistants liés à la réussite durable des personnes avec DI ou TSA, notamment le manque de ressources et les préjugés sociaux, le Manoir d’Youville a décidé d’agir comme milieu formateur, incubateur social et living lab. Les activités d’hébergement, de restauration et services à la clientèle permettent une participation active, encadrée par une équipe collaborative (enseignants, intervenants, gestionnaires). Ce modèle d’école-entreprise favorise le développement de compétences transversales et renforce les liens entre école et emploi. Inscrit dans une recherche-action collaborative, PEPPS explore l’impact de ce dispositif sur les parcours de vie et l’adaptation socioprofessionnelle, avec des retombées telles que la valorisation des talents et la création d’un modèle transférable d’employabilité inclusive

Raymond James Ltd. – Tax Services Process Innovation Project

Raymond James Ltd. is a leading financial services firm dedicated to helping clients achieve their financial goals through tailored wealth management, investment, and tax advisory solutions. The organization operates in a fast-paced, compliance-driven environment where accuracy, timeliness, and client trust are paramount. As tax regulations evolve and digital transformation continues to reshape the financial landscape, Raymond James faces the innovation challenge of optimizing and modernizing its tax reporting and preparation processes to ensure efficiency, accuracy, and scalability during peak tax seasons. The primary problem to be solved lies in enhancing the firm’s ability to leverage data-driven tools, automation, and digital workflows to streamline complex tax documentation, reduce manual errors, and improve client service turnaround times.

Estimation non paramétrique dans le cadre du q-calcul en élaborant un estimateurs des fonctions q-densités des q-distributions avec application aux données du vivant

Le calcul quantique, ou q-calcul, constitue une approche moderne de l’analyse mathématique dans laquelle les opérateurs différentiels et intégrals classiques sont généralisés par des opérateurs dépendant d’un paramètre q. Ce cadre établit un lien fécond entre les mathématiques et la physique
(Yamano, 2002) et possède de nombreuses applications dans les probabilités, la théorie des nombres, les fonctions hypergéométriques de base et les polynômes orthogonaux (Bangerezako & Hounkonnou, 2003 ; Tsallis, 1998).
Dans le domaine de la statistique non paramétrique, cette idée est particulièrement prometteuse : la généralisation des estimateurs de densité au cadre du q-calcul offre de nouveaux outils pour traiter des données présentant des distributions non classiques (asymétriques, à queues épaisses ou fortement
dépendantes). Ces propriétés sont notamment rencontrées dans le domaine médical, où les distributions issues d’observations biologiques ou cliniques s’écartent souvent des hypothèses gaussiennes.
Le présent projet s’inscrit donc dans une démarche théorique, algorithmique et appliquée, visant à construire et étudier des estimateurs de q-densités, à en analyser les propriétés asymptotiques, et à les implémenter dans un environnement open-source (R), avec des applications à des données médicales
réelles.

Integrating Model-Based Systems Engineering and System Architecture Optimization

Concordia University’s Aircraft Systems Lab and the Institute of System Architectures in Aeronautics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will collaborate to develop innovative digital methodologies for aircraft system design. The project bridges two important aspects of engineering product development: model-based systems engineering (MBSE), which unifies complex system representations within a single computational platform, and system architecture optimization (SAO), which generates and evaluates thousands of design possibilities. While MBSE excels at describing and representing high-level characteristics, it lacks quantitative evaluation capabilities. Conversely, SAO efficiently compares many designs, but sometimes lacks the rigor and traceability of MBSE. This project will connect widely used and industry-proven MBSE platforms with state-of-the-art SAO tools from the DLR, enabling engineers to explore design alternatives within a proven framework using powerful optimization tools. A Concordia PhD student will spend three months in Hamburg collaborating with the DLR’s architecture experts, strengthening institutional relationships and enabling joint publications, academic exchanges, and tool development. Concordia will gain access to advanced optimization methodologies and international experience, while the DLR will benefit from developments in collaborative contexts and the Aircraft Systems Lab’s safety-centered architecture evaluation expertise. Both institutions will advance digital engineering practices for developing safer and more environmentally sustainable aircraft.

Influence of habitat complexity on optimal movement choices in wild emperor tamarins (Saguinus imperator) at the Los Amigos Biological Station, Peru

Movements—such as locomotion, gestures, and group coordination—are influenced by individual, social, and environmental factors. Gaining a better understanding of how habitat complexity—defined as the abiotic and biotic components that shape habitat structure—influences movement has the potential to generate new knowledge on an understudied species, the emperor tamarin (Saguinus imperator), and, in the context of increasing habitat fragmentation and degradation, to provide new guidelines for tamarin conservation. This project aims to examine how habitat complexity may influence movement choices in a wild population of emperor tamarins at the Los Amigos Biological Station in Peru, using the framework of optimal movement theory (OMT). The project lies at the intersection of cognitive ecology, behavioural ecology, and geography. It also stands to benefit both institutions: it will establish a new collaboration with Field Projects International (FPI) and reinforce Concordia University’s contribution to research and conservation of non-human primates. Furthermore, as FPI is an NGO dedicated to animal monitoring and conservation, with an active program in movement ecology, this project will contribute to their research, support scientific publications, advance knowledge, and potentially increase their visibility in Canada.

Enhancing Multi-Agent Coordination for Real-Time Detection of Obfuscated Shilling Attacks

This research project investigates how agentic AI—autonomous AI agents capable of perceiving, reasoning, coordinating, and acting in dynamic environments—can be advanced to protect recommendation systems against increasingly obfuscated shilling attacks. Shilling attacks occur when malicious actors inject fake profiles, ratings, or reviews to manipulate recommendation outcomes for financial, competitive, or political advantage. As attackers adopt more subtle, disguised, and time-distributed behaviors, traditional detection mechanisms become less effective. Building on the foundational work of Project IT47858, the extension focuses on developing a more robust and collaborative multi-agent defense architecture that not only identifies suspicious user behavior patterns but also infers hidden or obfuscated attack signals through enhanced inter-agent communication and reasoning. The goal is to create an adaptive, real-time agentic AI framework capable of detecting attacks that are intentionally designed to mimic legitimate user activity. Through improved coordination strategies, real-time monitoring pipelines, and extended adversarial simulation environments, the project will enable agents to share insights, cross-validate observations, and dynamically adjust defense decisions to preserve system integrity and user trust. The outcome will be a more resilient, scalable, and intelligent defense layer capable of protecting modern recommendation systems against the next generation of stealthy manipulation threats.

Alignment and characterization of multimode-fibre compatible superconducting nano-wire single-photon detector

This project aims to couple a multimode optical fiber(MMF) to a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector(SNSPD) and characterize it. SNSPDs are currently the most sensitive single-photon detectors available. But most of the current SNSPDs are coupled using single-mode fibers(SMF), which collect photons in only one spatial mode. This is inefficient when collecting photons from biological samples, as they are highly scattered and have multiple spatial modes.

MMFs on the other side allow the collection from different spatial modes, making them the perfect choice for applications in biomedical imaging and quantum biophotonics. But this creates an additional challenge as MMFs have a larger core area, and increases the background counts. Developing large area SNSPDs is difficult to fabricate and presents various challenges when it is coupled to MMF. This project aims to tackle these challenges and align and characterize the detector. This includes systematically measuring the detector efficiency, background counts, time jitter, and spatial resolution, and then optimizing these parameters. Once the detector performance has been properly characterized and optimized, it will be used to study ultra-weak biophoton emission from different biological samples. These photons originate from different biological processes and provide a new way of studying and understanding biological mechanisms.

Here, There, and In Between: Remembering Markets in Manila and Montréal

This project examines how the disappearance, relocation, and redevelopment of neighborhood markets in Manila reshape cultural memory, daily routines, and community belonging. Markets such as palengke, sari-sari stores, and small commercial corridors have long served as social infrastructures where familiarity, recognition, and shared practices form through everyday interaction. As many of these spaces are demolished or replaced by malls and large redevelopment projects, the environments that once sustained collective life are altered or erased. Through fieldwork in Manila and comparative research in Montreal, this project will document market sites, gather oral histories, and analyze how communities remember and adapt to these spatial changes. The research will strengthen collaboration between Canadian and Philippine institutions and contribute new insight into how urban redevelopment affects cultural memory, community networks, and everyday forms of place-based belonging.

MITACS Globalink Research Internship – Investigation of Cerebral Cortex Development Under the Influence of Pharmacological Treatments

This project explores how the anti-epileptic drug valproic acid (VPA) may affect early brain development during pregnancy. While VPA is known to increase the risk of neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and learning difficulties in children, the exact effects on the developing human brain are not well understood. To study this, the project uses a new laboratory human brain model called “cerebroids”. These models closely mimic how the brain normally develops, allowing researchers to study VPA’s effects in more detail and under realistic conditions. The project will look at how VPA influences brain cell growth, movement, and gene activity. The findings will help improve understanding of how certain medications may impact the brain during pregnancy and could guide safer treatment strategies. This research strengthens collaboration across institutions by combining advanced tissue models, imaging, and genetic analysis, and supports the broader goal of improving maternal and child health through evidence-based science