Innovative Projects Realized

Seamless Day Programs: Opportunities, challenges, and Promising Practices

As part of its 10-year ChildCare plan, the Government of BC recently funded “Seamless Day” pilot programs in various communities across the province. These programs involve service sharing between schools and child care providers, with the intention of providing continuous care, support, and learning for young children throughout the school day, as well as before and after-school. The proposed project is designed to support the interest of the Early Childhood Educators of BC (ECEBC) in exploring emerging opportunities, challenges, and promising practices related to Seamless Day programs. The work will assist ECEBC in supporting educators who work in Seamless Day programs, as well as inform the organization’s broader efforts to advance early childhood care and learning in the province. Using a participatory research approach, informed by pedagogies outlined in the BC’s Early Learning Framework, the project will engage a range of collaborators in dialogue and action toward transformative change.

Model validation of high-speed imploding liquid cavities at industry scale

Fusion power has the potential to deliver clean, safe, and abundant electrical power on an
industrial scale. Due to the extreme conditions required, involving temperatures of hundreds
of millions degrees Celsius, it remains a technical challenge, particularly on a commercial
scale. In a concept called Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), plasma is compressed to fusion
conditions using an imploding cavity of liquid metal; the liquid is spun by a rotor to form a
cylindrical cavity which is imploded by injecting fluid through channels in the rotor walls. This
project will validate our current model of an imploding liquid cavity at industry scale, and
investigate technological designs by which the implosion efficiency can be further improved.

Modèles de cohabitation entre personnes aînées et personnes étudiantes : un examen de portée

Ce projet, imaginé par la FADOQ – Région Estrie, vise à former un tandem bigénérationnel en matière de partage de logement en regroupant des personnes aînées qui acceptent de loger des personnes étudiantes universitaires recommandées par l’Université de Sherbrooke, moyennant différentes modalités. L’intérêt d’une personne aînée à participer au projet se traduit, entre autres, par une présence humaine rassurante et par certains services que la personne étudiante pourrait lui rendre pour favoriser son maintien à domicile. De son côté, la personne étudiante, faisant actuellement face à une rareté de logements, pourra bénéficier de l’accès à un nouveau bassin d’habitations locatives à des coûts et à des conditions fort intéressantes ainsi que de la présence de la personne ainée favorisant son intégration sociale dans la région.

Avion sans pilote dans l’atmosphère martienne

Objectif: Conception préliminaire par analyse seulement d’un avion capable d’effectuer un vol propulsé et autonome dans l’atmosphère de Mars. Travail individuel sous supervision.
– Préparation: conception d’un avion, atmosphère martienne, revue de la littérature scientifique
– Liste des requis, mission typique, préparation du cahier des charges
– Estimation du poids initial
– Performance aérodynamique: charge alaire
– Aérodynamique des profils d’aile
– Dimensionnement de l’empennage vertical et horizontal, surfaces de contrôle
– Génération de maillage (Pointwise), solveur fluide (Ansys Fluent ou STAR-CCM+, ou autre)
– Simulation numérique (CFD): aérodynamique des ailes et de l’ensemble de l’avion, courbe polaire
– Systèmes de propulsion et d’énergie, dimensionnement des moteurs électriques, des cellules photovoltaïques et des batteries, description de leurs caractéristiques respectives et contraintes en opération, etc.
– Performance: décollage et atterrissage
Si le temps le permet:
– Environnement du lanceur (Terre)
– Charges et structure
– Stabilité et contrôle

Data-driven Automated Hypovigilance Detection using Physiological Parameters

In this research project, the intern will explore ways to detect hypovigilance with vital signs collected from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The intern will first study existing research and models to understand which features are important for detecting these conditions. Next, they will analyze vital sign data from ICU patients to identify the most informative features for detecting hypovigilance and delirium. Using this information, the intern will then apply statistical analysis and machine learning techniques to develop models that can accurately detect these conditions. Different combinations of input variables will be tested to find the most effective model. The performance of these models will be evaluated using various metrics, and they will be optimized for use with new patients. Finally, the intern will write a scientific paper to share the project’s findings. The partner organization will benefit from improved methods for detecting hypovigilance which is very important in the transportation sector.

Investigating the endothelial cell population in different tissues using Raman microspectroscopy

Healing Trauma Using Digital PTSD Therapies for Anyone, Anywhere

Savyn offers digital therapies based on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and written exposure therapy, which are digitized and adapted versions of existing therapy protocols provided in person to heal trauma and PTSD. Savyn offers access to patients and clients who have PTSD but cannot get the help they need due to a shortage of therapists, higher costs, and geographic barriers. The goal is to heal trauma. We are removing barriers to accessing PTSD therapies by digitizing and bringing virtual therapies with proven efficacy in patient populations. Savyn’s EMDR offering is currently undergoing clinical validation with PTSD clients at Sick Kids Research Institute, in collaboration with the Principal Investigator, Professor Ben Dunkley at the University of Toronto. The studies so far show promising results to the patients using the digitized EMDR by improving distress levels and improving PTSD symptoms by the fifth and sixth sessions.

Secure and Practical Federated Learning with Multi-Key Homomorphic Encryption

Nowadays, our data is stored and processed in the cloud, and there are increasing privacy concerns. Federated Learning (FL) has recently emerged to allow users to keep their data private and collaboratively train machine learning models. To ensure that no client data can be revealed, there are multiple challenges in designing a system to be used in real applications: (1) different types of heterogeneity (data, resource, infrastructure), (2) efficiency, and (3) scalability. In this project, we aim to design a secure and flexible FL system, SmartFL, with multi-key homomorphic encryption (MKHE) algorithms. From this project, we expect peer-reviewed top conference or journal papers and patents. We expect that by the end of the project, the working prototypes will be developed, which can be merged into HCL Canada Inc’s product in the future. The prototype will be demonstrated to the partner organization to show its scalability, efficiency, and practicality.

Model compression and inference optimization for UAV’s companion computer

With the evolution of computer vision methods in recent years, more and more scene-understanding methods have been proposed. Meanwhile, SOTI also designed and developed several scene-understanding algorithms. However, due to the limited computing capabilities of UAVs, all these algorithms need to be compressed to use fewer resources. This project will deliver a model compression and deployment pipeline.

Predicting the exploitability of vulnerabilities

Everyday, hundreds of new vulnerabilities are discovered and disclosed to the users of the systems they affect. The sheer volume of vulnerabilities makes it difficult, if not impossible, for system administrators to rapidly address every vulnerability. Furthermore, research shows that only 5% of vulnerabilities are eventually exploited. This situation brings about a need to prioritize some vulnerabilities over others, with the vulnerabilities most likely to be exploited treated as priorities. Existing approaches to these vulnerabilities are inadequate because they rely on information that may be unavailable at the time the vulnerability is publicized. In this project, we endeavor to develop a vulnerability prioritization algorithm that only relies upon information available on the day the vulnerability is disclosed, and fills in missing data using ML.

Indigenous Energy Justice and Offshore Wind Development

The intern within this position will work with Indigenous Clean Energy (ICE) to help co-design resources for Indigenous governments, such as research protocols, that will identify Indigenous Nations strategies for offshore wind development approaches to Indigenous Energy Justice to benefit diverse Indigenous seascapes. Additionally, this position will be responsible for coordinating and executing meetings and program deliverables, research data and content for program development, and engage in outreach and communications with Indigenous communities and global contacts. The expected benefit to the partner organization from this research is that it has the capacity to provide a unique network connecting communities across industry and academia to expand offshore wind energy research in North America. Additionally, this position will help to better understand and improve justice outcomes and the well-being for Indigenous Peoples affected by the looming energy transition consistent with the motivations behind Indigenous Energy Justice.

Investigating the role of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident E3 ligase RNF26 in endosomal regulation during mitosis

Eukaryotic cells have evolved complex sub-compartments to partition the cell interior into tiny contained 3D microenvironments. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) communicates with and regulates other intracellular structures, including the endolysosomal system, through membrane contact sites (MCSs). Dysfunction in endolysosomal spatial-temporal regulation is implicated in neurodegeneration, cancer, and metabolic disease. Recently, it was found that the loss of the ER-associated protein RNF26 disrupts the organization of the endolysosomal system. During mitosis – the self-replication of a cell into two nearly identical daughter cells – the ER and the endolysosomal system are remodeled. The specific role of ER:endosome MCSs and MCS-associated proteins during mitosis is yet to be determined. In this project, we will perform experiments to further understand the role of RNF26 and its regulation during mitosis. We will (1) visualize ER:endosome contact sites during cell division using a fluorescently-tagged cell line and confocal microscopy. We will (2) study the function of RNF26 during mitosis by depletion and overexpression experiments. Candidates will be validated and used to build a model explaining how RNF26 at ER:endosome contacts affect cell division.