Innovative Projects Realized

Integrated logistics optimization

One of the main challenges of a global supply chain is to distribute products from their production point to a set of dispersed customer in another geographical region. The efficient planning of this transportation process can have major impacts on costs, product availability, lead-times, environmental impacts, etc.
In this project we consider long-haul transportation as it happens in global supply chains, in which products become available a certain point, i.e., a container terminal, and have to be distributed throughout a given region. Its contribution lies in the fact that we consider a multi-modal network, so that the choice of which means of transportation to use will depend on the objective of the decision maker. There is a clear trade-off between transportation lead-time and cost, but the balance is less evident when one considers inventory costs and product availability to satisfy an unknown demand, or when environmental concerns are added into the equation.

Production of gazoline range hydrocarbons from wastes (New)

This project is in collaboration with a governmental laboratory working on a fermentation process which yields an aqueous solution of short chains monoalcohols. Our contribution to this work will be the development of a suitable heterogeneous catalyst for the conversion of these mixtures of alcohols into gazoline range (C5-C9) hydrocarbons. The complete project would then lead to a waste to gazoline process.
The student will work on preparation, characterization and testing of these solid catalysts.

Production of biodiesel under ultrasounds (New)

In this project we perform the reaction of transesterification of vegetable oils to produce biodiesel. The process is accelerated when this reaction is performed in a continuous reactor equiped with an ultrasound generator. In this case very high conversions are obtained at residence times as low as 20 second compared to hours in current technology. The objective is to study the various parameters involved in order to rationally design the industrial reactor.
The products of reaction including residual tri-, di, and monoglycerides in addition to the various fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) which constitute biodiesel, are analyzed using a state of the art ultra high pressure liquid chromatograph (UHPLC). This instrument is equiped with several detectors including high resolution mass spectrometer.

New mapping solutions based on hyperspectral images acquired from an unmanned aerial systems (drone)

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as drone, is an emerging technology with a tremendous potential to enable new civilian applications. In a near future, the number and use of UAS will increase. They will play a significant role in many public missions such as border surveillance, wildlife surveys, military training, weather monitoring, and local law enforcement. When equipped with camera, UAS are efficient acquisition platforms for regional mapping and surveying at costs far lower than airborne photogrammetric solutions. They display additional advantages like a rapid and easy deployment allowing frequent and up-to-date data acquisition, as well as acquisitions where and when it is needed. In addition, the lower flight altitude of the UAS provides images with higher spatial resolution than airborne and spaceborne platforms.

Hyperspectral remote sensing is concerned with the extraction of information from objects or scenes lying on the Earth surface, based on their radiance acquired by airborne or spaceborne sensors. It has advanced significantly in the past two decades. The unprecedented spectral and spatial resolutions enable a diversity of applications requiring fine identification of materials or estimation of physical or biophysical parameters. The main sources of difficulties related to hyperpsectral imagery are, the high dimensionality and size of the hyperspectral data, the spectral mixing and the degradation mechanisms associated to the measurement process such as geometric distortions and atmospheric effects.

The proposed research project aims at advancing knowledge related to the design and exploitation of new mapping solutions based on hyperspectral images acquired from an UAS (i.e. drone). It focuses mainly on mining and precision farming applications. Experiments and new algorithm developments will be conducted in order to tackle issues related to image mosaicking, high dimensionality of data, and image radiometric distortion. Dedicated classification approaches will also be devised to map specific phenomenon or materials. Given a set of observations (i.e. pixels vectors in a hyperspectral image), the goal of classification is to assign a unique label to each pixel vector so that it is well defined by a given class. Feature mining, correlation, clustering, and kernel methods are among the main, supervised and unsupervised, techniques targeted for this hyperspectral image classification research. Efforts will also be invested in assessing the precision and performances achievable with such technology. This project is currently carried out in collaboration with other research institutions and centres (ex. INRS-ETE) and may involve industrial partners on the short term.

Seismic Behaviour of Multi-story Buildings with Asymmetric Setback

Building structures with asymmetric setbacks possess both vertical and in-plan irregularities. The former is due to the abrupt changes in the plan dimension at the level of the setback while the latter results from the asymmetry between the upper tower portion and the lower base portion. An asymmetric setback introduces mass, stiffness and resistance eccentricities in the entire structure. As a result, the behavior of the structure under lateral seismic excitation in the direction perpendicular to the setback is coupled in translation-torsion, which could have a detrimental effect on the structural response. This coupling behavior has not been studied in detail, and its effect is largely ignored by many conventional seismic design practices. In this research, the effects of both the degree and level of setback on the seismic behavior of multi-story building frames with eccentric setback are investigated. The degree of setback refers to the ratio of the plan area of the upper tower to the plan area of the lower base. A comprehensive analytical study will be carried out to identify the governing parameters of the structural configuration and their effects on the overall response of the setback structure.

Advanced modulation formats and coherent detection in optical communications

Our research group examines techniques for mitigation of impairments in optical communications links and for increasing the capacity of those links. We address both optical and digital signal processing (DSP) solutions from a systems perspective. Maximizing the capacity of fiber communications is the rally cry for research in optical communi-cations this decade, with focus on 1) high order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), and 2) higher baud rates. We examine via simulation distortions to QAM from nonlinear amplification and mitigation in DSP; an experimental validation was recently completed. We work with an industrial partner to quantify theoretically and via experimentation the phase tracking improvement in QAM when using optical signal processing to suppress phase noise. We study the efficiency and range of wavelength conversion for QAM.

A key element in all our research is the development of stable, accurate, and efficient algorithms in offline digital signal processing of impairments in the optical channel. A typical experimental measurement involves coherent detection with a 22-GHz 3-dB bandwidth integrated receiver, the signal is digitized using two channels of a commercial 80-GS/s real-time oscilloscope with 30 GHz bandwidth. Signal processing is performed offline on 2 million captured samples. In the digital signal processing (DSP), we apply a Gaussian low-pass filter and do dispersion compensation. We then perform resampling and timing recovery.
A coarse non-data-aided fast Fourier transform-based frequency offset compensation is performed in a block-wise fashion over 30k symbols. We apply Wiener-Hopf-based decision-directed equalizer with 31 taps. We apply a minimum mean square error filter to mitigate the effect of limited receiver bandwidth. We then employ a decision-aided maximum likelihood algorithm to estimate the carrier phase]. Finally, we choose the closest symbol to the received I/Q coordinates from the QAM constellation and carry out symbol to bit mapping. We synchronize to the transmitted pseudo random binary sequence, count errors and estimate bit error rate (BER).

The optimization and robustness of the various algorithms being used is essential to extracting the best possible results from our experimental measurements, as well as simulations.

Development of a smartphone-based acoustic environment tracker for speech enhancement applications

Speech signals propagating in enclosed environments are distorted by two important, environment-related factors: a) the multiple reflections of the signal from the walls and other objects present in the room, which are called coloration and reverberation, for early and late reflections respectively, and b) competing acoustic signals coming from other sound sources than the speaker, called background noise. Such distortions degrade not only the perceived speech quality and intelligibility for human listeners (either listening to the original distorted speech, speech transmitted by a telephone, or an assistive listening device), but also hampers automatic speech and speaker recognition systems. To try to mitigate these effects, speech enhancement algorithms have been widely used, as well as specific acoustic models matching the environmental characteristics, in the case of automatic speech/speaker recognition applications.

While there are several methods for experimentally measuring the effect of environmental distortions given a clean reference signal, such methods cannot be used in real-time applications as a reference signal is seldom available. Therefore, the so-called blind measures (i.e., measures that do not require a reference signal) have to be employed.

We have recently proposed non-intrusive speech quality, intelligibility, and reverberation time estimation measures. Such measures were shown to accurately estimate speech quality/intelligibility across noise-only, reverberation-only and noise-plus-reverberation listening conditions. Adapted versions of these metrics were also shown to estimate speech quality and intelligibility in complex listening environments for hearing aid and cochlear implant users. These metrics showed performance inline with those obtained with state-of-the-art measures, but with the added benefit of not requiring access to a clean reference signal.

Automatically assessing acoustic environment characteristics can be useful to improve the performance of speech enhancement algorithms. Most speech enhancement methods consider low-level features extracted from the distorted speech signal, such as estimated signal-to-noise ratio, as a proxy for measuring the amount of speech distortion present in the signal, and rely on this information to adjust how the speech enhancement algorithm works. However, higher-level characteristics, such as reverberation time and speech quality/intelligibility, began to be explored only recently.

In this project, we aim to develop environment-aware speech enhancement algorithms, taking into account the predictions of our blind measures of acoustic environment characteristics. As a first step to enable the use of these measures in speech enhancement algorithms, understanding how such features behave in real-world, time-varying environments is important. For that end, we are going to develop a tool to track the evolution of our blind measures over time as a smartphone application. The application will periodically record audio segments, compute, and log the measures. The user will be able to tag measurements as corresponding to specific places (e.g., inside a room, automobile, on the street), and also annotate them with comments and quality scores. The information stored by the application will later be analysed by researchers and used to detect possible limitations of the blind measures. The application will later be extended to perform environment-aware speech enhancement as well; however, this is outside of the scope of this short-term project.

Hacking an off-the-shelf EEG headset for a motor imagery brain-computer interface

The goal of the project is to hack an Emotiv EEG headset such that it allows for the development of a motor imagery (left and right hand) based brain-computer interface (BCI). As sold, the Emotiv headset does not posses electrodes over the sensorimotor area; however, if the headset is worn backwards some electrodes would be located over that area. This project would validate the use of such “hacked” approach and compare the BCI performance to that obtained with a medical grade EEG equipment which possesses electrodes in the sensorimotor region. As outcome of the project, a low-cost, portable, wireless BCI will be developed that can be used worldwide as a human-machine interface or even as a diagnostic tool.

Application of solid catalysts to enhance degradation of emerging pollutants in water using ozone

The presence of emerging pollutants (chemicals such as pesticides, residual pharmaceuticals and personal care products) in surface water bodies is becoming a serious concern not only for their environmental impact, but also for their potentially serious adverse effects on human health. Innovative water treatment technologies are under investigation to determine their potential application in current drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities in eliminating these micro-pollutants in water.

In order to reduce the concentrations of micro-pollutants in water, reaction with ozone (O3) assisted by solid catalysts is considered a potentially viable process. Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that can be produced from oxygen using available ozone generators. Since ozone is highly unstable in water, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of different catalysts that increase ozone stability and selectivity in its reaction with various micro-pollutants in water.

The purpose of the present project is to compare the efficiency of ozonation in the presence of three solid catalysts (activated carbon, alumina and modified alumina developed in our laboratory) in terms of target compound removal and ozone consumption. A semi-continuous reaction system is currently used in our laboratory to evaluate catalyst effectiveness and to study effects of operating parameters.

Different stages of the experimental work involve the following steps:
• Comparing the levels of ozone consumption and micro-pollutant removal at different catalyst doses
• Performing equilibrium adsorption experiments to establish the effects of compound adsorption on the catalysts
• Determining time required for maximum micro-pollutant removal based on kinetic parameters

The research project involves different scientific activities. The student will work with a team of researchers in performing a variety of technical tasks in Catalytic Ozonation Laboratory. These activities include:

• preparation of chemical mixtures of micro-pollutants
• operation of semi-continuous catalytic ozonation reactor
• preparation of HPLC calibration curves for the micro-pollutants
• analysis of samples of reaction products
• collection and compilation of the research data
• preparation of technical reports
• collaboration in developing reaction kinetics
• collaboration in performing preliminary feasibility study

The student will work in a team environment and will receive supervision and training from the supervisor, post doctoral fellows, graduate students (both PhD and MSc) and experienced undergraduate project students.

Application of advanced oxidation and catalytic ozonation in removing antibiotics from water

The presence of emerging pollutants (chemicals such as pesticides, residual pharmaceuticals and personal care products) in surface water bodies is becoming a serious concern not only for their environmental impact, but also for their potentially serious adverse effects on human health. Antibiotics are important class of emerging pollutants in nature. Presence of antibiotics in nature can lead to development of antibiotics resistant strains of bacteria. This is an important health concern. Innovative water treatment technologies are under investigation to determine their potential application in current drinking water and wastewater treatment antibiotics in water.

In order to reduce the concentrations of antibiotics in water, reaction with ozone (O3) assisted by solid catalysts is considered a potentially viable process. Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that can be produced from oxygen using available ozone generators. Since ozone is highly unstable in water, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of different catalysts that increase ozone stability and selectivity in its reaction with antibiotics in water.

The purpose of the present project is to compare the efficiency of ozonation in the presence of solid catalysts and advanced oxidation (O3/H2O2) in terms of target compound removal and ozone consumption. A semi-continuous reaction system is currently used in our laboratory to evaluate catalyst effectiveness and to study effects of operating parameters.

Different stages of the experimental work involve the following steps:
• Comparing the levels of ozone consumption and antibiotic removal at different catalyst doses
• Performing equilibrium adsorption experiments to establish the effects of compound adsorption on the catalysts
• Determining time required for maximum antibiotic removal based on kinetic parameters

The research project involves different scientific activities. The student will work with a team of researchers in performing a variety of technical tasks in Catalytic Ozonation Laboratory. These activities include:

• preparation of chemical mixtures of model-compound antibiotics in water
• operation of semi-continuous catalytic ozonation reactor
• preparation of HPLC calibration curves for the pollutant
• analysis of samples of reaction products
• collection and compilation of the research data
• preparation of technical reports
• collaboration in developing reaction kinetics
• collaboration in performing preliminary feasibility study

The student will work in a team environment and will receive supervision and training from the supervisor, post doctoral fellows, graduate students (both PhD and MSc) and experienced undergraduate project students.

Breast cancer detection using ultra-wideband technology

The project employs ultra-wideband (UWB) technology to construct an image of the breast in order to detect tumors. A mathematical model of the breast under UWB signal is built using human body properties and RF signals in the GHz range. The model is used to simulate the penetration and reflection of the UWB signals. From the wave analysis, 3-D image of the breast is to be constructed. Data are to be collected from the patients. The data are processed, analyzed, and images will be displayed. From the image, tumors will be identified. The system is used as a screening tool for breast cancer.

The Political Economy of Public-Private Mixed Health Insurance

Developing countries, particularly the fast-growing BRIC countries, are increasingly switching their focus from economic development to social welfare, of which public health insurance is an important component.

Currently, three major health care systems exist in OECD countries: National Health Service (NHS) in Nordic countries like Sweden and Norway and commonwealth countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia; Social Security system in continental Europe including France, Germany, Netherlands, and Austria; and Private Health Insurance in the United States. In addition, there are variations in financing arrangements and insurance coverage across countries; for example, prescription drugs are not covered in the public insurance plan in Canada though most other OECD countries offer such coverage; Germany allows wealthy citizens to opt out of public insurance while Netherlands requires high-income citizens to opt out of public insurance. In France, a substantial co-payment is required for access to public health insurance.

Among these health care systems, which one should be chosen by a developing country? To answer this question, one must first understand the economic and political implication of these health care systems. Public health insurance is not a pure economic choice; instead, it is highly redistributive and coercive and is a political decision. The rich or poor, healthy or sick, employed or unemployed face different cost and benefit from a public health insurance plan, depending on the nature of the plan. The recent Obama Care reform signifies the difficulty in balancing the divergent interests of citizens and interest groups.

This project will first evaluate the distribution of net benefits across income classes from four major health care financing methods including tax financed public health insurance, social security financed public health insurance, employer-provided private health insurance, and out-of-pocket payments for health care. The project will then investigate the political implication of these distributional impacts in a majority voting setting. Lastly, the project will analyze the distribution of overall net benefits under various combinations of financing methods and coverage. For example, what is the distributional impact of publicly insured hospital and physician services plus privately paid drug plans (like in Canada); and if a country proposes to use co-payment or user charge to reduce cost of a public health insurance plan, what is its potential political implication in an election?

The major methodology of this study will be simulation with a hypothetical group of citizens. The citizens are with various levels of income, various degrees of morbidity, and a distribution of employment and unemployment status. Expenditure-based fiscal incidence analysis and majority voting model are the major analysis methods, with the assistance of insurance theory.

The project will shed light on the future health care reforms in developed countries, especially on the public-private mix of long-term care insurance. The project is also of importance to developing countries that are searching for a public health insurance model to emulate.