Preparing materials on the nanoscale is essential for current and future devices. However this presents many technical and scientific challenges. Nonetheless, nanocrystals also offer unique opportunities for novel, energy efficient devices. This project aims to understand subtle changes in material properties on the nanoscale via optical spectroscopy. Specifically our group routinely prepares high temperature superconductors […]

Graphical Processing Units (GPU)’s have matured, and now provide the highest computational performance per dollar.  To be scalable, a tighly coupled cluster of GPU’s must support efficient implementations of real world algorithms. This project will implement a software signal processing pipeline using GPU architectures.  CITA is currently acquiring a major GPU cluster, which will be […]

Our laboratory is interested in developing imaging software and instrumentation that will allow us to measure the spatial dynamics of growing neuronal structures in a small, transparent, model organism called C. elegans. C. elegans is a small nematode (round worm) with a uniquely simple nervous system—it contains only 302 neurons and the connectivity between these […]

  Rapid diagnostic tools represent a significant growth industry in agriculture. Current antibody based approaches have implicit limitations due to the cost and performance of the antibodies. The use of single stranded DNA (aptamers) as mimics of antibodies has the potential to overcome many of these constraints. A key disadvantage to the use of aptamers is […]

  The project seeks to examine the feasibility of recovering a spectrum at high frequencies (such as 20 kHz – 40 kHz) from a signal sampled multiple times at much lower frequencies (such as 3999 Hz-4000 Hz). After this it aims to determine what sort of constraints are required for a digitizer to successfully recover the signal.

It is estimated that 23,200 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and that the disease claims the lives of about 100 Canadian women per week. The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer offers many advantages over conventional X-ray mammography, including increased sensitivity […]

  The project focuses on the characterization of the evolution with time of the properties of physiological signals recorded in different clinical settings, describing sepsis shock and other clinical complications that are common features in Intensive Care Units. Changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation will be studied through an array […]

Infrared spectroscopy is a fundamental technique to study novel materials ranging from medicine to semiconductor industry. Regular infrared sources can provide very limited spatial resolution for infrared microscopy experiments. Currently, this limitation can be overcome with the use of synchrotron sources. A recently discovered and now commercially available alternative light source is the Quantum Cascade […]

Microwave imaging has gained interest in biomedical imaging because of its non-ionizing and non destructive approach. It will be quick, comfortable and cheap compared to current imaging modalities available such as X-ray tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In microwave imaging, the major challenge is the design of microwave sensors for receiving scattered signal from […]

Thin film deposition equipment is in wide demand amongst academic researchers in chemistry, physics, materials science and electrical engineering, not to mention manufacturers of semiconductor devices, medical consumables, storage media, and optics parts. Thus the size of the market can vary greatly from year to year due to its strong dependence on the health of […]

This project aims to develop a new platform for spectroscopic imaging with optics at the nano-scale. It will involve forming a new relationship between Tornado Spectral Systems, RHK Technologies and the Burch group at the University of Toronto. This relationship will combine their unique expertise to achieve a system with unparalleled performance, able to determine […]

The work to be undertaken by the intern with Rackforce builds on a successful NSERC engage grant to develop a distributed cyberinfrastructure system linking the University of Calgary with the Rackforce data centre in Kelowna. This system will demonstrate reliable leading-edge infrastructure for distributed multi-user collaboration for advanced scientific data processing. The planned work consists […]