Development of a debris-flow risk reduction design tool

Steep creek hazards such as debris flows and debris floods pose a considerable risk to mountain communities and infrastructure. Relative to other geohazards, debris flows and debris floods are particularly hazardous because they travel rapidly, provide minimal warning and occur frequently. In Canada, professionals have little experience with debris-flow risk reduction due to limited development […]

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Investigating the feasibility of a sensor-based hip protector for automatically detecting falls and characterizing activities of daily living in frail older adults

Over 350,000 Canadians live in long-term care facilities where the rate of falls is up to 3 times higher than among individuals living in the community. Wearable sensor technology holds great promise to accurately monitor an individual’s fall risk based on the activity profile and to detect dangerous fall events. With the understanding that hip […]

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Semantic question-answering systems for customer service automation

Recent advances in applications of deep learning in natural language processing has provided potential opportunities in building robust information retrieval and conversational models that require far less hand-crafted features for understanding the intent of queries and ultimately building question-answering systems. In particular, there has been several advances in factoid question-answering systems and some recent attempts […]

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Hydrogen Storage in Two-Dimensional Layered Nanomaterials: Synthesis – Year Two

The objective of the proposed research is to investigate novel solid-state materials that have potential for hydrogen storage applications in fuel cell electric vehicles. Of interest are materials that can store hydrogen at ambient conditions and low pressures, have high gravimetric and volumetric hydrogen capacities, and can be safely packed into a hydrogen storage tank […]

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Quantitative assessment of risks involved in mechanized skiing in Canada

Helicopter and snowcat skiing in the backcountry involves different hazards such as avalanches, tree wells or helicopter incidents, which can result in serious injuries or even death. While the risk associated with avalanche involvements is well understood, no systematic analyses have been conducted on the other risks. In this project, we will gather all the […]

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Atmospheric Acid Emissions, Climate Change, and Coastal Salmon Stream Ecosystems in British Columbia – Year Two

Atmospheric acid emissions are increasing in north coastal British Columbia from increased metallurgical smelting, marine fossil fuel transport, and development of liquefied natural gas. Acid deposition can cause episodic acidification of streams when acidic compounds are flushed into streams after snowmelt and precipitation events over hours to weeks. Many salmon-bearing coastal streams are likely sensitive […]

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Hydrogen Storage in Two-Dimensional Layered Nanomaterials: Characterization – Year Two

In this project, we will develop solid-state hydrogen storage materials for the potential applications of fuel cell electric vehicles. Based on the most cutting-edge achievements in related fields, two categories of two-dimensional layered nanomaterials are proposed. Their hydrogen storage capabilities will be elaborated by in-depth characterization of material structure and hydrogen storage properties. Moreover, we […]

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Investigations in real-time spinal magnetometry using magnetoencephalography (MEG) for therapeutic biofeedback

Oscillatory neuronal activity can be quantified to help diagnose states of health and disease in the brain. These activities change on a fast time scale of milliseconds, which can only be captured by direct measurement of the brain’s electromagnetic activity. This is accomplished utilizing MEG and EEG technology, which can measure non-invasively these fast changes […]

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Energy Harvesting and Power Management Techniques for Hybrid Powered Wearable Devices

Bigmotion Inc. was created to develop wearable health monitoring sensors and service the ‘at-home’ care segment of the elder care market. This project involves studying of existing literature and development of novel solutions for power management and energy harvesting for the product including tracking and fall detection systems using hybridpower. Analysis of proper control approaches […]

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High Efficiency PFC Rectifier using Wide Band Gap Power Device

The energy-hungry telecomm industry is in need of power supplies with ever-increasing efficiencies to conserve energy and reduce carbon footprint. In collaboration with the industry partner, the proposed research project aims at developing a power factor correction (PFC) system, an essential component in a telecomm power supply, for achieving efficiency of 99% or above. The […]

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Generating Insight for Continuing Care through Exploration of RAI-MDS Data with Data Analytics and Computational Mode

The Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS) is used by health authorities for collecting information about individuals in continuing care facilities. Collected quarterly, RAI-MDS records contain more than 500 data elements, including cognition, psychosocial well-being, health conditions, communication, physical function, and activity patterns. Because of this it has great potential for providing an incomparable […]

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