Dear Researchers, Faculty and Staff,

Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)., will be hosting an information session for Lakehead's Researchers, Research Office Staff, Lab Techs, Graduate Students, and anyone else involved in R&D at Lakehead, on the OCI Voucher for Innovation and Productivity (VIP).

OCI would like to share with researchers across the province, how the VIP can facilitate and fund industry collaborations, and how the advantages of the program.

DATE: Thursday, October 14, 2021
TIME: 11:00AM - 12:00PM

AGENDA Via Zoom
OCI at a glance
OCI- Voucher for Innovation and Productivity(VIP) Program Overview
OCI-VIP/NSERC-Engage Joint College Stream Overview
Q&A

Please find below a short description about the OCI-VIP/NSERC joint stream:
In partnership, NSERC Alliance / Engage grants and OCI’s Voucher for Innovation and Productivity (VIP) will support post-secondary R&D collaborations with the highest potential for regional economic development and commercialization in Ontario.Individual proposals can request at least $20,000 up to $30,000 from NSERC (Alliance or Engage grant) and at least $20,000 up to $30,000 from OCI VIP, with a corresponding $20,000 to $30,000 from the industry partner (at least 50% must be cash provided to the academic institution).The streamlined joint application and decision process enables companies to quickly undertake new research collaborations with Ontario-based researchers and have their cash contribution leveraged by both NSERC and OCI. The mutually beneficial projects are expected to result in economic benefits to the company and to Ontario and build impactful longer term collaborations between the researcher and the company.

NSERC webpage updates link: : https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Innovate-Innover/VIP-BIP_eng.asp

OCI webpage updates link: https://www.oc-innovation.ca/programs/voucher-for-innov

Please find below the zoom calendar invite for this session:
When: Oct 14, 2021 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Click on the link below to register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sc-2rpj8oG9LBzOMtB1lvdBqqQ-B...

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call Kelly Fettes, Administrative Office, IPED at 807-343-8010 x8871 or email kafettes@lakeheadu.ca.

Please join the Computer Science Department for the upcoming thesis defense:

Presenter: Tim Heydrich

Thesis title: Lightweight Deep Learning for Monocular Depth Estimation

Abstract: Monocular depth estimation is a challenging but significant part of computer vision with many applications in other areas of study. This estimation method aims to provide a relative depth prediction for a single input image. In the past, conventional methods have been able to give rough depth estimations however their accuracies were not sufficient. In recent years, due to the rise of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs), the accuracy of the depth estimations has increased. However, DCNNs do so at the expense of compute resources and time. This leads to the need for more lightweight solutions for the task.

In this thesis, we use recent advances made in lightweight network design to reduce complexity. Furthermore, we use conventional methods to increase the performance of lightweight networks. Specifically, we propose a novel lightweight network architecture which has a significantly reduced complexity compared to current methods while still maintaining a competitive accuracy. We propose an encoder-decoder architecture that utilizes DICE units [47] to reduce the complexity of the encoder. In addition, we utilize a custom designed decoder based on depthwise-separable convolutions. Furthermore, we propose a novel lightweight self-supervised training framework which leverages conventional methods to remove the need for pose estimation that current self-supervised methods have. We take advantage of the fact that current unsupervised and self-supervised methods need two images during training to compute a ground truth approximation. Doing this we are able to eliminate the need for pose estimation that other self-supervised approaches have. Both our lightweight network and our self-supervised framework reduce the size and complexity of current state-of-the-art methods while maintaining competitive results in their respective areas.

Committee Members:

Dr. Shan Du (supervisor, committee chair), Dr. Yimin Yang (co-supervisor), Dr. Amin Safaei, Dr. Thangarajah Akilan (Software Engineering)

Please contact grad.compsci@lakeheadu.ca for the Zoom link. Everyone is welcome.

The Chemistry and Materials Science PhD candidate, Kevin Lefrancois-Gagnon will present his research, Substituent Descriptors from the Topology of the Electron Density on Monday, October 4 at 1 pm via zoom. Please contact Brenda Magajna at phd.ses@lakeheadu.ca for the link to join. Everyone is welcome.

A STUDY IN LIGNIN CAPABILITY TO IMPROVE STRENGTH AND WATER ABSORBENCY OF STARCH POLYMERS: A POTENTIAL HEAT-RESISTANT FLUID- LOSS-CONTROLLER IN WATER BASED DRILLING FLUIDS

Time: Oct 4, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://lakeheadu.zoom.us/j/92408194640

Meeting ID: 924 0819 4640

Abstract:
In the oil and gas industries, drilling deep wells has rapidly become more significant to meet the global demand. The design of drilling fluids and choosing the proper additives are very important for the drilling operation's success. Rheological behaviour and filtration-loss properties are the main factors to control for effective drilling operations. So, the study of an effective fluid loss controller and a rheology modifier is necessary to designing drilling fluids formulations and determining their proper performance during operations. Starch, as a natural polymer, is broadly utilized in the drilling industry, thanks to its specific structure and solubility in water. The main duties of starch in drilling fluids formulations are reducing fluid loss and improving the viscosity of fluid during drilling operations. One of the main problems of using starch in water-based fluids (WBFs) is being inefficient in high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) condition and shear force. Numerous studies have been conducted to elevate the thermal stability of starch to strengthen it for harsh conditions. In some studies, starch was replaced by new polymers like Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) and other synthetic polymers, to overcome these problems. These polymers are not effective enough and are relatively expensive, so one needs to consider using alternative materials or natural ingredients to make drilling more economical and more efficient, especially in deeper wells with higher temperatures.

The main goal of this work was to develop a novel starch-based polymer for the synthesis of a new fluid loss controller (FLC) and rheology modifier using lignin as a support to raise its mechanical and thermal stability. Starch and lignin were crosslinked in the presence of a crosslinking agent, a type of substitution reaction, leading to the formation of a new compound of starch-lignin polymers. The mechanical and thermal properties of synthesized starch-lignin crosslinked polymers were investigated to demonstrate their potential for use in drilling operations. Addressing all drawbacks of native starch, using lignin as a biopolymer with the potential of improving starch mechanically and thermally was studied in this research. It is shown that Kraft lignin can be crosslinked with starch via ether covalent bonds to successfully increase the viscoelasticity and water absorption. Rheology analysis showed that in the temperature range of 25 to 90 °C, lignin-starch polymers are more viscoelastic and stable than unmodified starch. The results showed that the rheological behaviour of lignin-starch crosslinked polymers was different from the natural starch at the same concentration and temperature. The change in viscoelastic properties caused by crosslinking reaction and etherification significantly depended on the amount of lignin and crosslinking agent incorporated. Modified starches with higher lignin content displayed higher values of storage and loss module than those with lower lignin content. This finding was due to the fact that ether groups in modified starches were more polar than natural starch, thus forming stronger hydrogen bonds with water restricting the movement of the chain of starches and leading to an increase of the elastic modulus. In addition, the presence of lignin in starch polymers influences its thermo-reversibility characteristics significantly and increases the storage and loss modulus of starch. Moreover, water absorption of starch was found to increase when it was crosslinked to lignin via proposed reaction conditions.

Our new polymer has the advantage of being produced using a renewable source, which is biodegradable and abundantly available in nature for a very low cost. In this work, based on results from XPS and TGA, we see the impact of the new covalent ether linkages between starch and lignin(-C-O-C-) improving the thermal stability, especially at the main weight loss steps. These structural changes, as highlighted by X-ray measurements, associated with morphological ones, shown by SEM images, could affect the mechanical properties of the modified fibers, compared to unmodified ones, that we will attempt to verify by means of suitable mechanical measurements.

Speaker: Dr. Suzanne Simard, Department of Forest Sciences (University of British Columbia)

Title: “Rhizosphere ecology: Mycorrhizal network in forested ecosystems”

Host: Dr. Azim Mallik

Please contact biology@lakeheadu.ca for the meeting ID and password.

Speaker: Dr. Steven Rafferty and Dr. Janet Yee (Trent University)

Title: “Aspects of the biochemistry and molecular biology of the protozoan parasite Giardia intestinalis”

Host: Dr. Guilem Dayer and Ashley Faulkner

Please contact biology@lakeheadu.ca for the meeting ID and password.

Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Sunday (McGill University)

Title: “Species on the Move: Detecting and preparing for the redistribution of life”

Host: Dr. Adam Algar

Please contact biology@lakeheadu.ca for meeting ID and password.

Speaker: Dr. Louis Bernatchez (Laval University)

Title: “Think Globally: Investigating Ecological Speciation within an Integrative Biology Framework”

Host: Dr. Doug Morris

Please contact biology@lakeheadu.ca for the meeting ID and password.

Speaker: Dr. Jason Treberg (University of Manitoba)

Title: “Evolution and adaptation of sharks and their relatives: how one little molecule (urea) has many big consequences”

Host: Dr. Mike Rennie

Please contact biology@lakeheadu.ca for the meeting ID and password.

Advanced features of Zotero including two plugins (Zotfile and Zutilo) and more.

Register Here: https://libcal.lakeheadu.ca/event/3629919