title: Mass transfer and particle dissolution in liquid-gas and solid-liquid flows: Application to hydrogen production processes.

contributor:
Rosen, Marc A.
Naterer, Greg F.

subject:
Mass transfer
Heat transfer
Gas-liquid flows
Dissolution
Hydrogen production

abstract:
Many environmental problems are related to the production, transformation and use
of energy. Some of the concerns include, but are not limited to, acid rain, ozone depletion
and climate change. Therefore, “greener” alternatives for energy production are sought.
The hydrogen economy is one potential avenue to a clean energy system, and a promising
option for hydrogen production is the thermochemical Cu-Cl cycle for water
decomposition.
When hydrogen or oxygen is produced from water splitting by electrolysis,
thermochemical cycles or solar-based photocatalytic methods in water, bubble flow and
vapour transfer into the gas phase occur during phase transition. This undesirable vapour
transfer requires the use of more energy input to compensate for the evaporation heat
requirement as well as for subsequent gas purification in the downstream unit. This work
examines the thermodynamics and kinetics of vapour diffusion and entrainment for
ascending bubbles in a vertical column through experimental studies for various gas
production rates. Vapour entrainment is interpreted in terms of the phase transition rate
and its dependence on various operating parameters such as gas bubble size, liquid depth,
temperature and concentration is examined analytically and experimentally. A phase
transition correlation is obtained to analyze these parameters and predict the amount of
water carried to the surface of the liquid. It was determined that mass transfer is a
function of Reynolds number (characterizes the flow regime), Eotvos number
(characterizes bubbles’ shape) and distance the bubbles travel through liquid.
ii
Additionally, this work presents experimental studies of particle dynamics,
dissolution and transport processes for hydrogen production via thermochemical water
decomposition. The processes involve multiple steps, some consisting of multiphase
reaction systems. It examines the importance of design optimization of liquid-solid phase
systems and process integration of a thermochemical copper-chlorine cycle for hydrogen
production. The dissolution of cuprous chloride particles in hydrochloric acid is examined
in order to provide a predictive modeling method for more complex multiphase reacting
systems that determine the thermodynamic equilibrium, which regulates the final state
that the transport processes can approach. A ternary system consisting of cuprous chloride
(CuCl), hydrochloric acid (HCl) and water exists in different variations of the Cu-Cl
cycle, and the modeling of the solubility for the ternary system is essential to providing
the mathematical boundary conditions for the transport processes occurring in the system.
This work examines the transport processes involving the ternary system and the
constituent solubilities. A semi-mechanistic model is obtained that formulates the
solubility of the ternary system. It was found that the reaction kinetics is accelerated when
the solution is turbulent and when the concentration of HCl is increased, until the
thermodynamic limit is achieved. These findings are of importance in the integration of
the electrolysis with other reactors of the Cu-Cl cycle.


title: Design and development of an autonomous navigation system for an omni-directional four-wheeled mobile robot

subject:
Omni-directional
Robot
Localization
Motion control

abstract:
A navigation system developed for an omni-directional wheeled mobile robot, called
the Omnibot, is presented. This system is developed to enable the Omnibot to autonomously navigate, in a collision-free manner, along predefined paths in indoor
structured office or factory-like environments.
The navigation system is composed of four integrated subsystems: localization, path-
following, velocity control, and obstacle detection. The path-following subsystem is
responsible for driving the Omnibot along a given path based on feedback about its
location relative to its environment. A localization system that uses a combination
of odometry and a novel indoor GPS-like system provides the necessary estimates
of the Omnibot's position and orientation (i.e., pose). Using the pose updates from
the localization subsystem, the path-following subsystem is able to compute motion
commands to drive the Omnibot along the path. Execution of these motion commands
is performed by the velocity control subsystem, which uses feedback control to regulate
the angular velocities of the motors driving the Omnibot's wheels to produce the
required motion of the robot. To ensure collision-free navigation, the Omnibot is
equipped with an array of infrared distance sensors for detecting obstacles around
its perimeter. Interaction between a human operator and the Omnibot is facilitated
with a user-control interface running on a remote workstation. The interface allows
the operator to visualize the Omnibot's location within a 3D model of its indoor
workspace and provides a means to input commands.
Testing of the developed system is performed, and the results confirm its e effectiveness
at enabling the Omnibot to perform collision-free autonomous navigation in an indoor
structured environment.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Channel estimation in a two-way relay network

subject:
Channel estimation
Amplify and forward (AF)
Two-way relay network
Maximum likelihood
Mean square error (MSE)

abstract:
In wireless communications, channel estimation is necessary for coherent symbol detection.
This thesis considers a network which consists of two transceivers communicating
with the help of a relay applying the amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying scheme. The
training based channel estimation technique is applied to the proposed network where
the numbers of the training sequence transmitted by the two transceivers, are different.
All three terminals are equipped with a single antenna for signal transmission and reception.
Communication between the transceivers is carried out in two phases. In the
first phase, each transceiver sends a transmission block of data embedded with known
training symbols to the relay. In the second phase, the relay retransmits an amplified
version of the received signal to both transceivers. Estimates of the channel coefficients
are obtained using the Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimator. The performance analysis
of the derived estimates are carried out in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) and
we determine conditions required to increase the estimation accuracy.


title: First principles calculations of transition metal complexes for artificial photosynthesis

subject:
Artificial photosynthesis
Electronic structure

abstract: Nanoscale devices using transition metals have shown promise in the renewable energy context for their robustness and scalability. In artificial photosynthetic devices, light harvesting molecules drive reactions which create fuel (e.g by splitting water). For optimal fuel generation efficiency a long charge transfer excited state lifetime is necessary. Additionally, an absorption peak in the visible region is required for the molecule to absorb sunlight. To investigate the absorption peak and properties associated with the excited state lifetime of light harvesting molecules, a workflow has been developed using a combination of first principles techniques and analysis code. In the development of the workflow, this study focused on a vanadium(V) oxo compound VOLF which has been experimentally synthesized by collaborators. To fully understand the properties of this light absorbing molecule, it was studied using a variety of theoretical techniques and compared to experimental results obtained by collaborators.


title: Probabilistic assessment of the impact of integrating large-scale high-power fast charging stations on the power quality in the electric power distribution systems

subject:
Fast charging stations
Harmonics
Plug-in electric vehicles
Power quantities
Supraharmonics.

abstract: The work presented in this thesis assesses the impacts of integrating large-scale high-power fast charging stations on the electric power quality by studying different power quality phenomena such as low-order and high-order harmonics, supraharmonics and voltage/light flickering. New three-phase effective power quantities are developed at both the low-order (harmonics below 40th order) and high order (harmonics above 40th order) and are used to quantify such harmonic impact. Chargers from two different manufacturers are used in this study and the real measurement are performed at fast charging stations in Canada. The Monte Carlo method is used to probabilistically estimate the electrical vehicles (EV) power demand when charging from the fast charging stations. The IEEE 34-bus standard test distribution system is employed to simulate the different impacts from different chargers’ manufactures. The results have shown that the chargers from different manufacturers may contribute differently in terms of the harmonic distortion levels reaching 18% at the system level. Furthermore, the frequency spectrum of the chargers from different manufacturers are different at both the low-order and high-order harmonics. The results have also shown that the new three-phase power quantities defined in this work are useful in identifying the chargers with high contribution to both the low-order and the high-order harmonics distortion/interference by separating the power quantities defined in the IEEE Standard 1459-2010 into several power quantities at the low-order harmonic (ranging from 2nd to 39th harmonic order or below 2.4 kHz) and the high-order harmonics (beyond 40th harmonic order or beyond 2.4 kHz).


title: Fluid transport and entropy production in electrochemical and microchannel droplet flows

subject:
Entropy
Droplet
Microchannel
Thermocapillary
Evaporation
Surface tension

abstract:
The growth of energy demand in the world requires addressing the increasing
power requirements of industrial and residential consumers. Optimizing the design of
new and existing large power producing systems can efficiently increase energy supply to
meet the growing demand. Hydrogen as an energy carrier is a promising sustainable way
to meet the growing energy demand, while protecting the environment. This thesis
investigates the efficient production of hydrogen from the electrolysis of copper chloride,
by predicting entropy production as a result of diffusive mass transfer.
Also, this thesis investigates the possibility of producing electrical energy from
waste heat produced by industrial or other sources. The thermocapillary motion of fluid
droplet in a closed rectangular microchannel is used to generate electrical energy from
waste heat in a piezoelectric membrane by inducing mechanical deformation as a result
of the droplet motion. Modeling, fabrication, and experimental measurement of a micro
heat engine (MHE) are investigated in this study. Analytical and experimental results are
reported for both circular and rectangular microchannels. A novel fabrication technique
using lead zirconate titanate (PZT) as substrate in microfluidic application is presented in
this study. This thesis develops a predictive model of the entropy production due to
thermal and fluid irreversibilities in the microchannel. Thermocapillary pressure and
friction forces are modelled within the droplet, as well as surface tension hysteresis
during start-up of the droplet motion. A new analytical model is presented to predict the
effect of transient velocity on the voltage production in the MHE. In order to predict the
effect of the applied stress on voltage, the different layers of deposition are considered for
thin film laminates. The highest efficiency of the system from simulated taking into
iv
account the electromechanical coupling factor is about 1.6% with a maximum voltage of
1.25mV for the range of displacement considered in this study. In addition, new
experimental and analytical results are presented for evaporation and de-pinning of
deionised water and toluene droplets in rectangular microchannels fabricated from Su-8
2025 and 2075.


title: Rapid remaining-useful-life prediction of Li-ion batteries using image-based machine learning

subject:
Health prognostics prediction
Lithium-ion battery
Remaining-useful-life estimation
Machine learning
Transfer learning

abstract: With the increased integration of lithium-ion batteries in our everyday lives, accurate and reliable battery management systems have become an imperative aspect of the well-being of our everyday electronics. This thesis proposes the use of novel machine learning methodologies to predict the remaining-useful-life (RUL) of lithium-ion batteries reliably, accurately, and swiftly. Firstly, a method that prides itself on being publicly available, and which can be easily implemented alongside existing methodology, is proposed to increase the prediction accuracy of the conventional health indicator methodology by 6.72% by using images of data curves as inputs. Subsequently, a more in-depth machine learning model is presented which managed to considerably outperform the current literature in terms of speed, accuracy, and reliability, achieving an RUL prediction accuracy of 90.85%. These proposed methodologies have a wide range of applications, from fault diagnostics, state-of-charge, and state-of-health prediction, to other, more complex, regression applications.


title: Modeling process and information systems: leveraging technology to improve service operations

subject: Process modelling

subject: Technology integration

subject: Service operations

abstract: This thesis considers the relationship between service quality, operational flow and technological integration through process modeling methodologies. Mixed methods research is presented in a series of process improvement case studies which incorporate Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM) principles. The studies are in context of clinical and administrative departments within a single organization; each department has undergone change to adopt a new information system. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, focus groups and observations. We apply user-centric process modeling methodologies, Patient Journey Modeling Architecture (PaJMA) or Customer-Centric Process Improvement Methodology (CCPIM), and incorporate Electronic Health Record (EHR) access data to develop and validate process models which reflect the patient care journey or business service operations. Our aim was to identify opportunities for quality improvement of services and technological integration. The second aim was to provide a common language for process improvement across the organization. We conclude with a combination of case study results to provide overall process improvement and change management recommendations to senior management of the organization.


title: Integration of microwave and millimeter wave bandpass filters with antennas

subject: Bandpass Filter Antenna DRA SIW

abstract:
Filters and antennas are essential elements in communication and radar systems. In a conventional design, antennas and filters are designed independently and then connected together through transitions and/or connectors, which introduces loss and increases the size of the design. Filter and antenna integration can be implemented using the resonance characteristic of the antenna and the coupling between the antenna and resonator of the filter, which effectively removes the transitions between the filter and antenna and improves the overall system performance. In this thesis, two different types of filter and antenna integrations are investigated.
First, the Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) filter integration with dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) in millimeter-wave frequency range is presented. SIW is used to design the bandpass filter and serves as the feeding structure for DRA. Design integration with improved radiation efficiency is achieved by replacing the last resonator of the filter with DRA. The synthesis procedure is presented in detail. Equivalent circuit models are developed to facilitate optimizations of the design. In addition, integrated designs of parasitic DRA and DRA arrays with SIW filters are developed. All designs have been simulated and fine-tuned using full wave solver. Simulation and measurement results are presented.


title: Experiences and satisfaction with methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) health services: views from a small Ontario city

contributor:
Weaver, Robert
Byrne, Carolyn
Grant, Judith

subject:
Methadone
Methadone maintenance treatment
Opiate addiction
Harm reduction

abstract: Addiction to opiates is a complex public health issue affecting thousands of Canadians. Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) is considered the gold standard in Canada, and the world, for treating opiate dependence. In the past, Canadian research into opiate addiction and the effectiveness of MMT has mostly focused on larger cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. This community based research study employed a mixed method approach to gain understanding of the experiences and satisfaction with MMT and other health services available to opiate users in Belleville, Ontario (population 48,000). Surveys (N = 53), focus groups, participant-observation methods and key informant interviews were used to gather data. The results provide an overall picture of the quality of life for opiate users and MMT clients, the quality of care clients receive, and the perceptions of community members regarding MMT. Challenges related to smaller locales are identified along with recommendations for improving MMT health services.


title: Brønsted acid-catalyzed reaction of alkynyltrifluoroborates with acetals and ketals

subject: Brønsted Alkynyltrifluoroborates Acetals Ketals Acid

abstract: The synthesis of small molecules is crucial in the pharmaceutical industry for producing drugs or biologically active compounds. Specifically, the formation of new carbon-carbon bonds is of great importance in synthetic organic chemistry. Brønsted acid catalysis is a powerful synthetic tool to make many different compounds, however, the current carbon-based nucleophiles are the major limitation of acid-catalyzed reactions. In effort to expand repertoire of Brønsted acid compatible nucleophiles, we present a novel carbon-carbon bond forming methodology between acetals, ketals, and potassium phenylacetylene trifluoroborate salts. Excellent functional group tolerance is observed with this protocol including, halogen, nitrile, nitro, acid and carbonyl functionalities.


title: The effects of motor task complexity on sensorimotor integration: implications for healthy and subclinical populations

subject:
Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs)
Cerebellum
Sensorimotor integration (SMI)
Low grade neck pain (LGNP)
Motor training

abstract:
The central nervous system’s (CNS) plastic ability allows for adaptation to the various physiological changes and experiences we encounter. This occurs through dynamic shifts within the connections and strengths of neural networks, altering the way in which the CNS integrates sensory information; a process termed sensorimotor integration (SMI). Plasticity is the mechanism for development and learning. However, it can also be a mechanism for maladaptive changes such as the organizational changes seen in people with overuse injuries and chronic pain. These maladaptive changes are associated with debilitating symptoms which include the deterioration of learning and retention of skills. The prevalence of repetitive strain and overuse injuries is steadily increasing given the rise of repetitive movement occupations and sedentary lifestyles. Typically, the neuroplastic changes associated with these disorders are identified with the use of neuroimaging techniques. While such techniques provide accurate imaging of the organizational changes that occur, they are expensive to provide, have long wait times and are generally only performed once symptoms have become debilitating. The investigation of repetitive movement and its effects on SMI can be combined with electrophysiological techniques such as somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) which directly measure the electrical activity of neural areas involved in learning. Understanding the processes of repetitive activity and the neuromodulatory changes which occur is fundamental in order to understand conditions which may lead to maladaptive changes that may initiate chronic pain and overuse disorders.
The studies in this thesis aimed to first investigate the changes which occur following a motor learning task in neural networks of a healthy population, with attention to the cortico-subcortical and cortico-cerebellar projections which play crucial roles in motor learning and SMI. This information was then applied to a low grade neck pain population, providing insight into the early maladaptive changes which occur before the condition becomes severely chronic. The studies indicated that following a complex motor training task, significant changes in activity occurred within those cortico-subortical and cortico-cerebellar projections, known to be critical for effective learning and reiterating the importance of these areas in learning and SMI. When applied and compared to participants with current and/or recurrent neck pain, marked differences in neural areas associated with learning and SMI were seen, which was corroborated by inferior performance on the motor task. This study provides evidence that SEPs can be used as a screening tool and potential marker of the early stages of maladaptivity and the need for preventative measures.


title: Development and comparison of augmented and virtual reality interactions for direct ophthalmoscopy

contributor:
Uribe-Quevedo, Alvaro
Kapralos, Bill

subject:
Augmented reality
Eye examination
Hand tracking
Virtual reality
Usability

abstract:
Direct ophthalmoscopy is a medical procedure whereby a health professional examines the back of the eye, searching for life-threatening risks. The direct ophthalmoscope is used for examining the patient and it requires extensive practice for visualising the anatomical landmarks without causing discomfort to the patient. However, direct ophthalmoscopy skills are declining due to the use of diagnostic equipment available during instruction leading to insufficient practices with the direct ophthalmoscope. Maintaining such skills is important as the ophthalmoscope can be the only available device in healthcare facilities.
The use of cost-effective approaches to address this problem has led to the development of a number of systems employing Styrofoam heads, plastic canisters, and digital technologies including mobile applications and virtual reality to explore accessible complementary solutions. Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality are becoming technologies with the potential to deliver engaging and immersive experiences. While the availability of off-the-shelf immersive technologies is rising due to its recent affordability, there are several challenges associate with developing suitable interactions, particularly in the medical field.
This Master’s thesis focuses on the development of a virtual reality direct fundoscopy examination tool employing consumer-level technologies, and examines its face validity in comparison to the traditional photograph method and similar immersive tools by performing a Quality Function Deployment analysis. Furthermore, usability and cognitive workload perceptions are gathered to understand the feasibility of employing virtual reality controllers or hand gestures as digital replacements for the ophthalmoscope.


title: Developing 1-D heat transfer correlations for supercritical water and carbon dioxide in vertical tubes

subject:
Supercritical heat transfer
Generation IV
Heat transfer correlations
Supercritical water
Supercritical carbon dioxide

abstract:
Taking into account the expected increase in global energy demands and increasing climate change issues, there is a pressing need to develop new environmentally sustainable energy systems. Nuclear energy will play a major role in being part of the energy mix since it offers a relatively clean, safe and reliable source of electrical energy. However, opportunities for building new generation nuclear systems will depend on their economic and safety attractiveness as well as their flexibility in design to adapt in different countries and situations. Keeping these objectives in mind, a framework for international cooperation was set forth in a charter of Generation IV International Forum (GIF) (GIF Charter, 2002) and six design concepts were selected for further development.
To achieve high thermal efficiencies of up to 45 – 50%, the use of SuperCritical Fluids (SCFs) as working fluids in heat transfer cycles is proposed Generation IV designs. An important aspect towards development of SCF applications in novel Gen IV Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) designs is to understand the thermodynamic behavior and prediction of Heat Transfer Coefficients (HTCs) at supercritical (SC) conditions. In addition to the nuclear power industry applications; SCFs are also expected to play a vital role in a number of other important technologies such as refrigeration systems, and geothermal systems, to name a few.
Given the potential for vast number of applications of SCFs in industry, the objective of this work was to gain an understanding on the behavior of SCFs and to develop a fundamental knowledge of the heat-transfer processes and correlations for SC Water and SC CO2 flowing in bare circular tubes.
Experimental datasets for SC Water and SC CO2 were compiled and used to obtain a basic 1-D empirical correlation that can predict HTC in bare circular tubes during the transient phases. The accuracy of these correlations was also analyzed using statistical techniques. Limitations and applications for 1-D correlations are discussed as well. The new correlations showed promising results for HTC and Tw calculations for the reference dataset with uncertainty of about ±25% for HTC values and about ±10-15% for the calculated wall temperature.


title: Thermal sustainability of low-temperature geothermal energy systems: System interactions and environmental impacts.

subject:
Ground heat exchanger
Heat pump
Thermal interaction
Numerical analysis

abstract:
In storing heat during summer for use in winter, the ground provides a better source/sink
of heat than the outside air in regards to heat pump efficiency, being cooler than the outside air in the summer and warmer in the winter. Due to their good efficiency, the use of geothermal energy is often encouraged; however, two issues arise in the long-term use of ground for thermal purposes: the sustainability and impact of these systems on the
environment. Studies show the potential of the geothermal heat exchangers for environmental impacts such as undesirable temperature rises from these systems in
temperature-sensitive regions. Furthermore, interference between adjoining installations
is being reported, raising issues of sustainability in terms of performance and equitable
sharing of natural resources.
The temperature of the soil surrounding the ground heat exchangers (GHEs) and the heat
flows in this region are the key factors in determining environmental impacts and their
potential thermal interaction. In this study, analytical and numerical models of vertical
heat exchangers are presented. First, the effect of system parameters such as borehole
spacing on the transient response of two GHEs is described. Second, a numerical finite
volume method in a two-dimensional meshed domain is used to evaluate the temperature
rise and the heat flows in the soil surrounding borehole systems over the long term.
Finally, to examine the effect of temperature rise in the soil surrounding a vertical GHE
on the performance of an associated ground heat pump, a reversible heat pump model is
coupled to the heat exchanger analytical model via the heat exchanger running fluid
temperature. The heat exchanger running fluid temperature, wall temperature and its heat
load profile are the main coupling parameters between the three models. The results of
the analytical model are compared with ones of a finite volume numerical model.

Below a certain depth, the temperature of the ground remains almost unchanged
throughout the year. This phenomenon can be exploited by placing a heat exchanger in
the ground and coupling it to a heat pump to store heat in the ground during summer for
use in winter. The ground provides a better source/sink of heat than the outside air in
regards to heat pump efficiency, being cooler than the outside air in the summer and
warmer in the winter. Due to their good efficiency, the use of geothermal energy is often
encouraged; however, two issues arise in the long-term use of ground for thermal
purposes: the sustainability and impact of these systems on the environment. Studies
show the potential of the geothermal heat exchangers for environmental impacts such as
migration of thermal plumes away from these systems which may cause undesirable
temperature rises in temperature-sensitive regions. Furthermore, interference between
adjoining installations is being reported, raising issues of sustainability in terms of
performance and equitable sharing of natural resources. With increasing interest in
installing such systems in the ground and their potential dense population in coming
years, regulations need to be implemented to prevent their thermal interaction and their
possible negative effects on the design and performance of nearby systems.
The temperature of the soil surrounding the ground heat exchangers (GHEs) and the heat
flows in this region are the key factors in determining environmental impacts and their
potential thermal interaction. Modeling such systems is important for understanding,
designing and optimizing their performances and characteristics. In this study, a number
of analytical and numerical models of vertical heat exchangers are presented. Through
these models, the temperature of the soil surrounding the GHEs and the heat flows in this
region can be determined. Thus, the effect of possible thermal interaction between these
systems on their coupling heat pump as well as their environmental impacts can be
studied.

First, the two-dimensional transient conduction of heat in the soil around single and
multiple GHEs is discussed via numerical and analytical methods. The effect of system
parameters such as borehole spacing as well as heat store capacity on the transient
response of two GHEs is described. The results of the temperature response of the soil
around a borehole, calculated with an analytical line source theory, are compared with the
soil temperature rise calculated numerically. In addition, a three-dimensional numerical
study is performed to examine the axial heat transfer effects in heat conduction in the soil
surrounding a borehole and especially near its top and bottom.
Second, the long-term performance of multiple vertical GHEs is investigated in order to
examine their interaction as well as migration of thermal plumes away from these systems
which may cause undesirable temperature rises in temperature-sensitive regions. A
numerical finite volume method in a two-dimensional meshed domain is used to evaluate
the temperature rise in the soil surrounding multiple borehole systems over the long term,
for a period of 5 years. A heat flux from the borehole wall is assumed, reflecting the
annual variation of heat storage/removal in the ground. By choosing a heat boundary at
the borehole wall, it is assumed that the inlet temperature of the circulating fluid running
in the U-tube inside the borehole will be adjusted according to the flow rate. The selection
of the sinusoidal function is based on the heat pump power consumption and building
heating and cooling needs gained via the bin method for a typical building in Belleville,
IL.
Next, to account the variation in heating strength along the borehole length due to the
temperature variation of the fluid flowing in the U-tube, the finite line source model and
the numerical model in a three dimensional domain are both coupled to the model inside
the borehole and the results are compared in terms of the soil temperature rise and the
borehole wall heat flux. Thus, critical depths at which the maximum heat flow rate
occurs, resulting in thermal interaction, can be determined.
Finally, with some improvements to the coupling procedure, the coupled model is used to
investigate interacting borehole systems with a periodic heat flow rate in the long term
system operation (30 years). To examine the effect of temperature rise in the soil
surrounding a vertical GHE on the performance of an associated ground heat pump, a
reversible heat pump model is coupled to the model inside the borehole via the running
fluid temperature in the U-tube inside the borehole. The running fluid temperature, the
borehole wall temperature and the heat load profile are the main coupling parameters
between the three models. The results of the analytical model are compared with ones of a
finite volume numerical model.


title: The effect of neck muscle fatigue on shoulder humeral rotation proprioception

contributor:
La Delfa, Nicholas
Murphy, Bernadette

subject:
Proprioception
Shoulder Joint Position Sense (JPS)
Cervical Extensor Muscles (CEM)
Upper Limb Degrees of Freedom (DOF)
Humeral rotation

abstract: Fatigue of the cervical extensor muscles (CEM) is thought to disrupt afferent feedback from postural mechanoreceptors as it has been observed to cause decrements in upper limb proprioceptive accuracy. There has been limited research to quantify this interaction at the shoulder; thus further investigation into the effect of neck fatigue on shoulder joint position sense (JPS) accuracy is necessary. In this thesis, study one determined that high variability in upper limb DOFs led to no effect of neck fatigue on humeral rotation proprioception. Study two identified wrist deviation as a significant contributor to end effector variability when performing unconstrained humeral rotation. Wrist deviation will require a sufficient method of constraint in order to make significant observations of end effector position during humeral rotation possible.


title: Biased policing, martyrdom, white gratitude & brown pain: media narratives surrounding the Bruce McArthur case

subject:
LGBTQ2SIA+
Bruce McArthur
Media framing
Homicide narratives
Critical discourse analysis

abstract: Between 2010 - 2017, eight men from Toronto’s Gay Village went missing and later discovered murdered by Bruce McArthur, a 67-year-old gay, white man from Toronto. Upon McArthur’s 2018 arrest, allegations of racial bias and homophobia against Toronto Police resurfaced, questioning the safety and protection of Toronto’s LGBTQ2SIA+ community. Existing research on news media framing of crime victims lacks to understand how the news media frames queer victims of crime. This research sought to explore the emergent media narratives framing the McArthur case through a critical discourse analysis of 212 news items from the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, and Xtra. Findings suggest that local media coverage of the McArthur case centered around three major narratives: (i) biased policing by Toronto Police, (ii) different portrayals of white victims and families versus brown victims and families, and (iii) the complexity of intersecting victim characteristics. The implications of these narratives are discussed.


title: An evaluation of an online mental health awareness resource: perspectives of Mindsight certificate holders

subject:
Mental illness
Web-based
Cultural representation

abstract:
Rationale: Mental illness is a growing concern with stigma acting as a barrier for help-seeking and accessing appropriate avenues of care. This study aimed to determine the perceptions of the web-based resource Mindsight, which promotes mental health/illness awareness.
Methods: A mixed methods research design was used to explore the perceptions of Mindsight certificate holders. In Phase One, an Evaluation of Mindsight survey (n=90) and the Attitudes to Mental Illness questionnaire (n=40) collected participant perceptions of the Mindsight web resource and attitudes towards mental illness. In Phase Two, participants (n=9) provided feedback on the Mindsight web resource during focus group sessions.
Results: In Phase One, most participants considered the Mindsight web-based resource to be applicable in their daily lives and indicated they had a greater understanding of mental illness after completion of the resource. In Phase Two, all participants revealed that Mindsight was easy to navigate; however, many thought the resource needed improvements with respect to its cultural representation.
Conclusion: Mindsight was found to be useful by Mindsight certificate holders; however, cultural representation needs to be improved.


title: Experimental modelling of surface roughness and dynamic friction coefficient of diamond like carbon coated shafts

subject:
Diamond like carbon coating
Surface roughness
Friction coefficient

abstract:
Companies that coat their products with DLC often have strict surface roughness and friction coefficient goals. This research investigates the surface roughness and friction coefficient properties of uncoated and DLC coated specimens in an effort to satisfy two particular requirements of the industry.
The first requirement is to know what uncoated surface roughness is needed to obtain a certain DLC coated surface roughness. Therefore, a model describing the relationship between uncoated and DLC coated surface roughness is needed. If this relationship can be estimated, the cost of surface finishing can be minimized by avoiding any unnecessary processes.
The second requirement is to know what uncoated surface roughness is needed to reach a specific friction coefficient after the DLC coating process. Therefore, a model describing the relationship between uncoated surface roughness and DLC coated friction coefficient is needed. This will also help minimize surface finishing costs.
This research focuses on DLC coating of steel. A total of 7, 1045 steel specimens were tested before and after coating process with a non-contact surface roughness measurement microscope and a specifically designed and built friction measurement machine.
An experimental methodology was described for applying the findings to other coating methods and materials as the mathematical relationships found in this study are specific to the coating process and materials used.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: A whole new world: the experiences of adolescents with beta-thalassemia major as they transition to adult care

contributor:
Barakat, Caroline
Weaver, Robert

subject:
Adolescent
Chronic illness
Beta-thalassemia major
Transition
Autonomy

abstract: Beta-thalassemia Major (b-TM) is a chronic medical condition. Effective illness management requires adherence to arduous medical treatment to ensure a life free of life-threatening complications. This qualitative study characterizes the experiences of adolescents living with, and managing b-TM on the cusp of transitioning from pediatric to adult orientated institutions of care. Using the methodological approach of interpretive phenomenology and conducting semi-structured interviews with five participants, five themes were identified. These include: knowledge and understanding of b-TM; role of familial support; self-reflection and disclosure; comradery; and readiness to transition, including the impact of incorporating a Health Transition Specialist as a member of a comprehensive health care team. The findings identify key factors that impact the daily lives of adolescents with b-TM, as they adapt to required self-management practices, navigate the health care system, and transition to adult care.


title: Data curation with ontology functional dependences

subject: Constraints Data Quality Cleaning Discovery

abstract:
Poor data quality has become a pervasive issue due to the increasing complexity and size of modern datasets. Functional
dependencies have been used in existing cleaning solutions to model syntactic equivalence. They are not able to model
semantic equivelence, however. We advance the state of data quality constraints by defining, discovering, and cleaning
Ontology Functional Dependencies. We define their theoretical foundations, including sound and complete axioms, and
linear inference procedure. We develop algorithms for data verification, constraint discovery, data cleaning, ontology
versus data inconsistency identification, and optimizations to each. Our experimental evaluation shows the scalability and
accuracy of our algorithms. We show that ontology FDs are useful to capture domain attribute relationships, and can
significantly reduce the number of false positive errors in data cleaning techniques that rely on traditional FDs.


title: Discrete optimization of upgrade scheduling

contributor:
van Veen, Lennaert
Hoornweg, Daniel

subject:
Climate action
Green transition
Electrification
Optimization
Operational research

abstract: A primary objective of the mission to meet climate change goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is to transition from fossil fuels to zero-emission energy. Fossil fuel production and transportation account for approximately half of the GHG emissions in Canada, making transitioning to zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) a climate action cornerstone. However, a 100% ZEV transportation system is beyond the capacity of Canadian electrical infrastructure in some areas, and the cost to upgrade these systems will be significant. The null hypothesis of this study is that there does not exist an approach to upgrades that optimally reduces the financial burden; conversely, the alternative hypothesis is that such an approach does exist. Mathematical rigour confirms the alternative hypothesis (with assumptions). Computational simulations reject the null hypothesis. The overall average of cost savings within satiable constraints (a subset of generated constraints in proportion to upgrade costs) is 34.5% (m) ± 18.0% (sv).


title: Before and during COVID-19: parent experiences, perceptions, and preferences regarding community-based physical activity

subject:
Intellectual disability
Developmental disability
Community-based recreation
Physical activity
COVID-19

abstract: Participation in community-based recreational physical activity can provide health benefits for children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). This descriptive thematic study aimed to explore and describe the experiences of parents (N=6) of 11 children with IDD (age 4-11) with community-based recreational physical activity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic through online semi-structured interviews. Four main themes emerged from the parent’s descriptions of community-based physical activity participation before the pandemic: Personal experiences in recreation, barriers to community-based recreational physical activity participation, facilitators to community-based recreational physical activity participation, and intrinsic value. Parents’ descriptions of physical activity participation during the pandemic resulted in three main themes: COVID-19 and IDD, impact on recreational physical activity, and insights from COVID-19. The results from this study suggest that community-based recreational physical activity is highly valued by parents of children with IDD and that it belongs on the continuum of intervention services that family’s access.


title: Managing developer interruption

contributor:
Collins, Christopher
Bradbury, Jeremy

subject:
Interruption recovery
Recovery tool
Interruption

abstract: The high frequency of interruptions during cognitively-intense activities can be annoying and detrimental to deadline-driven work, such as software development. When developers are interrupted they not only lose productivity from the time spent attending to the interruption but also from the time required to recover from it when they resume working. This thesis provides a solution that addresses the recovery process challenges. It focuses on the recovery of momentum based on the understanding that interruption recovery involves knowledge about the interrupted activity, the developer, as well as the context of the work. We designed FastRecovery, a tool in which data is collected while the developer is working normally. Once an interruption is detected, our tool processes the data assigning scores to each task in order to discover important moments. We propose a set of rules to include the most different types of tasks that a developer can perform. Thereafter, a curated video review is created to mitigate the effects of developer interruptions. A user study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of our solution. Six participants used the tool for two periods of three days while we collected usage feedback along with self-reported impressions about the tool. The study results were positive and indicate that FastRecovery is beneficial with recovery from unexpected interruptions. Due to the small scale of the study these results are best characterized as an initial indication that our approach is promising with respect to interruption recovery.


title: Piezoelectric flexing and output voltage of a microchannel heat engine

subject: Piezoelectricity Microchannel MEMS Thermocapillary Membrane

abstract:
In this thesis, a new model is formulated for a piezoelectric membrane and fluid motion in a microchannel heat engine. A new slug flow model is developed for droplet motion in a circular cross-section channel. The model includes friction, pressure, viscous and thermocapillary forces on the droplet. This thesis examines the concept of a piezoelectric device at one end of the channel to generate electricity from thermocapillary pumping of the droplet within the microchannel. The slug flow model is used to predict the flow energy needed to convert the thermocapillary pumping into electrical energy. A thin membrane design of a piezoelectric device is developed and modelled with the slug flow approximation. The deformation of the piezoelectric membrane is analyzed. The deformation is found to be a function of the air pressure in the closed microchannel and the displacement of the droplet along the microchannel. This was formulated based on the bending of a thin plate (representing the membrane). The displacement relates to the final output voltage of the design. The direct piezoelectric effect was also examined to determine a relationship between the output voltage and induced stress on the membrane by the force of air. Results are presented for a micro heat engine configuration containing a single membrane on one side of the droplet. It was found that the deformation of the membrane and the output voltage were directly proportional to the displacement of the droplet. A relatively small output voltage was gained from a complete cycle of
the droplet. A sensitivity study was performed by varying the channel dimensions along with the dimensions of the piezoelectric membrane. The coupling factor of the piezoelectric membrane was varied to examine its effect on the output voltage. It was found that a larger channel and thinner membrane resulted in a larger output voltage. Materials with a large piezoelectric constant were found to have the largest output voltage, as opposed to those with a lower dielectric constant.


title: Investigation of the bubble detector response to high LET space radiation

subject:
Space bubble detectors
Space radiation
High LET radiation
International Space Station

abstract: The radiation environment aboard spacecraft is a complex mixture of neutrons, photons, protons, heavy ions and other particles. A special type of superheated droplet detectors referred to as space bubble detectors (SBD) have been used to evaluate the equivalent dose due to neutrons in various space missions aboard the International Space Station. Protons and other heavy charged particles are a significant component of the high LET radiation field and also contribute to the SBD measurements. The calibration of the bubble detectors is established using a known Americium Beryllium(AmBe) neutron field. However, the space neutron field is considerably different from the AmBe field. Current models assume that bubbles are formed as a result of radiation interactions above a certain minimum LET threshold and experiments have shown that the LET threshold may be different for different ions.In order to interpret the bubble detector measurements in space radiation fields, a systematic investigation of the response of bubble detectors to high LET radiation encountered inspace has been performed. A series of experiments have been conducted with different high LET radiation including protons and energetic heavy ions using different facilities at the National Institute of Radiological Science in Chiba, Japan, and the ProCure Proton Therapy Center in Oklahoma, USA. High energy neutron experiments were conducted at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. A correction factor of 1.8 ± 0.2 has been determined to correlate the AmBe calibrated sensitivity to neutron equivalent dose measurements aboard the ISS. The LET threshold required to form a bubble in SBD was found to depend on the charge Z of the ion. An analytical model to evaluate the SBD response to high LET radiation aboard the ISS has been developed and compared to measurements.


title: Parents’ perceptions of their children’s lie telling in the context of sibling relationships

subject:
Lie telling
Siblings
Sibling lie telling
Developmental psychology
Social development

abstract: Familial influences on children’s deception are understudied. This thesis examined children’s lie telling in the context of sibling relationships by surveying parents on the types of lies told by children in the sibling context (e.g., pro- and antisocial), the quality of the sibling relationship, and parent socialization (e.g., encouragement and punishment) of lie telling. Children’s lies were “rare” in the sibling context, and antisocial lies were more frequent than prosocial lies. Sibling Conflict was positively and significantly predictive of pro- and antisocial lies in the sibling context; Sibling Warmth was not a significant predictor of either lie type. Parent encouragement was “very rare”, and punishment was “occasional.” Parent encouragement and punishment were significant, positive predictors of pro- and antisocial lies in the sibling context. These findings highlight how siblings and parents can potentially influence children’s lie telling.


title: Yield estimation and smart harvesting for precision agriculture using deep learning

subject:
Precision agriculture
Deep learning
Computer vision
Geospatial data
Agriculture decision support

abstract: Precision agriculture is one of the fastest growing fields in recent years. In this thesis, we introduce a framework that provides farmers with a yield estimation from videos of crops and provides guided assistance for harvesting across the farm by utilizing geospatial information that is collected during the recording of the crops. We perform yield estimation by using a tracking model, DeepSORT, that can keep track of detected fruits for accurate counting. We modified the original DeepSORT algorithm to work efficiently on different fruits without the need for retraining. The proposed framework also provides assistance for smart harvesting through an optimized approach for container placement across the field. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed method achieves more than 90% accuracy on a real video footage of apple trees collected by a drone from an apple orchard and approximately 94% accuracy for pumpkin counting from an aerial drone footage.


title: On the potential of intent-based access control (IBAC) in preventing insider threats

subject:
Access control
Insider threats
Intent detection
Motivation detection
IBAC

abstract:
Existing access control mechanisms are based on the concepts of identity enrollment and recognition, and assume that recognized identity is synonymous with ethical actions. However, statistics over the years show that the most severe security breaches have been the results of trusted, authorized, and identified users who turned into malicious insiders. Therefore, demand exists for designing prevention mechanisms. A non-identity-based authentication measure that is based on the intent of the access request might serve that demand.
In this thesis, we test the possibility of detecting intention of access using involuntary electroencephalogram (EEG) reactions to visual stimuli. This method takes advantage of the robustness of the Concealed Information Test to detect intentions. Next, we test the possibility of detecting motivation of access, as motivation level corresponds directly to the likelihood of intent execution level. Subsequently, we propose and design Intent-based Access Control (IBAC), a non-identity-based access control system that assesses the risk associated with the detected intentions and motivation levels. We then study the potential of IBAC in denying access to authorized individuals who have malicious plans to commit maleficent acts. Based on the access risk and the accepted threshold established by the asset owners, the system decides whether to grant or deny access requests.
We assessed the intent detection component of the IBAC system using experiments on 30 participants and achieved accuracy of 100% using Nearest Neighbor and SVM classifiers. Further, we assessed the motivation detection component of the IBAC system. Results show different levels of motivation between hesitation-based vs. motivation-based intentions. Finally, the potential of IBAC in preventing insider threats by calculating the risk of access using intentions and motivation levels as per the experiments shows access risk that is different between unmotivated and motivated groups. These results demonstrate the potential of IBAC in detecting and preventing malicious insiders.


title: Neutron production in a spherical phantom aboard the international space station

subject:
Space radiation
Dosimetry
Phantom
Neutron
Proton

abstract:
Since the beginning of space exploration in last century, several kinds of devices from passive and active dosimeters to radiation environment monitors have been used to measure radiation levels onboard different space crafts and shuttles allowing the space community to identify and quantify space radiation. The recent construction of several laboratories on the International Space Station (ISS) has confirmed that prolonged duration space missions are now becoming standard practice and as such, the need to better understand the potential risk of space radiation to Astronaut’s health, has become a priority for long mission planner.
The complex internal radiation environment created within the ISS is due to high-energy particle interactions within the ISS shielded environment. As a result, a large number of secondary particles, that pose specific health risks, are created. Neutrons are one important component of this mixed radiation field due to their high LET. Therefore, the assessment of the neutron dose contribution has become an important part of the safety and monitoring program onboard the ISS. The need to determine whether neutron dose measured externally to the human body give an accurate and conservative estimate of the dose received internally is of paramount importance for long term manned space missions.
This thesis presents a part of an ongoing large research program on radiation monitoring on ISS called Matroshka-R Project that was established to analyze the radiation exposure levels onboard the ISS using different radiation instruments and a spherical phantom to simulate human body. Monte Carlo transport code was used to simulate the interaction of high energy protons and neutrons with the spherical phantom currently onboard ISS. A Monte Carlo model of the phantom has been built, and it consists of seven spherical layers presenting different depths of the simulated tissue. The phantom has been exposed to individual proton energies and to a spectrum of neutrons. The flux of the created neutrons inside the phantom has been calculated. The internal to external neutron flux ratio was calculated and compared to the experimental data, recently, measured on three separate expeditions of the ISS. The results from the calculations showed that the value of the neutron fluxes inside and outside the phantom is different from the data recently measured with bubble detectors.


title: Tissue segmentation using medical image processing chain optimization

subject:
Segmentation
Image processing chain
Differential evolution

abstract:
Surveyed literature shows many segmentation algorithms using different types of optimization methods. These methods were used to minimize or maximize objective functions of entropy, similarity, clustering, contour, or thresholding. These specially developed functions target specific feature or step in the presented segmentation algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, this thesis is the first research work that uses an optimizer to build and optimize parameters of a full sequence of image processing chain.
This thesis presents a universal algorithm that uses three images and their corresponding gold images to train the framework. The optimization algorithm explores the search space for the best sequence of the image processing chain to segment the targeted feature. Experiments indicate that using differential evolution to build Image processing chain (IPC) out of forty-five algorithms increases the segmentation performance of basic thresholding algorithms ranging from 2% to 78%.


title: Evaporative drying of cupric-chloride droplets in a thermo-chemical cycle of hydrogen production

contributor:
Gabriel, Kamiel
Naterer, Greg

subject:
Hydrogen
Copper Chloride
Drying
Spraying
Evaporative
Slurry
Nuclear
Heat
Droplets
Cupric-Chloride
Thermochemical

abstract: This thesis develops analytical and numerical solutions that predict behavior of Cupric-Chloride droplets undergoing spraying and drying processes. Cupric-Chloride (CuCl2) is present as molten salt and slurry within the Copper-Chlorine thermo-chemical cycle for generation of hydrogen. Utilizing low-grade heat from nuclear or industrial sources to assist drying of Cupric-Chloride can increase efficiency of the overall process. Analytical correlations for heat and mass transfer are developed and applied to the analysis of a solution of Cupric-Chloride, subject to various drying conditions. The study provides new information on effects of different concentrations of water in CuCl2 slurry drying at low air temperatures.


title: Brønsted acid-catalyzed stereoselective allylation of exo-glycals with allyltrimethylsilane

subject:
exo-Glycals
C,C-glycosides
Allylation
Brønsted acid
Catalysis

abstract: Quaternary stereocenter on carbohydrate scaffolds is an important motif due to its presence in natural products and biologically active compounds. However, the preparation of C,C-glycosides is a challenge, and to date, many studies have failed to exploit exo-glycals as starting materials. The allylation methodologies of sugar lactol and sugar lactone starting materials suffer from poor regio- and stereoselectivity. Recently, we have developed a synthetic method for the allylation of exo-glycals using allyltrimethylsilane. This Brønsted acid-catalyzed transformation for the preparation of C,C-glycosides occurs readily in the presence of a tetrafluoroboric acid diethyl ether complex. In contrast to previously reported procedures, this reaction proceeds in a diastereoselective manner to afford α-allyl substituted pyranose.


title: Specifics of forced-convection heat transfer to supercritical water flowing upward in annular and bundle flow geometries

subject:
Supercritical water
Heat transfer
HTC correlations
Forced-convection

abstract:
Since annulus- and bundle-flow geometries impede coolant flow, heat transfer to the coolant would occur differently than in bare tubes. The main objective of this work is to propose and verity a universal method to accurately predict Heat Transfer Coefficients (HTCs) and wall temperatures using HTC correlation(s) for various annular- and bundle-flow geometries cooled with upward flow of SCW.
The bare tube correlation proposed by Jackson (2002) [3] predicted heat transfer within experimental uncertainties for most trials and, to some extent, followed wall temperature trends in regions of Deteriorated Heat Transfer (DHT).  However, it was found that, in general, most bare tube HTC correlations could not be used beyond onset of DHT in bare tubes.  Furthermore, analysis of the experimental data showed that the heat flux at which DHT appears in bare tubes is significantly lower (up to three times) than in single-rod and 3-rd bundle channels.


title: Intentionality in task design research: examining the design process of an online learning tool about mathematics in society

contributor:
Mamolo, Ami
Ruttenberg-Rozen, Robyn

subject:
Task design research
Design as intention
Numeracy in societal issues
Visualisation
Curiosity

abstract: This thesis explores the design intentions and considerations made in the creation of an online learning tool for adults. Research in task design includes two components: design as intention and design as implementation. My research contributes to conversations about design as intention by analyzing my mathematical intentions and how they were, or were not, realized in the development of an online task about genetically modified organisms (GMOs). I draw on three theoretical frames to inform my analyses. Frame 1 – Mathematics in societal issues, situated in research highlighting the impact of innumeracy and how numbers may misinform society. Frame 2 – Mathematical representations, situated in research that highlights the importance of curiosity and visualization for addressing societal issues. Frame 3 – Adult learning, situated in research about fostering mathematical understanding and pedagogy for adults in online learning environments. My research contributes new knowledge regarding the complexities of task design as intention and introduces a new model, Model for Framing and Analyzing Intentionality in Task Design (MFAI).


title: Retail electric provider selection for prosumers with local distributed energy resources and plug-in electric vehicles using data mining techniques

subject:
Retail electric providers
Distributed energy resources
Electric vehicles
Energy bill savings
Net metering

abstract: In a deregulated retail electricity market, the residential customers typically have the liberty to choose an electricity service plan from a list of retail electric providers (REPs) that best matches their monthly energy consumption. This process is called “retail choice”. The selection of a suitable REP plan creates uncertainty for the residential customer, especially when numerous plans with various rate structures exist. The customers who intend to become prosumer (producers and consumers of electric power) face an expected change in their monthly energy consumption. This builds on the uncertainty of purchasing local distributed energy resources (L-DERs) and/or plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) that are feasible for their REP plan and may result in savings on their energy bills. Therefore, this thesis designs and implements a personalized tool to guide residential customers and those who intend to become prosumers in selecting a suitable REP plan that maximizes their energy bill savings. In this study, 48 annual home profiles from the Pecan Street dataset and 24 REP plans with both time-invariant and time-variant plans, from the state of Texas, were evaluated. A feature-based approach was used to create the monthly energy bills from which a suitable REP plan could be selected for a customer. Additionally, the residential customers who intend to become prosumers are considered through clustering the profiles of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV), home battery energy storage system (HBESS) and/or PEV and finding the representative profiles, which are then used to identify the most feasible combination of resources and plan to maximize their energy bill savings. The results revealed that the presence of PV is essential in achieving significant savings on the energy bills. Furthermore, if the customer plans on adding a HBESS and/or PEV, the solar PV capacity installed should be at a high capacity so to achieve savings on the energy bill. The results have also revealed that time-invariant plans are more suitable for customers with high energy usage that exceeds 1,000 kWh/month while time-variant and time-invariant plans may be suitable for customers with energy usage that is under 1,000 kWh/month to help them achieving significant savings on their energy bills.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology


title: Design and verification of situation-aware real-time systems

subject:
Real-time system
Safety
Performance
Real-time traffic monitoring system
Unmanned aerial vehicle

abstract:
A real-time system (RTS) is usually well-defined and operates based on a specific model defined during system design. However, the RTS can interact with different objects from its environment and needs to satisfy a number of user-defined constraints such as safety (defined using the probability of failure) and performance (defined using the percentage of usage). Such requirements create the necessity for the RTS to be aware of its design and execute a set of additional tasks (apart from the tasks whose order is defined by a particular scheduler during system design) in response to the events which take place in the environment.
This thesis presents the design of a situation-aware RTS which can characterize the environmental situations through monitoring the system environment, analyzing the input obtained from the environment and identifying real-world occurrences as events.
Additionally, we determine the real-time and non real-time properties associated with the events, identify the relationships involved among the events and create a knowledgebase offline which facilitates a reduced size of data for storage and processing.
We present a situation-aware task model (SATM) which efficiently maps the identified environmental events to a set of (predefined) adaptive tasks offline. This thesis also presents a validation framework which determines the user-defined safety, and performance constraints. We consider that the situation-aware RTS has two modes of operation: safety, and performance. The validation framework performs an online identification of the expected mode based on the user-defined constraints, checks whether the
RTS is operating in the correct mode or not and allows the RTS to change its operating mode (if necessary).
To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed situation-aware RTS and usability of the SATM, the experimental analysis of the thesis is performed using three case studies: an automotive system, a real-time traffic monitoring system and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system which include RTS that are in motion and static. For the automotive system case-study, the experimental results of this thesis show that we identify 17234 events in 3241 environmental situations. The system operates in performance mode in 3295 situations and in safety mode in 126 situations when the probability of failure is high. The system consists of five tasks in the performance mode and three tasks in the safety mode and the corresponding constructed SATM contains nine vertices (adaptive tasks) and 68 edges. For each case-study, the constructed SATM provides an improvement in terms of scheduling overhead (up to 21%) and adaptation time (up to 49%) with respect to existing task models task models such as generalized multiframe model (GMF), non-cyclic generalized multiframe model (NC-GMF), recurring branching (RB), recurring real-time task (RRT), and non-cyclic recurring real-time task model (NC-RRT).


title: Public opinion on cyber-bullying laws in Canada

subject:
Cyber-bullying
Internet
Laws
Youth
Fear of technology

abstract: The proliferation of the Internet raises concern over the misuse and abuse of information and communication technology. A downside to the rapid adoption of hyper-connectivity is the potential danger resulting from the use of technology and the internet. The bulk of cyberbullying literature often overlooks how relationships are constructed, maintained, and policed over new technological platforms. This study attempts to understand whether the public perceives cyber-bullying as a problem, whether they feel stakeholders are taking sufficient action against cyber-bullying; and, finally whether they feel special laws should be introduced to deal specifically with cyber-bullying. Through a random digit survey, data was collected from twenty participants residing in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The results of this study reveal that the participants trust certain stakeholders to take cyber-bullying seriously (e.g. mental health professionals), but remain unconvinced regarding the seriousness of politicians. The study suggests that a lack of clarity in definition, prevalence, and legislation has the potential to hamper and/or confuse the public’s understanding of what constitutes cyber-bullying.


title: A novel method of generating Dendritic cells in vitro using the KG-1 cell line and its use as a model for testing effects of lactic acid bacteria

subject:
Dendritic cells
KG-1 cells
Cell surface markers
Flow cytometry
Lactobacilli
Histogram

abstract: Dendritic cells (DCs) are prime mediators of innate and adaptive immunity. In humans the DC population comprise only 0.1% of all leukocytes, making their isolation and ex vivo manipulation difficult. Since study of DC activity in vitro requires large numbers of DCs to be readily available, a cell line model, KG-1, was selected. KG-1 cells are a cytokine-responsive human CD34+ myelomonocytic cell line and can be induced to differentiate to a DC phenotype. A range of differentiation agents and protocols were compared, and differentiation efficiency was determined using both morphological features and cell surface marker expression. Expression of CD83, CD11c, CD123, CD86, HLA-DR and DC-SIGN was assessed by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. KG-1 cells stimulated with 10 ng/ml PMA and 100 ng/ml Ionomycin were found to be the ideal model for obtaining Dendritic Like Cells (DLCs) in vitro. The effect of lactic acid bacteria on KG-1 differentiation was also tested using two immunomodulatory strains, Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011 and Lactobacillus helveticus R0052. After 5 days of incubation with R0011 the KG-1 cells expressed DC-specific surface markers CD83, CD86, CD11c, CD123, DC-SIGN and HLA-DR. Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011 induced a marked rise in CD83 expression with a mean fluorescence intensity of 115.3 after 5 days, suggesting this strain promoted KG-1 differentiation to DLC. Analysis of cytokine by KG-1 DLC indicated that constitutive production of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-12 was minimal. However IL-10 and TGF-β were detected after TLR-agonist stimulation of R0011-differentiated KG-1s. This study aimed to develop and assess the KG-1 cell model for screening effects of mediators and microbes on DC.


title: Deep transfer-learning based lithium-ion battery fault diagnosis

subject:
Lithium-ion batteries
Transfer learning
Convolutional neural networks
Electric vehicles
Battery fault diagnosis

abstract: Fault detection in lithium-ion batteries (LiB) is paramount to ensuring the long life and proper functioning of the batteries. To that end, this thesis proposes a combined fault diagnosis framework that leverages voltage charging curves and voltage charging curve fault residuals to accurately detect multiple faults within a LIB during partial and full charging regimes. This framework removes the need for parameter tuning and is also adaptable to varying battery chemistries and performs well with a small amount of available data. The framework leverages voltage residuals generated via a randomly initialized or pre-trained LSTM (Long Short Term Memory) model. Experimental results show its ability to accurately detect the different types of faults utilizing full voltage charging curve residuals with an accuracy of 95%. The framework can also detect faults utilizing partial voltage charging curve residuals & a pre-trained LSTM model with an accuracy of 94%.


title: Design and evaluation of solar and geothermal energy systems integrated with Cu-Cl cycle

subject:
Solar
Geothermal
Hydrogen
Cu-Cl cycle
Exergy

abstract: This thesis study proposes solar and geothermal based three multigeneration systems. System 1 consists of a bifacial photovoltaic (BiPV) plant, multi-effect distillation (MED) desalination unit and, proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. Systems 2 and 3 additionally consist of the copper chlorine (Cu-Cl) thermochemical hydrogen production cycle integrated with a concentrated solar power (CSP) and supercritical geothermal systems, respectively. Electricity, freshwater, hydrogen, and space heating are produced as useful outputs for the communities in Gokcebayir in Turkey, Geyser in the United States, and Shinozaki in Japan. All of the proposed systems are designed, modeled, and analyzed with hourly sensitive annual simulations. According to the results, the highest overall energy efficiency is calculated for system 2 as 27.4%, and the highest overall exergy efficiency is calculated for system 3 as 18.6%. Integration of the Cu-Cl cycle with solar and geothermal based systems is led to prevent waste production and achieve sustainability goals.


title: The effect of high dose rate on tissue equivalent proportional counter measurements in mixed neutron-gamma fields

subject: Tissue equivalent proportional counter

abstract:
Tissue equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs) are commonly used for radiation monitoring in areas where a mixture of neutron and photon radiations may be present, such as those commonly encountered in nuclear power plants. In such radiation fields, the dose rate of each component can vary drastically from extremely low to very high. Among these possible combinations of radiation fields with very different dose rates, a mixed field of an intense photon and a weak neutron dose component is the more commonly encountered.
This study describes the measurement of lineal energy spectra carried out with a 5.1 cm (2 inch) diameter spherical TEPC simulating a 2 μm diameter tissue site in low energy (33 – 330 keV neutrons) mixed photon-neutron fields with varying dose rates generated by the McMaster University 1.25 MV double stage Tandetron accelerator. The Tandetron accelerator facility was employed to produce neutrons using thick 7Li targets via the 7Li(p, n)7Be reaction. A continuous spectrum of neutrons is generated at any selected proton beam energy which is very narrow at beam energies very close to the threshold of the reaction 1.88 MeV and becomes wider as the proton beam energy moves further away from the threshold energy of the reaction. Dose rates which resulted in dead times as high as 75% for the data acquisition system were employed to study the effect of dose rate on the measured quality factors, microdosimetric averages (y ̅_f and y ̅_D)absorbed dose and dose equivalent. The dose rate at a given beam energy was varied by changing the accelerator beam current. A variety of mixed neutron gamma fields was generated using neutron beams with mean energies extending approximately from 33 keV to 330 keV with the 7Li target using proton beam energies ranging from 1.89 to 2.5 MeV. In direct beams, 478 keV photons which are produced in the 7Li target via inelastic scattering interaction 7Li(p, p'γ)7Li dominate the low LET component of the mixed field of radiation. When a 2 cm thick polyethylene moderator was inserted between the neutron producing target and the counter, the low LET component of the mixed radiation field also contained 2.20 MeV gamma rays originating from 1H(n, γ)2H capture interactions in the moderator.
We have observed that high dose rates due to both photons and neutrons in a mixed field of radiation result in pile up of pulses and distort the lineal energy spectrum measured under these conditions. The pile up effect and hence the distortion in the lineal energy spectrum becomes prominent with dose rates which result in dead times larger than 25% for the high LET radiation component. In intense neutron fields, which may amount to 75% dead time, a 50% or even larger increase in values for the measured microsdosimetric averages and the neutron quality factor was observed. This study demonstrates that moderate dose rates which do not result in dead times of more than 20-25% due to either of the component radiations or due to both components of mixed field radiation generate results which are acceptable for operational health physics mixed neutron-gamma radiation monitoring using tissue equivalent proportional counters.


title: Effects of altered sensory input from the neck on cerebellar function, body schema and sensorimotor integration

subject:
Altered sensory input
Subclinical neck pain (SCNP)
Sensorimotor integration
Cerebellum
Body schema

abstract: Neck muscles have a high density of muscle spindle afferents and their input is critical for formulating the perception of head position relative to the body. Chronic alterations in afferent input from the neck may be studied in individuals with subclinical neck pain (SCNP), defined as non-severe recurrent neck pain lasting at least three months in the past year and testable on pain-free days so as to explore altered-afferent-input effects on cerebellar processing, upper extremity function and spatial awareness in the absence of pain. The first study tested participants with SCNP using transcranial magnetic stimulation to activate the cerebellar-thalamic-cortical circuit and produce cerebellar inhibition (CBI). SCNP participants were randomized to receive cervical manipulation or passive head movement (PHM), following which all participants completed a motor acquisition task. Healthy controls and SCNP participants who received manipulation showed significantly less CBI and improved motor performance whereas the SCNP group who received PHM showed no changes to CBI. The second study tested SCNP participants on upper extremity dart throwing. Three sets of ten darts were thrown at a slow-to-normal speed and three sets of ten darts were thrown at a fast speed. Compared to healthy participants, SCNP participants showed significantly greater elbow and forearm variability in motor selection, greater peak acceleration velocity of shoulder flexion-extension movement, and greater peak deceleration velocity of wrist movement. The third study looked at whether SCNP also impacted spatial awareness beyond an egocentric frame of reference, by measuring the response time to recognize objects which were rotated relative to their usual orientation. The SCNP group showed slower mental rotation at baseline and a smaller improvement when measured after four weeks (8.6%) in comparison to the healthy group (16.1%). These studies provide compelling evidence that chronic alterations in sensory input from the neck influences cerebellar integration leading to changes to upper extremity movement and spatial awareness of object orientation.


title: Design and optimization of a macro-micro manipulator featuring a 3-UPS compliant parallel mechanism

subject:
Macro-micro manipulator
Micromanipulation
Compliant mechanism
Optimization

abstract:
Micromanipulation in microtechnology is highly needed for microfabrication and biomedical applications. Specifically, high manipulation resolution combined with accurate macromotions plays a more crucial role especially in the production of semi-conductors, assembly of integrated circuits as well as the accurate manipulation of cells and chromosomes. As a result, it is desired to design such a manipulator to be capable of achieving macro-micro manipulation with high accuracy and high reliability.
This thesis proposes a novel macro-micro manipulator system composed of two different parallel mechanisms which are responsible for the macro motion and the micro manipulation respectively. The macromanipulator is a 3-RRR planar parallel mechanism which has the mobility of 3 DOFs, namely two translational DOFs along x- and y-axis and one rotational DOF around the z-axis while the micromanipulator is a 3-UPS compliant parallel mechanism with an orthogonal structure of 3 translational DOFs.
The work in the thesis covers structural design of the macro-micro manipulator, kinematic modeling and inverse kinematic analysis, formulation of Jacobian matrix; micromanipulator-focused stiffness evaluation, workspace analysis and structural optimization of stiffness and workspace properties.


title: Simulation and control of a Marnoch heat engine

subject:
Marnoch heat engine
Heat recovery
Hybrid model design

abstract:
The Marnoch heat engine (MHE) is a new type of heat engine currently under development at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. The MHE can use waste or collected heat at temperatures that are currently unusable or not economically viable to use by conventional technologies. The MHE operates by using
a heat source to heat the air in one heat exchanger and cool the air in another. This creates a pressure difference. This pressure difference drives a two-way piston connected to a ywheel. A generator connected to the ywheel converts the mechanical energy of the ywheel into electricity. This thesis presents a simulation of the current MHE prototype. The simulation is designed to be easily customized to allow it to model the performance of future possible MHE installations and predict their performance. The simulation is shown to accurately model the performance of
the MHE prototype by running under conditions similar to those found in the lab, and comparing its results to collected data from the prototype. Simulations were also run to show the model's ability to model possible applications with different operating conditions and physical components.


title: Android wi-fi location awareness and data inference heuristic.

subject:
Android
Wi-fi
Location-aware
Data inference

abstract: Mobile phones are becoming a primary platform for information access. More and more people use their mobile devices as one of their major communication access tools. Commuters are increasingly carrying their mobile devices with them almost everywhere. Mobile devices fit perfectly into an ideal environment for realizing ubiquitous computing. A major aspect of ubiquitous computing is context-aware applications where the applications collect information about the environment that the user is in and use this information to achieve their goals or improve performance. The location of the device is one of the most important pieces of context information. Location awareness makes certain applications possible, e.g., recommending nearby businesses and tracking estimated routes, and greatly improves the performance of other applications, for example it can be associated with automobile navigation devices. A feature available to mobile applications in the Android platform makes it possible to determine a device's location without any additional hardware or sensor mechanisms, by simply using the native capability of the built-in wireless network card. Since the release of Android systems, there have been numerous applications developed to introduce new ways of tracking locations. Recently, there have been many papers on location estimation leveraging ubiquitous wireless networks. In this thesis, we develop an Android application to collect useful Wi-Fi information without registering a location listener with a network-based provider, such as Wi-Fi connections or data connections. Therefore it provides a passive, privacy-preserving, non-intrusive and power-saving way of achieving location awareness to Android mobile users. Accurate estimation of the location information can bring a more contextual experience to mobile users. We save the passively collected data of the IDs of Wi-Fi access points and the received signal strengths to a database in order to help us structure the data and analyse it. We employ some heuristics to infer the location information from the data. Our work presents a location tracking technique mainly based on Basic Service Set identification (BSSID) and/or Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) using Wi-Fi information. It falls into one of the most active fields in mobile application development --location-based or location-aware applications.


title: Determining fuzzy link quality membership functions in wireless sensor networks

contributor:
Ren, Jing
Liscano, Ramiro

subject:
Wireless Sensor Networks
Fuzzy logic
Link estimator
WiseRoute
Membership functions

abstract:
Wireless Sensor Network routing protocols rely on the estimation of the quality of the links between nodes to determine a suitable path from the data source nodes to a data-collecting node. Several link estimators have been proposed, but most of these use only one link property. Fuzzy logic based link quality estimators have been recently proposed which consider a number of link quality metrics. The fuzzification of crisp values to fuzzy values is done through membership functions. The shape of the fuzzy link quality estimator membership functions is primarily performed leveraging qualitative knowledge and an improper assignment of fuzzy membership functions can lead to poor route selection and hence to unacceptable packet losses.
This thesis evaluated the Channel Quality membership function of, an existing fuzzy link quality estimator and it was seen that this membership function didn’t perform as well as expected. This thesis presents an experimental approach to determine a suitable Channel Quality fuzzy membership function based on varying the shape of the fuzzy set for a multipath wireless sensor network scenario and choosing an optimum shape that maximizes the Packet Delivery Ratio of the network. The computed fuzzy set membership functions were evaluated against an existing fuzzy link quality estimator under more complex scenarios and it is shown the performance of the experimental refined membership function was better in terms of packet reception ratio and end to end delay.The fuzzy link quality estimator was applied in WiseRoute (a simple converge cast based routing protocol) and shown that this SNR based fuzzy link estimator performed better than the original implemented RSSI based link quality used in WiseRoute.


title: Energy use analysis and technology for electric transit buses

subject:
Transportation
Energy
Battery
Simulation
Green house gas

abstract: Electric vehicles offer a method of transportation where the energy generation process is moved from the on-board engine to the electrical generation system. The Canadian electrical generation mix has a significant portion of low carbon and renewable sources. This low environmental impact source of energy is then transferred to electric vehicles when they are charged from the grid. This thesis analyses the energy flow for such electric vehicles, particularly buses. Battery systems and charger technology, core to the vehicle operations, are examined; looking at energy flow from plug to wheels. Field data collected from on-board recordings and simultaneous Global Positioning System (GPS) signals were used to develop a new predictive model for an electric bus. The mathematical model for the electric bus was then compared with a similar sized diesel engine vehicle model using the Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT). The operational energy cost of the electric bus is contrasted with a similarly sized Compression Ignition (CI) engine bus and was found to be very favourable. Also cost effective battery system upgrades to the present system were analysed for improved return on investment.


title: Developing a mobile manipulation system to handle unknown and unstructured objects

subject:
Autonomous system
Mobile manipulation
Robotic-object interaction
Deep learning
Visual servoing

abstract:
The exceptional human’s ability to interact with unknown objects based on minimal prior experience is a permanent inspiration to the field of robotic manipulation. The recent revolution in industrial and service robots demands high-autonomy and intelligent mobile-manipulators. The goal of the thesis is to develop an autonomous mobile robotic manipulation system that can handle unknown and unstructured objects with the least training and human involvement.
First, an end-to-end vision-based mobile manipulation architecture with minimal training using synthetic datasets is proposed in this thesis. The system includes: 1) effective training strategy of a perception network for object pose estimation, 2) the result is utilized as sensing feedback to integrate into a visual servoing system to achieve autonomous mobile manipulation. Experimental findings from simulations and real-world settings showed the efficiency of using computer-generated datasets, that can be generalized to the physical mobile-manipulator task. The model of the presented robot is experimentally verified and discussed.
Second, a challenging robotic manipulation scenario of unknown-adjacent objects is addressed in this thesis by using a scalable self-supervised system that can learn grasping control strategies for unknown objects based on limited knowledge and simple sample objects. The developed learning scheme can be beneficial to both generalization and transferability without requiring any additional training or prior object awareness.
Finally, an end-to-end self-learning framework is proposed to learn manipulating policies for challenging scenarios based on minimal training time and raw experience. The proposed model learns from scratch, from visual observations to sequential decision-making, manipulating actions and generalizes to unknown scenarios. The agent comprehends a sequence of manipulations that purposely lead to successful grasps. Results of the experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of the learning between manipulating actions, in which the grasping success rate has dramatically increased. The proposed system is successfully experimented and validated in simulations and real-world settings.


title: Exploring the perceived barriers and facilitators to equitable access of Naloxone in Durham Region: A pilot study

subject:
Health inequity
Opioids
Naloxone
Case study

abstract: Through exploratory case study research, we examined naloxone distribution from community pharmacies and perspectives of service providers about barriers and facilitators to equitable access of naloxone through the Ontario Naloxone Program (for Pharmacies) in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access was also explored. Results from an environmental scan questionnaire (N=8) found that for community pharmacies, naloxone was available whenever requested and access was unchanged by pandemic conditions. Key informant interviews and demographic surveys (N=2) completed with service providers found perceived facilitators for equitable access included uninterrupted operations during the pandemic, and naloxone being available without cost and prescription. Integrating opioid prescribers into programs was recommended. Perceived barriers identified included stigma a lack of awareness of the programs. This study serves as a potential precursor to conducting a larger study to further explore equitable access to naloxone by program users across Ontario, Canada.


title: Exploring the effects of mental fatigue on perceptual motor task performance and kinematics

subject:
Mental fatigue
Ego depletion
Accuracy
Kinematics
Dart throwing

abstract: Mentally demanding tasks that require performance accuracy are common in several occupations. However, little is known about how mental fatigue can impact accuracy performance. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to examine the impacts of mental fatigue on performance accuracy and arm kinematics during dart throwing. Dart throw accuracy and kinematic performance were observed as two groups of participants performed two sets of dart throws, one group undergoing a mentally demanding task and one as a control. No significant changes in accuracy performance or kinematic variables were associated with mental fatigue apart from a significant decrease in shoulder angle of elevation at the end of dart throwing motions. However, notable variability was observed among all outcome measures, likely due to the complex unconstrained nature of this task. Further constraining this task may allow for further study of this phenomenon.


title: An advanced electrospinning method of fabricating nanofibrous patterned architectures with controlled deposition and desired alignment

subject:
Electrospinning
Patterned architectures
Nanofibers
Nanocomposites
Alignment

abstract:
We introduce a versatile advanced method of electrospinning for fabricating various kinds of nanofibrous patterns along with desired alignment, controlled amount of deposition and locally variable density into the architectures. In this method, we employed multiple electrodes whose potentials have been altered in milliseconds with the help of microprocessor based control system. Therefore, key success of this method was that the electrical field as well as charge carrying fibers could be switched shortly from one electrode’s location to another, as a result, electrospun fibers could be deposited on the designated areas with desired alignment.
A wide range of nanofibrous patterned architectures were constructed using proper arrangement of multiple electrodes. By controlling the concurrent activation time of two adjacent electrodes, we demonstrated that amount of fibers going into the pattern can be adjusted and desired alignment in electrospun fibers can be obtained. We also revealed that the deposition density of electrospun fibers in different areas of patterned architectures can be varied. We showed that by controlling the deposition time between two adjacent electrodes, a number of functionally graded patterns can be generated with uniaxial alignment. We also demonstrated that this handy method was capable of producing random, aligned, and multidirectional nanofibrous mats by engaging a number of electrodes and switching them in desired patterns.
A comprehensive study using finite element method was carried out to understand the effects of electrical field. Simulation results revealed that electrical field strength alters shortly based on electrode control switch patterns.
Nanofibrous polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) scaffolds and its composite reinforced with wollastonite and wood flour were fabricated using rotating drum electrospinning technique. Morphological, mechanical, and thermal, properties were characterized on PVA/wollastonite and PVA/wood flour nanocomposites containing 0, 5, 10, and 20 wt % of fillers. Morphological analyses carried out by digital optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray computed tomography, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, confirmed the presence and well dispersion of fillers in the composites. In addition, improvement of mechanical properties with increased filler content further emphasized the adhesion between matrix and reinforcement. PVA with 20 wt % wollastonite composite exhibited the highest tensile strength (11.99 MPa) and tensile module (198 MPa) as compared to pure PVA (3.92 MPa and 83 MPa, respectively). Moreover, the thermal tests demonstrated that there is no major deviation in the thermal stability due to the addition of wollastonite in PVA scaffolds. Almost similar trend was observed in PVA/wood flour nanocomposites where tensile strength improved by 228 % for 20 wt % of reinforcement. The PVA/wollastonite and PVA/wood flour fibrous nanocomposite which poses higher mechanical properties might be potentially suitable for many advanced applications such as filtration, tissue engineering, and food processing.
We believe, this study will contribute to further scientific understanding of the patterning mechanism of electrospun nanofibers and to allow for variety of design of specific patterned nanofibrous architectures with desired functional properties. Therefore, this improved scheme of electrospinning can have significant impact in a broad range of applications including tissue engineering scaffolds, filtrations, and nanoelectronics.


title: ChangeMakers: exploring social consciousness through making and the Internet of Things

subject:
ChangeMakers
Citizenship
Critical making
Internet of Things
Social justice

abstract: Since the advent of the computer, digital technologies have transformed our engagement with society. Not only are technological competencies required for economic participation, they also facilitate creativity, self-expression, and personal fulfillment. Technology has also broadened citizenship beyond our local communities, necessitating the development of social consciousness and skills to navigate global challenges. Given the need for tools that facilitate digital competencies and social action in schools, this study investigated how passion-based making with the Internet of Things (IoT) could facilitate students’ involvement with citizenship and social justice. Over the course of a five-day makerspace camp, this study employed a qualitative multiple case study design to explore the IoT learning and social participation of ten elementary school students. The findings revealed meaningful development in participants’ understanding of concepts and concerns related to IoT, as well as thoughtful engagement with societal challenges through the construction of socially oriented IoT artifacts.

abstract: University of Ontario Institute of Technology