2021 Re/Action Virtual Showcase

Project Description:

Algonquins Applied Research department in coordination with TELUS is looking into the steps necessary to green light an open source application for commercial use by performing static and dynamic application security testing, OSINT investigation, and other open source security testing methodologies. There are many powerful applications that are free to use and open for public modification. This raises a security question when deciding if some of them are okay for use in a private or enterprise environment. Who is committing to these projects? What is their motive for doing so? Do these applications undergo any prior testing, static or dynamic? All of these questions should be answered and more when dealing with software that’s not under strict security regulation.

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Project Description:

The Project Management Graduate Certificate (PMGC), offered at Algonquin College, is expanding and continues to push boundaries of project management techniques by incorporating Artificial Intelligence. PMGC seeks to teach people how to apply a high level of leadership, technical, and business strategy skills to plan to optimize efficiency and effectiveness in project management. 
 
PMGC and its faculty has developed software, published books, and spoken publicly on AI and how it can be implemented to solve the common problems in project management. Paul Boudreau, a professor at the college, has published two books on artificial intelligence as it relates to project management and has a third book releasing soon. Past students of the program have attended competitions and fares to showcase the AI initiatives with great success. 

The faculty plans to create a LinkedIn page for PMGC that displays and highlights the unique initiatives in Applied Research. 

Nicole Priatel, a professor, and core member of the innovative faculty team has requested a video for the page that accurately displays the scope and impact of their initiatives. 

This video is targeted to graduate students looking to upgrade their career and external businesses looking to partner with the faculty. 

The purpose and goal of this project is to raise general awareness of Project Management Program, educate potential viewers on AI techniques used, PMGC and their successes, as well as recruit new students and industry partners to the school.

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Project Description:

The WEAR project is being developed for use in the Ottawa Hospital. The project came to life in hopes to improve upon the hospital’s current method of performing EMG tests. The current procedure of performing the test requires an expensive machine which is large, restricted to a small room.The test was also invasive to the patient due to the many interfacing cables and the lengthy setup required to collect the EMG test. The mobile WEAR device has been developed with these problems in mind to create a cheaper and more simple way to perform EMG tests.

The main features of the WEAR device are it’s compact design, positioning system, bluetooth, and ability to write to a micro SD card. The goal of the project was not to finish a completed device, instead the goal of this project was to create a functioning prototype with the features mentioned above.

The team was able to engineer the device’s compact design by implementing the device onto a PCB and programming the system on an Arduino microcontroller. We were able to get the device to a fraction of the size of a standard EMG device. For the device to understand the signals coming in we required a complex analog signal to digital signal converter, for this purpose we picked out a QFP chip called the ADS1298 that is capable of converting 8 channels at a time. We created the device’s positioning system by using an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), with this chip we are able to track the real time position of the device in three dimensional space. The device’s bluetooth was completed by using a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) nordic chip that is capable of using BLE 5.0 protocol, this gives the device a large transmitting range and a steady signal when a user plots data to a device. Going with a BLE chip we are also able to prolong battery life for our device allowing for longer sessions of testing with a single charge. The microcontroller picked out for this project has an onboard SD slot that allows us to write the incoming signals into this SD card for analysis later. The method of saving data to a micro SD card has been optimized and made more efficient.

Our team has learned so much from doing this project, from technical skills to project management skills. Trying to summarize all of the things we were able to take away from this is incredibly difficult. Most notably the team’s knowledge in PCB design, and software programming has vastly improved. The team learned new techniques to accurately solder a PCB and how to handle very delicate components. Some of the biggest lessons we are taking away from this are, the ability to make critical project decisions, creating and managing a project plan, and sticking to a strict schedule to get work done on time. Our team is very proud of our work on this project and we are confident in the skills that we could develop working on this project.

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Project Description:

At Ciena, one of the biggest bottlenecks to the testing phase of a new technology is the initial decision of which wiring configuration is best to ensure proper climate control for proper testing. With some products requiring more cooling than others as well as some products having more surface area to cool, it’s difficult to create one solution that is able to cool all of these different products properly. The current solution for the jig mounted fans is to wire the fans to either full speed (parallel) or half speed (series). Wiring these fans back and forth can be extremely time consuming while also limiting the options of the engineers to two speeds of airflow. The fans are often switched so many times during this decision phase that by the end there is next to no wire left to cut to do the modification.
The solution proposed is to create a control module using Pulse-Width-Modulation to be able to control the fans to go the exact desired speed. In addition to this, an algorithm will be developed to read the temperature from the onboard temperature sensor on the device and change the fan speed base on the current temperature. This device will have two arrays of three fans on each side of the card which can be expanded as well as a temperature sensor input for either side in order to assure all sides receive proper cooling.

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Project Description:

In January 2020, the City of Ottawa declared a housing and homelessness emergency. Immediately following the announcement COVID-19 reached the pandemic level, leaving the already vulnerable homeless and precariously housed populations to experiencing greater challenges.

Through our partnership with the Alliance to End Homelessness, the Victimology Research Centre’s new project is studying the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on homeless populations in Ottawa through a service provider lens. The COVID-19 and Systematic Responses to Homelessness project is examining how the global pandemic has affected system responses to homelessness, the potential gaps and barriers that are being experienced by homeless people, and what innovations in service provision are being developed to adapt to the pandemic.

The project is comprised of two phases. In phase 1, qualitative interviews are completed for data collection purposes. The focus of phase 1 is system mapping and preliminary data collection which will be done through online and telephone interviews with service providers.
In phase 2, the project will move forward with ethics approval for additional data collection through surveys, focus groups, and interviews with service providers and people with lived experience.

From this project, two products will be made. The first is a COVID-19 Housing & Homelessness Sector Map which will outline the challenges and opportunities experienced by homeless people in Ottawa during the pandemic. The second is a report to the City of Ottawa, measuring the response of COVID-19 in the homeless sector.

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Project Description:

A portable ramp with handrails will be designed and made for the Tetra Society with the purpose of helping people who have mobility and vision issues to gain access to buildings that can only be accessed by stairs. The objective is to create a ramp that can cover three steps, following Ontario building codes for step height and ramp angle, the ramp will need to be approximately 9-ft long. The modular design of the ramp allows for a 6-ft configuration of the ramp to be assembled for clearing a height of 2 steps and still maintain a small footprint.
The ramp must also be lightweight for transportation, relatively easy for two trained individuals to set up and cost effective compared to current commercial options.

The design criteria for this project are:

-Can be placed on at least third footstep of a stair with an angle of slope less than 11o based on the building code standard in Canada.

-Can be easily assembled and disassembled by around two well-trained personnel and easy to transport.

-Have a factor of safety level no less than 1.5 throughout the ramp.

-Can be placed securely at either smooth surface or rough surface, like grass, soil, and uneven surface.

-Have a proper width of ramp, around 36-in, for clearing most manual wheelchairs past the ramp.

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Project Description:

Lymphedema is a chronic condition caused by lymphatic obstruction, where swelling occurs due to excess fluid collecting in the tissues. Fortunately, therapists have come up with with a treatment plan for this condition: Complete Decongestive Therapy.

CDT is a treatment plan used for the ongoing management of Lymphedema. This treatment plan has two phases: Phase 1, the Decongestion Phase, and Phase 2, the Maintenance Phase . Both phases encompass four key components which, when done consistently, help reduce the swelling experienced by those with Lymphedema. The four components of each phase are:

1) Manual Lymph Drainage (MLD)
2) Compression Therapy (use of compression garments)
3) Exercise
4) Skin Care

That is when our project comes in to help those patients. The main purpose of the project is to create an Android app that can enable those with Lymphedema to successfully manage their condition by helping them keep track of four mentioned components during the Complete Decongestive Therapy treatment.

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Project Description:

This project was built for our client, Floral Envy, with the idea of having a more efficient way of tracking her delivery driver’s work, as well as their weekly pay rates. The main problem for our client was communication between herself and her employees. The current process of creating orders and track delivery status manually costs multiple hours every working day.
The way our team solved this issue is by creating a ticketing system. Our client would assign deliveries to a specific driver, and that driver could then update the status of that task themselves once it is finished. All mentioned functionalities perform through a web application. The orders show up dynamically on the main page, based on the account that is logged in and the orders assigned to that specific account. The driver then can change the status and add notes to the order, all for our client to see on her side of the application. The team then built a weekly report button that would allow the client to select a date range and see the final pay rate for each driver for that one date range, based on completed deliveries. A daily-based database is built to make out client be able to see all historical orders and upcoming events.
By building this application, our team learns how to build a complex website that reads data dynamically from a database and then displays that data. We learned about responsive design and how to build a mobile-first web application. It’s a big growth and great experienced we earned from teamwork and real-life project development.

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Project Description:

Our team was tasked with creating the inverted pendulum and the required components to control it. The main idea of our mechanical design is to have the pendulum attached to an encoder. The pendulum is a cart which is on a rail and can be moved by our stepper motor. To ensure the cart does not move too far one way and off the design, we have a sensor placed on each end of the design.

These components which make up our design are controlled by an Arduino Mega. As the pendulum moves one way the encoder will measure this and the Arduino code will move the cart accordingly by moving the stepper motor in the correct direction and speed to correct this. If either of the sensor sense the cart, the Arduino code is set to turn the motor driver off thus shutting down the operation. These electrical components have all been soldered into our printed PCB of our electrical circuit.

The key components of our design consist of;
Stepper motor: NEMA17
Motor driver: L298N
Microcontroller: Arduino Mega
Sensor: Optical sensor
Angle measurement: Rotary Encoder

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Project Description:

Re4m is an Eco Fabricator that designs and builds with rescued and reclaimed materials. It began when the Owner and Lead Fabricator Heather Jeffery was working for a local retailer and noticed an issue with commercial waste. The retailer was throwing old displays claiming it was easier than recycling the product. Heather decided that there was opportunity to reduce the amount of commercial waste headed to Ottawa’s Landfills. This moment was the catalyst for what the company is today. Re4m now uses these reclaimed materials from the community to build and design furnishings, fixtures, displays and products for businesses.
Heather was finding the Material Recovery Process a little cumbersome through the current route, where all communication with potential pickups and clients occurs via email. They found it difficult to arrange material collection when not enough information was provided, and to manage all ongoing recovery submissions.
Our main goal was to make the overall procedure for users submitting materials more detailed and streamlined, which in turn made the process of locating and filtering through the submitted materials easier for the Client. Customers are now required to enter certain information before a submission will be accepted which includes pictures, dimensions (size and weight), type of material, condition, and attaching their location to ensure it remains within the pickup range (Ottawa, Ontario.)
Re4m is now able to view these listings and accept or reject based on the pictures that customer post, generating an appropriate response or status (Accepted/Rejected, In Review, Seen/Pending), that is shown to the Users. They may filter all submissions through a bevy of different characteristics (active or past, category, etc.) The Re4m team can now also post updates on current material needs for Users to help better reach their needs for current projects.
There is now a login feature which enables customers to feel safe with their credentials. This helps them monitor all their submissions, and easily contact the company for pickup. Maintaining a simple, easy design to make the product accessible to all users was imperative to ensure overall usability for all potential customers and submissions.
With these abilities, on top of creating a userbase, this Product not only makes their procurement process easier, but will help with the overall goal of their entire company by making it possible that even less waste goes to landfill because Users themselves will be aware of any products not being used by Re4m.
We learned many lessons along our journey from our first introduction as a team, to meeting our client, to ending up with a tangible product. There was an immense amount of time and effort put in to ensure the quality of our work. Using the knowledge and skills we have learned along the way throughout our time at Algonquin College in the many courses taken before, it has culminated into this final project where all of them were used in conjunction to bring you this Project.
Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

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