Buhler Versatile Inc. (BVI) is in the process of making design improvements to its air seeding equipment. The intern will be tasked with completing an ergonomic evaluation of the air seeder control system, with specific emphasis on the design of the displays used to provide information to the air seeder operator. Proposed modifications to the existing displays will be based on situation awareness design principles. Properly designed displays enable the operator to 1) detect changes in system status, 2) understand the implications of the change in system status, and 3) project the consequences if no corrective action is taken. Displays designed according to these principles enable more efficient operation of the system by the operator. It is anticipated that BVI will gain an understanding of the changes required to their air seeder control system to improve it’s usability by air seeder operators.

In large scale earth observation systems, data is gathered in short duration surveys returning massive numbers of point data observations (often millions) covering significantly sized regions. To maintain up-to-date products (e.g. navigation charts in harbours with continuous silt build-up), successive surveys are performed that often cover overlapping areas. Searches to find all the data in a specific region are expected to return only the most recent data in any given area, and must ignore any older, overlapping versions. In some cases, the data has errors that are difficult to correct; we would like to ignore or exclude this data during retrieval so that products derived from the data (e.g. contours on navigational charts) are accurate. This MITACS project investigates how to build a spatial data structure that efficiently supports this use case, termed “exclusion persistence range search”, over multiple versions of data covering the same area. CARIS makes software that is used to create navigational charts used by ships, aircraft and other moving vehicles. CARIS will benefit from this research by having a prototype multi-version index system that increases the efficiency and flexibility of its software, making it easier to track and change the data sources used to create navigation charts.

Over the years, the methodology for public consultation has evolved to include public information meetings and hearings, telephone polls and surveys, and most recently online engagement. Increasingly, government is emphasizing evidence-based decision-making. They recognize that existing methods are lacking in reaching a broad demographic. Internet communication technology has made it possible to reach a broader spectrum of the public however until recently, that interaction has been anonymous and anecdotal at best. The objective of the proposed research is to explore the use of online public consultation technology to advance best practices within the real estate development industry. The project aims to investigate the ways online consultation generally, and the PlaceSpeak platform with location-based authentication in particular, can enrich public development consultation bringing together current and traditional outreach methods. The intern, who intends on a career in urban planning with a focus on public participation will benefit from the exposure to real players in the property development industry with added experience in developing case studies and knowledge of the public consultation processes while the partner will benefit from the research itself.

Argillaceous shales comprise a large proportion of rocks in most sedimentary basins. They serve as caprocks in the projects of petroleum industry. Maintaining borehole and caprock integrity is to prevent disasters such as borehole collapse and leakage through caprocks. Thermal-hydro-mechanical properties of argillaceous shales have decisive controls on the integrity analysis. As a kind of clay rich geomaterial, argillaceous shales feature in oriented fabric and have anisotropic behaviors. Currently, the investigations on anisotropic thermal-hydro- mechanical properties of argillaceous shale are limited. During designing of oil exploiting, the neglect of anisotropy will reduce the degree of exactitude. The objective of this internship is to work with BitCan Geosciences & Engineering Inc. and their expertise and facilities to develop characterization tools on investigating the anisotropic thermal-hydromechanical behaviors in argillaceous shale. The researches included in the internship are closely related to BitCan’s technical services. The generated results can be written in their programs and promote BitCan’s businesses in petroleum industry.