Research & Scholarship

This project examined the fundamental fracture mechanisms of bone to develop preventive measures, particularly for the elderly who are prone to falls and hip fractures. By simulating real falls and examining the micro-damage process zone, they discovered that a higher loading rate resulted in smaller damage zones, indicating brittle fractures and reduced resistance. Understanding these mechanisms may lead to improved detection, prevention, and treatment of bone fragility, potentially reducing the incidence of fractures. The study was funded by the University of Waterloo Network for Aging Research and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Tracking and identifying players in ice hockey is crucial for computer vision-based analytics. This challenging task involves fast-paced, non-linear player motion, camera panning, and zooming. An automated system is introduced to track and identify players in NHL broadcast videos. It consists of three components: player tracking, team identification, and player identification. The system achieves a 94.5% MOTA score for player tracking, 97% accuracy for team identification, and utilizes a novel player identification model with an 83% accuracy, incorporating player bounding box sequences and NHL game roster data.

This study explores the design, implementation, and evaluation of an Augmented Reality (AR) prototype that assists novice operators in performing procedural tasks in simulator environments. The prototype uses an optical see-through head-mounted display (OST HMD) in conjunction with a simulator display to supplement sequences of interactive visual and attention-guiding cues to the operator’s field of view. We used a 2x2 within-subject design to test two conditions: with/without AR-cues, each condition had a voice assistant and two procedural tasks (preflight and landing). An experiment examined twenty-six novice operators. The results demonstrated that augmented reality had benefits in terms of improved situation awareness and accuracy, however, it yielded longer task completion time by creating a speed-accuracy trade-off effect in favour of accuracy. No significant effect on mental workload is found. The results suggest that augmented reality systems have the potential to be used by a wider audience of operators.

This research project aims to develop noise-driven MEMS cantilever gas sensors coated with Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) to achieve ultra-high sensitivity and selectivity for volatile organic compound (VOC) detection.

Canada’s national passenger transportation system is comprised of air and ground modes. Sustainability has motivated the electrification of ground modes but the means to attain green air travel are still debated. Future air service will include improved aircraft, new fuels, e-flight, offsets and strong ground-air integration. To create future scenarios and estimate associated emissions and economic impacts, the most basic data is still lacking: from where, and to where, do people need and want to travel. This project fills the most critical data gap for future scenario simulations by using the National Travel Survey of Canada to create a national origin-destination matrix. This project is funded through WISA and facilitates sustainable air travel by providing insights into the overall patterns of interregional travel demand.

Project by Dr. Lisa Aultman-Hall