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This project is split into two parts. The first is to model the arrival process to take into account the forms of dependence in the forecast call center of Hydro-Quebec. A second aspect concerns the proposal for a control system for real-time reallocation of agents. For the first part the need for more accurate models of stochastic processes has been made by officials of Hydro-Quebec. We therefore propose a model incorporating both dependence and intraday dependence between call types. It would then provide better predictions of future arrival of calls during the day.

Cementing operations are carried out on oil and gas wells at various stages. Primary cementing encases the well in a layer of cement. The purpose is to both seal the outside of the well and provide structural integrity. The impact of poor primary cementing is felt both economically (reduced production rates) and environmentally (leakage to surface). In extreme cases poor cement can be a contributing cause of a blowout, (e.g. BP’s Deepwater Horizon incident).

The research is aimed at providing effective long-term resource planning to effective scheduling of the maintenance tasks over a short-term horizon. The Bombardier Company provides the necessary requirements to the customers around the world to do the predefined maintenance tasks as well as unexpected repair jobs for their aircraft fleet. These services are performed as onsite or offsite, i.e., different centres or stations.

Modern engineering designs require fast and high credible scientific computations which usually run in a parallel way. The proposed research focuses on the development of the parallel preconditioning technology used in large scale scientific computations. A multi-level recursive strategy is developed to improve the parallel computing performance when a large number of processors (up to at least 5000) are used. An existing Newton-Krylov flow solver will be improved by coupling with this multi-level preconditioner.

We will develop algorithms to automatically generate descriptive labels for large collections of web documents. Such labels can be used by companies in order to decide on which web sites they want to place advertisements, or by electronic publishers to categorize media offers. Currently, there doesn't exist any approach that can robustly and automatically label clusters of documents with a level of quality that approaches human labellers.

Protecting copyright is one of the hottest topics in information and media technology at the moment. Digital technology enables perfect copying on amateur equipment. Digital Fingerprinting is an emerging technology to protect multimedia from unauthorized redistribution. It embeds a unique ID into each user's copy, which can be extracted to help identify culprits when an unauthorized leak is found. Thereby any emerging illegitimate copy can be traced back to the guilty party. A major challenge is to make this system secure against coalitions of pirates.

Pharmacometrics (PM) is an emerging research area defined as “the science that interprets and describes pharmacology in a quantitative fashion to aid efficient drug development and/or regulatory decision”. Over the years, Dr. Nekka’s team has encompassed deep thinking on how to join and enhance emerging worldwide efforts to make mathematical modeling and simulation a complementary language to the usual empirical and clinical methods used in drug discovery and development. This work is part of these sustained efforts to deal with the complex relationship of dose-exposure-effect of drugs.

Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) microscopy is a very promising method of directly imaging biological processes occurring in living cells. It is unique because the imaging does not harm the cell, is molecule specific, and does not require the introduction of additional chemicals that may alter the biology. For example, CARS would allow us to visualize how viruses invade a cell membrane, which is still a mystery.

Breast Microwave Radar is a promising new technology for breast cancer detection. Nevertheless, current image formation methods face issues that limit the use of this technology in clinical scenarios. The goal of this project is to use mathematical modeling and analysis to develop a novel image formation method for breast microwave radar suitable for use in realistic breast imaging settings. This technique will be capable of generating accurate and high contrast images for a specific patient in real time.

TBD