Engineering Headlines

Watch management sciences guest interviews on Skype

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:08:49 +0000

Looking for information on the impact of information technology on people at work and other thought-provoking topics? Guest speakers on information technology and other subjects presented to management sciences professor Peter Carr’s classes are available on YouTube. The speakers include:

- Caroline Axtell of the University of Sheffield on the impact of information technology on people at work
- Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development and director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford, on technology and globalization
- Kelvin Cantafio, vice chair NetHope and the International Federation of the Red Cross in Geneva, on information technology and developing countries
- Rainey Reitman, activism director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, on internet privacy
- Mark Aggar, Microsoft and the Green Grid in Seattle, on information technology and the environment.

On May 18 Vint Cerf, Google’s vice president and “chief Internet evangelist” will be interviewed.

Engineering researchers receive ERA funding

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:45:16 +0000

Three Waterloo Engineering researchers were among the 11 throughout Waterloo Region who received prestigious Early Researcher Awards that were announced by John Milloy, MPP for Kitchener Centre, on May 4. Alexander Wong of systems design engineering, and Zhongwei Chen and Boxin Zhao, both of chemical engineering, received $140,000 each to support their research projects.

Wong is developing advanced computer-aided systems for diagnosing prostate cancer more effectively. Chen is working on a long-term solution to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels by developing nanomaterials that could improve fuel-cell performance and reduce their cost. And Zhao is creating new adhesion technologies, based on geckos’ foot pads, that will help increase the province’s profile in the biotechnology industry.

The Early Researcher Award program assists promising, recently-appointed researchers in Ontario build their research teams. This year, 62 researchers at 19 institutions received funding through this program. [news release]

Two champions of Waterloo Engineering to receive honorary degrees

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:42:18 +0000

William Tatham and Réal (Ray) Tanguay, both strong supporters of engineering education at the University of Waterloo, will receive honorary doctorates during the university’s spring convocation ceremonies on June 16.

Tatham, a Waterloo systems design engineering alumnus, is an accomplished entrepreneur who founded Janna Systems in 1990. The company became a world leader in providing software for financial services and was sold to Siebel Systems in 2000. He then established NexJ Systems Inc., which was incubated by XJ Partners, a venture capital and advisory services company founded by Tatham and his former Janna management team. He made a significant contribution towards the building of the William M. Tatham Centre for Co-operative Education, which was named in his honour.

Tanguay is the first Canadian to become a managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation. He is currently chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and chief risk management officer for North America. Tanguay was instrumental in Toyota’s decision to build the new greenfield automotive assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario, representing a $1.1 billion dollar investment and 2,000 new jobs. He helped introduce the University of Waterloo’s co-op system to Toyota and played a key role in creating the NSERC/Toyota/Maplesoft industrial chair in mathematics-based modelling and design. He has served on the Faculty of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and completed a six-year term on the university’s Board of Governors. As well as receiving an honorary degree, Tanguay will address the audience. [news release]

Civil engineering students awarded CITE scholarships

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:37:32 +0000

Akram Nour, a civil engineering doctoral candidate and Kevin Yeung, a fourth-year civil engineering student, are two of the winners of the 2012 national scholarship competition held by the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers. Nour won the CITE Michel Van Aerde Memorial Award for doctoral students and Yeung was awarded the CITE HDR Undergraduate Award. The awards program honours outstanding achievement in transportation engineering and distinguished service to CITE. [awards website]

Stubley honoured with provincial excellence in teaching award

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:59:09 +0000

Waterloo Engineering’s incoming associate dean, teaching is one of eight professors province-wide to receive a 2012 Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance Award for Excellence in Teaching. Gordon Stubley, a mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor who will officially become the Faculty’s first associate dean, teaching on May 1, was presented with the award by Natalie Cockburn, vice president education for the Federation of Students, in early April. Stubley was nominated for the award by the University of Waterloo’s Federation of Students.

“It was both an honour and humbling to receive this particular recognition because, in part, it is very much in recognition of the accomplishments and initiatives of many in mechanical and mechatronics engineering and throughout the Faculty,” says Stubley. “I am fortunate to be part of such a wonderful group!” [OUSA website]

New director of nanotechnology engineering appointed

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:56:26 +0000

Christopher Backhouse, an electrical and computer engineering professor, has been appointed the new director of Waterloo’s nanotechnology engineering program. His term runs from May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2015. Backhouse succeeds former director Marios Ioannidis of chemical engineering.

Professor wins 2012 Young Architect Award

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:55:15 +0000

Lola Sheppard, a School of Architecture professor, has been selected as the recipient of Architecture Canada’s 2012 Young Architect Award. Sheppard, who has been honoured with several awards in the past year including the 2011 Holcim Gold Award, is one of the founding directors of InfraNet Lab, a design research company dedicated to the role infrastructures and networks play in our environment.

Along with teaching at the School Architecture, she is a visiting critic at schools across Canada and the U.S. In choosing Sheppard for the Young Architect Award, the jury said she is “a talented architect, design leader, and influential educator whose work is contributing to larger societal concerns, going well beyond the bounds of traditional architectural practice.” She will receive her award during the 2012 Architecture Canada | RAIC – NLAA Festival of Architecture taking place June 13-16 in St. John’s. [Architecture Canada website]

Conrad Centre receives $1.6M to boost entrepreneurial ventures

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:53:42 +0000

The Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre has received a US $1.6 million grant that will help students turn entrepreneurial ideas into business ventures. The Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®), owner of the GMAT® exam and the leading membership organization of graduate business and management schools worldwide, announced the award April 17. Waterloo was the only Canadian university to receive funding this round.

The funding will support the implementation of a Virtual Incubation Program, at Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad Centre. It will establish a global, online network of students, community groups, local entrepreneurs and international university partners, and is designed to support the development and launch of new businesses.

“Success, for most entrepreneurial students, hinges on having easy access to essential resources, learning opportunities and networks for collaboration and funding, to build their business,” says Rod McNaughton, director of the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre at Waterloo. “With this funding, the GMAC MET Fund has given us the ability to further support and produce successful new ventures on campus, in the community, and eventually take it global through academic partnerships.” [news release]

ECE professor honoured with two best paper awards

Carol — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:51:39 +0000

The research of electrical and computer engineering professor Sherman Shen has been recognized with two best paper awards. Shen and his research collaborators in Japan received the 2012 Best Paper Award at the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference for ”End-to-End Delay in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks with Generalized Transmission Range and Limited Packet Redundancy.” The conference was held in Paris, France, April 1-4. Shen and his doctoral students Y. Liu, L.X. Cai received the 2011 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Globecom for ”Constrained Energy-Aware AP Placement with Rate Adaptation in WLAN Mesh Networks.” The award was presented at the Global Communications Conference, Exhibition and Industry Forum held in Houston, Texas in December 2011.

Management engineering students win paper award

Carol — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:50:40 +0000

Three fourth-year management engineering students are the winners of the 2012 National Student Paper Award of Supply Chain Logistics Canada. Jessica McPhee, Ari Paunonen and Taufiq Ramji based their paper on their fourth-year design project entitled Night-Time Deliveries for Nestle Ice Cream. The team members will be presented with their award at the 45th Supply Chain Annual Conference and Tradeshow.

Baja SAE Team unveils 2012 vehicle

Carol — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:34:16 +0000

On Tuesday, April 3, the University of Waterloo’s Baja SAE design team unveiled their 2012 all-terrain vehicle in Engineering’s Student Design Centre. Designed over the Spring and Fall 2011 school terms and constructed between January and March, the car will take part in a competition in Portland, Oregon, from May 2-5, 2012.

On the first day of competition, the vehicle’s safety and design will be evaluated by judges who will look at aspects such as innovation and serviceability. Then it’s off to the races!

The second day will feature an acceleration test, hill climb, land manoeuvrability test, and rock crawl, leading up to the final event on day three: the four-hour endurance race!

Approximately 100 Baja cars will attempt to complete as many laps as possible during the grueling off-road race, and with obstacles such as mud, logs, steep inclines, and jumps, few will make it to the end.

With a variety of new features from mud guards to a redesigned suspension, the 2012 Baja SAE team is targeting a top-20 finish!

Visit the team’s website for more information, including team members and sponsors, or wish them luck on their Facebook page!

Thomson reappointed as chair of CEE

Carol — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:33:15 +0000

Neil Thomson has been reappointed as chair of civil and environmental engineering for a second term beginning May 1, 2012. He will be taking a one-year sabbatical beginning May 1, 2012. During his absence civil and environmental professor Don Burn will serve as acting chair.

Girl Guides earn badges at Waterloo

Carol — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:08:03 +0000

On March 31, the last day of National Engineering Month, Waterloo Engineering was taken over by 112 Girl Guides and their leaders. The girls came from Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, New Dundee, Ayr, Baden and Stratford to participate in our Engineering Badge Day for Girl Guides.

The entire day was focused on introducing girls to the world of engineering. Coming into the event many of the girls did not even know what an engineer was, let alone that they could become an engineer themselves. Spending the day with Waterloo engineers allowed them to learn firsthand what engineers do to make the world a better place.

The groups of Girl Guides were led around campus by enthusiastic women engineering students, and spent the day doing hands-on engineering activities, touring labs, and interacting with female engineers. Some of the highlights included designing and making their own buttons while learning about simple machines, seeing a 3D printer in action when learning about tools engineers use, and learning about chemical reactions by making ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

By the end of the day the girls had fulfilled all of the requirements for the Engineering Badge, which were presented by the Dean of Engineering, Adel Sedra. This event was made possible with the support of The Ontario Network of Women in Engineering.

Maud Gorbet wins WOW Award

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:46:56 +0000

Systems design engineering professor Maud Gorbet has been honoured for her work in the community by the Women of Waterloo Region (WOW) in the Science and Technology category. She was recognized for her leadership in bringing the FIRST Lego League (FLL) program to the Waterloo region that has resulted in children between the ages of nine and 14 becoming excited about science and technology. She has worked to expand the program and, as a result of her efforts, the region now has close to 20 teams with about 200 children participating in the FLL. She was instrumental in organizing the FLL Provincial Qualifier Tournament in Waterloo in 2010 and 2011. Due to her efforts, Waterloo Region will be hosting a Provincial Regional Championship in 2012. [FLL website] [WoW Facebook page]

Three grad students honoured with exceptional teaching

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:46:03 +0000

For the second year in a row three of the four graduate students to win the university’s exceptional teaching award are from Waterloo Engineering. Arash Shahi of civil and environmental engineering, Andrea Murphy, of the School of Architecture, and Hamed Shateri of mechanical and mechatronics engineering will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student at spring convocation in June. The other winner is Keith Delaney of earth and environmental sciences. [DB article]

Two engineering CRCs awarded research funding

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:44:28 +0000

The latest round of funding for Canada Research Chairs awarded $7.5 to six CRCs campus-wide, including $1.4 million each to two in engineering. The new funding puts Waterloo in the top five research universities across the country. Carl Haas, a civil and environmental engineering professor and the CRC in Construction and Management of Sustainable Infrastructure, will use his funding for research his team is undertaking on finding the most sustainable ways to make and manage everything from roads and sewers to suspension bridges through technology including 3D scanning of things like road surface aggregates. Amir Khandani, an electrical and computer engineering professor and the CRC in Multiuser Wireless Communications will put his funding towards his team’s development of new communication algorithms and circuits to handle the needs of the future wireless networks. [news release]

Faculty members join team to help bring bioproducts to market

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:43:20 +0000

Chemical engineering professors Leonardo Simon and Raymond Legge are part of a new cross-university team of scientists formed to help Canadian companies bring their innovative bioproducts to market faster. The Ontario Biomaterials A-Team, led by Guelph-based Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, is made up of 10 members with complementary skills from seven Ontario universities. Known as the A-Team, its mandate is to bring together the skilled people, sophisticated equipment, speed of service and confidentiality companies require to fine-rune and test new products before they’re brought to market. [A-Team website]

Professor’s photovoltaic-based research appears in Solar Novus Today

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:42:22 +0000

Solar Novus Today features the work of electrical and computer engineering professor Omar Ramahi who received a $25,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for researching the harvest of non-visible light and is collaborating with chemists from Next Alternative Inc. on the project. “Over significant parts of the earth, the sun shines for a fraction of the day. Harvesting energy around the clock, even if the conversion efficiency is fraction of that of the photovoltaic-based technology, would lead to a the availability of a significant amount of energy,“ Ramahi says in the article. [complete article]

Engineering lightweight car research receives $3.7 million boost

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:41:19 +0000

A Waterloo Engineering project, headed by mechanical and mechatronics professor Michael Worswick to develop energy-efficient cars through the use of new lightweight materials, will receive $3.7 million in federal funding. The funding announcement, made by Kitchener-Waterloo MP Peter Braid March 20 in an Engineering 3 lab, is part of a $34-million initiative for six automotive research projects at universities across Canada.Worswick, a Canada Research Chair, said the work being undertaken is important to the development of more energy-efficient vehicles such as improved battery-hybrid cars. [Record article]

Mechatronics engineering student named a top co-op student

Carol — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:39:06 +0000

Sasanka Nagavalli of mechatronics engineering has been chosen by the University of Waterloo as Waterloo Engineering’s top co-op student of the year. The university will honour Nagavalli and students representing the five other faculties during a ceremony to be held at the William M. Tatham Centre on March 22 as part of National Co-op Week. Nagavalli’s passion for space robotics fuelled a successful work term with Neptec Design Group, a company that develops advanced spaceflight sensors and rovers for space agencies around the world. Over the course of the term, he earned the trust and respect of his colleagues, giving him the opportunity to introduce several new technologies to the development processes at Neptec. [news release]