While the images of last summer’s wildfires will stay with many people for a long time, it was that emergency that inspired a group of students to create a remote device that can detect smouldering embers.

Engineering and science students from UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College recently returned from Boston where they demonstrated the autobot they specifically designed to detect “zombie” or underground wildfires that can smoulder months after the danger has passed.

“Our team knew that wildfires were a serious issue, but they kind of felt distant—something that happened to others, never to us,” says Aziz Rakhimov, a third-year UBCO electrical engineering student and product lead. “That all changed last summer when a wildfire reached Kelowna, threatened our campus, and made us all leave our beloved city in a rush.”

Those fires inspired the UBCO HEAT Robotics team to create their Ember Mitigation Bot Responder (EMBR).

The autonomous robotic device uses a thermal camera, smoke sensor and a temperature probe, coupled with AI-driven analytics, to navigate through a variety of terrains, find concealed hotspots, report their exact location and provide a comprehensive approach to heat detection.

“Our direct encounter with the threat of wildfires ignited a realization within us,” says Rakhimov. “It wasn’t enough to be passive observers—we are engineers, thinkers, creators—there had to be something we could do.”

EMBR was entered in last month’s MassRobotics Form & Function Robotics Challenge which took place in Boston. One of the world’s leading student robotics development events, the competition brings together university teams from around the globe. This year’s was to create a robotics or automation project with a cutting-edge form that accomplishes an important real-world solution.

“We developed EMBR to combat the prominent issues that we face in British Columbia regarding wildfires,” says Rakhimov. “The recent wildfire season was catastrophic and our communities grappled with the trauma and damage to hundreds of homes. Particularly close was the McDougall Creek fire in West Kelowna, which rapidly spread to Kelowna where we live and go to school.”

As soon as they arrived the team immediately began to feel audience support. They ended up winning the Audience Choice Award—outperforming teams from MIT, Stanford, Tufts, Cornell, Carnegie and Harvard.

“It took a lot of amazing teamwork to build, refine and program the bot,” says team coordinator Jonathan Chin, a second-year mechanical engineering student at UBCO. “This project has been an incredible opportunity to put to work all we have learned in our program.”

The team had a lot of background support within the university and from external partners including West Coast Robotics Ltd., SOLIDWORKS, KF Aerospace and Okanagan College. UBCO’s School of Engineering, the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, AMD, Analog Devices and CubePilot were also co-sponsors.

“Congratulations to the EMBR team on this impressive result and on their continued dedication, hard work and innovative efforts to address this important issue,” says Dr. Will Hughes, Director of the School of Engineering. “We know wildfire response and resilience is a topic of deep importance to our region—and to the world—in the face of a changing environment. This project is an example of the many ways in which UBC can support and advance these efforts through our research, learning and teaching.”

Buffered by their achievement, the team plans to continue to refine their design and will look for additional funding for the project through government grants and industry partnerships.

“In the future, EMBR could use an onboard water system or alternative methods, such as smothering embers with cool soil,” he adds. “We will also be researching other features such as topographical data analysis and using swarm tactics to have multiple rovers working together to cover more ground.”

To learn more about EMBR including sponsorship and partnership opportunities, visit: linktr.ee/heatrobotics.

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As the school year comes to an end, students at UBC Okanagan are completing projects and getting ready for final exams.

Students in the School of Engineering, whether in first or fourth year, are putting the final touches on either their engineering drawing designs or their capstone design projects.

First-year students will compete against each other in the final design competition while graduating students will showcase their final school projects at the Capstone Showcase and Competition. Both events take place Friday, April 12 and are open to the public.

Applied Science (APSC) 171 Final Design Competition

What: Engineering student drawing and design showcase
Who: First-year students, community judges and members of the public
When: Friday, April 12, from 10 am to 1 pm
Where: Engineering Management and Education Building, Richard S. Hallisey Atrium, 1137 Alumni Avenue, Kelowna

Nearly 400 first-year engineering students will unveil their design projects on Friday as they wrap up their first year at UBCO’s School of Engineering.

The design showcase is part of the APSC 171 Engineering Drawing and CAD/CAM course all first-year students take. Each year, the students are tasked with designing innovative ideas and devices that can confront real-world challenges head-on. This year’s theme centers around the critical issue of climate change, specifically focusing on the urgent need to address and mitigate wildfires.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the students have researched innovative strategies that integrate key engineering principles of user-centred design, CAD and CAM programs and advanced manufacturing techniques.

The annual event draws media and community interest thanks to the novel design concepts developed by the students. In previous years, the students and Professor Ray Taheri garnered national and international headlines as they proposed retrofit options for donation bins that reduced the risk of fatalities and portable storage carts for homeless people.

This event is free and all are welcome.

Capstone Showcase and Competition

What: Fourth-year UBCO engineering students showcase year-end projects
Who: Students, faculty, staff, judges, members of the public
When: Friday, April 12, from 1 to 5 pm, open to the public at 3 pm
Where: KF Centre for Excellence, 5800 Lapointe Drive, Kelowna

The almost 300 graduating students in UBCO’s School of Engineering will have one final chance before exams to wow their professors.

To complete their degree, students work in groups on 48 specific projects and then present their findings at the capstone showcase. Each project is judged and the event concludes with winners in specific categories being announced.

The categories this year are advanced manufacturing, biocompatible systems, complex systems, infrastructure and sustainability. Within each of those, visitors will find projects encompassing ideas like a hydrogen freight locomotive fueling station design, concept designs for busy local intersections, Pickasaurus—a remote controlled fruit picker, a micro apartment including adaptable furniture designs and fatigue analysis on a mountain bike front triangle.

This event is free and open to the public at 3 pm. The day will wrap up with award presentations starting at about 4:40 pm.

The post UBCO engineering students showcase ingenuity at year-end events appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

As the school year comes to an end, students at UBC Okanagan are completing projects and getting ready for final exams.

Students in the School of Engineering, whether in first or fourth year, are putting the final touches on either their engineering drawing designs or their capstone design projects.

First-year students will compete against each other in the final design competition while graduating students will showcase their final school projects at the Capstone Showcase and Competition. Both events take place Friday, April 12 and are open to the public.

Applied Science (APSC) 171 Final Design Competition

What: Engineering student drawing and design showcase
Who: First-year students, community judges and members of the public
When: Friday, April 12, from 10 am to 1 pm
Where: Engineering Management and Education Building, Richard S. Hallisey Atrium, 1137 Alumni Avenue, Kelowna

Nearly 400 first-year engineering students will unveil their design projects on Friday as they wrap up their first year at UBCO’s School of Engineering.

The design showcase is part of the APSC 171 Engineering Drawing and CAD/CAM course all first-year students take. Each year, the students are tasked with designing innovative ideas and devices that can confront real-world challenges head-on. This year’s theme centers around the critical issue of climate change, specifically focusing on the urgent need to address and mitigate wildfires.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, the students have researched innovative strategies that integrate key engineering principles of user-centred design, CAD and CAM programs and advanced manufacturing techniques.

The annual event draws media and community interest thanks to the novel design concepts developed by the students. In previous years, the students and Professor Ray Taheri garnered national and international headlines as they proposed retrofit options for donation bins that reduced the risk of fatalities and portable storage carts for homeless people.

This event is free and all are welcome.

Capstone Showcase and Competition

What: Fourth-year UBCO engineering students showcase year-end projects
Who: Students, faculty, staff, judges, members of the public
When: Friday, April 12, from 1 to 5 pm, open to the public at 3 pm
Where: KF Centre for Excellence, 5800 Lapointe Drive, Kelowna

The almost 300 graduating students in UBCO’s School of Engineering will have one final chance before exams to wow their professors.

To complete their degree, students work in groups on 48 specific projects and then present their findings at the capstone showcase. Each project is judged and the event concludes with winners in specific categories being announced.

The categories this year are advanced manufacturing, biocompatible systems, complex systems, infrastructure and sustainability. Within each of those, visitors will find projects encompassing ideas like a hydrogen freight locomotive fueling station design, concept designs for busy local intersections, Pickasaurus—a remote controlled fruit picker, a micro apartment including adaptable furniture designs and fatigue analysis on a mountain bike front triangle.

This event is free and open to the public at 3 pm. The day will wrap up with award presentations starting at about 4:40 pm.

The post UBCO engineering students showcase ingenuity at year-end events appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

What: A conversation with Dr. David Suzuki
Who: Renowned environmentalist, author, broadcaster and activist Dr. David Suzuki; members of the UBC Cluster of Research Excellence in Solar Energy for Net Zero
When: Thursday, April 4 at 3:45 pm
Venue: Livestreamed event

Is humanity at an ecological crossroad? How can each of us join the conversation and take steps toward a sustainable future?

Renowned environmentalist, author, broadcaster and activist Dr. David Suzuki will deliver a free talk on these topics at UBC Okanagan on Thursday, April 4.

Dr. Suzuki’s talk, titled Humanity at a Crossroad: Business as Usual or Transformation is presented by UBC’s Eminence Cluster of Research Excellence in Solar Energy for Net Zero, UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science and UBCO’s School of Engineering.

“Humanity has exceeded the capacity of the biosphere to sustain our species,” says Dr. Suzuki. “We have changed the chemistry of the atmosphere, the pH of the oceans and poisoned the soil. Already we are driving other species to extinction on such a scale that we, as the top predator on the planet, a voracious omnivore, are most vulnerable.”

Dr. Suzuki’s history with UBC spans more than 60 years. After earning his doctorate in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, he served as a professor in the genetics department at UBC from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. He now holds the title of UBC Professor Emeritus and was bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Science by the university in 2011.

“Dr. David Suzuki is an icon and a respected voice, not only in Canada but globally in the conversation about education and action in sustainability—from advancing solar energy technology to countless other areas of thinking, building and living greener,” says Dr. Will Hughes, Director of the School of Engineering. “We are honoured and excited to welcome Dr. Suzuki to campus to share his perspectives and dialogue with our community on topics that are addressed every day in UBC research, learning and teaching.”

The Solar Energy for Net Zero research cluster is one of the many ways UBC is advancing cutting-edge research on sustainable energy technologies. The team of interdisciplinary researchers is working closely with industry to meet the solar energy needs of communities today and into the future, explains Dr. Hughes.

People wishing to hear Dr. Suzuki’s talk can register for the live stream via the link available here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/a-conversation-with-dr-david-suzuki-tickets-812430841517

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Three people, who have made contributions to the growth of the Okanagan region and more specifically UBC’s Okanagan campus, will be recognized this spring with honorary degrees during UBCO’s graduation celebrations on June 6 and 7.

Honorary degrees are awarded by universities to recognize people who have made substantial contributions to society at the provincial, national or international levels. This year, UBCO is bringing these degrees to the local level, explains UBCO Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr. Lesley Cormack.

“This year we are proud to recognize three individuals who have contributed deeply to not only our university but to the Okanagan as a whole,” says Dr. Cormack.

Being honoured this year are Dr. Deborah Buszard, Ian Cull and Raghwa Gopal. Both Dr. Buszard and Cull have been instrumental in the development and growth of the Okanagan campus and Gopal has been a driving force for technological, entrepreneurial and economic innovation in the region.

“While a university’s primary role is to teach our students and conduct research, we also hope our university helps to inspire people—just as we have been inspired by Deborah, Ian and Raghwa,” says Dr. Cormack. “I am thrilled to see these honorary degrees presented to three people whose significant contributions have so positively shaped our community.”

During her eight-year tenure as Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UBC Okanagan, Dr. Buszard showed an unwavering dedication to helping the still young Okanagan campus transform into an institution with world-class academic programs and facilities.

Most recently, she led UBC as its Interim President, serving from 2022 to 2023. Throughout her UBC career, her leadership, advocacy and visionary approach has extended to the broader community and has fostered as well as strengthened the university’s relationships with the communities it serves, industries, health agencies and educational institutions within Canada and abroad.

“I am deeply honoured to receive this recognition and immensely grateful to the UBC Okanagan Senate for this award,” says Dr. Buszard. “I very much look forward to being in the company of Ian Cull and Raghwa Gopal when we celebrate with the 2024 graduating class.”

Cull has been described as a visionary and respected academic leader who has had an extraordinary and transformational impact on the lives of Indigenous students through his work at UBC Okanagan. He is a member of Dokis First Nation located in Nipissing Territory, Ontario and is recognized nationally and internationally for his contributions in the post-secondary sector.

Beginning in 2005, he led the creation of a range of Indigenous support systems and is responsible for the unique Access Studies Program, which provides a transformative experience for students that stays with them as they move into their degree studies and beyond.

“I would like to thank the UBC Okanagan Senate and those who nominated me for this honour,” says Cull. “I will strive to continue to be a worthy recipient. I acknowledge that our shared successes were only possible because of many skilled and committed people, for whom I am very grateful.”

Gopal has long been a driving force for technological innovation in the Okanagan region and served as a mentor and role model for new entrepreneurs and students. In 2012, he helped create Accelerate Okanagan, the region’s first local accelerator for startups, where he also served as Executive in Residence, and in 2015 he took on a more involved role as CEO.

He remains active in the tech and education industries, currently serving as a guest lecturer for the UBC Okanagan School of Engineering and the Faculty of Management and as an Advisory Board member for Sauder School of Business at UBC Vancouver.

“I am profoundly grateful to the University of British Columbia for this esteemed honour,” says Gopal. “It is a testament to the power of innovation and entrepreneurship in driving economic growth and societal progress. I am proud to have played a part in advancing these efforts in the region, and I look forward to continuing to support and inspire future generations of innovators.”

Dr. Buszard will receive her honorary degree at the 11 am graduation ceremony on June 6, and Ian Cull will receive his honorary degree at the 1:30 pm ceremony that same day. Raghwa Gopal will receive his honorary degree on Friday, June 7 at the 11 am ceremony.

UBC will honour 10 other remarkable individuals with honorary degrees this year. Along with the three to be presented at UBC Okanagan in June, other recipients include Academy Award-winning filmmaker Sarah Polley, human rights advocate Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, science-fiction writer William Gibson, and founding Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Ry Moran.

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While wind farms have become a widely popular method of generating energy, researchers are now looking at the impact of these large farms on wind patterns and the surrounding environment. Using large-scale simulations to better understand the way air moves across and within wind farms, researchers from UBC Okanagan and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands have developed a modelling framework that will help improve wind energy forecasts and productivity. The researchers also hope to learn how large wind farms can alter natural wind patterns. “Wind farms are getting so large that they can actually alter the structure of the incoming wind,” explains Dr. Joshua Brinkerhoff, an Associate Professor in UBCO’s School of Engineering. “The structure they are researching, which engineers call the atmospheric boundary layer, monitors how the wind’s speed, temperature and pressure varies with altitude.” Not only is locating where to put a wind farm a science in itself, he explains, but fine-tuning the location of individual turbines within a grouping is paramount to power output. While software helps guide the placement of the turbines to ensure the highest yield, poorly designed wind farms will generate less power than expected, making the wind farm uneconomical. “Our modelling framework is among the first to clearly describe how wind farms alter the atmospheric boundary layer, which makes it tremendously valuable in helping engineers design better wind farms,” says Dr. Brinkerhoff. Working alongside colleagues from TU Delft, doctoral student Sebastiano Stipa travelled to the Netherlands as part of a Mitacs Globalink exchange to conduct the research. The research team has developed an open-source, finite-volume framework tailored for large-scale studies of how wind farms interact with the atmosphere. The modelling framework, called the Toolbox for Stratified Convective Atmospheres (TOSCA), is designed to conduct extensive simulations of the turbulence created by big wind farms in realistic atmospheric conditions. The paper outlining TOSCA was published this week in Wind Energy Science. TOSCA, explains Stipa, can address at least two of the significant challenges currently facing wind energy by simulating boundary layer turbulence over large areas and the simulation of an entire wind farm under realistic atmospheric flow conditions. “The results of this research will lead to a better understanding of potential wind farm power estimates and an increase in their energy outputs,” says Stipa. “This new modelling framework can serve as a roadmap for the industry.” Dr. Brinkerhoff notes that computer modelling can help when wind farms are being established, especially to forecast whether they can create energy efficiently. “The most significant finding is that our model can capture the interaction between large wind farms and the oncoming wind,” he adds. “To date, this hasn’t been captured properly, leading to overestimation of how much power a wind farm will produce. This kind of overestimation is financially disastrous for the wind farm operators.” This research was supported by Mitacs Globalink, UL Renewables and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Computational resources were provided by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and Advanced Research Computing at the University of British Columbia.

A new wave of communication technology is quickly approaching and researchers at UBC Okanagan are investigating ways to configure next-generation mobile networks. Dr. Anas Chaaban works in the UBCO Communication Theory Lab where researchers are busy analyzing a theoretical wireless communication architecture that will be optimized to handle increasing data loads while sending and receiving data faster. Next-generation mobile networks are expected to outperform 5G on many fronts such as reliability, coverage and intelligence, explains Dr. Chaaban, an Assistant Professor in UBCO’s School of Engineering. And the benefits go far beyond speed. The next generation of technology is expected to be a fully integrated system that allows for instantaneous communications between devices, consumers and the surrounding environment, he says. These new networks will call for intelligent architectures that support massive connectivity, ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, high-quality experience, energy efficiency and lower deployment costs. “One way to meet these stringent requirements is to rethink traditional communication techniques by exploiting recent advances in artificial intelligence,” he says. “Traditionally, functions such as waveform design, channel estimation, interference mitigation and error detection and correction are developed based on theoretical models and assumptions. This traditional approach is not capable of adapting to new challenges introduced by emerging technologies.” Using a technology called transformer masked autoencoders, the researchers are developing techniques that enhance efficiency, adaptability and robustness. Dr. Chaaban says while there are many challenges in this research, it is expected it will play an important role in next-generation communication networks. “We are working on ways to take content like images or video files and break them down into smaller packets in order to transport them to a recipient,” he says “The interesting thing is that we can throw away a number of packets and rely on AI to recover them at the recipient, which then links them back together to recreate the image or video.” The experience, even today, is something users take for granted but next-generation technology—where virtual reality will be a part of everyday communications including cell phone calls—is positioned to improve wireless systems substantially, he adds. The potential is unparalleled. “AI provides us with the power to develop complex architectures that propel communications technologies forward to cope with the proliferation of advanced technologies such as virtual reality,” says Chaaban. “By collectively tackling these intricacies, the next generation of wireless technology can usher in a new era of adaptive, efficient and secure communication networks.” The research is published in the latest issue of IEEE Communications Magazine. The post Artificial intelligence helps unlock advances in wireless communications appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

Climate change and varying rainfall patterns are forcing municipalities in semi-arid regions such as the Okanagan to investigate more resilient ways to retain and use stormwater. With this in mind, a team of UBC Okanagan researchers used the campus itself to examine and evaluate the lifecycle of low-impact developments (LIDs) that are intentionally created to help control and retain rainwater. “The Okanagan is a great case study that can help us better understand what developers and governments need to consider when building much-needed new housing without adversely impacting our environment,” explains lead author Dr. Sadia Ishaq, who recently completed her doctoral degree at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering. Increasing populations and development trends are modifying urban land landscapes while producing large amounts of rainwater runoff, rendering curbs and gutters obsolete for overflow transport. The major limitations of conventional systems are related to a reduction in baseflow and groundwater recharge, which results in valuable resources being drained into streams or rivers. Examples of LIDs include retention ponds, porous pavement, rain gardens, green roofs and bioswales—intentionally created vegetative areas that retain rainwater—to help reduce flood risks and collect runoff. Using a lifecycle management analysis of LIDs at UBC’s Okanagan campus, Dr. Ishaq, along with Dr. Anber Rana, considered the resources and energy required throughout the lifecycle of the LIDS, as well as the release of waste and pollutants into the environment. The aim was to evaluate the environmental impacts of LIDs installed at UBC Okanagan over an assumed service life of 30 years; construction costs and materials were also considered. The university’s goal for sustainable runoff management is to capture 90 per cent of the annual rainfall and divert 100 per cent of it from the municipal sewage system through capture, reuse, infiltration and storage. Existing campus LIDs include the development of depressed rain gardens, bioswales, box planters and wetlands. These LIDs are intended for an area of 389 hectares and operate by gravity flow of runoff via the drainage system without pumps. “Rainwater is considered a valuable resource at UBC Okanagan, and the campus has a series of on-site runoff retention and infiltration infrastructure, which aims to support zero-net impact targets on the environment,” explains Dr. Rana, study co-author and a postdoctoral fellow. The findings determined that box planters and naturally occurring wetlands provide significant environmental and financial benefits beyond simple stormwater management, with box planters offering the lowest impacts. “LIDs can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy costs,” adds Dr. Ishaq. “Conservation of natural features with water holding capacity is highly recommended to reap ecosystem sustainability as well as cost savings.” The researchers are now turning their attention to other circular economy principles when comparing other green infrastructure to gauge their potential compared to traditional methods. A substantial investment by the federal government into green infrastructure, as part of the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund, suggests the government also sees the benefits of green infrastructure. This study was carried out under the guidance of Drs. Rehan Sadiq and Kasun Hewage at UBCO’s Life Cycle Management Laboratory. This research was published recently in the Journal of Cleaner Production and was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The post Climate change leads engineers to harness the power of green appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

As the wind and rain pound the blades of a wind turbine, UBC Okanagan researchers carefully monitor screens, hundreds of kilometres away analyzing if the blade’s coatings can withstand the onslaught. While this was only a test in a lab, the researchers are working to improve the way structures such as turbines, helicopter propellers and even bridges are monitored for wear and tear from the weather. A changing climate is increasing the need for better erosion-corrosion monitoring in a wide range of industries from aviation to marine transportation and from renewable energy generation to construction, explains UBC Okanagan doctoral student Vishal Balasubramanian. In many industries, wear-resistant coatings are used to protect a structure from erosive wear. However, these coatings have a limited service life and can wear out with time. As a result, these coated structures are periodically inspected for abrasion and breaches, which are then fixed by recoating the damaged areas. Currently, these inspections are done manually using a probe, and Balasubramanian—one of several researchers working in UBC’s Okanagan Microelectronics and Gigahertz Applications (OMEGA) lab—is working to develop sensors that can be embedded directly into the coatings. This could take away any chance of human-caused errors and drastically reduce the inspection time. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) into these embedded sensors the researchers can monitor in real-time the wear and tear of protective mechanical coatings designed to prevent catastrophic failures. “By leveraging AI technologies into our microwave resonator sensors, we’re able to detect not only surface-level coating erosion but we can also distinguish when an individual layer is being eroded within a multi-layer coating,” explains Balasubramanian, lead author of the research recently published in Nature Communications. Some studies suggest that metal corrosion in the United States has a cost of nearly $300 billion a year; more than three per cent of that country’s gross domestic product. But it’s not just about money. Erosion can cause irreversible damage to the exterior surfaces of bridges, aircraft, cars and naval infrastructure, explains Balasubramanian. History has a long list of disasters where erosion was identified as the primary reason for structural failures that have led to the loss of thousands of lives—including the 2018 Genoa bridge collapse in Italy, the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in India and the 2000 Carlsbad gas pipeline fire in Texas. “Being able to proactively monitor and address equipment degradation—especially in harsh environments—can undoubtedly safeguard important infrastructure and reduce the effect on human life,” says Dr. Mohammad Zarifi, an Associate Professor in UBCO’s School of Engineering and principal investigator at the OMEGA Lab. “For several years, we’ve been developing microwave-based sensors for ice detection and the addition of newer technologies like AI and AR can improve these sensors’ effectiveness exponentially.” The newly developed sensors can detect and locate the eroding layer in multi-layered coatings and can also detect the total wear depth of protective coatings. This information is collected and can provide a detailed understanding for engineers and stakeholders of the potential damage and danger of failures. In the lab, the differential network device interface system was tested at varying temperatures—extreme hot and cold—and different levels of humidity and UV exposure to mimic several harsh environments. The developed system was tested with different types of coatings and its response was monitored in four different types of experimental setups that performed the desired environmental parameter variations. “We tested our sensors under some of the harshest environments including various temperatures, humidity and UV exposures,” says Balasubramanian. “We continue to push the limits of what these sensors are able to withstand in order to stay ahead of what’s transpiring around the world.” For his work, Balasubramanian was recently recognized with an Award for Excellence in Microsystems CAD Tool & Design Methodology by CMC Microsystems and sponsored by COMSOL. The award recognizes a graduate student who demonstrates a novel design technology advancement with the most potential for applicable improvements to microsystems manufacture and deployment. The research was supported by funding from the Department of National Defence of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. The post UBCO researchers hope to prevent catastrophes with next-generation sensors appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.

UBC Okanagan researchers are taking a deep dive into the analytical data of public aquatic facilities in an effort to minimize environmental impacts and make them more energy efficient. With nearly 3,000 publicly owned aquatic facilities across Canada, municipalities are continually looking for ways to further reduce their environmental impacts while keeping operational costs manageable, explains Dr. Michael De Coste, a Postdoctoral Researcher with the School of Engineering’s Life Cycle Management Laboratory. Through the four-year community-based project, the researchers will develop best management practices for new and existing aquatic centres to optimize the operations of the facilities. The project will focus on three key pillars: water, health and energy. “Over the course of this research, we’ll be monitoring water and air quality, building energy use and overall user experience,” says Dr. De Coste. “Comparing this data will paint a clearer image of the benchmarks required for aquatic facilities to meet their goals today and into the future.” Three of British Columbia’s largest cities—Burnaby, Richmond and Kelowna—have partnered with the life cycle lab to identify new opportunities to address these areas through a new water-health-energy nexus approach. As part of the unique partnership, the researchers have access to the participating facilities and will be provided with the essential data to analyze the operational costs, energy consumption and user experience of each aquatic centre. Along with the three cities, industry and regulatory partners, including the local health authorities, have joined in to determine methods to optimize aquatic facilities and, at the same time, keep staff and users safe. Industrial and commercial partners in this research include HCMA Architecture + Design, DB Perks and Associates Ltd, AME Group and Myrtha Pools. The research team includes Drs. De Coste and Haroon R. Mian along with supervisors Drs. Rehan Sadiq and Kasun Hewage from UBCO’s Life Cycle Management Laboratory. The team is also collaborating with Dr. Andrea MacNeill from Planetary Healthcare Laboratory. In particular, they will investigate and analyze the impacts of total energy use in each facility along with chemical use, total life cycle cost and thermal comfort. Their findings will help develop a dashboard platform to provide evidence-based tools for municipalities to leverage in their ongoing efforts to optimize energy consumption and minimize the health risks of users and staff while enabling a more cost-effective method of operation, explains Dr. Sadiq. “All of the partners are leaders in sustainability and innovation, and have leapt right in sharing information that—once analyzed—will add to measures already in place that make new and existing aquatic facilities in these communities more sustainable and operationally less expensive,” he says. “We are excited at this opportunity to play a role in reducing the environmental footprint of aquatic facilities across the country.” The post UBCO researchers dive into ways to make public pools more environmentally sustainable appeared first on UBC Okanagan News.