The University of British Columbia Okanagan Senate has formally approved a mechatronics engineering option commencing in September 2018.

The courses affiliated to this option are being designed and scheduled to accommodate the 2018 winter first year student cohort, and will commence in their third-year. The admission process will open in May 2019.

The option will equip students with state-of-the-art skills, theories and design methodologies. It will be available to both electrical and mechanical engineering program students who complete option-specified design and technical elective courses along with two computer science courses (COSC 121 and COSC 222). Electives to be chosen from a list of approved Mechatronics Option courses provided by the School of Engineering. The option will only be available to 30 students each year.

Like regular bachelor of applied science students, students registered in Mechatronics Option will be required to complete a minimum of 145 credits including required number of design, and technical courses. Students in the mechatronics option will also be encouraged, but not required, to choose a mechatronics-related capstone project.

Further details about the new mechatronics option will be available soon.

Researchers at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia have discovered a way to balance power transfer efficiency with power loss due to inactivity in wireless power transfer systems.

The results could make new wireless power transfer systems more sustainable and limit health risks from electromagnetic waves through reduced radiated field levels.

Many wireless power transfer chargers on the market today are intended to address the power demands of mobile electronic devices such as smartphones, electric toothbrushes, and even implanted medical devices like pacemakers.

These relatively complex units use a variety of technologies to transmit power wirelessly using electromagnetic fields.

A wireless power system is essentially a wireless transmitter between a battery and the device that is being charged.  Power from a battery is transferred to a nearby electronic device using a set of matching wire coils that generate a high frequency magnetic field.

Magnetic fields are most commonly used in wireless power transfer and allow power to travel over a short distance using inductive coupling between coils of wire.  The process is effective but the drawback is that power is drained even when the wireless power system is not in use.

“We were looking for a way to maintain the efficiency of these units without draining power when the system was no longer charging” explains Connor Badowich, a graduate student in the School of Engineering, and one of the authors of a recent paper on the subject.

Badowich worked with Loïc Markley, an assistant professor within the electrical engineering program, to develop a 4-coil magnetic resonance coupling wireless power transfer system that maintained power transfer efficiency while limiting its power loss during inactivity.

Markley says the experimentation process was a balancing act.  “When you change one of the coils, the efficiency immediately drops.” according to Markley. “We found a way to change two coils in equal and opposite ways to reduce power losses by 65% and still maintain the efficiency at 90% of maximum.”

Markley described the process much like a scale where a single weight place on one side will unbalance the scale until an equal weight is placed on the opposite side.  “Basically the transmitter cannot draw power until a receiver is placed nearby and the system is balanced.”

The result of this innovation is that the power transfer systems are more efficient and sustainable. Lowered radiated field levels around the device also reduces possible adverse health effects and spectral noise.

The paper was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

The integration of research across both campuses of the University of British Columbia will be paramount to its success over the next decade and beyond according to Walter Mérida, associate dean of research and industrial partnerships at UBC.

Mérida and directors from four UBC research centres and institutes met with researchers from the Okanagan campus to reinforce existing projects and look towards futures collaborations.

“We are a top-40 research university where open, innovative thinking is changing the world” says Mérida.  “Our collaborations with researchers from the Okanagan are opening up new opportunities and resulting in breakthrough discoveries.”

That is music to the ears of School of Engineering Associate Dean, Rehan Sadiq, who has long championed the research endeavours of UBC Okanagan researchers.

“We are proud to punch above our weight when it comes to research especially with respect to publishing in top-tier global journals in our fields” says Sadiq.

Research at the Okanagan campus ranks within the top 5 of Canada’s most recognized engineering programs when it comes to publications in top journals.

According to Sadiq “by embracing synergies and resources between both campuses, research emanating from the University of British Columbia will continue to be world-class.”

Research on the Okanagan campus within the School of Engineering is categorized under five core research clusters: advanced materials and manufacturing, advanced systems, clean energy and environmental systems, health technologies and urban infrastructure and green construction.

The research conducted under those clusters is distributed amongst the nine research centres and institutes that operate between both campuses.

During their meetings at the Okanagan campus of UBC, directors and researchers discussed increasing capacity and areas of research, identified specific collaboration opportunities and looked to activate Okanagan nodes.

The directors in attendance included Robert Rohling, director of the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS), John Madden, director of the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laborator, Mark Martinez, director of the Pulp and Paper Centre/MEL Green Bio-Products and Walter Mérida, director of the Clean Energy Research Centre.

“It is exciting to see that many institutes and research centres are now being led by and from researchers at the Okanagan campus” explains Mérida.  “It definitely demonstrates a maturing of the School of Engineering, and promises great things ahead.”

Congratulations to Dawson Barnes, Jim Bell and Dele Oyelese who were all recognized as winners of the 2018 Gordon Springate Essay Contest.

(from right to left) Richard Klukas, Dawson Barnes, Jim Bell, Dele Oyelese and Gordon Springate

Gordon Springate, UBC Chemical Engineering alumni and current Technology Research and Development Manager for Chevron, spent last week mentoring School of Engineering students as a part of his Essay Contest initiative.

The Springate family have been long-time supporters of the School of Engineering on the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia.

A new micro, non-contact flow sensor uses microfluidics and microwave electronics to sense flow.

Using an innovative type of flow sensor, researchers at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia have uncovered a new way to measure flow rates.

Controlling flow in a micro-environment such as sorting tissue cells or producing composite materials is just as important as controlling the flow in larger-scale environments like water systems and oil pipelines.

A slight change in flow rate may lead to unwanted variations in production.

Using microfluidic components and microwave electronics, Engineering Assistant Professor Mohammad Hossein Zarifi along with collaborators from the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta have developed a device that can monitor flow rates and composition in a real-time, non-contact and non-intrusive manner.

The new sensor is able to maintain a high-level of accuracy even within complex environments where bioreactors or biosensors may change the flow of components.

Typically, these sorts of micro sensors require a small pump to maintain a consistent flow for the analysis.  Whereas the new sensor does not require that step and is able to monitor flow and various properties simultaneously.

“By combining microwave and microfluidic technology, the device is able to measure the flow rate at multiple points of the fluidic system” explains Zarifi.   “While lab-on-a-chip solutions can be integrated to microchips, they cannot measure localized flow alterations and may interrupt the normal flow patterns in microsystems.”

By using this smaller sensor, users may reduce processing time and sample volume.  Furthermore, the new device is portable and handles several tasks at the same time.

According to Zarifi “by working at a micro-scale, we are able to use this device and combine it with others to create integrated high-throughput systems that can monitor and assess fluids with little to no additional complexity.”

The research was undertaken at the University of Alberta with support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The research was published in Nature.

UBC Okanagan engineering student volunteers to build bridge in Haiti

Photo courtesy of Rick George

A punishing climate, a language barrier, inexperienced local crews and a remote area of Haiti weren’t going to stop a group of Canadians from finishing the job they had set out to accomplish.

Among the group was fourth-year UBC Okanagan civil engineering student Rick George.

Photo courtesy of Rick George

The Canadians were in Haiti last month to build a 150-foot bridge across a river separating two neighbouring communities. The initiative was funded by two Western Canadian philanthropists.

With eight-years of construction experience, George was responsible for supervising a group of local workers handling the rebar and bolting of the bridge’s four sections and the laying of the deck.  Using the skills he picked up in the classroom and his construction background, George played an important role in the project.

“We were working closely with a firm back in Canada, but I was the on-the-ground technical coordinator” says George.  “There were seven Canadians in the group and we were joined by 22 local workers who had never built a bridge before.”

The biggest challenges, says George, were communication and remoteness.

“We were five hours from the nearest store, so when something went wrong, we needed to problem-solve with the resources we had on hand.”

That included, using big rollers and the heavy equipment on site to move the bridge sections in place since a crane could not access the remote location.

After three arduous weeks, the bridge was completed.  Residents from one community were able to cross the river safely on their way to school or to visit the region’s only health care facility.

This wasn’t George’s first experience overseas. Following high school, he travelled to Kenya with a group to construct a building.  He says these experiences have inspired him to do more.

Photo courtesy of Rick George

“There are so many areas in the world that could use just a little help” says George.  “And I hope after I graduate that I can use my experience and education to lend a hand.”

George will graduate from the School of Engineering this spring, but in the meantime is catching up on the work he missed while in Haiti.

“I was fortunate that my professors were able to move some assignments around so I have been able to make up what I have missed” says George.

Third-year engineering student, Ishrak Iltut, finds success outside the box.

Growing up in Bangladesh, the Okanagan was the furthest thing from Ishrak Iltut’s mind.

Born into a military family, Iltut excelled at school and was named college captain of the elite military boarding school that he attended.

“My upbringing built my character when it comes to resiliency” explains Iltut “and I am grateful for the experience.”

In high school, while attending and speaking at a leadership conference, Iltut had a chance encounter that would change his life.

One of the attendees was so impressed with his talk on a significant life experience that she made a point of tracking him down afterwards to chat.

Over the course of that conversation, she suggested that he consider applying for the International Leader of Tomorrow Award at the University of British Columbia

The Leader of Tomorrow Award provides an opportunity for exceptional international students to attend UBC.

According to Iltut, leaving Bangladesh was not an easy decision.

“It was one of the hardest decisions of my life” says Iltut “but looking back at it today, there is no doubt in my mind that I made the right decision.”

As a third-year civil engineering students, Iltut has done more than most students do in four or five years of study.

“I have always wanted to make an impact and influence generations.”

So instead of solely focusing on academics alone, Iltut pushed himself to step out of his comfort zone.

He join and started clubs on campus including the new cryptocurrency club and took a pre-MBA core program through Harvard.

During his Co-op term at the City of Burnaby, he participated in a UBC blockchain summer institute where he met some students who have since become his business partners.

Their financial technology digital marketplace venture is starting to pick up momentum.

Later this month, Iltut heads to MIT to participate in their Venture Capital and Innovation Conference.

“Engineering has taught me analytical thinking” says Iltut, “but more importantly it has taught me how to take the tools of assessment and design outside into the real-world.”

Iltut envisions blockchain technology having a huge impact on the financial industry and changing the lives for “unbanked” and “under-banked” people around the world.

“I am excited to be taking the lessons I’ve learned at UBC Okanagan about civil engineering and expanding upon them in a virtual space.”

In the meantime, he will continue to juggle the rigors of starting a business with the challenges of completing his degree.

Students in ENGR 421/521 recently took part in a workshop led by BC Transit’s Planning Manager and WATT Consulting Group’s Senior Transportation Planner and Transit Lead.

ENGR 421/521 is a specialized course in public transit planning, design, and operations. The course is the only one offered in British Columbia that features a pedagogy of teaching public transportation through best-practice strategies of modern transit systems.  The course included an intensive and interactive workshop focused on transit planning best-practices, community land use plans, intermodal integration, and overall transit networks.

“This workshop gives our students an opportunity to learn from practitioners in the field to build upon the concepts covered in the class” says Ahmed Idris, an assistant professor in the School of Engineering, who designed and teaches the course. “Transportation engineering and planning should not be taught in any other way!”

According to BC Transit’s Planning Manager, Matthew Boyd, participating in such a workshop is as much a learning experience for him as it is for the students. “Workshops like this assist in continuing to build awareness of the important role public transit plays in healthy and thriving communities.”  He jointly led the workshop with Tania Wegwitz of WATT Consulting Group.  “We share a desire to create livable communities,” says Wegwitz “and it is really important for us to give future community leaders an understanding of what’s required to do so.”

During the workshop, students worked in groups to apply best-practices to design a full-fledged public transit network in a random Canadian city.  The results were then presented to the full group and the workshop facilitators for feedback.

Fourth-year civil engineering student, Alexandra Haag, says she enjoyed the design exercise component of the workshop “it provided us with an opportunity to apply the transit planning theory we’ve learned in lectures in a practical context.”  Eric Ma, a fourth-year civil engineering student shared that sentiment.  “As a student who’s interested in working within the public transportation industry after graduation, this workshop gave us an idea of current transit planning practices, as well as provided us with an opportunity to experience the real-life needs in transit planning.”

As the course comes to an end, Idris says the success of the workshop speaks for itself.  “I know students are leaving this course with a greater understanding of the tools and mechanisms transit planners utilize to build healthy and thriving communities”.

“Good research takes collaboration, and you never know where that collaboration will come from,” says Dwayne Tannant, professor of civil and geotechnical engineering at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus.  Tannant has collaborated with researchers from nearly every continent.  As a professor, he has supervised graduate students from around the World.  “I love the opportunity to exchange knowledge” explains Tannant “we share a common research area, but our perspectives are often different.”

Tannant specializes in geotechnical engineering including landslides, rock support, terrain modelling and analysis.  Over the past twenty years, Tannant has seen a low number of domestic applications for PhD level studies in his field.  “The industry jobs are just too well-paying that domestic students are not seeing the benefit of doing a doctorate” says Tannant.  Instead, he is continuing to see exceptional applications from high-achieving students from abroad including China.  “The process to study abroad when you are a student in China is highly competitive, so these applicants bring superior credentials.”  Tannant says more and more international students are applying to conduct research under his supervision at UBC Okanagan.

“Hats off to the Chinese government for proactively spending money on higher education,” says Tannant.  Of his current cohort of doctoral students, five are from China and supported by the China Scholarship Council.  Three of these students are visiting PhD students; another three visiting students recently returned to China after spending one to two years here.  “Not only do many of these students have impressive credentials, but they also have the mandate to publish,” he explains.  Tannant not only hosts visiting students but also visiting professors; four over the past years (3 from China and 1 from Italy) and another professor from China about to arrive.

“I see the whole process of bringing in international students as an opportunity to collectively raise our level of knowledge,” says Tannant.  While the visiting students and scholars spend their time at UBC Okanagan, Tannant makes a point of ensuring they get a sense of what Canada is all about.  “Researchers easily get stuck focused on their research and may not appreciate their surrounding environment and activities that draw Canadians to the Okanagan.”  To add balance to the constant research, Tannant takes his visiting students on boat rides around Lake Okanagan and curling at the local rink, and encourages them to hike the nearby trails.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to visit and lecture in China a couple of times,” says Tannant “and I am hoping this relationship continues to grow into the future.”  In the meantime, he continues to collaborate with researchers from Canada, Brazil, Iran, Italy, and Australia.

LifeSciences BC held a Showcase Series event at UBC Okanagan on Thursday November 23, 2017. 

The event was hosted by School of Engineering Director Mina Hoorfar and featured speakers from various health sciences fields.  Symposium topics included cutting-edge research and development being done in the Kelowna area.