Civil and Environmental Engineering

A team of engineering students has designed a cost-effective and sustainable erosion control structure that will help protect a children’s camp based at the riverbank of the Saugeen River in Walkerton, Ontario. 

“The outer banks of river bends are often subjected to erosion due to the force of the flowing water, which sweep sediments downstream,” said Karla Gorospe, a civil engineering MASc candidate, who worked on the student capstone project. “To minimize the erosive effects of the flowing water at Camp Cherith, we designed a hybrid system that includes a series of rock structures called bendway weirs and woody plants. While the bendway weirs help in redirecting the flow away from the bank, the woody plants and tree cuttings stabilize the soils.”

Camp Cherith, a Christian camp for children and youth, approached the university in fall 2016 to seek help with its erosion problem, which has resulted in significant property loss and affected regular camp activities.

A UWindsor engineering professor is leading the way on an industry-academia collaboration that aims to improve drinking water quality in the capital of India.

Dr. Rajesh Seth has obtained funding through the India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS) — a Canadian Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) dedicated to the development of research collaborations between Canada and India.

The joint project with researchers from the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in India aims to improve sewage contaminated lake water quality through aeration and floating wetland plants. Dylan Verburg, an environmental engineering MASc. candidate studying under Dr. Seth, will spend the fall semester in India collecting samples and data from Sonia Vihar Lake, a small polluted water pond which discharges into the Yamuna river — a source of Delhi’s drinking water.

A team of students who designed a system to help visually impaired people navigate their surroundings are particularly excited about one aspect of their project: the difference it can make in the lives of users.

“It could help people in the real world,” says Hejir Rashidzadeh, one of three fourth-year students of electrical and computer engineering behind the “Intelligent Blind Man Aid,” which combines a camera and ultrasonic sensors with a voice command system.

The team set up an obstacle course to allow blindfolded guests try the experience for themselves, as part of Capstone Design Demonstration Day, Friday in the lobby of the Centre for Engineering Innovation. It was one of dozens of displays by groups of students in various engineering disciplines: electrical and computer; civil and environmental; and mechanical, automotive and materials.

Dr. Rupp Carriveau talks about his underwater energy storage research with graduates from the Class of 1967 in UWindsor's Turbulence and Energy Lab.

Henry Regts (BASc 1967) says he owes a lot to the University of Windsor.

Admitted as a mature student to the civil engineering program, Regts said the education he received prepared him for a successful career in the profession. He helped to bring together several fellow graduates of the Class of 1967 Wednesday for a tour of the Centre for Engineering Innovation.

“It’s Canada’s 150th year and our 50th year,” he said. “We’ve only had one reunion in that time and to me it was a big deal graduating in 1967. You’ve got to celebrate these things.”

His lasting contributions to engineering education and research in health, automotive, and aerospace industries earned UWindsor dean of engineering Mehrdad Saif induction as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Saif was one of 52 new fellows inducted at a ceremony June 26 in Ottawa during the academy’s annual general meeting. His citation noted more than 250 publications, discoveries incorporated into vehicles from the Chevrolet Malibu to the Cadillac Northstar, and innovative interdisciplinary academic programs including the UWindsor master’s program in engineering management (MEM).

It’s not often the dean of engineering receives hand-written letters, let alone one printed in pencil describing robots that catch and clean up after litterbugs.

Dean Mehrdad Saif was pleasantly surprised when he received a letter from Masha Dmitrenko, a Grade 4 student at John Campbell Public School. Dmitrenko wanted to know what she should do to become an engineer.

“What is the hardest part of engineering? What is the coolest part of engineering? I always wanted be an engineer. I have a question: can you make art robots?” the eight-year-old asked in her letter.

Several engineering faculty and staff members were honoured for their commitment to innovation, teaching and service at a ceremony on June 13.

Dr. Mehrdad Saif, the dean of engineering, handed out four awards for outstanding faculty and staff performances in research, teaching and service at the engineering faculty’s 2017 Medals of Excellence Ceremony held in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

Linda Breschuk received the staff service award for being “the silent hero and strength behind the scenes for undergraduate support.”

Breschuk, the secretary to the associate dean, academic, completed 41 years of service earlier this month.

“She is one of the most hard-working individuals in the Faculty of Engineering and deals with faculty, students and staff with sincerity, honesty and professionalism,” a nominator wrote.

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Triangles are the sturdiest shape, says Dunya Assaf. That’s why she and her teammates chose it as the basis for their design of a model bridge.

“We’re trying to make it as sturdy and as long as possible,” said Assaf, a Grade 11 student at Vincent Massey Secondary School. “We made a base for the car to travel across and we’re incorporating triangles so it has a more stable surface.”

She and about 130 physics classmates came to the Centre for Engineering Innovation on Thursday to take part in a competition judged by representatives of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority.

Forty years after leaving campus as new graduates, civil engineering classmates of ‘77 returned to the University of Windsor to reunite and reflect on where it all began.

“It’s just touching to have that connection again,” said UWindsor alumnus Stan Taylor, who organized the get-together.

Taylor, Max Fantuz, Paul Eyraud, Ray Chevalier, Dan Piescic, Spyros Govas and Brian Boyle met with handshakes and embraces at the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation (CEI) on April 22, 2017. During a tour of CEI led by current civil and environmental engineering faculty, the group of mostly retirees was pleasantly surprised to find Dr. Murray Temple and Dr. Jatinder Bewtra, two of their former professors, waiting for them in one of the labs.