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Dr. Biswas honoured for work on clean water

UWindsor professor Nihar Biswas received an honorary degree from the University of Guelph in recognition for his contributions to environmental engineering education and to clean water technology that has improved the lives of people worldwide.

Dr. Biswas, a former acting vice president-research, former senior associate dean of engineering, and a faculty member since 1981, told graduands at the June 12 Convocation celebration that continued access to safe clean water continues to pose a challenge in countries across the globe.

“You will of course face challenges in your work, in your life,” he said in his formal address acknowledging his honour. “Innovation could be the key to solve those challenges.”

Symposium examines studies of sustainability

Nearly 100 local and international scientists, engineers, policy makers, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs gathered June 20 to 22 in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation to discuss recent advances in renewable energy generation, transmission, storage, and consumption.

The Energy and Sustainability 2018 Summit examined studies on climate change, waste and recycling, green buildings, green economy, and social sustainability and featured an electric conversion performance vehicle.

UWindsor students and alumni honoured by engineering community

Several University of Windsor engineering students and alumni were honoured during a local celebration of the engineering profession.

Windsor’s Engineering Month Committee hosts an annual awards luncheon to “bring public awareness to the diversity and importance of the exciting fields of engineering and technology and invite prospective students to consider these professions,” said Tina Hawco, chair of the Engineering Month Committee.

The committee is comprised of engineers and technologists from local municipalities, consulting engineering firms, the University of Windsor, St. Clair College, professional associations and industry.

Priscilla Williams, a PhD candidate in the civil and environmental engineering department, Michael Cappucci, BASc ’11, and Aaron Blata, BASc ’14, were named the Top Three Under 30 during a ceremony April 13, 2018 at the Fogolar Furlan Club for demonstrating higher than average abilities to undertake engineering projects, outstanding work ethic and leadership early in their careers.

Engineering students address climate impacts on water resources

Swollen by rain and melting snow, the Thames River burst its banks in February, inundating southwestern Ontario with its worst floods in 40 years.

The effects of such a catastrophe can be mitigated, says Monika Saha, a master’s candidate in civil engineering, and one of more than 20 students who presented projects in the Centre for Engineering Innovation on Thursday, March 22, in celebration of World Water Day.

Saha is working to create models of the lower Thames River that can predict floods in Chatham-Kent.

“We’ll basically capture the flow. With our hydrologic and hydraulic models getting the input level, it will give you the output to predict which areas will be inundated,” she said. “You will be able to take precautions.”

Robot design project arms engineering students for professional practice

A project to design and build hydraulic robotic arms powered by syringes taught a class of engineering students about the challenges of the profession.

Teams demonstrated their creations for the third-year course “Manufacturing Process Design,” Thursday in the Centre for Engineering Innovation. Each project had to incorporate several joints and be able to grasp and lift an object, operated by rubber-piston needle syringes.

Designs incorporated wood and metal, dowels and glue, 3D-printed and molded plastics, employing fluids as different as oil and water to operate crab-like claws.

Design competition sparks creativity in electronics students

A design competition for electrical engineering students brought their learning out of textbooks and into reality last week.

“It was interesting to apply the theory we learned in class to predict circuit behaviour and help troubleshoot,” said Emilie Bondy, whose team took home first place for designing a Multiple Option Input Responsive Beverage Mixer.

Bondy and her teammates, Muntasir Alam and Tristen Michaud-Laughton, received $180 in UWindsor Campus Bookstore gift certificates.

More than 100 electrical engineering students from professor Mitra Mirhassani’s third-year class, “Electronics II,” competed. As part of a course requirement, students were tasked with designing a product under a $30 budget using an analog circuit and various signal processors.

Blog records student involvement in Indian hydro-engineering project

Dylan Verburg grew up on a farm, and his experience with small construction projects there has proven invaluable in his current challenge — deploying equipment in a drainage pond outside the Indian capital of New Delhi in an attempt to improve water quality.

“Two 50-foot sections of tubing were placed … with the intention of oxidizing the inlet stream before it mixes with the main body of the lake,” the civil engineering student writes in a blog on the Windsor Engineering website. “Six additional lines are placed strategically in the main body of the lake,” located along the Yamuna River in North Delhi.

He will measure the resulting changes, which aim to aerate the water, allowing beneficial bacteria to flourish and naturally restore the ecosystem.

Competition sees students coast to victory while honing design skills

Mechanical engineering students took a break from their books Friday to compete against their peers in a gravity car competition. More than 50 students took part in the friendly competition hosted for the first time by the university’s Master of Engineering Auto Student Advisory Council.

“This competition is an opportunity for students to showcase their design skills and their knowledge of fundamental engineering concepts such as aerodynamics,” said Tracy Beemer, program administrator for the MEng Automotive program.

Combustion research lands Andrzej Sobiesiak international accolade

The head of the UWindsor Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering has been recognized by the Polish Academy of Sciences for his outstanding contributions towards advances in the knowledge of combustion process and technologies.

Andrzej Sobiesiak received the Dionizy Smoleński Medal September 5, during a joint meeting of the Polish Section of the Combustion Institute and XXIII International Symposium on Combustion Processes in Rynia near Warsaw, Poland after delivering a keynote lecture on “Internal Combustion Engines Fuelled with Solutions of Liquid and Gaseous Fuels.”

At the award ceremony, Dr. Sobiesiak was cited for his research on droplets combustion in microgravity, development and work on flameless combustion and ultra-low NOx burner, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines charged with fuels derived from biomass and unique split-cycle engine fuelled with natural gas.