$20 million in Ontario research funding

UW researchers have received more than $20 million from the Ontario Research Fund’s Research Infrastructure program, funded by the Ontario government. The announcement was made Friday as government officials and media visited a lab in UW’s Chemistry II building.

"This sizable and important public investment will ensure that our professors and students have the capability to perform world-class research and technology development that will eventually benefit society," said George Dixon, UW's vice-president (university research).

The projects receiving the current round of funding have also had federal support through the Canada Foundation for Innovation, with some of the grants announced in January 2009, some in April and some in August. Details, as identified in a backgrounder from the UW media relations office:

• Water Quality Research Platform in Urban and Urbanizing Watersheds. Lead researcher: James Barker, earth and environmental sciences. Ontario funding: $8,853,561. Using a section of the Grand River watershed designated for future growth, researchers from eight universities are developing breakthrough technologies in drinking water and wastewater treatment to meet current and emerging challenges. They use "smart" hydrologic instruments to determine the impacts on water quality from changing agriculture practices, increased waste and storm water discharge and water reuse. They seek to develop innovative processes to meet current and emerging challenges in drinking water and wastewater treatment.

• Materials and Manufacturing for Lightweight Automotive Structures and Advanced Occupant Protection. Lead researchers: Michael Worswick, mechanical and mechatronics engineering, and Joe McDermid, McMaster University. Ontario funding: $3,774,926. The UW and McMaster research teams use innovative fabrication processes and corrosion protection strategies to develop the next generation of lightweight automotive materials, which will reduce vehicle fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while improving safety.

• Smart Materials Ontario: Advancing New Functional Materials Technology. Lead researcher: Tong Leung, chemistry. Ontario funding: $2,903,866. Smart Materials Ontario aims to dramatically transform the way materials are made, specifically "smart" functional materials. These materials have one or more properties that can be changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, temperature and moisture, enabling new applications. Using the most advanced ion microscope and spectrometer in the world and a rapid prototyping facility, researchers develop innovative devices that include biosensors, electronics and biomolecular devices, and low-cost solar panel cells. (Article in Saturday's Record.)

• Secure Global Information Transport Infrastructure with Flexible Mobility Support. Lead researcher: Sherman Shen, electrical and computer engineering. Ontario funding: $1,884,171. Shen develops novel protocols, algorithms and techniques to address network security concerns, while enabling user mobility. His work will give the telecommunications industry a competitive edge in the world.

• Advanced Joining Facilities for Macro, Micro and Nano Level Fabrications. Lead researcher: Norman Zhou, mechanical and mechatronics engineering. Ontario funding: $1,183,608. Materials joining is an enabling technology in the manufacture of almost all industrial products, from aircraft to automobiles, microelectronics to medical implants. The Centre for Advanced Materials Joining is developing new technologies to enable ultrafast, reliable fabrication and continued miniaturization at a lower cost.

• Facility for the assessment of engineered rehabilitation systems for infrastructure renewal. Lead researcher: Khaled Soudki, civil and environmental engineering. Ontario funding: $468,909. Governments are struggling to maintain and repair essential public infrastructure, including roads, bridges and pipes. Soudki focuses on developing faster and more durable methods of repair using composite materials.

• Research Infrastructure to Support a Canada Research Chair in Microfluidics, Nanofluidics and Lab-On-a-Chip Technology. Lead researcher: Dongqing Li, mechanical and mechatronics engineering. Ontario funding: $360,000. A lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device is a miniaturized biomedical laboratory that can perform the same functions as its room-size counterpart, and more. But so far, no complete LOC devices exist. The researchers aim to change that by developing the chip technology required to produce the first fully integrated, fully automatic, handheld LOC devices to benefit health care, food and water inspection.

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More projects that will get ORF support

• Visualization and Biotelematic Environment. Lead researchers: Marcel O'Gorman, English, and Colin Ellard, psychology. Ontario funding: $179,867. The world of digital media transforms how people access and use information, and how they interact in personal and work lives. What impact is digital culture having on minds, bodies and health? And how can digital media experiences be developed that promote health? Using an original and multi-faceted approach, the researchers aim to better understand the connections between technology and behaviour.

• Promoting Muscle Health and Preventing Muscle Dysfunction Due to Inactivity and Disease. Lead researcher: Joe Quadrilatero, kinesiology. Ontario funding: $164,400. Skeletal muscle wasting affects up to 35 per cent of older adults. A decline in muscle health is associated with inactivity and diseases. Quadrilatero will research skeletal muscle apoptosis (cell death) during inactivity and illness. He studies the use of physical activity as a non-invasive, cost-effective prevention/treatment strategy against muscle dysfunction.

• Vacuum Deposition System for Fabrication of Organic Electronic Devices. Lead researcher: Hany Aziz, electrical and computer engineering. Ontario funding: $150,000. Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) offer significant advantages over conventional technologies: a brighter, more brilliant picture, an unlimited viewing angle, fast response time, mechanical flexibility and low-power consumption — making them the choice for the next generation of small displays used in MP3 players and mobile phones. But before OLEDs can be widely adopted in large panel displays, they must be reliable. That's the goal of Aziz’s research, intended to give the microelectronics industry a competitive foothold.

• Distributed Generation Seamless Integration into Existing Distribution Systems. Lead researcher: Ehab El-Saadany, electrical and computer engineering. Ontario funding: $150,000. Distributed generation (DG) produces electricity from many small energy sources. Increasing its use could help Ontario utilities boost their reliability, efficiency and power quality while saving money. But there are a number of technical and environmental challenges. Research by El-Saadany will lead to more DG systems being integrated into the existing energy network.

• Integrated Facility for Assessing Microbial Diversity and Function. Lead researcher: Josh D. Neufeld, biology. Ontario funding: $150,000. Microorganisms, such as bacteria, archaea (single-celled organisms) and fungi are everywhere — in food, water and the air. They often exist in complex communities and these communities are beneficial to humans in many ways. Neufeld investigates microbial communities that impact global climate change through the cycling of nutrients in the environment. He studies those that maintain the healthy function of the human body and those that may be harnessed to produce biofuels and bioproducts.

• Vision Physiology and Cell Biology Laboratory. Lead researcher: Vivian Choh, optometry. Ontario funding: $125,000. How the lens and retina interact to control eye growth is a question that interests Choh, because these structures may play a role in the development of various vision difficulties. Her innovative approach, combining vision-specific technology and cell biology techniques, could lead to the development of new treatments for vision problems like myopia.

• Sub-surface Imaging for Improved Contaminant Transport Predictions. Lead researcher: Walter Illman, earth and environmental sciences. Ontario funding: $100,000. Illman and his team are conducting cutting-edge field, laboratory and computational research, with the goal of developing a new method that accurately predicts the way contaminants are transported. The research will result in new sub-surface characterization approaches that enable faster cleanups.

• Geomodeling Glaciated Terrains. Lead researcher: Martin Ross, earth and environmental sciences. Ontario funding: $100,000. Land-use planners, engineers and environmental consultants depend on accurate geological information. Ross heads a team of scientists using innovative technology and approaches to conduct field-based research on the glacial landscape and sub-surface geologic features. The team seeks to learn more about glacial terrains and their complex relationships with surface landforms.

• Centre for Small Scale and Thin Film Mechanical Behaviours. Lead researcher: Ting Tsui, chemical engineering. Ontario funding: $92,000. There are challenges to commercialize nanotechnology devices, particularly their design and mechanical reliability. Tsui develops innovative mechanical characterization techniques and fabrication processes to overcome those limitations. His work will have a profound impact on industry, enabling faster commercialization of nanotechnology devices.

• Virus Containment Suite for the Study of Vector and Vaccine Production in Animal Cells. Lead researcher: Marc Aucoin, chemical engineering. Ontario funding: $78,000. Vaccines that protect against infectious diseases by inducing immunity have saved hundreds of millions of lives and reduced the strain on health-care systems worldwide. But the growing threat of virus pandemics means governments will need to be able to respond quickly, with large amounts of active vaccine components. Developing that capability is the goal of research at a new self-contained biological safety suite.

Evaluation of Body Composition in Health and Disease. Lead researcher: Marina Mourtzakis, kinesiology. Ontario funding: $56,232. People undergoing treatment for cancer develop changes in their body composition. These changes, such as muscle and fat loss, lead to metabolic disturbances and increase the risk of cancer recurrence, cardiovascular disease and diabetes in survivorship. Mourtzakis uses a high-precision dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer (DXA) to measure body composition changes during the time-course of the disease and evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition and exercise programs. The research aims to improve treatment and, potentially, survival rates in cancer patients and survivors.

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‘We have been experimenting with using publicly available web media,’ writes Richard Kelly of UW’s department of geography and environmental management, “to engage community participation in measuring snow! And now we need your help. The Snowtweets project relies on users tweeting their snow depth from their local site through the Twitter website. We then pick up the tweets in our own database and pass them to a visualization package called Snowbird. We are seeking to use this information to help with our remote sensing and model estimates (and to provide a modicum of a public service). Our goal is to reach out to long-term participants who have an interest in contributing for professional/ academic/ educational reasons. The emphasis is on ease of use (Twitter can be accessed through the web including via mobile data devices) to get more people involved. Please feel free to join in and tweet.” The details are online.

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Students advise on Grand Bend waterway

Graduate students in a cross-disciplinary course will be presenting their research results on an old river channel in Grand Bend, Ontario, tomorrow. The Paleolimnology course, listed in the biology, earth and environmental sciences, and geography and environmental management departments, focused on assessing past environmental changes from the analysis of sediment cores.

The waterway, called the Old Ausable Channel, was cut off at the turn of the 20th century when the land surrounding the river was modified for flood control and agricultural purposes. Today, the channel is only about a meter deep and local residents are concerned that it is rapidly filling in with sediment and weeds. They want to dredge the channel to deepen it and remove the weeds, but conservation authorities have identified the system as an important habitat for three small species of fish that are rare in the province.

“The purpose of this project is to provide information about how the environmental conditions of this ecosystem have changed over the past 100 years,” says Roland Hall, professor of biology and one of the course’s leaders. “The students have generated some exciting and insightful data that they will be presenting to the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans, Baysville Ausable Conservation Authority and local cottage and neighbourhood groups.”

The presentation will address concerns about the river channel and help the authorities decide what the next steps are to maintain and improve environmental conditions in the channel. It’s scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Huron Woods Clubhouse in Grand Bend.

CAR

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