Pacific Coast Terminals (in Port Moody, BC) is a highly-automated terminal for the transshipment of bulk materials from railcars to cargo ships. A rotary dumper empties the bulk material in the railcars by tipping their contents onto a conveyor system, in preparation for subsequent shipment. The dumper requires three people for operation: the dumper operator remotely controls the positioning of the railcars from an operator’s cab, and two switchmen serve to break and couple the railcars on adjacent incoming and outgoing tracks.
This project with TransLink, the Greater Vancouver transit authority, will develop a map to encourage cyclists to navigate Vancouver using a proposed public bicycle system. The map will show riders the best routes to take, based on hard data such as road grade and quality as well as soft data such as aesthetics and viewpoints. The research will include conducting a survey, as well as administering interviews to gain insight into potential cyclist’s views on a public bicycle system.
Canadian Pacific Logistics Solutions, a company specializing in delivering performance solutions to supply chains, logistics or facility management problems, is partnering with an intern from the University of Lethbridge to analyze the delivery of whiskey by railroads. This project will analyze a bulk liquid whiskey rail car fleet and determine the number of cars needed on a quarterly basis for each origin and destination pair.
In “shared control” of a machine, a user works cooperatively with an intelligent system to continuously direct or steer the machine’s operation. In this project with Spark Robotics Technology Inc., a provider of products and services for the defense and security industry, the research team will apply this concept to the problem of navigating or searching information streams.
This project involves working with Translink - the Greater Vancouver transit authority, covering buses, skytrain, seabus, trains, and ferries - to conduct initial research to examine the viability of an automated public bicycle system similar in scale and design to systems recently initiated in Paris, Lyon and Oslo.
Motor Coach Industries Ltd. (MCI), a manufacturer of intercity coaches serving charter and tour operations, requires extensive field tests to validate the durability performance of coaches and components. To reduce the time and expense of these field tests, the intern will conduct mathematical analysis of the recorded acceleration signals in the baggage bay area of a motor coach. Using extensive acceleration data collected by MCI engineers, the intern will identify the predominant vibration modes and study the relationship among these modes.
The purpose of this project is to study the policies used to relocate ambulances in the City of Edmonton. The main goal of this internship is to improve the performance while minimizing the effects on ambulance crews’ workload. With this purpose in mind, the first step is to put in place a software simulation as a test bed to evaluate new solutions proposed (with the added advantage of being useful to evaluate changes in other areas). The second step will be to develop new models useful to analyze and improve on the ambulance relocation policies in use.
Hybrid vehicle technology is an important and exciting area of research. This internship is with Azure Dynamics, a BC company that designs and manufactures hybrid powertrains for commercial vehicles. The intern’s research will examine state-of-the-art hybrid vehicle powertrain architectures to determine the performance capabilities of the various designs, perform performance and cost analysis and conduct system optimization to identify the optimal design.
The Day & Ross Transportation Group, one of the largest transportation firms in Canada, employs over 4100 people, maintains a fleet of over 3300 vehicles and trailers, and has over 80 terminals and other operations across Canada and the US. This project will focus on technical improvements and modifications to the company’s load optimizer, thus assisting with daily operational decisions.
