Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) are a clean and sustainable alternative to conventional heating and cooling technologies. Currently, the high upfront costs and technical complexity of drilling and installing GSHPs is preventing their widespread adoption. Innovia GEO Corporation is developing a novel GSHP system that integrates directly into building structural piles. While these piles are used extensively in the construction industry as a building foundation component, their use as part of a GSHP is unexplored.

Bridge infrastructure constitutes a substantial portion of national wealth of Canada, whose performance during earthquake events has a significant impact on the public safety. This study focuses on investigating the force-based and performance-based seismic design of bridges specified in the latest versions of Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code 2014/2019. Numerical studies will be conducted, and design guidelines will be recommended. The project will provide valuable insight into performance-based seismic design of bridges, which is helpful for its mass scale application in Canada.

Rain water penetration can cause severe damage to building materials and facilitates the growth of mould, endangering the health of the occupants of the building. This Mitacs project will determine the water penetration resistance of various clay brick veneers used in various buildings. This research will also provide very important test data that may allow engineers and builders to use much lighter clay bricks (clay bricks with large voids) as the brick veneer. Use of lighter bricks translates to less carbon footprint and hence, is a sustainable choice.

Quaternary glacial deposition has covered much of southern Ontario with tills and the Saint Lawrence Valley with marine fines. Rivers incised into these materials exhibit particular geomorphologic behavior. Civil engineering works built either in (e.g. dams, bridge piers, etc.), beside (linear infrastructure such as roads, railways, etc.) or across (e.g. bridges, etc.) such rivers must consider the erosion of these cohesive sediments. There is currently very little knowledge about the erosion of these materials.

Global population growth, urbanization and changing climate patterns have increased the demand for potable water, wastewater reuse and value recovery from wastewater, and for remediation of industrial process water. Population growth also results in increased demand for the shipping of goods by ocean freight, with the associated risk of the transport of unwanted marine life from one location to another by the discharge of ballast water.

Preforming regular visual inspections is essential in up keeping structures. These inspections are used to identify defects at an early stage before they pose a major threat. Unfortunately, these inspections require scaffolding or hiring a boom to access certain areas. Other areas are tight and put the worker at risk. The use of visual inspection drones, specifically tailored for confined space, provide an excellent tool to perform these inspections. Throughout this research project we will be testing and analyzing how these drones perform/withstand different harsh environments.

Buildings are an important energy consumer and are equipped with hundreds of sensors and control systems. The analysis of such massive data can reveal insights for building owners to optimize the building infrastructure. Currently, usage of such data is limited to traditional control systems, energy commissioning, and maintenance on a regular basis.

Construction zones are one of the leading contributors to Toronto’s ever-growing congestion. The aim of this study is to develop an integrated construction zone traffic management framework to minimize disruption of the traffic and reduce the effect in terms of congestion. This study leverages historical and real data collected from on-board construction trucks provided by the partner organization to find an insight as to how far upstream and downstream of the work zone congestion propagates.