Increasing global energy demand coupled with efforts to reduce our carbon emission has pushed for improved energy efficiency in many areas. One area in need of improvement is residential and commercial buildings. Specifically, the demand-side energy management of commercial buildings can be improved significantly with improved control. With the addition of on-site renewable energy generation […]

The cleanliness of restroom drives people’s preferences. In places such as hotels, restaurants and hospitals, a dirty bathroom will drive away potential customers as it lead them to question the cleanliness of the whole facility. Visionstate Inc. developed WANDA (Washroom Attendant Notification Digital Aid), a LCD touch screen that display the time of most recent […]

The graduate student (Simon Byrns) will work closely with pancreas surgeons and experts in computer image manipulation to generate 3D models of the relevant anatomy in pancreas surgery. These models will then be printed on a 3D printer and used to investigate their utility in the preoperative planning phase prior to surgery. The use of […]

In STEM education, many problem sets require a student to answer a question with a drawing. For example, kinematic physics or statics/dynamics engineering problems often require the student to construct a free-body diagram as a necessary step in the solution. However, when such subjects are taught through online education (such as though a MOOC), most […]

The building blocks of multicellular organisms such as humans are cells, vessels and protein fibers. Cell migrations are instrumental in the development and maintenance of multicellular organisms (such as wound healing). Aberrant cellular migrations are important in many pathological conditions, for instance in cancer. The majority of cancer related deaths (80-90%) are caused by spread […]

Future broadband cellular systems will require very high throughput data transmission to satisfy ever increasing demands of mobile users for high speed multimedia services. Using innovative approaches to multiantenna transmission/reception and to cooperation of network nodes the achievable data rates can be greatly increased. Two significant obstacles to achieving very high data rates are interference […]

Purple Martins, the largest species of swallow in North America, are mostly dependent on humans for nesting structures. Martin populations have been declining across the continent for the past 20 years. I am investigating ways to engage the public in martin conservation, through appropriate nest box provision and management, support for caretakers of these nest […]

By studying and modeling of current production process, a physical training assembly system is built in a small scale with the exact same process, tooling as the full scale one. Along with leaning management system constructed, which includes a set of multi-media training materials, new employees can get familiarized with the manufacturing process in a […]

Augmented Reality (AR) is the combination of virtual images with real objects in order to improve perception. It is a rapidly growing field and has many applications in medicine. For this research project we would like to apply AR to the surgical site during a simulated operation in order to provide additional information and improve […]

McCoy recognizes U of A’s capability in engineering informatics and has approached U of A to conduct a joint research program to investigate a methodology applicable to McCoy’s unique business practice nature for implementing a new enterprise resources planning system. The most challenging research aspect of novelty is the requirement of a neutral information model that is to be […]

Harvesting energy from renewable resources, such as wind and ocean waves, is an important issue facing our world today. With the increase in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, there is a need to move away from nonrenewable resources and to find new methods for capturing energy. Wind turbines operate most efficiently within a narrow […]

Particulate matter emitted from combustion engines is a problem due to negative health effects, effect on climate, and reduction of visibility. Soot is a type of particulate matter that is of particular concern to climate scientists and automobile manufacturers. Previously, it was difficult to measure the amount of material that is not black carbon on […]