Coho Salmon use their ear bones, called otoliths, for hearing and balance. Sometimes, these ear bones can develop a deformity called vaterite, which results in severe hearing impairment. This deformity is significantly more common in salmon raised in hatcheries than those in the wild. Our project aims to determine what causes vateritic otoliths to form […]

The aim of this project is to develop a novel catalyst system for treatment of organic and nitrogen containing pollutants in wastewater generated by various industrial sectors. Development of such system is necessary as the discharge regulations are becoming increasingly restricted. The research focuses on electrode design and fabrication that treat toxic wastewater, with an […]

In recent years, the small-scale drones have gained a growing interest in industry and in academia since they are widely available and have many potential applications. The integration of intelligent camera into drone systems broadens the range of potential drone applications and enhances the performance of the drone. However, how to design and implement the […]

This project is geared towards the development of a cost-effective method to fabricate thin films of carbon materials, such as diamond. The idea is to use solution-based methods coupled to electrochemistry to produce the films. Avenues for the deposition of the film on surfaces of arbitrary shapes will also be explored. Carbon based thin films, […]

Grizzly bears are an iconic species and the focus of a growing eco-tourism industry in First Nations communities in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Monitoring the effects of eco-tourism and other human activities on bear population health is essential to establish practices that minimally influence bears. This project aims to investigate a novel, rapid approach for […]

Determining the distribution and abundance of species is a central requirement for making sustainable resource management decisions. Ecofish, in collaboration with the University of Victoria, would like to evaluate if environmental DNA (eDNA) methods can be used to reliably detect low density salmonid species in streams, with the objective of implementing eDNA as a defensible […]

Space Heating and Cooling in residential, commercial, and institutional buildings accounted for roughly 20% of Canada’s overall energy. Early detection and repair of building envelope defects ensures continued energy performance and building longevity, thus energy audits are a necessary, but time-intensive process using today’s methods. Utilizing the emergent technology of small unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, […]

As whales recover from the past centuries of whaling and as global trade compels shipping traffic to increase, we expect negative whale-ship interactions such as fatal strikes and noise disturbance to become an increasingly serious issue. To develop cost-effective and broadly applicable methods of assessing the risks of ships to whale feeding grounds, I propose […]

Community leadership development and training programs must respond to changing corporate and public perceptions. There has been a lack of research on community leadership within small urban settings, where the impact that training and development programs have may be high. Our objective is to describe how local businesses in a small urban setting understand community […]

Battery electric busses (BEBs) are a promising emerging technology to replace the diesel buses currently the mainstay of public road transportation. Diesel buses contributed significantly to both climate-change related emissions, as well as local air quality issues. This project is examining a number of key issues associated with BEB adoption, in the context of a […]

Title of the Project: Smart Oceans:Instrumented, Interconnected, Intelligent Systems for Efficient Data Analysis and Querying This project proposes three main objectves. The first two objectives serve to provide a deeper investigation of the problem space while the third objective will build on this investigation by exploring the application of new technologies to this problem domain. […]

This project focuses on the pyrolysis of rice husks and the analysis of the resulting products, including biochar and bio-oil. Pyrolysis is the decomposition of organic matter under high heat in the absence of oxygen. This project examines the pyrolysis of rice husks. Rice husks account for 20% of the entire weight of the grain. […]