Railway tank cars are constructed from TC 128 steel plates, a design that has not changed for more than 50 years. The Lac Megantic rail disaster in 2013 refocused the attention of Canadians on the safety aspects of tank car design and operation, but not so much on the actual properties of the steels used […]

Heart failure is a prevalent disease effecting 250,000 people in North America alone. This disease can be treated by the transplant of a donor organ, but insufficient donor organs have led to the development of mechanical circulatory supports which now provide a reliable alternate treatment option for patients. Unfortunately, many patients that could be helped […]

The proposed research project aims to better enable positive sport experiences for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities by improving the quality of sports programs offered. In order to accomplish this objective, the study will evaluate the quality of two sport programs – Active Start and FUNdamentals – within the largest intellectual and developmental disability […]

The primary objective of this collaborative research project is to further advance an established industrial strength framework for the aerodynamic design optimization of Advanced Aerodynamic Systems. A major expense during a three-dimensional aerodynamic shape optimization (ASO) is the cost of obtaining design sensitivities or gradients at each design iteration. The computational cost grows rapidly as […]

Our parks, public spaces and their activations can catalyze neighborhoods to build connections and create stronger communities. However, it is often challenging to measure the impact and value of these projects, at a neighbourhood level. This project looks to develop a deeper understanding of the impact of public space initiatives, focusing on the short and […]

Vertical farming is an agricultural approach that involves indoor, large-scale plant cultivation, at multiple levels, with controlled environmental conditions, a hydroponic nutrient solution and artificial light. This space-saving approach to growing fruit and vegetables has the potential to meet increasing fresh produce demand in dense urban areas. In recent years, several commercial entities have marketed […]

The project revolves around automation in nursery farms and greenhouses. The goal is to deliver planted pots using autonomous unmanned systems. Planted pots will be loaded/unloaded to/from plant carts using a small robot called BigTop, designed and developed at the supporting organization, AIS. Motion planning, control, and navigation algorithms will be developed through this project […]

Most ultrasound scans require time-consuming manual scanning of transducer arrays to obtain 2D images of the body. 3D images can be acquired by so-called matrix probes but these are large and bulky, and typically offer inferior image quality. Such probes do not exist in high-frequencies important for pre-clinical applications and to date no wearable 2D […]

Canola is one of the world’s most important oilseed crops and is the most profitable commodity for Canadian farmers. It has applications in production of cooking oil, bio diesel and animal feed. The value of this crop will be enhanced by optimizing methods for sorting, dehulling and further processing. Sorting the seeds will streamline seed […]

The general objective of this research is to understand the geology of the Clearwater Formation in a region of Alberta where new oil and gas reserves have been discovered. The research will include detailed mapping throughout the region to understand where the best oil and gas resources are. This area is especially interesting as enhance […]

The goal of this project is to design and develop a wireless network testbed at the University of British Columbia (UBC) for Rogers Communications Canada Inc. to support different use cases for the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks. We will study the concept of self-organizing network (SON) and design a deep learning-based algorithm for our […]

Over 70% of tasks in manufacturing are still manual; therefore, over 75% of variation in manufacturing comes from human beings. Human errors were the major driver behind $22.1 billion in vehicle recalls in 2016. Currently, when plant operators want to gain an understanding of their manual processes, they send out their highly-paid industrial engineers to […]