Ecological risk assessment of tire wear particles in water bodies in Interior British Columbia

Microplastic pollution is becoming an emerging environmental issue in developed countries. The tire wearing particles (TWP) have also been categorized as microplastic pollution. TWP size range from a few nanometers to several hundred micrometers and are emitted into the environment. Tire industry is now inclined towards increasing knowledge of TWP origin, mechanism, transmission, and fate […]

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Arsenic release from arsenic-bearing minerals

When waste rocks generated by mining activities are exposed to the air and water, various toxic elements may be released to receiving waters and soils. Arsenic (As) is known as one of the most toxic pollutants which can cause damage to the environment and human health. To implement effective source control, it is essential to […]

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Finding graph minors in the D-Wave hardware graph

D-Wave’s quantum computer is good at solving a specific type of problems known as Ising spin problems. However, in order to solve one of these spin problems, you must first solve another hard problem—embedding the spin problem on D-Wave’s quantum processor. From the land of discrete mathematics, this embedding problem falls into a well studied […]

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Integrated Media for Urban Design Engagement

Forms of urban design engagement (i.e. public workshops, town hall meetings, neighbourhood association meetings) are often ineffective at providing residents with the opportunity to contribute to urban design decisions. The average resident does not have sufficient experience, technical expertise or vocabulary necessary to visualize the spatial implications of different design proposals. This research project seeks […]

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Siemens next generation land-based gas turbine engine combustors: Characterization and development of a newly-designed injection system

.Siemens Canada develops land-based gas turbine engines that are used for power generation. These engines burn natural gas and produce combustion pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Reducing emission of these pollutants addition of low carbon fuel, such as hydrogen, to natural gas. However, addition of hydrogen leads to occurrence of combustion instabilities […]

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Advancing Community Energy Transitions in BC with Online Tools

The Community Energy Explorer (CEE) is a unique, interactive and visually compelling web-resource to build capacity of citizens, decision-makers, and local government staff on community energy and related land use issues. The current phase lays out a program to roll-out, host, and scale-up use of an enhanced CEE platform to better support community transitions and […]

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Evaluating the impact of bicycle behaviour on safety

Bicycling count data (exposure) are difficult to collect but are vital to understanding the safety of different routes. Crowdsourced exposure data collected through fitness apps such as Strava Metro can provide bicycling exposure data with better spatial and temporal coverage than manual or automatic counts. Efforts are underway in cities throughout Canada and the US […]

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Silicon-Modified British Columbia Natural Graphite for Use as High Energy Density Anodes for Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries

Eagle Graphite owns and operates one of only two flake graphite production facilities in Canada, and the only graphite quarry in Western North America. The quarry is located in Passmore, B.C., near the City of Castlegar. This collaboration between Dr. Jian Liu’s group at The University of British Columbia and Eagle Graphite will produce graphite-silicon […]

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Perception, Mapping and Planning for Autonomous Indoor Cart Pullers in Plant Nurseries and Greenhouses

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 […]

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Developing Leadership Competencies Through Elite Sport

Sport participants offer a source for community leadership potential that could be more fully and intentionally leveraged for maximum social impact. Currently, leadership development occurring through sport is haphazard and may be a product of chance rather than intent. This research explores elite athletes’ perspectives of leadership competencies developed through sport and aims to gain […]

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