Porous polymeric extraction devices for fast, convenient, and portable monitoring of organic contaminants in marine environments

Organic contaminants enter the marine environment through atmospheric transport, runoff into waterways, or directed disposal into the ocean. They are prone to long-range, bioaccumulation and can have adverse effects on human health and the environment. In this project, a simple and convenient extraction device developed for analysis of organic pollutants will be examined for various […]

Read More
Fiber Optic Hydrophone Array

The proposed work targets the development of a fiber optic hydrophone array for underwater acoustics detection and recognition, with the potential for applications in national defense. We propose a new concept of using a small-size low-cost fiber optic hydrophone that are nearly undetectable and can be deployed in a dense array across a wide area […]

Read More
Shipborne Sea Ice Classification Using Neural Networks

The purpose of this project is to take existing state-of-art machine learning techniques and implement them for ice classification in polar seas. Ice classification plays a critical role in any icebreaker voyage. An ice specialist onboard the icebreaker is required to classify all ice environments encountered. This process is tedious and time consuming. This project […]

Read More
Cost-Effective Computer Simulation for the Offshore and Marine Industry

Computer simulations have been widely used by the offshore and marine industry, but they typically use different software to simulate different components of a single operational scenario. For example, the tool can be used for the analysis of wave loads of a moored structure in ice infested areas, eliminating the need for analyzing wave load, […]

Read More
Development of ice-load simulator for offshore wind turbine towers

Ice load is a major design concerns for structures in the ice prone region especially for slender, monopole structures such as wind turbine towers where the dynamic load can induce severe vibrations. A careful assessment is essential to demonstrate the economic viability of such projects; however, the current design guidelines does not cover site-specific conditions […]

Read More
Porous materials as a filtration method for ship exhaust

The Canadian government has vowed to reduce their pollutant emissions by 2030 in order to curb the effects of climate change. This means that shipping companies must make strides to reduce their overall emissions. This project will use novel sponge-like frameworks, called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), to remove environmentally toxic pollutants from exhaust gas. The materials […]

Read More
A real-time wideband underwater localization system using passive acoustic monitoring

This project provides a software solution for detecting, classifying, and tracking moving sound sources underwater from the generated sounds. Generally, monitoring shipping traffic largely rely on the automatic identification systems (AIS) installed on the vessels. The ability to track these vessels is at the mercy of the functionality of the transponders onboard the vessels and […]

Read More
Plasmonic Nanoparticle Enhanced Seawater Desalination

To combat the growing need for accessible freshwater sources across the globe, new technologies that don’t rely on fossil fuels are ideal. Additionally, these technologies should be easily implemented in the developing communities that need them most for lower cost than the current options. The purification of seawater, also known as desalination is a highly […]

Read More
Granular Jamming-based Mechanism for Robot Fish Actuation

With the advantages of swimming with quiet, compliant, and continuous strokes, soft robot fish have significant potentials to be used in the study of marine life and ocean environment quietly without disturbing marine animals. Our project is to design and build a robot fish that is self-contained and capable of mimicking body kinematics of biological […]

Read More
Smart Atlantic Buoy Redundancy Model

This research will provide a prediction of sea conditions at a given location based on measurements from meteorlogic and oceanographic ‘smart’ buoys in the general area. The motivation is to provide redundancy in the measurement of sea conditions for safe navigation within the Halifax Harbour when the main smart buoy in Halifax Harbour fails or […]

Read More
Modeling accidental oil outflows from shipping accidents

The overall aim of the research is to develop a decision support system to quickly estimate the oil outflow from a damaged tanker in a collision or grounding accident, in Arctic conditions. The work in this Mitacs project focuses on a part of this overall objective: modeling the dynamic oil outflow from a damaged tanker. […]

Read More