The objective of the research is to validate and enhance production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers from hemp stems, agricultural waste. Two interns will carry out the proposed work to upcycling hemp stems into the biopolymers with advanced biotechnologies of fermentation and PHA synthesis. The final biopolymers produced from hemp stems will be characterized for physical, […]

Municipalities across Canada have declared climate emergencies but are they able to deliver solutions and make change in their communities? What is the role of municipal land use planning tools, such as zoning, green performance standards, and urban design guidelines? Which tools are poised to have the highest impact? Climate change policies related to energy […]

In many industrial and engineering applications, process control plays a central role. Among the possible control strategies, model predictive control (MPC), also called receding horizon control (RHC) , stands out for its excellent ability to handle constraints. While MPC has been successfully applied to many industrial applications, further developments are limited when it becomes necessary […]

The main objective of this project is to design a novel plastic recycling technology invented by GreeNovel Incorporation. The process is based on microwave pyrolysis of the wastes at high temperatures and in the absence of oxygen to be decomposed to pyrolysis-oil and gas. The modelling of the novel microwave pyrolysis system and the product […]

Natural gas power generation is a cost-effective method of generating electricity. NG power generators have been successfully installed in a wide variety of energy intensive facilities in Canada, including district energy systems, wastewater treatment facilities, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, office buildings, and residential buildings. However, more than 60% of the energy is wasted in the […]

Tidal marshes are essential ecosystems both economically and ecologically. They provide many natural resources, such as filtering pollutants from water and providing flood protection. However, since the 1980s, we have lost about 80% of the world’s wetlands including many tidal marshes. This internship aims to identify the role of goose herbivory on marsh vegetation as […]

The increasing global demand for mineral resources and the depletion of significant of high grade near-surface deposits is driving mining companies to consider cave mining as the ideal method to exploit large low-grade deposits at depth. A key characteristics of cave mining is the formation of a significant surface subsidence crater, which may impact nearby […]

The project will involve a partnership between the Western University, where the intern is enrolled in the Chemistry PhD program, and the Surface Science Western (SSW). The SSW is a commercial organization which does contract research and problem-solving for industrial companies and is contracted to the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) to support the development […]

The development of new strategies to improve drug delivery has the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. Ripple Therapeutics has developed a new approach to developing implants based on a discovery that prodrugs (an inactive version of a drug) can be processed into an implant without the use of a polymer to hold the implant […]

Recent progress in the development of computer algorithms for detecting pathological changes in fetal heart rate (FHR) variability (fHRV) and electroencephalogram (EEG) points to a potentially groundbreaking technology for detecting fetal acidemia and inflammation during labour. Using FHR and EEG as a diagnostic tool is an attractive option because they can be acquired noninvasively. Despite […]

Recent improvements in Cloud Accounting software have reduced the demand for data entry and challenging analysis. However, industry has not totally adopted these new resources and many still use traditional accounting and bookkeeping methods, which require a lot of manual efforts. Paperless system has seen improved accuracy and speed of delivery. With the advance of […]

Mavi Innovations is pursuing a prototype demonstration of its 20kW hydrokinetic turbine for generating electricity from river and tidal currents in Fall 2013. Demonstration of this new system includes the development of a control system to govern turbine operation, and of the power electronics to manage generated power and provide electricity to the grid. The […]