2010 News Archive

Western engineered toilet valve now saving water

Western News | November 23, 2010
When Masco Canada was looking to expand one of its tried and true products with an environmental feature, the plumbing giant tagged a pair of engineers from The University of Western Ontario to flush its problem away. Tony Straatman and Kamran Siddiqui, two Western Engineering professors who specialize in mechanical engineering, were asked to re-configure a mechanical valve known as the Teck® II that has been used in toilets for more than 80 years.
[read more]

Professor Slobodan Simonovic releases new textbook on disaster management

Western Engineering News
“Alleluia!" is the opening word found in the forward section of Slobodan P. Simonovic’s new textbook, Systems Approach to Management of Disasters: Methods and Applications. The forward, written by Professor Emeritus Dr. Burton, emphasizes the long awaited arrival of a book, published in a way to revise and revolutionize approaches to management of disasters.
[read more]

Out of the red

Macleans | October 28, 2010
The Danube River is famously blue, but after a recent toxic waste spill in Hungary, parts of it were flooded with a sickly red slurry. If a Canadian researcher has his way, the red mud that caused disaster last week could turn very useful indeed, by converting the substance into fuel. Franco Berruti, director of ICFAR, explains how this transformation could take place.
[read more]

Western forecast calls for WINDEE future

Western News | October 28, 2010
As Western sets out to make history with the world’s first hexagonal wind tunnel, the building itself will be an experiment in science and engineering. Not to take chances on the full-scale facility, Hangan, a Faculty of Engineering professor, uses the mini-dome, standing at about one-tenth full-scale size, as a testing ground to ensure that any construction adjustments are made before it turns into bricks and mortar.
[read more]

Wind tunnel bridges industry and research for over 40 years

Western News | October 28, 2010
Western houses the first boundary layer wind tunnel in the world to test man-made structures, such as buildings and bridges. Built in 1965, the first wind tunnel (BLWT 1) can test wind speeds up to 55 miles per hour. The second wind tunnel (BLWT 2), erected in 1984, can test wind speeds up to 100 miles per hour. Both wind tunnels are currently in use today.
[read more]

Fund fueling a self-cleaning future

Western News | October 21, 2010
Chemical and biochemical engineering professor Paul Charpentier, who recently received $30,000 from the Western Innovation Fund, is examining how plastic coatings based on polyurethanes can be used for a new generation of self-cleaning, anti-microbial polymer films on various surfaces.
[read more]

State Farm invests more than $94,000 in research on building safer homes

Canadian Underwriter.ca | October 19, 2010
State Farm has partnered with the University of Western Ontario's Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes (IRLBH), also known as the "Three Little Pigs Project," to help discover ways to make homes safer and building materials stronger. Since December 2009, State Farm has invested $94,181.80 towards research initiatives with the IRLBH.
[read more]

Ernest Yanful receives Geoenvironmental Engineering award of the Canadian Geotechnical Society

Western Engineering News
Civil & Environmental Engineering department chair, Ernest Yanful, was presented with the Geoenvironmental Engineering award of the Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS) at the 63rd Canadian Geotechnical Conference in Calgary this past September. Yanful received this award based on his tremendous contributions in the field of geoenvironmnetal engineering. Read more about Ernest Yanful.
[read more]

Research Centre at Forefront of Renewable Energy Technology Invest in

Middlesex Fall 2010 e-Newsletter | October 2010
In a world hungry for clean, renewable energy, a project near Ilderton is making great strides toward achieving that goal. Researchers from the University of Western Ontario are developing ways to turn agricultural waste products into fuel, a process that holds great promise and could be used in many applications.
[read more]

Global warming insurance

Canadian Geographic | October 2010
Extreme weather is topping the list of insurance claims. A team of engineers [at Western] are simulating extreme rain, wind and snow on its “Three Little Pigs” house. The insights they are gathering will help identify ways to make buildings that can withstand the very things you insure them against.
[read more]

Solar dish research focused on future

Western News | September 23, 2010
Do you remember as a kid using a magnifying glass to generate intense heat to burn a leaf? Technology has come a long way since then, and the work of Western Engineering professor Kamran Siddiqui in the area of solar energy research is taking the use of this free energy resource to new levels.
[read more]

Western Engineering finds new way of utilizing solar farms at night

Western News | August 16, 2010
New technology from The University of Western Ontario utilizing photovoltaic (PV) solar farms at night will help in connecting more renewable energy sources like wind turbines to Ontario's grid, increasing power transmission limits, and providing a low-cost way of improving grid voltages and system performance.
[read more]

Is your home tornado-proof?

Macleans | July 5, 2010
Everybody talks about tornadoes, but nobody does anything about protection. Civil engineering professor Gregory Kopp believes we can save homes from the destruction of a tornado with low-cost add-ons such as wind-resistant nails, which are shaped like screws, or hurricane straps, thin pieces of metal that hold the roof in place.
[read more]

Civil engineering professor talks flood control and risk management with China Radio International

Professor Slobodan Simonovic from Western’s Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering spoke with Nigel Ballard in Beijing about flood control and risk management to help better manage water resources in China, and around the world.
[read more]

Engineering ranked second in Canada for sustainability program

Western News | July 2, 2010
The Faculty of Engineering at The University of Western Ontario was rewarded for integrating sustainability into its curriculum, being named among the best in the country in a national ranking.
[read more]

High winds may not have toppled homes

Digital Journal | April 7, 2010
Seven homes came down April 3, 2010 in London, Ontario. High, gusty winds, possibly accompanied by a funnel cloud were quickly blamed. Now, days later, Western Engineering professor Greg Kopp, an expert on the effect of wind on structures, has another, less dramatic theory.
[read more]

Africa becomes a classroom for five Western Engineering students this summer

Western Engineering News
Five Western Engineering students will be interning in Africa this summer as part of Engineers Without Borders and Civil & Environmental Engineering's International Development Program.
[read more]

Sunstang team changes direction

Western News | March 18, 2010
The student-run Sunstang solar team is shifting gears from competitions to developing a vehicle for everyday driving. Over its 17 years the Western Engineering group built solar cars to enter in two competitions: the World Solar Challenge and the American Solar Challenge. The team will no longer enter these competitions.
[read more] [view photos]

Solar researchers ‘borrowing’ from plants

Western News | April 29, 2010
Postdoctoral fellow Yao Medina is helping to investigate how nanotechnology can be used to increase the effectiveness of solar panels. Working in Paul Charpentier’s laboratory in Environmental Solvents and Advanced Materials, Medina is helping to investigate how nanotechnology can be used to increase the effectiveness of solar collection panels, as well as ways to lower the cost of manufacturing these panels.
[read more]

Breaking ground on WindEEE Dome

Western News | April 30, 2010
The University of Western Ontario will build a $23.6-million wind research facility in London's newly established Advanced Manufacturing Park. Known as the ‘WindEEE Dome’ the building will be the world’s first hexagonal wind tunnel.
[read more]

'Slow burn' renews contaminated property

Western News | February 11, 2011
Imagine starting up your charcoal barbecue underground. Doesn't make much sense, does it? But it's the inspiration behind an innovative site remediation process created at The University of Western Ontario.
[read more]

WORLDiscoveries Research Showcase

Western Engineering News
Western's Faculties of Engineering and Science and the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry hosted the 2010 WORLDiscoveries Research Showcase Friday, February 5, 2010 at the London Convention Centre.
[read more]

Hydro One supports power grid research

Western News | January 13, 2010
A new partnership between Hydro One and The University of Western Ontario will increase the reliability and security of the electrical grid while also promoting opportunities for greener sources of energy.
[read more] [Watch a video from the announcement: Hydro One energizes Western]
Also see London Free Press article: Hydro invests in grid experts

Business London | January 2010 edition

Business London takes a look at five Western technologies that are ready for work, including a process to smolder liquids to clean up toxic waste; leading-edge nontechnology at work in the automotive field; engineered bio-tissue for heart repair; a machine that transforms agricultural waste into valuable bio-fuels; and a big step in the treatment of prostate cancer.
[read more]

Farming manure for megawatts

Western News | January 7, 2010
Engineering professor and Associate Dean (Academic) Amarjeet Bassi is among the researchers using Stanton Farms as a large-scale test tube. Bassi will build a greenhouse with a bio-fence of five gallon tubes filled with microalgae grown on 5,000 litres a day of effluent (treated wastewater rich in fertilizer value). The algae production process uses minimum energy – using only natural light, carbon dioxide captured from burning the methane gas, and waste effluent – to produce a high-value product, he says.
[read more]

Also from this web page:

Contact

.:Western Engineering Dean's Office
Spencer Engineering Building, Room 2008
Telephone: 519 661-2128 Fax: 519 661-3808 contactWE@eng.uwo.ca