Media Mention: Do we really need to mask up outdoors? Dr. Steven Rogak comments on the need to evaluate risk.

Media Mention: Do we really need to mask up outdoors? Dr. Steven Rogak comments on the need to evaluate risk.

May 10, 2021

MONTREAL GAZETTE: Despite emerging science that has changed what we know about how the coronavirus is transmitted, there’s been one constant over the past year: that outdoors is safer than indoors. But lately that message is getting murky, with Quebec recommending the wearing of masks outdoors, then rescinding the recommendation — kind of, and Ontario locking up tennis courts, banning golf and temporarily closing playgrounds — before opening them again.

So what’s changed? Is there new information suggesting that we’ve been underestimating the strength of virus transmission outdoors? Or is it simply an example of messaging that doesn’t reflect the science?

Mech2 Head TA wins Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award

May 6, 2021

Mechanical Engineering Teaching Assistant Carly Jones has won a Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Award for her outstanding work in several courses, including as Head TA for the department’s second year program Mech 2. Jones is a PhD candidate with the School of Biomedical Engineering, where she is part of the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility (CHHM). At CHHM she studies cartilage health using MRI and mechanical testing equipment in knees and hips with bone marrow lesions associated with osteoarthritis under Faculty of Medicine Professor and Mechanical Engineering Associate Member, Dr. David Wilson, and co-supervisor Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor of Teaching Dr. Agnes d’Entremont.

As Head TA for the Mech 2 program, Jones runs orientation for the team of program TAs, managing over fifty TAs and communicating with students, TA and Instructor teams, and running several interconnected course websites providing the program’s 124 students with assignments, test results, administrative answers and online homework troubleshooting. This year, she also assisted the team of instructors with the administrative and teaching software used to run the program online for the first time. She has been a TA for Mech 2 and MECH 435 since 2017, and she has taught MECH 435 as a Sessional Lecturer since January 2021. She is also currently lead lab TA for BMEG 230, which is a course she helped develop in 2018. Her dedication to teaching is recognized by the instructors she has worked with, as well as undergraduate students.

Killam GTA awards are given to sixteen outstanding UBC Teaching Assistants who contribute to undergraduate learning through their skills and abilities. Read about all the Faculty of Applied Science Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award and the Killam Teaching Prize recipients at: https://apsc.ubc.ca/news/2021/04/ubc-applied-science-profs-and-grad-students-receive-killam-teaching-awards

Congratulations to Ms. Jones on receiving this award, and thank you for all your contributions to academic excellence at Mechanical Engineering and UBC!

UBC breaks ground on $23 million renewable energy hub

May 5, 2021

UBC NEWS: ‘Test bed’ showcases clean energy solutions – receives $5.6 million funding from Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. A new $23 million renewable energy hub will transform an entire city block at the University of British Columbia into a smart energy district, including the province’s first-ever hydrogen refuelling station for light and heavy-duty vehicles.

It will also include the addition of a solar array, as well as intelligent charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

“This is an exciting moment for UBC,” said Prof. Santa J. Ono, UBC president and vice- chancellor. “In the face of a growing climate crisis, we are mobilizing even more of our institutional education, research and innovation capacity to pursue climate solutions. This renewable energy hub is an important piece, and we are truly grateful to our partners in government and industry who helped bring it to life.”

Canada’s first 5G drones fly over UBC

April 15, 2021

UBC NEWS: Drone test flight shows potential of 5G networks to support essential services and accelerate innovation.

Canada’s first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights over a 5G network took place at UBC last week, showcasing some of the future potential applications of 5G-enabled autonomous flight.

Two UAVs—standard quad models fitted out with a 5G signal transmitter receiver—were put through their paces by Vancouver drone R&D company InDro Robotics using UBC’s 5G network, installed by Rogers as part of a multiyear collaboration to pursue 5G research.

New Paper from MEMs Lab increases accuracy in measurement of eye movements

April 8, 2021

The Mechanical Engineering Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) Lab has published a new paper “A Fusion Algorithm for Saccade Eye Movement Enhancement with EOG and Lumped-element Models”. Working in the MEMS Lab as a PhD student under supervisors and co-authors Dr. Mu Chiao and Dr. Clarence de Silva, author Hiroshan Gunawardane has developed an algorithm which cleans up the noisy signals generated by electrooculography (EOG) measurements of tiny eye movements called saccades.

Gunawardane describes how EOG measurements of these eye movements on their own can be hard to use: “Saccades are rapid eye movements when you look from one point to another without considering the background. We usually use those to look here and there all the time and EOG can be used to record these. However, EOG signals are very noisy because of reasons like artifacts (brain signals, muscle signals, eye blinks, etc.)…”  To confirm the effectiveness of their algorithm in reducing this noise, it was compared against a camera-based eye-tracking system at the Department of Psychology’s Vision Lab, in partnership with co-authors Dr. James Enns and graduate student Raymond MacNeil. The team of co-authors also includes third-year engineering physics undergraduate Leo Zhao, who has been assisting with the research.

The researchers will continue to explore how this algorithm can be applied, such as in the development of virtual reality headsets, and medical applications like the diagnosis of eye conditions.

Find the “A Fusion Algorithm for Saccade Eye Movement Enhancement with EOG and Lumped-element Models” at DOI: 10.1109/TBME.2021.3062256.

Photo by V2osk on Unsplash

Statement on Anti-Asian Racism & Resources

March 24, 2021

In light of the recent shootings in Atlanta and the rise of anti-Asian racism in the past year, we would like to join President Santa Ono and the Faculty of Applied Science in acknowledging and condemning harassment and violence against Asian and Pacific Islander communities, and all forms of discrimination. These are long-standing issues which have affected members of our university and Vancouver communities, and we reaffirm our commitment to stand in solidarity with those facing racism and discrimination, and to provide a safe and respectful environment for our students, faculty and staff. Please find the APSC statement and resources below. You can also reach out to the Mechanical Engineering Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Indigeneity directly at edi@mech.ubc.ca.

– Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, on behalf of UBC Mechanical Engineering

 

UBC Applied Science Condemns Anti-Asian Harassment and Violence

Recent escalations of anti-Asian harassment and violence, including last week’s shooting in Atlanta, are horrific reminders of the racism faced by the Asian and Pacific Islander community every day.

UBC Applied Science condemns these acts in the strongest possible terms. We are committed to providing a safe environment for all members of our community.

A list of resources has been compiled for anyone who has experienced or is concerned about discrimination and harassment at UBC:

Get help

Learn more

Be a better bystander

 

“Racism and bias have no place in our community and that we have zero tolerance for it.”

— UBC President Santa Ono

Original APSC statement posted here: https://apsc.ubc.ca/news/2021/03/ubc-applied-science-condemns-anti-asian-harassment-and-violence

 

 

UBC experts team up to tackle air pollution with network of sensors

March 9, 2021

UBC NEWS: Air pollution is an urgent problem linked to as many as nine million deaths per year worldwide and 14,000 annually in Canada, primarily from related heart and lung diseases. A group of UBC experts are determined to mount a rapid response through research.

The team, known as Rapid Air Improvement Network (RAIN), is planning to use a network of air quality sensors, mobile monitoring and sophisticated analysis instruments to locate and study air pollutants with the detail needed to support fast, effective interventions.

They plan to install an air quality sensor network on the UBC campus this summer, to leverage the university’s traffic, population and operations data which can be quickly tuned to improve air quality. The project will also outfit a mobile monitoring station that will be used further afield, including communities affected by wildfires and other areas in urgent need.

MECH researchers receive $2M funding towards innovative air quality project

March 8, 2021

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded $2 million to the Rapid Air Improvement Network (RAIN) project lead by Dr. Steven Rogak and Dr. Naomi Zimmerman. They are working with several co-investigators and colleagues in the Department of Mechanical Engineering including Dr. Amanda Giang, Dr. Patrick Kirchen and Dr. Adam Rysanek, as well as faculty from Chemistry, Geography, Medicine, and the School of Population and Public Health. The CFI Innovation Fund competition supports infrastructure costs to support the development of Canadian research and technology.

RAIN is an inter-disciplinary project that will look at air quality data from the angles of both health and climate in order to create workable solutions that can be implemented quickly and effectively. Using sensors, mobile monitoring, and instrumentation alongside UBC’s existing information on campus traffic, population, and operations, RAIN will measure air quality and provide recommendations for policy and technological solutions that can be quickly tested for effectiveness within the campus environment. Looking at the issue from multiple sides, RAIN brings together experts in health, chemistry, meteorology, engineering and environmental policy, as well as academic, government and industry partners.

While using the UBC campus as a testbed, the RAIN infrastructure will be designed for use beyond the university so it can be applied to measure air quality and effective intervention wherever needed. With wildfires around the world made more severe by climate change, and air pollution contributing to 9 million deaths per year, RAIN seeks to give policy makers the information they need to protect human health and the environment.

Read more about RAIN at UBC News and about all the UBC Engineering projects supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation at the Faculty of Applied Science News.

 

Grad Students Compete in 2021 Three Minute Thesis Heat

March 4, 2021

Graduate student research topics

On February 25, five graduate students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering faced off on Zoom to see who could best explain their thesis research in three minutes or less. The Department’s second annual 3 Minute Thesis heat challenged graduate students to hone their communication skills by packing their complex research projects into a quick presentation that effectively communicated their work and its importance using only one slide, no audio or video, and no props.

Participants included both master’s-level and PhD students, researching a range of topics:

Nikoo Soltan  |  MASc Student, Supervisors: Dr. Peter Cripton & Dr. Gunter Siegmund
Soltan discussed the difficulty in detecting soft tissue and nerve damage caused by whiplash due to its invisibility in imaging technologies like X-ray. By studying the way different kinds of collisions affect the head and neck on animal models, Soltan hopes to shed light on how soft-tissue injury is caused.

Ammarah Kaderdina  | MASc Student, Supervisor: Dr. Antony Hodgson
If misdiagnosed, developmental hip dysplasia in infants can cause health problems later in life. 3D ultrasound is shown to be a more effective diagnosis tool than the current standard, 2D ultrasound, but it is too expensive for many pediatric practices to provide. Kaderdina is looking to reconstruct 3D ultrasound volumes from 2D ultrasound image frames, with the primary focus on accurately location-tagging the image frames.

Shayan Heydari | MASc Student, Supervisor: Dr. Rajeev Jaiman
Rats’ whiskers act as a kind of radar, picking up vibrations in the air which can tell them many things, including the shapes of objects in their vicinity. As air flows past them, whiskers create vortices, and by studying this mechanism Heydari hopes to lay the groundwork for creating whisker-like location sensors which could be used in robotics.

Iraj D Hamani | PhD student, Supervisor: Dr. Thomas Oxland
Spinal deformity affects many seniors who once had healthy backs. Hamani is working to understand the role muscles play in this shaping complex skeletal system as the body ages, particularly their mechanical properties. By understanding the specific muscles involved, treatment could be developed to strengthen them, preventing this debilitating condition.

Mrinmoy Chakraborty | PhD student, Supervisors: Dr. Naomi Zimmerman, and Dr. Amanda Giang
In many countries, cooking and heating are done by burning solid biomass fuels like firewood and dungcakes, contributing to poor indoor air quality and leading to higher mortality rates. In situations where the transition to cleaner fuel might be slower to achieve due to fuel price and behavioural reasons, Chakraborty seeks to understand if better ventilation design can more quickly alleviate this health impact.

Presenters spoke to a general audience of non-experts and a panel of faculty judges.  Lecturer Adrianna Eyking, Dr. Dana Grecov, and Dr. Lyndia Wu brought expertise in technical communication, fluid mechanics and dynamics, biomedical, and mechatronics subjects to their deliberations, but the audience was also responsible for selecting a People’s Choice winner. In the end, both the experts and the audience agreed: congratulations to Shayan Heydari for winning both the MECH First Place title and People’s Choice award! He will receive a $150 Amazon gift card as a combined prize for winning both titles, and will advance to the UBC 3MT Semi Finals.

Semi-Final competitors will submit their three-minute presentations via video, and after adjudication, and finalists will be announced on March 12th. The UBC Final will be in live virtual format on March 31st from 12 – 1:30 PM. Register here to view the competition, and find out more about the UBC 3 Minute Thesis at https://3mt.grad.ubc.ca.

Congratulations to all our presenters for taking part in this challenge!

Photos left to right by Adrian Swancar, zelle duda, Oxana Kuznetsova, Miikka Luotio and MD Duran on Unsplash.

Media Mention: Dr. Amanda Giang quoted about lead pollution cleanup efforts in Trail, BC.

March 1, 2021

NATIONAL OBSERVER: For more than 30 years, a small city nestled in the mountains of British Columbia’s West Kootenay region has been working to clean up lead pollution that spewed from the local smelter for almost a century.

Teck Metals has upgraded the smelter, and that led to major improvements, but blood lead levels among local kids are still four times higher than the Canadian average, and internal government documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer through a freedom-of-information request show an estimated 8,000 properties remain contaminated from historic emissions.