Mitigating climate change will need to decrease the demand on fossil fuels and developing low carbon fuels. Co-processing biogenic feedstocks in existing oil refineries could provide significant amount of low carbon fuels as well as displacing the demand on fossil fuels. The proposed research work with an oil refinery who is commercialising co-processing oleochemical feedstocks […]

Aspect Biosystems is developing a novel microfluidic 3D bioprinting technology that has the potential to fundamentally change the way many diseases are treated through the creation of functional human tissue. The technology manages highly complex fluid handling operations and requires sophisticated control systems to deliver reliable and repeatable results. This project is focused on developing […]

Burn injuries and wounds caused by burns are big health problems and in Canada alone cost nearly $290 million. Additionally, these wounds usually persist and become infected and subsequently drastically compromise patients’ health, result in significantly longer hospitalization, delayed wound healing, higher costs and higher risk of death. Therefore, prevention and management of wound infections […]

Few centuries ago, building palaces and castles were based on past experiences and observations, hence, resulted in very inefficient designs with wall sometimes as thick as 1~2m. Today, computer modeling provides a low-cost way of predicating what may happen when engineering structures are subjected to different loads and conditions. We know that some loads are […]

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are the dominant technology used to power today’s electric vehicles (EVs). However, current Li-ion batteries is reaching the bottleneck in the energy density, partially due to the limited capacity in the graphite anode (372 mAh g-1). In partnership with MGX Minerals Inc., Dr. Liu’s team at the University of British Columbia aims […]

Healthcare infrastructure plays a key role in the recovery of communities in a post-disaster scenario. In seismically active regions, such as western Canada, an understanding of the seismic performance of hospitals is essential to inform emergency management and effectively mitigate earthquake risk. This research project aims to develop new methodological approaches to integrate seismic risk […]

Due to the lack of investment from the Federal and Provincial governments for affordable housing and the low number of housing cooperatives formed in the last 30 years the co-op housing model is outdated. In response to a need for affordable housing in Vancouver, BC the Community Land Trust (CLT) has recently opened two newly […]

This MITACS project aims to investigate the durability of IONOMR’s PEMIONTM membranes in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)-based fuel cells for automotive applications and explore their usage as the PEM in PEM-based fuel cells. Specific test conditions and protocols for use at IONOMR based on industry standards will be developed and the materials will be benchmarked […]

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 […]

The goal of this project is to design and develop a wireless network testbed at the University of British Columbia (UBC) for Rogers Communications Canada Inc. to support different use cases for the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks. We will study the concept of self-organizing network (SON) and design a deep learning-based algorithm for our […]

Preforming regular visual inspections is essential in up keeping structures. These inspections are used to identify defects at an early stage before they pose a major threat. Unfortunately, these inspections require scaffolding or hiring a boom to access certain areas. Other areas are tight and put the worker at risk. The use of visual inspection […]

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are major contributors to smog, causing harm to both the environment and human health. However, VOCs control faces tremendous challenges. The aggregation of low VOCs concentration emitted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have significant environmental and social impacts. However, SMEs find the current “on the market” technologies impractical and too […]