Where others would see a bunch of university students, last week, five lucky youngsters got to meet a real-life rocket scientist — and a polar explorer, just for added measure.

As part of a program from Carleton University called “Let’s Talk Science,” which brings the thrill of scientific discovery to young people, four students descended on the Perth and District Union Library on Aug. 15, to take the young people to a galaxy far, far away – alright, more like Mars. But that’s still pretty cool.

“We’re going to go on an adventure to Mars today,” said Adam Vigneron, who, along with Libby Sprigge and Sasha Zemskova are second-year graduate students in Carleton’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Their classmate Chris Nicol is a PhD candidate in the program.

“We are students who like to talk to other students about science,” he explained to his young charges.

“I work on rockets and satellites,” added Vigneron.

His friend Sasha had an equally cool job – literally.

“I am a polar explorer, everything to do with cold,” said Zemskova.

“She’s from Russia, so she loves everything cold!” joked Vigneron.

With homeland pride, Zemskova told the children about how her fellow countryman, Yuri Gagarin, became the first person in space in 1961.

“He couldn’t stay there a long time,” she said. “He went for one turn around the earth and he came back and it is lucky he was able to come back alive.” Upon returning to earth, Gagarin said that, “our earth is so beautiful. We have to do our best to share it.”

“The next place that we are looking to go is Mars,” said Vigneron. “It is a lot further away (than the moon.) We are sending robots there. Last summer, a robot landed on Mars. If robots land on Mars, they can send us back pictures.”

The students then proceeded to tell the children other ways in which they are trying to get pictures of the red planet, and other coloured planets too.

Pointing to a picture of the Hubble telescope, Vigneron explained that “that telescope is the size of a school bus. When these things are that massive, we get really good photos.”

The library’s summer reading club has been expanded this summer beyond books, arts, and crafts, towards incorporating science – explained at an age appropriate level, and with a bit of humour thrown in. Detailing how the Mars Rover had to be parachuted on to Mars, with air bag casing surrounding it, hitting the surface of the planet at the speed of a car on the highway, Vigneron joked that, if you were inside the craft at the time, “you would need a barf bag.”

The event ended with a demonstration of how long it takes messages to get from NASA control on earth to the Mars Rover, and back again. Using maps drawn by the children, a child would be sent out into the library to tell a student to move several paces in any one direction – driving home the frustration of sending out directions that can take hours to be received and acted upon.

Mackenzie and McGillvray knew the market for server space at data centres was set to skyrocket as remote or “cloud” computing became big business. Data centres allow companies to have access to a safe and fully serviced location for all of their computer equipment. They brought in Van Gaal, a talented designer of data centres who has worked with Telus and others. The three went to work designing the Ottawa facility and raising the $15 million in capital it would take to build it.

McGillvray credits Van Gaal’s foresight in planning the centre. The location in Kanata gives it access to more than 144 strands of fibre optic cable, allowing for nearly unlimited bandwidth. Two separate electrical grids feed into the building, ensuring continuity of services during a power failure. As well, the building will have a number of security features to safeguard its clients’ data.

In July 2013, Granite Networks received an investment from local IT services firm Grade A.

“Grade A saw an opportunity with our organization to better serve their client base and become involved with a rapidly growing organization, (in) a parallel industry to what they’re presently in,” said van Gaal.

With files from Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Business Journal.

Carleton University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering announced on May 3, 2013, that Natural Resources Canada has made a $1.44 million investment through the ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative for a research project that will create a pilot-scale gas turbine facility to develop technology for efficient electricity generation.

The funding is part of ongoing research and development efforts to reduce the capital and operating costs, and increase the energy efficiency of, cleaner coal and carbon capture and storage systems.

“Through the ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative, our Government is investing in innovative clean energy technologies that create jobs, generate new economic opportunities and protect the environment,” said the Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. “This program demonstrates our tangible support for energy projects that drive energy innovation.”

“We are grateful to the federal government for this investment in our ongoing research,” said Carleton President Roseann O’Reilly Runte. “This will help us continue to lead the way in energy efficiency research that is so vital.”

The objective of the project is to construct a pilot-scale facility based on a closed, indirectly heated gas turbine cycle using supercritical carbon dioxide as the fluid circulating through the machinery.  This type of gas turbine is one of the options being developed as a new high-efficiency component in next generation cleaner coal systems.

The next generation systems could offer substantial system size reduction, reduced capital and operating costs, and increased energy efficiency when compared to current best available coal-fired electricity generation with carbon capture and storage.  Other potential application areas for supercritical carbon dioxide gas turbines include solar, geothermal, waste heat and nuclear, promising higher efficiency power generation from a variety of heat sources.

The project work will involve nearly all aspects of gas turbine design, including thermodynamic performance analyses, aerodynamic and structural design, heat exchanger and materials selection, dynamic modelling, and control systems design.  Most of this work will be carried out by teams of undergraduate and graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering, as part of their fourth year capstone design projects or thesis research.  The overall project is managed by Prof. Henry Saari, with students being supervised by faculty members from the department.

The project will also receive support from SaskPower, Saskatchewan’s principal supplier of electricity and Canada’s lead coal-fired utility developing new clean coal technologies.  SaskPower will provide engineering and technical support, especially for future commercial applications and larger scale testing of the technology.

“This project will provide an excellent opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to apply the technical skills they have learned to a ‘real-world’ problem in an environment that realistically emulates what they will find in industry,” said Prof. Saari.  “It builds on, and expands, a long history of gas turbine and turbomachinery education and research that has been one of the pillars of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.”

(For more, check out the 2009 story in the Ingenious archives.)

Left to right: Al Perks, PEng, Judge Convener; Tyler Clancy, student, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Frank Hendriksen, PEng, Student Papers Co-chair; Tim Inglis, student, Department of Electronics; Kim Eaton, PEng, Judge; Cynthia Cruickshank, assistant professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, PEO Student Papers Night Organizer

Congratulations to Tim Inglis (biomedical and electrical engineering) and Tyler Clancy (mechanical engineering) on their winning presentations at the PEO Papers Night on April 9. Inglis was awarded the best overall paper prize for the Bionic Hand and Clancy won for the best technical presentation for Flexures for the Formula Hybrid Car. The judges were significantly impressed both with the superb engineering technical aspects of their projects and their ability to present this to an audience in a fashion such that non-experts could understand their work.

Prof Cynthia Cruickshank, the faculty member responsible for the Carleton team, now has two consecutive wins after our team recaptured the Tom Foulkes Trophy, awarded by the Ottawa Chapter of PEO.

The Bionic Hand project, a 3D printed hand with intelligent EMG control, also took first place in the Department of Electronics, and second place in IEEE Ottawa Section – Carleton Branch.

Ellery works on space robotics, satellite design, the design and analysis of planetary rovers and more. Using laboratory equipment to simulate space environments, he develops techniques to ensure that robots can function effectively in harsh conditions at zero or low gravity environments, out of reach of human operators, and too far away to remotely control via radio links such as conditions that exist on the surface of Mars.

He has worked with the European Space Agency on problems of space-based robotics, and headed a team of Carleton students and researchers that designed the Kapvik micro-rover chassis for the Canadian Space Agency. He was first confirmed as a Canada Research Chair in 2007.

“Both industries are very concerned with lightweighting and making aircraft or vehicles as light as possible to reduce fuel costs,” he said.

His decision to switch from air to ground transportation had a lot to do with the resurgence of the auto industry in North America. “The Big Three were hiring quite a bit in this area. And I always loved cars. I ever had quite the same passion for airplanes.”

Read the full story by Denise Deveau in the National Post, 13/03/12, Resurgence of auto sector lifts hiring.

Womans career takes flight with dream job; Aerospace; $45-trillion required for emerging market
National Post
13-Mar-13
Denise Deveau
Photo: Peter J. Thompson

With engineers in hot demand in the aerospace sector, it’s fortunate Christina Kurth, and both her brothers chose this career path – one brother works as an automotive engineer across the road from her workplace. But Ms. Kurth said her interest was inspired by a family trip to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida when she was still in primary school. “The moment I saw the Saturn V rocket, that was it. I knew it was a career in space or go home.

“I became that girl who liked space,” she said.

While becoming an astronaut was her priority for many years, her time in Carleton University’s aerospace engineering program turned her passion from space travel to aviation. “There’s such a diverse career path with aerospace and there’s so much creativity involved,” Ms. Kurth said.

The 26-year-old works at Bombardier in Toronto as an engineering professional 2 in the advanced design department, where she is involved in producing conceptual designs, as well as research and other related projects prior to aircraft entering production. Ms. Kurth said she is doing her “dream job.”

With the aerospace industry experiencing significant growth, the prospects for graduates are outstanding, said Jeremy Laliberté, assistant professor at Carleton’s department of mechanical and aerospace engineering in Ottawa. “Because of the demand, entrance average requirements tend to be higher. I’d say twice as many apply as are accepted into the program.”

All engineering students take the same foundational courses for the first two years before selecting their areas of specialization. Within aerospace engineering itself, there are four streams students can pursue at Carleton: aerodynamics and propulsion (e.g. turbines); structure (composite materials and manufacturing); avionics (electronic systems and software); and space systems (communications systems, space exploration technologies). Aerospace engineers can also take electives in areas such as biomechanical or renewable energies.

While a large portion of students end up with major aerospace players such as Pratt & Whitney Canada, Rolls-Royce PLC and Bombardier Inc., the skills are also transferable to industries such as automotive, construction, energy and oil and gas.

“I don’t know any students from the program that haven’t found work in the field,” Mr. Laliberté said.

Aerospace engineering expertise will continue to be in extremely high demand, said Jim Quick, president and chief executive of Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) in Ottawa. He contends Canada leads the world in terms of talent.

“Whether it’s jets, landing gear, simulation training, propulsion technologies or working on helicopters, our people are some of the best in the world. The only issue is we don’t have enough of them. People and skills is a huge issue for us. We’re having to go to elementary, junior and high schools to encourage interest and get kids going back to technology, math and sciences.”

Recruitment will be critical in the next 20 years, given the world is going to need 34,000 new aircraft, half of which will be destined for Asia, Mr. Quick said. “This is largely being driven by the growth in passenger travel in emerging countries. Single-aisle aircraft is expected to account for $4.5-trillion worth of work. While countries have their own industries, they will not be able to meet demand, which places Canada in a strong position to take advantage of this growth.”

The November 2012 Emerson Report, Beyond the Horizon: Canada’s Interests and Future in Aerospace confirms the strength of Canada’s role in the sector. The report notes Canada’s aerospace industry is the fifth-largest in the world and the second-largest relative to the size of the economy. It generates $22-billion in annual revenues, employs 66,000 people and exports 80% of its output.

Finding enough aerospace engineers to fill ever-increasing quotas is not an easy task, said Stephane Pelletier, senior human resource director for Bombardier Aerospace in Montreal. “We’re in massive growth right now, and have launched a series of new programs that require a lot of engineering disciplines.”

This year they are looking to recruit 2,000 professionals worldwide in more than 40 aerospace-related disciplines from air systems to hydraulics. One-third of those hires will be new graduates. Last year, the company took in more than 600 graduates for its internship programs.

A number of new disciplines have been added to the Bombardier roster, including environmental footprint, human factor (i.e. ergonomics) and numerical controls, some of which weren’t in existence 10 years ago, Mr. Pelletier said.

There are also certain specializations where it’s extremely difficult to find expertise, because of the limited number of knowledgeable people, he adds. “Talk to any business leaders and they will tell you how difficult it is to find an air systems engineer or brake engineer.”

That being said, aerospace continues to be one of the more popular of the engineering disciplines, Mr. Quick said. “In aerospace you’re working on the latest technologies, future platforms, exploration and observation. There’s a huge element of intrigue.”