NWTel remote communications sites will be upgraded with new Stirling Engines that Yukon College is testing and modifying for cold-climate use.
Research efforts at Canadian colleges and polytechnics continue to grow and expand across the country. Here we feature three projects - from the fledgling to the well-established - that are helping colleges cement their reputation as postsecondary research institutions.
SAIT Polytechnic's Sports and Wellness Engineering Research Program
As the skeleton races at the 2010 Vancouver Games got under way last week, Alex Zahavich watched from the sidelines, more intently, perhaps, than most spectators.
He attended the Games not only as a volunteer, overseeing the transport of the sleds to and from the Whistler Sliding Centre, but also as the principal investigator of the sports and wellness engineering research program at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary. That makes him the brains behind Canada's skeleton sled design.
Dr. Zahavich has toiled away quietly for the past five years to come up with a sled design to give Canada's skeleton athletes an edge and boost the country's chances of winning a medal. He is a member of Own the Podium's Top Secret project, the aptly named $8-million research initiative, which has just recently come to light. The project involves more than 50 research programs at 17 Canadian universities and colleges that studied everything from equipment design to athletic suits to the properties of snow and ice.
"We've done a pretty good job of keeping a lid on this," Dr. Zahavich says.
Because Olympic athletes typically choose their equipment several years in advance, the sleds used by Canada's skeleton athletes at the 2010 Games incorporate just some of the features of SAIT's prototype sled, known as the Trojan 1. However, the SAIT sled was used by athletes competing in this year's European Cup circuit and is expected to be ready for competition at the 2014 Winter Games in Russia.
Dr. Zahavich, who is also the director of SAIT's applied research and innovation services, declined to divulge any details about the sled, since he is still bound by a confidentiality agreement. But, he says, he himself has hurtled head-first down the track on one. So how did it perform? As an admittedly amateur driver he says he "wouldn't have a clue," since he was completely out of control for most of the time. But, he adds, in runs with a seasoned test pilot at the helm, the sled performed better than expected. "It shocked us," he says.
As proud as he is of SAIT's success on the skeleton track, Dr. Zahavich hopes his efforts will lead one day to the establishment of a sports engineering institute at SAIT. He says: "I see this as a launch pad for something bigger."
Nova Scotia Community College's Centre for the Built Environment
When the Centre for the Built Environment opens its doors this fall at the Nova Scotia Community College's new Waterfront Campus in Dartmouth, N.S., it will be a model for sustainable design and construction.
The 11,000-square-metre building will be designed to meet much of its energy requirements through renewable energy sources. It will feature solar thermal panels to generate electricity, a Geothermal cooling system, planted rooftops to moderate indoor temperatures, and "biowalls:" floor-to-ceiling walls constructed entirely of plants that act as natural air filters.
The centre will also be a research and training hub for sustainable building and construction practices. It will house students in 13 programs within the college's School of Trades and Technology.
Gordon Wilkie, who teaches in the faculty of electrical technologies, will oversee one of the centre's several renewable energy research projects. He will lead a team of some 100 students enrolled in the school's mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering technology programs in conducting research on solar technologies. "We will be studying their efficiency and how well they work," he explains.
Students will conduct the research as part of the curriculum. They will collect data to assess the region's solar energy potential and test various types of materials used in the manufacture of these technologies to see how well they perform.
Mr. Wilkie is also working with the Canadian Solar Industries Association and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges to develop courses for colleges across Canada to teach students how to design and install solar energy systems for commercial and residential use.
Yukon College's Yukon Cold Climate Innovation Centre
Yukon College likes to play to its strengths when it comes to research. The college is quickly making a name for itself in the field of cold climate research.
"It's a very exciting time," says Chad Gubala, the director of the college's Yukon Cold Climate Innovation Centre, based in Whitehorse. The centre, created in 2006, is just now ramping up its research efforts.
Dr. Gubala is at work with researchers from the University of Ottawa and the Yukon government to test new types of road surfaces that are better able to withstand the region's temperature fluctuations. Each summer, rising air temperatures warm the region's permafrost, causing damage to its roads.
Dr. Gubala and his team have paved a stretch of road in Dawson City with a new kind of asphalt binder designed to deflect sunlight and protect the permafrost underneath. They have also installed an electrical monitoring system under the road to allow engineers to track the conditions of the permafrost in order to identify and repair damage before it affects the road surface, and reduce maintenance costs. By the time the damage appears on the surface repairs are typically more costly.
The early results are promising, Dr. Gubala says. The three-dimensional monitoring system has been "100-per-cent successful." The road surface was installed late last year and it's still too early to say how it will hold up. Researchers will have a better idea come the summer months but it may take a couple of years to see if it's a viable alternative to conventional asphalt, he says.
If successful, the project could affect how thousands of kilometres of roads running through Canada's north are paved, as well as remote air strips. The monitoring system could also be adapted to track permafrost conditions under buildings, utilities and other structures, Dr. Gubala says.
The centre's location provides a unique environment for developing and testing technologies with a broad range of applications, he says, "but for us it's about developing technologies for living up here."