The Complete Engineer

ThE Complete ENGINEER I

SPRING/SUMMER 2010

PM# 41956012

Cutting Edge:Dr. Michael Cunningham and his group are world leaders in Green Chemistry and Engineering

INSIDE…A Feature focus Chemical Engineering Chemistry

Nano-technology: The New FrontierBeating the bad guys:

ECE’s team of white hackers stay one step ahead

THECOMPLETE

ENGINEERTHE MAGAZINE OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITYTHE MAGAZINE OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE AT QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY

THECOMPLETE

ENGINEERCOMPLETE Contents

SPRING/SUMMER 2010

DEAN

Kimberly A. Woodhouse

MANAGING EDITOR

Adam Walker

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Queen’s Marketing and Communications

COVER PHOTO

Greg Black, Queen’s University Photographer

EDITOR

Alec Ross

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Nanci CorriganKen DayLiz PhilipsLi RobbinsAlec RossLauren SharpeMartha Tanner

CONTACT INFORMATION

Faculty of Engineering and Applied ScienceQueen’s UniversityBeamish-Munro Hall45 Union StreetKingston, ON K7L 3N6Tel 613.533.2055Fax 613.533.6500Email [email protected]

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN REACHING OUT TO OUR AUDIENCE?

In the September issue of The CompleteEngineer, we are launching a pilot project tocarry paid advertising from select individualsand organizations.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact:Adam WalkerDirector, Faculty Marketing and CommunicationsFaculty of Engineering and Applied Science613.533.6000 ext [email protected]

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

1 New name better reflects who we are

FACULTY

2 Good teaching needs good research2 Welcome!3 Setting the standard: Collaborative GeoEngineering Centre is a world leader

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

4 COVER STORY – Going green: Michael Cunningham, Queen’s New Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering

6 Meet the Head: Questions and Answers with Dr. Jim McLellan7 Can E.coli help prevent heart attacks?7 Engineering Chemistry: Despite a heavy workload, program enrolment has

doubled over the past ten years8 Turning lead into gold8 Mentors in Action: Oil and Gas Speakers Series features Queen’s alumni 9 Alumni fund offers life changing experience 9 Shell makes TEAM, work!

MECHANICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

10 Machine shop is one of a kind in Canada11 North American World Robotic Sailing Championships Coming to Kingston12 New Prof formulating a safer future12 The Dynamic Field of Fluid Dynamics

MATHEMATICS AND ENGINEERING

13 “Can you hear me now?”: Researcher traces telecommunications woes to solar activity

ENGINEERING PHYSICS

14 “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”16 The sky’s the limit for Colette Heald

THE ROBERT M. BUCHAN DEPARTMENT OF MINING

17 Mining and Sustainability18 Let the Games Begin! 19 Field Trips give Mining Students a Global Prospective

CIVIL ENGINEERING

20 Fibre reinforced polymer: Bringing space-age technology to the construction industry 21 Toboggan team tops in Team Spirit

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

22 ECE Grad’s innovative device signals heart disease 22 ECE grad hands off Olympic torch to Queen’s 23 ECE White Hat Hackers team battles cyber-crime

GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING

24 Finding the “opportunity of a lifetime”at the bottom of one very deep hole 25 Michelle Thompson, Space Dust25 Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering: a culture of teamwork

ThE Complete ENGINEER 1

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Welcome to the May 2010 issue of The Complete

Engineer. Those of you with a keen eye will have noticed a

change to our cover. This is now the magazine ofthe Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science atQueen’s University.

Our Faculty has a long and proud history, and we treat its traditions with great respect. Followingin depth discussions with faculty, staff, students and alumni, and with the approval of Faculty Board,in February Senate passed a motion revising ourname to the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science.

By including Engineering in our name we moreaccurately reflect what we do and who we are.

As I noted in the last issue, these are incrediblyexciting days in our Faculty. Along with taking partin Principal Woolf’s academic planning process forthe University, we are planning significant investmentin our future leaders to provide the best environmentfor learning and discovery. Our goal is to reach higherwith outstanding facilities, programming andteaching to ensure that our current students canaddress tomorrow’s most pressing needs, at home and around the world. I will share more on theseinitiatives in our Fall issue.

In this magazine you will read about just a few of the great things that our students and faculty aredoing, thanks to the support we receive fromgovernment, our industry partners, and the continuinggenerosity of our alumni. Your contributions help usensure our continued position as a top destinationfor engineering education in Canada. As we prepareto welcome this fall’s Class of 2014, I am proud toreport that we continue to attract many of the brightestand the best to Queen’s.

As always, I will continue travelling to reach outto our stakeholders: our alumni, friends and corporatepartners. But I would also like to encourage you tocome and visit us in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. This is a truly exciting place to be.

All the best,

Kimberly A. WoodhousePhD, PEng, FCAE, FBSEDean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

New Name better reflects who we are

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2 ThE Complete ENGINEER

DR. BRIAN W. SURGENOR, PEng, ASSOCIATE DEAN (RESEARCH,GRADUATE STUDIES AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS)

welcome!Since July of 2008, we’re proud to welcome the following faculty members:

Dr. Joshua PearceMechanical and MaterialsEngineering

Dr. Ugo PiomelliMechanical and MaterialsEngineering

Dr. Qingguo LiMechanical and MaterialsEngineering

Dr. Zhongwen YaoMechanical and MaterialsEngineering

Vic PakalnisThe Robert M. BuchanDepartment of Mining

Dr. Neil Hoult Civil Engineering

Jim MartinThe Robert M. BuchanDepartment of Mining

Dr. Kevin MumfordCivil Engineering

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Arguably, universities do need to be big enough to allow for the multi-disciplinary nature of research and access to facilities and resources thatsupport discovery. But in our evolvingworld, technology has created entirelynew ways to share knowledge. Scientistsno longer toil alone in labs, unaware ofthe efforts of others. Today, researchersand their students routinely collaborateon projects with colleagues around the world.

Pooling resources and expertise isn’t, however, always a bad idea. In fact,Canada’s National Centres of Excellenceare based on this approach. These inter-university centres foster multi-discipli-nary partnerships between universities,government and industry sectors – andbecause they are located across thecountry, they are accessible to a widerrange of educators and students. Anotherexample of these partnerships are theresearch centres supported by the Ontario Research Fund, with the newCentre for Energy and Power ElectricsResearch (ePOWER) and the Queen’s-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre asQueen’s based examples.

But perhaps the most compellingreason for maintaining research as astrong component of the universitystructure: our students. Unless we in-tend to send all graduate students tofive institutions, pooling research funding sacrifices the primary reasonfor universities in the first place: toteach. The adage “tell me and I’ll forget;show me and I may remember; involveme and I’ll understand” is representedon every campus across our country, as researchers mentor young mindswho may someday hold the key to adiscovery of global dimensions.

There will always be the perceptionthat we face government underfundingfor teaching and research. Regardless,as Theodore von Karman said “A scien-tist studies what is, an engineer studieswhat never was.” As engineers, our infinite curiosity about the worldaround us will continue to drive ourquest for greater knowledge. That quality is too good not to be shared.

Astory in Maclean’s magazine thispast summer has re-ignited a debate

that’s been swirling within academiccircles for a number of years. The article,based on interviews with presidents ofCanada’s five largest universities, sug-gested that national research fundingshould be reserved exclusively for theseinstitutions – leaving the country’sother 85 universities to focus solely onundergraduate education. It’s a radicalidea based on a real concern over fund-ing for universities – but it loses sightof the students who attend them.

There’s no debate that researchfunding in Canada is, in a word, meager,particularly for smaller universities. The “Big 5” universities whose leadersspoke with Macleans – McGill, UBC,Montreal, Toronto and Alberta – currently receive 40% of the country’stotal research funding.

Despite this anomaly, Queen’s is consistently rated number one amongall Canadian universities in national research awards per full-time facultymember. 80 percent of our 2009 NSERCapplications were funded, compared to 63 percent nationwide. We have 53Canada Research Chairs, 25 Queen’s

Research Chairs and four Industrial Research Chairs. This, despite the factthat Queen’s is a mid-size university not located in a major Canadian centre.Clearly, size doesn’t always matter.

good teaching needs good research

Dr. Brian W. Surgenor

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Take four different engineering de-partments at two universities, add

support from industry, and what do youget? The Queen’s based GeoEngineeringCentre, a groundbreaking collaborativeventure that links Queen’s and RoyalMilitary College to create one of thebiggest geoengineering graduate train-ing programs anywhere.

The Centre provides expertise and research for virtually everything underthe ground – rock and soil, groundwater,mines, and buried infrastructure such aspipes and culverts. The benefits of col-laboration are obvious, says ExecutiveDirector Dr. Ian Moore.

“Working under one roof, as it were,allows us to have a collective identity, as well as shared graduate programs, research facilities and mutual supportthrough shared grants,” says Moore, aprofessor and Canada Research Chair in Infrastructure Engineering at Queen’s

Department of Civil Engineering. One important research initiative

at the Centre is the Barrier SystemsProject headed by Dr. Kerry Rowe, aprofessor of Civil Engineering andQueen’s Vice-Principal for Research. Its objective is to ensure that compositeliner systems – geomembranes andgeosynthetic clay liners – used in municipal solid waste landfills remaineffective over the long term.

Liner or barrier systems have beenused in landfills for the last quarter-century and have performed well, saysRowe. But today’s large, modern landfillsare built to more exacting standards.

“These systems are going to have to workeffectively for periods that could rangefrom a hundred years to several hundred,

settiNg the staNDarD:

Collaborative GeoengineeringCentre is a world leader

to be disposed of in an appropriatelydesigned landfill facility.”

The Centre’s geotechnical researchalso includes earthquake engineering,carried out by applied scientists whostudy how tremors affect structuressuch as foundations and retaining walls and who develop quake-predic-tion models for Canada.

Moore says financial support fromthe GeoEngineering Centre’s industrialpartners is extremely important. In hiscase, “about half of my financial supportcomes from industry, and half from thefederal and provincial governments.”

Dr. Kerry RoweDr. Ian Moore

preventing any contaminant migrationfrom the landfill that could have a nega-tive environmental effect on surface orgroundwater.”

Rowe’s project operates a test sitenorth of Kingston in collaboration withpartners including the Ontario Ministryof the Environment, consultants in-volved in landfill design, and manufac-turers of geosynthetic materials used in barrier liners.

Societies will always need landfills,says Rowe. “Even if incineration is allowed, which has its own environ-mental implications, there’s still ash

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It was 1995, and Queen’s alumnus Dr. Michael Cunningham, BSc’85, MSc’87,was enjoying a flourishing corporate career with 25 patents to his credit.

During a speaking engagement at his alma mater, however, he had the op-portunity to tour a newly invigorated Chemical Engineering departmentwith then-Department Head Tom Harris. That tour, which revealed a bur-geoning culture of creativity, lured him back to academia. Now, fifteen yearslater, Cunningham is at the forefront of that creative environment, workingas an Ontario Research Chair in Green Chemistry and Engineering to nur-ture the next generation of scientists and engineers and to re-imagine manufacturing solutions for a cleaner, greener planet.

Green Chemistry focuses on the conservation of resources and the use of renewable and non-toxic materials in product development and manufac-turing processes. Cunningham’s research within the field is both highly collaborative and diverse, with projects that include both the minimization of solvents and chemicals in production and their complete eliminationthrough alternative processes.

Much in the way that doctors pledge to “do no harm”, Cunningham and his colleagues are working to prevent harm by changing the way polymericmaterials are manufactured – compounds that are used to create everythingfrom televisions to tires. “Researchers in green chemistry and engineering areguided by the twelve principles developed by John C. Warner, considered oneof the founders of this field,” says Cunningham. “He believes that it is better

Dr. Michael Cunningham,Queen’s New Chair inGreen Chemistry andEngineering

Going green

cover photo: 1 Dr. Michael Cunningham 2 Mary Thomson 3 Kenichi Nakamura 4 Jordan Pohn 5 Daniel Krazsnai6 Nick Chan 7 ula El-Jaby 8 Dr. Masatosh iMihara 9 Dr. Niels Smeets 10 Michael Fitzpatrick

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to prevent waste than to treat it or clean it up after it isformed. Much of my work involves finding ways to do this.”

Of course, as Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog points out, it’s not always easy being green. “Ideally, we’d like toeliminate the use of solvents completely,” he says, “but sometimes we need to work on being ‘greener’ until we discover the complete solution.” Working with ProfessorRobin Hutchinson and PhD student Nicky Chan, for example,Cunningham is studying new ways to dramatically minimizethe use of copper catalyst in specialty polymers.

That complete solution, however, may come in the formof groundbreaking research to replace toxic solvent-basedprocesses with water-based systems that have a minimal impact on the environment. Cunningham is currently collab-orating with Dr. Timothy McKenna and PhD students Ula El-Jaby and Jordan Pohn to design more efficient chemicalengineering processes for water-based polymerizations, workthat may provide the opportunity to create new types of tailor-made polymer products, such as biomedical instru-ments, microelectronic devices and detection systems.

This research has already attracted international attention,boosting Queen’s and Canada’s reputation as a leader inmanufacturing new materials with “intellectual capital”. PhD student Mary Thomson’s doctoral project on developingwater-based polymerizations, for example, involves collaborations with U.S.-based Arkema Group, as well as professors at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology inZurich. A researcher from Toagosei Chemical Company inJapan, Kenichi Nakamura, is currently visiting Cunningham’slaboratory to learn these same techniques.

Cunningham also collaborates extensively with colleagueDr. Phillip Jessop, a Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry, on Jessop’s switchable surfactants concept. Thisinvolves developing smart nanoparticles that can controlproperties through a non-toxic trigger – in this case, carbon dioxide. Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Masatoshi Mihara and

graduate students Candace Fowler and Catherine O’Neill are using this theory to conduct research that could initiallyresult in a number of important applications – such as fast-drying paint, a valuable tool for industries that consider timean economic factor – but may also drive further research forfuture discovery.

It’s clear that students benefit significantly from this work– all of Cunningham’s projects involve graduate and under-graduate students who gain valuable research experiencewhile contributing their own theories and ideas. “I love thecontact with these young minds, especially the top-qualitystudents that we see at Queen’s,” Cunningham says. “Theirenthusiasm is infectious.”

He notes that these research and collaborative opportuni-ties, however, are possible only through vital funding and thesupport of the University. Cunningham’s prestigious OntarioResearch Chair award, worth $1.25 million over five years, is the latest in a series of accolades, including a Premier’s Research Award and Chancellor’s Research Award. “Theseawards have been pivotal to my work and to my ability to include students in that work,” he says.

“Green Chemistry is a young field, and there’s still somuch to discover,” Cunningham adds. “Each day brings new ideas that need to be propelled from speculation to potential discovery. At Queen’s, we’re working together tomake that happen.”

Checking results along the way

Setting up the Chemspeed® automated reactor module

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meet the Head

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Q The Chemical Engineering program hasseen tremendous growth. Why are so many students attracted to this area ofEngineering and Applied Science?

We have a very strong program with an excellent faculty – a great blend ofexperienced professors and new mindswith fresh ideas. We also providetremendous opportunities for learningbeyond the classroom through projectsand special lecture series.

The Chemical Engineering and Engineering Chemistry disciplines havesignificant roles to play in addressingpressing issues such as energy, water,health and sustainable manufacturing.You’ll see this reflected in the researchwe are doing in green chemistry, bio-processes, fuel cells, and biomedical engineering, as well as work to advancethe design and operation of more con-ventional processes such as low-solventhigh-solids polymerization reactors forcoatings.

Having both the Engineering Chemistry and Chemical Engineeringprograms places our department at acritical interface between science andengineering. This attracts the type ofquality student that we most often seeat Queen’s.

thinkers who aren’t afraid to ask questions and challenge theories.

Many of our students already havestrong leadership skills that they devel-oped in high school – skills that theywant to continue to hone once they arrive at Queen’s. Our student clubs are very active and they provide greatopportunities for advancing those skills and forming lifelong friendshipsand synergies. Recently, our graduatestudents created their own association,both to offer social experiences and toprovide important input to our graduateand seminar programs.

Q What are the biggest challenges for the program?

Enrolment in both our undergraduateand graduate programs has more thandoubled over the past eight years – but our space and facilities have not.We are increasingly struggling to man-age limited lab space and larger classes,and working against constraints such as fume hood capacity. Our studentsenjoy having a close relationship withfaculty, and we want to maintain thatexperience for them but this is morechallenging when there are classes of150 students for core courses. We alsowant to be sure that we are providingthe tools they need to learn and partici-pate in leading edge research.

Budget is, of course, always a chal-lenge – but we are constantly seekingout new partnerships that offer mutualbenefit along with vital funding for ourprograms. We are also fortunate to haveloyal and generous alumni who work toensure our continued success.

Q What’s in the future?

We’re certainly not sitting still! This is a rapidly changing field, and we’re de-termined to maintaining our reputationfor developing strong leaders in Chemi-cal Engineering and Engineering Chem-istry. Our programs have distinguishedthemselves on many levels – with theright resources, we can continue togrow and truly reach our full potential.

Recently, The Complete Engineer sat down with Dr. Jim McLellan, head ofChemical Engineering and Engineering Chemistry, to talk about growth,challenges, and what lies ahead.

Q What sets the teaching apart?

Our people – dedicated faculty andsupport staff that are committed to providing a high-quality educationalexperience and to promoting inquirythrough open-ended projects and re-search. We have a strong project-basedcomponent to our programs, rangingfrom design projects associated withengineering fundamentals courses toindustrial projects, design projects inindustrial catalysis, and open-endedlaboratory opportunities.

Teaching and research aren’t distinctentities; they are both part of the con-tinuum of discovery. Our undergradsspend a good deal of time collaboratingwith upper years, grad students and researchers as part of their education,and that gives them the ability to fullyexplore new theories and ideas. As well, many of our faculty are cross-appointed across a range of allied science disciplines, including chemistry,math and statistics and microbiology.That provides our students with awealth of learning opportunities.

Q Tell me about your students

We tend to attract bright minds whowant the challenge of science and engineering. These are independent

Dr. Jim McLellan

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support the program are amongst the largest producers of intellec-tual property for Parteq, Queen’s renowned technology-transfer andcommercialization office.

“We’re really combining the fundamental processes of engineer-ing with the creative science of chemistry,” says Dr. Scott Parent, who graduated from the program in 1991. “Our goal is to teach students how to see the possibilities entwined within the two disciplines.” Despite a heavy workload that requires students tocomplete both a major engineering project and a chemistry thesisfor dual accreditation, enrolment in the program has doubled over the past ten years.

Dr. Ralph Whitney says the program curriculum is designed tohelp students excel in many new areas of research and development.

“Our program teaches them how to develop creative approaches tothese problems,” he says. “Once they learn to do that, they can taketheir education anywhere.”

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Can e.coli help prevent heart attacks?Queen’s students use bacteria to win bronze medal in international synthetic biology competition

At first glance, the prospect of usingE.coli as a medical treatment ap-

pears somewhat incongruous – after all,this bacteria typically conjures up im-ages of food poisoning and product re-calls. The Queen’s GeneticallyEngineered Machine (QGEM) team,however, recently won a bronze medalat an international competition bydemonstrating how E.coli can be usedas a novel way to treat atherosclerosis -and perhaps one day help prevent heart attacks and stroke.

QGEM’s multi-disciplinary team, com-prised of students in Biology, the Bio-engineering option of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Chemistry,Life Sciences and Biochemistry, com-peted against 110 international groups towin bronze at MIT’s annual synthetic bi-ology conference. The competition chal-lenges teams to develop a project in the rapidly developing and inter-disciplinary field of synthetic biologyand is based on a basic question: “Cansimple biological systems be built fromstandard, interchangeable parts and operated in living cells?” Each team

receives a kit of standard biologi-cal parts and works throughoutthe summer to create their project.

“Our team was incredibly focused and dedicated,” saysChemical Engineering graduatestudent Jonas Gerson, BSc’09,who helped to organize the teamand raise money for the trip.

“They really pulled together to create a solid competition entry.”The team, mentored by facultyfrom Chemical Engineering, Bio-chemistry, Biology, Microbiology andImmunology, Pathology and MolecularMedicine, used E. coli as an engineeredmicroorganism to deliver beneficialdrugs to the site of the plaque in arteries.

Gerson notes that synthetic biology,which combines molecular biology and engineering to construct biologicalsystems, offers intriguing possibilitiesfor Engineering and Applied Sciencestudents who collaborate with peersacross the science spectrum. “The competition provides the perfect op-portunity to combine talents,” he says.

Do you own a Kindle? you may not realize that Amazon.com’spopular new electronic book reader has a Queen’s connection.

For faculty in the Engineering Chemistry program, the Kindle is morethan an evolution in reading – it’s an example of just one of the manyways that the program’s students are contributing to global develop-ment and innovation.

The flexible display technology that led to the Kindle was devel-oped in part by Queen’s Engineering Chemistry graduates. Othergraduates are employed in a wide range of industries developingproducts and processes such as sustainable chemical products, energy-saving manufacturing processes and automated systems for global water testing.

unique in North America and Queen’s second-oldest engineeringprogram, Engineering Chemistry offers a challenging education formotivated students who want to combine the mechanics of engi-neering with the pure science of chemistry. The departments that

eNgiNeeriNg Chemistry:

Despite a heavy workload, program enrolment hasdoubled over the past ten years

“It helps us see possibilities in a wholenew way.”

The QGEM Team would like to thanktheir sponsors:• Queen’s University Departments of

Pathology, Chemical Engineering,and Microbiology and Immunology,

• The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Queen’s

University,• The Cancer Research Institute, • The Coca-Cola Exclusivity Fund

at Queen’s University, and• The faculty who contribute countless

hours providing valuable insights.

The QGEM team


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cated that they increased their knowledge about new opportu-nities in the oil and gas sector.

For many, it was also a chance to meet alumni who couldprovide valuable advice about post-university life. “We werethrilled to welcome back many successful alumni who work inthis industry,” says lecturer Mody. “They are excellent role models, and our students are exceptionally fortunate that our alumni travel from far and wide to help them. Now that’sQueen’s spirit!”

The Oil and Gas Speakers Series is supported with generousdonations from Shell Canada, Paramount Energy Trust, Encana,and Suncor. For more information, please visit: www.oilandgas.chemeng.queensu.ca.

The recent 2010 Oil and Gas Speaker Series Conference attracted nearly a hundred Queen’s students eager to

learn more about the oil and gas industry. The conference, held in January 2010, featured a number of leading industryprofessionals, including many Queen’s alumni who traveledback to campus to share their experiences with students.

Series organizer David Mody, BSc’88, noted that this eventattracted students from a number of programs, including Engineering, Geology, Commerce, Law, and Arts and Science.

“Students recognize the value of learning more about the vastopportunities in this industry – from exploration through todelivery and environmental remediation and protection,” hesaid. In a post-conference survey, 92% of the attendees indi-

meNtors iN aCtioN:oil and Gas speakers series features Queen’s alumni

turning leaD into golD

The practice of alchemy might beconsidered by some to be an an-

cient discipline, long eclipsed by themodern methods of chemistry. But inthe Queen’s Engineering Chemistryprogram, researcher and Associate Professor Scott Parent, BSc’91, is practicing what he refers to as modernalchemy: transforming everyday com-modity materials into advanced plasticsand elastomers. He takes the same ap-proach to educating our next genera-tion of engineers – using modernteaching methods to transform theminto creative, critical thinkers.

Dr. Parent’s research involves the chemical modification of polymers for

use in specialty applications. “Large-scale commodities offer small profitmargins,” says Parent. “We focus on creative applications of industrialchemistry to make these commoditypolymers function in new ways.” In-stead of turning lead into gold, Parentand his group are turning commercialgrades of butyl rubber into anti-micro-bial derivatives, clean curing products,and strong-bonding adhesives for usein biomedical, automotive and packag-ing applications. These technologieswere developed by Parent and Dr.Ralph Whitney of the Department ofChemistry in collaboration withLanxess Inc, a global specialty chemi-

cals company that has been manufac-turing butyl rubber in Sarnia, Ontariosince the Second World War. Thesenew materials are showing great com-mercial promise, prompting Lanxess to purchase five patent families from Queen’s University.

Parent, an alumnus, who has beenwith Queen’s since 1998, applies thesame philosophy to educating students.

“Our students are naturally interested inapplying the science of chemistry tosolve practical problems,” he says. “Ourrole is to nurture that curiosity whilehelping them gain the tools they needto come up with creative solutions tochallenging technical problems.”

Parent believes that the Canadianchemical industry is in constant need ofnew technology, and that researchersface an increasingly competitive andglobal environment. “Good ideas makethe difference,” he says. He notes thatParteq Innovations, Queen’s technologytransfer office, has worked hard tobring these ideas to market. He hastensto add, however, that the work is notsolely about commercialization.

“It’s wonderful that we can bringmoney back to Queen’s through patentassignments and licensing,” he says.

“But the real goal is to have a positiveimpact on the community by helpingindustry solve its problems, and by developing students that can put thesesolutions into practice.”

Dr. Scott Parent

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Queen’s is proud of its academic programs – but every professorknows that there’s nothing like a taste of the world outside the

university to help students better understand their education and ca-reer goals. At Queen’s, a novel fourth year course that links industrieswith students offers great opportunities for students to develop con-nections, work with peers in multiple disciplines, and contribute theirexpertise and ideas to real projects and problems.

The Queen’s Technology Engineering and Management (TEAM)Program – Empowered by Shell Canada provides an opportunity for students in their fourth year to work in interdisciplinary groupson projects ranging from carbon sequestration to manufacturingvaccines. The course is available to all Queen’s faculties and has at-tracted students from a number of programs, including commerce,law, environmental studies and biology.

“This is definitely a win-win situation,” says Dr. Jim McLellan, theHead of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Chemistry. “Our students get to work on projects with real impact, network with industry partners and learn more about different sectors. And our industry partners get to work with motivated, creative students, possibly leading to career opportunities.”

TEAM is an expensive program to mount, and Shell Canada’s investment helps make it possible. Shell invested $400K for a threeyear period in 2005, and a further $400K for a three year period be-ginning in 2009. In addition to Shell’s financial support, Shell employ-ees are actively involved with Queen’s faculty and students throughthe Campus Ambassador Program (CAP), providing project ideas andemployee mentors who work with students in a number of courses.

“The Shell CAP team is known within Queen’s for their enthusi-

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Afourth-year Chemical Engineering student who spenteight weeks abroad to educate youth about HIV and AIDS

says the experience has had an incredible impact on his lifeand his education. Bryan Hoy traveled to Kenya last yearthrough the alumni-funded Centennial International Ex-change Endowment Fund on an outreach project designed to bring international students together in a quest to improveglobal health for the next generation.

Hoy originally traveled to the region with his family at the age of 12. “During my first visit, I wasn’t really aware ofHIV/AIDs and how it was devastating this region,” he says.

“This time, I wanted to face the issues and make a difference.”Hoy traveled to Kenya as part of Queen’s Health Outreach

(QHO), a student-run charity on campus that promotes healthawareness and education around the world. Currently thegroup runs projects in Kenya, Belize, Guyana and northernCanada, and a local project in Kingston. QHO has been operating on campus for over 20 years.

In Kenya, QHO partners with the Youth EmpowermentStrategic Scheme, a Nairobi-based association of universitystudents who work with Queen’s students to develop curricu-lum and materials based on a range of topics includingHIV/AIDS, responsible sexuality, abuse, life skills, gender anddiscrimination, self-esteem and empowerment. In the class-room, the students pair up – one Kenyan, one Canadian –

asm and support for their alma mater” observed Jim McLellan, “andwe are extremely grateful for the support that they have provided.”

“We are proud of our involvement with Queen’s and the successof TEAM,” said John Courtright, Managing Counsel, Heavy Oil, ShellCanada Limited and Queen’s CAP Team Leader. “We want to providethe best support for students and institutions as well as expose ourcompany to the best and brightest new graduates.”

Students apply to TEAM in their fourth year. TEAM projects rangefrom assessing techniques for carbon capture and storage duringsteam-methane reforming to produce hydrogen, to assessing thepotential of gasification/methanation of mountain pine beetle woodfor providing an alternative energy source for oil sands processing, to developing mathematical models to predict the recovery of tracemetals in electronics such as cell phones and flat panel televisions.Last year, a TEAM group investigated strategies for avoiding industrialaccidents – a successful project that was published by the CanadianSociety for Chemical Engineering as an official report.

During the course, students work closely with industry profes-sionals, traveling around the world to meet clients and learn moreabout their chosen field of study. Contacts with the companies provide ongoing mentoring throughout the project, helping students develop critical project management, leadership, businessand communication skills.

Given the benefits, McLellan says it’s no surprise that the programhas grown dramatically since its inception. “We’ve grown from 64 students working on 14 projects four years ago to 124 students working on 31 projects this year,” he says. “ It’s very clear that studentssee the value of this experience.”

shell makes team, work!

to teach students in secondary schools. Teams spend a week at each of five secondary schools in rural Kenya.

Hoy notes that the trip has given him a new perspective onglobal health issues, as well as a first-hand view of the diversityof various cultures. “The trip really opened my eyes to how different things can be in another part of the world,” he says.

“It’s definitely been a valuable component of my education.”The Centennial International Exchange Endowment Fund

was founded by alumnus Jerry del Missier, Sci’85. It providesgrants to full-time undergraduate students in Chemical Engineering and Engineering Chemistry to enable them to gain international experience outside the traditional classroom environment. Mr. del Missier was inspired to donate the moneyafter he spent a summer overseas in Italy in the midst of his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at Queen’s.

alumni fund offers life changing experience

Bryan (front row, wearing green shorts) and some of the studentsand fellow trainers in Kenya


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The first floor of McLaughlin Hallcontains one of Queen’s best-kept

secrets: a fabrication facility and enginelab packed with state-of-the-art equip-ment that mechanical engineering stu-dents learn to use as they work towardstheir undergraduate degree.

Many aspiring engineers work withmanufacturing equipment like this after

they graduate. Given this fact, it’s sur-prising that this facility at Queen’s is ararity. “There is similar equipment atother Canadian universities, but nonehave a fully fledged laboratory programfor students, staffed with technicians,”says Manufacturing Engineering in-structor Dr. Jack Jeswiet. “Other insti-tutions who are contemplating startingtheir own programs have sent peopleto visit us, and they’re absolutelyfloored by what we have and do here.”

The equipment inventory is indeedimpressive. The shop/lab containslathes, mills, drills, grinders, simplesheet bending tools, arc and spotwelders, measuring tools and a FAROarm which laser-scans parts. Also in-cluded are a Rapid Prototype machineand a water-jet cutting machine – bothfunded by alumnus Donald McGeachySc’40 (Mechanical) in 2007. Althoughsome equipment is manually operated,most are Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC), meaning that, afterdesigning a prototype part using aComputer Aided Design (CAD) program,students can use another program todigitally specify the machine’s “tool-

machine shop is

one of a kindin Canada

path” – the cut it’s supposed to make –with extraordinary precision. It's thekind of technology that increases pro-ductivity. “You can program it, standback, and off it goes. You just have toknow what you’re doing,” says Jeswiet.It all means students can make bothprototypes and actual parts.

The students get their initial hands-

Dr. Jack Jeswiet and Machine Shop Technical Supervisor Andrew Bryson

The water-jet cutting machine in action

Master’s student Kadra Branker holding a“sprocket widget” – a compilation of parts,fits, and finishes. Its manufacture requiresthe full use of the machine shop

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on exposure to this advanced technol-ogy through a mandatory second-yearcore course, Mech 213, which gives themtwo hours with each device in tenmanufacturing laboratories. The shopsupervisor, Andrew Bryson, four otherstaffers and teaching assistants arethere to offer guidance during the labs.

One floor down from the machineshop is the Engine Lab. Its primaryusers are the Formula SAE team, a stu-dent squad that each year designs andbuilds a sleek, single-seat race car withwhich they compete in a prestigiousannual international design and track-test competition. The Engine Lab’scenterpiece is a dynamometer that allows the students to tweak engineparameters – such as air-to-fuel ratioand timing – and measure changes topower output in real time in order tocalibrate the engine for maximum performance. “It’s a really sophisticatedpiece of equipment,” says Dan Chown,the Formula SAE team manager.

“There’s no way we’d ever get to trainon one this good unless we were in aprofessional setting.”

Machine shop supervisor Brysonsays “the training is both invaluableand inspiring, since many studentslater spend countless hours in the labs building the Formula SAE car, theMini-Baja racer and other extracurricu-lar design projects.” (And with somesuccess: the Mini-Baja team won firstprize last year, beating all other mainlyNorth American Engineering schools.)

Equipping, maintaining and staffingsuch top-notch facilities is expensive –but it’s money well spent. It gives Queen’s

MME students a high quality educationand brings together theory and practice.

“Our students come out knowing,when they design something, how it’s actually going to be built,” saysBryson. “They’ve been in the machineshop, they’re aware of the smells andthe noises and everything else, sowhen they get to a machine shopthey’re more confident when they’rearound these big pieces of equipment.They also know how to speak the language of the machinists on theshop floor. In my opinion, learningthose things brings a more well-rounded engineer out to society.”

The machine shop is sponsored by Sci’62 and Sci’73 along with manypartners from industry.

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The Sailbot and the World Robotic Sailing Championships are unusual

regattas in which student teams race so-phisticated self-navigating sailboats thatthe teams design and build themselves.Respectively, they are the North Americanand European showdowns for the best robotic sailboats in the world, and this yearQueen’s will host both contests. Queen’sSailbot squad, dubbed the Mostly Autonomous Sailboat Team (M.A.S.T.),

North american

World Robotic sailing ChampionshipsComing to kingston

experienced technical setbacks at lastyear’s competition in Annapolis, Marylandand finished in the middle of the pack. This year, says team manager Marc Burnie,they’ve designed a new boat from scratchand expect to fare better. The 2010 regattamay include up to 10 teams – the most ever– and will be held at the Kingston yachtClub from June 7 - 10.

M.A.S.T is supported by Sci’68 and Sci’67, as well as many industry partners.

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the Dynamic field of

Fluid DynamicsMechanical Engineering Professor Ugo Piomelli is

the first to admit that when you think “sexy sub-ject”, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is probably notthe first thing that springs to mind. But if you talk to Piomelli, the HPCVL-Sun Microsystems Chair in Compu-tational Science and Engineering, you’ll soon realize thathis field of research affects us all. Fluid dynamics studiesthe motion of liquids or gases, and computational fluiddynamics is the discipline of using powerful “supercom-puters” – like the High-Performance Computing VirtualLaboratory headquartered at Queen’s – to perform thecomplex calculations necessary to predict the flow behavior. This is Piomelli’s specialty – he also holds aCanada Research Chair in Computational Turbulence –and the theoretical knowledge he produces helps peopledevelop better airplane wings, understand how bottomsediment builds up and moves in ocean harbours, howweather patterns form and how blood flows through ourveins. Piomelli came to Queen’s in the summer of 2008from the University of Maryland and was recently made afellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The most recent generations of nuclear reactors – includ-ing G-IV fission reactors and fusion reactors such as

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) –are designed to generate more power and fewer toxic byproducts, and nuclear energy proponents say the more efficient plants will be necessary in the future to meet theworld’s insatiable demand for electricity and reduce green-house gas emissions. The major technical hurdle lies in thefact that the new reactors burn nuclear fuel at significantlyhigher core temperatures – as high as 600 degrees C, as opposed to about 300 degrees C – than traditional heavy-water reactors such as the Canadian-made CANDU. Sincejoining the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering in August 2009, Dr. Zhongwen Yao and his colleagues in the Nuclear Materials Research Group havebeen collaborating with nuclear testing facilities around theworld to develop ways to formulate metals used in nuclear reactors – including steel and alloys of zirconium, nickel andgraphite – more resistant to high temperatures and corrosionresulting from constant bombardment by neutrons and othernuclear-reaction byproducts. “New reactors are definitely thehope of humanity,” says Yao. “But they have to be safe, andwe’re trying to make that happen.”

New prof formulating a

safer future

Dr. Zhongwen Yao

Dr. Ugo Piomelli

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“Can you hear me now?”

Don’t blame your service providerthe next time an important cell

phone call ends abruptly. The culpritcould be the sun.

In 2007, Queen’s University Engineering Math Professor DavidThomson and his team of researchersconcluded that during huge solar eruptions, phones using cell phonetowers with antennas facing the sunshowed a higher rate of dropped calls.

Dr. Thomson began working on theproblem while at Bell Labs in theUnited States, continuing his researchinto the effects of solar radiation ontelecommunications as Canada Re-search Chair in Statistics and SignalProcessing in Queen’s Department ofMathematics and Statistics. Solar radi-ation and other solar activities affectthe electron content of the ionospherewhich in turn affects various radio fre-quencies used in telecommunications.

One of his key research tools is asolar radio telescope designed to operate within the communicationsbands. After repairs, the observatoryshould be back in use atop Jeffery Hallthis summer. While it may not be theoptimum choice, “it would have beennicer to have it out in the middle ofnowhere, but for convenience and getting students to work, having ithere made a lot of sense”. There’s no shortage of work for Queen’s re-searchers who will be assisting withthe upgrade and redesign of the solarmonitoring program at the DominionRadio Astrophysical Observatory nearPenticton, B.C., as well as interferencecancelling problems.

Solar radiation affects more thanjust cell phones.

In March of 1989, a major solar flareeruption blasted the earth’s atmos-phere with a wave of ultraviolet and X-ray radiation creating a surge ofcharged particles and electrons trigger-ing the collapse of the Hydro Quebecgrid. Six million people spent ninehours without power.

At the moment Thomson explains

we understand “quite a bit and notvery much” about how the sun works.

“For example, we don’t even know therotation rate of the sun’s core.”

The sun has an 11-year activity cyclewith two extremes; solar maximumand minimum. Solar Max featuresmore sunspots and solar flares withthe increased risk of power blackouts,fried satellites and malfunctioning GPSreceivers. Activity has been picking up

for the past few months with the nextsolar max expected in 2012.

A graduate of Acadia University and the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, Dr.Thomson arrived atQueen’s in 2002, after 36 years at BellLabs. “I started off in physics, switchedto electrical engineering, and thenmoved more into statistics and dataanalysis. My career continues to be a lot of fun.”

Dr. David Thomson

researcher traces telecommunications woes to solar activity


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Picture a human hair. Now imaginesomething 100,000 times smaller.

That’s the realm of nanotechnology,a relatively new and rapidly growingaspect of science and engineeringwhich involves controlling matter onthe atomic and molecular level.

On the metric measurement scale, a nanometer is a unit of length equalto one billionth of a metre.

While the terms “nanoscience” and“nanotechnology” were first coined inthe late 1990s, the concept dates backto 1959 with a visionary speech byAmerican physicist Richard Feynmanentitled “There’s Plenty of Room at theBottom”.

Feynman, who won the Nobel Prizefor Physics in 1965, is also credited

smaller and smaller, technologies willhave to exploit nano effects that tradition-ally belong in the domain of physics,such as quantum mechanics. This is whyEngineering Physics students at Queen’s

are so well equipped to contribute tonanotechnologies. Engineering Physicsstudents get to learn the root of whythings work, as well as just how we canget them to work better, or explore newtechnologies.

There are plenty of challenges. One of the biggest is how to makenanostructures or nano-sized things in a controllable way.

According to Hughes, “we can seenanoscale structures and objects, butactually trying to manufacture them, in a controllable way, is very,

with pioneering the field of quantumcomputing.

Dr. Stephen Hughes at Queen’s

heads one of several Nano ResearchGroups within the Department ofPhysics, Engineering Physics and Astron-omy. Hughes is an Associate of theCIFAR (Canadian Institute for AdvancedResearch) Nanoelectronics program, and his research specializations includeNanophotonics and SemiconductorQuantum Optics.

He describes Nano as a relativelyunexplored technology involving anentire spectrum of science from chem-istry to biology, engineering, andphysics. Hughes calls it a hybrid zonetapping into all those different areas. Inevitably, as devices continue to get

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change the underlying physical proper-ties of how the device works. Thequestion is can you do something different or unique by going to thatsmaller scale? GMR is an excellent example of fundamental nanophysics research revolutionizing the technolo-gies we use in every day life.”

In July of 2008, Hughes and an-other Queen’s physicist Dr. JamesStotz, together with collaborators atNational Research Council of Canada,University of Victoria, University ofWaterloo, and the University of BritishColumbia, received almost $4.2 millionin funding for a project to developnovel sources of light that could radi-cally change the landscape in securecommunications over networks.

Their project, entitled “Nanostruc-ture Single and Entangled PhotonSources for Quantum Information Processing” was one of five of the 50 submitted proposals funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the National Research Council (NRC), and the Business Development Bankof Canada (BDC).

The nano research team, co-lead

very difficult. At the moment it is stillout of reach, but advances are beingmade every month.”

Dr. Alastair McLean, who heads an-other nano research group within Stir-ling Hall, designs and builds scanningtunneling microscopes to study theproperties of surfaces and nanostruc-tures. Scanning probes allow us to see

things that were, prior to 1980, hiddenfrom view. At this time a curtain wasraised and the atomic structure of sur-faces and materials became visible.This advance was made possible by aninstrument invented by Binnig andRohrer at the IBM research laboratory,Switzerland.

A staple of science fiction since theterm first came into use; nanotech ison the verge of becoming a reality andhas already had a dramatic impact onthe computer industry. For example,the nanoscale phenomenon of GiantMagneto Resistance (GMR) lead to thedramatic miniaturization of hard diskdrives, for which Albert Fert and PeterGrünberg won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics. Meanwhile, the latest Intelchips have transistors that measurejust 40 nanometres.

As Hughes explains, “As chips andother devices become smaller andsmaller, eventually you will start to

by Hughes and NRC Scientist (andQueen’s Adjunct Professor) RobinWilliams, aims to combine unique,

“nano-sized” electronic and photonicstructures that use single photons (particles) of light for new computingand encryption technologies.

Two years into the project, Hughessays that their multidisciplinary teamof scientists and engineers has shownsome major successes in the ability tomanufacture, understand, and designnano-scale objects (semiconductorquantum dots), which can now trapand manipulate single electrons andsingle photons simultaneously.

The result could be completely secure communications, guaranteed bythe laws of quantum mechanics. Suchquantum light sources are also an important first step toward chip-basedquantum computing.

Hughes describes nanophysics as ano-man’s land between classical andquantum mechanics, and envisionsthat future applications are limitless.Indeed, there is already compelling evi-dence to suggest that nanoscience and nanotechnology will be the scienceand technologies of this century.

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Above and above right: PhD Student BenBrevniok

Facing page: Drs. Stotz, Hughes andMcLean stand with a scanning tunnelingmicroscope, a home-built system by theMcLean group, located in Stirling Hall


Queen’s alumna Dr. Collette Heald

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Since graduating from Queen’s in 2000 with an undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics, the Ottawa native has earned her doctorate in Earth and

Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow in the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Globaland Climate Change program at the University of California in Berkeley.

Dr. Heald is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of AtmosphericScience at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her research focuseson understanding the composition and chemistry of the troposphere, which is thelowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere and the place where almost all weather occurs.

Q Where did your interest in science come from?

I have always enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of science – that it isn’tabout knowing the answer right away,but knowing how to put the pieces to-gether to find the answer. I actuallystruggled to decide what I should spe-cialize in at university. I have alwaysloved history and literature as well asscience and it was a tough decision tomake, particularly since the demandsof the engineering program left littletime to take extra classes in the hu-manities. When making this decision,my sister told me, “You can always readand learn about history and art as ahobby, but it’s tough to do science onthe side.” That decided me!

Q What attracted you to Queen’s, and howdid that initial university experienceshape your future?

Queen’s was a great fit for me. It of-fered a strong engineering program as well as a great community withwonderful school spirit. I knew the engineering physics program would be challenging, so I wanted to besomewhere that would encourage meto get out and have fun as well! I thinkQueen’s taught me the value of keep-ing that balance in life and I try to keep that alive every day.

Q How healthy is the Earth’s atmosphere,based on current pollution levels?

The health of the atmosphere dependson where you live. Folks living inmega-cities like Beijing and Sao Pauloare subject to unhealthy levels ofozone and particulate matter and thissmog has been linked to impaired car-diovascular performance, asthma, and,ultimately, reduced life expectancy. Atmospheric pollution can also reduceagricultural productivity, degrade

visibility, and harm natural ecosystems– for example, through acid rain. Primary pollutants are regularly moni-tored for these reasons, and weatherforecasts are now starting to include an air quality index so that people canconsider this kind of information be-fore planning outdoor activities.

Thinking about the “health” of theatmosphere is a bit tricky, as you mightwant to know how much of an impacthumans have had on the atmosphere.This brings up the issue of all the car-bon gases, particularly greenhousegases such as carbon dioxide andmethane that we have been emittinginto the atmosphere. These gasesserve as a blanket that essentially re-radiate [heat] back to the Earth’ssurface and warm the climate. Becausethese gases are long-lived, even if westopped emitting today it would takemany years for our atmosphere to recover to “natural” conditions.

Q CSU’s Atmospheric Composition andChemistry web page includes a bit ofCanadian content other than you. Oneillustration shows an American satellitewith a Canadian instrument calledMOPITT (Measurements of Pollution inThe Troposphere). Would we be able tounderstand what’s going on in theatmosphere without satellite data?

Satellites have revolutionized our understanding of the composition ofthe atmosphere. Some of the best ex-amples of this are the pictures of thestratospheric ozone hole over theAntarctic that were produced fromNASA’s TOMS instrument in the early80’s. Today’s instruments track pollu-tion in the lower atmosphere as well(including the Canadian MOPITT in-strument), and these are invaluable for mapping a global picture of pollu-tion that is changing day-to-day. Inparticular, there are a lot of remote

the sky’s the limit for Colette Heald, sc’00

regions of the world where surfacemonitoring is not possible, includingthe oceans. Satellites allow us to trackpollution plumes as they travel longdistances, even from one continent tothe next. These measurements help usput together the larger picture of pol-lution sources and their effects fardown-wind.

Q Given your area of expertise, what do you make of the global warming/climatechange naysayers who claim it’s based on faulty or inexact science?

Understanding the climate system is a real challenge. It’s complex, and notthe kind of system we can just test inthe lab. However, climate scientistshave studied this problem for manyyears and I think they are best quali-fied to assess the state of the science.

I am a strong supporter of scientificconsensus and believe that the scien-tific ethic of searching out the truth isstrong. The climate issue is controver-sial because there are tremendous policy and economic implications, butit’s important that we separate the sci-ence and the politics and consider thesource of information when filteringthrough the arguments on this topic.

At the 2006 International Young Scientists’

Global Change Conference in China, Colette

Heald received the honorable Professor

Crutzen Prize for best paper. About 100

conference participants from 35 countries

were selected from over 700 applications

by an international review panel.


continued on next page

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how can we save our planet andourselves? After almost two cen-

turies of environmental and human exploitation with little forethought to renewal, how can we ensure that the work and growth of humanity isthoughtful, respectful, and aimed atconserving resources for future generations?

Many feel the answer lies in oneword: sustainability.

But what does this word actuallymean? For Dr. Anthony Hodge,Queen’s first Kinross Professor in Mining and Sustainability, it’s “not just a greening concept, it’s got to do with human well-being, too.”

That philosophy is the heart of oneof the most exciting and cutting-edgecourses in any mining department,Mining and Sustainability. According to department head Dr. LaeequeDaneshmend, the idea for the courseoriginated about five years ago when he and his colleagues realized that,more and more, the challenges theirgraduates faced on the job consisted ofmore than just technological problems– they had broader dimensions that required a different type of knowledge.

“They have to be able to understandthe societal, economic, and social justiceissues that come up very early on in the

lifecycle of a mining project, issues integral to an ethical way of practicingengineering,” says Daneshmend. “Theyhave to learn how to communicate withstakeholders. We were looking for some-one who could provide strength andwisdom in that area.”

Hodge’s passion for sustainabilityhas ignited the imagination and inno-vation of Queen’s mining students, butalso galvanized key global mining com-panies and leaders in committing them-selves to sustainable practices.

Eighteen months after his Queen’s

appointment, Hodge was appointedPresident of the International Councilon Mining and Metals (ICMM), a collab-orative of 19 mining companies thatserves as a change agent across the industry.

“We look at mining in the contextof its contribution to the spectrum ofissues that link human and ecologicalwell being,” explains Hodge. “We alsoinvolve people outside mining – suchas indigenous groups, academics, civilsociety organization workers, government, and other thinkers andpractitioners interested in the issues –to collaborate on finding solutions and designing best practices. Wedemonstrate through practice that social justice, environmental, and

human-relationship issues are integralnot only to mining, but to other indus-tries as well.”

“Everything Dr. Hodge talks aboutis from first-hand experience,” says

Daneshmend, noting that his colleaguehas been to the World Economic Forumin Davos and regularly meets with theboard at ICMM, which includes the topminers in the world. “He knows thepractical issues they face. This perspec-tive brings tremendous value to the department and the students.

“The early thinking on sustainabilitywas dominated by controlling inputs inorder to yield certain outputs,” saysDaneshmend. “For mining, that’s hope-less because the natural system is socomplex. Every mine is different. Youneed to tailor everything for local con-ditions.”

For instance, the long time horizonsfor a mining project – from decades ofexploration, to potentially hundreds ofyears of restoration after the mine isclosed – means companies must con-sider the long-term environmental, political and social impacts of their activ-ities. “For example, putting in a road thatprovides access to land previously inac-cessible can have huge environmentalimplications,” says Daneshmend. “In the

mining and sustainability

Dr. Hodge addresses a 4th year mining class

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For three grueling days in February, a dozen Queen’s mining students

competed with their peers from across the nation at the annual Canadian MiningGames – the Olympics of Canadian miningdepartments – at Dalhousie university inHalifax.

Student-organized and generouslysponsored by mining companies includingTeck Resources, Suncor, Orica, Hatch andthe Canadian Institute of Mining ad Metallurgy; the main events included mine design, ventilation, drilling, mineralprocessing, mine rescue, rock mechanicsand mechanical design.

In the mine rescue event, the sponsor-ing company set up a scenario in whichsomeone is injured or trapped under-ground. Each team got to role-play a rescueand demonstrate their safety knowledgewhile their rescue efforts were timed.

“The games are fun, and also a greatnetworking opportunity,” says Maegan Ayotte, a fourth-year mining student whocaptained the Queen’s team. Her team-mate, Jim Duncan, a second-year mining

student who participated in an AutoCADcompetition to create a mine plan and in a

“mystery event” that turned out to be rockclimbing, enjoyed chatting with companyreps at mealtimes. “It was a great experi-ence,” he says.

Students hoping to land a spot on the team submit their names to a lottery,and most team members come fromfourth-year mining – but neither senioritynor marks are criteria for choosing thefinal roster. “Grades are not necessarily the best way to judge potential perform-ance, especially for the practical events,”says Ayotte. “We include a few second-and third-year students to give them experience.”

Like any competitive sport, training isrequired. “Two students went to the Norcattraining facility in Sudbury to get experi-ence on the jackleg drill [a 120-lb mining-specific drill],” says Ayotte.

“Our team did well this year, althoughthe university of Alberta was the overallwinner,” says Ms. Ayotte. The prize? A trophy and bragging rights.

Let the games Begin! exploration process, if this is done with-out regard to local people and the envi-ronment, huge tensions can be createdthat ripple across a project.”

Similarly, because restoration canpotentially span multiple generationsof people, “the social and environmen-tal implications are huge and requirevery long-term planning. The miningworld is just getting a handle on thesethings.”

“In the old days,” says Hodge, “a company would go in and build thecommunity. Now the existing commu-nity wants to be part of the decisionsthat affect their social and environ -mental future.”

This kind of thinking requires engi-neers to learn to collaborate with localcommunities throughout the mine’sevolution. “That’s tough for engineers,”says Hodge “because building relation-ships typically has not been their train-ing. It’s a whole different way of doingbusiness.”

Hodge is excited about the questions sustainable practices raise.

“These issues are pushing us into think-ing about problems and asking ques-tions that have never been asked before.They are forcing us to reassess what weare doing and to find a better way ofdoing them for the good of the planetand each other.”

There’s no textbook formula, or sin-gle answer for the task, says Hodge.

“Which makes the solution a kind of art.”The biggest question for the Robert

M. Buchan Department of Mining lastyear was how to ensure students couldcontinue to take Hodge’s course afterhe moved to England for his ICMM appointment. Thanks to Oscar Rielo, amining department technologist whotransformed one of the labs into a state-of-the-art distance-learning classroom,students can see Hodge’s presentationson one screen and Hodge himself onanother. The professor operates thecamera remotely so that he can focus inon students he interacts with.

“Mr. Rielo is a technology genius,”enthuses Hodge. Indeed: Mr. Rielo notonly put together the camera and soft-ware from bits and pieces of off-the-shelf components, he also rescuedhardware from a dumpster. Talk aboutsustainability!

4th year mining student Robert Swanson practicing with the jackleg drill

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As winter in Kingston deepened itsgrip in early February, 44 Queen’s

Mining students and professors flew towarmer climes and an eye-opening ad-venture in Chile. “Field trips bring a lotof additional value, because they bringthe practice rather than the theory ofmining into the program,” asserts UrsulaThorley, a doctoral candidate in mining.

“Chile has a long history of mining,just like Canada, but the mining is not the same. It’s important to exposestudents to different standards and approaches than they would see inCanada,” adds Dr. George McIsaac, adjunct professor at Queen’s who lives and works in Viña del Mar, Chile.

Brandon Chambers, a fourth-yearmining student, agrees. “We got to see

a completely different perspective ofmining with regards to geology, climate,and methods. Due to Chile’s geology,mines are a lot larger than typical Ontario operations.”

“The magnitude of El Teniente, thelargest underground copper mine inthe world, was not something you’d seein Canada,” adds Chambers’ classmate,Maegan Ayotte. Another difference,says Chambers, “is that some mines getsunshine year round and don’t have todeal with snow.” McIsaac adds, “But itdoes snow at 4,000 metres, sometimesup to ten feet in a day, disrupting oper-ations for periods up to a week.”

Travelling approximately 800 KMnorth to south over the course of twoweeks, the students visited eleven proj-ects, ranging from large underground or pit mines to smaller operations withunique characteristics. They also visitedone manufacturer and heard talks abouttwo more projects.

“One of the mines produces 140,000tonnes of ore a day. In Canada, we pro-duce 3,500 tonnes a day underground,”says McIsaac. Ms. Thorley adds, “Chilehas world-class copper deposits. It wasa great opportunity for students to seehard-rock mining and metal extractionand apply what they learned in theclassroom.”

Oscar Rielo, Mining Technologist,describes the problem-solving strate-gies and resourcefulness in Chile as

“beyond anything I’ve seen,” such as theflotation method that took advantageof a waterfall. “The waterfall provides asustainable source of energy and doesnot require maintenance.”

Of particular note for many of thestudents were the safety standards. “Themine operations are orderly, clean, andtake the right precautions when peoplego underground,” observes Ms. Ayotte.

Dr. Laeeque Daneshmend, Head ofThe Robert M. Buchan Department ofMining, made sure resources were avail-able for the trip to happen. “Field tripsto distant places not only expand stu-dents’ technical horizons, but also pro-vide some measure of cultural exposure.”

In addition to ensuring everyone’ssafety on the trip, Mr. Rielo, who isfrom Argentina, also facilitated the cultural experience.

Barely a week after the students returned, the infamous earthquakemeasuring 8.8 on the Richter scale hitthe area. Ms. Thorley reports, “Nearlyevery mine we visited spoke of theirearthquake preparedness with respectto design choices.” With a sigh of relief,Daneshmend adds, “We’re just gladthey all came back safe and sound!”The group at Los Pelambres

4th year mining student Robert Swanson and Masters student James Schaming at the La Coipa mine in Chile

Field trips give mining students a Global Prospective

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Finding innovative ways to buildthings – and to ensure they last,

or can be effectively restored or re-paired – is a cornerstone of civil engi-neering. And a group within Queen’s

Civil Engineering Department is doingjust that by experimenting with fibrereinforced polymer (FRP), a space-agematerial that could be a game-changerin the construction industry.

Material Applications

Dr. Mark Green, BSc’87, a leadingQueen’s FRP researcher, says the mate-rial can serve as an alternative to steel reinforcement in new construction. It can also be used to strengthen andrepair structures where concrete hasdeteriorated or that must be altered fora different use – for instance, an oldbridge that needs to carry heavier vehicles, or a roof or building thatmust be rebuilt to bear a heavier load.

“This material is actually aerospacetechnology,” says Dr. Amir Fam, aCanada Research Chair in Innovativeand Retrofitted Structures at Queen’s

who specializes in FRP structural appli-cations research.

Civil engineers have used FRP forthe past 15 years or so in a number offorms: as a sheet or plate, a stay-in-place form, a tube, even as a spray. The supports of the Route-40 bridge inVirginia, for example, are made fromconcrete-filled fibreglass tubes with nointernal steel reinforcement – the firstproject in which the tubes have beenused in this type of construction. Famsays piles, footings in the ground,made of unreinforced, concrete-filledFRP tubes support hundreds, if notthousands, of other structures (such as piers) across the U.S..

Another FRP application – stay-in-place forms – represents a huge stepforward in building innovation. “Tradi-tionally, forms have been made ofwood and steel and are stripped awayonce the concrete has set,” says Fam.

“The FRP stay-in-place forms are not re-moved, which makes them structuralas well, since they can replace steel.”

Material Benefits

The two greatest advantages to FRP areits durability and its ease of application.Unlike steel, it doesn’t corrode. Alsounlike steel, its application doesn’t re-quire heavy equipment: it is very lightand can be handled by a few individu-als with no specialized gear.

Green says these features offerenormous benefits for structural reha-bilitation. Stay-in-place FRP forms savetime and money because less labour isrequired to strip off wooden or steelformwork. This translates into fasterconstruction times. Also, sincebuilders using FRP don’t require inter-

nal steel reinforcement, they cut thecosts of materials.

FRP also protects concrete from ag-gressive environments and substancessuch as salt water, ice and road salt.And when FRP is used to contain con-crete, it fortifies the supported struc-ture. “The more you confine concrete,the stronger it gets,” says Fam.

From Fire to Fibre Optics

“An important piece of the work thatQueen’s is doing is looking at innova-tive ways to insulate FRP so that it canperform better in a fire,” says Kent Novakowski, Head of Department for

Fibre reinforced polymer: Bringing space-age technology to the construction industry

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Dr. Mark Green, Dr. Amir Fam and PhD student Mark Nelson hold samples of fibrereinforced polymer materials in front of Ellis hall


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Civil Engineering, “We are one of thefew groups in North America doingthis work.”

The innovations around FRP ex-tend beyond material applications. Asa partner in the federal Networks ofCentres of Excellence Program, the research team was a major player inthe Intelligent Sensing For InnovativeStructures (ISIS) project, which com-bined fibre-optic technology with FRPso that the material can be used to not only increase the carrying capac-ity of structures, but also to monitorhow well those structures perform inthe field.

Green is also planning a strategiccollaboration with a new faculty mem-ber, Dr. Neil Hoult, and researchers atthe Universities of Ottawa and Torontoto integrate advanced fibre-optic tech-nology into smart monitoring of thehealth of highway bridges.

Slow Adoption vs. Strong Influencers

Although FRP has been widely andsuccessfully tested in the field over thelast 20 years, it is a still relatively newmaterial that has yet to be widelyadopted by the construction industry.

“The industry is conservative be-cause it is concerned about publicsafety,” explains Fam, “It takes time forthings to happen. But we have a goodtrack record from the bridges built inCanada and the United States.”

To ensure Queen’s engineers con-sider FRP as a viable option, graduateand undergraduate courses expose students to the material in a variety ofways. “We have the strongest researchgroup in the country working in thisarea,” asserts Green.

Both Green and Fam are also in po-sitions of influence, which helps to in-crease awareness and knowledgeabout FRP technology. Green sits on acode committee for FRP structures atthe Canadian Standards Association(CSA) and helps develop standards andregulation documents for buildingcodes. He also chairs the Canadian So-ciety for Civil Engineering (CSCE) Tech-nical Subcommittee on AdvancedComposite Materials and co-chairs theAmerican Concrete Institute (ACI) sub-committee 440-F on Repair with FRP.Fam, meanwhile, chairs an ACI commit-tee called 440-J FRP Stay-in-PlaceForms.

toboggan team tops in team spirit Queen’s among the top sliders at the 36thAnnual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race

At the end of January, 31 Queen’s students from diverse academic

backgrounds proudly donned gold engi-neering jackets, kilts and tam o’shanters to compete in the 2010 Great NorthernConcrete Toboggan Race. Held at McMaster university in Hamilton, Ontario,it’s the oldest and largest engineering competition in Canada.

The Queen’s team did their schoolproud. Their concrete design finished aclose second, and the team members re-ceived high marks for their technical display,report and presentation. Queen’s finishedjust off the cherished podium, placingfourth overall. Not bad, considering thatthe competition included 400 competitorsfrom 19 other Canadian universities.

Queen’s has consistently ranked amongtop five teams at the toboggan race, acrowd-pleasing event that was establishedin 1975. “Given the tough competition thisyear, our finish was very impressive,” saysteam member Heather Murdock. “Everyone

worked tirelessly this past year, especiallyin the three months leading up to the com-petition, and our energy in Hamilton wasunsurpassed.” Indeed: Queen’s took homethe Best Team Spirit prize for the secondyear in a row.

Team captain Nathan Murdoch saysQueen’s newfound experience and under-standing of where it needs to improve justmight produce a winning entry in 2011. “Ithink this team has a great opportunity tochallenge for first place at next year’s event.”

Media sources including Radio Canada,Global News and CTv News and a varietyof local newspapers covered both the competition and the team. A few Queen’smembers were also interviewed byKingston radio personality Brian Scott for the FLy-FM morning show.

The Queen’s Concrete Toboggan Teamwould like to thank MetalCraft Marine, theScience ‘70 Alumni, Three Streams Engi-neering, Calfrac Well Services and all of itssponsors for their continued support.

The Queen’s team


Apair of Queen’s engineering gradsare a heartbeat away from deliver-

ing a device that will save lives by de-tecting previously unnoticed signs ofheart disease and reduce its staggeringeconomic cost.

Mike Kulesza (Electrical Engineer-ing’06) and Sami Torbey (Computer Engineering’06) are the founders ofOcorant Inc., a medical device companyrooted in design projects the studentscompleted in their fourth year. The twolater teamed up to develop a heart monitor and business plan that won the 2007 Queen’s Entrepreneurs’ Com-petition and $15,000 in seed capital.

Since then, however, the project has evolved to meet a need thatemerged during the development stage in collaboration with the cardiology research team at KingstonGeneral Hospital (KGH).

“We started with one idea and another came up that wouldallow our technology to be proven,” explains Kulesza. “Thedevice – that we call the “Synapse” – and its base design comprise a cardiology research platform that can be adaptedto meet custom research and clinical needs.

“It’s the first machine of its kind. It will be used by cardiolo-gists to uncover new insights and dispel assumptions wheninterpreting electrocardiograms (ECG). We have developed thesoftware to help analyze the ECG signals, so that instead oftaking hours to scroll through lengthy ECG recordings, doctorswill be automatically directed to the trouble spots.”

The device will bridge a critical gap, says Kulesza. “Because current devices don’t provide enough information,

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It was over in less than a minute, but whathappened in that brief time will take pride of

place forever in the memory of Queen’s studentSiavash Khallaghi and in the halls of the Facultyof Engineering and Applied Science and theDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engi-neering (ECE).

In that minute Khallaghi, an ECE grad student studying medical imaging processing,ran – or, as he describes it, “flew” – 300 metres,with the Olympic torch held aloft in one handand a smile on his face that radiated from earto ear.

Khallaghi ran his leg of the relay on November 15 in Trenton, cheered on by hun-dreds of school children who lined the street.

“I felt like a gold medalist,” said the 23-year-old from Tehran, who is in his secondyear of a Master’s program at Queen’s ECE.

“There was a feeling of glory, a feeling of

eCe grad hands off olympiC torCh to Queen’s

eCe Grad’s innovative device signals heart Disease

a lot of patients are misdiag-nosed – thought to be low tomoderate risk until they havea heart attack. We can un-cover critical informationwhich will help lead to earlier,life-saving diagnoses.”

The device is now in itsfinal testing stage and will bedelivered this spring. It willbe key to Ocorant’s develop-ment of a mobile (wireless)heart monitor that will allowa complete long-term, high-resolution recording of everyheartbeat, with automaticsymptom recognition andfaster, more accurate inter-pretation of results. Also inthe works is a mobile heartmonitor vest designed in collaboration with students

from Toronto’s George Brown College’s Nursing, EngineeringTechnology and Fashion Technology programs, that may beworn discreetly underneath clothing for up to 30 days.

Kulesza, Ocorant’s Chief Technology Officer, says the pasttwo years have been a huge learning experience for him andTorbey, but notes that the Queen’s Engineering program hadprepared them well. Now that they are on the verge of deliv-ering their first device, their excitement is palpable.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Kulesza says. “The team at KGHis at the forefront of the cardiology research, and we get toenable that. Heart disease affects a lot of people and mosttimes it is preventable. We have the ability to do somethingabout it.”

Mike Kulesza hooked up to his heart monitor

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Ateam of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) stu-dents is venturing into the world of hackers, crackers and

cyber attackers, and what they’re finding there could propelthem to the top of the job market and improve computer secu-rity in ways yet to be imagined.

The Network Security Student Team was established lastyear by ECE Associate Professor Dr. Thomas Dean, PhD’94, whoresearches computers and networking. “Network security isprobably one of the most importantareas in software engineering,” saysDean. “Although I cover it in mycourses, the security team studentsget to really get their hands dirty.”

The explosion of the Internetand the emergence of “hackers”over the past decade have pushedthe security issue to the forefront,explains Dean. “The whole gamehas changed. Whereas before it wasone person in a basement attackingIBM, this type of crime is now veryorganized. There are people whojust ‘collect’ home machines; theybreak in and install software thatsends out spam, launches service at-tacks or overwhelms other comput-ers. They can even store illegalmaterial on your computer without you knowing about it.”

Dean compares the fight against cyber-crime to warfare,with defenders and attackers. “The advantage goes back andforth,” he says. “We’re trying to stay ahead of the attackers.”

The members of the Network Security Student Team arethe good guys, or “white hat hackers”. In a controlled environ-ment in Walter Light Hall, they learn to test computer securityand build defences against “black hat hackers” or “crackers” –

sportsmanship, of beingable to take part in some-thing that has been goingon for decades.”

Khallaghi filled out anapplication to be an RBCOlympic Torchbearer whilehe was waiting to open abank account last year. By the time he received anemail informing him that hehad been selected as one of4,500 torchbearers chosenfrom across Canada, he hadalmost forgotten about theapplication.

“It came totally out of the blue,” he said ofthe email. “I read it twice and then I asked mylab mate, who is Canadian, to read it for me.He told me it was real!

eCe white hat hackers team battles cyber-crimethe covert criminals who break into computer systems for ille-gal purposes.

“We look at proven attacks and we develop the softwareourselves, so we can see how it works,” explains team leaderSean Alexander, a fourth-year ECE student.

So far, team members have written code for various attacksincluding a unique, brute-force password cracker. Now they’returning their attention to PlayStation 3 attacks, WiFi signal en-

hancement, Blackbox security analy-sis and smart-phone security.

Working on these projects givesthe students a whole new perspec-tive and is a great supplement tobook-reading, says Alexander. “Itlets them explore technologies thatare now heading towards a big inter-section with security.”

The success of the team will begauged by the students’ skills and,incidentally, by the software vulner-abilities they discover. Already, saysDean, two members have found vul-nerabilities, including one that al-lowed access to private informationon a commercial website.

“Another measure [of success]will be where the team members

end up after they finish their degree, whether in grad schoolor in the security field. That will enhance the marketability ofstudents in that discipline and raise the visibility of Queen’s.”

Less tangible, but just as important for Alexander andDean, is the bond between the team members and the pridethat comes from building software to counter cyber crime.

“There are a lot of bad guys out there now,” Alexander says.“It’s amazing how vulnerable systems are. That’s where we

come in.”

“I was so excited – I felt like I was almost famous! I had never won anything throughluck in my life. It made me feel lucky.”

Initially, Khallaghi had wanted to wearQueen’s colours for his leg of the relay, as well

as green wristbands in support of freedomand democracy in Iran, but that was before he learned that the honour of carrying theOlympic torch comes with an official Olympictorchbearer uniform of white jacket, pantsand toque, and red mittens.

In addition to keeping the uniform, thetorchbearer may purchase the Olympic torchthat he or she has carried, but Khallaghi extended the opportunity to Queen’s ECE.

“I could have bought the torch for myself,” hesays, “but I felt that it belonged here. This wasmy chance to give something back to Queen’s.

“It’s more the memory that counts,” headds. “Maybe someday my child will come to study at Queen’s and they will see the torchthat I carried. How cool would that be?”

The Olympic torch, purchased by Queen’sECE on behalf of Khallaghi, will be perma-nently displayed in the department.

A proud moment: Khallaghi carries the torch

Keeping the bad guys out: Dr. Tom Dean (front)and team members Saruhan Karademir, GraydonSmith, and Lukas Berk

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furthered his interest in specializing ingeotechnical engineering.

“It was fascinating from a geologicalpoint of view to observe the rock for-mations we’d pass through,” he says.

“It’s sedimentary rock that can be foundelsewhere in Southern Ontario and thenorthern U.S, but not at the depths andstresses we were at – 140 metres belowthe surface.”

Perras was tracking those rock for-mations – which included dolomites,limestones, sandstones and shales – togain a better understanding of their geotechnical behaviour. Through a newapproach using computer-generated numerical analysis of the tunnel rock –as opposed to relying on more tradi-tional forms of analysis based on aver-age material strengths – Perras and hiscolleagues were able to more accuratelyreflect the rocks’ “anisotropic” behaviour.

After two years balancing full-timework and his Masters, Perras headedback to Queen’s to complete his degree.As a next step, Diederichs suggestedPerras embark on a doctorate whosethesis explored, in collaboration withthe Nuclear Waste Management Organ-ization, safe storage of nuclear waste.(Established in 2002 under the NuclearFuel Waste Act, the organization’s pur-pose is to “investigate approaches formanaging Canada’s used nuclear fuel.”)

“I felt it was the perfect opportunity forhim,” recalls Diederichs. “He knew geol-ogy and engineering. He understands

the behaviors of rocks and the engi-neering issues related to them,based on his experience in the tun-nel. Other students are working onthis project too, but Matt is the hub.His thesis is very vital.”

Perras felt the opportunity “wasjust too interesting to pass up.” Healso knows his study of safe nu-clear waste storage will take himaround the world.

“It’s such a global issue,” he says.“Although we’re focused on Cana-dian storage, we’re working withinternational researchers. I’ll begoing to France, Switzerland andSweden to see storage and relatedresearch facilities there.”

Perras’ own research is focused onthe “excavation damage zone” – thedamaged rock immediately adjacent toan excavation. Understanding rock be-haviors under any circumstance is keyto being able to seal a waste repositoryoff and prevent potential contaminationto the surroundings.

Diederichs believes that, in Ontario,low- and intermediate-level nuclearwaste – typically items such as tools,mop heads and machines – is likely tobe safely stored underground withinthe next couple of decades. Underground storage of high-levelwaste, such as spent fuel, is closer to 40 years away, says Diederichs.

Whatever the timeline, the work ofQueen’s Geomechanics Group will beintegral to the project, which will ulti-mately focus on the construction of safenuclear-waste storage facilities and en-suring their long-term stability. Giventhat nuclear waste storage is a compli-cated and hot button issue, the respon-sibility associated with the project isforemost in Diederichs’ mind.

“It’s a huge challenge,” saysDiederichs. “It’s the only human activitythat the public demands remain ab-solutely safe for millions of years. Thebar is set very high, and it should be. Itwill require a lot of study and analysisto reach that bar.”

Study, it should be noted, that bothDiederichs and Matthew Perras areuniquely qualified to undertake.

“opportunity of a lifetime” Growing up on rocky

Dalhousie Lake,northwest of Perth, Ontario, Matthew Perrasalways had a passion forrocks. But it wasn’t untilbeing exposed to geologi-cal engineering after hisfirst year at Queen’s that itoccurred to him to turn hispassion into a vocation.Originally he’d set hissights on becoming anaeronautical engineer.Today Perras is a Queen’s

doctoral student and anexpert on the behavior ofsedimentary rocks. Hisknowledge has made him a valued participant in a number of significantCanadian projects including the Niag-ara Tunnel, a major clean-energy projectrun by Ontario Power Generation.

“Major” is no exaggeration. The proj-ect uses the world’s largest hard-rockTunnel Boring Machine (TBM) to drill a14.4-metre wide, 10.2-kilometre-longtunnel deep beneath the city of NiagaraFalls. As Perras’ PhD advisor, Dr. MarkDiederichs of the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, puts it, “My house wouldprobably fit sideways in the tunnel!”

Perras first heard about the Niagaratunnel while working for Hatch Energy,following completion of his undergrad-uate degree in 2005. The scale of theproject fascinated him, so he found full-time work in the tunnel and begana part-time Masters degree connectedto his research. The job entailed longdays underground, which he acknowl-edges might seem unappetizing tosome. But the TBM is actually aboutfour stories high “and there’s lots oflight,” says Perras. “It’s not a darkcramped space like people imagine.”

Perras and his fellow tunnel geolo-gists worked in sweltering 30-degree Ctemperatures while wearing long cover-alls and ear protection to muffle the extreme noise. Challenging subter-ranean conditions aside, Perras calls it the experience of a lifetime and atremendous opportunity. It certainly

Inside the Niagara Tunnel

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Michelle Thompson is “hooked on rocks

from space.” That made herthe perfect person – andone of only two Canadians– to do an internship lastsummer at the NationalAeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

The fourth-year Queen’s

student, who is working ona dual degree in geologicalengineering and biology,traces her love of planetarysciences back to her secondyear at Queen’s. That’swhen one of her professors,geologist Dr. Ron Peterson,inspired her through hisdiscovery of meridianiite, a new min-eral thought to exist on the surface ofMars and on the moons of Jupiter.

Peterson enlisted Thompson’s helpin a collaborative project with theRoyal Ontario Museum, (ROM), whichfocused on a meteorite that had been

When Dr. Jean Hutchinson joined the Department of Geologi-cal Sciences and Geological Engineering at Queen’s in 2001,

enrollment on the engineering side was a mere 15 students. Today enrolment has more than doubled and Hutchinson, who is

now Department Head, attributes much of the increase to the de-partment’s ability to maintain fieldwork in a climate of declining re-sources. She says alumni support has been key to ensuring that thatthe program’s crucial fieldwork component continues. High-schoolcurriculum has been moving away from geology, and, as Hutchinsonnotes, convincing high school kids and their parents to consider geology and geo-engineering as a major never stops being a challenge. Being able to offer this kind of experience is vital.

To this end, the department’s annual orientation nights put astrong emphasis on the field’s career potential. Numerous industriesrecognize the quality of the department’s graduates, says Hutchinson,noting that former students now work across Canada and in Australia,New Zealand, Chile and Europe.

Those students all started the same way, she points out. “All engi-neers need to understand the earth as a system,” she says, “and theyall benefit from taking The Earth’s Physical Environment, taught by Dr. John ‘Hockey Stick’ Hanes,” whose nickname comes from his habitof using a hockey stick as a pointer. He is also famed for engagingstudents, an ability that earned him the 2008 Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching – Queen’s most prestigious teaching award.

The cross-discipline emphasis in the program – science and engi-neering students are strongly encouraged to collaborate – creates aculture of teamwork. That’s part of an overall emphasis on impartingskills that also include, for example, how to deliver professional-levelreports and presentations.

The results? Hutchinson says that companies have told her that Queen’s

students can be out “in front of clients immediately” – no mean featin today’s demanding workplace.

Geological sciences and Geological engineering: a Culture of teamwork

michelle thompson, space Dust

collected in North West Africa and donated to the Toronto museum.

Next she landed a coveted intern-ship at NASA and found herself in Houston paired with a researcher at the Johnson Space centre – the placewe think of, Thompson points out,

when we hear the phrase“Houston, do you read me?”

The thrill of being nearthe astronauts was “surrealand amazing.” She met fel-low Canadian Julie Payette,among others, but wasequally thrilled by the in-ternship itself: investigating

“space dust,” the tiny parti-cles of lunar soil that clingto astronauts returning totheir landing craft. Thesamples were taken fromNeil Armstrong’s Apollo 11Mission, and the purpose ofthe initial research was todetermine their composi-tion and ultimately to as-

sess their effects on the astronauts’respiratory systems.

For Michelle Thompson, exploringspace rocks is a journey that is just taking off – since, as she notes, herchosen field is filled with the “spirit of international cooperation.”

Dr. Jean Hutchinson

Michelle Thompson

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Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science Development

Contact us at 613.533.6000 or 1.800.267.7837

Jane McMillan, Sr. Development Officer [email protected] 32160

Donna Dwyre, Sr. Development [email protected] 78212

Pat Smith, Sr. Development Officer [email protected] Extension 79531

Beth Wylie, Development [email protected] 74594

Penny Bagnell, Development Coordinator [email protected] 74132

Joanne Grills, Faculty Advancement [email protected] 75248

Queen’s EngineeringTradition of Spirit and

Loyalty continues to thrive oncampus and around the world.

Over 17,000 graduates now call themselves engineeringalumni of Queen’s university.

Our alumni include industryleaders, outstandingentrepreneurs and awardwinning contributors to society, both at home and around the globe.

The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science enjoysstrong relations with alumni and strategic partnerships withindustry. It is an exciting time for the Faculty as we continue to create, collaborate andcommunicate with ourstakeholders.

Help us continue to provide aDistinctive Learning Experienceto our future leaders of the 21stCentury. There are many ways our alumni and friends cancontribute to the ongoingsuccess and development of the Faculty of Engineering andApplied Science.

Are you involved in an innovativeor unique initiative? Do you have corporate insights thatcould benefit our students … the leaders of tomorrow?

The Development Team in theFaculty of Engineering andApplied Science are a dedicatedand experienced team eager tohelp alumni remain connectedand involved.

We forge new relationships withalumni and friends and stewardlong-standing relationships withour loyal supporters.

We can assist you in making a difference with tomorrow’sengineers.

Without Queen’s, where would you be …?

where would Queen’s Engineeringbe without you?

Renowned spirit, unrivaled excellence

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