Posted Mon, 01/23/2012 - 15:42 in Engineering

CFI funds help enable "sustainable manufacturing"

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has announced four Dalhousie researchers have received Leaders Opportunity Fund awards, totaling $382,879. Steve Corbin (Engineering), Xianping Dong (Medicine), Anatoliy Gruzd (Management), and Muhammad Habib (Architecture and Planning) will receive funding to acquire infrastructure to assist in their research.

Key Points:

Dr. Steve Corbin is establishing a Unique High Temperature Thermal Analysis Facility to conduct Advanced Materials Processing Research. He refers to it as "sustainable manufacturing" which means developing methods to make parts with less energy and less material usage in turn reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These techniques have applications in a wide range of areas including the transportation (aerospace and automotive) industry. This equipment will help measure material weight loss, energy change, and gas decomposition reactions. Dr. Corbin adds that the equipment is capable of making these measurements in the lab, under conditions which simulate an industrial scale manufacturing process. This information will be used to develop new and improved sustainable manufacturing techniques.
Anatoliy Gruzd will continue to grow his social media research lab by using CFI funding to renovate newly allocated space along with purchasing equipment to support the lab’s future projects. Equipment includes a large multi-touch video wall that will allow researchers to visualize datasets on a single screen and discover patterns in online data.
Muhammad Habib's infrastucture project, DalTRAC, aims at creating a wireless sensor-based traffic data collection system that will collect traffic data and use it to develop a virtual library of transportation research.
Dr. Xianping Dong will use CFI funding to purchase new lab equipment and provide training for postdocs and technicians in his research centred around how calcium and iron levels in neurons are regulated and how misregulation of their levels result in human diseases.
In addition to the CFI funding each of the researchers have received matching funds from the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT): Stephen Corbin: $124,998, Xianping Dong: $125,000, Anatoliy Gruzd: $60,081, Muhammad (Ashan) Habib: $72,800. Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT) supports research infrastructure in Nova Scotia by matching national funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). NSRIT benefits researchers in areas such as ocean sciences, health and life sciences, clean technology, and information and communications technology. Since 2001, NSRIT -- through the Province of Nova Scotia -- has awarded over $66 million to more than 340 projects at Nova Scotia research beneficiary institutions, dramatically leveraging opportunities for innovation and direct economic benefits to the people of Nova Scotia and beyond.

Pull Quotes:

"I'm extremely excited to add this new equipment to our lab. Not only will it help us continue to pursue sustainable manufacturing, but it will allow me to increase my interaction with industry partners in the automotive and aerospace industry and lead to further contact with the shipbuilding industry." -Stephen Corbin, professor, Faculty of Engineering.
"The CFI has made possible the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that is necessary for high level science to take place. Without it researchers cannot do their work and without research we cannot advance the knowledge that improves our lives, our society and our health. - Martha Crago, Vice President Research, Dalhousie University
"Canadians from coast to coast to coast can be assured that Canada's research community is bringing its talents to bear on the problems that matter to them. This round of investment illustrates the value of research and innovation in building stronger, healthier and more prosperous communities." - " Dr. Gilles G. Patry, Canada Foundation for Innovation President and Chief Executive Officer.