TISED Annual Report 2021-2022

Photo Credits: Owen Egan, Parisa Hassani, and Irene Toffolo

Message from TISED’s Director

It gives me great pleasure to introduce TISED’s 2021-2022 Annual Report. Despite another challenging year brought on by the ongoing pandemic, TISED has continued to strive towards its mandate to inspire, coordinate and support innovative engineering and design solutions and intellectual capacity in sustainability at the Faculty of Engineering. With the COVID vaccines becoming readily available in Canada during summer of 2021, McGill University made the decision to return to in-person teaching for the 2021-2022 academic year. And although students and instructors returned to the classrooms, non-essential and non-pedagogical in-person campus activities were limited. As such, during the past year, our outreach activities continued primarily remotely.

TISEDTalks, our invited speaker series, consistently demonstrated strong participation and engagement from our community; we featured four speakers on topics ranging from COVID-19 related plastic waste, to circular economy and the built environment, novel energy technologies and suburban densification. Our flagship outreach event, the 8th Annual Trottier Symposium on Sustainable Engineering, Energy and Design, was hosted online on November 4th, 2021, and explored the questions of a just energy transition and the systemic, institutional, and social changes that are necessary for humanity to live within its planetary limit. Dr. Julia Steinberger and Dr. Éric Pineault laid out a challenging yet hopeful roadmap for how changes in personal behaviors can collectively effectuate an impactful transformation.

On the academic side, TISED’s SEAD courses continued to be popular with our student community; the SEAD 520 Life Cycle-Based Environmental Footprinting class saw record number enrolment in the winter 2022 semester. Furthermore, in October 2021 we launched an academic recruitment process for a professor in the area of industrial ecology and life cycle assessment, a joint appointment at TISED and one of the six departments or two schools at the Faculty of Engineering; the target start date of the new appointment is Fall 2022.

In addition, TISED’s proposal for a Master’s program in sustainability in engineering and design completed important stages of the review process. A program proposal was submitted to the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire & Québec Ministère de l’éducation et de l’enseignement supérieur (BCI) in May 2020 and the BCI review committee conducted a (virtual) site visit in July 2021; TISED received positive feedback from the review committee in early 2022. The renovation project of the physical space designated for the future TISED Master’s program has completed the pre-design phase and went out to tender in April 2022. Project completion and move-in are expected by fall 2022.

SEDTalks! Training Program, TISED’s flagship student training initiative, continues to receive

positive feedback from student participants. On March 23, 2022, the SEDTalks! Event marked the first time since the start of the pandemic that the TISED community gathered in-person to learn about some of the high calibre sustainability research carried out by our graduate students. And though some of our activities related to programs such as the Research Workshops Program and the Scholar-in-Residence have been suspended while non-essential travel restrictions remain in place, we hope these initiatives can be resumed in the coming year.

As we all look forward to returning to campus for the Fall 2022 semester, we reflect on the last decade of TISED’s accomplishments, and on the future trajectory of how TISED can contribute to the conversation on pressing sustainability issues; what are the challenges that lie ahead and how can TISED play an impactful role in turning those challenges into opportunities for positive change. As always, we strive to create research exchange opportunities for our members, delivering student support through funding and education enhancement activities and public outreach.

To a successful and healthy 2022-2023 for all,

Subhasis Ghoshal Professor and Director, Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design

Governance

TISED creates ad hoc committees and working groups for project and event-specific initiatives. TISED is in the process of finalizing its Advisory Board (Board) to guide the strategic direction of the institute; invitation to prospective Board members will be sent in the Fall of 2022 and the Board is expected to be finalized by January 2023. The first meeting of the Board will take place in Spring 2023.

Academic Staff

Prof. Subhasis Ghoshal, Director

Prof. Laxmi Sushama, Trottier Chair in Sustainable Engineering and Design

Prof. Jeffrey Bergthorson, Associate Director & Panda Faculty Scholar in Sustainability in Engineering and Design

Administrative Staff

Monika Skonieczny, Manager

Gary Ng, Research Assistant

Prof. François Bouffard, John M. Bishop and Family Faculty Scholar in Sustainable Engineering and Design

Irene Toffolo, Administrative Coordinator

Parisa Hassani, Digital Communications and Outreach Associate

New Members:

Professor Xie’s research interests lie within the broad areas of resilience, infrastructure systems, and natural hazards. His research goal is to promote hazard resilience and sustainability of infrastructure systems using advanced modelling and smart protection.

Learn More

Prof. Ignea’s research aligns with the TISED’s priority area for Sustainable Industrial Processes and Manufacturing. Specifically, engineering microbial systems for producing high-value/specialty chemicals, thus providing clean methods for the bioproduction of valuable compounds for a broad range of applications. Moreover, she engineers an artificial pathway for synthesis of new-to-nature molecules that could have improved functionalities.

Learn More

Prof Changhong’s research focuses on characterizing the mechanical properties of advanced materials to enhance the sustainabilities of their applications (energy storage in particular) as well as developing sustainable manufacturing processes from the micro-nano level, which fall under TISED’s priority areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency as well as sustainable manufacturing.

Learn More

Yazhou (Tim) Xie Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering

Codruta Ignea Assistant Professor, Bioengineering

Cao Changhong Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

RESEARCH

Trottier Chair in Sustainable Engineering and Design

The Trottier Chair in Sustainable Engineering and Design continues to have significant influence on climate research and on adaptation strategies of private and public bodies. Over the last year, the Trottier Chair, continued to promote interdisciplinary research to address today’s grand challenges. For example, application of deep learning models to develop super-resolution climate information was experimented for the first time in collaboration with Prof. Sun (Civil Engineering, TISED Member) and Dr. Belair (Environment and Climate Change Canada [ECCC]). Collaborations with other TISED members Prof. Agus Sasmito (Mining) and Prof. Salmaan Craig (Architecture), led to further advancing research at the climate-engineering interface. The Chair led the development of a Letter of Intent (Enabling Cities to Maximize Impact of Green Infrastructure on Greenhouse Gas Mitigation) in response to the call from ECCC as part of the Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF) program. Though the LOI was not selected to move to the full proposal stage, some of the sub-projects that were envisaged to be part of this proposal are currently underway, funded in part through TISED.

The Chair has also been actively involved in public sector activities including:

• Contribution to Environment and Climate Change Canada’s (ECCC) Water Science and Technology Division’s mandate by generating, analysing and transferring climate change simulations using a fully coupled 3-D model for the Great Lakes;

• Contribution to Transport Canada’s Northern Transportation Adaptation initiative, by generating and assessing the added value of very high-resolution simulations for transport relevant variables for Nunavut and parts of the Northwest Territories;

• Contribution to the National Research Council Canada’s Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering (OCRE) research centre’s master project focused at developing the St. Lawrence Seaway Climate Risk Information System, where Transport Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard are the main stakeholders.

Selected Publications

1. Wu, Y., B. Teufel, L. Sushama, S. Belair, L. Sun, 2021. Deep learning-based super-resolution climate simulator-emulator framework for urban heat studies. Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2021GL094737

2. Dukhan, T., L. Sushama, 2021. Understanding and modelling future wind-driven rain loads on building envelopes for Canada. Building and Environment, DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107800.

3. Teufel, B., L. Sushama, 2021. 2 °C vs high warming: transitions to flood generating mechanisms across Canada. Water, DOI: 10.3390/w13111494.

4. Huziy, O., B. Teufel, L. Sushama, R. Yerubandi, 2021. Heavy lake-effect snowfall changes and mechanisms for the Laurentian Great Lakes region, DOI: 10.3390/atmos12121577

5. Oh, S., L. Sushama, 2021. Urban-climate interactions during summer over eastern North America, Climate Dynamics, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-021-05852-3

6. Atrill, J., L. Sushama, *B. Teufel, 2021. Clear-air turbulence in a changing climate and its impact on polar aviation. Safety in Extreme Environments, 3, 103–124

7. Xu, M., S. Akhtar, M. Alzoubi, L. Sushama, A. Sasmito, 2021. Asymptotic analysis of a twophase Stefan problem in annulus: Application to outward solidification in phase change materials. Applied Mathematics and Computation, DOI:10.1016/j.amc.2021.126343

Scholars-in-Residence Program (SiR) & Visiting Professors

The Scholar- in- Residence program supports scholars and experts in conducting collaborative research with an emphasis on advancing sustainability in one of TISED’s strategic areas; Sustainable Infrastructure and Urban Development; Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency; Sustainable Industrial Processes and Manufacturing or Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience. A TISED SiR spends up to six months in residence at McGill’s Faculty of Engineering to participate in interdisciplinary research with a clear policy impact and teaching.

After a two-year suspension of this initiative due to the COVID-19 pandemic, TISED reopened the SiR program in October 2021. Dr. Bruce Lourie, President of Ivey Foundation submitted his application in November. Dr. Lourie had expressed his interest in the SiR program prior to his official application and had several discussions with relevant TISED members on the meaningful work that could be achieved through his presence at TISED.

Over his career Dr. Lourie has played a central role in several of Canada’s most significant sustainability achievements including the phase-out of coal-fired power plants in Ontario, creating one of the world’s largest urban zoning protections with the Ontario Greenbelt, and advancing the understanding of pervasive chemical use and human health. He has contributed to building many of the organizations driving sustainability research and analysis, policy, and business and NGO leadership in Canada including the Transition Accelerator, the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, the Institute for Sustainable Finance, Efficiency Canada, and the Sustainability Network.

Dr. Lourie’s current research efforts are focused on supporting Canada’s transition to a netzero economy, specifically through electrification of the global economy, with a focus on three major areas of policy work needed to support the sustainable design and engineering of a future low carbon society, specifically 1) the massive expansion of electricity 2) the decarbonisation of

electrical power supply; and 3) reducing end-use energy demand and making more sophisticated connection between energy supply and end-use energy demand.

Dr. Lourie has identified several potential collaborators, including TISED members as well as faculty members from McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy and Faculty of Management and senior academics at the Institut de l’Energie Trottier at Ecole Polytechnique and HEC Montreal.

Given Dr. Lourie’s policy focused research and his broad network of collaborators both within Montreal and across Canada a recommendation for his appointment as TISED’s next SiR was made to the Dean of Engineering by the TISED Director in late April 2022. If approved, Dr. Lourie’s 6-month tenure at TISED will start on January 1, 2023.

Research Workshop Program

The Research Workshop Program (RWP) facilitates discussions on cutting-edge advances in technology and design as well as policy frameworks and interventions required to advance sustainability. Each RWP includes a specialized research workshop and a public seminar. During the research workshop, focussed discussions support the development of a timely and topical publication and/or a research funding proposal. Due to the pandemic, the Research Workshop Program was temporarily paused.

TISED expects to put out a renewed call for RWP applications to its members in the summer 2022.

TISED Supported Research Initiatives

TISED supports strategic research applications and initiatives of its members that align with our goals and mission. In Fall of 2021, TISED provided a letter of support for the application to ECCC’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund – Advancing Climate Change Science & Technology, led by Prof. Luis Miranda-Moreno entitled “Urban mobility and emission inventories in a changing climate: an integrated modelling framework”. The public announcement of the results of the competition is expected by Fall 2022.

OUTREACH

Over the past year TISED has continued its outreach efforts, and hosted a series of virtual events, with students, researchers and the community. Hosting these events online, increased accessibility, with recordings of the talks available on TISED’s YouTube channel following the event.

TISEDTalks - Invited Speakers Series

TISEDTalks feature both Canadian and international researchers on relevant topics of sustainability in urban planning, architecture, and engineering; attendance is open to all members of our community, professors, students and public, alike. The goal of TISEDTalks is to provide a forum where TISED members can meet other researchers as well as present their work, all in hopes of fostering potential cross disciplinary collaborations while engaging the broader McGill student and research community and highlighting the cutting-edge work done by our members in the area of sustainability.

TISED held four virtual TISEDTalks during the 2021-2022 academic calendar, with strong participation and engagement from our community. As the resumption of on-campus activities continues, TISED plans to host these events in-person for the 2022-2023 academic year and make them accessible via Zoom for our remote community.

Prof. Tony Walker, Associate Professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, “TISED/ BRACE Seminar: Environmental and health impacts of COVID-19 related plastic waste”, October 2021 (hosted in partnership with The Brace Water Centre).

Watch Now

Prof. Naomi Keena, Assistant Professor, Peter Guo-Hua Fu School of Architecture, McGill University. “TISEDTALK: Circular Economy and the Built Environment: From Housing to Data”, November 2021.

Watch Now

Prof. Mélanie Tétreault-Friend,, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering at McGill University

“TISEDTalk: Turning on the heat with January 2022.

Watch Now

Prof. Nik Luka, Assistant Professor, School of Urban Planning, McGill University.

“TISEDTalk: Transcending disciplinary boundaries and policy stovepipes through design: The case of post-suburban densification for resilience”, February 2022.

Watch Now

8th Annual Trottier Symposium on Sustainable Engineering, Energy and Design

The Annual Symposium focuses on the relevance of sustainable engineering and design to people’s lives. Each year TISED and lnstitut de l’Énergie Trottier (IET) at Polytechnique Montréal take turns hosting this event.

On November 4th, 2021, IET in partnership with TISED, hosted the 8th annual Trottier Symposium on Sustainable Engineering, Energy, and Design. The event was held virtually.

The 8th Symposium, titled “Energy Objective: Decarbonize while reinventing society” featured two prominent speakers Dr. Julia Steinberger and Dr. Éric Pineault . The presentations were followed by a Q&A period, moderated by Normand Mousseau with questions submitted live by the audience via Twitter and email.

The symposium can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.

STUDENT SUPPORT

Made possible by the generous donation from various benefactors as well as the Trottier Family Foundation and with support from the Faculty of Engineering, TISED provides student funding opportunities in the form of Faculty Scholar Awards, Graduate Fellowships (MEDA), Undergraduate Research Internships (SURE) and other education enhancement initiatives.

Faculty Scholar Awards

The Faculty Scholar Awards support research in sustainability in part by funding the Scholar’s doctoral students.

Panda Faculty Scholar Award in Sustainability in Engineering and Design

Faculty Scholar: Prof. Jefferey Bergthorson, Mechanical Engineering

Graduate Student: Kartik Mangelvedhe, PhD Candidate

Research Area: fundamentals of nitrogen oxide pollutant formation in metal flames; a key question on the emissions that might arise from metal power systems

Prof. Bergthorson’s research focuses on improving our fundamental understanding of the combustion and emissions properties of a variety of alternative zerocarbon and low-carbon fuels, including hydrogen, ammonia, and using metals as carbon-free recyclable fuels.

During the past year, the Panda Faculty Scholarship directly supported the PhD research of Kartik Mangelvedhe, whose work tackles a key question on the emissions that might arise from metal power systems.

To date, the research group has filed six invention disclosures on metal fuels, with two of the technologies currently filed as international PCT applications. These patents are related to the concept of using metals as recyclable fuels, one which relates to the concept of the direct combustion of metal fuels for heat and power and the second related to the reaction of metals with water to produce hydrogen on demand as a fuel for fuel cells or engines. Strong industrial collaborations will facilitate the commercialization of these radical concepts for clean and lowcarbon, and even zero-carbon, power.

The support of the Panda Faculty Scholar Award has helped to launched new initiatives; over the past year, Prof. Bergthorson helped to create the new Centre for Innovation in the Storage & Conversion of Energy which has received a grant of $2M from TD Bank. This Centre will focus on advanced batteries and technologies for the production and consumption of sustainable circular fuels, including hydrogen, ammonia, and metal fuels.

Publications supported by Award (directly and indirectly):

1. J Palecka, JS Park, S Goroshin, and JM Bergthorson. Aluminum-propane-air hybrid flames in a Hele-Shaw cell. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute (available online). url: https://doi. org/10.1016/j.proci.2020.09.017.

2. S Goroshin, J Palecka, and JM Bergthorson. Some fundamental aspects of laminar flames in nonvolatile solid fuel suspensions. Progress in Energy & Combustion Science (available online).

3. X Mi, A Fujinawa\, and JM Bergthorson. A quantitative analysis of the ignition characteristics of fine iron particles. Combustion & Flame (available online). url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15461.

4. F Blais, P Julien, S Goroshin, and JM Bergthorson. Effects of initial reactant temperature on flame speeds in aluminum dust suspensions. Combustion Science & Technology (available online). url: https://doi.org/10.1080/00102202.2020.1820496.

5. J Palecka, S Goroshin, AJ Higgins, Y Shoshin, P de Goey, JR Angilella, H Oltmann, A Stein, B Schmitz, A Verga, S Vincent-Bonnieu, W Sillekens, and JM Bergthorson. Percolating ReactionDiffusion Waves (PERWAVES) | Sounding rocket combustion experiments. Acta Astronautica 177 (2020), 639-651.

Invited presentations related to research supported by the Panda Scholarship

JM Bergthorson. Metal fuels for zero-carbon heat & power. Max-Planck-Institut fur Eisenforschung seminar (online). Dusseldorf, Germany, 2021.

JM Bergthorson. Physics of iron combustion. 1st Clean Circles Mini-Symposium, TU Darmstadt(online). Darmstadt, Germany, 2021.

JM Bergthorson. Metal fuels and metal ames in the discrete combustion regime. Hiroshima University Seminar (online). Hiroshima, Japan, 2021.

JM Bergthorson. Metal-water reactors for on-demand green hydrogen. Clean hydrogen: virtual matchmaking between Canada, Switzerland and Wallonia (online). Montreal, Canada, 2021.

JM Bergthorson. Sustainable Fuels for Aviation. CRIAQ Masterclass, CRIAQ RDV Forum. Montreal, Canada (Virtual), 2021.

Media coverage of research supported by the Panda Scholarship

J Durrani. Burning metal to make clean energy. Chemistry World article (Royal Society of Chemistry). 2021. url: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/burning-metal-to-makecleanenergy/4014723.article

European Space Agency. Metal Fuels. We research. You benefit. Documentary. 2021. url: https:// www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2021/01/Metal_Fuels._We_research._You_benefit.

John M. Bishop & Family Faculty Scholar Award in Sustainable Engineering & Design

Faculty Scholar: Prof. Francois Bouffard, Electrical Engineering

Graduate Student: Imen Jendoubi, PhD Candidate

Research Area: autonomous management of uncertainties stemming from renewable generation and electricity demand with energy storage systems

On May 1, 2021 Prof. Francois Buffard was reappointed for a three-year term as the John M. Bishop & Family Faculty Scholar. Prof. Bouffard’s research program aims to develop practical operation and planning methods for power and energy systems with increasingly small carbon footprints.

During the past year, the M. Bishop & Family Faculty Scholarship directly supported the PhD research of Imen Jendoubi, whose work tackles various methodological approaches to perform the control of local renewable energy generation in conjunction with local flexible electricity demand and energy storage.

Publications supported by Award:

1. Jendoubi, I. & Bouffard, F. (2021). Multi-agent hierarchical reinforcement learning for energy management. IEEE Trans. Smart Grid. Submitted Aug. 2021.

2. Jendoubi, I. & Bouffard, F. (2021). A data-driven power dispatch control strategy based on multi-agent deep reinforcement learning. IEEE Trans. Smart Grid. To be submitted Sept. 2021.

Carol McLeod Faculty Award in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

Mr. David P.J. McLeod, BEng 1955 made a generous donation in memory of his wife, Carol McLeod, to establish the Carol McLeod Faculty Award in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency to reward outstanding Faculty members in the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design.

The award will be given annually to support the outstanding teaching and or research innovation efforts of dedicated Faculty members who are affiliated with TISED and who contribute to the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency. A call for applications is expected in summer 2022 with the first recipient of the award selected in the 2022- 2023 academic year.

TISED Doctoral Recruitment Awards (DAR)

The pandemic has led to a temporary suspension of some TISED research initiatives, specifically the Scholar-in-Residence (SiR) Program and the Research Workshop Program (RWP). In turn, this suspension has resulted in unspent funds from Fiscal Year 2021. In Winter 2021 TISED decided to direct these funds towards supporting prospective doctoral candidates and introduce the onetime only Doctoral Recruitment Awards (DRA). These awards were available for prospective PhD students of TISED members who hope to attract top-caliber doctoral candidates into the Faculty of Engineering for the Fall 2021 and Winter 2022 semesters; the prospective candidates’ research must be related to sustainability issues in engineering and/or design.

Fall 2021 DAR Recipients

Remy Fortin, Architecture, Research area: Materials and design used in buildings for reduction of greenhouse gases

Aosong Li, Materials Engineering, Research area: Metallic coatings to increase corrosion protection of components in the aerospace industry

Tongyue Liang, Materials Engineering, Research area: Enhancing the lifetime and durability of surfaces undergoing regolith wear in planetary exploration environments

Bobby Miglani, Materials Engineering, Research area: Design of sustainable electrochemical technologies

Siyuan Mu, Civil Engineering, Research area: Unraveling nanomaterial-bacteria interactions towards development of efficient strategies for degradation of toxic halogenated organic contaminants in natural and engineered systems

Zahra Rahamani, Civil Engineering, Research area: Technologies for treatment of contaminated water

Racchana Ramamurthy, Civil Engineering, Research area: Biodegradable plastics in urban air and aquatic systems

Waqas Raza, Urban Planning, Research area: Disaster risk reduction

Daniel Ricardo Rondinel, Architecture, Research area: Sustainable Infrastructure & Urban Development

Breno Sequeira, Chemical Engineering, Research area: Fabrication of non-stick plastic containers: A key to creating longer lasting and easily recyclable containers

Steven Walker, Chemical Engineering, Research area: Sustainable industrial process with nanomaterials and non-thermal plasma catalyst.

Zhengshu Yan, Mechanical Engineering, Research area: Air turbine blades as a waste, material recycling

Winter 2022 DAR Recipients

Pouria Rahmati, Civil Engineering, Research area: Predictions of oxygen exchange downstream of turbines, and the development of a robust retrofit technology

Sicong Jinang, Civil Engineering, Research area: Development of new control algorithms to improve the efficiency and reliability of urban bus systems

Farzaneh Abedini, Civil Engineering, Research area: Regional seismic risk assessment of underground tunnel infrastructure

Saadia Wasim, Civil Engineering, Research area: R Engineering Light for the Control of Viral Pathogens in the Natural and Built Environment aquatic systems

TISED Graduate Fellowships (MEDA)

The McGill Engineering Doctoral Awards (MEDA) program aims to recruit the best and brightest new doctoral students from around the world. Selection for this award is based on the excellence of a student’s academic and research record, including publications, presentations and his or her potential to make a major impact on the quality of research in the Faculty of Engineering at McGill University and in the field of engineering. MEDA are offered by the Faculty of Engineering and are cost-shared with the student’s Department/School or supervisor.

Ciro Robert Martoni Fellowship in Sustainable Engineering

Zhenning Wang, Civil Engineering. Research area: Transportation

Andrea Gabor/Urban Strategies TISED Fellowship in Sustainable Urban Planning & Design

Sophie Coutu De Goede, School of Urban Planning.

Mael Aimeric Bureau-Blouin, School of Urban Planning.

Cole Gleason, School of Urban Planning.

Causta Habedus-Sorensen, School of Urban Planning.

Fiona Sterritt, School of Urban Planning.

Carolyn Birkenfeld, School of Urban Planning.

Arzen Chan, School of Urban Planning.

Mike Zahn Fellowship

Waqas Ahmed Raza, School of Urban Planning. Research area: Disaster resilience.

Redwood Graduate TISED Fellowship

Siyuan Mu, Civil Engineering. Research area: Environmental engineering

Yiding Wang, Civil Engineering. Research area: Environmental engineering

Uma and Mahesh Sharma Graduate TISED Fellowship

Zhengshu Yan, Mechanical Engineering. Research area: Materials and Structures

John M. Bishop & Family Fellowship for Sustainability in Engineering & Design (TISED)

Kang Hoon Jeffrey Choi, Mechanical Engineering. Reseach area: Corrosion.

Kauser Family Graduate TISED Fellowship

Kameswara Aditya Bharadwaj Nemana, Mechanical Engineering. Research area: Combustion and Energy Systems/Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics

ACDEG Fellowship in Sustainable Engineering

Daniel Rondinel, School of Architecture. Research area: Urban metabolism from a thermodynamic perspective

Siyuan Mu, Civil Engineering. Research area: Environmental.

Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) Awards

The SURE awards provide an opportunity for undergraduate students to get exposure to research in their discipline through paid summer research traineeships. Typically, students work closely with a graduate student.

Summer 2021 TISED SURE Award Recipients

Chantel Yung, Civil Engineering. “Methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells”. Harry Marksfield SURE Award.

Coralie Jabra Khabbaz, Chemical Engineering, “Catalyst development for CO and CH activation to value added chemicals”, William Harker SURE Award in Sustainability in Engineering & Design. Allan & Linda Stephens SURE Award in Sustainability Engineering.

David Lutes, Civil Engineering, “Investigating prevention strategies to protect our water resources and public health”, John M. Bishop family SURE Awards for Sustainability in Engineering and Design. William Harker SURE Award in Sustainability in Engineering & Design. Harry Marksfield SURE Award.

Ethan Everly, Mechanical Engineering, “Feasibility study of Canadian solar energy resources”, Jerry and Norma Farnell SURE Award

Hanyu Zhang, Civil Engineering. “Bioremediation strategies for degradation of petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils in cold regions”, Jerry and Norma Farnell SURE Award

Kalyssa Volk, Chemical Engineering, “Investigating prevention strategies to protect our water resources and public health“, Brian Hirst SURE Award in Sustainable Engineering.

Kerui Lai, Materials Engineering, “Lab scale resin transfer moulding system development”,Jerry and Norma Farnell SURE Award. Furino-Remillard SURE Award in Sustainable Engineering. Allan & Linda Stephens SURE Award in Sustainability Engineering.

Nicholas Pinkerton, Mechanical Engineering, “Feasibility study of hydrogen fuel for energy production“, Mr. & Mrs. Lee Hee Chong and Mr. & Mrs. David Su Toye SURE Award (Sustainability).

Noah LeFrancois, (BSc) Major Physics, Minor Mathematics, “Heat transfer in molten salts for solar thermal energy technologies“, John M. Bishop family SURE Awards for Sustainability in Engineering and Design.

Richie Fong, Materials Engineering, “Discovery of sustainable and high-energy battery materials”, Claudia Macedo Memorial SURE Award in Sustainable Engineering.

Sneha Singh, Civil Engineering, “Importance of wastewater composition on the dynamics of immigration in activated sludge wastewater treatment systems”, Furino-Remillard SURE Award in Sustainable Engineering.

Titiuan Delorme, Electrical Engineering, “Modelling energy storage assets in long-term capacity planning in deeply decarbonized electricity systems”, Jerry and Norma Farnell SURE Award.

Veronika Mamaievska, Chemical Engineering, ”Investigating prevention strategies to protect our water resources and public health”, Harry Marksfield SURE Award.

Weijia Huang, Computer Engineering, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Broadband Wireless Access Communications”, Allan & Linda Stephens SURE Award in Sustainability Engineering.

Zheyu Liu, Software Engineering, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Broadband Wireless Access Communications”, Prof. David Selby SURE Awd Sustainable Engineering. Mr. & Mrs. Lee Hee Chong and Mr. & Mrs. David Su Toye SURE Award (Sustainability).

Educational Enhancement Activities

In addition to direct student financial support, TISED provides education enhancement activities made possible in part by generous donors through Student Education Enhancement Endowment Funds.

Claire Hicks, Manager for Future Ready, WSP Canada. “Preparing Montreal to be Future Ready”, November 2021

Other Activities

Lorne Trottier, President and Co-founder, Matrox. “Perspective on Climate Change and 21st Century Challenges”, April 2022.

Education and Training

TISED educates future engineers, urban planners, and architects by offering training opportunities, new courses, integrating sustainability into programs, and enhancing education ‘outside the classroom’. Teaching focuses on effective, practical, cutting-edge theories and strategies relevant to the development of sustainable engineers, architects, and planners’ career paths. TISED offers a growing catalogue of interdisciplinary sustainability-focused courses, and a master’s program in Sustainability in Engineering and Design is in final review stages.

A proposed Master’s Program in Sustainability in Engineering and Design

Despite another challenging year, we have continued the formal steps towards creating a new master’s program in sustainability. The program dossier was submitted to the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) in May 2020 and presented to their Academic Affairs Committee in June 2020.

TISED received a preliminary set of review questions in January 2021, and in July 2021, the BCI review committee conducted a site visit; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this visit was virtual. The committee met with various stakeholders, including McGill senior administrators, faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students; a virtual tour of the physical space designated for the future program was included in the visit. In early 2022, TISED received positive feedback from the BCI regarding the site visit and an additional request for clarifications regarding the program was included with the feedback; TISED is in the process of responding to that request.

New Faculty Search – Industrial Ecology and Life Cycle Assessment

In anticipation of the program launch, TISED had received a hiring license from the university and in October 2021 launched an academic recruitment process for a professor in the area of industrial ecology and life cycle assessment, a joint appointment at TISED and one of the six departments or two schools at the Faculty of Engineering.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the position, the Selection Committee consisted of faculty TISED members from various units across the Faculty of Engineering, including Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning, Mechanical Engineering, Mining and Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering. The Selection Committee reviewed applications from 43 applicants and conducted preliminary (screening) virtual interviews with 6 shortlisted candidates. On-campus interviews were scheduled and conducted with two potential candidates in the last week of April and first week of May 2022.

Following the visits, the Selection Committee will reconvene to discuss the candidates and make its final recommendation to the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs. The target start date of for the new appointment is Fall 2022.

TISED Course Offerings

In preparation of the debut of the master’s program, TISED continues to integrate core courses of the proposed program into the McGill Engineering curriculum. Since the fall of 2016, four of the proposed eight core courses and one elective SEAD course have been offered to the McGill engineering and design student community.

Over the past year, enrolment in SEAD courses increased from previous year’s numbers as students returned from online learning to in-person instruction. A total of 108 students completed the four SEAD courses during the 2021-2022 academic year, for an average enrolment of about 27 students per course (compared to 20 students per course during the 2020-2021 academic year).

SINCE SEAD COURSES CREATION IN 2016

Proposed Master’s Program Space – Trottier Building Renovations

In 2017, the space in the Trottier Building was identified as a location to physically house the proposed TISED Master’s Program and in spring of 2019, the Office of the Provost approved the funds for the project; the design of the space and the execution of the renovations.

WSP was awarded the project and initial design plans for the layout of the renovated space were presented by WSP to the Faculty and TISED in March 2021 meeting. Following a series of revisions, draft design layout of the physical space was finalized in June 2021. The renovations will commence once the space, currently occupied by student affairs staff from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, vacates the space; this is expected to take place prior to the start of the Fall 2022 semester.

A revised timeline for the completion of the space renovation is shown blow.

Sustainability Education Workshop Initiative

In summer of 2020, TISED launched a new initiative aimed at developing educational content on sustainability for a variety of undergraduate courses in the Faculty of Engineering. Named the Sustainability Education Workshops Initiative (SEWI), the goal of SEWI is to develop educational learning modules that can be offered to students in a workshop format. These modules would also be made available to professors within the Faculty who wish to include some sustainability content in their existing (or new) courses.

SEWI Timeline

The SEWI recipients have developed the workshop content and a planning meeting was held in November 2021. Based on the discussions, it was decided that; a) the workshops would be best delivered back-to-back as a series, preferably over a week in the summer, and b) the inaugural offering of the workshop series should be targeted at a small cohort of approximately 20-25 students.

The inaugural delivery of the workshop series is planned for the summer 2022 semester.

Student Training - SEDTalks! Presentation Skills Training

The SEDTalks! Presentations Skills Training is a platform for graduate students to share their sustainability research, develop professional skills in public-speaking and communication, expand their academic and industrial networks, and work with other researchers to make an impact on sustainability through engineering and design. Delivered in partnership with SkillSets and led by oral communication professionals, from Teaching and Learning Services (TLS), the training includes workshops, small group coaching sessions with feedback, and explores strategies to design research talks that are both accessible and impactful.

The 2021-2022 cycle marked the 6th anniversary of the SEDTalks! Training and after two years of virtual-only training, the program was offered in a hybrid and limited in-person setting. The fall workshop sessions were offered both in person and virtually, to allow maximum participation and flexibility for the students.

The hybrid delivery of the program proved to be successful; approximately half of the 30+ student cohort completed workshops in-person on campus, while the remainder participated virtually.

At the completion of the fall training, students presented their 3-minute talks at the SED180 event, held at the McGill Faculty Club in front of a small in-person audience. The talks were recorded, and a selection committee comprised of professors, industry experts and past ChangeMakers reviewed the presentations and chose three 2022 ChangeMakers. The entire SED180 event was broadcast a week later via TISED’s YouTube channel where the 2022 ChangeMakers were announced live.

The three selected students completed their winter presentation skills training and delivered their SEDTalks! in-person at the Faculty Club on March 23, 2022, in front of an audience of their peers, researchers and industry professionals.

2022 SEDTalks! Event was once again sponsored by WSP, one of the world’s leading professional services firms. Mr. Eric Peissel, Executive Vice President, Advisory & Innovation gave the welcoming address and spoke about WSP’s commitment to sustainability, his experience as a student in the Faculty and why WSP chose to support the SEDTalks! Program. He emphasized the ongoing demand in the global marketplace for engineers, urban planners and architects who have a strong understanding of sustainability and the challenges that face the global community in the coming decades.

Anirban Kundu

Civil Engineering, Ph.D. Candidate

SUPV: Prof. Subhasis Ghoshal, Ph.D.

Sustainable Industrial Processes and Manufacturing

In search of an affordable, natural way to clean up the over 4000 sites contaminated by diesel in Canada

Presently, there are several thousand diesel-contaminated sites in sub-Arctic Canada. Bioremediation is a sustainable approach that utilizes the soil’s indigenous bacteria to degrade diesel to less toxic intermediates; however, its success rate is inconsistent. Current bioremediation practices rely on nutrient addition but do not consider bio-accessibility limitations. By analyzing different sub-Arctic soils to identify correlations between bioremediation success and sub-micron microhabitats and soil microbiology, Anirban’s research addresses this gap. Future implications of this research will assist practitioners in using bioaccessibility in addition to nutrient requirements to increase bioremediation success

Valerie Lamenta

Mechanical Engineering, M.Sc. Candidate

SUPV: Prof. Melanie Tetreault-Friend Ph.D.

Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency

Shedding solar light on molten salt behaviour: the path towards 24/7 renewable energy

Dependable access to energy is key to improving people’s living standards; energy produces food, provides shelter, permits transport, and enables societal development. In order to achieve a sustainable future, the path forward must decrease our carbon footprint while also meeting our ever-increasing energy demands. However, current renewable solutions, such as solar energy, often cause significant variability in the power supply curve. By employing molten salts, a high-temperature fluid capable of both capturing and storing heat, it is possible to generate a more consistent power output from renewable sources. Valerie’s research seeks to develop a better understanding of the fluid flow and heat transfer phenomena occurring in molten salts through a specialized visualization technique. This knowledge will help increase the efficiency, reduce the cost, and improve the safety of molten salt systems. Gaining a deeper understanding of molten salt behaviour will accelerate the progress towards a sustainable energy future.

Galih Suwito

Mining and Materials Engineering, Ph.D. Candidate

SUPV: Prof. Nate Quitoriano, Ph.D.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

Bringing photonics into silicon to make your cloud greener

Explosive data growth has placed an enormous demand on our networks, with the majority of the information transfer occurring within large data centres. As a result, conventional datacentres have high energy demands and over 40% of total energy consumption is utilized to remove the waste heat generated by the computers stored within these structures. To reduce wasted heat in computers and data centers, information can be communicated via light signals, such as in fiberoptics, instead of using electricity directly. Currently, silicon photonic chips, which enable light generation and detection, still rely on traditional chip bonding to integrate photonic components into silicon increasing costs and preventing their commercial viability. A novel integration technique, called metal-catalyzed lateral growth, has been developed as a promising alternative to integrate photonics into silicon chips directly. Galih’s research focuses on developing utilizing this technique to achieve direct lateral growth of various photonic materials on silicon with atomically precise characteristics. Realizing such an atomic ‘LEGO set’ could enhance chip performance for next-generation computing and communication and reduce the energy consumption and carbon footprint of datacentres.

Appendix A: TISED Members

Madhav Govind Badami

Jeffrey Bergthorson

Kirk H. Bevan

Sharmistha Bhadra

Urban Planning

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and Materials Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Vikram Bhatt Architecture

Lisa Bornstein

Francois Bouffard

Benoit Boulet

Andrew Boyd

Richard Chromik

Sylvain Coulombe

Noemie-Manuelle Dorval Courchesne

Salmaan Craig

George Demopoulos

Allen Ehrlicher

Ahmed Elgeneidy

Dominic Frigon

Susan Gaskin

Subhasis Ghoshal

Pascal Hubert

Michael Jemtrud

Geza Joos

Mary Kang

Anne-Marie Kietzig

Jan Kopyscinski

Mustafa Kumral

Fabrice Labeau

Tho Le-Ngoc

Larry Lessard

Jinxia Liu

Nicholas Luka

Aditya Mahajan

Sara Mahshid

Mohamed Meguid

Brett Meyer

Luis Miranda-Moreno

Sivakumaran Nadarajah

Alessandro Navarra

Van-Thanh-Van Nguyen

Jim Nicell

Urban Planning

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Mining and Materials Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Architecture

Mining and Materials Engineering

Bioengineering

Urban Planning

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Mechanical Engineering

Architecture

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Mining and Materials Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Architecture

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Bioengineering

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Mechanical Engineering

Mining and Materials Engineering

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Dan Nicolau

Sasha Omanovic

Sidney Omelon

David Plant

Nathaniel Quitoriano

Bioenginering

Chemical Engineering

Mining and Materials Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mining and Materials Engineering

Agus Sasmito Mining and Materials Engineering

Patrick Selvadurai

Yixin Shao

Lijun Sun

Laxmi Sushama

Thomas Szkopek

Mélanie Tétreault-Friend

Nathalie Tufenkji

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Ipek Tureli Architecture

Theodora Vardouli Architecture

David Wachsmuth

Xiaozhe Wang

Kristian Waters

Viviane Yargeau

Yazhou (Tim) Xie

Codruta Ignea

Cao Changhong

Urban Planning

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mining and Materials Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Bioengineering

Mechanical Engineering

Fiona Zhao Mechanical Engineering