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.