Waterloo Engineering automotive research projects are receiving financial support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation's (CFI) Automotive Partnership Canada Fund. The two initiatives will help improve fuel efficiency: one by developing lightweight parts and the other by designing intelligent control systems.
A team of researchers led by Hamid Jahed, a mechanical and mechatronics professor, is receiving more than $216,000 for a four-year project to find the optimum design of automotive parts that are made of magnesium alloys and are subject a high degree of stress. The use of magnesium in the manufacturing of these parts would significantly reduce vehicle weight, and lead to improved ride comfort, better handling performance, greater fuel economy, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Nasser Azad, a systems design engineering professor, has been awarded more than $460,000 in research infrastructure funding for a four-year project focused on designing intelligent control systems to enhance the energy efficiency of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. This project serves to meet the increasing pressures felt by automobile manufacturers to design cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles with improved drivability, comfort and safety.
The Automotive Partnership Canada Fund has provided a total of $145 million in research funding over five years to support significant, collaborative research and development activities for the benefit of the Canadian automotive industry.