Events

Interested in learning more about the fascinating research that Waterloo's chemical engineering graduate students are conducting? Now is your chance!

Join us at the Master's Research Colloquium, where master's students will present their research throughout the day.

POSTER SESSION: 9:15-10:15 am in the 1st and 3rd floor atriums

PRESENTATIONS: 

Session 1

Group A, Process Systems Engineering: E6 2024 10:30-11:30 am

Group B, Biochemical & Biomedical Engineering: E6 2022 10:30-11:15 am

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a useful technique for studying electronic and structural properties of materials. When these measurements are performed in-situ, it is valuable to identify the reactive species and monitor the reaction kinetics. This could significantly improve our understanding of material property and advance the rational design of material with improved performance.

Model based multi-parametric optimization provides a complete map of solutions of an optimization problem as a function of, unknown but bounded, parameters in the model, in a computationally efficient manner, without exhaustively enumerating the entire parameter space. In a Model-based Predictive Control (MPC) framework, multi-parametric optimization can be used to obtain the governing control laws – the optimal control variables as an explicit function of the state variables.

Supervisors: Aiping Yu, Chemical Engineering and Michael Fowler, Chemical Engineering

Dr. Sameoto will provide an overview of several technologies developed by his lab. The techniques combine novel manufacturing processes to produce polymer-based products ranging from gecko-inspired adhesives to stretchable electronics and soft robotics. Combining different research disciplines, including micro- and nanofabrication, with larger scale 3D-printing technologies has opened up new opportunities for the manufacturing of new smart materials, bio-inspired surfaces and wearable electronics. Highlights include direction sensitive adhesives for pick-and-place assembly, mechanically reprogrammable soft robots, and multi-material FDM additive manufacturing processes that can print hard plastics, rubbers and stretchable metal wires in a single part.

Supervisor: Michael Fowler, Chemical Engineering

The utilization of coal generates tons of solid waste, including fly ash and coal gangue, which occupies a huge amount of land and causes serious environmental problems, such as water and air pollution. In addition, the resource materials that remain in the solid waste, including Al, Si and Li, cannot be well utilized, which wastes resources. Our research focuses on the utilization of coal-based solid waste and a series of technologies that have been developed to undertake that work.

In the chemical process industry, the need to make decisions in a context of multiple and competing objectives is frequent. Thanks to advances in the field of operational research and systems science, several methods of multi-objective optimization have emerged that can be applied to chemical and biochemical engineering processes. These techniques incorporate the knowledge of an expert of a given process to the optimization routine, which provides valuable information about the domain of optimal solutions.

In engineering, as in life, there is usually no defined path or prescribed route to take in search of difficult answers. Looking at how we travel through our careers, transitioning to industry from our studies or taking the next step in academia, we can examine the critical decisions and choices we make in how we can grow to best serve our profession. Value in being an engineer comes from how we make these choices and in learning how to shape the driving factors behind the process itself. Please join us for a discussion about our value in society and how we can work to increasing the golden mean.