Events

The Chemical Engineering Department is hosting a special graduate seminar on Environmental Sustainability Challenges in Canadian Healthcare.

Please join us for a Chemical Engineering Grad Fair on Thursday, October 23rd in PSE in the 1st Floor Ideas Clinic.

The event runs from 10:00am-12:30pm.

Come and learn about the exciting and innovative research happening in our department!

✅ Chat with profs about cutting-edge research
✅ Learn how you can get paid to do a research-based degree
✅ Discover how domestic students pay less than undergrad tuition
✅ Find out how you can finish a course-based Master’s in just 1 year
 

Did you know our researchers are making new feedstocks from algae, using machine learning to solve real-world problems, making biodegradable plastics from food waste, creating synthetic vascular grafts for bypass patients, and more.

Come and chat with us and stay for the candy bar! We'd love to see you there!

Grad and Post-doc Networking event

Scalable Design And Operation Optimization For Large Conditioned Spaces

Join us for a CERC Research Lecture by:
Professor Ruibing Wang PHD, FRSC
Wednesday, November 19th 1:30-2:30pm
PSE 7th Floor – 7303

The Chemical Engineering Department is hosting a special graduate seminar on Materials and interfaces for the next generation batteries.

Abstract :

Humanity faces multiple converging crises such as pandemics, climate change, ecosystem degradation, and environmental pressures from rising global prosperity. We urgently need transformative solutions. At the same time, the past three decades have also witnessed sterling advances in genomics, synthetic biology, and computation, which have re-cast living systems as programmable platforms for innovation. Biology has now matured into a form of infrastructure - an enabling layer upon which solutions to health, the energy transition, material de-fossilization and the circular economy can be built.

Just as physical infrastructure underpinned the industrial age and digital infrastructure drives the current information age, biological infrastructure now offers the foundation for a sustainable one. Engineered biological systems can facilitate a more rapid response to emerging threats, enable sustainable resource recovery, as well as upcycle waste into high-value products. In this sense, biology is no longer confined to the laboratory; it is becoming the scaffolding of a new industrial paradigm where living and designed systems work in concert to sustain civilization.

Bioinks for bioprinting and injectable biomaterials share a common thread in fluid mechanics (rheology) in that the flow properties of the material are crucial to successful application. Beyond shear-thinning behavior, properties including yield stress and storage modulus recovery are important, and speak to the ‘paste-like’ quality of the material. Two applications in regenerative medicine will be highlighted: traumatic brain injury and cartilage injury.

In severe traumatic brain injuries, often a portion of the skull is surgically removed to relieve pressure from the brain swelling, but a 2nd surgery is required to fill that gap in the skull. We have proposed a paste-like biomaterial that could potentially eliminate the 2nd surgery.

Our goal is to implant the biomaterial at the time of the original surgery,to be crosslinked to stay in place, flexible to allow the brain to swell, deliver anti-inflammatory drugs locally to the brain, and then transition into bone over time. Initial studies with bone regeneration and drug delivery have shown promise.

Development of Bio Polyester-Based Coatings and Composites for Wood Applications Using Whey Permeate

Thesis Title: Cellulose Nanocrystal Coated Paraffin Wax Coating for Fog and Dew Water Harvesting

Abstract:

Fresh water scarcity is an urgent global issue. A sustainable and renewable method is harvesting atmospheric water, among which fog and dew water can be passively collected onto a surface. The efficiency of such collecting systems depends critically on the wetting and dynamic behavior of water droplets on the surface. Common approaches to modify surface topography and hydrophobicity often relies on lithographic, plasma, or fluoropolymer-based methods that are costly, complex, and environmentally unsustainable. In contrast, this work proposes a novel, simple, and bottom-up approach for producing surface with functional coatings through cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)–stabilized Pickering emulsions.