Cases available at Waterloo

Poor air quality is a major problem in urban areas worldwide. The air quality in cars decreases drastically when driving in the country to driving in the city and on highways. People who drive in the city have constant exposure to poor air quality which can have adverse health consequences such as elevated risks of asthma and other lung-related issues. Most recent cars include a cabin air filter that offers protection to passengers from outside harmful dust, exhaust gas, pollen and bacteria, depicted in Figure 1. However, less expensive and older cars rarely include cabin air filters. It is estimated that only 40% of vehicles on the road actually contain a cabin air filter. This creates an opportunity to design and integrate a cabin air filter for cars without them. The main purpose of the filter would be to remove particulate matter from the air thereby reducing the adverse health effects that are associated with inhaling large amounts of particulate matter. 

AKCS Offshore Partner, located in St. John’s Newfoundland, provides engineering, procurement and construction services to the offshore oil and gas industry in Newfoundland, Labrador and Atlantic Canada. A client of AKCS Offshore Partner was concerned with the time it took to pressurize the compressor trains in their offshore oil production facility. The compressor trains are used to re-inject gas into the well for storage. A portion of the same gas is flared to provide energy to operate the trains. Less time is desirable because it enables faster start-up and saves energy and thus money to run the compressor trains.

Laura Parsons, a chemical engineering student at the University of Waterloo worked with the Process Department at AKCS. She was asked to investigate this matter and determine the effect of altering the pressurization method and resizing of equipment on the time it takes to pressurize the compressor trains.

Rohm and Haas is a chemical manufacturing company, a subsidiary of Dow chemical company employing more than 17,000 people in 27 countries.  Rohm and Haas had a bromine delivery system that needed tank and structural support repair to remain in service safely. The existing bromine receiving and dispensing facility is shown in Figure 1. Bromine is a toxic liquid that through liquid contact or vapour inhalation can be fatal, and proper safeguards for dispensing and storage are necessary. The company decided to revise the bromine delivery method and improve the safety of the design by modification of the current system as an alternative to repair. In order to ensure the safety of the new system, an inherently safer design approach was used. This is a practice that reduces or eliminates hazards and it is most effective in the early stages of development and plant design process. However, it can also be applied to an existing facility.

As part of a design proposal, a schematic for a new bromine delivery system is required. The design must ensure principles of inherently safer design are followed. Also, risk analysis on the existing design must be performed by considering different release scenarios based on the current system

Some fatty acids, particularly omega-6 and omega-3, are considered essential fatty acids, as the human body cannot produce this group of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and intake must occur through diet. Research studies have shown strong evidence that consumption of omega-3 fatty acids may improve resistance to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and rheumatoid arthritis. Foods with high concentrations of unsaturated fatty acids include seeds, nuts, certain fruits, vegetable oil and fish. Since consumption of naturally occurring fatty acids remains low in Western countries, omega-3 fatty acids are increasingly added to foods such as cereals, cookies, and long shelf-life products. Functional foods are enriched with ingredients that provide added function to the finished product, most often related to health-promotion or disease prevention. Microencapsulation is a technology used to fortify foods with omega-3 fish oil as outlined in Figure 1. Various fish oil microencapsulation technologies are available, including spray-dried emulsions, complex coacervation, alginate-based microspheres, submerged coextrusion, melt injection, calcium carbonate capsules, and γ-cyclodextrins. While such fortification can provide benefits, there are also drawbacks: these oils are highly susceptible to oxidation, which can negatively impact product flavour and reduce shelf-life.

Veronica Wong, a 3rd year University of Waterloo Chemical Engineering student, investigated the microencapsulation production process during a work term at the University of Waterloo. To provide context, she considered a fictitious company, Cookies"R"Us, which was considering a commercially available omega-3 PUFA process for cookie fortification.

The production of hydrogen sulphide gas in wastewater systems has been recognized as a major contributor to odour problems in the wastewater sector.  The County of Greensville (the County), located in Ontario, contracted ACE Consultants to conduct an investigation of an ongoing wastewater odour issue. ACE determined that the County was producing large amounts of H₂S gas as a result of an over designed wastewater pumping station. There are various contributors to the production of hydrogen sulphide gas (H₂S), see Figure 1. ACE recommended various treatments for the odour issue and experiments were conducted using Standard Jar Testing. It was noted however, that some jars did not produce hydrogen sulphide gas even though all jars were in the same controlled environment. It was hypothesized that this could be due to the shape and material of the jars being used. Experimentation was carried out to verify this prediction. Cailey McCutcheon is a Civil Engineering student who assisted in the testing of this theory for ACE consultants.

NOVA Chemicals, located in Sarnia, ON, produces plastics and chemicals essential for everyday life. The company manufactures materials for customers worldwide who produce consumer, industrial and packaging products. Butane is a hydrocarbon which is stored in an underground salt cavern at the facility. Due to the interfacial interaction of butane gas with brine within the cavern, a small quantity of brine becomes dissolved in the gas. In order to remove the dissolved brine from butane, a coalescer vessel is used.  In 2010, the dry flare vaporizer, a piece of equipment downstream of the butane coalescer, failed due to chloride induced stress or corrosion because of the brine which may have been present in the vessel.  Damage to process equipment such as the vaporizer severely affects functionality, leading to high replacement costs and production downtime.  While investigating the failure of the dry flare vaporizer, it was suspected that abnormal operating behavior of the butane coalescer upstream of the equipment had been the cause of the failure.

Anyssa Mohammed, a University of Waterloo co-op student, was part of the process design team at NOVA Chemicals assigned to determine the cause of the irregular behaviour of the butane coalescer.

The Oil Sands Region of North-Eastern Alberta, Athabasca, has been home to the commercial production of bitumen since the late 1960's. Mining is one of the most common techniques used for oil extraction in this region. Bitumen is then extracted from the oil sand using hot water. The wastewater obtained from treating mined sand has high levels of naphthenic acids as well as calcium ions (Ca²⁺⁾ and is not suitable for release to the environment or for recycling back into the extraction process. This water has been retained in storage areas for years and is called consolidated tailings (CT) release water. If the CT release water can be processed to remove the naphthenic acid and calcium components, it can either be recycled back to the extraction process, which will reduce the demand for fresh makeup water from the Athabasca River, or discharged directly to the environment. Chemical Engineering students from University of Waterloo conducted a design project in their 4th year of study to review possible methods for treating the tailings water, and estimated the expected cost to treat 10 years of CT release water.

On March 4, 2015 around 1:30 pm a chemical fire erupted at Port Metro Vancouver. The busy port is located in Vancouver, British Columbia and the fire source was a single shipping container (Figure 1) carrying
trichloroisocyanuric acid (TCCA). It was initially shipped from China and was en route to eastern Canada by rail. TCCA is an industrial disinfectant, typically used in swimming pools; it is a crystalline powder which decomposes upon heating or under fire conditions to produce toxic fumes, including chlorine gas. The smoke exposure could potentially cause breathing difficulties, skin irritation and eye irritation. Port Metro was evacuated and people in the surrounding five-kilometre radius were
advised to take shelter by staying inside and closing all windows and doors. The multiple groups involved in the emergency response were able to extinguish the fire and smoke from the downtown area after 12 hours.

Steel is an essential component of the modern world.  Galvanized steel products are strong and corrosion resistant and used for a wide range of application including automobile, appliance, and construction industries. Steel manufacturing process, consumes a large amount of energy for steel production.  Decreasing the plant energy consumption is a method to decrease overall plant operating costs.  A Continuous Galvanizing Line produces galvanized steel using the hot-dip method. Hot-dip galvanizing coats the steel by passing the metal through a molten bath of zinc at a temperature of 460°C.  After galvanization the steel is coiled for storage and customer delivery. The system used for heating the coiling area of the line is a forced-air system.  Four heating systems are considered for heating the coil manufacturing area and were investigated for potential energy cost savings. The four systems are:  forced air, torpedo natural gas heaters, radiant tube heating, and radiant panel heating. The objective is to find the system with the lowest energy requirement that was safe and provided an adequate amount of heat for the space. 

The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team, UWAFT, has a mission to design, build, and market fuel efficient vehicles of the future. UWAFT was one of 16 university student teams participating in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. The challenge was established by the USA Department of Energy and General Motors (GM), recognizing the need to devise solutions to reduce the environmental impact of gasoline-fueled vehicles. Students are challenged with re-engineering a GM-donated vehicle, a dual-mode hybrid Saturn VUE. The overall objective is to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions by exploring advanced technological solutions, while increasing energy efficiency and maintaining vehicle performance, safety and utility. Vehicle configurations considered by the various teams include electric drive (EV), hybrid, plug-in hybrid (PHV) and fuel cell (FCV) technologies. Alternate fuels range from ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen. All teams explored alternative lightweight materials.

TWD technologies (TWD), headquartered in Burlington Ontario, is an engineering, procurement and construction management company with clients in a variety of industries across Canada. For a particular project of TWD, Client 1 wanted to transfer isobutene, a hydrocarbon, from their production site to storage at Client 2's location. The product must be kept accessible and in useable condition to Client 1 as required. Client 2 owns a series of salt caverns, which are used to store isobutene and other hydrocarbons. Salt caverns are caves constructed within the salt subsurface. When isobutene is extracted from the salt cavern the brine (salt solution) must be removed from the product, which is done by sending the isobutene to a calcium chloride dryer. Brine is then recovered using a degasser pressure vessel, Figure 1, to remove the residual isobutene by flashing. For this project, a pressure vessel is required for the degasser application. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) pressure vessel codes must be followed to design the vessel.

The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team, UWAFT, has a mission to design, build, and market fuel efficient vehicles of the future. UWAFT was one of 16 university student teams participating in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. The challenge was established by the USA Department of Energy and General Motors (GM), recognizing the need to devise solutions to reduce the environmental impact of gasoline-fueled vehicles. Students are challenged with re-engineering a GM-donated vehicle, a dual-mode hybrid Saturn VUE. The overall objective is to significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions by exploring advanced technological solutions, while increasing energy efficiency and maintaining vehicle performance, safety and utility. Vehicle configurations considered by the various teams include electric drive (EV), hybrid, plug-in hybrid (PHV) and fuel cell (FCV) technologies. Alternate fuels range from ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen. All teams explored alternative lightweight materials.

Ethiopia officially began building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River as a means to address their power crisis. The project is owned and managed by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and a number of companies are involved with the construction of the dam. The GERD is designed to hold 74 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water and generate 6,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. In comparison, the Hoover Dam and the Niagara Falls power plants each generate about 2,000 MW. The scope of this project includes potentially sharing the electricity to surrounding countries; however, funding would be required for construction of transmission lines. The project is estimated to cost USD $4.8 billion and is projected to be fully operational by July 2017. As of October 2015, the Ethiopian government announced that the dam was 48% completed. There are about 9,000 employees working 24 hours a day at the construction site. The potential impacts of the dam have been a source of severe controversy, particularly between the governments of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Bell Laboratories (Bell Labs), headquartered in New Jersey is a leading research organization in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Bell Labs operates within Alcatel-Lucent, an Internet protocol (IP) networking specialist company. A number of Bell Labs scientists conduct research that has resulted an innovation and Nobel Prizes in a range of disciplines. Dr. Jan Hendrik Schön was employed by Bell Labs in 1998 and studied electrical charge conduction through organic crystals. His published research in leading journals such as Science and Nature illustrated groundbreaking discoveries that demonstrated the use of transistor devices. The rate of publications with Schön as lead author was very high: 100 articles in just three years. In some cases, Schön’s claims could not be duplicated by other scientists in the field. This started raising doubts regarding the validity of his research among the scientific community.
A Bell Labs committee in 2002 investigated claims that Schön’s data, published between 1998 and 2001, was fraudulent. The committee discovered problems of data substitution, unrealistic precision, and contradictory physics in nine of the published papers. Schön was found guilty of scientific misconduct and fired from Bell Labs. Thirty-six (36) publications were retracted or formally withdrawn, and his 1997 Ph.D. degree was revoked from the University of Konstanz in 2004. A timeline of events is summarized in Figure 1. The controversy sparked conversations within the scientific community about research misconduct and where responsibility lies among the lead researcher, corresponding authors, peer reviewers, and publishers.

For over 60 years, TransCanada has been a leader in North American energy infrastructure. They have completed projects in natural gas, power stations and crude oil. One of their major projects was the Keystone Pipeline which transports crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to United States’ refineries. The project began in 2005 and is now a total of 4,247 km in length. It transports about one quarter of Canada’s crude oil exports and routes through Alberta, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. Phases 1, 2 and 3 began operation in 2010, 2011 and 2014 respectively. In 2008, TransCanada submitted the proposal for Phase 4, an $8 billion pipeline planned to stretch 1,900 km from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska. This extension of the pipeline project, called Keystone XL, would carry 830,000 barrels of oil daily with a diameter of 36 inches.
To the surprise of TransCanada, this pipeline extension caused great controversy. With public scrutiny unmatched by other pipelines and many stakeholders pushing their agenda, the final verdict was delayed until 2015. This difficult decision had rested with John Kerry, the Secretary of State. In November 2015 he made an official recommendation to President Obama against Keystone XL.

Project Management (PM) is often a significant aspect of a professional engineer’s role in numerous industries. The nature of PM requires managers to keep track of several different projects at any given time. Figure 1 shows a breakdown of the various tasks involved in a typical PM setting. This often necessitates the use of relevant software for effective communication and the minimization of errors. There are many tools available on the market, providing managers the ability to review project statuses and receive updates. However, many of these tools need to be used in tandem with other applications, such as email, and many are not available in a mobile format. There is a need for an accessible PM application that is available in a mobile format.

It can be very difficult for people to maintain an up-to-date calendar. For a fourth year design team comprised of Management Engineering students, Dave Park, Jesse Singh, Subesh Sivanathan and Salim Nanji, this was no exception. Even though a range of software applications have made the process of scheduling and reminding people of these commitments a lot easier, the design team still felt overwhelmed with their schedules. Throughout each semester, they had employee information sessions, social gatherings, make-up lectures, intramural games, etc. They relied on common methods such as manually adding reminders to a calendar or using Google Voice to verbally input details of an event. The team saw a need for a simplified event scheduling process, and decided to develop a solution for their fourth year design project. Under the supervision of Olga Vechtomoza, they developed an app called Eventor. Eventor was designed to simplify the creation of events on mobile devices. A user selects or provides any raw text found within their mobile device and shares this to the Eventor app. It then parses the selected text and determines the title, date, time, location and description of the event. After the user confirms or edits the details, it is added to their calendar.
Dave, Jesse, Subesh and Salim wanted to confirm that Eventor was significantly different than the existing options in order to ensure their idea was novel. The design team collected data on usability and wanted to apply significance testing to this data to evaluate the improvement.

Ethiopia officially began building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River as a means to address their power crisis. The project is owned and managed by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and a number of companies are involved with the construction of the dam. The GERD is designed to hold 74 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water and generate 6,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. In comparison, the Hoover Dam and the Niagara Falls power plants each generate about 2,000 MW. The scope of this project includes potentially sharing the electricity to surrounding countries; however, funding would be required for construction of transmission lines. The project is estimated to cost USD $4.8 billion and is projected to be fully operational by July 2017. As of October 2015, the Ethiopian government announced that the dam was 48% completed. There are about 9,000 employees working 24 hours a day at the construction site. The potential impacts of the dam have been a source of severe controversy, particularly between the governments of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Bell Laboratories (Bell Labs), headquartered in New Jersey is a leading research organization in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Bell Labs operates within Alcatel-Lucent, an Internet protocol (IP) networking specialist company. A number of Bell Labs scientists conduct research that has resulted an innovation and Nobel Prizes in a range of disciplines. Dr. Jan Hendrik Schön was employed by Bell Labs in 1998 and studied electrical charge conduction through organic crystals. His published research in leading journals such as Science and Nature illustrated groundbreaking discoveries that demonstrated the use of transistor devices. The rate of publications with Schön as lead author was very high: 100 articles in just three years. In some cases, Schön’s claims could not be duplicated by other scientists in the field. This started raising doubts regarding the validity of his research among the scientific community.
A Bell Labs committee in 2002 investigated claims that Schön’s data, published between 1998 and 2001, was fraudulent. The committee discovered problems of data substitution, unrealistic precision, and contradictory physics in nine of the published papers. Schön was found guilty of scientific misconduct and fired from Bell Labs. Thirty-six (36) publications were retracted or formally withdrawn, and his 1997 Ph.D. degree was revoked from the University of Konstanz in 2004. A timeline of events is summarized in Figure 1. The controversy sparked conversations within the scientific community about research misconduct and where responsibility lies among the lead researcher, corresponding authors, peer reviewers, and publishers.

For over 60 years, TransCanada has been a leader in North American energy infrastructure. They have completed projects in natural gas, power stations and crude oil. One of their major projects was the Keystone Pipeline which transports crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to United States’ refineries. The project began in 2005 and is now a total of 4,247 km in length. It transports about one quarter of Canada’s crude oil exports and routes through Alberta, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. Phases 1, 2 and 3 began operation in 2010, 2011 and 2014 respectively. In 2008, TransCanada submitted the proposal for Phase 4, an $8 billion pipeline planned to stretch 1,900 km from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska. This extension of the pipeline project, called Keystone XL, would carry 830,000 barrels of oil daily with a diameter of 36 inches.
To the surprise of TransCanada, this pipeline extension caused great controversy. With public scrutiny unmatched by other pipelines and many stakeholders pushing their agenda, the final verdict was delayed until 2015. This difficult decision had rested with John Kerry, the Secretary of State. In November 2015 he made an official recommendation to President Obama against Keystone XL.

Project Management (PM) is often a significant aspect of a professional engineer’s role in numerous industries. The nature of PM requires managers to keep track of several different projects at any given time. Figure 1 shows a breakdown of the various tasks involved in a typical PM setting. This often necessitates the use of relevant software for effective communication and the minimization of errors. There are many tools available on the market, providing managers the ability to review project statuses and receive updates. However, many of these tools need to be used in tandem with other applications, such as email, and many are not available in a mobile format. There is a need for an accessible PM application that is available in a mobile format.

It can be very difficult for people to maintain an up-to-date calendar. For a fourth year design team comprised of Management Engineering students, Dave Park, Jesse Singh, Subesh Sivanathan and Salim Nanji, this was no exception. Even though a range of software applications have made the process of scheduling and reminding people of these commitments a lot easier, the design team still felt overwhelmed with their schedules. Throughout each semester, they had employee information sessions, social gatherings, make-up lectures, intramural games, etc. They relied on common methods such as manually adding reminders to a calendar or using Google Voice to verbally input details of an event. The team saw a need for a simplified event scheduling process, and decided to develop a solution for their fourth year design project. Under the supervision of Olga Vechtomoza, they developed an app called Eventor. Eventor was designed to simplify the creation of events on mobile devices. A user selects or provides any raw text found within their mobile device and shares this to the Eventor app. It then parses the selected text and determines the title, date, time, location and description of the event. After the user confirms or edits the details, it is added to their calendar.
Dave, Jesse, Subesh and Salim wanted to confirm that Eventor was significantly different than the existing options in order to ensure their idea was novel. The design team collected data on usability and wanted to apply significance testing to this data to evaluate the improvement.

Ethiopia officially began building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River as a means to address their power crisis. The project is owned and managed by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and a number of companies are involved with the construction of the dam. The GERD is designed to hold 74 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water and generate 6,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. In comparison, the Hoover Dam and the Niagara Falls power plants each generate about 2,000 MW. The scope of this project includes potentially sharing the electricity to surrounding countries; however, funding would be required for construction of transmission lines. The project is estimated to cost USD $4.8 billion and is projected to be fully operational by July 2017. As of October 2015, the Ethiopian government announced that the dam was 48% completed. There are about 9,000 employees working 24 hours a day at the construction site. The potential impacts of the dam have been a source of severe controversy, particularly between the governments of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Bell Laboratories (Bell Labs), headquartered in New Jersey is a leading research organization in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Bell Labs operates within Alcatel-Lucent, an Internet protocol (IP) networking specialist company. A number of Bell Labs scientists conduct research that has resulted an innovation and Nobel Prizes in a range of disciplines. Dr. Jan Hendrik Schön was employed by Bell Labs in 1998 and studied electrical charge conduction through organic crystals. His published research in leading journals such as Science and Nature illustrated groundbreaking discoveries that demonstrated the use of transistor devices. The rate of publications with Schön as lead author was very high: 100 articles in just three years. In some cases, Schön’s claims could not be duplicated by other scientists in the field. This started raising doubts regarding the validity of his research among the scientific community.
A Bell Labs committee in 2002 investigated claims that Schön’s data, published between 1998 and 2001, was fraudulent. The committee discovered problems of data substitution, unrealistic precision, and contradictory physics in nine of the published papers. Schön was found guilty of scientific misconduct and fired from Bell Labs. Thirty-six (36) publications were retracted or formally withdrawn, and his 1997 Ph.D. degree was revoked from the University of Konstanz in 2004. A timeline of events is summarized in Figure 1. The controversy sparked conversations within the scientific community about research misconduct and where responsibility lies among the lead researcher, corresponding authors, peer reviewers, and publishers.

For over 60 years, TransCanada has been a leader in North American energy infrastructure. They have completed projects in natural gas, power stations and crude oil. One of their major projects was the Keystone Pipeline which transports crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to United States’ refineries. The project began in 2005 and is now a total of 4,247 km in length. It transports about one quarter of Canada’s crude oil exports and routes through Alberta, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. Phases 1, 2 and 3 began operation in 2010, 2011 and 2014 respectively. In 2008, TransCanada submitted the proposal for Phase 4, an $8 billion pipeline planned to stretch 1,900 km from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska. This extension of the pipeline project, called Keystone XL, would carry 830,000 barrels of oil daily with a diameter of 36 inches.
To the surprise of TransCanada, this pipeline extension caused great controversy. With public scrutiny unmatched by other pipelines and many stakeholders pushing their agenda, the final verdict was delayed until 2015. This difficult decision had rested with John Kerry, the Secretary of State. In November 2015 he made an official recommendation to President Obama against Keystone XL.

Project Management (PM) is often a significant aspect of a professional engineer’s role in numerous industries. The nature of PM requires managers to keep track of several different projects at any given time. Figure 1 shows a breakdown of the various tasks involved in a typical PM setting. This often necessitates the use of relevant software for effective communication and the minimization of errors. There are many tools available on the market, providing managers the ability to review project statuses and receive updates. However, many of these tools need to be used in tandem with other applications, such as email, and many are not available in a mobile format. There is a need for an accessible PM application that is available in a mobile format.

It can be very difficult for people to maintain an up-to-date calendar. For a fourth year design team comprised of Management Engineering students, Dave Park, Jesse Singh, Subesh Sivanathan and Salim Nanji, this was no exception. Even though a range of software applications have made the process of scheduling and reminding people of these commitments a lot easier, the design team still felt overwhelmed with their schedules. Throughout each semester, they had employee information sessions, social gatherings, make-up lectures, intramural games, etc. They relied on common methods such as manually adding reminders to a calendar or using Google Voice to verbally input details of an event. The team saw a need for a simplified event scheduling process, and decided to develop a solution for their fourth year design project. Under the supervision of Olga Vechtomoza, they developed an app called Eventor. Eventor was designed to simplify the creation of events on mobile devices. A user selects or provides any raw text found within their mobile device and shares this to the Eventor app. It then parses the selected text and determines the title, date, time, location and description of the event. After the user confirms or edits the details, it is added to their calendar.
Dave, Jesse, Subesh and Salim wanted to confirm that Eventor was significantly different than the existing options in order to ensure their idea was novel. The design team collected data on usability and wanted to apply significance testing to this data to evaluate the improvement.

Ethiopia officially began building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River as a means to address their power crisis. The project is owned and managed by the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) and a number of companies are involved with the construction of the dam. The GERD is designed to hold 74 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water and generate 6,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. In comparison, the Hoover Dam and the Niagara Falls power plants each generate about 2,000 MW. The scope of this project includes potentially sharing the electricity to surrounding countries; however, funding would be required for construction of transmission lines. The project is estimated to cost USD $4.8 billion and is projected to be fully operational by July 2017. As of October 2015, the Ethiopian government announced that the dam was 48% completed. There are about 9,000 employees working 24 hours a day at the construction site. The potential impacts of the dam have been a source of severe controversy, particularly between the governments of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Bell Laboratories (Bell Labs), headquartered in New Jersey is a leading research organization in Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Bell Labs operates within Alcatel-Lucent, an Internet protocol (IP) networking specialist company. A number of Bell Labs scientists conduct research that has resulted an innovation and Nobel Prizes in a range of disciplines. Dr. Jan Hendrik Schön was employed by Bell Labs in 1998 and studied electrical charge conduction through organic crystals. His published research in leading journals such as Science and Nature illustrated groundbreaking discoveries that demonstrated the use of transistor devices. The rate of publications with Schön as lead author was very high: 100 articles in just three years. In some cases, Schön’s claims could not be duplicated by other scientists in the field. This started raising doubts regarding the validity of his research among the scientific community.
A Bell Labs committee in 2002 investigated claims that Schön’s data, published between 1998 and 2001, was fraudulent. The committee discovered problems of data substitution, unrealistic precision, and contradictory physics in nine of the published papers. Schön was found guilty of scientific misconduct and fired from Bell Labs. Thirty-six (36) publications were retracted or formally withdrawn, and his 1997 Ph.D. degree was revoked from the University of Konstanz in 2004. A timeline of events is summarized in Figure 1. The controversy sparked conversations within the scientific community about research misconduct and where responsibility lies among the lead researcher, corresponding authors, peer reviewers, and publishers.

For over 60 years, TransCanada has been a leader in North American energy infrastructure. They have completed projects in natural gas, power stations and crude oil. One of their major projects was the Keystone Pipeline which transports crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to United States’ refineries. The project began in 2005 and is now a total of 4,247 km in length. It transports about one quarter of Canada’s crude oil exports and routes through Alberta, Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. Phases 1, 2 and 3 began operation in 2010, 2011 and 2014 respectively. In 2008, TransCanada submitted the proposal for Phase 4, an $8 billion pipeline planned to stretch 1,900 km from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska. This extension of the pipeline project, called Keystone XL, would carry 830,000 barrels of oil daily with a diameter of 36 inches.
To the surprise of TransCanada, this pipeline extension caused great controversy. With public scrutiny unmatched by other pipelines and many stakeholders pushing their agenda, the final verdict was delayed until 2015. This difficult decision had rested with John Kerry, the Secretary of State. In November 2015 he made an official recommendation to President Obama against Keystone XL.

Project Management (PM) is often a significant aspect of a professional engineer’s role in numerous industries. The nature of PM requires managers to keep track of several different projects at any given time. Figure 1 shows a breakdown of the various tasks involved in a typical PM setting. This often necessitates the use of relevant software for effective communication and the minimization of errors. There are many tools available on the market, providing managers the ability to review project statuses and receive updates. However, many of these tools need to be used in tandem with other applications, such as email, and many are not available in a mobile format. There is a need for an accessible PM application that is available in a mobile format.

The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo) has been named Research University of the Year among Canadian comprehensive universities for the seventh year in a row, according to the 2014 rankings by Research Infosource. This innovative culture requires laboratories that have high-end equipment and cutting-edge technology, but may also involve potentially dangerous chemicals. Although these labs continue to develop many modern advances, there are inherent risks with lab-based research. For this reason, laboratory safety is a vital component of research.
A shared research lab in the Faculty of Engineering faced a near miss incident involving Piranha solution. Piranha etch is a highly aggressive, off-gassing solution comprised of sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide, used to clean organic residue from substrates. The technologist for this research group, Lewis Tate , received an email at 1:15 pm on Friday, March 13th, 2015, which contained photos of a safety concern, see figure. Piranha solution had been found in a sealed glass container on the floor next to acetone. The bottles were discovered by two graduate students of a neighbouring lab. Lewis needed to quickly decide how best to resolve this problem.

Mitchell Partnership Inc. (TMP), based in Toronto, Ontario, provides mechanical engineering building services throughout Canada and the world. TMP focuses on energy and water conservation within buildings, providing services for HVAC, plumbing, controls, and fire protection. TMP was required to design a water system and pump, which would provide water to a small residential home from an on-property well, as illustrated in Figure 1. The design of a water system involves analyzing water demand, pipe size and total pump head. TMP must also investigate and select an appropriate pump to handle the residential home’s water requirements.

ArcelorMittal Dofasco is a steel making company that produces a variety of steel products, including cold rolled, galvanized and tin plated steel and steel tubing. The Dofasco facility in Hamilton, ON, is solely dedicated to the production of flat rolled steels, which are usually wrapped around in coils for delivery. There are many departments in Dofasco Hamilton facility, and each has their own main duties in the process of steel making. The Research department at Dofasco has the task of ensuring high quality production by testing samples of produced steel, and examining errors in the f products. In 2012, the department required its punch press to be upgraded to be able to punch stronger (thick) sheets of steel. Therefore, the current structure and bolts shown in Figure 1 had to be analyzed with the existing (25 ton) and proposed load, (50 ton) to verify if the original structure could withstand the load without its components yielding.

Installation of underground high voltage transmission lines mainly occurs in urban and suburban areas; the limited space in these high-density areas makes overhead transmission lines a suboptimal solution. As installation of underground cables present issues separate from overhead transmission lines, analyses of underground cable pulling tensions and sidewall pressures on all installations are normally conducted in order to avoid hazards and ensure cable integrity is maintained. A contracting company that specializes in high voltage transmission services is currently in the process of evaluating a recently proposed underground cable installation at a Toronto, Ontario job site. Figure 1 illustrates the proposed underground cable path for this application, from Joint Bay to Manhole 5A.

City of Ottawa is home to 883, 391 people and is the fourth largest city in Canada. Their Infrastructure Services Department is responsible for the management and maintenance of Ottawa’s roads, bridges, water supply, sewers, electrical grids and other essential infrastructure. The department regularly performs infrastructure inspections to ensure public safety and confirm that the structures are in sufficient condition to perform their intended purpose. The inspections rank various structural elements on a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor using criteria provided in the Ontario Structural Inspection Manual (OSIM). These rankings are based on material defects that include deterioration, corrosion, cracking, rusting, scaling, etc. On July 15, 2008, the March Road culvert was ranked Poor, which indicated that it should be replaced or renewed, Figure 1. During the inspection, it was observed that there was insufficient water flow through the culvert and it had severe rust above the waterline. Existing perforations could cause a loss of backfill soil, potentially creating sinkholes. The Infrastructure Department required solutions for the culvert and a respective analysis in order to determine the best renewal decision. 

In the Nilgiris District of Southern India, a majority of the rural population does not have access to an adequate supply of water for domestic use.  With the groundwater resources showing signs of depletion, the Government of Tamil Nadu has made it mandatory to install rooftop rainwater harvesting (RWH) units on all households within the state.  Unfortunately, most rural villages in the region have limited ability to financially support this initiative. Since the largest cost component of the rainwater harvesting structure is the storage unit, careful planning must go into sizing RWH units to ensure the people receive an adequate supply of water, at the lowest possible price.

The City of Hamilton’s Public Works department is responsible for managing Hamilton’s public services and infrastructure, with specific focus on: water and wastewater, traffic engineering, and public transit. The Environment and Sustainable Infrastructure (ESI) Department, within Public Works, is responsible for Hamilton’s water and wastewater distribution services. Following routine condition assessments conducted by ESI, a section of Hamilton’s water distribution system located along 100m of Green Road in Stoney Creek, shown in Figure 1, was scheduled for replacement. However, Public Works requires a new water distribution system design for this specific location prior to replacement.

Johnathan Nault, a civil engineering co-op student from the University of Waterloo working with the Public Works department, was tasked with providing the City of Hamilton with a sustainable and optimal design solution.

Metrolinx is the regional transportation authority for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). As part of an initiative to improve transportation in the GTHA, Metrolinx formulated a Regional Transportation Plan entitled “The Big Move”. This plan includes the strategic development of Mobility Hubs, where multiple modes of transportation seamlessly connect to facilitate passenger travel. The Port Credit GO Station, shown in Figure 1, was identified as an important Mobility Hub. However, additional parking infrastructure is required to ensure increasing numbers of commuters have access to the range of sustainable transportation options offered at the hub. It was decided that 1000 new parking spaces could be created by modifying existing lots. MMM Group Ltd., a Canadian consulting company, was hired to help plan these developments.

Matthew Casswell, a University of Waterloo co-op student, was tasked with analyzing the effect various parking infrastructure options would have on traffic in the area.

Storm water management is a major aspect of urban planning. With many impervious surfaces in a city, runoff easily travels to nearby creeks and lakes during a storm event. In the 1980s, one method of storm water management was to implement concrete riverbeds in an effort to move water out of residential areas quickly and to prevent erosion. Today, water resource engineers acknowledge that this creates a sediment-rich highway that negatively impacts water quality. In 2009, the City of Kitchener (the City) requested a Schedule B Class Environmental Assessment (EA) to address storm water management concerns for Victoria Park Lake, Kitchener. Stantec Consulting Ltd. was retained by the City to undertake the EA and they focused on the watershed and drainage channels that contribute to the lake. As a result of the EA, the City installed a forebay and armour stones as well as dredged the build-up of sediment in Victoria Park Lake. To protect this investment, the lake’s concrete-lined tributaries were identified as high priority. The City wanted to move towards naturalization of the tributaries, which meant converting them back as close as possible to their original state. This requires natural features like stream meanders and vegetation.

PCL Constructors Inc. is a group of independent construction companies which carry out full design-build, general contracting, and construction management services in three main sectors: buildings, civil infrastructure, and heavy industrial markets. Together, these companies have an annual construction volume of more than $6 billion, making them the largest contracting organization in Canada. One of PCL Constructors Inc. more recent projects was the design and construction of a spiral staircase for the Regina Research Park Building atrium. The PCL Regina team’s original staircase design included primarily structural steel materials, but they later decided to take concrete into consideration.

PCL Constructors Inc. requires a materials analysis in order to recommend which material to use given the selection criteria of cost, sustainability, safety, aesthetic design, and construction methods.

Aaron Heerema was employed as a co-op student at Trow Geomatics in Fort Frances, Ontario. Trow Geomatics specializes in land surveying and mapping. Due to the location of this office, they also create topographies in remote locations. Aaron was asked to assist in various surveying locations during his co-op term. In some situations he was asked to choose between the two techniques, while in others, he was only provided with one alternative. The two main techniques discussed within the study are: Total Stations and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). They are widely used by survey firms across the world. Each method may be more suited to certain tasks. It is up to the firm in question to decide on which equipment is more effective for their particular jobs. Assessment factors for use may include cost, number of operating personnel, range limitations, accuracy, etc. It is important to be able to note the strengths and weaknesses of each and to understand how the equipment may be used. These systems are userfriendly and do not require intensive training. It is always important to select the more appropriate method for a specific application, such that the user is optimizing their time for the company.

The Walter Fedy Partnership (TWFP) is a multi-disciplinary architectural, engineering, and construction management firm that has been serving the Kitchener-Waterloo region for over 60 years. The Building Engineering department, managed by Mr. Ed Fowler, designs the internal mechanical systems such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and plumbing within new and renovated buildings. During the design stage for these systems, the company uses the standards developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) to assess sound levels within various types of building occupancies. In 2009, the company was under contract to design a heat pump to be installed directly above an office area located within Company A's retail space in Waterloo, Ontario. However, there was concern that the heat pump would generate excessive background noise along its path as shown in Figure 1, which would interfere with the business activities of employees working within the space below.

James Dyck, a University of Waterloo co-op student, was asked to perform an acoustical analysis of a proposed Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system for the retail space within Company A and recommend solutions for maintaining HVAC-generated sound within acceptable levels as per ASHRAE standards.

In 2011, Ethiopia began building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile River in the Guba region, 40 km east of Sudan. The GERD is projected to have 74 billion cubic meters (BCM) of storage capacity and about 60 BCM live storage to generate 6000 MW. The project consists of a roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam, saddle dam, two powerhouses, a 500 kV switchyard and a spillway, Figure 1. There are also plans to sell electricity to surrounding countries; however, this requires major construction of transmission lines. As of October 2014, the Ethiopian government announced that the dam was 43% completed. Even though the GERD project is well underway, the potential impacts of the dam have been the source of severe regional controversy, particularly between the governments of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. Egypt, which relies heavily on the waters of the Nile, has demanded that Ethiopia cease construction on the dam as a precondition to negotiations. Sudan has accused Egypt of inflaming the situation. To address these issues, the three countries assembled an international panel of experts and asked their opinion regarding sustainability of the GERD.

A key aspect of the requested analysis was to assess economic and environmental sustainability, as well as a risk analysis and mitigation strategies related to construction of the GERD.

In today’s advanced electrical technology, it has become a necessity to use compact semiconductor chips in a variety of applications including computers, electrical appliances, and automobiles. This creates a need for more sophisticated electrical packages. Wire bonding is used to make interconnections between integrated circuits (IC), other semiconductor devices, and their packages. Because of its wide applicability, reliability of wire bonding in power electronics is a subject of critical interest for many companies and laboratories. In the last decade, reliability problems of thick bonding wires have been studied and are considered critical for power modules. The current flow through the bonding wire induces Joule heating which results in thermomechanical stress. Research groups at the University of Waterloo, including the Centre for Advanced Materials Joining (CAMJ) and the Nano and Micro Systems Laboratory (NMSL), are currently studying failure mechanisms of bonding wire.

Christie Digital Systems Inc. (Christie) has established a global reputation as the world’s single source manufacturer of a variety of display technologies and solutions for cinema, large audience environments, business presentations, simulation, 3D and virtual reality. The company has a wide global presence that includes manufacturing facilities in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. The Kitchener branch houses the Business Products Sustaining Department. The teams in this department handle projects related to the company’s business products, such as projectors and integrated projection systems, and are responsible for maintaining current product lines as well as designing new business projection solutions. The Sustaining team is directly responsible for resolving problems related to products currently on the market, which includes dealing with components that are approaching obsolescence. For example is a projector component that restricts the amount of light used to project images according to specific brightness and contrast requirements. The Allegro A3936 motor controller used in Christie Digital products to control 3-phase brushless DC motors in dynamic iris applications is expected to become obsolete. Therefore, an alternate component must be selected and tested to suit this application.

 Tim Boyadjian, a co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked to investigate alternative components to replace this component.

The Kenna Group is a Toronto based corporation specializing in the delivery of sales and marketing solutions. Kenna provides services from the analysis and storage of client data to the creation of client websites. Kenna’s technology group provides programming and technology based services to in-house requests and its clients. Kenna sends out daily newsletters to subscribers. They receive the content of the newsletters as a Microsoft Publisher file.The information must be converted into HTML before sending out to subscribers. Kenna’s current solution for conversion involves copying and pasting text and tables manually from the Publisher file to the HTML editor. However, as there is incompatibility between Publisher and HTML, Kenna personnel must use a word processor to format the text before pasting into the HTML editor. This process is inconvenient, and Kenna wishes to find a more efficient conversion method.

National Instruments® is an Austin, Texas-based company that provides productivity tools for designing, prototyping and deploying systems for test, control and embedded design applications. With locations across the globe, including in Toronto, Canada, National Instruments® provides both students and professionals with world-class tools for circuit design. For marketing purposes, the NI branch in Toronto created a PID controlled H-bridge Brushed DC motor as a demonstrative design. This project utilizes the rapid development methodology of Circuit Design Suite, as well as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and real-time processor of the Single-board Reconfigurable Input/Output (sbRIO). However, situations like high current outrage may arise when switching the DC motor between different speeds and directions. In order to minimize the unexpected damage to the circuit and sustain the system with robustness and stability, an over-current protection (OCP) scheme was devised for the existing circuit design. After investigation, the OCP selection was narrowed down to the following choices: Fuses and breakers, resistor-based sensor, transistor-based sensor and Analog-to-digital converter (ADC).

A long-time frontrunner in the desktop graphics market, Nvidia Corporation, located in Santa Clara, California, has recently expanded their product line to feature mobile devices. The Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrates Nvidia’s latest central processing, graphics processing, and memory controller hardware into a single chip. Unlike typical desktop processors, mobile processors are limited by a device’s battery and the energy it is capable of delivering. Providing the right balance between processing capability and battery life requires the optimization of hardware-kernel interaction, as well as the processor’s reaction to the demands of software.

Sai Charan Gurrappadi, a fourth-year Mechatronics Engineering student, was asked to analyze the central processor usage and its impact on power consumption and battery life.

Toronto Hydro Electric System Limited is a municipal electric distribution utility in Canada. The Stations Department is comprised of engineers and engineering technicians, and oversees the maintenance and development of substations in the Toronto area.  At present, the Stations Department is completing the Protective Relays Replacement Project, which will replace the current electromechanical relays, shown in Figure 1, in one of the power substations with newer relays. Protective relays are used to detect abnormal conditions within electrical systems; circuit breakers are automatically triggered protective electrical switches that activate when system malfunctions are detected. The current protective system is complicated and occupies large amounts of space. Many of the components are obsolete, and the cost of maintenance is extremely high, as some components are no longer in production. Additionally, the old relays have been used for over 20 years. As distribution systems span large areas and affect large groups of people, it is essential for methods of protection and security to exist within the system. 

XMG Studio Inc., located in Toronto, Canada, is a start-up mobile game development company that specializes in using agile game development methodologies to create the next generation of interactive mobile games. The company is developing a fashion genre game that allows users to create and design their own custom clothing (see Figure 1). The fashion genre game has a “design interface” where users are designing the clothing and a “wardrobe interface” for when users wish to use the clothing they have designed. The current design and wardrobe interfaces have memory management problems such as lagging and crashing, as well as complaints about the graphical user interface usability.

Whitney Mak, a coop student from the University of Waterloo, has been working on the development of this game with her team lead and supervisor, Adam Telfer. She is responsible for ensuring the problems mentioned above are solved in the final release.

Cisco Systems Canada is a large multinational corporation, which provides equipment, software, and support services that manage network traffic including data, voice, and video for a wide range of customers. The Silicon Engineering (SiE) team at Cisco Ottawa development centre design application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and other complex systems-on-a-chip (SoCs). As the ASICs and SoCs are so complex system, the development of the chip is broken into modules and assigned to smaller design teams. One of these block modules is the error code correction (ECC) element, which will be implemented as a sub-block in every memory to improve the reliability of the design. In 2013, the SiE team assigned to design a new ASIC routing processor and traffic manager that would be implemented in the next generation of Cisco routers. As a part of the design process, the team required to develop an efficient error correction code to ensure the reliability of the chip, minimize the resources used by ECC module, minimize power consumption and reduce delay. Generally, the SiE team uses single error correction/double error detection (SECDED) code method, Figure 1 [1].

Elsabé Coetzer, 4^th year Electrical Engineering student from University of Waterloo, was asked to analyze, evaluate, and compare two possible single error correction/double error detection (SECDED) code solution alternatives to be used by SiE Canada team.

The Nano and Micro Systems Lab (NMSL) at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo) conducts research in state-of-the-art micro and nano-sensing and actuation technologies. This research contributes to the fundamental sciences and addresses issues in global healthcare, energy and the environment. A recent focus of NMSL aims to develop a novel cantilever beam Micro-electromechanical Systems (MEMS) gyroscope with frequency modulated (FM) readout. The gyroscopes undergo coupled flexural vibrations in two orthogonal directions (y and z axis) when they are subjected to base rotation around the beam’s longitudinal x-axis. The gyroscope detects angular rotations as the difference between the natural frequencies of two closely spaced drive and sense modes rather than the magnitude of displacement in the sense direction. In order to demonstrate the concept, a prototype MEMS gyroscope was designed and fabricated using the process for Teledyne Dalsa MEMS Integrated Design for Inertial Sensors (MIDIS™).

Christie Digital is a global visual technologies company that manufactures a variety of display solutions for cinema, large audience environments, control rooms, and business presentations. Owing to the complex nature of the circuit boards used in Christie Digital products, the company is under constant pressure to improve cost and time efficiencies through design. Supplying a constant and stable voltage to power Integrated Circuit (IC) components at high frequencies is a common requirement, which carries the risk of unstable operation and/or component failure. Thus, Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) require a careful Power Distribution Network (PDN) design (Figure 1). Bypass selection and placement is critical to effective PDN design, and Christie Digital is investigating ways to apply these methods to improve the high frequency power network bypass strategies it uses in its complex PCB technologies.

Air pollution, global warming and the need for sustainable energy has intensified the need for efficient, green-energy powered vehicles. There are a number of transportation solutions that have been developed to tackle this issue including the Segway Personal Transporter (PT), a one person dynamically self-balancing transportation vehicle. The Segway PT, designed by Dean Kamen, is a compact vehicle meant to revolutionize the way that short distance travel is conducted. A Segway is much more energy efficient than a traditional car and can transport a rider for a full day on a battery charge worth $ 0.50 of electricity. The Segway’s motion and speed are controlled by the rider shifting their weight forward and backward, and using the handlebar for turning. Although it has never been commercially successful on a large scale, the Segway has been embraced by several groups such as police departments, military bases, warehouses, corporate campuses and industrial sites who use Segway PT to patrol events or facilities. The Segway is also quite popular in the tourism industry as a means to take groups of tourists on guided tours around a city.  As a more environmentally friendly transportation method in metropolitan areas, some of the most important design considerations are flexibility, safety and performance.

Devices that support humans in their daily activities are slowly finding their way into our lives. One of the earliest visions of artificial intelligence is the realization of autonomous robots that can achieve a level of problem-solving competency comparable to humans. Recent developments in household robotics have spawned a promising field with the potential to yield many new labour-saving products, such as vacuum-cleaning robots. However, the dynamic and diverse nature of the household environment makes developing useful household robots quite challenging; consumer autonomous devices must be flexible enough to tolerate a wide range of operating conditions and cope with a time-varying environment. In this case study, an autonomous system design capable of finding misplaced objects and tidying variable household environments is proposed.

Babcock & Wilcox Canada Ltd. is located in Cambridge, Ontario. The company deals with many clients within the nuclear power industry including CANDU® reactor parts suppliers. The CANDU® reactor system contains feeder pipes which are part of the primary heat transport system (PHTS). This system encompasses the pipes and vessels that the heavy water passes through as it travels from the pressure tubes in the reactor, which contain the nuclear fuel, to the steam generators, where the energy in the heavy water is transferred to the light feed water, and back again. The energy entering the feed water causes it to increase in temperature, which in turn leads to the formation of steam. During the process of the heavy water travelling through the outlet feeder pipes, iron from the pipes corrodes into the heavy water, causing the pipe wall to thin over time. Therefore, it has become necessary to generate repair or inspection procedures for this type of degradation.

Cenovus Energy is an oil and gas producing company with operations throughout Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. The company’s primary focus is exploration and operation of oil wells.  The Oil & Natural Gas Business Unit in Brooks, Alberta supports operations of existing oil wells and an oil and gas processing plant. An oil and gas plant is located approximately 25 kilometers south of Brooks, Alberta, and is illustrated geographically using the Alberta Township system in Figure 1, outlined in red. Natural gas is entrained in the oil and is collected during oil processing. The gas contains hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and must be “sweetened” by removing the H₂S; this requires an increase in gas pressure. The three current gas compressors were initially configured to handle large volumes of gas, significantly greater than the current production, although new wells have the potential to increase this gas volume. It was necessary to evaluate the existing gas compressors at the Cenovus oil and gas plant, based on collected data, maximum volume capacity and monetary operating costs, to recommend an optimal operating mode.

Dominic Toselli, a co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked to investigate the gas compressors at the Cenovus oil and gas plant to recommend the optimal compressor configuration for daily operation. 

Christie Digital Systems Inc. is a global visual technologies leader, and offers a wide variety of visual solutions and technologies for business, entertainment and industrial applications. The company products range from small table top projectors to large 3D Cinema projectors and LCD panels. The Kitchener branch houses the Business Products (BP) Department. The teams in the BP department handle projects related to the company’s business products, such as projectors and integrated projection systems. The department wants to replace the company current high power M-Series digital projector, EasyRider, with enhanced new high power projector, EasyWash. This new projector was developed and displayed lower than nominal brightness values during testing. The preliminary analysis indicated that this issue was directly related to the lamp alignment and arc position within the lamp module. For the projector to produce maximum brightness, the lamp arc must be coincident with the ellipsoid reflectors first focal point. Therefore, this required redesigning the three axis lamp alignment module, shown in Figure 1. This will allow the lamp arc to be adjusted back into the optimal position within the ellipsoid reflector, increasing its brightness output.

Tyler B. Cater, a co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked to redesign the three axis lamp alignment module. The design need to allow the lamp arc to be adjusted back into the optimal position within the ellipsoid reflector, increasing its brightness output.

Dana Power Technologies is a part of Dana Holding Corporation, which globally supplies to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for light vehicle, commercial, and off highway markets. The company products include axel and transmission, sealing, and thermal management parts. Dana thermal products group specializes in heat transfer components such as radiators, charge air coolers, oil coolers, battery coolers, and more. In 2011, a customer requested from Dana a power electronics system cooler product for hybrid electric and electric vehicles (EVs); a schematic of a hybrid electric vehicle powertrain is shown in the case study. Dana Corporation had not developed any such cooler system before and only had limited experience in the field of power electronics. Therefore, an investigation of the market for new products for power electronics cooling systems was needed. In order to develop a product concept, currently available power electronics cooling technologies were examined.

Eric Schouten, a co-op student from University of Waterloo, was asked to determine if it was worthwhile for the company to further invest in developing a better-quality cooler for a power electronics system used in EVs. He was specifically assigned to study, analyze, and estimate the value of a new cooling product.

Delta Elevator Co. Ltd. is a privately-owned elevator servicing and manufacturing company with its headquarters in Kitchener, Ontario. The company designs and installs a wide range of elevating devices from small accessibility lifts to large freight elevators, and their business has been growing rapidly. The Mechanical Engineering Department, managed by Michael Tikal, is primarily responsible for the mechanical design, manufacturing, and processing of new elevator installations. For example, the company has developed their version of the innovative new traction elevator design known as the Machine Room Less (MRL) Elevator, partly shown in Figure 1. However, the installation of this particular elevator type remains more complex and time consuming than more traditional designs. In addition, the Delta sling structure design is not symmetrical and in some cab style configurations the car has been observed to lean more heavily on one side of the guide. This has the potential to create more wear on the roller guides and reduce their life span, if not counteracted with balancing weights. 

Pill crushers are used extensively in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) and retirement homes to crush medication before administering it to a resident. Most residents in care facilities receive medication, several times a day. Many residents have problems swallowing a tablet of any size and therefore require their medication to be crushed and mixed with another medium to ease ingestion.

Glenda Campbell (1), a consultant pharmacist for LTCFs with Medical Pharmacies Group Inc. (MPGI), contacted James Baleshta of Nordac Design Inc. to address problems experienced with existing pill crushers.  Although relatively simple devices, existing crushers required several loud and repetitive pounding actions to adequately crush a single tablet and were unable to apply sufficient force to efficiently crush some of the harder tablets. 

In fact, facility staff members were developing repetitive strain injuries induced by the numerous repetitions required to crush a pill completely. Furthermore, the crushing noise generated at mealtimes, in facility dining rooms, was particularly unpleasant and increased the agitation of some of the cognitively impaired residents (1). Similarly, nighttime medication preparation, undertaken in the hallways of the facilities, disturbed those who were already asleep.

The challenge was to design a pill crusher that operated silently, forcefully, and without numerous repetitions.

Dimplex North America Ltd., located in Cambridge, Ontario, is a leading heating products manufacturer. Dimplex recently expanded its portfolio from electric heating products to address the new renewable energy products market. One such product is Dimplex’s Solar Thermal Hot Water System (STHWS) used to heat potable water in a residential setting using energy from the sun, as opposed to gas or electricity. Large collectors, Figure 1, are used to absorb solar heat which is transferred to a circulating heat transfer fluid. As such, the collectors sit at temperatures between 125 to 150°C, which makes them ideal sources of energy for generating electricity using thermoelectric generators (TEGs).

In August 1999, Steve Lambert, a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo, purchased a stone house in Elora, Ontario, Canada. The house was originally constructed in about 1860, and the structure had not been significantly updated. The house was heated using a forced-air natural gas furnace but there was no significant insulation in the walls. As a consequence, the house is drafty, cold and uncomfortable in the winters. However, the stone construction results in significant ‘thermal mass’, so that the house responds slowly to outside temperature changes, and remains relatively comfortable and cool, especially on the main floor, in the summers. The house was purchased with the intention of significantly updating the interior, especially the insulation and windows, to significantly improve both comfort levels and energy efficiency. Professor Lambert is in the process of upgrading this house, primarily the insulation, and implementing radiant in-floor heating based on hot water. It is necessary to choose a heating source for the hot water used to heat the house.

The traditional solution for people suffering from foot drop is to wear a foot brace. The Ankle Foot Orthotic (AFO), for example, is a foot brace that functions by supporting the limp foot with the top half of the ankle.  The AFO is designed, to be stiff enough to hold the foot at a 90° angle,or higher when it is off the ground.  Flexibility is also incorporated into the design to allow for the full range of ankle motion required for walking and running.

Frito-Lay, located in Cambridge, Ontario, is Canada’s largest snack food manufacturer, producing a range of brands such as Lays, Ruffles, Miss Vickie’s, Sun Chips, Doritos, Tostitos, Cheetos, and Smartfood. One of the machines in the potato chip production line detects and separates defective potato chips and places them on a conveyer line, separate from the main chip line. The defective chips are subsequently conveyed into a large waste bin, as partly shown in Figure 1. The waste bin is replaced when it is full; in order to reduce the frequency of this process manual crushing is done with a tamper tool. Manual crushing of potato chips is repetitive, time consuming, and involves a straining motion, with potential for ergonomic injuries and decreased production efficiency. A potato chip pulverizing unit has the potential to increase potato chip production efficiency, resulting in significant cost savings. There is a clear need for a potato chip pulverizing unit at Frito-Lay to ensure workplace safety and increase potato chip processing efficiency.

Jeffrey Azzolin, a University of Waterloo co-op student working for the engineering department at Frito-Lay, was assigned to design, fabricate, test, and install a potato chip pulverizing unit.

Lois Scott is located in Elora, Ontario, Canada, and is one of Canada’s most renowned glass carving artists. Lois carves intricate patterns and shapes into glass vessels that are blown into carious spherical and cylindrical forms. Her pieces are often highly intricate and thus require a great deal of time and effort to create. Each glass piece is individually hand blown, carved and etched. An example of her work is shown in Figure 1. Lois contacted the University of Waterloo to seek help in developing a device to assist her in carrying out her glass carving.

Arthritis is a medical condition affecting joints and connective tissue. Rheumatoid arthritis is caused by an autoimmune disorder.  An autoimmune disorder is a condition that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. Since it is an autoimmune disease, there is currently no cure, and treatment options are focused on pain management. Osteoarthritis has similar symptoms but is caused by simple wear and tear. People who have arthritis typically experience symptoms in both hands, preventing normal day to day functionality. The hands are still capable of some motion; however, pain increases with added stress on the joints or holding static positions for an extended period of time. Depending on the progression of the disease, the patient is either physically limited in range of motion and dexterity, or avoids tasks that cause pain. Orthotics, braces and other assistive aids are a common method to minimize the pain in daily life. Such devices limit and support the wrist joints, improving the quality of life for people who suffer with arthritis. However, these devices do not restore functionality.

Mackie Moving Systems Inc. is an international logistics solutions company that operates several warehouses across Canada. Mackie provides a very diverse range of logistic solutions to businesses and individuals. Some of these services include freight and vehicle transport, household moving, inventory management, warehousing, and storage. Mackie warehouses store customer products on large steel frame racking systems, called pallet racks. In most cases, rows of pallet racks are lined up back-to-back to maximize storage capacity. They are usually three to five bays tall, depending on the height of the warehouse. As customer requirements change, the warehouse configuration and rack assembly must change as well. This means pallet racks often contain a variety of components originating from different manufacturers, and irregular shelving arrangements. As a result, the actual storage capacity of each pallet rack in the warehouse is difficult to verify.

Andrew Katz, a co-op student from University of Waterloo, was asked to analyze and determine the storage capacities of Mackie pallet racks based on beam size.

Christopher Hoyle, a 4th year mechanical engineering student, plays many different musical instruments. He has recorded his music for several years, and began sharing his recordings on YouTube since June 2009. Within two years he had posted 37 musical videos, received over 220,000 views, and gained over 1880 subscribers. Christopher currently receives approximately 600 views per day on his YouTube channel. As a strategy to increase the uniqueness of his YouTube channel, Christopher would like to design and build a new and unique sounding musical instrument that he can share with his YouTube audience. Having broad experience with a range of musical instruments, Christopher understands which principles contribute to the design of a good musical instrument. For this application, the new instrument must be acoustic, create sound using natural energy, and be able to play standard notes, scales and songs.

Christopher set out to design and build a unique sounding musical instrument that will complement his own singing voice. He undertook this effort as a two-term design project, supervised by Oscar Nespoli at the University of Waterloo.

Nuvation Research Corporation (Nuvation) is an Engineering Design Services firm specializing in the design of a wide range of electronic and embedded systems for telecommunications, automotive, and consumer electronics applications, among others. In 2012, a client requested that the company develop a surge stopper circuit for an automotive application. Modern automotive circuits are complex and powered by the vehicle’s 12V battery, as shown in Figure 1. However, the battery also supports high power elements, including the starter motor, lights, and windshield wipers, producing significant transients, some of which may be large enough to permanently damage logic-level integrated circuits (ICs). Hence, effective circuit protection is necessary to minimize the effects of these high power, high voltage transients. In this particular case, Nuvation’s client required a surge stopper circuit design that can effectively protect logic level ICs and switch power from a primary battery to an auxiliary voltage source for specific vehicle requirements.

Eric Yam, a 2nd year Mechatronics Engineering co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked to design an automotive surge stopper circuit to meet the client’s requirements.

The Pontiac Solstice is a two-seater sports car introduced by General motors in 2006. General Motors of Canada supplied a pre-production model to several Canadian Universities for educational and research purposes. The unit delivered to the University of Waterloo has been used for a number of activities, including several benchmarking exercises. Benchmarking is the process of examining an existing product to better understand its design, operation, manufacturing and serviceability. In this case, the front deck lid (or hood, or bonnet) hinge will be examined. The front deck lid provides access to the automobile engine for inspection and maintenance. The Pontiac Solstice engine deck lid is shown in an open position in Figure 1.  Many design requirements were considered when the deck lid and hinge mechanism was designed, including the requirement to provide ready access to the engine, and to ensure that the implemented design was safe, durable and aesthetically pleasing.

The geometry and motion of this deck lid, and the forces acting on it will be examined to explore the design requirements used in its design, and to identify potential areas of improvement. For example, it is possible to replace the deck lids, currently made of steel, with carbon fiber product to reduce weight. This will require reconsideration of the opening mechanism.

In the event that a skier or a snowboarder injures themselves on a trail, ski patrollers are trained to load the injured person onto a ski patrol toboggan to carry the person safely down the hill where medical treatment can be administered. Adam, Keegan, Jacob, Nick and Brittany, members of a capstone design team at University of Waterloo, went skiing on their winter 2014 co-op term and witnessed this rescue process in action. They watched a ski patroller transporting a rescue toboggan up the chairlift and down the hill to an injured person, and observed that the toboggan was bulky and difficult to maneuver. The challenges faced by the ski patroller in operating the rescue toboggan motivated the design team to investigate an alternative method of transporting an injured person down a ski hill. This problem became more significant after a discussion with Ski Patrol at Chicopee Ski Hill, Ontario, who noted concerns with the amount of effort required to control the descent of the toboggan while transporting an injured person, the lack of a fail-safe mechanism to prevent unintended motion, as well as the overall bulkiness of the device.

Flextronics Automotive, formerly Invotronics Inc., develops and manufactures a myriad of electronics for vehicles, including automobiles, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. The company, located in Scarborough, Ontario, consists of several different departments including the Product Engineering Division, currently headed by Simon Chamuczynski, which is responsible for designing new products to customers’ specifications. One of the company products, developed by the Product Engineering Division, is a vehicle display, known as a cluster. The latest cluster design is to be used in snowmobiles and contains a color Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). To avoid overheating when exposed to direct sunlight, the cluster contains a passive heat sink, shown in Figure 1, to maximize heat dissipation from the LCD. As part of the design process, the thermal behaviour of the device was characterized under various operating conditions.

Carol Huang, a co-op student from the University of Waterloo, worked with Flextronics to analyze the thermal characteristics of the heat sink and LCD assembly using analytical methods, Finite Element simulations and testing to verify the thermal performance.

The University of Waterloo Formula Motorsports (UWFM) team competes annually in the Society of Automotive Engineer’s Formula SAE Michigan competition. The competition goal is to design and build a single-seat open-wheeled race car to compete against other university students in a series of static and dynamic events which are arranged to test a broad range of engineering skills and vehicle performance. In 2013, the UWFM team aimed to increase its vehicle performance and competitiveness by adding an aerodynamic wing package in the car. Aerodynamic wings on race cars create down force and increased normal force on the tires so that the tires produce a greater lateral force, allowing the vehicle to corner at higher speeds and lateral accelerations. Figure 1 shows the 2012 Monash Motorsport vehicle with a well-developed aerodynamic wing package.

The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) is a student team that has been participating in Advanced Vehicle Technical Competitions (AVTC) since 1996. As a part of the current competition (EcoCAR 2), UWAFT is required to modify a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu to improve fuel economy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, without compromising safety and consumer acceptability of the stock vehicle. During the first year of the competition, UWAFT selected the power train architecture and completed preliminary designs to integrate the architecture into the stock vehicle. The architecture UWAFT selected is an all-wheel drive series plug in hybrid electric vehicle that uses ethanol for range extension.

This architecture requires a large battery pack with a plug-in charger; an ethanol compatible engine coupled to a generator, along with a fuel tank and exhaust system to recharge the battery; and two electric motors coupled to transmissions to drive all 4 wheels. Due to volumetric constraints it was decided to mount most of these additional components such as the dc/dc converter in the trunk, near the wheel wells. However, the trunk hinges of the stock vehicle are rather large and restrict the space available to mount these components along the rear wheel wells. As a result, the team needed to redesign the trunk hinge system to maximize the space available to mount these additional components. Faris Zahid a 4th year Mechanical engineering student, took on the task of redesigning the hinge as his 4th year design project, supervised by Professor Roydon Fraser.

The University of Waterloo Mars Rover Team consists of a group of voluntary undergraduate and graduate students who enjoy working in the field of robotics and space exploration. The team designs different robots for a variety of competitions across North America [1]. The team participates in the University Rover Challenge (URC) and NASA Sample Return Rover Challenge (NSRRC) held every year in Hanksvile, Utaha. The goal is to create a wirelessly controlled rover with the capability of fine object manipulation which can be operated on Mars-like terrains. Figure 1 shows Queen's University Engineering team mars rover design [2]. The arm manipulator mounted on the rover should perform a variety of different tasks and successfully complete different missions including a sample return task and equipment service tasks.

Hence, the UW Mars Rover Team needed to design a tele-operated robot with a precise robotic arm manipulator to perform various tasks based on precision in a Martian environment. The proposed robotic manipulator combines mechanical moving parts with motors and software to control the motors. This design requires a thorough kinematics analysis of the robotic arm.

Sirui Song, a fourth year Mechatronics engineering student, was tasked to design a low-cost (under $2500), accurate and mobile manipulator capable of object detection and delicate manipulation that can easily mount on an autonomous mobile robot. URC guidelines from 2014 were used as constraints and Sirui worked on this design challenge with the support of other members in the Mar Rover Team.

Virtual Button® technology has been developed by VBT Innovations Inc. a high tech company located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The company, established in 2008, developed a touch control interface called Virtual Buttons®. Virtual Buttons® are meant to augment or replace mechanical buttons and capacitive touch screens on consumer electronics devices such as smart phones. This technology enables buttons to be placed on flat and curved surfaces, edges, and locations where a mechanical button is not feasible. One of the enabling technologies of this system is the Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) accelerometer. MEMS accelerometers are used to measure the motion of a mechanical element or system. This accelerometer must be designed to meet the special requirements of the Virtual Button® technology.

Mountain biking has become increasingly popular over the past three decades. To date, this extreme sport has brought athletes to compete on Mount Everest and tackle demanding races through the Rockies. Mountain bikers ride over rough terrain; therefore, the user needs proper equipment to ride successfully and remain safe. One focus is the position of the seat. The rider benefits from a higher seat when ascending in order to achieve maximum power but needs a lower seat when descending to increase maneuverability.
Currently, most mountain bikes are equipped with manual seat adjustment systems in the form of a quick-release seat collar. The seat collar requires the user to dismount their bicycle to make a height adjustment, which is a tedious task on varying terrain. Mountain bikes with remotely adjustable seat posts, which do not require the user to dismount, are already available and are typically comprised of a hydraulic system, a pneumatic system or a spring-pin system. However, all three designs have several limitations. For example, the user needs to place a downwards force on the seat to adjust the height, which may result in a loss of a balance and increased safety risk. There is a need in today’s competitive mountain bike industry for an ergonomically-designed remotely adjustable seat post.

Aquashine carwash, a family-run business centered in Wyoming, Ontario is suffering the problems caused by “Weeping water” during winter times. One property of water is that it is one of the few known substances that expand when it freezes. When housed in any form of container, this expansion can generate enough force to break the container. In the case of hoses, the end result is a burst hose that is incapable of doing its duty. This is of great concern in the carwash industry. In self-serve carwashes, hoses extend from the ceiling to wands that customers use to wash their vehicles. These sections of hose are not in a heated environment and are prone to freezing during cold month, causing large amounts of damage and making the bay inoperable. To resolve this, carwashes continuously drain water through the hose when it is cold in a process called weeping. Just, like it is harder to freeze a flowing river, the moving water in the hose is harder to freeze. However, this method of freeze protection has a number of major problems.

A 1977 study at Indiana University estimated that 260,000 automobile crashes occurred each year in the United States because of underinflated tires. In November 2000, the US Congress enacted the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation Act (TREAD), shortly following more than 250 fatalities linked to the under inflation of Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. According to TREAD, all new passenger vehicles and light trucks produced in North America after September 2007 are required to have Tire Pressure Sensors (TPS).

A group of five nanotechnology students (‘the clients’) have developed a portable self-cleaning water filtration device for their 4th year design project. The clients drafted a schematic for the creation of this device as shown in Figure 1. Due to the perceived novelty and broad range of potential applications of this technology, the group discussed carrying this idea beyond a 4th year project to bring their innovation from its current ‘idea’ stage through to commercialization. However, with a tight focus on the design aspects of their task, but little business knowledge, the nanotech group needed help to commercialize their product.

B&B Business Beginnings, a team of UW Environment and Business students, was approached to round out the business requirements and provide business consulting services. 

Dynaplas Ltd, located in Scarborough, Ontario, is a plastics injection moulding company, which produces automotive components using engineered resins. The Engineering Department designs and builds injection moulds and tools for both internal use and commercial distribution. Dynaplas automotive products include pulleys, connectors, seals, fuel systems, brake parts, and insert bearings. Recently, as part of a continuous improvement effort, Dynaplas examined trends in its customer orders over the last couple of years. They found that, on some occasions, parts were shipped out late and/or in poor condition, resulting in unnecessary and unforeseen costs. Therefore, the Engineering Department launched a project to develop an optimal inventory level prediction model, to ensure that every Dynaplas product is available in sufficient stock to guarantee customers receive quality parts, on time. To begin, all factors involved in developing the prediction model and user interface had to be identified.

Megan Maguire, a University of Waterloo co-op student, was asked to develop an optimal inventory level prediction model. Her specific tasks include examining the steps required to develop a mathematical model and building a user interface to help implement the application.

A national Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company supplies snack foods to consumers all over Canada. With sales heavily based on consumer purchasing behaviour, being able to accurately forecast sales is a large part of their continued success. According to their protocol on product replacement, any product that sits on shelf for more than seven days is considered to be spoiled and must be discarded. If the forecasted sales are greater than the actual sales, then the extra product will be discarded. If a forecast is much lower than the actual sales, there is wasted money and resources from the items produced that weren’t sold. The Supply Chain and Operations teams send sales forecasts to the Canadian plants to predict the demand for the various products for each week. The in-house built forecasting model currently being used requires an intuitive estimate of the sales for that week based on experience from the previous three to four years. The CPG has been using this particular inventory model for many years and was open to any ideas for improvement. Jesse Singh, a third year Management Engineering co-op student from University of Waterloo, was asked to compare various types of forecasting models to the current model and determine if there was an alternative model that could be used to increase demand forecast accuracy.

Non-renewable energy such as nuclear and coal has led to political, environmental and economic issues concerning its continued usage and development. By definition, non-renewable resources will only steadily satisfy world energy needs for a limited time period before their scarcity necessitates alternative sources. There are efforts to move away from non-renewables; however, regions that do not have renewable resources are currently at a disadvantage. Creating incentives to develop renewable energy sources can support developing areas that still rely heavily on unsustainable energy. In March 2009, the Government of Ontario announced a Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program to encourage renewable energy development in the province. The model in the figure demonstrates the basic concept behind the FIT system. Exports from renewable energy sources are fed into the grid - Ontario’s energy supply. Whoever generates this energy is compensated by the FIT system because it is initially more expensive to generate renewable energy. Compensation is above retail and, as the percentage of adopters increases overtime, the FIT is reduced to the retail rate.

SteriPro Canada LP (SteriPro), located in Mississauga, Ontario, is the first and only company of its kind in Canada to offer hospitals an outsourcing alternative for the reprocessing and sterilization of reusable surgical instruments and medical devices. SteriPro offers services that encompass the entire supply chain of surgical instrument reprocessing, including the collection of soiled instruments from hospitals, cleaning, disinfection, sterilization, and delivery back to the hospital. The company has established a new facility in Mississauga in close proximity to the hospitals it will service. An overview of the processing functions is provided in Figure 1. Currently, (as of early 2012) three hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have agreed to outsource surgical instruments reprocessing services to SteriPro. While SteriPro’s facility can accommodate these hospitals, the company wanted to ensure that its processes, facilities and services to its customers were optimized. 

SteriPro must decide whether there is a need for facility and/or process improvements to best meet its goals. In anticipation of the quickly approaching ‘go-live’ date, SteriPro had to ensure they have could achieve optimal reprocessing volumes. A group of three University of Waterloo Management Engineering students were asked to develop a process to select an appropriate operations concept to address this need that is consistent with the design constraints and specifications given by SteriPro and will meet relevant health and safety regulations and standards.

Waterloo Cases in Design Engineering (WCDE) group, at the University of Waterloo (UW), was established to generate engineering case studies to bridge the gap between theory and practice through the engineering case method. WCDE develops engineering cases primarily derived from experiences described in co-op work term reports generated by UW students, offering a unique opportunity to pervasively implement a broad range of inherently motivating case material throughout the curriculum. For the past several years, WCDE has been steadfast in developing and delivery of engineering case studies. Example of case implementation road map is illustrated in Figure 1. However, the difficulty of managing a large collection of written documents stems mainly from the inability to conveniently catalogue and retrieve case study resources. In order to support WCDE program activities, which includes work report harvesting, case development and case implementation, a well-designed WCDE Data Base Management System (DBMS) is crucial.

Dr. Aicheng Chen is an Associate Professor at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, conducting research in Electrochemistry, Bioelectrochemistry, Green Chemistry, Materials Science and Nanotechnology. Dr. Chen and his research team have been exploring the preparation methods and properties of nanostructures for green chemistry applications for many years. An example of these nanostructures is tin dioxide (SnO2) dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). These cells are a cheaper alternative to more traditional solar cells which use silicon (Si) or titanium dioxide (TiO2) to harvest solar energy.  For economically feasible research, it is desirable to know the cheapest method of preparing SnO2 cells.

Sean O’Neill, a University of Waterloo co-op student, was asked by Dr. Chen to investigate three different methods of SnO2 film preparation and recommend the best method. The methods to be reviewed were chemical vapour deposition, the solution based method and electrochemical deposition.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is a government organization committed to promoting the development and application of space knowledge for the social and economic benefit of Canadians and humanity. The Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) team within the CSA is responsible for ensuring clear and uninterrupted communication between satellites, both Canadian and European, and ground stations. The team also maintains and upgrades the communication equipment and software at Canadian ground stations. Until recently, TT&C used a commercially written Simplified General Perturbations Satellite Orbit Model 4 (SGP4) propagator to predict the position of satellites, as shown in Figure 1. This aspect of tracking allows for the proper orientation of the communications antenna, known as the antenna pointing angle. However, the SGP4 propagator program had several shortcomings in addition to being out of date with current satellite tracking software requirements.

Ilia B. Baranov, a University of Waterloo co-op student, was hired to develop an updated in-house version of the propagator software, based on existing source code.

Manulife Financial (Manulife) is a leading financial services corporation operating in 22 countries and offering services to millions of people. It operates as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and as John Hancock in the Unites States. The company offers a variety of financial products including wealth management services, insurance, and group benefits. The company has approximately $500 billion in assets. As part of the “Less Paper Action” Manulife has attempted to eliminate paper forms for products where legislation permits; thus, the number of web applications that Manulife develops is growing rapidly to satisfy this goal. The Individual Wealth Management (IWM) eServices team is responsible for developing and consulting for all web applications created within the Canadian Division of Manulife starting in July 2010. The team has decided to complete this work by further developing and refining the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) which the team has been using. The team considered purchasing an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) from a third party. As part of this process, the current architecture, the needs of the company, and the benefits and deficiencies of an ESB, needed to be analyzed.

Timothy Worboys, a co-op student from the University of Waterloo, was asked to investigate the ESB effect on enterprise performance. 

The Digital Rapids delivers software and hardware solutions in response to the problem of effective multimedia utilization. They provide content transformation in order to reach wider audiences by way of encoding and transcoding video formats, broadcasting live streams, and allowing consumers to create dynamic workflow graphs using products such as the Kayak Workflow Platform. The Kayak Workflow Platform enables systems integrators and software developers to design, deploy, and manage customized workflows in a multi-screen media landscape. The company consists of a number of departments, including the Kayak component team, the focus of which is implementation, maintenance, and modification of modules for the Kayak Workflow Designer. The programming language underlying the implementation of any software expresses itself in terms of overall software operation where performance, flexibility and functionality are concerned.

The Kayak component team develops their software with the C++ and Java languages and this commitment warrants the consideration of leveraging the full potential of available tools if the option has not yet been exhausted. Duncan Cheuk Kan Ma, a co-op student from the University of Waterloo, investigated what properties of a programming language are considered for its use in a software environment dealing primarily with video and audio processing.

Sensory Technologies, headquartered in London, Ontario, provides medical technology products and services to both the private and public sectors. They identified an opportunity to focus on a software product that kept chronically ill patients out of hospitals. There is a concern that hospitals will not have sufficient resources to properly take care of the increased number of end-of-life ‘baby boomer’ patients. This will require an improvement to the health care system [1]. Sensory Technologies wanted to take this opportunity to develop a medical software system called eShift which allows Registered Nurses (RNs) and Personal Support Workers (PSWs) to communicate and collaborate in order to provide service to a larger number of home-care patients, Figure 1. This software system would better allocate health care resources and reduce the need for end-of-life patients to stay in hospitals.

In June 2003, the Waterloo Regional Council unanimously adopted the Regional Growth Management Strategy (RGMS), a long-term strategic plan for accommodating future residential and employment growth. The RGMS concluded that rapid transit was a necessity, as “continuing with road expansion alone was not a realistic or affordable option to manage growth” (see Figure 1). Light Rail Transit (LRT), as shown in Figure 2, was approved as the preferred solution by the Waterloo Regional Council in 2009. Public opinions surrounding implementation of the new transit system were collected from September 2010 until May 2011 and it was found that the main concerns included cost implications, health and environmental impacts, and the impact on the community. As a resident engineer of the Waterloo Region, you must decide whether you do or do not support the preferred LRT option using appropriate financial analysis to help evaluate the best option.

Engineering Cases is a group within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo that produces engineering design case studies for use throughout the engineering curriculum. New offices have been created for the group in the Student Design Centre (SDC) of the recently built Engineering 5 (E5) building, shown in Figure 1. Figure 2 illustrates the layout of the WCDE suite of offices in the south east corner of the mezzanine of the SDC. The layout emphasizes the importance of design within the faculty. As is common in most large projects, it was not possible to obtain feedback on all the implementation details. The WCDE group was only able to view the nearly completed offices in early May, just two months prior to the scheduled move-in date in July. While the new offices would clearly provide the space and close proximity the team needs, there was an immediate concern regarding the practicality of the door locking arrangements.