Sustainable Development Technology Canada Workshop

Sustainbale Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is Canada’s premier funding agency for the development of clean technologies.​ Created 15 years ago, it is unique in the world in its focus on growing national environmental and economic prosperity.​ More than just a funding agency, SDTC is a catalyst for the clean tech ecosystem, building relationships with the companies it invests in, the financial community, other public funders and customers.​

The purpose of this workshop was to bring economically feasible and financially viable clean energy technologies to the market. The academic researchers and start-up ventures presented their ideas, proof of concepts, and technology development proposals with the goal to secure funding for their projects. This event provided an opportunity to the industry leaders and academic researchers to collaborate with each other in order to build tactics for market penetration strategy for their respective developments.

Host

Mike Szarka has held the position of Director of Research Partnerships at the University of Waterloo since 2015. Mike has twenty years of experience in university-industry partnerships and intellectual property management, including prior positions with OCE, the University of Toronto, UOIT, and GreenCentre Canada. Mike completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in chemistry at U of Waterloo, and his PhD in physical chemistry at the University of Toronto. Mike has enjoyed returning to Waterloo after many years away, and looks forward to continuing the growth of Waterloo’s research partnerships activity, which currently accounts for about $70 million of Waterloo’s total of $180 million in annual research activity.

Moderator

Armughan is responsible for the successful execution of multiple R&D projects initiated by WISE in collaboration with different universities, research institutes, government agencies, and industry partners. He manages the strategic initiatives of WISE in enhancing its project portfolio, investment capital, and I.P capacity in the renewable energy sector leading to research commercialization, prototype development, and deployment of pilot projects on a nationwide scale.

Speakers

Mike Voll has a deep passion for innovation and creative application of engineering principles.  From his early career in machine automation and control systems to his recent entrenchment in the Ontario power market with many renewable energy and smart grid projects, Mike’s strength has been pulling resource teams together to solve new and  evolving technology challenges through focused recruitment, staff resource development, cross-discipline collaboration and fiscally responsible project management principles.  With over 30 years of professional experience, Mike’s recent power projects include program and team management roles for clients such as Samsung Renewable Energy, Algonquin Power, Northland Power, Guelph Hydro, Toronto Hydro, Hydro One and Penn Energy Renewables.  With the emerging rehabilitation of Ontario’s energy market, Mike will be working hard to help shape the face of global energy delivery.

Seyed Bijan Mahbaz graduated with a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Waterloo. He received his Master degree from University of Tehran, and worked there as a research assistant for two years. During his 9 years of experience in oil and gas industry in Iran, he started a successful tech-based company (Petro Gostar Permayon) which is now in it's 8th year of business. His PhD project outcome is a unique methodology for inspection of reinforced concrete structures. Condition assessment of bridges and parking structures is the main application of his developed technology. The US patent for his developed scanning device is filed now. He started his tech-based start-up (InspecTerra Inc.) recently which provides inspection service results to the bridges and parking structures owners. His side work research is in Nano-technology area, which he is working with his ex-supervisor to develop a Nano Geomechanic methodology for fracture propagation modelling in hard rocks.

Hamed Mohammadifardi is a PhD student within the Department of Civil and Environment Engineering (CEE) at the University of Waterloo. His doctoral study is concerned with the sustainability assessment of Urban Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Systems, with emphasizes on their financial and environmental performances. He received his Water Engineering degree from University of Tabriz in Iran, his first M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering with a focus on Waste management and Resource recovery from Borås University in Sweden, and his second interdisciplinary M.Sc. in Water System Technology from University of KTH, Stockholm. Following his career, he began a research assistantship with Professor Mark Knight and Professor Andre Unger in CEE where he is working on System Dynamic modelling of water and wastewater treatment plants. In his research, socio-economic feedbacks from applying different asset management strategies and their related environmental footprints are analyzed for the whole life cycle of urban water and wastewater physical infrastructure systems. Hamed can be contacted at h29moham@uwaterloo.ca.

Joseph brings aboard 15 years of engineering, project management, and operations experience in the fields of manufacturing and industrial automation. He has applied his expertise in various industries including automotive, recycling, sustainable energy management, healthcare, food and beverage, and consumer goods. Joseph became aware of the importance of economical and sustainable fast EV charging during his search for a new EV for his family. Combined with his interest in sustainable energy management, he realized the long term implication these systems would have on the environment, the grid, and the EV industry as a whole. From there, he has endeavored to bring a solution to market that would catalyze the EV market while ensuring long term sustainability. He holds a MASc. from the University of Waterloo, is a registered P.Eng and is PMP certified.

In 2013, Ahsan was commuting over 200km a day and was desperate for an alternative that would be a little easier on his bank account. After realizing the inconvenience and lack of availability for charging, he was forced to abandon his ideal solution; Purchasing an EV. He wasn’t ready to give up though and started Electrefy after realizing that an opportunity existed to fill the gap in Electric Vehicle infrastructure. He brings to bear his hands-on R&D experience from Rockwell Automation, Siemens and Honeywell Aerospace. Primarily, he is responsible for overall strategic planning, funding and investor management, procurement and logistics, vendor management, as well as power electronics design. Ahsan has 4 years working experience in industrial and aerospace power electronics and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Ryerson University.

Muaaz Masood is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Masood Energy Corporation. He is an enthusiastic entrepreneur from University of Waterloo who has strong expertise in energy storage technologies that are cost effective and efficient. Currently, he is working on repurposing used electric vehicle batteries for grid level storage and assessing the full lifecycle economics for its wide-spread adoption in the Canadian markets. He is also an undergraduate student completing his degree in economics from the Faculty of Arts at University of Waterloo. Muaaz and his team are actively involved with ‘Velocity’ which is a leading entrepreneurship program at Waterloo and the largest free startup incubator in the world.

Dr. Hussain recently joined the Wastewater biotechnology lab at the University of Waterloo (2016). Prior, he was a researcher at the Environmental Bioengineering Group at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Montreal, Quebec. He obtained his B.Tech in Bioengineering (2007) from ICFAI University, India. He pursued his M.Sc. (2009) and Ph.D. (2013) in Bioresource Engineering from McGill University, Canada.  

His research interests lay at the interface of microbiology and engineering, and are multidisciplinary with expertise in biocatalysis, electrochemical and biochemical engineering to wastewater treatment, bioenergy and bioremediation.

Jennifer Miller brings over 20 years of strategic marketing and communications experience specializing in operational effectiveness and efficiencies.  As Chairman of Mag-Tech Renewable Energies Inc. and the Director of Marketing and Communications, Jennifer has been part of the Mag-Tech team for the past two years establishing the infrastructure for growth.  Jennifer is also Managing Partner at J & J Communication and her portfolio of clients covers a broad spectrum of business sectors including an extensive network in the construction and related industries.

Dr. Bedi is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he leads the 5-Axis Surface Machining Lab and is the Director of Mechatronics Engineering. Sanjeev has previously explored different models of Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries to enhance their performance and life span, and optimize cost to make it more affordable for end users. His current project objective is to create a solar collector at the community scale (~500,000 people) for district space heating.

Zac Young is Co-Founder at H2nanO, graduate from the University of Waterloo’s NanotechnologyEngineering program, and Loran Scholar. Prior to H2nanO, he worked withlocal start-ups Neverfrost and Nicoya Lifesciences, and was a Junior Fellowwith Engineers Without Borders Canada. H2nanO is creating solutionsto the world’s toughest water treatment challenges using the power of nanotechnology.Their first technology is a chemical-free, light activated catalyst forsunlight and UV treatment of persistent organic contaminants. This technologywill reduce costs, carbon foot print, and secondary wastes from conventionaloxidative processes. A major application includes treating process water in theAlbertan Oil Sands, where H2nanO’s technology has proven 100% solar, off-gridtreatment for passive remediation in hours of sun exposure. Through suchprojects, H2nanO is driving green, low-carbon solutions for Canadianindustry.