motor mania - The Schulich School of Engineering - University of ...

spRing 2013 

schulich 

E N G I N E E R 

motor 

mania 

AMA Active Traffic and 

Demand Management 

Laboratory looks 

for solutions to road 

congestion 

stem Cell ReseARCh 

Paving the way for 

effective joint repair 

RAJ RAngAyyAn 

Rhythm of success 

RomAn bAths 

Studying the past with 

an eye on the future

Schulich Engineer 

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be obtained by writing to the address below. 

Reproduction for other purposes should 

acknowledge the source. 

CONTENTS 

Spring 2013 

Schulich School of 

Engineering graduates are 

not just ready to begin. 

They’re ready to contribute. 

They already understand 

life beyond the classroom 

and they have the skills 

to help any organization 

succeed. 

Our Graduates Hit 

The Ground Running 

Global collaboration 

For Schulich students, the world of engineering 

has no borders. We offer opportunities to gain 

international experience, including the Shantou 

Global Leadership and Innovation Program. 

Every year, a group of students studies at 

China’s Shantou University and works closely 

with Chinese counterparts on design projects. 

Hands-on leadership 

To ensure our graduates become highperforming 

leaders in their fields, we offer the 

Maier Leadership Program. The first of its kind 

at a Canadian engineering school, the program 

helps students build skills in leadership, 

communication, project management and 

collaboration. 

Multi-disciplinary teamwork 

Schulich students don’t see boundaries; they 

see opportunities. They work side-by-side 

with business students, kinesiology students, 

education students and more. Projects range 

from designing and racing solar cars, or building 

solar-powered houses, and much more. 

Technical knowledge 

When you put a Schulich student’s skills 

to the test, the results are impressive. At 

competitions across Canada and around the 

world – including the Canadian Engineering 

Competition, the World Solar Challenge and the 

U.S. Solar Decathlon Competition – Schulich 

entrants consistently excel. 

Industry demand 

Every year, more than 300 companies in 

Canada and around the world recognize the 

potential of Schulich School of Engineering 

students by offering them intern positions. As 

many as 60 percent of the interns are offered 

permanent jobs with those companies upon 

graduation. Why Because when you give our 

grads the opportunity, they’ll hit the ground 

running. 

DEAN 

Guy Gendron 

EDITORIAL TEAM 

Anju Visen-Singh 

Director, Marketing and Communications 

Jennifer Sowa 

Managing Editor 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Jennifer Allford 

Jane Chamberlin 

Jessica Soodeen 

Jennifer Sowa 

Sara Tehranian 

Adam Thomas 

Judy Zhu 

PHOTOGRAPHY 

Riley Brandt 

Dave Brown 

Brian Moerke 

Don Molyneaux 

Brad Watson 

DESIGN 

Imagine Creative 

CONTACT INFORMATION 

Jennifer Sowa, Managing Editor 

Schulich Engineer 

Dean’s Office, EN C202 

Schulich School of Engineering 

2500 University Drive NW 

Calgary, Alberta 

T2N 1N4 

magazine@schulich.ucalgary.ca 

schulich.ucalgary.ca 

4 

14 

20 

3 Dean’s Message 

By Guy Gendron 

4 Breaking New Ground 

Stem cells and the future 

of joint repair 

By Jane Chamberlin 

10 Teaching and 

Research Excellence 

Raj Rangayyan’s biomedical 

breakthroughs 

By Sara Tehranian 

14 Partners In Research 

Improving traffic flow the 

high-tech way 

By Jennifer Allford 

20 Graduate Research 

Solving mysteries of the 

ancient Roman baths 

By Jane Chamberlin 

26 Alumni Profile 

Around the world with a 

passion for motorsports 

By Jessica Soodeen 

30 Life at Schulich 

38 Schulich News 

42 Department News 

45 Around Campus 

48 Extended Family 

48 Alumni Events 

FSC placement holder 

For internship or recruitment inquiries, go to schulich.ucalgary.ca/internship/ 

02 | SPRING 2013 • SCHULICH ENGINEER 

SCHULICH ENGINEER • SPRING 2013 | 1

DEAN’S MESSAGE 

Do you know an 

outstanding engineer 

who displays 

leadership, vision 

and generosity 

Nominate him or her for the Canadian Engineering Leader Award 

Every year, the Schulich School of Engineering recognizes 

an engineer who has achieved professional excellence while 

giving back to the community and serving as an inspirational 

role model to future engineers. 

Send your nominations to: 

Dean, Schulich School of Engineering 

EN C202, University of Calgary 


Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4 

Previous Winners 

2012 - Patrick Daniel 

2011 - Frank Meyer 

2010 - Frank King 

2009 - Don Taylor 

2008 - Gwyn Morgan 

2007 - Barry Lester 

2006 - Charles Fischer 

2005 - Kathleen E. Sendall 

2004 - Arthur Dumont 

2003 - Gerry Maier 

Photo by Dave Brown 

This has been an eventful first 

half of the year for us at the 

Schulich School of Engineering. 

We began executing our tactical plan for 2013 and are already 

making progress on this front with several of the tactics now 

complete. We also started work on our five-year strategic plan which 

will be finalized this Fall and set the direction for the school for 

the next few years to come. The University of Calgary launched the 

international strategy in this time period as well, a strategy that will 

guide what we do at the school to attract international students and 

give our students international exposure and global understanding. 

As we take these steps towards making our school an even 

better place to do research, study and work, we continue to make 

progress in many areas. Our chemical engineering program moved 

up from 151-200 to 101-150 ranks in the reputable 2013 QS World 

University Rankings by Subject. The percentage of applications 

to our undergraduate programs went up 23 percent over the past 

year, clearly indicating the growing preference for, and a better 

understanding of, the quality education we provide at the school, 

especially our emphasis on developing skills such as communication 

and leadership that equip our students for success in the workplace. 

This issue of Schulich Engineer showcases some of the great 

work that is going on at the school, as well as some outstanding 

individuals among our faculty, alumni and student groups. These 

stories demonstrate how engineering and engineers can make a 

meaningful difference in our world, a quality that truly symbolizes 

a Schulich Engineer. 

Sincerely, 

Guy Gendron, PhD, PEng 



BREAKING NEw GROUND 

By JANE CHAMBERLIN 

Photos by Brian Moerke 

educating stem cells 

…in the fine art of joint repair 

Growing adult stem cells for cartilage repair 

is a highly complex process – so complex, 

in fact, that it’s difficult to grasp its myriad 

interdependent factors. But it helps if you 

can picture two things: pies and parenting. 

GRANTED, THE CONNECTION 

is not immediately obvious. But isn’t 

catering really about reproducible 

systems And isn’t parenting about 

introducing environmental cues 

The answer is yes, according 

to dr. Arindom Sen, an associate 

professor in the Schulich School’s 

department of Chemical and 

Petroleum Engineering, and a member 

of the McCaig Institute for Bone and 

Joint Health. Sen is leading a team of 

researchers whose long-term goal is to 

grow adult human stem cells that can 

repair cartilage damage in joints. 

The load-bearing cartilage that 

lines the ends of bones in articulating 

joints, like the knee and hip, is a 

material the body can’t spontaneously 

regenerate. Once damaged, it can 

progressively degrade, leading to 

osteoarthritis – a degenerative, 

incurable disease that negatively 

affects quality of life for a majority of 

Canadians by the age of 70, according 

to Health Canada. 

From a high-level view, the 

internal logic of the idea proposed 

by Sen and his team is deceptively 

simple. Take specific stem cells from 

a patient, grow them in a vessel, give 

them a nudge towards becoming 

cells that produce cartilage and then 

put them into a joint where they 

can continue to mature and repair 

damage. After all, identity is such 

Madiha Khurshid, chemical 

engineering master’s student, 

takes stem cell samples from 

a bioreactor in the sterile 

environment of a bio-safety 

cabinet. 



BREAKING NEw GROUND 

By maintaining these ideal conditions, we can take 

a small number of stem cells isolated from a patient, 

and efficiently turn them into the large number of 

cells needed for clinical applications. 

— ARINDOM SEN 

X-ray of a knee joint. 

Image courtesy Brian Moerke 

a fluid state for stem cells. They’re 

masters of adaption. What better way 

to repair joints 

To tackle that challenge, Sen 

assembled a team of experts spanning 

four disciplines. Three of the 

researchers are from the University 

of Calgary: project co-leads neil 

duncan from the department of Civil 

Engineering and david Hart from the 

department of Surgery, and a member 

of the McCaig Institute for Bone & 

Joint Health; and John Matyas from 

Veterinary Medicine. Completing the 

team is Adetola Adesida, Assistant 

Professor in the University of Alberta’s 

Orthopaedic Surgery and Surgical 

Research division. 

This multidisciplinary team 

was recently awarded funding from 

Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, 

through its Collaborative Research 

and Innovation Opportunities Projects 

program. Over the three-year term 

of the project, Sen and his colleagues 

will build on their existing research 

involving a specific type of stem cell 

called a synovial fluid stem cell, which 

can normally be found within the 

fluids that bathe joints. Says david 

Hart, an expert in the molecular 

and cellular biology of stem cells, 

“We have found that synovial fluid 

stem cells are uniquely primed or 

committed to forming cartilage versus 

other types of adult stem cells in the 

body. They represent a unique and 

desirable cell type with which to start 

developing therapies to treat cartilage 

damage.” 

Reproducible systems: 

the pie analogy 

Because synovial fluid stem cells 

are so sparse, it’s not possible to 

simply isolate them in large enough 

numbers for use in potential new 

therapies. For these numbers to be 

clinically relevant, the team needs 

to find methods of safely turning a 

few stem cells into billions. Sen has 

already started to develop a bioreactorbased 

process in which this could 

be accomplished. But turning the 

development process into a largescale 

operation is a major challenge, 

according to Sen. “It’s like if I bake 

you a single pie and you say, ‘That 

was a great pie – could you make me 

10,000 more that are identical to it by 

tomorrow’ Whereas baking one pie 

may not be difficult, baking 10,000 

in a short time while maintaining the 

same quality is a difficult proposition.” 

For Sen and his team, growing 

small numbers of stem cells is a 

routine activity. But growing them 

in substantial quantities while 

maintaining their quality is a 

significant challenge. The key is to 

develop robust methods to generate 

Arin Sen 

examines 

stem cells 

under a 

microscope. 

stem cells in large vessels called 

bioreactors, instead of the small 

flasks that are traditionally used 

by researchers. The team will use 

computers to carefully control the 

environment inside these bioreactors, 

creating conditions that foster cell 

division. “By maintaining these ideal 

conditions,” says Sen, “we can take a 

small number of stem cells isolated 

from a patient and efficiently turn 

them into the large number of cells 

needed for clinical applications.” 

But there’s more to consider than 

quantity. Sen and his team are taking 

steps to ensure the stem cells’ quality 

isn’t negatively impacted during the 

production process. “They have to 

retain the features that make them 

clinically attractive,” Sen cautions. 

“Cells that don’t exhibit certain 

desired characteristics may actually 

cause more damage after being 

implanted. We have to be really 

careful.” 

That’s where the expertise of team 

members Hart and Adesida becomes 

crucial to the project’s success. They 

have extensive expertise in cell 

characterization and will ensure the 

cells being produced in bioreactors 

maintain all desired properties, so 

their full potential can be realized. 



Breaking new ground 

The research 

team 

Adult synovial 

fluid stem cells 

growing while 

attached to a 

surface. Image 

courtesy Madiha 

Khurshid 

Arin Sen has assembled a 

team of experts spanning four 

disciplines: 

University of Calgary 

Environmental cues: the 

parenting analogy 

The cells generated in bioreactors 

will be ready and willing to become 

cartilage, but they will still require a 

certain amount of training to properly 

carry out that task. 

Think of it as a kind of parenting. 

“It’s like sending a child to university,” 

says Sen. “You give them the tools 

and fundamental knowledge to 

survive in a workplace and you say, 

‘Now go,’ and hope that they thrive 

and succeed.” Sen’s team hopes the 

stem cells can survive and thrive 

inside actual joints after they’ve been 

carefully nurtured in the lab. 

Part of the “parenting” process 

involves preparing cells to respond to 

cues in the actual joint environment, 

so they can then mature and 

successfully repair damaged cartilage. 

So the team exposes stem cells 

to specific cues in the lab. In the 

presence of certain biochemical 

cues, synovial fluid stem cells can 

be induced to aggregate together to 

form a living construct that is sticky 

and has the consistency of putty. This 

viable putty is what Sen hopes to use 

for filling defects in cartilage. 

But exposure to biochemical 

cues is not enough to prepare the 

cells – they also need to be trained to 

survive in the dynamic environment 

of a joint. Exposing cells and tissues 

to mechanical cues is a procedure in 

which Neil Duncan specializes. He’s 

already shown that stem cells respond 

to mechanical stresses, so now it’s a 

matter of refining those stresses for 

these particular cells. 

For example, to develop stem cells 

that can eventually produce knee 

cartilage, they first need to be trained 

to be inside a knee. So you might 

put the cells inside an engineered 

chamber and repeatedly expose 

them to controlled pressures, just 

as cartilage in the knee experiences 

pressure when walking. The closer the 

Madiha Khurshid and Arin Sen. 

laboratory environment mimics a real 

knee the more likely the cells are to 

survive when placed in an actual knee 

joint, and to repair damaged knee 

cartilage. 

Once this living, putty-like 

material is prepared for use, an 

implantation study will be carried out 

to see how it functions in a cartilage 

defect site. This final stage of the 

project will be executed by John 

Matyas, an expert in animal models of 

joint injury and in developing healing 

processes for bone and joint defects. 

The success of this stem cell-based 

approach to cartilage repair will be 

evaluated using several approaches, 

including noninvasive imaging of the 

repair site. 

From generation to evaluation, 

the process of developing stem cells 

for cartilage repair is a demanding 

one. Stem cells are incredibly 

complicated and guiding them toward 

carrying out a particular task is 

not simple. And doing all that in a 

safe, reproducible way is even more 

challenging. But it’s a challenge Sen 

remains deeply passionate about. 

“Our research addresses an issue that 

remains unresolved,” he says. “If we 

are successful, it can really make a 

difference in the lives of people with 

these joint related problems.” 

This project has immense potential 

to make a difference. Sen hopes 

that within the next three years, 

the research conducted by his team 

will prove preparing adult stem cells 

and using them for cartilage repair 

is a viable concept. Then they can 

continue toward their long-term goal 

of delivering a clinically approved 

solution to treat cartilage damage 

– an outcome for which Dr. Sen 

could probably create an appropriate 

analogy. And that, surely, is a task he 

would tackle with great satisfaction. • 

Dr. Neil Duncan, Department of 

Civil Engineering, Schulich School of 

Engineering – Project co-lead 

Dr. David Hart, Department of 

Surgery, Faculty of Medicine – 

Project co-lead 

Dr. John Matyas, Faculty of 

Veterinary Medicine – Expert in 

animal models of joint injury and 

repair, contribution of stem cells 

to skeletal healing and functional 

imaging of connective tissues 

University of Alberta 

Dr. Adetola Adesida, Orthopaedic 

Surgery and Surgical Research 

division 



TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXCELLENCE 

By SARA TEHRANIAN 

After completing high school in India, Raj Rangayyan faced a 

tough choice between two careers: engineering or medicine 

At that point, Rangayyan chose engineering, primarily because 

of his father’s success as an industrialist and entrepreneur. 

But in later years, he went on to combine them when he 

joined the university of Manitoba in 1981 in a post-doctoral 

research position in the Faculty of Medicine and then secured 

a faculty position in biomedical engineering at the university 

of Calgary in 1984. Today, Rangayyan is making significant 

contributions in the field of biomedical engineering through his 

research in digital image processing techniques to diagnose a 

leading cause of childhood blindness and designing diagnosis 

methods for the early detection of breast cancer. 

Photo by Kshitij Vasudevan 

Raj Rangayyan 

Master of Many Crafts 

Raj Rangayyan playing the bamboo flute bansuri. 

RAJ RANGAYYAN HAS been 

chosen by the Institute of Electrical 

and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 

Canada for the Outstanding Engineer 

Award for 2013. Established in 1994, 

this award recognizes outstanding 

Canadian engineers for significant 

contributions to electrical and 

electronics engineering. The award 

was presented in May at the Canadian 

Conference on Electrical and 

Computer Engineering in Regina. 

Rangayyan is an accomplished 

biomedical researcher whose work 

has the potential to improve the lives 

of countless people who suffer from 

a range of diseases and disorders. He 

is a professor in the department of 

Electrical and Computer Engineering 

and an adjunct professor in the 

Faculty of Medicine’s department 

of Surgery and Radiology at the 

University of Calgary. 

In addition to his scientific papers, 

Rangayyan has written several books 

on the subjects of image processing 

and signal analysis and has received 

many accolades for his work. Among 

the most recent was a Publication 

Prize from the Institute of Cancer 

Research for a paper describing the 

development of a computer-aided 

diagnosis method to detect subtle 

signs of breast cancer over a year 

before the current clinical diagnosis 

methods. 

The path to biomedical 

engineering 

Growing up in India, Rangayyan 

developed an interest in math and 

science. While he gravitated towards 

engineering, he also had a keen 

interest in medicine. 

“In India, for various cultural 

and economical reasons, there is a 

lot of pressure on students to get 

into a few select areas, the top two 

being medicine and engineering. 

Almost every high school student 

faces this decision. My father was an 

industrialist and entrepreneur. So that 

pulled me more towards engineering.” 

Rangayyan received his Bachelor 

of Engineering in Electronics and 



TEACHING AND RESEARCH EXCELLENCE 

Communication in 1976 from the 

University of Mysore at the People’s 

Education Society College of 

Engineering in Mandya, Karnataka, 

India. during his undergraduate 

studies, he became interested in 

the biomedical applications of 

engineering. 

“I came across articles about 

biomedical engineering and I heard 

some lectures. I considered that 

to be an appealing way to apply 

engineering: to solve real-life health 

issues that affect ordinary people.” 

He received his Phd in electrical 

engineering from the Indian Institute 

of Science in Bangalore, Karnataka, 

India in 1980 and joined the 

University of Manitoba in 1981 in a 

post-doctoral research position in the 

Faculty of Medicine. 

By 1984, he was interested in 

a faculty position in biomedical 

engineering and joined the University 

of Calgary. He became a full 

professor in 1989 and has built up an 

impressive research program in the 

years since. Rangayyan is currently 

mentoring his students in the 

Biomedical Signal and Image Analysis 

Laboratory at the Schulich School of 

Engineering. 

“In biomedical engineering 

research, the key point is effective 

collaboration in multidisciplinary 

teams,” says Rangayyan as he explains 

various areas of his research. “My 

research is currently focused on two 

main areas: digital image processing 

techniques to diagnose a leading cause 

of childhood blindness and designing 

diagnostic methods for the early 

detection of breast cancer.” 

Rangayyan’s team has also worked 

on knee-joint sound signal analysis 

for noninvasive diagnosis of articular 

cartilage pathology and has developed 

image analysis techniques to improve 

the monitoring and treatment of 

neuroblastoma, a form of cancer 

affecting children. It originates in the 

developing nervous system and can 

cause tumours anywhere in the body. 

Cancer detection: earlier 

diagnosis may be possible with 

computer-aided system 

Raj Rangayyan, along with researchers 

Shantanu Banik and Leo desautels, 

developed a system that detects 

architectural distortion, which 

demonstrates specific patterns in 

the breast tissue that seem to be 

precursors to tumours and are often 

missed in routine screenings. In 

collaboration with the Alberta Breast 

Cancer Screening Program, they 

analyzed and detected these patterns 

in mammographic images taken from 

routine screenings of women who later 

developed breast cancer. 

This method may one day lead to 

earlier diagnosis of breast cancer and 

improve the survival rate. Before this 

technology can be used as a diagnostic 

method, more funding is needed for 

additional research. 

Improving the lives of children: 

using digital image processing 

to prevent blindness 

From computer programming and 

biomedical signal analysis courses for 

first- and fourth-year undergraduate 

students to graduate courses on image 

processing, Rangayyan has taught at 

all levels. 

“But the most enjoyable part of 

my job is working with my graduate 

students in the lab. My Phd student, 

Faraz Oloumi, is currently working on 

digital image processing techniques to 

improve the diagnosis of retinopathy 

of prematurity (ROP), the leading 

cause of potentially preventable 

childhood blindness.” 

In premature babies, normal 

retinal vessel development may be 

disrupted and abnormal vessels can 

grow. These fragile vessels can leak 

and cause bleeding in the eye. This 

can cause the retina to detach, leading 

to blindness. Premature infants 

are screened by taking an image of 

the retina to examine the retinal 

blood vessels. The ophthalmologist 

compares these images with gold 

standards. There is substantial 

variation among experts on the 

diagnosis of this condition because 

of the visual and qualitative nature 

of this method. In babies with ROP, 

retinal blood vessels are modified in 

terms of their width and shape. The 

Raj Rangayyan 

examines images of 

mammograms in the 

Biomedical Signal 

and Image Analysis 

Laboratory at the 



Photo by Riley Brandt 

major blood vessels coming out of 

the optic nerve head form a path that 

becomes narrower in ROP. 

“Together with dr. Anna Ells, 

pediatric ophthalmologist at the 

Alberta Children’s Hospital, we 

are characterizing these patterns 

to develop novel models that can 

facilitate quantitative analysis of the 

images and overcome limitations 

associated with subjective manual 

analysis.” 

Not all work and no play 

Rangayyan believes many things 

contribute to a fulfilling life. So it’s no 

surprise that biomedical engineering 

isn’t his only passion. 

“Music enhances the quality of 

life, it soothes the soul. during high 

school and undergraduate studies, I 

played music, sang and had a music 

group with my friends,” recalls 

Rangayyan. “I got into classical music 

of India later in graduate school and 

received training on the bamboo flute 

bansuri and the sitar. Here in Calgary, 

I play and collaborate with musicians 

at the department of Music and also 

musicians playing Indian classical 

music.” 

He has even released a range 

of Cds, some of which have been 

licensed to museums and yoga and 

meditation schools to facilitate 

contemplation, reflection and 

relaxation. 

Rangayyan is clearly a man who 

knows how to weave many aspects 

of his life together seamlessly: 

engineering and medicine, science and 

art, east and west. And he has taken 

this art to a new level. While many 

families struggle to find common 

ground when the children grow up, 

Rangayyan’s is glued together with 

their common interests in the arts and 

engineering. Rangayyan’s wife Mayura 

is an artist with a degree in home 

economics. She volunteers for many 

organizations including the Alberta 

Children's Hospital and the Canadian 

Cancer Society. Both their children 

are alumni of the Schulich School 

of Engineering. Vidya completed a 

joint degree in geomatics engineering 

and international relations. She was 

president of the student chapter 

of Engineers Without Borders and 

received the U of C President’s 

Internationalization Award in 2004. 

Their son Adarsh has a degree in 

mechanical engineering and plays a 

range of instruments as a heavy-metal 

musician. 

Like his family, Rangayyan 

believes medicine, engineering and art 

contribute to the physical, emotional, 

intellectual and spiritual well-being of 

individuals at different levels. • 

ReseARCh inteRests 

> Digital signal processing 

> Digital image processing 

> Their applications in 

biomedical engineering 

books 

> Color Image Processing with 

Biomedical Applications 

> Biomedical Signal Analysis 

> Biomedical Image Analysis 

> Several books published 

in the Morgan & Claypool 

Lecture Series 

musiC 

> Has performed extensively in 

India, Canada and Brazil 

> Offers private music lessons 

> Volunteers as a music 

instructor at the School 

of Indian Languages & 

Performing Arts in Calgary 

CDs 

> Totally Peaceful (2009) 

> Listen, Honey ... A Melodious 

Love Story (2003) 

> If You Have the Time (2000) 

> In Tune with You (1998) 

> Just in Time ... Just for You! 

(1998) 



PARTNERS IN RESEARCH 

By JENNIFER ALLFORD 

Motor 

Mania 

AMA Active Traffic and 

Demand Management 

Laboratory looks for solutions 

to road congestion 

More roads is not the solution. 

— LINA KATTAN 

THE QUIET LAB on the third floor of the civil engineering 

department is tucked away from the noise and chaos of Calgary’s 

notorious deerfoot Trail, but this serene space – with banks 

of computers and a big screen mounted on the freshly painted 

turquoise wall – is working to calm the craziness of the freeway. 

The research team in the new Alberta Motor Association (AMA) 

Active Traffic and demand Management Laboratory is studying 

how to move traffic more efficiently up and down the deerfoot and 

elsewhere around the city. While being stuck in traffic – fingers 

tapping and blood pressure rising – can seem like a very personal 

problem, traffic ebb and flow is very much a collective activity and 

there are different measures engineers can use to influence it. 



If you improve travel time on 

the road you are also improving 

travel time for the buses and 

that will attract more people to 

public transit. 

— Lina Kattan 

Lina Kattan, middle, describes 

the features of the new traffic 

laboratory during the grand 

opening celebration. 

Photo by Don Molyneaux 

Representatives from the Alberta 

Government and the Alberta Motor 

Association attended the laboratory’s 

grand opening event. Left to right: 

John Rule (AMA), Minister of 

Transportation Ric McIver, Minaz 

Lalani (AMA), Tania Willumsen (AMA), 

Schulich School of Engineering Dean 

Guy Gendron, Ellen Chidley (AMA), 

John Kong (AMA Chair), Don Ross 

(AMA), Tim Bancroft (AMA). 


“More roads is not the solution,” 

says the lab’s director, Lina 

Kattan, Urban Alliance Professor 

in Transportation Systems 

Optimization in the Department of 

Civil Engineering at the University 

of Calgary. While it seems 

counterintuitive, the fact is building 

more – or bigger – roads doesn’t 

solve gridlock, it just makes it worse 

because those new roads just serve to 

bring out more vehicles. “It’s a vicious 

circle,” she says. “You improve the 

transportation capacity in order to 

reduce congestion and this attracts 

more people to make more trips by 

auto.” 

Instead, the new lab is looking 

at how to make better use of the 

roads we already have. Kattan and 

her colleagues Chan Wirasinghe and 

Behrouz Far along with their team 

of graduate students are exploring 

how to optimize our existing network 

of roads, reducing congestion and 

accidents while improving the safety, 

economy and the environment. 

“The key for us is innovation,” 

explains Don Szarko of the AMA. 

“One of the things we’re hoping for 

through Kattan and the University of 

Calgary is leadership and innovation 

to create a multidisciplinary 

transportation environment that 

focuses beyond the car and includes 

all aspects of the roadway and 

mobility, underscored by safety.” 

The AMA contributed $750,000 

towards the new lab, transportation 

research and teaching as well as two 

graduate student awards. 

With real-life data collected from 

20 sensors along the Deerfoot between 

Memorial Drive and McKnight 

Boulevard, the researchers simulate 

real traffic and how it’s affected by 

different new controls. The data from 

the sensors will give Kattan and her 

colleagues “an idea of how many 

vehicles are coming from the ramps, 

how many are exiting and so on.” In 

their “virtual laboratory,” they’ll test 

different types of ramp metering – 

traffic lights that control how many 

vehicles enter the freeway – and 

variable speed limits. 

“If we change the speed limits 

dynamically so it’s not always 100 km 

an hour, it can come to 80, 90, 60, 

depending on the traffic conditions, 

weather and road conditions, what 

improvement are we getting” asks 

Kattan. 

The lab will also collect 

information from the city’s closed 

circuit TV cameras along the Deerfoot 

as well as data supplied by Calgary 

Transit – a crucial part of the city’s 

transportation network. 

In addition to the Department of Civil 

Engineering, support from the following 

contributed to the establishment of the 

Alberta Motor Association Active Traffic 

and Demand Management Laboratory at 

the Schulich School of Engineering: 

> Canada Foundation for Innovation 

> Alberta Motor Association 

> Alberta Transportation 

> Econolite Canada 

> The City of Calgary 

> ENCOM Wireless 

> Dell 

> FLIR 360 Surveillance 




Simulation of winter 

rush-hour traffic on 

Calgary’s Deerfoot 

Trail. Image courtesy 

Saeid Saidi. 

We have a car culture in Alberta 

and we have to admit that we 

are still going to be struggling with 

cars for a long time. 

— don szarko, ama 

“If you improve travel time on 

the road you are also improving 

travel time for the buses and that 

will attract more people to public 

transit,” says Kattan. “With realtime 

GPS providing information 

on bus locations, we will be able to 

predict the bus arrival at the bus stop 

and disseminate this information 

to transit riders, something that’s 

expected to increase the reliability and 

attractiveness of transit.” 

Technology will also help 

disseminate information about traffic 

accidents – and subsequent traffic 

jams – to drivers. The researchers 

will explore how to use information 

technology to detect incidents 

automatically, dispatch emergency 

vehicles and warn drivers of problems 

up ahead, which will “help them 

better plan their trip, or cancel their 

trip or use other modes,” says Kattan. 

While finding the best ways to 

control the movement of traffic on 

the roads will be the bulk of the lab’s 

work, the researchers will also look at 

using different measures to change an 

individual traveler’s behavior – to get 

people to consider other ways to get 

around the city. 

“We want people to be active and 

make trips,” says Kattan. “Mobility 

is very important for the economy. It 

has lots of social benefits but being a 

single driver in a car is not very good 

for anybody.” To encourage more 

carpooling, public transportation or 

cycling to get from A to B, a growing 

number of cities around the world use 

“road charging,” which is exactly as it 

sounds, making drivers pay to use a 

particular road. 

While an unfamiliar and likely 

unwelcome concept in Calgary – a city 

that’s known for its love affair with 

the car – the idea of paying to drive is 

becoming more common and easier 

to administer with improved geopositioning 

technology. 

“You pay for the water you use – 

the more you consume, the more you 

pay, it’s the same idea,” says Kattan. 

“When you want to travel you pay 

more during the peak season and less 

during the off season.” 

Road charging and other travel 

demand management methods aren’t 

meant to stop people from going about 

their business, rather they’re meant to 

encourage them to find different ways 

to get there. “The idea is not to limit 

the mobility of people,” she stresses. 

“We want people to be active and do 

all the activities they want to do, but 

we want them to do that in a more 

sustainable way.” 

“We have a car culture in Alberta 

and we have to admit that we are still 

going to be struggling with cars for a 

long time,” says Szarko of the AMA. 

But as thousands of vehicles speed up 

and down the Deerfoot every day and 

drivers curse every delay – and each 

other – Szarko is excited about the 

innovative solutions that will come 

from the important work of the lab. 

“It’s so integrated,” he says. “We 

are at the point of discovery and 

we need to take one step forward at 

a time. It’s leading us into all sorts 

of things.” • 

Deerfoot Trail is 

the major north/ 

south transportation 

route through the 

City of Calgary and 

is maintained and 

upgraded by Alberta 

Transportation. 

It stretches 

50 kilometres 

and features 21 

interchanges. Traffic 

volumes range from 

27,000 to 158,000 

vehicles per day 

depending on the 

location. 

There have been 

10,000 collisions on 

Deerfoot Trail in the 

past five years, 

including 24 fatalities. 

Sources: Alberta 

Transportation and 

City of Calgary 



GRADUATE RESEARCH 

By JANE CHAMBERLIN 

looking 

forward to 

engineering 

the Roman 

baths: 

how to study 

the past 

with an eye 

on the future 

Taylor Oetelaar 


Reconstructed opus sectile floors 

of the Baths of Caracalla. 

Model created by Taylor Oetelaar 

The dust of Rome clings to your toga as you dodge a mule and cart. Your 

friend Lucius is waiting, so you hurry past the amphitheatre and enter the 

building that towers over the street. You shed your robe but keep your sandals 

on so the tiles don’t scald your feet. You forego your usual wrestling match 

and hurry past the jugglers, philosophers and hair-pluckers, then grab some 

pickled olives from a vendor. Ducking through a small door into the steamy 

caldarium, you spot Marcus in one of the pools. When you slip into the water, 

the stress dissolves and it’s as if the day never happened. 




A PLACE TO unwind, chat, exercise 

and eat – an ancient Roman bath was 

like a cross between a coffee shop 

and a gym – but with 100 percent 

humidity. The baths were enormous 

– conglomerations of rooms with hot 

pools, warm pools, cool pools and 

swimming pools, plus conversation 

areas, exercise courts and change 

rooms. The building could be up to 

2.4 hectares – as big as four football 

fields. Including the gardens, a bath 

The site of the Baths of Caracalla. Photo courtesy Taylor Oetelaar 

view from the 

northeast of the 

reconstructed 

Baths of Caracalla. 

Model created by 


complex could be up to nine hectares 

altogether. 

The study of the Roman baths is 

ongoing and riddled with knowledge 

gaps, because nearly all the baths 

– and there were over 900 in Rome 

alone – are now in ruins or have 

completely disappeared. “It’s akin to 

trying to complete a puzzle with half 

the pieces and the box missing,” says 

Taylor Oetelaar, a recent Schulich 

School Phd graduate in mechanical 

and manufacturing engineering. In 

his dissertation, he puzzled out some 

of the thermodynamic mysteries of 

the baths by combining two of his 

passions – classical archaeology and 

engineering. 

viewing ancient systems 

through a modern lens 

In his multi-disciplinary research, 

funded by the natural Sciences and 

Engineering Research Council of 

Canada and the Alberta Ingenuity 

Fund, Oetelaar analyzes the heating 

system within ancient Roman baths. 

Oetelaar’s process involved the use 

of computational fluid dynamics or 

CFd, which can be simply defined as 

a numerical methodology that helps 

you predict how a fluid will behave in 

a given scenario. His analysis focused 

on the caldaria, or rooms with hot 

pools, of two different baths – the 

Baths of Caracalla in Rome, and a 

replica of a smaller one created for the 

television series, NOVA. He set out to 

provide an enhanced understanding of 

the thermal environment inside those 

rooms, examining the temperature 

distribution and air velocities in the 

bathing areas. 

To begin his investigation, 

Oetelaar devised a series of 

experiments to measure the heat input 

into the caldaria from the radiant 

heating system – the hypocaust. 

He built a system with a similar 

thermodynamic process as those 

manned by slaves in ancient Roman 

baths. From the furnace, hot air would 

circulate between a false floor and the 

foundation floor and through terra 

cotta tubuli – pipe-like structures that 




ran up the walls – and out a chimney. 

This system is not unlike modern-day 

radiation slab cooling, which uses 

convective heat transfer for heating, 

ventilation, and air-conditioning 

(HVAC) systems. 

Using materials that closely 

replicated the hypocaust construction, 

Oetelaar carried out experiments 

that were unique in the HVAC world 

because they examined how air heats 

a surface, not how a surface heats the 

air. In the end, Oetelaar was able to 

accurately calculate the coefficient 

relating the heat input into the room 

from the radiant heating system to the 

exhaust gas temperature. 

To fully analyze the baths’ 

thermal environment, Oetelaar 

created intricate 2- and 3-d CFd 

simulations of Roman baths and a full 

digital reconstruction of the Baths 

of Caracalla. The models offer great 

insight into the heating challenges in 

those long-ago rooms, which involved 

finding a delicate balance between 

hot, too hot and too cool. Average 

temperatures in the caldarium could 

soar as high as 47°C, but in winter 

it was a matter of keeping the water 

warm enough. So finding reliable 

ways to distribute heat was crucial. 

Re-imagining the 

Roman bath 

Over the years, scholars have 

wondered whether the secret to 

temperature control lay in the 

doorways and windows of the 

buildings. Were the windows 

glazed Why were the doorways so 

narrow What were the doors made 

of Through his CFd analyses and 

2-d assessments, Oetelaar has made 

significant headway in answering 

these questions. For example, 

he’s found evidence to suggest 

that the caldarium windows were 

indeed glazed, in order to maintain 

reasonable bathing temperatures. 

In fact, much of Oetelaar’s research 

will further the discourse on Roman 

baths, says Lisa Hughes, associate 

professor in the University of Calgary’s 

department of Greek and Roman 

studies, and one of Oetelaar’s Phd 

committee members. 

“Up until this point,” says 

Hughes, “we only had snippets 

of ideas from the ancient literary 

sources and other studies of what 

the bathing environment was like. 

Taylor Oetelaar’s research will be 

useful in terms of adding depth to our 

understanding of the overall bathing 

experience and of how architectural 

features such as windows and 

doorways contributed to achieving a 

suitable environment.” 

This new knowledge of Roman 

baths impacts the engineering field as 

well. 

“My research improves our 

understanding of large volume 

HVAC processes,” says Oetelaar, “and 

hopefully will lead to improvements 

there. It also adds to our knowledge of 

heat transfer through the investigation 

of a case of warm air heating a 

channel.” 

Adding to the conversation in 

one’s discipline – or disciplines, in 

Oetelaar’s case – is a tremendous 

achievement. But if you ask him about 

the moment that took his breath 

away during the project, he will 

probably tell you a story about a city 

where crumbling stone walls can be 

imagined into god-sized buildings 

with water that soothes. Two years 

into his research, Oetelaar went 

behind the scenes at the Baths of 

Caracalla in Rome, an experience he 

will never forget. 

“In a word, it was mind-blowing,” 

Models like this were 

created to represent 

distribution of 

temperature (here) 

or water vapour. 

Model created by 


says Oetelaar. “I was extremely 

lucky and got to take measurements 

of features that are off limits to 

the general public, thanks to 

Professoressa M. Piranomonte and 

the Soprintendenza Archeologica 

di Roma. Combine all this with the 

sights, food and smells of the Eternal 

City and it was an amazing trip.” 

That’s what happens when you 

have the good fortune to blend two of 

your passions into a project that looks 

backward – with a forward-thinking 

mindset. • 

THE ART OF ENGINEERING 

When Taylor Oetelaar took 

two undergraduate options 

in Greek and Roman art and 

architecture, he had no idea 

they would spawn a deep 

interest that would inform his 

PhD dissertation. 

WHEN IN ROME… 

Thanks to a working knowledge 

of Latin, Oetelaar was able to 

study several primary sources 

on Roman baths in their original 

language. “If you really want to 

understand the texts,” he says, 

“you need to be able to read 

them yourself.” 

MAKING HEADS OR TAILS 

OF HISTORY 

Multi-disciplinary study, 

according to Oetelaar, is like 

the edge of a coin, uniting two 

contrasting fields but retaining 

its own distinct features. 

WHEN SOMETHING OLD 

IS NEW AGAIN 

Says Oetelaar, “There were 

many times that I found a piece 

of technology that we think is 

new and revolutionary but the 

ancient civilizations were using 

them, in principle, for a long 

time before.” Examples include 

not only the hypocaust but a 

little device created by Hero 

of Alexandria (a 1st century 

CE Greek mathematician) 

which had, for all intents and 

purposes, the workings of an 

early steam engine. 

24 | SPRING 2013 • SCHULICH 

ENGINEER 


ALUMNI PROFILE 

By JESSICA SOODEEN 

Photos courtesy Jessica Soodeen 

Around the world with 

a passion for motorsports 

Schulich alumni 

will tell you it’s 

extremely rewarding 

to combine 

engineering with 

a lifelong passion. 

Jessica Soodeen’s 

love of motorsports 

led her along an 

exciting career path 

that’s taken her 

behind the scenes 

at some of the top 

events in the world 

of racing. 

Hooked on racing: 

turning a hobby 

into a career 

In 2007, I was working as a 

mechanical design engineer at General 

Dynamics Canada on a contract 

position. During most weekends I 

was elbow-deep in oil and grease, 

racing motorcycles or working on 

a motorcycle race team. By the end 

of the year I was living in a small 

Basque town, Azkoitia, in northern 

Spain about to start a year-long 

master’s degree in motorsport race 

engineering. 

My name is Jessica Soodeen, and I 

am a mechanical engineering graduate 

from the Class of 2000. 

The idea of getting an additional 

degree and changing my career path 

from design engineering to race 

engineer – and moving to another 

continent – had been flying around 

my head since 2001, a couple of years 

after I got my motorcycle license. I 

got hooked on riding bikes on tracks 

and also volunteered at racing events. 

Turning my hobby of racing bikes into 

a career in motorsports seemed logical 

enough. I spent five years racing bikes, 

turning wrenches, and working in 

the racing world to prepare for the 

new adventure. It’s showing up with 

hands-on experience, not just letters 

behind your name, that can get you 

chosen for a job. 

My experience as a mechanical 

designer was also an obvious asset 

to the field I wanted to get into and I 

have applied many skills directly to 

my day-to-day job as a Trackside Race 

Engineer. 

An edge over the 

competition: adding 

education to experience 

I chose to do my master’s “inhouse” 

at a race team, Espilon 

Euskadi, in conjunction with the 

University of Mondragon in the 

Basque Country. At the time the 

team raced Le Mans 24hrs and the 

World Series by Renault 3.5L and 

2.0L Formula Classes. I chose the 

program because it was based in the 

Basque Country and aside from their 

extensive history with Newfoundland 

(where my mother is from), they have 

a unique culture and language. It 

was an unbelievably well-rounded 

experience and one I couldn’t pass 

up. 

Being a female in any maledominated 

industry has its challenges 

and Europe’s racing scene is no 

different. My own racing background 

demonstrates my dedication to the 

motorsport industry and definitely 

helps me gain respect. At times I do 

have to show some pictures of me 

building motorcycle engines in my 

living room to various mechanics to 

make sure they know how much of a 

motorsport enthusiast I am. Standing 

at just over a metre-and-a-half and 

weighing just under 50 kilograms, 

Jessica Soodeen gives 

last-minute advice to driver 

Christof von Grunigen while 

they wait for qualification 

time to start. 

Jessica Soodeen 

during a tire 

pressure check 

at an event in the 

Netherlands. 



ALUMNI PROFILE 

Being a female in any male-dominated industry has its challenges 

and Europe’s racing scene is no different. — Jessica Soodeen 

Left to right: 

mechanic Markus 

Pogrzeba, Jessica 

Soodeen, and 

Swiss driver 

Yannick Mettler 

at a Formula BMW 

race weekend. 

you can well imagine what first 

impressions can be like. I try not to 

take any of it personally and instead, 

take joy in getting to know people on 

the team and share experiences. 

The race weekend: knowing 

the rules inside and out 

I worked with Formula BMW, 

Formula Renault 2.0L (FR 2.0) and 

Formula ADAC Masters and each 

has its own championships, rules 

and schedules for race weekends. 

I’ll take you through a typical work 

weekend as a freelance race engineer 

at the World Series by Renault FR 2.0 

Event. 

On Friday, there are Free Practice 

sessions, Saturday Qualification 1 

and Race 1 and Sunday Q2 and R2. 

I arrive at the circuit usually on a 

Thursday and that day we mount 

our area. Along one side of the truck 

trailer, we run a tent with various 

bars and poles. Inside that, we mount 

wall structures to separate the fuel 

area, tire area, engineer tables and 

so on. Some trucks even have offices 

inside for the bosses and engineers. 

If the driver is a regular member of 

the team, he or she will already have 

a custom foam seat. Otherwise, this 

has to be done that afternoon or 

evening. There are regulations for the 

driver’s head position with respect to 

the top part of the car, so it must be 

done with care. That same afternoon 

is when I go for a track walk with 

my drivers to discuss lines, braking 

points, turn-in points, bumps, and 

other points of interest. While we are 

all knelt down looking at the track 

from their point of view – the cockpit 

– we make note of markers they can 

use for braking, turn-in and also car 

position for passing. 

Then the drivers go to the hotel 

to sleep and we finish up the event 

preparation. I have to make sure that 

my tires are registered and carefully 

note each tire code. If you don’t get it 

right, you can get disqualified. I have 

to give the mechanics the set-up of 

the car, which is a sheet that states 

the wing positions, car ride height 

front and rear, spring selection for 

suspension, cambers on the tires 

and it goes on and on depending 

on the car. I also give them the cold 

pressures for each tire to have set 

before we get out on track Friday, let 

them know how much fuel we need 

to start with and what the general 

plan is for tire changes and set-up. 

For the rest of the weekend, cars 

go out, cars come in – hopefully in 

one piece – then I plug in my laptop 

and download the data file to have a 

quick look at the engine parameters 

for the mechanics. If all looks good, 

I let them know the tire choice, 

pressure and fuel again and after a 

driver debrief there could be set-up 

changes. 

With the data from the car, the 

driver and I break down the lap and 

work on driving style, corners to 

improve upon and we also discuss 

the car’s performance. Between 

what the driver says, what I see 

on the data, reading tire wear and 

considering the ambient conditions, 

I make the calls for changes to the 

car for the next session. It’s not 

rocket science that you don’t make 

big changes just before a race or 

qualifying session, but one mustn’t 

forget that Mother Nature can be 

nasty. I would have to say the real 

chaos happens when there are drastic 

changes in weather and/or crashes 

in the morning when we still have 

an afternoon event. Keeping the 

chaos organized and being prepared 

for change are the only ways to get 

things done quickly and accurately. 

In the midst of all the seriousness, 

very funny things can happen. 

For example, at the last race of a 

particular championship, when 

everyone is packing up and looking 

forward to a shower before the party, 

you are almost sure to hear a LOUD 

two-stroke engine being warmed up. 

Then, shortly afterwards, you see 

Superman (one of the truck drivers 

from a team) doing a lap of the circuit 

on an old mini bike with the track 

staff chasing him or the safety car on 

the way. For me, the nature of the 

world of motorsports attracts a good 

percentage of great people who are all 

about having fun and enjoying their 

work. 

Looking to the future: 

returning home to begin a 

new chapter 

Now my life is taking me back to 

Canada to make another change in 

my career path. My engineering career 

started with mechanical design and 

analysis. That took up nearly 10 years, 

a combination of five years of racing, 

then five years of race engineering all 

over Europe. Now the goal is to head 

back home with an enriched skill base 

and find work in Alberta. I’m not sure 

what my next big adventure will be, 

but one thing I’d like to do is broaden 

my experience by finding work related 

to project and product management. • 

It’s showing up with hands-on experience, not just letters behind 

your name, that can get you chosen for a job. — Jessica Soodeen 



LIFE AT SCHULICH 

Recognizing student excellence 

Every year, undergraduate 

students at the Schulich 

School of Engineering 

receive more than $5 

million in scholarships and 

bursaries funded by donors 

in the community, including 

industry partners. The 

Student Excellence Awards 

provides the opportunity for 

students to meet the donors 

who are investing in their 

education. 

On February 27, 

the Schulich School of 

Engineering hosted the 22nd 

annual Student Excellence 

Awards at Calgary’s Hotel 

Arts. Nearly 500 guests 

attended the event, to 

recognize student excellence 

and celebrate the generosity 

of donors. • 

Left to right: Keynote speaker Mike Begin, President of Spartan Controls; 

Michael Algra, fourth-year civil engineering student who spoke on behalf 

of the students; Guy Gendron, Dean of the Schulich School of Engineering; 

and Cam Kramer, Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Arc 

Resources, who spoke on behalf of the donors. Photo by James Michael Paul 

Team Zeus revved up for competition 

By Judy Zhu 

The Schulich School 

of Engineering’s 

Team Zeus. Photo 

courtesy Team Zeus. 

Accolades for top biomedical 

engineering graduate students 

Graduate students in biomedical engineering have 

been awarded with inaugural Biomedical Engineering Graduate 

Program Director’s Prizes for Program Leadership for their 

extraordinary accomplishments and outstanding contributions 

to their program. Each student received a $3,000 cash prize. • 

Biomedical engineering student award winners, from left: Quinn Thomson, 

Swathi Damaraju, Emily Bishop, Taryn Ludwig, and Saleem Abubacker. 

Photo by Dave Brown 

New research chair to help 

develop unconventional oil 

The Schulich School of Engineering is 

recruiting for the newly-created Canada Excellence 

Research Chair (CERC) in Materials Engineering 

for Unconventional Oil Reservoirs. The program 

will further the position of the University of 

Calgary as a leader in research breakthroughs that 

generate significant social and economic benefits for 

Canadians. 

The new CERC will receive up to $10 million 

from government and $15 million from other sources 

over seven years to support the proposed new chair 

and team. The University of Calgary is among eight 

universities selected by the federal government 

to recruit world-renowned researchers under the 

prestigious CERC program. • 

Team Zeus may be a 

young club only two years 

old, but the dream that 

drives it is nothing short of 

spectacular. This student 

club’s vision is to design 

and build a high-powered, 

electrical motorcycle to 

compete globally. 

“The sport is growing very 

quickly and the technology in 

the field is accelerating,” says 

Jules LaPrairie, President of 

Team Zeus. 

As one of the newest 

design teams at the Schulich 

School of Engineering, there 

is a refreshing curiosity and 

sense of adventure from each 

member of the club. 

“The most challenging 

situations that we have 

encountered have also 

been the most fun,” says 

Pouyan Keshavarzian, Vice 

President Elect of Electrical 

Engineering. “In a lot of 

ways, we’re not sure what 

we’re doing, but that’s what 

being an engineering student 

is about. We have capable 

people who have some 

experience, but also we’re 

learning as we go.” 

The club’s constitution, in 

which Team Zeus states that 

one major component of the 

bike must be newly developed 

every two years, is a clear 

indication of the unwavering 

commitment to innovation. 

“This year, we took up the 

challenge of designing our 

own motor and building it 

from scratch,” says LaPrairie, 

“We’re trying a natural 

in-wheel motor. It was an 

interesting, elegant solution 

and it has only been done 

once.” 

Not only does Team 

Zeus stand out with its 

distinguishable approach 

to design, but also with its 

consideration for economic 

feasibility. 

“It’s automatically one 

of our concepts, in terms of 

pollution and space,” says 

Ross Moir, Vice President 


The club has already made 

impressive progress with 

its first bike, presenting it at 

events such as the Canadian 

Undergraduate Technology 

Conference and the Canadian 

Science Policy Conference. 

“The first bike we built, 

‘the Mule’, was just a really 

inexpensive cruiser to see if 

we can make something roll 

on electricity,” says LaPrairie, 

“We succeeded.” 

“Being in this club, we 

really get to prove ourselves,” 

says Moir, “We’ve established 

a very ambitious team.” 

Currently, Team Zeus 

is creating their second 

bike, which will compete 

this summer in the North 

American TTXGP, an 

international zero-emissions 

motorcycle competition. 

Team Zeus will be the first 

Canadian university to 

compete in that event. • 




Fourth-year designs 

showcased at 

Capstone Design Fair 

Photos by Don Molyneaux 

From a shoe that 

stores your energy to 

water treatment in the 

oil sands, fourth-year 

students crowded the 

lower level of MacEwan 

Hall with their final-year 

design projects April 9 

in the Schulich School 

of Engineering Capstone 

Design Fair. 

Devon Canada 

Corporation sponsored 

the event and for the first 

time, a formal awards 

ceremony was part of 

the event. The judging 

committee selected a 

winning team from each 

department and a Grand 

Prize winner. • 

4 

1. Automated ramp operation of an ATV/ 

snowmobile deck 

Brendon Boyko-Bridges, Brennan Lavigne, Kyle Somers. 

Missing: Adam McAllister, Karim Nurmohamed 

2. PowerDisk Energy Return Shoe Sole 

Lauren Vathje, Sam Dorosz, Mateo Arias, Elliott Davies and 

Nolam Swailes came decked out in matching bowties to present 

their shoe sole that returns energy to the person walking in it. 

3. SAE Aero Design - Micro Class 

Steven Wilson, Ramsay McCreary, Schuyler Hinman, 

Tyrone Visser, Tim Bootsveld 

4. Boat Bike human 

powered vehicle 

Marwan Mohamed, Scott Dalby, Jeff Palmer, Cuong Pham, 

Aleena Dewji 

5. Luminescent 3D Display 

Dylan Liesch, Andrew Bexiga, Derek Coulter 

6. Autonomous Quad Copter 

Jennifer Patterson, Rami Aboughanem, Adam Dickin, 

James Thorne 

The Grand Prize winning team at the 2013 Capstone Design Fair for the Oilfield Tool 

Handling System (mechanical engineering). 

Left to right: Sylvester Zdonczyk, Ben Campbell, Salam Allami. Missing: Fahim Thobani and Joel Woo. 

5 

7. Anthropomorphic Arm 

Back: Ryan Choo, Patrick Belzerowski, Hansung Kim, 

Izza Humayun Front: Juliana Langen, Matt Krakowski 

1 2 3 

6 7 




University of Calgary Solar Team 

unveils sleek two-seater 

It’s the most practical model to date designed by the University of 

Calgary Solar Team, a multi-faculty group of 47 students, most of them 

from the Schulich School of Engineering. On February 1, they unveiled the 

prototype of their fourth generation solar car, the Schulich Delta. It’s roomier 

than the last model, with a passenger’s seat and a trunk that can hold two sets 

of golf clubs. The car has a number of new features: more efficient solar cells, 

four wheels instead of three, two motors, a touch-screen tablet for a dashboard 

and three times the battery power as the last car. 

The Schulich Delta made its debut on the road in May during the team’s 

fourth annual tour of Alberta. The Schulich Delta will race in the 2013 World 

Solar Challenge in October. 

Sponsors include the Antje Graupe Pryor Foundation, Schulich School of 

Engineering, ConocoPhillips Canada, Nexen Inc., BP Canada, the Haskayne 

School of Business and the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership 

in Business, the Alberta Lottery Fund, Shell Canada, TD Friends of the 

Environment, ANSYS, SolidWorks and Oxeon. • 

The University of Calgary Solar Team unveils the new Schulich Delta. 


Team projects and friendships await in China 

Eighteen accomplished 

students from the Schulich School 

of Engineering are getting the 

“educational experience of a lifetime” 

in China as they study alongside 

students at Shantou University in 

China. They left May 1 on the trip 

that takes place every year as part of 

the Shantou Global Leadership and 

Innovation Program. 

The Schulich students will take 

classes six days a week for five weeks, 

go on the occasional field trip and 

maybe even shoot some hoops with 

their new Chinese classmates. 

The students will work on five 

joint projects. One will involve the 

formation of a commercial start-up 

company for a consumer product 

involving solar-photovoltaic energy. 

The other four projects – each one 

week in duration – will involve 

fabrication and testing of a solarphotovoltaic 

cell, a wind turbine, an 

energy storage system and a solar 

water heater. 

Ron Hugo, Schulich’s Chair in 

Engineering Education Innovation, 

says Shantou University – which was 

founded by Husky Energy’s majority 

shareholder Li Ka-Shing in 1981 – 

is considered a leader in education 

reform in China. • 

Senior Design Team places third at Canadian Engineering Competition 

Fourth-year students 

Adam Yarschenko, Paul 

Coyle, Michael Poscente 

and Riley Booth represented 


Engineering at the Canadian 

Engineering Competition in 

Ottawa March 7 – 10. They 

placed third in the senior 

design category. 

They faced competitors 

from post-secondary 

institutions across Canada at 

Carleton University. They had 

eight hours to come up with a 

solution to a real engineering 

problem, design and build 

it then present to a panel of 

judges. 

The team qualified for 

the Canadian Engineering 

Competition after placing 

first in their category at 

the Schulich Engineering 

Competition in November, 

then placing second in 

senior design at the Western 

Engineering Competition 

in Victoria in January. In 

both events, the team had 

to construct and program a 

remotely-controlled robot 

to perform a task that could 

conceivably be required in 

a real-life situation. At the 

Schulich competition, their 

robot had to retrieve a bomb 

from the shattered remains of 

a bridge. • 




Aerodesign club takes off 

By Judy Zhu 

Engineering Endowment Fund enriches 

learning experience 

By Adam Thomas 

Former UCEE Board Member, Former President, Geomatics Engineering Students’ Society 

As we enter the 

seventeenth year of the 


Engineering Endowment 

fund (UCEE), we have 

seen the hundredth project 

funded and the millionth 

dollar spent. Each year the 

UCEE provides funding 

for equipment, tools, and 

laboratory experiments 

that enable undergraduate 

students to learn the latest 

skills and techniques to help 

prepare them for their future 

as engineering leaders. 

Undergraduate students 

contribute to the fund, 

which now exceeds $2 

million, including interest 

generated. 

The UCEE board 

consists of faculty, staff, 

undergraduate students and 

industry representatives, 

who request proposals and 

select successful projects 

based on certain criteria, 

such as the urgency of 

equipment, the impact on 

students and the lifespan of 

the investment. 

The latest awarded 

projects include a 

Gas Chromatograph 

(Chemical and Petroleum 

Engineering department), 

a Data Acquisition 

System (Civil Engineering 

department), Hall Effect 

Apparatus (Electrical and 

Computer Engineering 

department) and Fluid 

Mechanics Laboratory 

equipment (Mechanical and 

Manufacturing Engineering 

department). 

The equipment for the 

Fluid Mechanics Laboratory 

included a momentumbalance 

experiment, a pipefriction 

experiment and two 

hydraulics benches. 

According to Parsa 

Samavati, mechanical 

engineering student, 

“Additional equipment 

for the Fluid Mechanics 

Laboratory gave students a 

more hands-on experience 

that provided a greater 

understanding of the 

instrumentation and 

measurements involved. It 

increased the tangibility of 

the equipment and allowed 

teaching staff to quickly 

demonstrate procedures 

without the need for prior 

Students in the 

Fluid Mechanics 

Laboratory. 

Photo courtesy of 

David E. Rival. 

setup and data acquisition. 

This gave students more 

exposure to the equipment 

with greater time to spend 

performing the experiments, 

which improved their skills 

and made the lab more 

enjoyable.” 

With the large number 

of Mechanical and Civil 

Engineering students that 

study fluid mechanics, 

the additional equipment 

funded by the UCEE allows 

for smaller group sizes and 

greater quality of learning 

that benefits students 

and teaching staff. New 

equipment is also essential 

for providing dependable 

and accurate results that will 

last for the next generation 

of engineering leaders. • 

The Schulich Aerodesign 

Team knows what it takes to 

soar to unexpected heights. 

The student club was 

formed in 2011 by a group 

of enthusiastic engineering 

students. Their inspiration 

was a senior design project 

focused on the creation of a 

remote controlled aircraft. 

“We are a relatively new 

club so we are just getting 

started. Our team is made 

up of a group of people who 

get together, be nerds and 

have fun,” explains Emily 

Tworek, outgoing president 

of Aerodesign. 

Schulich Aerodesign’s 

vision is to provide 

undergraduate engineering 

students with professional 

development and to act as 

the official liaison between 

students and the aerospace 

industry. Members on the 

team are not only taking 

part in the creation of an 

aircraft, but they are also 

being exposed to a real life 

work environment in the 

engineering field. 

“We’re taught a lot of 

very important technical 

skills, but the ability to 

take a very wide design 

space and turn it into a 

cost-effective, efficient 

solution is something you 

can’t build in a classroom 

setting,” explains Ryan 

Harvey, incoming president. 

“Joining a club such as this 

allows you to be in that 

design setting where you 

can develop the soft skills 

required to excel in the 

workplace.” 

Schulich Aerodesign’s 

devotion to exploration is 

one of the fundamental 

driving values. Upon 

examining the design 

solutions that the team has 

come up with in the past 

two years, it is clear that 

these students have taken 

advantage of the freedom 

that comes with being in a 

novel design team. 

“The cool thing about 

Back: Schuyler 

Hinman, James 

Decoux. Front: 

Jordan Heinrichs, 

Shawn Carnegie, 

Reid Penner, 

Emily Tworek. 

Photo courtesy 

Aerodesign Team. 

such an open project like this 

is the wide field of solutions 

available,” says Harvey. “Our 

design for the plane this year 

is not at all what we will 

build next year.” 

Aerodesign is also 

sinking its roots into the 

local community. In January, 

they teamed up with a local 

Girl Guides group and 

hosted a night of aircraft 

education for 16 young 

women, helping them earn 

their “Engineering Badge”. 

“The most rewarding 

thing that I’ve done this year 

is getting people excited 

about planes, maybe getting 

the ball rolling for a few 

of them to follow their 

passion,” recalls Tworek. “It’s 

the fact that people have the 

enthusiasm and the curiosity 

to learn that makes this 

team worthwhile.” 

Schulich Aerodesign 

welcomes students from 

all faculties to participate, 

regardless of background or 

experience. “Your time in 

school is about doing what 

you want to do and learning 

about the things that interest 

you,” encourages Tworek. 

“You don’t know what you’re 

capable of until you go out 

there and try.” • 



schulich news 

Dean Guy Gendron 

welcomes the crowd 

at the FIRST Robotics 

Competition. 

Building 

the best in 

engineering 

schools 

Celebrating excellence with the 

Schulich School of Engineering 

Staff and Faculty Awards 


Engineering sponsors 

inaugural FIRST Robotics 

Western Canada 

competition 

Photos by Riley Brandt 

The Schulich School of 

Engineering was the lead sponsor 

of an event that had the Olympic 

Oval packed with fans, families, 

teachers and industry leaders cheering 

on 30 high school teams – including 

two from Mexico and one from 

Brazil – in the FIRST Robotics 

Competition Western Canada 

Regional on April 4-6. 

The teams built their robots in 

six weeks and programmed them 

to perform tasks such as throwing 

Frisbees and climbing pyramids. 

The robots were machined, welded, 

soldered and sawed by students who 

had never used power tools in their 

lives before. The students learned 

about teamwork and problem solving 

along with design, 3D modeling and 

shop skills. 

Dean Guy Gendron welcomed the 

crowd at the opening ceremonies, 

followed by Calgary-Acadia MLA 

Jonathan Denis. Three of the topachieving 

competitors were also 

presented with scholarships worth 

$2,000 each to attend the Schulich 

School of Engineering: Mahta Samani, 

Kaylyn Schnell and Joel Gallant. • 

We are getting 

closer to our goal of 

raising $60 million for 

a range of initiatives 

that are helping us 

build the best in 

engineering schools. 

So far, more than 

$50 million has been 

raised for modernizing 

laboratories, 

renovating student 

spaces, enhancing the 

student experience and 

establishing worldclass 

research chairs 

while strengthening 

community 

connections and 

industry partnerships. 

Capital 

Door to the Future 

$21.9 million 

Research 

Leading RESEARCH 

$13.5 million 

Students 

Educating LEADERS 

$16.9 million 

Congratulations 

to the winners 

of the 2012/2013 

Staff and Faculty 

Awards, which 

recognize the 

dedication of the 

professors, staff 

and teaching 

assistants 

who make our 

school a place 

of innovation, 

teaching 

excellence and 

world-class 

research. 

Outstanding 

Teaching Award 

of Excellence: 

Norm Bartley, 

Electrical and Computer 

Engineering 

Distinguished 

Collaborator 

Awards: 

Naweed Syed and 

Dave Smith 

Departmental 

Teaching 

Excellence 

Awards: Hassan 

Hassanzadeh, 

Tom Brown, Norm 

Bartley, Andrew Hunter, 

Les Sudak, Marjan 

Eggermont 

Early Research 

Excellence 

Awards: Nader 

Mahinpey, Carolyn 

Anglin, Mohamed 

Helaoui, Steve Liang, 

David Rival 

Teaching 

Assistant 

Excellence 

Awards: Ivonne 

Otero Navas, Poornima 

Jayasinghe, Vahid 

Mojarrad Bahreh, Sarah 

Khosravani, 

Billy Wu, Marc Beaudin, 

Jacky Chow, Coral Bliss 

Taylor, Qinwen Yang, 

Majid Mehrpouya, 

Alexander Obrejanu, 

Marcela Patricia 

Rodriguez Ramirez, 

Christopher Hendrikson 

Mentoring 

Excellence 

Awards: 

Anil Mehrotra and 

David Wood 

Donna Geekie 

Service Award: 

Monica Barbaro, 

Geomatics Engineering 

Total $52.3 million 



schulich news 

Cenovus Spo’pi Solar House reopens 

as permanent research facility 

Photos by Don Molyneaux 

Dean's Award 

for Corporate 

Leadership 

In May, the University of Calgary 

celebrated the grand opening of its 

newest research facility, the oneof-a-kind 

Cenovus Spo’pi Solar 

House. Students designed and built 

this dome-shaped, 93-square-metre 

structure that features the latest in 

solar power technology. An array 

of 37 photovoltaic panels on the 

roof generates enough electricity 

for a typical family of four to cook, 

do laundry, shower and operate 

household appliances for an entire 

year. The house is net-zero, which 

means it produces as much electricity 

as it consumes. 

The only Canadian entry in 

the U.S. Department of Energy’s 

2011 Solar Decathlon competition 

in Washington, D.C., the Cenovus 

Spo’pi Solar House placed 10th out of 

19 entries. Cenovus Energy was the 

lead sponsor of the project. Students 

built the home to address the housing 

needs of First Nations Communities. 

Members of the Aboriginal 

community were consulted during 

design and construction. Spo’pi is the 

Blackfoot word meaning “walks on 

stilts.” 

The house is now located on the 

south side of the Schulich School of 

Engineering and will serve as a hub 

for solar energy and sustainability 

research for students and faculty 

members, including David Wood, 

Enmax-NSERC Industrial Research 

Chair in Renewable Energy. • 

Guy Gendron, Dean of 


Engineering, addresses guests 

at the grand opening of the 

Cenovus Spo’pi Solar House. 

Every year, the Schulich School of Engineering 

recognizes a Canadian corporation that has shown 

significant leadership in support of research 

and educational activities at the school. 

Previous Winners 

2012 - Bantrel 

2011 - Suncor Energy 

2010 - Lafarge Canada 

2009 - Talisman Energy 

2008 - TransCanada Corporation 

2007 - EnCana Corporation 

2006 - NOVA Chemicals Corporation 

2005 - Imperial Oil and Devon Canada Corporation 

2004 - Stantec Consulting Ltd. 

2003 - VECO Canada and Burlington Resources 

2002 - The Cohos Evamy Partners 

2001 - Husky Energy Inc. 

2000 - Petro-Canada 

1999 - Canadian Occidental Petroleum Limited 

and Shell Canada Limited 

Send your nominations to: 


EN C202, University of Calgary 


Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4 



DEPARTMENT NEWS 

Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering 

Dr. John Kentfield will be missed 

We are deeply saddened about the passing of 

Dr. John Kentfield on April 1, 2013. 

A professor emeritus in the 

Department of Mechanical and 

Manufacturing Engineering at the 

Schulich School of Engineering, 

Dr. Kentfield developed a passion 

for aviation in the late 1950s while 

completing his undergraduate studies 

at the University of Southampton 

in England where he studied 

aerodynamics and mechanical 

engineering. In 2000, he won the 

prestigious Distinguished Lectureship 

award of the Ohio Aerospace Institute. 

Dr. Kentfield received his PhD 

from Imperial College, University of 

London and joined the University of 

Calgary in July 1968. His research area 

was fluid mechanics, energy systems 

and aerodynamics. Over the years, 

he researched a number of topics, 

including pulsed combustion, waterpumping 

wind turbines that have been 

used in developing nations around the 

world, and in recent years he was most 

Chris Turner. 

Photo courtesy the 

Turner family. 

interested in a novel aircraft design 

that involved outboard horizontal 

stabilizers. The Ansari X (space 

competition) prize-winning Scaled 

Composites design used his outboard 

horizontal stabilizer design. 

After a 34-year distinguished 

academic career focused on designing 

technology that achieves energy 

savings, Dr. Kentfield officially retired 

in June 2004 and was designated 

professor emeritus in July 2004. Even 

after retirement, he continued to come 

to work on an almost daily basis. He 

had a gift for all things mechanical, 

and was able to craft the most elaborate 

mechanical devices using nothing more 

than balsa wood, cardboard, glue and 

string. 

Dr. Kentfield will be missed 

and remembered for his work in 

the Department of Mechanical and 

Manufacturing Engineering. • 

Civil Engineering 

Award honours 

memory of 

Chris Turner 

Chris Turner passed away suddenly 

on August 25, 2012, just three months 

away from receiving his iron ring 

and graduating with a degree in civil 

engineering. His parents, Bob and 

Shelley Turner, have established the 

Chris Turner Memorial Award, which 

will provide $1,000 or more annually 

to support student athletes studying 

civil engineering at the Schulich School 

of Engineering. The first student will 

receive the award this fall. 

Chris was a skilled athlete and 

played soccer competitively at a high 

level since he was young. His friends and 

teammates organized the Chris Turner 

Memorial Soccer Tournament to raise 

money for the memorial award fund at 

the Schulich School of Engineering. The 

tournament takes place this summer 

on the anniversary of Chris's passing. 

More information and registration for the 

event can be found at turnertournament. 

com. 

“He was very intelligent, social and 

goal oriented. There is no doubt he 

would have been an amazing engineer, 

just as he was an amazing person and 

friend,” says Sameer Patel, BSc ’10, a 

close friend who is spearheading the 

soccer tournament. 

So far, more than $20,000 has been 

raised through gifts from family, friends, 

former employers, faculty members 

and alumni. The civil engineering 

department hosted an on-campus 

memorial event in November 2012, and 

a plaque with a photo of Chris has been 

installed outside the department office. • 

Geomatics Engineering 

NSERC Discovery Grant 

Accelerator Supplements 

Naser El-Sheimy, Canada 

Research Chair in Mobile Multi- 

Sensor Geomatics Systems, and Gérard 

Lachapelle, Canada Research Chair in 

Wireless Location, have been awarded 

prestigious Discovery Grant Accelerator 

Supplements from the National 

Sciences and Engineering Research 

Council of Canada (NSERC). The 

award totals $120,000, given in three 

annual installments to a select group 

of researchers – recipients of Discovery 

Grants – whose proposals have the 

potential to be truly transformative and 

groundbreaking. 

El-Sheimy’s project addresses the 

challenges of creating viable personal 

navigation systems for next generation 

smart phones. The goal is to provide 

a multisensor-assisted solution for 

personal navigation that is ubiquitous, 

Electrical and Computer Engineering 

continuous, reliable and seamless. It’s 

a complex challenge, given that human 

movement isn’t contained by defined 

routes like roads or railways. 

Lachapelle will be applying his 

accelerator toward his work on GPS 

equipment. The benefits of this 

accelerator extend to the graduate 

student experience at Schulich. “The 

grants will enable me to assist with the 

hiring of two post-doctoral fellows to 

further increase research quality and 

improve graduate student training, 

says Lachapelle. He and his team are 

exploring ways to solve GPS problems 

related to the electronic interference 

caused by an increasingly crowded 

spectrum. The project has a broad range 

of practical applications, from marine 

navigation to tracking patients who are 

mentally challenged. • 

Michael Sideris 

elected to 

position with 

National 

Technical 

University 

Michael Sideris, 

Professor, has been 

elected to the Board of 

Governors of National 

Technical University in 

Athens, Greece. He is 

also the Vice President 

of the International 

Union of Geodesy and 

Geophysics. • 

Graduate student brings the gift of books to children in Uganda 

Billy Wu, who is working towards a PhD in electrical engineering, spent three weeks in February handing out 75,000 

donated books to children in Uganda. He visited 15 schools in four communities with the Africa Book Project. 

This was the first shipment of books collected by the small Calgary-based charity to be delivered to African students 

with the help of local Rotary clubs in Uganda. African Book Project hopes to continue working with Rotary clubs in 

Calgary and Huntsville, Alabama to arrange more trips with more books. 

The Graduate Students’ Association contributed $2,000 to help Wu cover some of his travel expenses to Uganda for 

the trip in February. Now that he’s back, he plans to keep working on collecting more books in Canada to send to young 

students in Africa. • 



DEPARTMENT NEWS 

around campus 

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering 

China’s largest offshore 

energy company invests 

in Schulich students 

CNOOC Canada Inc., the Canadian branch of China 

National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), has made 

a $150,000 gift to the Schulich School of Engineering. 

This provides five scholarships of $10,000 for continuing 

undergraduate students in the Department of Chemical and 

Petroleum Engineering. The gift is a gesture aimed at giving 

back to the community and investing in the education of 

future engineers. 

One of the world’s largest independent oil and gas 

exploration and production companies, CNOOC focuses 

mainly on exploration, development, production and sales of 

oil and natural gas. Core operation areas are Bohai, Western 

South China Sea, Eastern South China Sea and East China Sea 

in offshore China. CNOOC also has oil and gas assets in Asia, 

Africa, North America, South America and Oceania. • 

From left: U.T. Sundararaj, Head of the Department 

of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering; Zong Tang, 

Vice President Human Resources, CNOCC Canada 

Inc.; Fengjiu Zhang, President and CEO, CNOOC 

Canada Inc.; University of Calgary President 

Elizabeth Cannon; John Chen, NSERC/AIEES/ 

Foundation CMG Chair in Reservoir Simulation. 

Photo by James Michael Paul 

John Chen recognized for 

leadership in technology 

In recent months, 

Zhangxing (John) 

Chen has received the 

Outstanding Leadership in 

Alberta Technology Award 

from the Alberta Science 

and Technology (ASTech) 

Leadership Foundation and 

an NSERC Discovery Grant 

Accelerator Supplement. 

Chen is a professor of 

chemical and petroleum 

engineering, NSERC/ 

AI-EES/Foundation 

CMG Chair in Reservoir 

Simulation and AITF 

(iCORE) Chair in 

Reservoir Modeling. 

His overall research 

focuses on reservoir 

models and simulations 

that help uncover new, 

more economical and 

sustainable ways to recover 

heavy oil and oil sands 

resources. The accelerator 

will allow him to focus 

on reservoir and wellbore 

models; geomechanical 

modules and solutions 

for describing the actual 

physics of fluid flow 

and heat transfer; and 

predicting the performance 

of Canadian heavy oil 

sands reservoirs. • 

Anil Mehrotra receives 

Teaching Excellence Award from 

the University of 

Calgary Students’ Union 

In April, Anil Mehrotra, Director of the Centre 

for Environmental Engineering Research & Education 

(CEERE) and of the Interdisciplinary Sustainable Energy 

Development (SEDV) Program, was recognized for 

teaching excellence for 2012/2013 with an award from the 

U of C Students’ Union. 

The Students’ Union selects recipients of the Teaching 

Excellence Awards based on their ability to communicate 

broad and accurate knowledge of the subject matter, 

ability to create enthusiasm, success at challenging 

students, availability for consultation or counseling 

outside of class and the fairness and consistency of 

grading. • 

$40-million donation fuels learning 

excellence at University of Calgary 

Student learning will be transformed thanks to a 

$40-million gift from the Taylor family to establish a home 

for the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Through 

this new institute, the University of Calgary will take the lead 

in educational innovation by researching the most effective 

methods for engaging students, by supporting faculty to be the 

best teachers they can be and by providing some of the most 

innovative learning spaces available anywhere in North America. 

The Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning will promote 

EEEL building gets platinum 

LEED certification 

The University 

of Calgary’s Energy 

Environment and 

Experiential Learning 

(EEEL) building has received 

Leadership in Energy and 

Environmental Design 

Platinum certification, 

confirming that it’s one of 

the most energy-efficient 

laboratory buildings in North 

America. 

EEEL, which opened in 

September 2011, is one of 

29 buildings across Canada 

to achieve the highest 

LEED certification. Only 

four of those buildings are 

on Canadian university 

or college campuses with 

two at the University of 

Calgary: EEEL and the Child 

Development Centre. 

EEEL uses 78 per cent 

less energy compared to 

a conventional laboratory 

building. Natural light 

pours through triple glazed 

windows and reflective 

surfaces scatter it throughout 

the building. Occupancy 

sensors and smart-timing 

schedules control highefficiency 

light fixtures when 

the sun isn’t shining. Vertical 

green sunshades on the south 

facade move throughout the 

day to reduce glare 

and solar heat gain in the 

summer. 

Cooling towers chill 

water at night and store it for 

use during the day. Concrete 

“Earth Tubes” run fresh air 

underground to the main 

lecture theatre to cool it 

in summer and warm it in 

winter. Low-flow fixtures and 

use of captured rain water 

mixed with recycled process 

educational research and provide students with a wealth of new 

hands-on learning opportunities. Undergraduate students from 

a variety of faculties will be brought together to collaborate on 

social issues, acquiring research, problem solving and critical 

thinking skills key to their future career success. 

The two-storey, 4,000-square-metre building will be located 

on the site of the former Nickle Arts Museum. It is set to open in 

early 2016, in time for the University of Calgary to celebrate its 50th 

anniversary. • 

water for toilet flushing reduces 

potable water use by 64 per 

cent. 

EEEL houses classrooms, 

labs and study spaces for 

students at the Schulich 

School of Engineering, the 

Faculty of Science and the 

Institute for Sustainable Energy, 

Environment and Economy. • 

EEEL building 



around campus 

University of Calgary refreshes 

look of the Dinos 

In April, the University 

of Calgary unveiled a 

brand new look for the 

Dinos – including a 

wardrobe makeover for 

Rex, the Dinos' mascot. 

Also announced was a 

new partnership that will 

see the Dinos outfitted 

exclusively in Nike gear. 

The campus community 

agreed that Rex needed 

a fresh look, as the 

previous Dinos logo was 

last updated in the 1990s. 

Extensive consultations 

with the student body, 

alumni, faculty and staff 

in fall 2012 revealed a 

collective desire to boost 

its ‘fierceness’ factor 

while making the entire 

identity system simpler 

and more flexible in how 

it is used across campus. 

The updated identity 

proudly incorporates 

the university’s red and 

gold colours and features 

a ferocious-looking 

Tyrannosaurus Rex ready 

to pounce from behind the 

Dinos name. 

The opportunity to 

implement the refresh 

comes without significant 

expense as it ties into other 

projects already underway 

on campus, including the 

scheduled resurfacing 

of the Jack Simpson 

Gymnasium floor and a 

new partnership involving 

Dinos-branded apparel. 

All consultation, design 

and production work on 

the refreshed identity was 

completed by in-house staff 

at no additional cost. 

The university entered 

into a five-year partnership 

with T. Litzen Sports, the 

exclusive service provider 

of the Nike Team program, 

to outfit the Dinos in 

the iconic ‘swoosh’. The 

extensive agreement brings 

Nike Team/T. Litzen Sports 

on as a significant corporate 

sponsor and will see Nikebranded 

Dinos products 

available in the University 

of Calgary Bookstore, with 

a portion of sales to be 

re-invested in supporting 

Dinos student-athletes. • 

University of Calgary to become global intellectual 

hub with new International Strategy 

In March, the University 

of Calgary launched a new 

International Strategy, a 

key step forward in the 

ambitious Eyes High 

strategic direction. Vice- 

Provost (International) 

Janaka Ruwanpura, former 

Director of the Centre 

for Project Management 

Excellence at the Schulich 

School of Engineering, leads 

the International Strategy for 

the University of Calgary. 

A key target is 

Celebrating 30 

years of 

innovation in 

science and 

technology 

In February, Innovate 

Calgary along with the 


celebrated the achievements 

of individuals with patents 

issued over the past 30 years 

through Innovate Calgary. 

Among the 250 experts 

recognized, several were 

from the Schulich School of 

Engineering: Angus Chu, Ian 

Gates, Gérard Lachapelle, 

Michel Fattouche, Fadhel 

Ghannouchi, Raj Rangayyan, 

Karan Kaler, Bill Rosehart 

and President Elizabeth 

Cannon. • 

increasing the number of 

international students on 

campus to 10 per cent of the 

undergraduate population 

and 25 per cent of the 

graduate population by 

2016. Another target of the 

International Strategy is 

creating opportunities for 

50 per cent of all students 

to have an international 

experience as part of their 

program of studies. 

The International 

Strategy includes four key 

goals: increase the diversity 

of our campus communities; 

improve global and crosscultural 

competencies within 

our campus communities; 

enhance opportunities for 

international collaborations 

and partnerships in research 

and education; and leverage 

our unique areas of expertise 

to engage in international 

development. 

There are six “regions 

of emphasis” where the 

university maintains strong 

ongoing partnerships and 

where we will sharpen our 

focus to develop mutuallybeneficial, 

sustainable 

initiatives. These are 

China, Germany, Mexico, 

the Middle East, Tanzania 

and the United States. The 

strategy also identifies 

another 13 “regions of 

interest” that offer promise 

for future academic and 

research plans. • 

Innovate Calgary 

President Peter 

Garrett (front left) 

and University of 

Calgary President 

Elizabeth Cannon 

(front middle) 

celebrate 30 years 

of innovation 

with University 

of Calgary 

researchers. 

Photo by Brad 

Watson 



EXTENDED FAMILY 

Aerospace engineer and Schulich alumna 

named Graduate of the Last Decade 

Mark your calendar now 

Graduate of the Last 

Decade Award recipient 

Natalie Panek. Photo 

courtesy Natalie Panek. 

Aerospace engineer Natalie 

Panek, BSc’07, set her sights on 

space travel at a young age. This 

year her ambition and achievements 

were recognized with the University 

of Calgary Alumni Association’s 

prestigious Graduate of the Last 

Decade (GOLD) Award. At just 28 

years old, Panek is already inspiring a 

future generation of women in science. 

Panek made history as a member 

of the University of Calgary’s first 

solar car team and driving the vehicle 

in the 2005 North American Solar 

Challenge. She interned at NASA, 

has her pilot’s licence and dreams of 

leaving our atmosphere on a space 

mission some day. Panek, Mission 

Systems Engineer with MDA Space 

Missions, has participated in the 

Cybermentor program since 2008 

and is a mentor for Women in 

Aerospace. Her speaking calendar is 

frequently full and she’s participated 

in numerous panels for International 

Women’s Day. 

The GOLD award recognizes 

graduates under 35 years of age who 

have had early success. 

“Be confident, be courageous,” 

is Panek’s advice for young women 

who are considering science careers. 

“When you are those things you 

are able to invent and innovate and 

change the world.” • 

for Women Engineering 

the Future on 

October 3, 2013 

Students attending will have the 

opportunity to meet and hear from 

successful, interesting and talented 

speakers that have completed 

engineering degrees and leveraged 

their abilities to tailor their careers 

in a multitude of different ways. 

Space is limited. 

ALUMNI EVENTS 

Engineering Students' Society Presidents Dinner 

October 2013 

ESS Presidents from the ‘70s to the present come together for the annual 

ESS Presidents Dinner. As is tradition, this dynamic and enthusiastic 

bunch enjoy a fantastic dinner and lively conversation at the Fairmont 

Palliser Hotel, while hearing about the newest ESS initiatives. 

Death by Chocolate 

November 2013 

Female alumnae, students and friends of the school are invited for an 

evening of chocolate, wine and discussion about important issues facing 

women in engineering today. 

season and leadership in engineering. The Dean’s Award for Corporate 

Leadership and the Canadian Engineering Leader Award are presented 

this evening. 

Speed Geeking 

January 2014 

Alumni and industry professionals are invited to share their career 

experiences and advice with Schulich School of Engineering students 

during this lively, fun evening of mentoring in a “speed dating” format. 

Distinguished Speakers Panel 

March 2014 

Join a panel of experts to discuss current topics in engineering which 

have attracted global attention. 

Nexen Technology 

& Conference Centre 


Dean’s Holiday Reception 

December 2013 

Join Guy Gendron, Dean of the Schulich School of Engineering, at 

the Fairmont Palliser Hotel for a festive evening in celebration of the 

For more information about alumni events, please contact: Pamela 

Bergsteinsson, Manager of Industry and Alumni Relations, 

Phone: 403.220.2548, Email: engineering.alumni@ucalgary.ca • 

To register, visit womenengineers.ca 

Downtown Campus 

48 | SPRING 2013 • SCHULICH ENGINEER

Accelerated Development 

for Young Professionals 


Mentorship, Coaching 

and Training 

We put Civil Engineering interns 

and recent graduates in the 

drivers seat of their careers. 

Publication Mail agreement Publication no. 40064590 Mail agreement no. 40064590 

Return undeliverable Canadian Return addresses undeliverable to: Canadian addresses to: 

Schulich 

Schulich 

E N G I N E E R E N G I N E E R 

EN C202, 2500 University EN Drive C202, NW2500 University Drive NW 

Calgary, opportunities, Alberta, Canada and Calgary,Alberta, the Canada T2N 1N4 

T2N 1N4 

Visit our website to see why Stuart 

Olson Dominion is the best choice 

for your career and to apply today! 

Tell a girl in your life about Cybermentor! 

Get the inside scoop from 

your own online mentor, 

a professional woman 

with a successful career 

in science, technology, 

engineering or math. 


www.sodcl.com 


your own online mentor, 


www.cybermentor.ca 




Cybermentor is a free online mentoring program that matches girls in grades 6 – 12 across Alberta with professional female 

scientists and engineers. By building a relationship with a successful female role model, girls discover new career paths in 

science, technology, engineering and math 

your 

and become 

own 

motivated 

online 

to stay 

mentor, 

in science and math courses in school. 

Cybermentors inspire 

girls with amazing career 

confidence to excel in 

science and math. 







opportunities, and the 



Member of the Churchill Group 



opportunities, and the 



Free to join for 

girls in grades 6-12 

across Alberta. 



across Alberta. 



across Alberta.

motor mania - The Schulich School of Engineering - University of ...

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