News archive for December 2009

Dr. Hugh McQueen, Professor Emeritus with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, was recently featured in two broadcasts celebrating the 150th anniversary of Montreal's Victoria Bridge.

He was featured on CBC's The World This Weekend, which can be listened to at the following website:
http://www.cbc.ca/worldthisweekend/podcast.html
(about 20 minutes into the newscast for Sunday, December 13th

and on the CBC's Daybreak, which can be listened to via RealPlayer at this address:
http://cbc.ca/montreal/media/audio/daybreak/20091214dbk_loreen_bridge_mon_ok_.ram

The Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science is delighted to announce a major funding grant for the research of Professor Lyes Kadem, Assistant Professor with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. To support the research by Dr Kadem and his team, Concordia was awarded $108,052 by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and an equal amount from the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport to build a state-of-the-art laboratory for cardiovascular fluid dynamics. This infrastructure includes a three-dimensional time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) system. Particle image velocimetry is a non-intrusive optical measurement technique allowing the determination of 2D or 3D instantaneous velocity fields.
 
Cardiovascular diseases are the first cause of death in Canada and in many other industrial countries. The number of cases is expected to grow continuously as a consequence of population aging. To further understand the development and the consequences of cardiovascular diseases a multidisciplinary research approach using highly sophisticated infrastructure is needed.

Dr. Kadem's research focuses on biomechanical engineering approaches through experimental and numerical studies of fluid mechanic principles that have already led to significant discoveries related to cardiovascular diseases. For example, fluid mechanic principles for the investigation of heart valve diseases allowed an improvement in the diagnosis of the pathologies affecting the heart valves and understanding their coupling with the disturbances in blood flow.

On December 1, ENCS happily hosted members of Montreal-based financial company, Vigilant Futures, for a very special event: the announcement of a $20,000 donation in support of international graduate scholarships.

On-hand to express their thanks and welcome the Vigilant Futures team were ENCS Dean Robin Drew, CSE Department Chair Sudhir Mudur, who both expressed their deep gratitude for the gift. Said Dean Drew, ""The gift will help increase our credibility and help us attract high calibre students." Dr. Mudur supported this statement, warmly noting that, "our students come from all around the world and these new scholarships will help ease the financial burden of graduate studies."

Arvind Ramanathan, co-founder and co-director or Vigilant Futures also addressed the enthusiastic audience, which was mainly made up of international ENCS graduate students eager to hear about the new funding opportunities the scholarship would bring. Ramanathan, himself a Concordia Alum (BComm '01), reported that about 25 percent of the company's employees are Concordia computer science graduates. "Financial markets are looking for people like you," Ramanathan said to the 25 computer science students on hand, who he hoped might one day become Vigilant Futures employees. He said he was proud to be able to give back to the university that helped him launch his career. "I had a great time at Concordia, a wonderful experience," Ramanathan said.

In just four short years, Vigilant Futures has grown from a team of 3 to 50, with a staff dedicated to the company's mission of eliminating market inefficiencies wherever and whenever they exist. To learn more about the company, please visit their website.

Concordia's Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Robert Fews as its Aerospace Special Advisor. This new position was established in order to facilitate the creation and promotion of apprenticeship opportunities for ENCS students, as well as to help integrate students into the workforce at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The Aerospace Special Advisor will also play an important role in promoting ENCS's aerospace-related activities and programs internally and externally.

Originally hailing from England, Dr. Fews completed a five-year apprenticeship with British Aerospace Ltd, where went on to work as a structures engineer on the Concorde SST project before pursuing a PhD in Aircraft Design from the Cranfield Institute of Technology.  Dr. Fews then came to Canada in 1978, when he accepted a position as Senior Staff Specialist at Canadair Ltd in Montreal. In 1984, he joined Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, where he served as Manager of Technology until 2002, when he became Director of Research for the company, a position which he held until 2009.

Said Dr. Fews of his appointment, "I feel honoured to be part of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science because it has established itself as a major centre for aerospace research and teaching in Montreal." Indeed, Concordia has been a leader in collaborations with industry, as evidenced by its establishment of the Concordia Institute for Aerospace Design and Innovation, as well as its involvement in the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Quebec. With Dr. Robert Fews as a new member of the ENCS team, the Faculty is sure to remain an important leader in this dynamic field.

The Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science is delighted to announce that a project involving our own Dr. Van Suong Hoa and Montreal-based company MPB Technologies has been awarded a "Prix Partenariat Technologique" at the 19th gala of the Association de la recherche industrielle du Québec.

The partnership between MPB and Concordia began in 2003 and has resulted in the development of innovative "self-healing" materials that can lengthen the lifespan of structures used in outer space. Explains Dr. Hoa, "in space, tiny particles like micrometeorites can cause damage to man made structures. By using self-healing materials like those we're working on, organizations such as the Canadian Space Agency can develop structures that will stand up better to the harsh conditions of space."

Dr. Hoa notes that since the partnership with MPB began, much progress with these self-healing materials has been made. In fact, he hopes to see the products he has helped create be tested in space in the near future. Asked what the ADRIQ award meant to him, Hoa smiled broadly and called the win "a great surprise."