SPRING 2009
E N G I N E E R
BACK
TO THE LAND
INSIDE
OIL SANDS 2.0
By Jennifer Allford
DOING MORE WITH LESS LAND
ALSO
TWO QUESTIONS
AN ICONOCLAST
AND HIS HOUSE
By Amy Dowd
By Stewart Brand
By Jay Ingram
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The Schulich School of Engineering
Ranked #1 among engineering schools
in Canada for integrating sustainability
into the school experience
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CONTENTS
Schulich
E NGINE E R
Spring 2009
Permission to reproduce any part of this
publication for commercial purposes should
be obtained by writing to the address below.
Reproduction for other purposes should
acknowledge the source.
Viewpoint
2
Features
5
8
Mary Anne Moser
Director of Communications
16
Jennifer Allford, Amy Dowd, Sam Kolias,
Jennifer Sowa
Doing more with less land
Reversing suburbanization and engineering
affordable housing
By Amy Dowd
Amy Dowd
Communications Officer
Contributors
Oil sands 2.0
Creative solutions to environmental problems may be
the silver lining of the energy sector slowdown
By Jennifer Allford
Editorial Team
Jennifer Sowa
Media Relations Officer
Two questions
By Stewart Brand
Dean
Elizabeth Cannon
The homeless can be great neighbours
By Sam Kolias
24
An iconoclast and his house
By Jay Ingram
Photography
If a tree falls in the forest, can GPS
researchers detect it?
Ken Bendiktsen, Amy Dowd, Greg Fulmes,
James May, David Moll, Grady Semmens,
Jennifer Sowa
Meet the vanguard in tracking animals and fighting
forest fires using wireless technology
By Jennifer Sowa
Design
ID8 Design Group
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
Email: magazine@schulich.ucalgary.ca
Website: www.schulich.ucalgary.ca
26
Departments
3
News
7
In conversation with Ed Nowicki
32
In conversation with Alec McDougall
34
Donor Stories
35
In the Community
36
Reverse Engineering
DID YOU KNOW?
Whether riverbanks are public or private property
depends on where you live.
On the cover: prototype of an affordable
housing development designed by students
at the Schulich School of Engineering
Answer from page 5: The Stewart Brand article
is reprinted with permission from Wired magazine.
It was originally published in 1995.
According to international common law, if the
waterway is not navigable – such as a narrow river –
ownership extends to the middle of the river. If the
water is navigable or tidal, property extends only to
the high water mark.
But in some Canadian provinces, including Alberta,
the Crown has reserved title to all bodies of water.
Waterways and shorelines are public property.
Source: www.duhaime.org
VIEWPOINT
THE HOMELESS CAN BE
GREAT NEIGHBOURS
f
BY SAM KOLIAS
GOING BACK TO THE LAND HAS BEEN A COLD,
HARD REALITY FOR MANY CALGARIANS.
A
ccording to the Biennial Count of
Homeless Persons in Calgary, there
were 4,060 homeless individuals in
the city in 2008, an increase of 18 percent
in just two years. This is not just a local
phenomenon but a national trend, despite
the efforts of governments and
communities at all levels. In March 2009,
the Province of Alberta unveiled the
country’s first provincial strategy to end
homelessness: a 10-year plan to provide
immediate housing along with mental
health services, addictions counseling and
employment training.
When it comes to housing, we must keep
in mind that it is not just quality that is
important, but how many people have
access to it. Too much focus on the quality
of housing while taking on large amounts
of debt has led us into the midst of a
financial crisis. By refocusing on housing
basics and working with existing resources,
we can develop the foundation that will
lead us out of this crisis.
We have a golden window of opportunity
to end homelessness in the city over the
next decade. In order to achieve this goal,
the focus must be on the land and existing
structures rather than on new
development. In going back to basics, we
can apply the three R’s of sustainability:
reduce, reuse and recycle.
For years, groups have advocated
providing homes for the homeless as an
ethical necessity, but there are
socioeconomic benefits, too. Take the
example of a famous study on a homeless
man in Nevada nicknamed Million Dollar
Murray. The state spent more than a
million dollars on Murray over a 10-year
period while he was in and out of
emergency care and police services. After
he was provided a safe, warm and clean
place to live, the amount of taxpayers’
dollars spent on Murray dropped from
hundreds of thousands to tens of
thousands per year. The solution sounds
obvious now. Who can be expected to stay
healthy and earn a living when a necessity
as basic as shelter is out of reach?
One visionary leader in addressing the
issue of homelessness in Calgary was the
late Art Smith. He was listening to the
radio one cold night more than 10 years
ago when he heard the number of
homeless people in the city was growing.
Smith quickly concluded something was
wrong when there was so much prosperity
in Calgary and still so many individuals
with no homes to call their own. He was
determined to find a solution and founded
the Calgary Homeless Foundation in 1998,
a collaborative effort between community
organizations and governments at the
municipal, provincial and federal levels.
SCHULICH
02
ENGINEER
Another Calgary community leader who
has been instrumental in the area of
homelessness is Jim Gray. He spearheaded
the effort to establish the Calgary Committee
to End Homelessness. Its task was to develop
a plan to end homelessness in Calgary within
10 years. The plan was based on an American
“housing first” model pioneered by Sam
Tsemberis, a faculty member of the
Department of Psychiatry of the New York
University School of Medicine. Tsemberis
founded Pathways to Housing in 1990, an
organization based on the premise that
housing is a basic human right that should
not be denied to anyone, even if he or she is
abusing alcohol or other substances. This
makes Pathways to Housing unique because
many other models require participants to
be free of drugs and alcohol or agree to seek
treatment in exchange for housing.
The Province of Alberta has been
entrepreneurial in providing initial funding
for a similar organization led by Dr. Pam
Thompson called Pathways to Housing
Calgary. The goal is to reduce the number
of homeless individuals on the streets of
Calgary. Boardwalk Rental Communities
was the first to offer to provide the housing
component, recognizing that the priority
has to be on providing housing options to
homeless individuals. This partnership
proves people who lack solid income can
still be good, respectful neighbours.
Social housing projects are known for their
stigma, but there are great residents who
are poor and unemployed just as there are
great residents who have good incomes and
are employed. There should be a focus on
the benefits to the community of having
residents who are respectful of their
neighbours and property, rather than on
how much income they generate.
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For years, groups have
advocated providing homes
for the homeless as an ethical
necessity, but there are
socioeconomic benefits, too.
Many have argued that the focus should
be on building new social housing to
increase the physical supply. However, the
true supply of rental housing is better
measured by turnover (the number of
tenants moving out), not vacancy. Many
fail to realize that, even when vacancy is
low, turnover is between 40 percent and
50 percent on a yearly basis.
The most affordable type of housing is
shared housing, making rental apartments
the most affordable option for Canadians
today. Boardwalk initiated a pilot project
in 2007 to convert two-bedroom
apartments into shared housing that can
accommodate up to three individuals per
suite. Because the most expensive living
spaces to build are kitchens and
bathrooms, they are designated as shared
or common areas in the suite, while each
resident is provided with a private living
and sleeping space. As a result of this
slight reconfiguration, rental prices for
individuals can be reduced by
approximately 33 percent when compared
to a typical one-bedroom unit. This pilot
project demonstrates how we can create
affordable housing in a cost-effective
manner without consuming additional
land resources. That is a smart way to get
back to the land.
Sam Kolias has been a director of the Calgary
Homeless Foundation since its inception more
than a decade ago. He graduated from the
University of Calgary in 1983 with a degree
in civil engineering and is chair and CEO of
Boardwalk Real Estate Investment Trust.
Animals, lakes and forests the focus of new
research centre
New methods of observing and monitoring vast landscapes with amazing
accuracy is the focus of a new research program at the University of Calgary that
received $11.6 million from the federal government in January.
The new Centre of Excellence for Integrated Resource Management will be the
first of its kind in the world to focus geomatics engineering expertise towards the
complex problems of large-scale resource and environmental management. The
scientific lead will be Naser El-Sheimy, Canada Research Chair in Multi-Sensor
Systems at the Schulich School of Engineering. The Universities of Alberta and
Lethbridge will be involved in addition to industry and government.
"We are a resource-based province and without the proper tools we won’t be able
to maintain and manage these resources in an effective manner," El-Sheimy said.
Alberta is a recognized world leader in geomatics engineering. Forty percent of the
geomatics industry in Canada is based in Alberta.
Rose Goldstein, U of C Vice-President (Research), Gary Goodyear, Minister of
State (Science and Technology) and Naser El-Sheimy announce new resource
management research centre.
Photo by Ken Bendiktsen
Architectural firm selected for new engineering
building
A Calgary firm, Gibbs Gage Architects, in collaboration with Diamond and Schmitt
Architects out of Toronto, were commissioned to develop the first phase of a
proposed $100-million-plus expansion and renovation project for the Schulich
School of Engineering.
Detailed plans for a new building are expected to be unveiled in late 2009.
The intention is to add much-needed space and to create a focal point for the
school – both a heart and front door – by making optimal use of new construction
to unify existing structures.
SCHULICH
03
ENGINEER
NEWS
Schulich grad Robert Thirsk
on longest Canadian space
station mission
In his final public appearance before a six-month
mission aboard the International Space Station,
Canadian astronaut and U of C graduate Robert
Thirsk explained the purpose of the expedition to
an audience at the Schulich School of Engineering.
“If there’s one activity that’s going to characterize
what this mission will be known for, it will be the
level of research,” said Thirsk. This is Canada’s first
long-duration expedition on the space station.
From May to November, Thirsk will conduct dozens
of experiments on behalf of Canadian and
international researchers. He will help study the
effect of zero-gravity on bodily functions such as
circulation, respiration and bone demineralization,
a serious condition associated with space flight.
Thirsk is taking part in an experiment to test whether
astronauts can benefit from a drug that is used to
maintain bone mass in post-menopausal women.
Robert Thirsk explains the objectives of Expedition 20/21.
Photo by Ken Bendiktsen
Alberta-wide mentoring
program hooks up with
the world of social networking
Cybermentor is believed to be North America’s
largest mentoring program dedicated to
attracting women to the science and
engineering professions. It is based at the
Schulich School of Engineering at the
University of Calgary and is a partnership with
the University of Alberta and the Alberta
Women’s Science Network.
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Teenage girls in Alberta have a new social
networking site called Cybermentor where they
can chat with scientists and engineers about
their everyday lives and careers.
“Our goal is to raise awareness of the range of
careers and get young girls interested in science
and engineering,” said Julia Millen,
Cybermentor program director. The online
mentoring program was launched in January
2009 and matches girls 11 to 18 years of age
with female scientists and engineers.
T
More than 60 students from the Calgary Girls’ School attended the launch of Cybermentor.ca.
Photo by Amy Dowd
There has been a steady decline in enrollment
in science and engineering programs around
the world, especially among girls. Alberta is
bucking the trend, thanks to intensive efforts
to attract more women to those fields. At the
University of Calgary’s Schulich School of
Engineering, 24 percent of undergraduate
students are female, which is well above the
national average of 17.5 percent.
SCHULICH
04
ENGINEER
Studies show that role models
and mentors play a crucial role in
decisions to pursue science and
engineering studies.
er
TWO QUESTIONS
BY
STEWART BR AND
ON
her album, Bright Red, Laurie
Anderson posed the big one –
“What I really want to know is:
are things getting better, or are they
getting worse?”
What do you think? Are things getting
better, or are they getting worse? (Answer
three times; the question is worth it.
First answers are usually knee-jerk.
Second answers tend to be cute. Third
answers to the same question sometimes
tell the truth.)
While you’re working through your answers,
I’ll talk about Herman Kahn and free will.
The late, great futurist Kahn used to ponder
the question of free will with his audiences.
“It’s a fundamental question,” he would say.
“Do we have free will, or is everything
determined? I don’t have an answer I’m sure
of, but I am convinced that people behave
better when they think they have free will.
They take responsibility more, and they
think about their choices more. So I believe
in free will.”
Reap now, sow nothing.
But if you think things are getting better,
you invest in the future. Sow now, reap later.
How you think about the future depends in
part on how you think about time.
HERE IS A TEST.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED
IN WIRED MAGAZINE. IT IS ABOUT THE
WAY WE LOOK AT THE STATE OF THE
ENVIRONMENT. TRY TO GUESS WHEN
IT WAS WRITTEN – WHAT YEAR?
Most people these days believe things are
getting worse. At Global Business Network,
we help strategists in large organizations all
over the world shape their future. Their
view of it is almost always bleak. We also
study opinion surveys from around the
world. Same thing: people everywhere are
worried about the future. (The only two
exceptions we’ve found are businesspeople
in Southeast Asia and readers of Wired.)
(THE ANSWER IS ON THE TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE.)
Laurie Anderson has another question on
her album: “Is time long, or is it wide?”
I’d like to know her interpretation of that
question. Mine is that time can be thought
of in terms of everything-happening-nowand-last-week-and-next-week (wide) or as a
deep, flowing process in which centuries are
minor events (long). The wide view sees
events as most influenced by what is
happening at the moment. The long view
perceives events as most influenced by
history – “much was decided before you
were born.” The wide view is disparaged as
“short-term thinking.”
Maybe that’s as it should be. There is a lot
to worry about. If people fret enough,
maybe they’ll take measures to fix things
before things get worse.
Preserve us from witless optimists!
On the other hand, how does the question
play against Herman Kahn’s pragmatism
test? Do people behave better when they
think things are getting better or when
they think things are getting worse? If
you truly think things are getting worse,
won’t you grab everything you can, while
you can? >>
Maybe that’s as it should be. There is a lot
to worry about. If people fret enough,
maybe they’ll take measures to fix things
before things get worse.
The long view is praised as responsible.
Wide time is on the increase these days, and
for good reason. Technology seems to be
accelerating, and you have to keep up.
Networks and markets, instead of staid old
hierarchies, rule, and you have to keep up.
Wired readers, I warrant, are largely
wide-timers. When you look at our sense of
the deep past and the deep future, both are
faux – medieval fantasies in one direction,
space fantasies in the other. We are
interested in, for instance, the exponential
growth of the Web. It’s useless to try to
imagine what the Web might be like in, say,
2045 (as far-removed in time as Hiroshima),
so we don’t bother. Does this mean that
technoids and their camp-followers are
responsibility-impaired?
Also, we’re calamity callers. We’re the
leading apostles of Things Are Getting
Worse. Gregg Easterbrook has written a
whole fat book of environmental good
news called A Moment on the Earth, in
which he fricassees his fellow
environmentalists for scanting their many
successes and occasionally lying about
their problems (he points out that spotted
owls abound in second-growth forests, for
example). Some years back, pioneer
environmentalist René Dubos – who
coined the phrase “Think globally, act
locally” – wrote a paean to the places
where humans and natural systems blend
beautifully. It was titled The Wooing of the
Earth. It is long out-of-print.
Dubos and Easterbrook have the
responsible approach. Things are getting
better. Sow now, reap later.
Could be.
Environmentalists are supposed to be the
long-view specialists these days, but I think
we do it poorly. I was trained as an ecologist,
so I know how extremely limited our
“longitudinal studies” are – about the length
of time it takes to get a graduate degree.
Because it is the long, slow fluctuations and
cycles that most influence everything in
ecology, we still don’t have the most
important information on how natural
systems actually work over time.
As for Laurie Anderson, in recent concerts
she told of interviewing avant-garde
composer John Cage when he was 80 –
“an age when most people are in a bad
mood.” She put the better-or-worse
question to him. Cage hedged cheerfully
for a while and then admitted he thought
things are getting better – slowwwly.
That’s just right.
Stewart Brand is a co-founder of The Well,
the Hacker’s Conference, and the Global
Business Network. He is the author of the
seminal book, The Media Lab.
SCHULICH
06
ENGINEER
IN CONVERSATION
WITH ED NOWICKI
What separates
the successful
inventions from the
failures? What makes
someone a good
inventor?
Ed Nowicki is associate director of the Centre for Environmental Engineering Research and Education at the Schulich
School of Engineering and a consultant for companies and inventors who are developing alternative energy technology.
Q:
What kinds of companies do you
work with?
A:
I have enjoyed working with a
Calgary-based company, Sustainable
Energy Technologies, that designs and
manufactures power inverters primarily
for solar panels, and I am currently
working with a Vancouver-based
company, ExRo Technologies. They have
a new electrical generator that is ideal
for wind power. I am also currently
working with a wonderful inventor who
has some radical views on the design of
motors and generators.
Q:
How many crazy ideas does it take to
produce a solid viable company?
A:
Maybe a million. For people who are
good at this sort of thing, maybe a few
thousand.
Q:
A:
Do we need more wacky ideas?
It’s important to start with ideas that
may seem impossible. Today’s crazy idea
may become tomorrow’s common sense.
It’s important to be adaptable and open
to different ideas when it comes to
developing new technology. We need
creativity and respect for multiple
disciplines. These are going to be vital
characteristics of engineers in the future.
Q:
If you had to pinpoint one feature,
what separates the successful
inventions from the failures?
A:
To me, an invention is successful if it
reduces the negative impacts of
humanity on this planet. So Daylight
Savings Time is a successful invention
because it reduces the need for
electricity. Perhaps another point of
view is that the successful invention
truthfully answers the question: what
do we need in this moment?
Q:
What makes someone a good
inventor?
A:
That’s not easy to answer. Some
common traits include: maintaining the
beginner mind frame; constantly
asking questions about everything, but
accepting your friends as they are; a
fertile imagination while being
grounded or having a grounding friend.
Q:
A:
Does your job require creativity?
Sure, I guess any job requires creativity.
There are unbounded possibilities to be
taken advantage of by combining
compassion and creativity.
SCHULICH
07
ENGINEER
Q:
What’s the best advice you ever
gave someone?
A:
Follow your heart.
Q:
A:
What is the worst advice?
Q:
What do you think our energy
system is going to look like in the
future?
A:
One technology is not going to be the
answer, so we need to avoid the
bandwagon mindset. I feel confident
that electrical wind generation can
make a difference, but we can’t just put
up wind turbines all over the world.
We need to consider the migration
patterns of birds and bats. Also, studies
show that too many wind turbines can
affect the climate. A balanced solution
could mean a combination of hydro,
river and wind turbines, passive and
active solar panel technology, various
types of biomass, compressed air
technologies and possibly some biofuel
technology. It’s going to take a variety
of answers to help us heal the planet.
Supplement your income by going
into the stock market.
M
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P
OIL SANDS 2.0
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS MAY
BE THE SILVER LINING OF THE ENERGY SECTOR SLOWDOWN
BY JENNIFER ALLFORD
M
ore than two centuries ago, a fur
trader in northern Alberta stuck
a pole 20 feet deep into a river
of bitumen.
One hundred years after that, a geological
expedition predicted with astounding accuracy
that there was great economic value to the
vast pools of bitumen.
The men on the 1889 expedition would likely
have some understanding about the economic
challenges of developing the resource: booms
and busts, low commodity prices and even
perhaps the pain of a global recession.
But those early scientists couldn’t have
fathomed worldwide concern over climate
change, an environmental movement that
has moved firmly into the mainstream, and
international outrage about dead ducks in
a tailings pond.
As the companies developing the oil sands
navigate through difficult economic
circumstances, they must also address
increased regulation and a growing number
of critics and customers who are demanding
truly sustainable development of the resource.
This new challenge facing development of the
second largest hydrocarbon deposit in the
world will be met with a little public relations
and a whole lot of technology.
“They’ve got our attention and now it’s a
question of how you address that,” says
Kendall Dilling, Manager, Oil Sands
Environment and Regulatory at the
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
(CAPP), a group that represents and lobbies
for the industry. “It’s one part education and
getting the proper facts and context out
there and the other part is actually improving
the performance.”
Moslem Mohebati analyzes a produced
liquid mixture of bitumen, water and solvent.
Photo by Greg Fulmes
SCHULICH
09
ENGINEER
“It’s an exciting field,” says Jocelyn Grozic,
associate professor of civil engineering at
the Schulich School of Engineering at
U of C. She is working on carbon storage,
specifically how to lock carbon dioxide –
a greenhouse gas – inside gas hydrates in
reservoirs. “The idea is to store enormous
amounts of carbon dioxide in very compact
form,” she says.
Grozic and Mehran Pooladi-Darvish,
professor of chemical and petroleum
engineering, are working on a three-year
study funded by the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
“I don’t see much standing in the way of
applying this,” Grozic says. “We need to do a
little more work on permeabilities – the flow
of CO2 through the soil – and look at the
economics of it as well.” Grozic predicts this
carbon storage method could be ready for
use in the oil patch within ten years.
Other innovations, particularly those
looking at more effective in situ operations,
could be in use much earlier. The standard
in situ technology was developed 30 years
ago by engineer Roger Butler. He came up
with a radical notion to drill a pair of
horizontal wells and pump steam into the
top one so bitumen could loosen up and
drain into the bottom well. The process is
called steam-assisted gravity drainage
(SAGD). Now it is being improved upon
with a number of innovations that promise
to improve its economic and environmental
performance.
CAPP says there are a number of
technologies being tested in the field
right now.
“Many people think this is pie-in-the-sky
kind of stuff but these technologies are right
there and I think the lion’s share of future in
situ production is going to be using these, or
some hybrid of them,” says Dilling. >>
Drilling at Laricina's Winterburn
injectivity test well
Photo courtesy Laricina Energy
“It depends on the type of heavy oil and
the reservoir pressure and temperature,”
he says. “The results of preliminary
numerical experiments show that
co-injecting even a low concentration
of a solvent with steam can improve the
SAGD efficiency, if the right methodology
and a suitable solvent are selected.”
As the companies
developing the oil sands
navigate through difficult
economic circumstances,
they must also address
increased regulation and a
growing number of critics
and customers who are
demanding truly
sustainable development
of the resource.
One of these technologies is being
developed by Calgary energy company
Petrobank. Its Toe-to-Heel Air Injection
(THAI) could be in commercial use next
year. This process eliminates the need for
steam (and water) and therefore could
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half.
Another Calgary company, E-T Energy,
expects its technology – using electrical
currents instead of steam to heat the
bitumen – will be in full commercial
production within a few years. It eliminates
the need for water and, depending on
the source of the electricity, it could also
reduce emissions.
Excelsior Energy just announced plans for
a pilot project in 2011 using a process
called Combustion Overhead Gravity
Drainage (COGD). This method was
developed in conjunction with the In Situ
Combustion Research Group at the Schulich
School of Engineering. COGD could
significantly reduce water usage and fuel
gas consumption because it involves air
injection instead of steam.
“When you look at gravity drainage, it’s
all about mobilization of the bitumen that
drains,” says the president and CEO of
Laricina Energy, Glen Schmidt, a graduate
of the engineering school at U of C. Laricina
is one of a number of companies testing the
use of solvents in SAGD operations.
CAPP expects solvents and other
innovations will have a significant impact
on reducing emissions and, therefore,
reducing criticism.
Mehran Pooladi-Darvish (left) and Jocelyn Grozic
check the calibration on a series of high pressure
syringe pumps used in their research on storing
CO2 in hydrates.
Photo by Ken Bendiktsen
Schmidt uses automotive metaphors to
describe the various methods. He says the
conventional gas engine can be compared
to conventional SAGD, which uses natural
gas to create steam to soften the bitumen.
The new plug and drive cars are equivalent
to new recovery technologies that do not
require steam, such as Petrobank's THAI
process and E-T Energy's electrical current
approach. Laricina uses a combination of
steam and solvents.
“We’re like a hybrid car,” says Schmidt.
“It’s not gasoline, it’s not electric, it’s
somewhere in between and captures the
attributes of both.”
Using solvents demands precision; a solvent
that works in one reservoir won’t necessarily
work in another, says Moslem Mohebati, a
PhD candidate in chemical and petroleum
engineering at the Schulich School of
Engineering.
“Solvents add many complexities to the
process and have to be assessed separately
for each individual reservoir and different
circumstances,” says Mohebati, who is
investigating some of those complexities
under the supervision of professors Brij
Maini and Tom Harding.
SCHULICH
10
ENGINEER
"In the next five to seven years I think
most new oil sands projects will be
equivalent to conventional oil in terms
of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions
per barrel," says Dilling. "As soon as you
get on par with a conventional barrel of
imported Saudi crude landed to the
United States, I believe the greenhouse
gas issue will be greatly diminished."
But the environmental issues around
mining in the oil sands are less likely to
go away any time soon. For decades, oil
companies have been left to voluntarily
manage their tailings – a toxic mix of
water, sands, silt, clay and residual
bitumen – that is created in the
upgrading process.
Northern Alberta’s 130 square kilometres
of tailings ponds gained international
infamy last year when over 1,600 ducks
died after landing on a Syncrude tailings
pond that was covered in snow. The
company was charged with breaking a
number of environmental laws.
In addition, Alberta’s Energy Resources
Conservation Board (ERCB) has come
out with what it calls “firm requirements
for oil sands operators to manage their
tailings – and meet those requirements –
or face enforcement action.” The ERCB
has imposed new targets and timelines
for companies to transform tailings into
solid deposits beginning in 2010.
Companies must reduce by half the
amount of fine particles in the tailings
and have all tailings ponds dried out
and ready for reclamation within five
years of becoming inactive. >>
n
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s
–
SCHULICH
11
ENGINEER
Moslem Mohebati prepares equipment
for a high-pressure SAGD experiment.
Photo by Greg Fulmes
Laricina’s cold solvent test well in Saleski, Alberta: preparing to convert to production
Photo courtesy Laricina Energy
The industry says complying with the
regulations will be a challenge, while critics
say the new rules don’t go far enough.
“One of the problems is when people
think of the oil sands, they think of
mines,” says Dilling of CAPP. “Mines do
have a big footprint, and they have tailings
ponds issues that we’re still grappling
with, but that’s only three percent of the
resource.” The vast majority of oil sands is
buried deep below the surface and require
in situ methods.
As the public relations battle continues,
so too does the economic one.
“It is going to be an ugly year,” says
Laricina’s Glen Schmidt. “We’re going to
be careful. We’re implementing our solvent
tests and we’re carrying out our drilling,
but we will not launch our larger projects
until we have stabilization in the market.”
Schmidt projects the economy may not recover
until 2011 or 2012. “Companies are going to be
very careful. Employment impacts on the city
and the province are going to be substantive,”
he says.
Still, he admits the slowdown is spurring
companies to get more innovative. “The
investors are looking for you to be more creative
because it makes you more competitive.”
Dilling thinks this could be an excellent time
to hunker down and perfect some technology.
“One of the problems we had in the last few
years when things were booming so hard was
that we had these new technologies, but we
didn’t have the human resource capacity to
switch gears because every engineer was
full-bore on existing projects just trying to
keep up,” he says.
“Energy needs are driven by one thing and
one thing only: population,” says Glen Schmidt.
“A billion more people are going to arrive on
this planet in the next ten years and they all
need to be fed, clothed and housed.”
SCHULICH
14
ENGINEER
The investors are looking
for you to be more
creative because it makes
you more competitive.
That is a challenge engineers such as
Moslem Mohebati are eager to meet.
“Striving to recover hydrocarbon, heavy oil
and bitumen here in Canada in a cleaner
and more efficient way gives you the
satisfaction of having made a splendid
contribution to the world around you.”
Jennifer Allford is a former CBC radio reporter.
She is a communications consultant, freelance
writer and frequent contributor to More
magazine. Her work has also appeared in the
National Post, the Calgary Herald and
Avenue magazine.
il
er.
e
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.
For more information, visit www.schulich.ucalgary.ca
Write to us at:
Past recipients:
Dean, Schulich School of Engineering
EN C202, University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
Calgary, AB T2N 1N4
2008 –
2007 –
2006 –
2005 –
2004 –
2003 –
info@schulich.ucalgary.ca
Gwyn Morgan
Barry Lester
Charles Fischer
Kathleen E. Sendall
Arthur Dumont
Gerald Maier
D
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BY
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Schulic
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confere
SCHULICH
16
ENGINEER
Photo b
DOING MORE WITH LESS LAND
Pressure for affordable housing means reversing suburbanization.
Engineering students tackle housing for the urban homeless to start.
BY AMY DOWD
IT
It was a foreboding artist’s rendition
of Calgary’s homeless population:
4,060 tiny Monopoly houses in row
upon row that seemed to go on forever. It
was the work of artist Marjan Eggermont.
She created the exhibit for a national
conference on homelessness.
When I first saw Eggermont’s exhibit, I
imagined all those little houses everywhere
but half the players perpetually stuck on
Boardwalk, never able to pass Go because
they couldn’t afford the rent. It’s an analogy
that allows me to wrap my mind around a
reality that’s not a game; for the countless
Calgarians who can’t afford a place to live,
that’s life. The city’s homeless population
suffers a 24/7 vulnerability and what they
need most, arguably what most major cities
need most, is affordable housing.
As Calgary alderman Bob Hawkesworth
gestured to the stacks of paper piled in
front of him during a conference
presentation on transit-oriented
development and affordable housing, he
readily admitted, “Having these documents
only helps you so far. At some point, the
implementation becomes quite a significant
challenge. When you have the planning
department, transportation and the
housing folks operating in three different
silos, getting them to work together has
been a challenge.”
Students are increasingly
on the front lines as city
planners tackle Calgary’s
laundry list of urban
dilemmas: sprawl, dismally
long commutes,
architectural monotony,
automobile-dependent
households and the
extortionate cost of housing.
But the good news for Calgary is that
solutions are simmering away on all four
burners, so to speak. From transit-oriented,
high-density and mixed-use developments
to communities based on the Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
neighbourhood development model, it
seems the economic, social and political
stakeholders are beginning to confront the
barriers that keep creative schematics and
pillars of paperwork from ever leaving the
table. But it’s not all stuff you may have
seen before. Add to the list of ingredients a
student-based project of mass proportions
at the Schulich School of Engineering, and
Calgary may start to look a lot different in
the not-so-distant future.
Schulich artist-in-residence and senior instructor Marjan
Eggermont at her exhibit at the national Growing Home
conference at the University of Calgary
Photo by Greg Fulmes
SCHULICH
17
ENGINEER
Transit-oriented developments like the
Brentwood Village project have been
making headlines here since last year.
Proximity to transit is crucial for those who
can’t afford to drive to work or to health
care providers, not to mention the positive
environmental factors. A potential model
for future developments, the Brentwood
densification project will need to overcome
certain challenges associated with changing
the face of one of Calgary’s most
established communities. Current residents
and local not-in-my-backyard naysayers are
worried about decreased property values,
taller building complexes, diminished
security and overcrowding.
The developer behind the Twin Hills
project, a LEED model community planned
for a few kilometres east of Calgary argues
that this model will actually achieve the
opposite result of the NIMBY worst-case
scenario: a close-knit, energetic and
commercially viable community
reminiscent of a small town. Though still in
the planning stages, Twin Hills aims to
feature a variety of mixed income houses, a
wealth of small and corporate business
opportunities, close proximity to transit
routes and loads of green space. >>
During his presentation at the housing
conference, Bob Hawkesworth enthusiastically
praised projects like Twin Hills for their
integrated approach to planning. “If we could
approach our thinking around planning with
this degree of integration and somehow get
the province and the city to be thinking about
this, then I think we could address many of
these barriers … Everyone has to sit down in a
team and come up with an integrated design
for that building and think very hard about
what that building is going to achieve and how
it’s all going to fit together,” remarked
Hawkesworth.
Who better to weigh in on the issue
of creating affordable housing
solutions than students?
Hearing that, Marjan Eggermont, this time in
her role as senior instructor at the Schulich
School of Engineering, must have known she
was on the right track, as this was precisely the
challenge she put to 650 first-year engineering
students for their final project of the year.
Who better to weigh in on the issue of creating
affordable housing solutions than students?
Perhaps owing to the close proximity of the
Brentwood Village transit-oriented
development scheme, students are increasingly
on the front lines as city planners tackle
Calgary’s laundry list of urban dilemmas:
sprawl, dismally long commutes, architectural
monotony, automobile-dependent households
and the extortionate cost of housing.
Eggermont designed the assignment with the
help of second-year chemical engineering
student Madiha Khurshid. Last year, Khurshid
was awarded a grant to take part in Programs
for Undergraduate Research Experience
(PURE) and Eggermont was her supervisor.
Khurshid pursued the project as a way to get
students to explore the role of engineers in
solving social issues – something she feels so
strongly about, it drew her to add a biomedical
engineering specialization to her degree.
Khurshid won a Social Sustainability Award
from the U of C’s Office of Sustainability for
her resulting research. >>
SCHULICH
18
ENGINEER
TOP LEFT:
Students Jeffrey Savage, Baldwin
Chui and Orest Nazarewycz put
the finishing touches on their
prototype of an affordable
housing unit.
TOP RIGHT AND BOTTOM:
Prototypes of affordable housing
developments designed by
students at the Schulich School
of Engineering
SCHULICH
19
ENGINEER
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SCHULICH
20
ENGINEER
It’s important for engineering
students to see the human side
of engineering.
“It’s important for engineering students to see
the human side of engineering,” says Khurshid.
“They bring a unique perspective to affordable
housing solutions because they’re analytical
thinkers and very practical people.”
Khurshid and Eggermont challenged students
to design affordable housing that is structurally
sound, sustainable, cost-effective, aesthetically
pleasing, functional, client-focused and
informed by community input. The student
designers also had to account for the needs
of at least three categories of clients from a list
of 10 options: single men and women, families
with children, students, temporary workers,
youth, seniors and people with disabilities,
addictions and mental illnesses. The end
products were 24 prototypes that Eggermont
hopes will have real-life applications, showing
stakeholders what affordable housing based on
good design can achieve.
Recognizing there is a certain stigma attached
to the idea of affordable housing, course
planners worked tirelessly to pull together a
range of affordable, mixed use, experimental,
inclusively designed and modular housing
examples from around the world to fuel the
innovative fires of their students. From
Container City in London, England, and Habitat
67 in Montreal to Spacebox and cube houses in
The Netherlands, Eggermont suggests that the
student-designed modular-type complexes
could potentially fit into existing, planned and
new mixed-use developments in Calgary such
as Twin Hills.
The Keetwonen project: a 1,000-unit student
housing complex in Amsterdam
Photos by Rob van Uchelen
© www.tempohousing.com
Affordable housing advocates are adamant
about making sure the units blend with the
neighbourhood in which they’re built and stress
the necessity of meeting the ongoing needs of
the end user, from move in to move out.
“You can’t just put people in a place and expect
them to thrive. We need to make sure there is a
good social structure attached,” warns Claudette
Bradshaw, former federal labour minister and
coordinator on homelessness. >>
SCHULICH
21
ENGINEER
An artist's depiction of a 250-unit student housing project in the Netherlands
Image © www.tempohousing.com
End users may need medical assistance,
addictions counseling, life skills training or
other such support. “People don’t just go
from living on the streets to living in
affordable housing,” said Scott Holland, a
superintendent with Emergency Medical
Services at the City of Calgary.
Calgary is the only city in North America
that still has super-shelters. Bodman
used the Calgary Drop-in Centre, built to
a capacity of 660 but regularly
accommodating 1,250 people at a time,
to illustrate his point that the city needs
to invest in housing not shelters.
Security is another major concern, and the
list goes on: location, concentration, shared
or unshared space, harm reduction.
“Shelters are not working, especially here
in Calgary. We need to get people off the
streets,” says Bodman. “You go into
treatment, you get out and there’s
nowhere to go.”
John Bodman is a recovering drug addict who
became homeless at the ago of 50. Now, he
works with the Calgary Homeless Foundation
to end homelessness in the City of Calgary.
SCHULICH
22
ENGINEER
Alyssa Cruz has seen similar cases. She is
a registered nurse who volunteers with
the Calgary Homeless Foundation and
currently works with the Pathways to
Housing project. She has seen hospital
patients who are treated and discharged
back to the streets, only to end up back at
the hospital. For her, affordable housing is
a way to potentially end this cycle. Just
recently, the Alberta government approved
a $3.3-billion plan to invest in permanent
housing in an attempt to eradicate
homelessness in Alberta. It is a plan that
aims to halve the current economic burden
of the shelter system and one that will
require the creation of more affordable
housing in the city.
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“It seems like affordable housing is always a
back-burner issue,” says first-year student
Andre Leaute. He kickstarted his team’s effort
with a trip to the Calgary Drop-in Centre and
Salvation Army Centre for Hope, selecting a
client base composed of a mix of temporary
workers and people with addictions and
mental illnesses. These demographics make
up the largest percentage of people who use
those centres. For Leaute, the greatest
challenge wasn’t designing the structure itself
but balancing the needs of the users with the
concerns of the community.
“You can’t just propose a giant building in
one community,” he says. “You don’t have
to build big to make it affordable; our
design is totally self-sustainable with a
realistic operating budget.”
Leaute’s design was constructed from
shipping containers that can be adjusted
in size to fit the community.
“We want our students to design the
affordable housing of the future. This
project was a great opportunity to be
involved in one of most complex issues
cities across North America face today:
reversing suburbanization and creating
livable cities for all,” says Marjan
Eggermont.
Amy Dowd is the communications officer for
the Schulich School of Engineering.
SCHULICH
23
ENGINEER
AN ICONOCLAST AND HIS HOUSE
BY
JAY ING R A M
BILL LISHMAN’S AFFAIR WITH ULTRALIGHT
AIRCRAFT TELLS YOU ALL YOU NEED TO
KNOW ABOUT HIM. FIRST ATTRACTED TO
THEM WHEN HE WAS A TEENAGER, HE
EVENTUALLY BECAME AN ACCOMPLISHED
PILOT. HE HAD ALSO ALWAYS WANTED TO
FLY WITH THE BIRDS — HE KNEW ABOUT
KONRAD LORENZ’S EXPERIMENTS WITH
IMPRINTING, AND HE PUT IT ALL
TOGETHER: IF HE COULD GET YOUNG,
HAND-REARED GEESE TO IMPRINT ON HIS
ULTRALIGHT, THEY’D FOLLOW HIM IN THE
AIR AS THEY WOULD THEIR MOTHER.
THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID. HE THEN
SWITCHED TO A MUCH MORE SIGNIFICANT
BIRD, THE WHOOPING CRANE, AND
TAUGHT YOUNG WHOOPERS TO MIGRATE
SOUTH FROM A WISCONSIN REFUGE TO A
NEW WINTERING GROUND IN FLORIDA.
THAT NEW MIGRATORY ROUTE FOR THE
STILL CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES
WAS A TRIUMPH OF NATURE, WITH THE
HELP OF A LITTLE COOL TECHNOLOGY.
THAT SAME CAPABILITY FOR INNOVATION
LED LISHMAN TO BUILD, WELL, A
DIFFERENT HOUSE.
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Photo by Peter Begg, courtesy of Bill Lishman
SCHULICH
24
ENGINEER
TOP: Lishman House domes before
they were backfilled with earth
Aerial photo by Bill Lishman
BOTTOM: Each room has a
skylight at its highest point.
Photo by Peter Begg, courtesy of Bill Lishman
As he puts it, “Houses should be far more
efficient and last much longer. Here in Canada a
house lasts about a hundred years, but in Europe
they double or triple that.”
“I was living in an inefficient house and because
it was a windy spot, I thought I could put up a
wind generator,” Lishman goes on to explain.
“But the heat loss from the house turned out to
be much more pressing. How could I design a
more earth-friendly house? Going down into
earth was the way to go, ‘a buried igloo.’”
But going down into the earth isn’t that
straightforward. After bringing in earth-moving
equipment to shear off the top of a hill, Lishman
laid out his house, a set of onion domes linked
together, with the largest, the living room, in the
centre. Each has a skylight at the highest point
of the room. Before the earth was moved back
onto the structure, the exterior was covered in
sand, and air ducts were laid down throughout
to bring warm air from the sunny side of the
house. Then a rubber sheet was put on top, with
soil covering the sheet. Now the roof is a garden.
Lishman went for circular underground domes
for a reason: “Most of the underground
architecture of the time kept the rectangular
shape. That’s the wrong shape for a house both
psychologically and technologically.”
Psychologically? It’s true that you’ll spend plenty
of time in an underground box after you die.
Lishman wonders if this unpleasant association
may be at work here. Even if not, the rectangle
still has its drawbacks. For one thing, it would
have to be a very strong box to support the
enormous overburden of soil. Also, it’s hard to
light an underground rectangle: the corners are
usually dark. But an onion-shaped house
eliminates most of those drawbacks; it never has
to be painted, shingled or have the eavestroughs
cleaned out; and the roof is covered with a
garden or lawn.
“I built the house in 1989-90, and global
warming wasn’t the issue then that it is now; if
anything, saving energy was the big thing. But it
was clear that it wouldn’t take too long before we
were running out of fossil fuels.”
You’d probably guess that a buried house
doesn’t rely much on solar, and you’d be
right. The only solar energy Lishman uses is
passive, but it is effective enough: it gives
him an extra month and a half before he has
to start heating the house in the winter, and
he’s usually able to stop a few weeks ahead
of time in the spring. But solar aside, there’s
much less wear and tear on the house
because it’s buried. Even so, it’s not
completely immune to a Canadian winter:
Lishman virtually closes down the rooms on
the north side until spring. But for all the
environmental advantages, in this house it’s
the aesthetics that reign: “I don’t think we’re
meant to live in boxes,” Lishman explains.
“There’s a feeling of space and light in this
house. In a conventional house with a
nine-foot ceiling it’s constantly overcast.
With a dome and a skylight it’s like being
under a clear sky.”
SCHULICH
25
ENGINEER
How could I design a more
earth-friendly house? Going
down into earth was the
way to go, ‘a buried igloo’.
Jay Ingram is a Canadian science writer
and broadcaster. He is co-host of
Discovery Channel's Daily Planet and has
written ten popular books about science.
Reprinted with permission from
The Daily Planet Book of Cool Ideas
by Jay Ingram. Copyright © 2008
Exploration Production Inc.
Published by Penguin Group
(Canada), 2008.
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IF A TREE FALLS IN A FOREST,
CAN GPS RESEARCHERS
DETECT IT?
Meet the vanguard in tracking animals and fighting
forest fires using wireless technology
BY JENNIFER SOWA
W
hen wildlife officers caught a cougar
in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in
October 2008, it was surprising
enough to find the cat in a residential area.
But its tracking collar revealed something
truly astonishing: the cougar had travelled
nearly a thousand kilometres. Experts
traced it to a research project in South
Dakota where scientists were studying the
movement patterns of cougars. They’d lost
track of this one several months earlier
when its prototype GPS collar stopped
working. It was the only cat out of 80 to
roam so far north. Since there was no
record of the route it took to Canada, many
questions were left unanswered about its
remarkable journey.
Such mysteries could be relegated to the
past, thanks to the work of engineers who
are designing the next wave of wildlife
tracking devices. They’re building upon the
strengths of common tracking methods
such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
and filling in the gaps with inertial sensors
and cameras.
One result is a system that allows humans
to get into situations – safely – that would
ordinarily seem much too close for comfort.
Like being close enough to a feeding grizzly
bear to make out the grooves in its
gargantuan claws. Or witnessing the
interaction between two grizzlies in the
seclusion of the forest.
Moments like those have been captured by
the camera on a wildlife collar developed at
the Schulich School of Engineering. The
tracking device is programmed to snap
pictures at regular intervals and wirelessly
transmit images and location data in real
time. The GPS location data is supplemented
by sensors that measure direction, distance
and speed. Those instruments make up for a
major drawback of GPS: signals cannot travel
through densely wooded areas. Scientists
frequently lose track of animals when they
enter forests.
ABOVE: The wildlife tracking collar must be
re-engineered for different animals because
of weight considerations.
Photo by Greg Fulmes
LEFT: A bear’s-eye view: images captured by
the camera on a grizzly bear’s tracking collar,
a device called the Animal PathFinder™
Photos courtesy Naser El-Sheimy
SCHULICH
27
ENGINEER
The Animal PathFinder™ was developed by
Naser El-Sheimy, Andrew Hunter and Bruce
Wright, all from the University of Calgary,
along with Gordon Stenhouse, a biologist
and head of the Grizzly Bear Research
Program at the Foothills Research Institute.
The device attaches to a collar and the
information it provides about animal
behaviour and habitat is invaluable for
wildlife researchers and conservationists.
Companies can also use the device to
monitor wildlife activity in the vicinity of
mines or oil and gas plants.
“You need data about the land and then you
need to be able to manage that data,”
explains Naser El-Sheimy, Canada Research
Chair in Mobile Multi-Sensor Systems at the
Schulich School of Engineering. “Geomatics
is multi-disciplinary. There’s imaging
technology, remote sensing technology and
data analysis linking them together. Each has
a role to play in managing our resources.” >>
You need data
about the land
and then you
need to be able
to manage
that data.
Geomatics has a growing number of
applications for water management, forestry,
agriculture and the energy industry. El-Sheimy
was a key player in the push for a national
centre to develop the tools necessary to meet
growing demand. He will be the scientific
director of the new facility, the first in the
world devoted to the research, development
and commercialization of technology for
managing natural resources.
Alberta is a fitting location since the province
represents 40 percent of Canada’s thriving
geomatics industry, which is worth a billion
dollars per year. The University of Calgary also
has the largest geomatics engineering program
in Canada.
Whether it’s tracking animals or keeping tabs
on the water supply, advancements in
technology are crucial. Take, for example, the
move towards better water management, a
necessary component of a sustainable future.
Remote sensing technologies can help because
they allow experts to measure changes in the
water table by beaming signals from a satellite
to penetrate the ground and reflect off the
water underneath.
Naser El-Sheimy displays the inner workings of the Animal
PathFinder™: camera, GPS, inertial sensors and data storage.
Photo by Ken Bendiktsen
A much different setup can detect and report
forest fires before they rage out of control.
Naser El-Sheimy and his research team have
prototyped a real-time forest fire fighting
system. It combines an optical and thermal
camera with location data and wireless
transmission capabilities, enabling it to
pinpoint trouble spots in the trees and send
alerts to help snuff out fires before they take
hold. The system attaches to the bottom of a
spotter airplane, which carries the most
common forest fire detection system in use
right now: people. >>
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People always want to
know where they are at a
given time. It’s just
inherent. Whether you’re
driving or lost in the
woods, time and location
are really important to
every human being.
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Photo by Greg Fulmes
“The idea here is to have a system that can
overcome the weakness of the human eye,”
says El-Sheimy. “You need a system with
navigation technology and imaging
technology. By putting them together on
an airplane you can detect hot spots that
can turn into forest fires.”
Goodall points out the type of technology
he focuses on is useful for managing
natural resources and can even lead to
greater efficiencies for industries such
as agriculture.
At one time, location and navigation
technologies were simply considered
high-tech toys with a handful of
recreational uses at best. But continuous
advancements have made them faster,
more accurate and more compact.
Chris Goodall considers the possibilities
practically endless. His world revolves
around gyroscopes, accelerometers and
wireless signals. His company, Eyeunite
Navigation Solutions Inc., creates new
ways to combine GPS with sensors that
measure direction, speed and altitude.
Such instruments have typically been used
to navigate ships, submarines and aircraft,
and are now moving into portable tracking
applications. Goodall’s specialty is low-cost
navigation and location technology as it
relates to vehicles and portable consumer
electronics such as mobile phones.
The day is not that far off
when cars will be able to
drive themselves. The reason
they’re not autonomous yet
is because the technology
isn’t reliable enough.
“People always want to know where they
are at a given time. It’s just inherent.
Whether you’re driving or lost in the
woods, time and location are really
important to every human being.”
“If you can position your tractor better by
even half a metre, then all of a sudden you
reduce the amount of spray you’re using for
your crops,” he explains. “You save money
on fuel and on spray, you conserve water
and it’s better for the environment.”
Chris Goodall with the GPS device that helped
him find his way out of the wilderness and got
him hooked on geomatics engineering
Photo by Greg Fulmes
Goodall realized that long before he’d even
heard of geomatics engineering. It was a
chilly evening in the Yukon. He was hiking
and somehow got off the beaten path,
becoming miserably lost in a jumble of tall
vegetation. To top it off, it was grizzly bear
territory and the sun was setting.
Goodall had a handheld GPS device in his
bag. It was a birthday gift he considered little
more than junk but if there was ever a
perfect time to put it to the test, that was it.
To his amazement, the device led him back
to the path within minutes. Goodall was
hooked. He wanted to learn more about this
burgeoning technology and take it further.
Six years later, he has a PhD from the
University of Calgary and talks
matter-of-factly about the kinds of
inventions that used to be the stuff of
science fiction.
“The day is not that far off when cars will be
able to drive themselves. The reason they’re
not autonomous yet is because the
technology isn’t reliable enough.”
s
SCHULICH
31
ENGINEER
GPS works best for determining location
outdoors where there is a clear path for
signals to travel between satellites and the
ground. Once elements such as movement
or indoor scenarios are introduced, things
get complicated and the multi-sensor
thinking kicks in.
Gyroscopes, for example, can help a
vehicle maintain a straight heading by
detecting and correcting even the slightest
change in direction. Synchronizing all
the components involves complex
computer algorithms.
“We want to provide accurate positioning
whether users are indoors or outdoors,
walking or driving,” says Goodall’s business
partner, Zainab Syed. “The uses range from
everyday navigation for ordinary citizens
to pinpointing the location of emergency
personnel such as firefighters who are
trapped in a burning building.”
Such technology could have other
lifesaving advantages. Canada is the latest
country to make it mandatory for mobile
phone companies to trace wireless 9-1-1
calls with greater precision. Service
providers must have the ability to use a
combination of methods if necessary, GPS
being one of them. >>
There’s an increasing need
to manage our resources
in a more efficient way.
We just need the proper
tools to help us.
IN CONVERSATION
WITH ALEC MCDOUGALL
The way we’re putting them together is
certainly providing new ways of tackling
not-so-new problems. Every year, wildfires
cause widespread devastation and loss of
life. Naser El-Sheimy’s real-time forest fire
fighting system could be used anywhere in
the world.
In
lea
wh
sa
th
Photo courtesy ECCO Waste Systems Ltd.
Alec McDougall is president of ECCO Waste Systems Ltd., a company that operates
several landfills for waste from manufacturing, demolition projects and building
construction. He graduated from the University of Calgary in 1971 with a degree in
civil engineering.
Q:
What are the weirdest things
you’ve ever recycled?
Q:
What is the easiest thing to
recycle?
A:
We’ve handled old boxcars, grain
elevators and machinery from CP
Rail’s Ogden repair facility in
Calgary. Our site also became the
final home for Calgary’s General
Hospital, which was demolished in
1998.
A:
Wood is the easiest material to recycle
and there are opportunities for
product sales and carbon credits. Half
the material disposed at the site is
wood waste, and half of that is clean
wood scrap.
“There’s an increasing need to manage our
resources in a more efficient way,” Naser
El-Sheimy says. “We just need the proper
tools to help us.”
Ironically, those tools need a certain
degree of complexity – such as a camera
embedded in a wildlife collar – to let us
learn more about nature in its simplest
forms. After all, there’s nothing more basic
than getting up close and personal with a
wild animal in its natural environment…
from a safe distance, at least.
Jennifer Sowa is the managing editor of
Schulich Engineer and the media relations
officer for the Schulich School of Engineering.
She is a former print and broadcast journalist.
An
at
an
I’d
ac
to
th
lea
ren
ou
ac
“These technologies are not new,” Chris
Goodall says. “What is new is the way
we’re putting them together.”
Another challenge in many regions is
ensuring the long-term survival of
threatened and endangered species. In
Alberta, for instance, a Grizzly Bear
Recovery Plan is aimed at finding ways to
reduce conflicts between humans and
bears and to preserve the grizzly’s natural
habitat. Data gathered by the multi-sensor,
camera-equipped wildlife collar could very
well provide many of the clues needed to
achieve those goals.
C
I
Q:
What is the most difficult thing
to recycle?
A:
The most difficult material for us to
deal with is paint. First, we need to
remove the cans from the waste that
is tipped at the landfill face. The
paint cans are then segregated into
oil- and water-based skids. We ship
these skids to paint recyclers. The
whole process is time-consuming
and costs up to $80,000 annually for
labour, material and handling costs.
SCHULICH
32
ENGINEER
Q:
How much of Calgary’s
construction and manufacturing
waste is currently recycled?
A:
About 20 percent.
Q:
How much could be recycled?
A:
The City of Calgary has recently
mandated that 80 percent of building
and manufacturing supplies be
recycled by 2020. ECCO is planning a
facility that will allow us to recycle 65
percent with the rest going to the
landfill as cover material or other
usable material.
W
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are
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5
CALLING FOR A RENAISSANCE
IN LEADERSHIP
An excerpt of a speech by George Roter, co-CEO and co-founder of Engineers Without Borders,
at the 2009 Student Excellence Awards on February 25 at the Schulich School of Engineering,
an event celebrating student award winners and their donors:
I’d like to suggest that what’s needed is
actually a renaissance in leadership. I’d like
to suggest that every single one of you in
this room winning awards tonight has to
lead that renaissance in leadership. I call it a
renaissance in leadership because I believe
our standard notions about leadership are
actually quite flawed.
The comments I am about
to make are going to make
probably about half of the
audience uncomfortable.
When the company you are working for is
acting in an unjust or unethical away or is
simply not doing things well enough, push
your ideas. Throw off hierarchy. Send a note
directly to the CEO. Say this is what’s
wrong, and this is what we should be doing.
If change isn’t happening, leave. And leave
boldly. And when you can’t find somewhere
else to go, start your own company.
In society we often lament our lack of
leadership when there is a problem,
when there is a crisis in government. We
say, “Where are our leaders? What were
they doing?”
When there is a crisis because we’re not
innovating enough, because there is not
enough productivity, we’re asking, “Where
are our leaders?”
The focus on leadership is laden with values
around power and office and authority and
somebody else solving the problems. It’s this
human desire to throw the ball in somebody
else’s court and say, “Hey, deal with it. Give
us the solution.”
That’s not sufficient when it comes to
solving complex problems because it takes
the focus off the real need: to exhibit
leader-like behaviour.
Every one of you award winners in this
room has a solely unique opportunity in
front of you. For the next fifteen years, you
are going to be unburdened by having a
family to care for. You can pick up at a
moment’s notice and go anywhere in the
world that inspires you, and I encourage
you to do so. You can work at something
that ignites your passion, even if it doesn’t
fuel your bank account.
George Roter speaking at the 2009 Student
Excellence Awards
Photo by James May
This room, for me, represents tremendous
potential in creating and driving and leading
For the next fifteen years, you are going to be this renaissance in leadership. You could not
be better positioned. You’re in the engineering
unburdened by experience and unburdened
capital of Canada. The Schulich School of
by history. When your thermodynamics
Engineering is leading on sustainability. That
professor spends 100 percent of the course
reading from a textbook that was written in tells you there was something that happened
innovatively that allowed this school to be
the 1960s and responds to your criticism
with the excuse, “This is the way we’ve always able to move up front on a metric that nobody
measures in traditional academic circles. It
done it,” don’t accept it. Do the assignment
was able to move up front because there’s that
that you think you should be doing. Learn
innovation, that creativity here.
the things that you think you should be
learning. Engage with the faculty to make
the changes in the curriculum that you think The comments I am about to make are going
to make probably about half of the audience
should be there. If you don’t change it, your
uncomfortable. Parents, prospective
professors aren’t going to change it.
employers, faculty, company representatives,
I apologize in advance for these thoughts
The second reason it is insufficient and
problematic is because it gives a false view of I am about to share. But there’s an
opportunity here.
how complex problems are actually solved.
SCHULICH
33
ENGINEER
For the next fifteen years, you are going to
be unburdened by reason. When our Arctic
ice caps are shrinking at a scary pace and
farmers in Ghana have dwindling rains and
our government has some half measures
because it costs too much or is too difficult
to do otherwise, you can stand up and say,
“Our generation has a stake in the future.
We are going to be around in 60 years. We
need to do what is right for our children
and our children’s children, even if it’s going
to cost us in the short term.”
Your youth makes you unreasonable. That’s
how social change has been driven time and
time again throughout history. So the next
fifteen years are a tremendous opportunity
indeed. Just think about it. Think of some
of the things that you might be able to do.
Think of some of the things that your
parents may not be happy with. Maybe they
will be, maybe they’ll surprise you.
These next fifteen years are also a
tremendous responsibility. You can choose
not to realize how unburdened you are. You
can choose not to lead the renaissance in
leadership. You can choose to leave here
tonight and not really think about or
address some of the complex challenges the
world is facing. But I’d ask you, “What kind
of world do you want to live in?”
DONOR STORIES
Leaders wanted:
new student
program available
Ashley Sceviour was a born leader. In high
school, she helped produce the newspaper
and yearbook, taught swimming lessons
and worked as a lifeguard. She even ran
her own badminton program in her
community. Later, as a student at the
Schulich School of Engineering, she
joined several clubs and became president
of the Civil Engineering Undergraduate
Students’ Society.
Fourth-year students Brett Zaccaria, left, and Gary Twomey find a quiet spot to finish an assignment
in the EllisDon Civil Engineering Homeroom. Photo by David Moll
The heart and soul of engineering student life
The legendary homerooms – they are part of the school experience for engineering
students. They are unique among undergraduate programs. They are a huge part of
the bond that engineering students develop as they work through their course loads.
Many of these rooms are also in need of renovations. EllisDon recently provided
funding for the renovation of the fourth-year civil engineering homeroom at the
Schulich School of Engineering.
Gerald Maier (left), with graduate Ashley
Sceviour and student leaders Abe Kohandel
and Anthony Ferrise at an event celebrating
the Maier Student Leadership Program
“Green” grad students win
paperless competition
Photo by David Moll
Sceviour was among the first students
to make their way through the series of
intensive coaching sessions, workshops
and conferences that make up the
Maier Student Leadership Program.
The program helps Schulich students
polish the skills they need to go on to
successful careers. Engineers often find
themselves leading teams of workers
and managing projects.
The leadership program – the first of its
kind at a Canadian engineering school –
is named after Gerald Maier, former
president, CEO and chair of TransCanada
Pipelines. He made a personal gift of
$1 million to the Schulich School of
Engineering.
Maier’s gift also established entrance
awards worth $7,500 each that are offered
annually to students entering the
Schulich School of Engineering.
Experimenting with solvents in oil
sands production; turning cattle
manure into fuel; exploring efficient
and clean fuel combustion. Student
research projects got an extra boost in
2009 because of a gift of $75,000 from
ConocoPhillips Canada to the Centre of
Environmental Engineering Research
and Education.
Photo by David Moll
Building bridges…then
breaking them
Lyle Boudreau (left) and Arvid Anvik (right)
pose with Gerald Carson, principal of Cohos
Evamy (centre) and the winning bridge in
the 25th annual Cohos Evamy bridge
competition. It took 120 intense hours of
research, planning and construction to
design the bridge to withstand a load of
about 40 kilograms. It ended up holding
nearly 42 kg before it collapsed. They won a
$4,000 scholarship for their first-place entry.
SCHULICH
34
ENGINEER
The Schulich School of Engineering
received bursaries worth $5,000 each.
The awards went to full-time MSc and
PhD students who are pursuing their
degrees in either the Environmental
Engineering or the Energy and
Environment Specialization.
Recipients were chosen by way of a
unique “paperless” competition
process. Students were instructed to
submit their applications electronically
and judges made their selections
without the use of paper.
IN THE COMMUNITY
1
2
3
1
Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race 2009 – GNCTR
organizers Stewart Smith (left) and Ashley Sceviour (right)
present a jersey to Elizabeth Cannon, dean of the Schulich
School of Engineering, at the 35th annual event. Schulich
students and graduates hosted more than 300 engineering
students from across Canada in Red Deer, Alberta.
(Photo courtesy Ashley Sceviour)
2
Pi Week 2009 – Student leaders John McDonald (left)
and Alex Judd each take a pie in the face during the
annual fundraiser at the Schulich School of Engineering.
Students raised more than $5,000 for the Calgary Urban
Projects Society. (Photo by Ken Bendiktsen)
3
Soleon donated to TELUS World of Science – The
University of Calgary Solar Team donated its first solar car,
Soleon, to Calgary’s science centre to help educate visitors
about alternative energy. Left to right: Joe Waites, Cordelia
MacFayden (TELUS World of Science), Darshni Pillay,
Mariam Sadiq. (Photo by Grady Semmens)
4
Tops in team design – Second-year students Zachary
Dunnewold (back), Paul Boone, Dustin Bahler and Agnes
Soos tied for first place in their category at the 2009
Canadian Engineering Competition at the University of
New Brunswick. Each team had to build a drying system
to dehydrate mushrooms. (Photo courtesy Agnes Soos)
4
SCHULICH
35
ENGINEER
REVERSE
ENGINEERING
IT’S A COMMON RUSH-HOUR SCENARIO IN MAJOR
CITIES: IMPATIENT DRIVERS BLARING THEIR HORNS
AND PEOPLE CROSSING STREETS AGAINST THE LIGHTS.
CARS AND PEDESTRIANS ARE IN CONSTANT
COMPETITION TO GET WHERE THEY’RE GOING IN A
HURRY, AND THAT BEHAVIOUR INCREASES THE RISK
OF VEHICLES COLLIDING AND PEOPLE GETTING STRUCK
BY CARS. CITY PLANNERS AND TRAFFIC ENGINEERS
EVERYWHERE HAVE BEEN FORCED TO RETHINK THE
WAY THEY MOVE VEHICLES AND PEDESTRIANS IN
CONGESTED AREAS.
Several major cities around the world have adopted pedestrian
scramble operations at intersections with high pedestrian
volume. All vehicular traffic stops while pedestrians cross
the street both laterally and diagonally.
Toronto and Calgary are the first cities in Canada to consider
using pedestrian scrambles. The first Canadian study of the
safety effects was conducted by two experts from the Schulich
School of Engineering: Lina Kattan, Research Chair in
Transportation Systems Optimization and Richard Tay,
Alberta Motor Association Research Chair in Road Safety.
Video recordings captured data before and after implementation
of a pedestrian scramble at a test intersection in downtown
Calgary. The research showed a significant decline in the number
of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts, which are “near miss” situations
that have the potential to result in crashes. While that reduction
is an important safety benefit, there were also more pedestrians
stepping off the curb when the “don’t walk” signal was flashing.
“In pedestrian scramble operations, the signal cycle needs to be
about 30 seconds longer than at typical intersections. That tends
to make pedestrians impatient,” explains Kattan, the study’s
principal investigator. “But at the same time, they have the
advantage of crossing diagonally instead of waiting for two
consecutive signals.”
The researchers are recommending further study of the
intersection that includes data collected during off-peak hours.
The study was part of the Urban Alliance, a research partnership
between the University of Calgary and the City of Calgary
that aims to find solutions to the complex problems facing
modern cities. Kattan and Tay presented their findings to
international transportation experts at the 2009 meeting of
the Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C.
S.
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Photos by David Moll
A
HOW TO ACT LIKE
NOMIC
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E
N
A
IN
R
E
D
A
E
L
DOWNTURN
s and wait for
_ stop in your track
things to get better
nd of an era
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e
th
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reality
and adjust to a new
ght future,
look forward to a bri
and hire an intern
12- to 16-month work terms available for students
approaching their final year of studies
internship@schulich.ucalgary.ca
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