Construction of the MacDonald Complex Has Been Completed

Macdonald Engineering Atrium

After some 19 months of dust and noise, the construction and renovation project on the Macdonald Engineering Complex has been completed!

• Students have returned to new laboratories and staff are back in shiny new offices in the "Workman" wing and the adjoining "Electrical" wing of the Macdonald building.
• New layout and mechanical services make our buildings more efficient and better able to meet the modern challenges of engineering research and teaching.
• The corridors between McConnell and Macdonald buildings are open on all floors
• The FDA courtyard is once again available for parking and deliveries
• One if the most attractive features of this Canadian funded Knowledge Infrastructure Project (KIP) is the stunning new atrium which will soon be the central hub, providing access to all levels of the Workman wing and Electrical wing, each floor having a direct hallway access.
• Five new washrooms for men & women have been included in the atrium including wheelchair access

This area was completely demolished and rebuilt, providing a rare opportunity to upgrade aging mechanical systems, improve the ventilation, plumbing, and electrical services. With these renovations we have been able to reduce energy consumption and water use in the Macdonald Engineering complex.
Please note that the balancing of a new ventilation system as large as ours will take time, and that normally creates occasional temperature fluctuations.

A new green roof, and rain water holding tank will also reduce the load on Montreal’s sewer system as we will now be re-using grey water when possible. For example, the Hydraulic lab’s used water will be directed to a holding tank so it can be re-used.

A Fish Scale Tale

Francois Barthelat (Biomimetic Materials Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering) with his students and collaborator Franck Vernerey at the University of Colorado Boulder recently won the Best Paper Award at the Society for Experimental Mechanical Annual Conference, Biological Systems and Materials Division (67 papers) for their paper Multiscale characterization of a high-performance armor: fish scales. Barthelat and co-workers have shown that in terms of resistance to puncture, individual fish scales perform much better than polycarbonate, a light-weight polymer which is typically used for transparent protective equipment. Barthelat and co-workers have also elucidated the details of the microstructures and mechanisms that explain this remarkable performance. Over 500 million years, fish scales have evolved into materials boasting impressive mechanical properties despite of their weak constituents. Their work will appear in the journal Advanced Biomaterials, and it is featured in the materials science news site materialsviews.com. Barthelat and co-workers will build on their findings by designing and fabricating “biomimetic” novel light-weight, flexible and transparent protective systems inspired from fish scales. This research is sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Professor Hani Mitri Co-chairs Symposium on Mining Safety

Professor Hani Mitri co-chaired the first International Symposium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering (ISMSSE2011) held in Beijing last October. The symposium was sponsored by China Academy of Safety Science & Technology (CASST), and co-sponsored by China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing) (CUMTB), Datong Coal Mine Group, McGill University, and University of Wollongong (Australia) with participation from several other universities, research institutes, professional associations and large enterprises. The latest technologies in mine safety were exhibited during the symposium.

Dean Christophe Pierre Assumes New Duties at University of Illinois

Professor Christophe Pierre, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, left McGill in September 2011 to become the Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the multi-campus University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield).

Professor Pierre’s appointment at the University of Illinois provides strong recognition of the prominence of his academic endeavors and leadership abilities, which were clear during tenure here at McGill. First named Dean of Engineering in 2005 and reappointed in 2010, he was also a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at McGill and held a Tier-I Canada Research Chair in Structural Dynamics and Vibration based on his exemplary scholarly and research record.

At a farewell reception on his last day in office it was announced that the Faculty of Engineering’s annual research prizes have been renamed the “Christophe Pierre Research Excellence Awards”. The recognition honors Dean Pierre’s investment, support and promotion of the research enterprise at McGill Engineering.

A search for a new Dean has begun. Professor Andrew Kirk, an accomplished researcher and teacher and Chair of McGill’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was appointed Interim Dean of Engineering on October 1, 2011.

For more information please see Communiqué: Dean Pierre [.pdf] from Professor Anthony C. Masi, Provost, McGill University and University of Illinois News Release

Advancing The Science of Complex Fluids & Soft Matter

The Canadian Society of Rheology presents the Stanley George Mason Award every three years to a distinguished Canadian who has contributed in an outstanding fashion to the domain of rheology, the study of the flow of matter. The 2011 recipient is Chemical Engineering Professor Alejandro Rey of the McGill Materials Modeling Research Group.

This seventh CRS Mason Award acknowledges Professor Rey’s international stature in the field and his unique contributions to, and impact upon, the fundamental science and technology of complex fluids and soft matter.

Stanley George Mason, the man for whom the prize is named, is considered one of the founding fathers of suspension rheology. The award was presented to Professor Rey by 2007 award-winner John Vlachopoulos, Professor Emeritus at McMaster University.

Ambassador of Japan to Canada visits McGill University

During his first official visit to Quebec, the Ambassador of Japan to Canada, His Excellency Kaoru Ishikawa took the opportunity to visit McGill University where he met with Principal Dr. Heather Munro-Blum and Vice Principal for Research and International Relations Dr. Rose Goldstein.

He also made a special visit to meet with members of the Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics. The visit took place in the background of the earthquake of magnitude 9.0, which struck the Northeastern region of Japan. The resulting Tsunami devastated the city of Sendai with an estimated loss of life in excess of 20,000. The Tsunami also inflicted serious damage to the electricity generating nuclear power plants located near Sendai. The threat to human health and the environment from the damage to the nuclear facilities are a matter of great concern to the Japanese government. The Ambassador emphasized the need for expertise and long term cooperation to address infrastructure and environmental issues that will result from the damage inflicted during the earthquake and the resulting tsunami.

Reinventing the Wheel

Peter Radziszewski

Mechanical Engineering professor Peter Radziszewski and his team are developing wheel prototypes for the next lunar rover. Their “iRing” can be described as a sturdy wheel-shaped bean-bag which provides flexibility when traveling over rocky, pot-holed terrain.

"This effort is really a nexus of teaching and research. We have built a bank of expertise in creating intellectual property that supports a Canadian space-mobility effort," said Radziszewski who is leading the team as part of an $11.5 million contract awarded by the Canadian Space Agency.

For the full story please see the McGill Reporter

Mechanical Engineering Quartet Wins Harry Pearce Prize

Four Mechanical Engineering students have been named the 2010 winners of their department’s annual Harry Pearce Prize for work they performed on a two-semester, Tri-Faculty pilot project involving collaboration with the Montreal-based electronic component distributor, Future Electronics. Kyran Griffiths, James Medvescek, Michael Simla and Edouard Trudeau used 48 neutral white LUXEON® Rebel LEDs to illuminate an underground train station platform as part of a senior year design project undertaken with the help of the giant multinational. Pictured above with the students are Future Lighting Solutions employees Michael Parada, Osama Mannan and Muhamad Moussa. McGill Engineering students participated in a total of four Future Electronics projects.

For the full story see: Lighting & Renewable Energy Design Project [.pdf]

Speeding Bullet

Space junk may sound worthless, but the ever growing collection of debris in Earth orbit threatens to cause billions of dollars of damage. Traveling at speeds of up to 9 miles a second, even a piece of debris a few centimeters in diameter could destroy a satellite. The best way to test materials that could withstand such collisions is to re-create similar conditions on Earth – by firing a bullet. But so far, the fastest speed produced by conventional guns is 4.3 miles per second. Enter Mechanical Engineering Prof. Andrew Higgins of Montreal’s McGill University. With funding from the Canadian Space Agency, Higgins and his team have developed a hypervelocity gun barrel surrounded with explosives that when detonated, will squeeze projecting gases to extremely high pressure along the entire length of the barrel as the bullet moves through it. So far, the device has matched the previous speed record, and Higgins hopes to double that result with tests starting this summer. – Pierre Home-Douglas

Supporting Research in Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

Architecture professor Annmarie Adams takes on new responsibilities September 1, 2010 as Director of the McGill Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies (IGSF).
The IGSF was established in March 2009 as an academic unit in the Faculty of Arts to stimulate, support and disseminate research in gender, sexual diversity, and feminist studies. The institute organizes public symposia, lectures, workshops and seminar series, and it serves as the administrative site for McGill's Sexual Diversity Studies Program and the Women's Studies Program.

Professor Adams has been affiliated with the IGSF — formerly the McGill Centre for Research and Teaching on Women — since 1990, both as a board member and through her work on research and prize committees. She also teaches a course, titled Sex and the Single Building, that forms part of IGSF's Sexual Diversity Studies Program.

Annmarie Adams is the William C. Macdonald Professor at the School of Architecture. Her major research interests include gender, sexuality and space, the history of hospital architecture, long-term care institutions, material culture, cultural landscape studies and vernacular architecture.

Alumni Gift Funds Unique Research Facility

The Faculty has officially inaugurated its new Benedek Integrated Laboratories in Environmental Engineering. The facilities are a gift from alumni Andrew Benedek and Diana Mourato-Benedek.

Dean Christophe Pierre says the state-of-the-art facilities will become "the place" at McGill to tackle many of the environmental engineering challenges facing current and future generations. The integrated teaching spaces and research laboratories will also provide a unique working environment for McGill undergraduate students, allowing them to learn side by side with professors and graduate students as part of integrated research teams.

For the full story see:

Dr. Charles M. Vest Awarded Honorary Degree

The honorary degree recipient at the Faculty of Engineering 2010 spring convocation ceremony is Dr. Charles M. Vest, President of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A passionate advocate for science, technology, research and diversity and openness in education, Dr. Vest has earned international respect during the past four decades for increasing awareness of education and research issues and for promoting science and technology as key elements of public policy. A distinguished teacher, researcher and author in his own right (in the thermal sciences and engineering applications of lasers and coherent optics), Dr. Vest has been awarded numerous prizes, including the U.S. National Medal of Technology in 2006 and Drexel University’s 2010 Engineer of the Year award.

To view more information please see:
Biography - National Academy of Engineering.

Father-Son Paper To Appear in Prestigious Journal

In what may be a modern first for the Royal Society of London, Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics Professor Patrick Selvadurai and his son, Research Assistant Paul Selvadurai, are going to publish a paper in The Proceedings of the Royal Society. The father and son effort represents a successful culmination of research work that started while Paul Selvadurai was an undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering here; he is currently completing his master’s degree in civil engineering at McGill with a specialization in geomechanics. The paper is titled “Surface Permeability Tests: Experiments and Modelling for Estimating Effective Permeability”. 2010 marks the 350th Anniversary of the "Royal Society”.
To view the announcement see: Announcement [.pdf].
To view the paper see: Surface Permeability Tests: [.pdf]

Honouring Donors, Industry Partners, and Award Winning Students

A reception was held on March 31, 2010 to recognize our Faculty's award-winning students, donors and industry partners who generously provide them with scholarships, fellowships and awards. Dean of Engineering, Christophe Pierre, hosted the event in the Lorne M. Trottier Building.

Click to view photos of the event.

Professor Pascal Hubert Featured on Canal Savoir

Professor Pascal Hubert and doctoral student Cyrill Cattin of Mechanical Engineering will be featured four times during the week of March 3, 2010 on Canal Savoir’s French-language television series, “Campus”. Program number 15 of the series, filmed in Professor Hubert’s laboratory, will highlight their work in composite materials.

For additional information see Les nanotubes de carbone (McGill) and À propos de Campus

McGill University Reappoints Dean Christophe Pierre

McGill Principal Heather Munroe-Blum has announced that Professor Christophe Pierre has been reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2010.

Professor Pierre was originally named Dean in July 2005 after 20 years at the University of Michigan. That same year he received the N.O. Myklestad Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in recognition of his major, innovative contribution to vibration localization.

A native of France, Dean Pierre completed his undergraduate education at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures de Paris. He earned his M.Sc. at Princeton in 1984 and his Ph.D. at Duke University in 1985. His research work centres on enhanced performance and safety in products such as jet engines and automobile vehicle structures. Vibration and other stresses can cause material deformation and fatigue in these structures, potentially leading to catastrophic component failure.

In addition to heading research projects in his field, Professor Pierre has served as project director of multi-million-dollar National Science Foundation programs to increase the participation of minorities and women in graduate programs and the professoriate in the engineering and science disciplines.

McGill Electric Snowmobile Carries Olympic Flame

Peter Radziszewski

On February 5, an estimated 10,000 people cheered wildly as McGill’s electric snowmobile carried the Olympic flame across the lower portion of the Olympic alpine ski run in Whistler B.C.

The zero-emission vehicle is the brainchild of Mechanical Engineering professor Peter Radziszewski, who began developing the snowmobile as an undergraduate class project when he came to McGill in 2001. “And from there it has just snowballed,” he said. “Pun intended.” Over the years, students have refined the design, and the snowmobile has evolved into a sophisticated, reliable and green alternative to its gas-powered cousin.
It was used at the Olympics thanks to financial help provided by the McGill Engineering Student Centre MESC, the McGill Alumni Association’s Student Sponsorship Program AOC and Canadian Snowmobile Adventures, a Whistler-based touring company that has helped finance the development of the enviro-friendly vehicle.

Please see: The McGill Reporter and North Shore News

Successful Recruitment Program Increases Graduate Enrolment & Quality

Programs established in 2006 to significantly increase Faculty of Engineering graduate admissions have proven a major success. New doctoral enrolments in 2009-2010 are up 115% over 2006 levels and masters registrations have also increased significantly. Targets for doctoral registration increases were set at 100 in 2007, 125 in 2008 and 150 in 2009. Each of these figures was surpassed.

In 2009-2010, 172 new PhD students enrolled, a 26% increase over the previous year. The equivalent figure for masters enrolments is 295, a 32% increase over 2008-2009. “Just as impressive is the quality of these new students,” says Engineering Faculty Dean Christophe Pierre. “In growing our numbers we have continued to recruit students of high calibre. In fact, the average entering CGPA of our graduate students has increased slightly.” The 1,000 milestone was reached this past fall and graduate numbers have continued to grow during the winter term.

As of January 19, 2010, graduate enrolment was 1,091, split almost evenly between doctoral and masters students.

Posted January 25, 2010

The Skeleton of Water — George Haller

Research is revealing a hidden structure within liquids and gases that guides the movement of everything from pollution to airplanes. The theory of Lagrangian coherent structures was started about 10 years ago by George Haller,

who was then at Brown University, in Rhode Island, and is now Chair of our Faculty’s Mechanical Engineering Department.

Haller had been working in the fashionable mathematical field of chaos theory—an explanation in search of a problem—when he came across a suitable problem in the form of mountains of data accumulated by various ocean and atmospheric scientists of his acquaintance.

At the moment Dr Haller is collaborating with Wenbo Tang of Arizona State University and Pak Wai Chan of the Hong Kong Observatory to apply Lagrangian theory to the problem of aircraft taking off and landing in difficult circumstances.

For more information see the following article in The Economist .

Professor Jim Finch Honored

The Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) hosted a symposium recently to honor Materials Engineering Professor Jim Finch’s 40 years at McGill. Titled Advances in Mineral Processing Science and Technology, the event formed part of the Institute’s annual Conference of Metallurgists, and the gala was held in the magnificent underground Science North (Science Centre) reception hall in Sudbury.

Jim Finch, known for his leading research into the physics and chemistry of froth flotation and his collaborative work with industrial partners, has produced more than 400 journal and proceedings publications and supervised approximately 100 graduate students during his 40 year career at McGill. He holds the Gerald G. Hatch Chair in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and was honored last year with the 2008 NSERC Leo Derikx Synergy Award for outstanding university-industry collaboration.

New Mechanical Engineering Chair

Professor George Haller has been appointed Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Professor Haller has taught at Brown University and MIT, and, most recently, served as Executive Director and Head of Morgan Stanley’s Budapest Mathematical Modeling Center. His research was cited this past week in the New York Times science section. Read the entire article at
"Finding Order in the Apparent Chaos of Currents".

Honorary Degree Given

Professor James J. Duderstadt, nuclear engineer, university president, researcher and author, received an honorary degree from the Faculty of Engineering. An authority on higher education and the information revolution, he is credited with re-shaping the University of Michigan’s campus and creating a more equitable environment for women. He was the youngest person ever appointed Dean of the University’s College of Engineering. For the complete story, please see: News Release.

Canada Research Chairs in Engineering

The Government of Canada created the Canada Research Chairs Program in 2000 to establish 2,000 research professorships across the country, with the aim of making Canada one of the world's top five countries for research and development. "We congratulate our CRC recipients and welcome the significant advances to science their research will generate.” said Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University.

Professor Thomas Szkopek
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering:
Szkopek holds one of McGill’s new CRCs. His research involves applying physics at the nanoscale level to create new electronic devices. He has received the Canada Research Chair in Nanoscale Electronics Natural Sciences and Engineering, Tier 2, $500,000 NEW (CFI funding of $183,068)

Professor Raynald Gauvin
Mining and Materials Engineering:
Quantitative Electron Diffraction and X-Ray Nanoanalysis of Materials with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy and Monte Carlo Simulations. $361,760 to acquire new equipment used to develop new quantitative methods for characterizing nanomaterials.

Professor Michael Jemtrud
School of Architecture:
Facility for Architectural Research in Media and Mediation (FARMM). $199,793 to establish a facility in the School of Architecture for the research and development of digital media related to architectural and urban design, engineering and related cultural and artistic activities.

Professor In-Ho Jung
Mining and Materials Engineering:
Coupled High Temperature Thermal Analysis and Thermodynamic Computing System. $62,889 to fund a facility and computing system, including databases and calculation software, dedicated to high-temperature thermal analysis of the advanced materials of metallic and oxide systems.

Professor Zetian Mi
Electrical and Computer Engineering:
Molecular Beam Epitaxial Growth of Nanophotonic Materials and Devices Infrastructure. $250,000 for equipment used to investigate the growth kinetics and fundamental properties of novel, nano-scale materials; and to provide a rich environment for students and postdoctoral researchers to gain expertise in nanomaterials, nanophotonics and nanofabrication.

Professor Michael Rabbat
Electrical and Computer Engineering:
Laboratory for Networked Information Processing Systems. $120,000 to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the research, development, implementation and testing of complex networked systems capable of making optimal use of energy and communication resources

Professor Viviane Yargeau
Chemical Engineering:
Laboratory for the Treatment and Valorization of Waste Streams. $120,550 for new infrastructure to research water quality and green energy so as to improve water-treatment methods and minimize the environmental impact of contaminants such as pharmaceutical products.

In November 2007, two other CFI grants were awarded to Engineering Faculty professors:

Professor Dominic Frigon
Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics:
Environmental Engineering Laboratory for Microbial Community Engineering. $216,000 for research that encompasses several aspects of environmental biotechnology with a focus on microbial community engineering.

Professor Susan Gaskin
Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics:
An Innovative Approach to the Classic Problems of Turbulence: Lagrangian Analysis of Fundamental Flows. $146,000 to study the dispersion of environmental pollutants and better understand Lagrangian statistics in turbulent flows through the use of sophisticated digital imaging or particle image velocity (PIV).

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