Department Calendar of Events

Natural Melanin Pigments and Their Interfaces with Metal Ions and Oxides: Emerging Concepts and Technologies @ WB407

May 25 @ 10:00 am

Professor Clara Santato, Polytechnique Montreal

Melanin (from the Greek μέλας, mélas, black) is a biopigment ubiquitous in flora and fauna, featuring broadband optical absorption, hydration-dependent electrical response, ion-binding affinity as well as antioxidative and radical-scavenging properties. In the human body, photoprotection in the skin and ion flux regulation in the brain are some biofunctional roles played by melanin.

We will discuss the progress in melanin research that underpins emerging technologies in energy storage/conversion, ion separation/water treatment, sunscreens and bioelectronics. The melanin research aims at developing approaches to explore natural materials, well beyond melanin, which might serve as a prototype benign material for sustainable technologies.

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Clara Santato is Full Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at Polytechnique Montréal. She earned her PhD degree in chemistry (“Preparation and Characterization of Nanostructured WO₃ Films as Photoanodes in Photoelectrochemical Devices”) in 2001 from the Université de Genève and her MSc degree (“Electropolymerization and Photopolymerization of a Pyrrole-Substituted Ruthenium tris (bipyridyl) Complex”) in chemistry in 1995 from Università degli Studi di Bologna. The experimental work was carried out in collaboration with Université J. Fourier. She was a (permanent) research scientist at the Institute for Nanostructured Materials, part of the Italian National Research Council, from 2001 to 2011, and a visiting scientist (2007–2010) at Cornell University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Malliaras Laboratory for Organic Electronics). In 2006, she was a visiting scientist with a cross-appointment between the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique and McGill University (Chemistry), and in 2005, at Purdue University (Chemistry). Santato’s research focuses on semiconducting films and their interfaces with metal electrodes and electrolytes, for applications in transistors and energy conversion/storage, and has been recently recognized by her elevation to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) senior membership. With her group, she recently expanded her research interests to green electronic and energy-storage devices. Santato is a member of the UNESCO MATECSS (Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Storage) Chair. She serves as an associate editor of the Journal of Power Sources (Elsevier).

May

30

Wed

Engineering Alumni Spring Reunion

May 30 – Jun 3 all-day

This year, we’re celebrating graduating class years ending in 3 or 8. We look forward to seeing our alums back on campus!

Schedule coming soon

Interested in becoming Skule™ Alumni Ambassador? Click here for more information.

May

31

Thu

Fabrication and characterization of power sources for micro system applications: From electrochemical engineering to fluid mechanics @ Wallberg WB407

May 31 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Dominik P.J. Barz
Department of Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University
dominik.barz@queensu.ca

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are versatile technologies which have evolved over recent decades due to the increasing capabilities to miniaturize structures and devices. However, the majority of micro devices is still powered by external, macro-scale power sources. Interconnection problems, unwanted electronic interactions (noise), and difficulties in controlling the power delivered are some of the problems which can be associated if macro-scale power sources are coupled with micro-scale devices. One possible approach to ease such difficulties is through the utilization of integrated power sources. In this talk, we report on the fabrication and characterization of two different devices which can be easily integrated on MEMS (and microfluidic) devices which are made from glass-like (silicon dioxide) substrates:

i) A micro battery where we employ different microfabrication techniques, such as Physical Vapour Deposition, to fabricate thin-films of nickel hydroxide and metal hydride which serve as battery electrodes. These electrodes are arranged in a co-planar design and ionically connected with an alkaline gel electrolyte.
ii) A supercapacitor which is made by printing of graphene oxide (GO) inks on glass using a micro-dispensing technique. The printed GO electrodes are subsequently treated to obtain reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The micro dispensing technique utilizes a liquid jet which, in contrast to ink jet printing, should not break up and form droplets. However, we operate at very high Froude numbers and parameters to obtain stable print regimes are not known. We introduce a combined empirical and analytical approach to infer the critical jet length to nozzle diameter ratio and the jet shape function.

Dr. Dominik P.J. Barz is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University. He received a Diplom-Ingenieur FH (B.Eng.) in Mechanical Engineering at Aachen University, Germany in 1996. He then held several positions in industry and public sector companies in Germany such as a lab engineer at the Mercedes Benz Fuel Cells Lab at FHTG Mannheim and a (Senior) Research Engineer working on Lab-on-a-Chip technologies at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH. During these full time employments, he pursued further (part-time) studies and graduated with a Diplom-Ingenieur (B.Sc.+M.Sc.) with distinction in Chemical Engineering from TU Dresden and as a Doctor of Engineering Science with distinction in Mechanical Engineering from University of Karlsruhe (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology KIT). He then joined Cornell University, US working with Prof. Paul Steen on interface and transport phenomena in porous media. He joined Queen’s University as a faculty in 2010 and took up the post of an Associate Director of the Queen’s-RMC Fuel Cell Research Centre.

He is the recipient of several awards including a Helmholtz Association Microsystems Scholarship, the ASME ICNMM outstanding leadership award and a DAAD Research Scholarship. During 2016-2017, he was awarded an Alexander-von-Humboldt Research Fellowship that he spent at the Centre of Smart Interfaces, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

His academic and industrial experience has been in areas encompassing both Mechanical and Chemical Engineering subjects and, hence, his current research includes transport & interface phenomena, microfluidics, as well as the miniaturization of electrochemical devices.

1

Bioengineering a Cellular Therapy for Eye Disease @ Rosebrugh Building, Room 208

Jun 1 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Dr. Dennis Clegg
Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara

One promising option for the treatment of ocular disease is to develop cellular therapies using RPE and neural retinal cells derived from pluripotent stem cells. One strategy for treating dry age related macular degeneration is to implant differentiated, polarized monolayers of hESC-RPE or iPS-RPE on an extracellular matrix-based scaffold, whereby cells are provided with a supportive substrate to stimulate cell survival, differentiation and function. We describe recent efforts to develop tissue constructs to replace ocular tissue and translate them to the clinic. A phase 1/2A clinical trial is currently underway to assess the safety of an implant consisting of a monolayer of H9 hESC-RPE on a synthetic scaffold.

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Dr. Clegg earned his BS degree in biochemistry at UC Davis and his PhD in biochemistry at UC Berkeley, where he used emerging methods in recombinant DNA to study the sensory transduction systems of bacteria. As a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Scholar at UCSF, he studied neural development and regeneration. He has continued this avenue of research since joining the UCSB faculty, with studies of extracellular matrix and integrin function in the developing eye. His current emphasis is in stem cell research, with a focus on developing therapies for ocular disease. Dr. Clegg is the recipient of the UCSB Distinguished Teaching Award in the Physical Sciences, the Pacific Coast Business Times Champions in Health Care Award, the National Eye Institute Audacious Goals award, and served as Chair of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from 2004-2009. He has been a Frontiers of Vision Research Lecturer at the National Eye Institute, a Keynote Lecturer at the Stem Cells World Congress, and a TEDx speaker. He is founder and Co-Director of the UCSB Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, and has served on advisory boards for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Center for Regenerative Medicine. He is a Co-Principal Investigator of The California Project to Cure Blindness, a multi-disciplinary effort to develop a stem cell therapy for Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

5

Tue

Solid Waste Management: Engineers, Garbage, Public Policy, and Economics @ Wallberg Building, WB215

Jun 5 @ 11:00 am

Solid waste is the great unwanted byproduct of our modern society. Every Canadian is responsible, directly or indirectly, for creating about one tonne of solid waste per year. Solid waste is variable, heterogeneous, complex, and difficult and costly to manage by any means other than landfill. So, generally, government regulations or incentives are needed to drive innovation and make waste processing affordable. In Canada these tend to be weak and inconsistent. One result is that Canadians still send 8 million tonnes per year of untreated organic solid waste to landfill. But all is not lost. This presentation is based upon the premise that organic solid waste can be anaerobically digested, using a process which is robust, versatile, and commercially realizable, despite the lack of supporting regulations. The products are digestate which can be composted, and biogas which can be converted into renewable energy. The critical steps are the elimination of almost all forms of mechanical pretreatment, and the employment of solid state anaerobic digestion. The technology, its origins, its performance at lab scale, its economic prospects and plans for commercialization are all described.

Nigel Guilford is a senior executive with a background in science and engineering and more than forty five years of experience, both domestic and international, in the development and commercialization of technology, and the development and operation of companies, both large and small, primarily in the environmental sector. His particular obsession is garbage, and extracting value from it in the form of renewable energy. Research for his Ph.D., completed in 2017, centred on new ways to anaerobically digest organic solid waste. For the past 26 years he has worked through his own consulting firm, Guilford and Associates Inc.

6

Wed

Hierarchical Manufacturing Platform of Smart Materials from Self Assembly to E-Skins @ Wallberg Building WB219

Jun 6 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Smart materials, also known as stimuli responsive materials, are drawing significant research attention due to their improved reliability, performance, flexibility and miniaturization compared to their traditional counterparts. Electroactive polymers (EAPs) and thermoactive polymers (TAPs) are classes of smart materials that undergo deformation in response to electrical or thermal stimuli. The long-term objective of this program is to develop a hierarchical manufacturing platform for smart materials with tailored multi-functional behaviors (i.e., electro-mechanical, thermo-mechanical, and electro-thermal). The proposed research aims to bridge the gap between the structure of electrically conductive polymers ECPs and 1D and 2D nanoparticles and their manufacturing methodologies. Designing and tailoring the properties of EAP sensory and TAP actuation elements requires a bottom-up approach from self-assembly to a macroscopic hierarchical dual sensor/actuator system through which this smart materials manufacturing platform will be developed. A major application of EAPs/TAPs hybrid is in electronic skins (e-skins), which are flexible, stretchable, and conformable substrates with sensing/actuation capabilities.

Hani Naguib is a Professor at the University of Toronto, and director of the Toronto Institute for Advanced Manufacturing. His major expertise is in the area of manufacturing of programmable material systems including: smart materials, metamaterials, and nanostructured materials. Naguib is the recipient of many honours and awards such as the Canada Research Chair, the Premier’s Early Research Award of Ontario, the Canada Foundation of Innovation, and the faculty Early Teaching Award. He is a Professional Engineer in Canada, a Chartered Engineer in U.K., a Fellow of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining IOM3, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, the Society of Plastics Engineers SPE, the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers CSME, and the International Society for Optics and Photonics SPIE. Naguib is serving as Associate Editor for the IOP Journal of Smart Materials and Structures, Journal of Cellular Plastics and Cellular Polymers. The main goal of his research program is to develop sustainable and transformational materials and manufacturing for the health care, energy management and transportation sectors.

8

Organohalide respiration with chloroethenes: From fundamentals to application @ Wallberg Building WB407

Jun 8 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Professor Christof Holliger
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

Chlorinated solvents such as per- and trichloroethene (PCE/TCE) are among the most frequently encountered groundwater pollutants due to their widespread use in industry and dry cleaning of cloths. Bacteria able to use these pollutants as terminal electron acceptor in an anaerobic respiration process, so-called organohalide-respiring bacteria (OHRB), are present in many natural environments. They can convert PCE and TCE to ethene by reductive dechlorination, however, the intermediate vinyl chloride often accumulates in aquifers where spontaneous dechlorination occurs, a compound which is much more toxic than the parent compounds PCE and TCE. The genomes of several OHRB have been sequenced and show that they can contain multiple genes encoding putative reductive dehalogenases. The genomes also contain numerous genes encoding putative regulatory enzymes involved in expression of reductive dehalogenases. We try to unravel the substrate spectrum of these enzymes with an innovative biochemical approach creating hybrid proteins containing unknown and known parts of these regulatory enzymes. In addition, we also investigated how present knowledge on OHRB and reductive dehalogenases can be used to explain intermediate accumulation phenomena observed in different aquifers, and how one could even envisage reductive dechlorination as bioremediation process in source zones where acidification by fermentation and dechlorination is a major drawback for organohalide respiration to decontaminate such zones.

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Christof Holliger is at present full professor of environmental biotechnology at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. After obtaining a PhD from University of Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 1992, he worked as a group leader at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag, 1992-1998) before joining EPFL as assistant professor. Being originally trained as biologist, his research is mainly directed towards the microbial aspects of environmental biotechnology, however, not forgetting the applicability of the microbial processes and systems involved. Two main topics characterize the research activity, reductive dechlorination of chlorinated solvents such as per- and trichloroethene by anaerobic bacteria and wastewater treatment by aerobic granular sludge. In the former topic, the biochemical and physiological characteristics of the bacteria involved as well as their ecology are investigated. In the latter topic, research concentrates on the influence of wastewater composition on the most interesting ecosystem with its many different niches due to the redox gradients created in the granular biofilm.

22

Development of Self-healing Coatings Based on Microcapsules Filled with Active Agents @ WB407

Jun 22 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

In this presentation, an overview of recent advances in self-healing coatings is provided. The talk focuses on the microencapsulation of active compounds used mainly in the polymer coatings. Various preparation methods of microcapsules and their advantages and shortcomings will be discussed. In addition, some recent activities in my research group relate to the preparation of ethyl cellulose (EC), urea-formaldehyde (UF), and polyurethane (PU) microcapsules will be described. Self-healing performance of these microcapsules for enhancing the mechanical properties, barrier performance and corrosion resistance of coatings will be presented.

Mojtaba Mirabedini is a University Professor at the Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute (IPPI) and head of Color and Surface Coatings Department. He is recently invited as a visiting Professor at the Eastern Michigan University. Dr. Mirabedini received his PhD in Corrosion Protection Coatings from the University of Manchester (UMIST) in 2000, working under supervision of late Professor David Scantlebury and Proferssor George Thompson. He specializes in smart polymeric coatings, nanocomposites coatings and adhesives. His current research focuses on developing novel smart functional coatings, self-healing coatings, thread locking adhesives, self-cleaning coatings, and advanced pavement markings. Dr. Mirabedini has been collaborating with Prof. Farnood on the microencapsulation of active materials for smart coating applications since 2010.

24

Sun

Engineering Gateways: Communicating for Success as Women in Engineering @ Bahen Centre