Research with Impact

 

A clear trend towards interdisciplinary and collaborative research at scales from one or two colleagues, to clusters of tens of researchers, to networks that may have a hundred or more researchers is emerging. The drivers are clear – to make real impact on complex problems requires a diversity of skills, ideas and talents. The ambiance and the highly adaptable environment of the Amit Chakma Engineering Building is conducive to academic work and reflection, and encourages and inspires its users.

The space serves to encourage groups of researchers to work together to make a real world impact, especially in the following research areas:

1. Biomedical Engineering, Technology in Health and Medicine

  • The demand for Western Engineering’s graduate program in Biomedical Engineering continues to grow. Graduate student and faculty collaboration with the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Science and Health Sciences has produced outstanding research in biomedical engineering, medical physics, cell biology and anatomy, and musculoskeletal health.
  • Space is dedicated as the home of the university-wide School of Biomedical Engineering.
  • Mechatronics is a key enabling tech in medical interventions such as robotic surgery as well as in health technologies that help with rehabilitation as well as mobility for those with disabilities.

2. Sustainability, Environment, Resiliency and Adaptive Systems

  • As a potential Platinum LEED building, the Amit Chakma Engineering Building itself is a laboratory and a showcase for intelligent and sustainable design.
  • Engineering faculty and students will focus additional efforts on building a sustainable future with specializations in water, environmental remediation, natural disaster mitigation and management, and energy (power systems, biofuels and alternative energy systems). 

3. Ubiquitous Information and Communication

  • Big data, social networking, mobile computing, cloud computing and the Internet of Things is speeding up business, shortening project life cycles and creating new opportunities for innovation. The current development trend of Information and Communication Technology for connecting people, data, businesses and machines together is becoming the foundation of our increasingly networked society.
  • Our faculty are working on the next generation communications technologies (5G), highly scalable networking protocols, Internet of Things (IoT), and software/computing algorithms for dynamic information collection and massive data analytics.
  • Western has a number of successful entrepreneurial alumni and industry supporters that can help support a unique engineering student experience in this particular research and education niche.