University of Toronto Alumni Association (UTAA) awarded Praveen Siluvai Antony, a CivMin’s PhD Candidate under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Posen, with a University of Toronto Student Leadership Award (UTSLA). The annual award was presented by Christopher Yip, the Deen of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, at a Graduating Student Awards In-Person Celebration in the Faculty Club on Wednesday, April 26.

Praveen is pursuing research in the area of “Life cycle assessment, Biofuels, and Public policies” in the CivMin Department. See a past story on the CivMin website, where we chatted with Parveen about the award and his current work right after the nomination announcement: CivMin’s Praveen Siluvai Antony (PhD candidate) wins a UTSLA

April 26, 2023 | University of Toronto Magazine

Congratulations to Gonzalo Martínez Santos of the University of Toronto, who was awarded second place prize by Esri Canada for the 2023 Esri Young Scholars Award program. Martínez Santos is supervised by a faculty affiliate of the Smart Freight Centre.

Gonzalo Martínez Santos is a 4th-year student of Engineering Science at the University of Toronto majoring in Machine Intelligence Engineering and working on his undergraduate thesis project under the supervision of Professor Matthew Roorda.

Gonzalo is passionate about cities, mobility, and urbanism. His computational background and his experience with city modelling and visualization allows him to contribute to the development of urban generative design tools at the University of Toronto.

Gonzalo is grateful for this recognition by Esri Canada and says this award will further motivate his career aspirations:

“I am delighted to have been awarded the second-place prize for the Esri Young Scholar Award. This recognition further motivates me to pursue my aspiration of contributing to the future of city planning and design.”

Gonzalo appreciates the support of everyone involved in his research project:

“I would like to thank Sara Wagner (PhD Candidate at UofT) for allowing me to participate in her research project, Dr. Sara Diamond (OCAD) for her continuous ideas and input, David Kossowsky (Esri Canada Limited) for developing the CityEngine visuals, and Dr. Matthew Roorda (UofT) for supervising this project.”

This research was funded by Esri Canada Limited and the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Professor Roorda expects future applications of this generative design tool in a variety of urban design applications including the optimization of freight access in communities, community health and social justice, and enhancing the public participation process for urban design.

This story first published by U of T’s Smart Freight Centre.

April 19, 2023| Driving.ca

April 18, 2023 | University of Toronto Engineering News

April 14, 2023 | The Globe and Mail

April 14, 2023 | Toronto Star

A developing project from a CivMin master’s candidate aims to support household access to safe drinking water in low and middle-income communities by adopting solar-powered ultra-violet (UV) LEDs to treat water in Mexico’s rainwater harvesting systems. 

 

Working on the project is Mistelle Haughton, a second-year Civil Engineering master’s candidate, along with PhD candidate, Karlye Wong. Under the supervision of CivMin Professor Ron Hofmann, the team is part of only a handful of researchers focusing on the benefits of UV LEDs for water-harvesting systems.

The team is currently conducting an extensive systematic review of the literature to map out all the lessons learned in pervious case studies that utilize UV for the disinfection of rainwater.

“We’ve only found about 30 papers that come close to what we’re implementing, and out of those papers, not many focus on LEDs,” Haughton says.

UV light can inactivate pathogens in water between a 140 and 280 nanometer range, where the germicidal range of UV light is found. The amount of time that light shines on a surface is called the dose. Commercially available UV units typically provide the recommended 40 millijoules per centimeter square dose of UV light to be effective against bacteria, protozoa and most viruses.

“The microbes will absorb the UV light, and as the DNA and RNA absorb the UV, the DNA and RNA become damaged, effectively inactivating the organism, which means that they can’t reproduce and can no longer spread diseases,” Haughton says.

Typically, UV systems that are utilized for water treatment predominantly use mercury lamps. UV LEDs can provide a smaller footprint, are low maintenance and feature remote start or stop with the integration of flow sensors which can potentially provide longer lifespans when compared to mercury lamps that usually last for a year.

The pair is exploring the use of UV LEDs for the treatment of rainwater in the field as well as conducting pilot studies that use solar power to supply energy to these treatment units.

“We’re some of the first people to be implementing LED systems in the field,” says Haughton, a member of the Drinking Water Research Group within CivMin.

Haughton is building a solar-powered UV disinfection pilot system that can be implemented with UV devices in the field. The waterproof system, which looks like a small black box, features solar components and can be attached to a UV device and solar panels. The device then runs electricity towards the supply of UV LEDs.

The system can help supplement electrical requirements of the UV systems which needs a reliable energy supply to ensure its properly operating. The system could also be a safe alternative to chemicals like chlorine, which are often improperly disposed and not preferred in peri-urban communities – the area that transitions between rural and urban communities

The team’s field work takes place in San Juan Tlacotenco, Morelos, located about an hour outside of Mexico City. Haughton says that currently, households alternate seasonally between chlorinated municipal water and harvested rainwater. Residents also rely on bottled water for drinking, which cost households between $60 to $100 per month.

“When someone has to chemically dose their water supply, they often do it intermittently and there are a lot of aversions to use of chlorine,” Haughton says.

Rainwater harvesting systems are typically seen in rural or peri-urban areas. Peri-urban communities lack access to centralized water supply, relying on rainwater harvesting to meet their needs. Harvesting systems often have a first-flush device, a contraption used to reduce the contaminants in rainwater harvesting systems from the first rainfall.

Right now, the team has implemented one unit in the field and hope to increase that number to 10 in upcoming months. They are also conducting water quality testing for E. coli and total coliform testing, a basic test for bacterial contamination of water, to monitor for the efficiency of the units.

Historically, the literature has primarily focused on the detection of bacteria and some protozoa in rainwater. The team is exploring the use of molecular testing methods to detect pathogens in the water.

“While we know UVs are very good at inactivating bacterial pathogens, we need to ensure there are no pathogens in the rainwater systems and that UV is not good at killing,” Haughton says.

“Higher life form organisms, like worms, require a lot higher dose of UV light and intensity to inactivate these organisms.”

To ensure that implementation is successful, the team is adapting an interdisciplinary approach to not only focus on the technical integration of the units but also on education and user perception.

This research is sponsored by the Urban Challenge Grant 2.0 from the School of Cities, an Institutional Strategic Initiative at U of T. The team has also been supported by Paul Cadario, a Distinguished Fellow in Global Innovation at U of T’s Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN), and consult with Yu Chen, a postdoctoral research associate with CGEN’s Sustainable Peri-Urbanization Initiative (SPUr), on social matters pertaining to the project.

Funding support was also provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Brown and Caldwell and American Water Works Association (AWWA).

The team’s partners in Mexico include Isla Urbana and Cantaro Azul which are both organizations that are focused on clean water access in Mexico. The team are collaborating with them to improve treatment of their rainwater harvesting system.

Over the next two years the team will monitor the UV units in the field. In the short term, they will be testing the pilot system and develop the preliminary test plan with hopes that this research can continue to evolve.

“I hope this technology can help increase access to clean drinking water for the people who need it the most,” Haughton says.

By Tina Adamopoulos

This story first published by U of T’s Black Research Network 

 

*Also see a past story on the CivMin website: Solar-powered UV water treatment could improve health outcomes in rural Tanzania

 

 

April 10, 2023 | Nature

CivMin’s Nick Seal (CivE MASc candidate) has won the Donald Tong Graduate Scholarship in Structural Engineering from Dialog. The annual award was presented by company partner Daria Kachi and EIT Jordyn Kent (CivE PhD 2T0) at a ceremony in the company’s downtown Toronto office on Monday, April 10.

“I’m really grateful for the recognition with this award, but also the idea that we can all contribute together to make the building environment, and the built environment, a better place,” expresses Seal. “It is really, really important. And Dialog embodies that spirit, as does Donald Tong. The idea of collaborating, and that the built environment can and should be better than it is, is a really inspiring thing we can all work together to achieve.”

Seal is pursing a thesis, titled Development and Validation of MDOF Hybrid Simulation using a Small-Scale Adjustable Multidirectional Loading Module, under the co-supervision of Prof. Constantin Christopoulos and Prof. Oh-Sung Kwon. His work is directly involved with the code for the new adjustable multi-dimensional (AMD) loading system will soon be added to CivMin’s Structural Testing Facility (STF) in the Galbraith Building. 

“My favourite part of being at U of T is the people in the office I get to work with,” he says. “With Pedram [Mortazavi], Marawan [Zaki], Mohamed [Sayed], Henri [Monette] and Luis [Ardila Bothia], it’s really nice to be able to work with them and ask them questions when I don’t know the answer to things.” Candidly, Seal admits to pursuing his shawarma cravings at a spot nearest to Galbraith Building, “I head for the green food truck!”

The award is named for Dialog’s long-time structural team member Donald Tong, who tragically passed away in 2018 after a courageous battle with cancer. In an online description, Dialog provides insight into the motivation for the award: Donald epitomized the integrated design culture at the heart of DIALOG. He started his career as an interior designer, followed by a stint as an architectural technologist, before he found his passion in structural engineering. It is our hope that future structural engineers will embody Donald’s creative, wide-ranging design spirit.

Jane Tong, Donald’s daughter also present for the event, is continuing the family legacy of engineering as a career.

 

By Phill Snel