Piezoelectric Properties are Important for Repair
Have you ever wondered how car airbags detect a crash or how our bones stay strong just by walking and moving? These common occurrences rely on a property of certain materials called piezoelectricity; the ability to generate electricity when squeezed or stretched (mechanical stress).
In your hands it is soft and spreadable and feels like the kind of slime children play with. However, look closer and squeeze this substance and it generates electricity – with a variety of applications that span health care and clean energy production.
How are smart appliances, drones, self-driving vehicles, prosthetic limbs and lifesaving medical technologies designed? University of Guelph students will explore these intelligent systems in the new Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics Engineering, set to begin in fall 2025.
An app developed at the University of Guelph (U of G) is aimed at making accessible doors more accessible. "We created what we call the Smart Door Access System," said Hussein Abdullah, a professor at U of G's School of Engineering. The device can be integrated into any pre-existing accessible door and functions through Bluetooth and an app called OpenWay.
The Town is excited to be chosen by the University of Guelph to launch a new Smart Door Access System Study that uses a mobile app to open doors at the Town Hall and Library east entrance. The study aims to test a smart access system with a mobile app in a real setting to see how well it works, how reliable and safe it is, and how users feel about it. The device was researched and developed in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph.
As awareness of toxic, synthetic chemical pollution from per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) increases, more legal settlements in billion dollar amounts are being made between chemical companies and public water suppliers, both in the US and Europe.
Enhancing the Guelph M.Eng. Program: A Step Forward in Engineering Education
The landscape of engineering education at the University of Guelph is set to evolve with recent curriculum changes aimed at bolstering the Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) program. These changes come at a pivotal time, driven by the increasing global interest in Canadian universities, particularly for their robust academic standards, research opportunities, and the quality of education offered.
A team of students at the University of Guelph have won the 2024 Runtime-First FPGA Interchange Routing Contest. Teammates Charlotte Barnes, Dani Maarouf and Timothy Martin in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, and members of the Guelph FPGA CAD Group, won with their solution, GRoute. The team was supervised by Drs. Shawki Areibi and Gary Grewal.
A new undergraduate scholarship has been created to support Indigenous engineering students at U of G, aiming to amplify Indigenous voices, perspectives, and viewpoints within the engineering profession and throughout the industry.
At the University of Guelph, Dr. Emily Chiang and Dr. Rafael Santos in the School of Engineering are pioneering the future of clean water with their innovative research in water disinfection. Leveraging the advanced capabilities of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling, a type of computer simulation used to predict how liquids and gases will move and interact with surfaces, their team has developed a new, low-cost method to disinfect water, making it safer for consumption, irrigation and even in food processing.