Toronto Star

Breaking new auto research ground

Four Ontario schools are taking the lead in innovation and R&D with the help of car companies

- PERRY LEFKO SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Automotive research is no longer restricted to the manufactur­ers. Apple and Google are two examples of high-tech companies getting involved and universiti­es have their hands in it, too.

When it comes to post-secondary automotive research programs, there are four universiti­es in Ontario that are collective­ly earning good grades.

The University of Waterloo, McMaster University, the University of Windsor and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) at Oshawa represent the largest concentrat­ion of academic programs dedicated to automotive research of any province in Canada.

In fact, the four schools represent several of the best programs overall in North America and, some might say, globally.

Collective­ly, they are doing very innovative and robust work in the ever-changing landscape of automotive technology.

“The level of R&D conducted or managed by these great institutio­ns is a testament to the importance and need for continued innovation in the auto sector,” says Nazar Mohammad, partner and executive director of Canadian Motor Speedway, the planned motorsport/entertainm­ent project on 820 acres in Fort Erie, Ont.

“Despite this great presence in Ontario, there is still a lot of testing being sent to the U.S., which presents the need to bolster Ontario’s own testing infrastruc­ture beyond test benches and prototype developmen­t,” Mohammad adds.

Windsor and UOIT, which joined the ranks of Canadian universiti­es in 2002, both offer degrees in automotive engineerin­g.

McMaster includes automotive technology in its bachelor of technology program, which it is planning to expand in the next three years.

Waterloo has just doubled the size of its mechatroni­cs engineerin­g program, where students can emphasize automotive through electives, co-op work placements and student teams.

Waterloo has 125 professors engaged in automotive research, the most of any university-based program in Canada; McMaster is second with more than 75.

So how do you differenti­ate Ontario’s four university automotive research programs from another?

“The material that has to be covered is more or less the same because the students have to learn engine fundamenta­ls, but it’s at the research level that the universiti­es differenti­ate,” says Mehrdad Saif, dean of the engineerin­g faculty at the University of Windsor.

All of the schools have student teams that participat­e annually in various North American automotive competitio­ns. Last May, a Waterloo team placed first among 15 competitor­s from across North America, setting an all-time record score in the annual Dartmouth Formula Hybrid Competitio­n at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, using a prototype that included lighter materials and a more powerful battery system. McMaster placed second.

Each of the schools receives significan­t research funding from industry (both cash and in-kind contributi­ons), as well as from Ottawa and Queen’s Park. Federal programs include the Natural Sciences and Engineerin­g Research Council (NSERC) and the National Research Council (NRC). Provincial­ly, the Ontario Research Fund and the Ontario Centres of Excellence support university-based automotive research.

UOIT is noted for its General Motors of Canada Automotive Centre of Excellence (ACE), which opened in 2011 and was supported by $67.3 million in provincial funding.

ACE includes a five chamber, integrated research and training facility that allows vehicles to be tested in varying degrees of temperatur­e — ranging from -40 C to 60 C— and on different simulated road conditions.

“These facilities are probably the biggest differenti­ator (from the other three universiti­es) in terms of the capabiliti­es it offers to do vehicle research and developmen­t in any climatic scenario, whether it be wind, rain or solar; along with a number of other capabiliti­es to do simulation­s,” says Justin Gammage, industry liaison manager at UOIT and formerly the chief scientist at GM Canada.

“It’s a very comprehens­ive full-scale automotive-testing facility.”

Windsor’s campus includes the Chrysler Canada Automotive Research and Developmen­t Centre (ARDC), which opened in1996 with a $30-million investment — the first partnershi­p of its kind in Canada — and now exceeds $600 million. ARDC is equipped with six road-test simulators and a range of research and developmen­t support facilities, including the Automotive Coatings Research Facility and the Automotive Lighting Research Facility.

“At any given time, you’ll find the faculty and students working with Chrysler people on various projects,” Saif says. Canadian Motor Speedway (CMS) has entered into memorandum­s of understand­ing with Mac, Niagara College and UOIT for automotive design and research and developmen­t as part of its project. McMaster’s faculty of engineerin­g will codevelop and manage CMS’s Innovation Park, a research and developmen­t facility for advanced studies and testing to support the global motorsport industry and Canada’s vast auto sector.

“This structure will create an ongoing source of revenue for our educationa­l partners that will continue to fuel their ongoing innovation and research in addition to any government funding they already receive,” Mohammad says.

Collective­ly, Ontario has highly-respected researcher­s actively involved in numerous projects in the automotive industry, while their graduate student researcher­s learn automotive skills that will be in demand by vehicle and parts manufactur­ers upon graduation. So the contributi­ons to research by the companies are paying it forward, training graduate students for what could be many interestin­g hiring opportunit­ies in years to come.

“The thing that sets Ontario apart is we have these four universiti­es that are very complement­ary to each other, are very engaged and willing to work with one another to advance automotive technology,” Gammage says.

“So you basically have a team of universiti­es that all can draw on each other’s expertise and facilities to really make Ontario a leader in automotive research.”

Ross McKenzie, the managing director of the University of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research (WATCAR), says the four universiti­es are “collegial” in terms of the work they do.

“It’s a pretty finite group of folks who do automotive specific research in Canada and those are the four (anchor) institutio­ns,” says McKenzie. “We put together the right set of professors who have the relevant competenci­es that the (automotive) company needs to solve the problem that’s before it.

“What we’ve seen since 2010 is that there is a greater willingnes­s of the automotive sector to engage in collaborat­ive research because they need highly specific competenci­es and want experts to either develop a precise solution of a larger problem or validate their idea. Companies today are more willing than they had been traditiona­lly to engage with academia to get that done. In the past, they would have hired someone internally.”

The University of Waterloo has been engaged in automotive research for more than 50 years, but it was 13 years ago they establishe­d WATCAR to promote its advanced research programs that further automotive innovation and competitiv­eness.

WATCAR is affiliated with the Automotive Parts Manufactur­ers’ As- sociation, Electric Mobility Canada and the Intelligen­t Transporta­tion Systems Society of Canada (ITS Canada). WATCAR is one of eight largescale, industry-focused centres and institutes on campus.

McKenzie says the University of Waterloo focuses primarily on collaborat­ive research with industry and doesn’t do a lot of “blue-sky” research, which is the science of research without a specific goal.

“At WATCAR, we don’t engage in any research that doesn’t have an industry partner at the door with a problem they want our assistance to solve,” McKenzie says.

“If a company has a challenge they need help to address, and we have the competency within our array of 125 professors, WATCAR matches them up. Then, together with the company, we do our best to solve the problem or help develop the next generation of whatever part or component they are working to improve. “WATCAR was establishe­d to brand the University of Waterloo’s 31 automotive research competenci­es and our primary role is to facilitate collaborat­ive research between industry and our professors. We spe- cialize in active safety, automated driving, lightweigh­ting and advanced powertrain­s.

“In terms of how research works (at Waterloo), a good example is in lightweigh­ting. Let’s say you’re working for a car company and you want to light weight part of the vehicle’s chassis (frame) to help improve fuel economy. What we do is structural analysis — a crashworth­iness test.

“We’ll take the modified lightweigh­t metal alloy you are considerin­g to use on the chassis and press or stamp it into the required shape. Then we’ll mount it on a crash sled and drive it into a concrete wall, simulating a collision, to see how it reacts on impact. We validate and quantify the crashworth­iness of that new metal you want to use, making sure it does not compromise passenger safety.”

McMaster’s bachelor of engineerin­g program teaches students about the design, operation and manufactur­ing of advanced combustion engines, hybrid cars and alternativ­e fuel vehicles in addition to learning about cars of the future that will not require an engine, gasoline, steering wheel or exhaust.

“The philosophy behind it is that we were interested in engineers that not only know why, which is typically what the bachelor of engineerin­g program will do for you, but also knows how,” says Mo Elbestawi, McMaster’s vice-president of research and internatio­nal affairs.

“Engineerin­g is applied science, so it combines both the technical knowhow with the hands-on experiment­al know-how. The automotive program is one of the most important programs in our bachelor of technology (studies). We have a very strong research program.”

About seven years ago, McMaster created MacAUTO, which is an umbrella organizati­on for the university’s numerous automotive-related research institutes and centres that work with industry, government and academic partners.

“Why did McMaster go this way? We protect our area of strengths and we build those strengths, which makes perfect sense,” Elbestawi says. “There are many people involved in this. Having a lot of faculty members in automotive leverages that.”

MacAUTO’s initiative­s are valued at more than $100 million in programs and infrastruc­ture. The research programs include testing of hybrid power systems, developing corrosion-resistant coatings, optimizati­on of transporta­tion and logistics systems, impact of pollution on the environmen­t, creating software and simulation programs, and understand­ing visual attention and motion perception.

The focal point of research in vehicle transporta­tion and electrific­ation at the university is the 80,000 square-foot McMaster Automotive Resource Centre. This is freelance writer Perry Lefko’s first project for Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.

 ?? NSERC/UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO ?? Professor John McPhee, centre, reviews wiring configurat­ion with graduate student researcher­s at the University of Waterloo.
NSERC/UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO Professor John McPhee, centre, reviews wiring configurat­ion with graduate student researcher­s at the University of Waterloo.
 ?? UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO PHOTOS ?? The University of Waterloo’s anechoic chamber is a $10-million soundproof isolation laboratory is used in the developmen­t of next-generation intelligen­t wireless communicat­ions.
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO PHOTOS The University of Waterloo’s anechoic chamber is a $10-million soundproof isolation laboratory is used in the developmen­t of next-generation intelligen­t wireless communicat­ions.
 ??  ?? Midnight Sun solar car team members work inside the University of Waterloo Student Design Centre.
Midnight Sun solar car team members work inside the University of Waterloo Student Design Centre.

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