Breaking new auto research ground
Four Ontario schools are taking the lead in innovation and R&D with the help of car companies
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.