UBC Engineers place third in ASHRAE Competition

UBC’s ASHRAE Design Team— Ara Beittoei, Brent Kavelaars, Chu Lin, Jensen Metchie, and Tapio Pikkarainen —placed third in the 2009 American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Student Design Project Competition.

The UBC team competed against 14 others in the HVAC System Design category and tied with University of Central Florida as the third-place winner.

The prize includes a trip for one team representative to attend ASHRAE's January 2010 meeting in Orlando, Florida where the award will be presented.

The team is affiliated with the Mechanical Engineering Design Project (MECH 457) course, where students work on a variety of design projects including HVAC design.

The project was supervised by Department of Mechanical Engineering Instructor Nima Atabaki, Ph.D., P.Eng., and Omicron’s Geoff McDonell, P.Eng., served as industrial mentor to the team.

Outstanding New Graduates Recognized

Many outstanding new graduates were recognized on May 26, 2009, at a reception following the graduation ceremonies. Alumnus Jay Drew congratulated the new class, and welcomed them to the alumni community.

Major award winners included:
Letson Prizes, for top graduates from the General, Mechatronics and Thermofluids Options: Christopher Bibby (General), Troy Adebar (Mechatronics) and Tu Minh Nguyen (Thermofluids).
Mechanical Engineering Prize in Biomedical Engineering, for the top Biomedical Option graduate: Jeff Kennelly.
Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering Gold Medal, for outstanding academic achievement: Thomas Huryn.
APEG Achivement Award, for a graduate who shows great promise: Pierre Couturier.
Outstanding Future Alumnus, Wesbrook Scholar, and other honours: Parisa Bastani.
Mechanical Engineering Outstanding Student Leader Award: Lana Rupp

Recipients of a Degree with Distinction include:

Degree with Distinction recipients with faculty and staff representatives.

Troy Adebar, Dion Anggabrata, Parisa Bastani, Alan Beran, Christopher Bibby, Jeanie Chan, Arminta Chicka, Nicholas Comyn, Pierre Couturier, Paul Dirksen, Sean Fabris, Sandy Godwin, Thomas Huryn, Keigo Karakama, Jeff Kennelly, Bradley Neels, Tu Minh Nguyen, Chukwuemeka Nzekwu, Hedyeh Rafii-Tari, David Richard, Adnan Siddiqui, Daniel Tsang, Andrew Walsh, and Christopher Wong.

Recipients of the Mechanical Engineering Student Leadership Award include:

Student Leadership Award winners with faculty and staff representatives.

Parisa Bastani, Arminta Chicka, Nicholas Comyn, Eric Kaarsemaker, Chu Lin, Katy Lue, Lachlan MacLean, Morgan Meents, Tu Minh Nguyen, Jad Saab, Michelle Salvail, Daryl Schubert, Richard Situ, Ian Tranter, Kristy Wiens, and Wojciech Ziemnicki.

Recipients of the Capstone Design Awards for outstanding accomplishments in Engineering Design:

Capstone Design Award winners with faculty representatives.

Capstone Design Award in Mechanical Engineering, for the project "Design of a Resonant Drum Compactor:" Ameer Balouch, Michael Parras, Dane Reelie, Salim Semsarilar.
Capstone Design Award in Mechatronics Engineering, for the project "Three-Dimensional Haptic Emulation of Hard Surfaces with Applications to Orthopaedic Surgery:" Sean Fabris, Arya Oskui, Anthony Pak, Bradley Roger, Sina Sajadian-Mousavi, Adnan Siddiqui.

UBC engineers receive ALSBC Awards of Excellence

UBC Mechanical Engineering’s Brace Team—students Paul Hahto, Angela Melnyk, Liz Arnott, Isaac Herscovitch and instructor Mike Van der Loos—has won the inaugural ALS Society of British Columbia’s Excellence in Engineering Design Competition for Flexi-Brace, a dynamic neck brace.

UBC's Flexi-Brace team pictured with ALSBC representatives.
Back row: Mike Van der Loos, Angela Melnyk, Isaac Herscovitch
Middle row: Dr Andrew Eisen, Richard Tang, Caroline Chen, Mickey Pun, Jeramy Wu, Elizabeth Arnott, Wendy Magee
Front row: Dr. Jim McEwen, Les Hart, Paul Hahto

Flexi-Brace, developed within a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering capstone design course, gives those suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS—aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) increased mobility and freedom. The team also addressed issues of aesthetic appeal and comfort in its award-winning design.

The ALS Society of BC gave the team first-place and $5,000 for winning its first design competition, which seeks innovations to improve the quality of life of people living with ALS. A neurodegenerative disorder that affects motor neurons that carry messages from the brain to muscles, ALS results in weakness, atrophy and immobilization; upon initial diagnosis, typical life-expectancy is two to five years.

The Flexi-Brace team also placed second in the 2008 Canadian Design Engineering Network student design competition, which endeavors to enhance the capacity for design and innovation in Canada.

The ALS Society of BC was founded by ALS patients, their family members and health care professionals to meet the physical and emotional needs of people with ALS and their caregivers. To learn more about ALS BC, visit: http://www.alsbc.ca/