Professor Thomas Oxland has been made an American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Fellow

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce that Professor Thomas Oxland has been made an American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Fellow. The Fellow Grade recognizes significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

Professor Oxland's principal areas of research and development contribution include the biomechanical aspects of the spine, spinal injury, orthopaedic implants and surgical techniques. The scope of the work includes bioengineering research studies and medical product development.

Specifically, he and his colleagues have characterized various aspects of the normal, diseased, and injured human spine and documented novel surgical approaches to treating these potentially devastating conditions. Overall, his 120 journal publications have been cited over 2,200 times (Web of Science). Furthermore, he was the main research and development engineer for novel spinal implants that remain in clinical use today, more than ten years after the initial surgeries.

Emily McWalter and Malcolm Shield receive the 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Award

The UBC Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce that Emily McWalter and Malcolm Shield have been selected as recipients of the 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Award. These prestigious awards are given annually in recognition of the valuable role that Teaching Assistants play in UBC undergraduate programs. The award includes both a certificate and a $1,000 prize.

Criteria for the award include the ability to help students actively learn new knowledge, skills and perspectives, the action as a role model, demonstrating high standards, good listening skills and ethical behaviour, and making the university a more humane place. Both Emily and Malcolm have excelled in all these criteria, and are worthy recipients of the 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Award. Congratulations to Emily and Malcolm.

Troy Adebar, Engineering Co-op Student of the Year

Congratulations to Mechanical Engineering student Troy Adebar, Engineering Co-op Student of the Year!

Troy has been an active member of the UBC Mechanical Engineering Department where he completed his first two of five terms. His third term was with Kraft Canada and his final two terms were in biomedical research with Evasc Medical Systems. Troys Co-op employers commended and venerated his hard work and dedication to the Co-op program.

Alan Steeves to receive the 2009 President's Service Award for Excellence

Alan Owen Steeves, Computer and Electronics Manager, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering is one of five members of the university community to receive the 2009 President's Service Award for Excellence in recognition of his outstanding contributions to campus life and for personal achievements.

Alan has provided nearly 30 years of dedicated IT support to the department from the first department's PDP11 to facilitating the donation of the 2003 Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) in-kind contribution to our department, providing computer software and hardware to the department with a commercial value of approximately $240 million. The in-kind contribution, which consisted of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering software, hardware and training, is the largest in UBC's history. Since then Alan has attracted several more high value PACE donations and in 2008 received the Distinguished PACE Integrator Award for promoting global collaboration among PACE institutions.

Alan is also a founding member of Trout Unlimited British Columbia and is part of the group that helped to resolve the impasse regarding the Pacific Salmon Treaty Commission in 1999. A recognized first nations artist, Alan has donated his works to a number of charitable causes and one of his pieces was presented to the outgoing APSC Dean, Michael Isaacson by our department.

A true, kind, soft spoken gentleman, Alan has always provided our department with the best in IT services with a friendly and helpful manner.

Dr. Clarence de Silva awarded NSERC Canada Research Chair in Mechatronics and Industrial Automation

UBC Mechanical Engineering Professor Clarence de Silva has been appointed a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Mechatronics and Industrial Automation. This seven-year, federally funded research position - valued at $1.4 million - is designed to build Canada's research capacity.

An expert in machine health monitoring, the prediction, detection and diagnosis of malfunctions in engineering systems and machines, de Silva is working to develop a unified framework for industrial systems and machinery that will integrate health monitoring with intelligent supervisory control.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) through its Leaders Opportunity Fund also provides funding for infrastructure associated with a Canada Research Chair.De Silva has received an additional $121,413 from CFI towards a fully networked and integrated laboratory for research and industrial applications in machine health monitoring, intelligent supervisory control and automated design evolution.

Robyn Newell receives a grant from the International Society of Biomechanics

Robyn Newell, a PhD candidate with Dr. Peter Cripton, has been awarded a travel grant to travel and collaborate with a group in Switzerland.

The grant was awarded by the International Society of Biomechanics and will allow Robyn to do a 30 day collaboration with researchers at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research at the University of Bern in Switzerland. The purpose of the trip to Bern is to learn and develop a new research method for describing three-dimensional spinal kinematics using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluoroscopy. This technique combines dynamic 2D images from a single fluoroscope image and subject-specific high resolution, static, 3D data sets from magnetic resonance scans to achieve highly accurate and precise 3D kinematics. The proposed work will be part of her thesis project entitled “Kinematics and muscle activation of the cervical spine during vehicle rollover accidents”.

Susana Zoghbi selected to attend the Young HRI Pioneers Workshop

Susana Zoghbi, a Ph.D. student in the CARIS lab has recently been selected as one of the nine out of twenty-eight students to attend the 2009 Young HRI Pioneers Workshop immediately preceeding the IEEE Human Robot Interaction Conference in San Diego California, on March 10, 2009. This award includes travel and accommodation funds to attend the workshop where Susana can make a presentation on her research.