U of S Engineering Students Tackle Whitewater and Synchrotron Controls in Innovation Awards

Posted April 04, 2005


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Monday, April 4, 2005
2005-04-01-ENG

U of S Engineering Students Tackle Whitewater and Synchrotron Controls in
Innovation Awards

Designs for a Saskatoon whitewater sports facility and a synchrotron computer control
and monitoring system won the 2005 University of Saskatchewan Engineering Innovative Design
and Student Paper Presentation Competitions.

Students presented a concept for a water sports facility for Saskatoon's Victoria Park
that could serve as a competitive training facility, sporting venue and tourist
attraction. Their project was sponsored by the Saskatoon Centennial Lions Club,
which hopes to promote financing and development of the project.

The winning paper and presentation was developed for the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron
at Argonne National Labs, Chicago. It described a system to monitor temperature and control
power of instrument racks that works seamlessly with the existing control system. The same
system is used at the Canadian Light Source.

Fourteen projects involving 43 students were entered this year. The work, much of it sponsored
by Saskatchewan-based companies, pitted the teams against engineering design problems
supplied by researchers and industry partners across North America.

"Through this competition, our students demonstrated they are ready to tackle real-world
engineering challenges," says David Sumner, associate professor of mechanical engineering and
coordinator for the event. "Their example shows how the U of S engineering program produces
highly skilled, well trained professionals for a demanding industry."

Teams vie for a $1,000 prize in each category, sponsored by the Saskatoon Engineering Society,
the College of Engineering and the Vice-President Research of the U of S.

The Innovative Design competition looks for the most innovative design, process or technological
development that has potential for application in industry or contribution to society. The
"Saskatoon Engineered Whitewater Facility," by Dallas Ashton, Matthew Braun, Evan Manning and
Ryan Wanner of the department of civil and geological engineering took top spot this year.

"The project required them to investigate all aspects of engineered whitewater facilities and to
consider various locations, layouts and materials appropriate for Saskatoon," says civil and
geological engineering professor Gordon Putz, who advised the group. "They very successfully
applied their knowledge of civil engineering principles, environmental considerations and
economics to produce a solid conceptual design."

The Student Paper presentation focuses on the best oral presentation on an engineering topic,
such as fourth-year design work or a class-related engineering project. To win this year, Andrew
Donovan, John Koberinski and Stephen Norum explained how their Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Rack Monitor could monitor sensitive electronics in a large installation at their customer's site.
Their approach allows seamless integration with standard software.

Professor Ron Bolton of the department of electrical engineering supervised the team. He says
the challenge was to explain their solution in terms comprehensible by their peers from the
entire range of engineering disciplines.

"One of the over-riding concerns in a presentation of this type is to convey the design
considerations on a project that they have worked on for six months and are very knowledgeable
about to an audience of designers who may not be familiar with the topic they are presenting."

This annual competition is sponsored by the Saskatoon Engineering Society (SES), which
represents local professional engineers registered with the Association of Professional Engineers
and Geoscientists of Saskatchewan (APEGS). Additional support is provided by the U of S College of
Engineering and the Office of the Vice-President Research.

Entries were judged by local industry professionals, including David Loken of Loken Engineering
Services, Robert MacLeod of ERCO Worldwide, Garry Mak of UMA Engineering, Terence Monteith
of VCom, Brendan Reding of Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, and Ben Voss of Clear-Green
Environmental.

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For more information, contact:

David Sumner
Associate Professor
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
University of Saskatchewan
Tel: (306) 966-5537
david.sumner@usask.ca

Michael Robin
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
Tel: (306) 966-2427
michael.robin@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research