$4.5 million to advance Concordia’s research infrastructure
Concordia has received $4,573,156 in new infrastructure funding in the areas of net-zero energy building practices, electron microscopy and quantum technology.
The funding comes to the university from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and includes matching amounts from the Government of Quebec and the university, as well as in-kind contributions from industry partners and equipment suppliers.
CFI supports initiatives that allow institutions and their researchers to build on established capabilities in order to accelerate current research and technology development, or to enhance emerging strategic priority areas.
“The facilities and equipment supported by this funding will enable Concordia researchers to continue to compete at the leading edge of research that has huge potential to benefit society,” says Christophe Guy, vice-president of Research and Graduate Studies.
“The Canada Foundation for Innovation encourages researchers to share infrastructure, support national and international collaboration, and tackle complex questions that contribute to our health, prosperity and quality of life."
A new engineering test centre at Concordia
A group of researchers in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, led by Hua Ge, associate professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering and a member of Concordia’s Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS), has received a total funding amount of $1,271,881.
The project’s team includes five other CZEBS members: Andreas Athienitis, Bruno Lee, Ted Stathopoulos, Leon Wang and Radu Zmeureanu; and two other ENCS faculty members: Pragasen Pillay and Luiz Lopes from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
BONE Structure and Canadian Solar are the two main industry partners providing support for the facility.
Ge’s current research focuses on the development of high-performance and durable building envelopes, and improving the availability and accessibility of intelligent and self-sustained buildings that meet the needs of occupants at a minimum cost to the environment.
In addition to testing building envelopes and their interaction with HVAC systems and indoor environments, the new and unique CFI-funded facility will test building automation systems, hybrid renewables, urban wind energy and residential nanogrids.
It will support cutting-edge research in the design and operation of intelligent net-zero energy buildings and their optimized interaction with a smart grid.
“As part of our work to design intelligent net-zero energy buildings, we have to run a significant number of tests in order to optimize integrated system performance under real weather operating conditions” Ge explains.
“This funding will help Concordia researchers continue to lead the industry toward the intelligent net-zero energy buildings of the future, and support the Canadian government’s efforts to develop net-zero energy building codes and standards.”
Find out about Concordia’s expertise in smart, sustainable and resilient communities and cities.
Partnerships for project funding
Through Concordia’s participation in inter-university partnerships, two other university projects received infrastructure investment.
Alexandre Champagne, an associate professor of physics in the Faculty of Arts and Science, received total project funding of $1,323,685 dollars for a measurement system that will allow him to explore thermal transport in 2D materials, measure the performance limits of ultra-small nano-electromechanical systems, and investigate the fundamental quantum effects they host.
The Concordia University Research Chair in Nanoelectronics and Quantum Materials received the funding as a member of Polytechnique Montréal’s Platform for the Quantum Engineering of Low-Dimensional Systems.
Concordia also received $1,977,590 million dollars as part of the Quebec Network for Electron Microscopy of Materials, led by the Université de Sherbrooke. The funding will be used for a field-emission scanning electron microscope that features a magnification power much higher than a visible light microscope to support intense research activity on engineering materials.
Christian Moreau, a professor from the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering and John Capobianco, a chemistry professor in the Faculty of Arts and Science, were both involved in the interdisciplinary grant application, though many Concordia faculty members will use the equipment in their research.
