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view . fall 2012 . CEI
The Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation (CEI)
will help power Ontario’s economic engine by creating
a crossroads where academics, business, industry and
agencies converge.
The Windsor-Essex Economic Development Commission,
for example, has already relocated to the CEI. It is the buiding’s
21,000-square foot Industrial Courtyard, however, that is poised
become the flagship facility for joint
academic-industrial research, leading
the cross-transfer of knowledge,
technology and expertise.
“Our University is fully committed
to being a hub for the manufacturing
sector and for industry and business
across our region,” says UWindsor
president, Dr. Alan Wildeman. “We
welcome the addition of partners in
creating a regional address that business
and government can point to as the
place to go for ideas that could support
investment in our community.”
The Industrial Courtyard will allow
the University of Windsor to:
• Collaborate with more businesses, offering unprecedented
access to University facilities
• Provide for the cross-transfer of knowledge, technology and
expertise with Canadian businesses
• Provide a steady stream of highly qualified graduates to
regional industry
The Industrial Courtyard occupants will come from a variety
of industry and engineering sources to conduct business and
research in co-operation with faculty and students, who will gain
unprecedented access to the “shop floor.”
The University is in the process of developing those
partnerships, including an agreement with Brüel & Kjær, the
world’s largest manufacturer of sound and vibration measurement
apparatus, to establish North America’s first Wind and Renewable
Energies Centre of Expertise in the CEI.
The firm will provide $1.4 million in research equipment,
including a large-scale wind turbine model and supporting software
to study the generation of low-frequency wind turbine noise, to
the Noise Vibration and Harshness-Sound Quality Group led by
mechanical engineering professor, Dr. Colin Novak.
Alan Humphrey, vice-president of global sales for Brüel & Kjær,
praises what he calls “an excellent partnership” with the University.
“We have worked closely with Dr. Novak and the NVH-SQ
group to provide the engineering faculty with access to the latest
technologies for both advanced
education and application to industrial
projects,” says Humphrey. “When
combined with the expertise available
from the University of Windsor, I
believe we will achieve major research
advancements while being mutually
beneficial to both partners.”
Those types of partnerships will
extend into the community, says Dean
of Engineering, Dr. Mehrdad Saif.
“We cannot be confined by the
physical boundaries of the University,” Dr.
Saif says. “This building will be a catalyst,
and the heart of it is the Industrial
Courtyard, which will bring business, faculty and students together, and
forge stronger ties with the community.”
Those ties are strengthened by growing interest at both the
federal and provincial level in applied research, with increasing
support for work that can improve the lives of Canadians in the
near future. “The Industrial Courtyard will provide a venue for
companies, researchers and students to work together to test ideas,
solve problems, and develop strategies for translating research into
commercially viable processes,” says Dr. Wildeman.
“The Centre for Engineering Innovation will provide our
University and the Windsor-Essex region with laboratories
and research facilities to address emerging priorities such as
environmental sustainability, alternative energy, nanostructure,
lighter materials, and more efficient manufacturing systems.”
Watch for the announcement of more partnerships in
the Industrial Courtyard as construction is completed
and the University formalizes policies and processes for
commercial collaboration.
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v
The Centre for Engineering Innovation
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
BY KEVIN JOHNSON
“Our University is fully
committed to being a hub
for the manufacturing
sector and for industry
and business across our
region.”
Dr. alanwildeman
