UWindsor engineer receives 2010 Innovation Award

Dr. Ahmet Alpas, a University of Windsor engineering professor, and General Motors of Canada Limited, have won a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) 2010 Synergy Award for Innovation. The prize, which includes a $200,000 research grant, will allow Dr. Alpas and his team to further their examination of ways to increase energy-efficiency in vehicles by developing lightweight materials for automotive products and manufacturing systems. (Follow the link for a profile of Dr. Alpas and his work featured in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Design Engineering.)

The University of Windsor and GM have been working together as partners since 2002.  Beginning as a small contract, the relationship has grown and now includes GM laboratory access to UWindsor researchers.

The Synergy Awards for Innovation were launched in 1995 by NSERC to recognize partnerships in natural sciences and engineering research and development between universities and industry. Dr. Alpas is one of only four winners in Canada to receive this year’s award.

Other recepients include civil engineer Brahim Benmokrane and his work on using fibreglass and carbon-fibre composites to reinforce concrete; Dr. Donald Mavinic and his co-researchers technology that recovers 85 percent of phosphates from wastewater streams; and McGill Metals Processing Centre headed by Dr. Roderick Guthrie and Dr. Mihaiela Isac.
www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca
www.uwindsor.ca
www.gm.ca