Repairs in extreme environments to be aided by new design research initiative (December 01, 2003)

Canada is funding a new Chair in Design for Extreme Environments at McGill University in Montreal. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Ottawa is providing $1 million over five years, with the university contributing $598,000, and MD Robotics of Brampton, Ont., a further $50,000.

“Designing for extreme environments needs robust, sustainable answers to challenging problems,” explains new chairholder and robotics specialist Professor Jorge Angeles. “Canada’s wealth of harsh environments is an ideal testing ground for developing our students’ strengths in creative engineering.”

“The federal government supports and promotes design engineering because it generates the innovations that we need for Canada to be competitive,” said Stphane Dion, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and MP for Saint-Laurent/Cartierville in Quebec.

“Design engineering is a creative, intellectual activity using knowledge as a key input,” said NSERC president Tom Brzustowski. “Nowhere is the output of this process more severely tested than in an extreme environment where it is very difficult to make repairs if the product fails to perform.”