Student News

Engineering A Brighter Future

By EPCM World contributor Catherine Chan

The energy shortage is one of the most important problems facing our world because it has far-reaching consequences for the economy and environment.

This was one of the key messages Professor Sir Colin Humphreys imparted to a packed house at the University of Toronto St. George Campus as he delivered the annual Winegard Lecture.

“Three years ago was the first time we used more oil and gas than was discovered,” says Humphreys, director of research at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.

The gap between the supply and demand for energy has been growing ever since. Despite advances to increase the supply, the demand for energy – from a growing population – is still outpacing the supply.

But Humphreys believes engineers and scientists can tackle the energy problem directly by developing energy saving solutions. “The top priority is to reduce demand and increase efficiency,” he says.

Humphreys thinks lighting efficiency has the greatest potential for improvements because lighting is prevalent in both homes and offices. According to Natural Resources Canada, about 11% of electricity used in a Canadian home is for light – offices have an even higher demand. The average Canadian home has about 30 light fixtures, most use incandescent bulbs.

Incandescent bulbs are only about 5% efficient and the remaining 95% of the electricity used dissipates as heat. Presently, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are the most energy efficient and economical alternative to incandescent bulbs. They are about 20% efficient, but like incandescent bulbs, the rest of the electricity used is still lost to heat.

Engineering innovations have improved lighting efficiency so less electricity is required to produce the same amount of light. Humphreys cites light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the next lighting technology which could replace CFLs and deliver even greater energy savings for residential and commercial uses.

In fact, a number of Canadian cities – including Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Toronto – have even implemented a LED traffic light program. BC Hydro found traffic signals based on LED technology consume 85-90% less electricity than equivalent signals based on incandescent bulbs. In 2005, they reported energy savings of about 30 Gigawatt-hours per year by converting just under 3000 intersections across British Columbia. This is enough energy to power more than 2600 Canadian homes every year!

“If you have sufficient energy you can mitigate global warming,” Humphreys explains.

The U.S. Department of Energy reported that by 2030, the annual energy savings with LED lighting in the U.S. could potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 200 million metric tons of carbon.

Not only are LEDs an energy efficient alternative, Humphreys emphasizes the potential return on value for money is high because they last around 100,000 hours or about 100 times longer than incandescent bulbs.

Humphreys says his research team at Cambridge recently developed a new LED manufacturing technique that will be utilized by a British electronics company, Plessey, to drive down production costs and make LEDs more affordable for consumers.

At the end of the talk, Humphreys encouraged the audience to use their education – whether they end up working in industry, parliament, or research – to help solve the world’s energy problems.

Postgraduate Degrees – a competitive advantage in the workforce?

By EPCM World contributor Catherine Chan

They say that knowledge is power. So higher education should lead to a good (read: high paying) career, right? But with university enrolments increasing every year, do postgraduate degrees just provide graduates with a false sense of security?

Engineers Canada’s recent report on engineering enrolment showed over 21,000 students were enrolled in postgraduate engineering programs in 2010. Enrolment has been on the rise, up almost 10% from 2009. The number of postgraduate engineering degrees being awarded has also increased steadily in recent years. In 2010, over 4000 master’s and 1000 doctoral degrees were awarded.

The demand for graduates with advanced engineering degrees can vary significantly depending on the engineering sector. According to Statistics Canada’s 2006 Census, about 20% of those employed in the engineering field as a whole held a master’s or doctoral degree.

Not all postgraduate engineering degrees lead to careers in engineering. Only about 26% of those who held a university degree (undergraduate or postgraduate) in engineering were working in an engineering occupation, according to a Labour Market Study conducted by Engineers Canada which cited data from the 2006 Census.

This is partly because the skills gained during a postgraduate degree are highly transferable to other fields.

Steve Choi chose to follow his interest in business and apply his master’s degree in engineering to pursue a financial analysis position at an information technology (IT) consulting firm.

“I think there are a lot of parallels between the way that you learn to tackle a problem in a research environment and in a business environment,” says Choi. “You formulate a plan and there are a set of parameters you have to work within. There are a lot of ways you can go about solving a problem.”

Prospective postgraduate students would be wise to weigh the time and cost of pursuing further education against their expectations after graduation. A postgraduate degree does not guarantee a higher income.

Ben Yu holds a master’s degree in materials science and engineering, and is a project metallurgist in a company that provides engineering consulting among other services. Yu says that about 35% of his engineering peers held postgraduate degrees.

Over the last five years of working in the mineral processing industry, Yu has found that the earning potential for postgraduates is usually comparable to undergraduates. He observed that compensation depends more on one’s ability to work and less on the degree held.

However, there are differences in career advancement opportunities. “Postgraduate degrees may open opportunities that a bachelor’s would not receive,” Yu says. “Any R&D opportunities or specialist positions would require higher education.”

As for occupational differences between a master’s or doctoral degree holder, Yu believes the candidate with the higher postgraduate degrees is preferred when it comes to government R&D positions – even if two candidates have similar abilities or skill sets.

So a postgraduate degree is beneficial in some cases, but a degree alone will not land you a career. The key seems to be how you apply the degree to gain skills and experience.

“A postgraduate education is worth it if you are interested in obtaining additional education or if it is a requirement for the type of job you are looking for,” Choi says. “I don't think it's necessarily worth it if it's just a means to an end.”

Sources

Engineers Canada. (2011). Canadian Engineers for Tomorrow: Trends in Engineering Enrolment and Degrees Awarded 2006-2010. Retrieved from

http://www.engineerscanada.ca/files/w_report_enrolment_eng.pdf

Engineers Canada and Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists. (2009). Engineering and Technology Labour Market Study: Final Report. Retrieved from

http://www.engineerscanada.ca/etlms/media/The%20Engineering%20and%20Technology%20Labour%20Market%20Study%20-%20Final%20Report.pdf

Researching the Way to Sustainability 

EPCM World Contributor Catherine Chan interviews Dr. Barati about his research and his views on the challenges facing the mineral and metal processing industry.  Chan holds a Master of Applied Science in Materials Science and Engineering from University of Toronto.

Photo: University of Toronto's Materials Science and Engineering Department

With growing concerns over climate change, the Canadian mineral and metal processing industry is starting to address ways of becoming more environmentally sustainable. Dr. Mansoor Barati, director of the Sustainable Materials Processing Research Lab at the University of Toronto, says: “If you can reduce the energy consumption of metal processing, you can reduce the emissions as well.”

EPCM World: Dr. Barati, how does your research address the energy consumption of the mineral and metal processing industry?

Mansoor Barati: There is a lot of waste energy in the metals industry. For example, molten slag [residue from metal production] gets discarded at 1200-1600˚C. There is a huge potential to recover the energy. If we can recover the energy from all of the slags in the world, we can power a city as big as Toronto!

We’re looking to find a way to recover that waste energy. One of our research projects is to break the slag into small droplets and pass air through it, and recover the heat into the air. The air is then used to gasify coal and generate fuel. This way we convert waste into fuel.

EW: What is the most challenging part of your research?

MB: In our work, performing the experiments is relatively tough because we deal with high temperatures and harsh environments. So trying to get data in this kind of environment is not an easy job. You have to control the temperature and atmospheric conditions precisely to get reliable and reproducible results.

EW: Why is it important to engage industry in research collaborations?

MB: Industrial collaborations involve communicating with people and sharing knowledge. We communicate the results and get their feedback, then refine our research. Once we finish this [current] research and get some concrete results we will be able to convince industry for support to develop this technology beyond the lab.

EW: In your opinion, do you think there has been an impact on the Canadian mining industry due to foreign acquisition of Canadian mining companies?

MB: I think there has been a minor change to the number of operational jobs available because the plants still have to operate and they need employees. In the long run I think the biggest effect will be on R&D jobs. The companies acquiring Canadian businesses already have central research facilities that are usually based where the company is from. Gradually a number of the R&D offices will be transferred to these countries.

In the past, the companies had local R&D departments and we could initiate interaction with the departments through past graduates working there, former colleagues, etc. But now to establish collaborations, we have to establish connections with the R&D offices which are likely very far away.

EW: What advice would you give students thinking about pursuing a career in the mineral and metal processing field?

MB: The mineral and metal processing industry is a major consumer of energy. Metallurgical people will have a big role to play in promoting sustainable initiatives such as reducing energy consumption of plants, reducing the environmental footprint, or recycling industrial waste. Traditionally, resources have come from the earth, but now we’re tapping into recycled materials as well. Treating these resources requires knowledge of materials processing. Students should enroll in a metallurgical/materials engineering program to gain knowledge of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and heat and mass transfer theory. This is a growing area and there will be lots of good opportunities for students. As long as people need resources, the jobs will be out there.

By EPCM World Contributor Catherine Chan

Engineering Your Future

Photo: The Experimental Mine in Quebec, courtesy of Natural Resources Canada

By EPCM World contributor Joe Veroni

In Canada alone there are 55,000 engineering students attending over 40 universities – and that doesn’t even include Career or Community Colleges with engineering programs. Mechanical Engineering garners the most interest – in Canada there are approximately 12,000 registered students in this specialty.  Mining and Mineral Engineering programs are the least popular, with less than 1,000 students registered across the nation.

Canadian Universities with Mining Programs:

Dalhousie University

École Polytechnique de Montreal

Laurentian University

McGill

Queen’s University

Université Laval

University of Alberta

University of British Columbia

University of Toronto

Considering that even during economic downturns the Mining sector is a boom industry, it’s a little hard to understand why more students aren’t applying themselves to the field.  Is it the safety risks, remote locations and harsh climates that keep the numbers down?   Whatever the reason may be, mining and geological engineers earn one of the highest starting salaries of any bachelor’s program grad.  That’s something that is certainly enticing to anyone making a decision about their future career.

The Mining Industry has undergone many changes over the last two decades.   One of the most significant shifts has been mass retirement of many senior engineers, giving many recent grads a right of way into a booming workforce – after all, the Canadian mining sector remains the backbone of the country’s economy.

Are the Universities adjusting their programs accordingly to meet the demand for more engineers?

Dr. Derek Apel is a Professor of Mining Engineering at the University of Alberta, and says that they have one of the largest programs in Canada right now with close to 140 undergraduate students and 50 graduate students.

From summer jobs, to co-op placements, right to permanent entry into the workforce, students at UofA are picked up fresh off the press. “We are very close to the oil sands,” Apel explains, “where the bulk of our graduates find employment. This is a unique location where a lot of mining companies come to our school to directly recruit our students.”

But Mining Engineering isn’t for everyone.  Dr. Apel suggests that Mining is the least populated stream of engineering because “not everyone is suited for jobs in the mining industry. Most projects are in Northern Canada, so you have to [be willing to] live in a really harsh environment.” Apel has himself experienced the horrendously cold winds in Northern Saskatchewan earlier in his career. But the weather is not even the biggest deterrent in attracting interest in these careers, Apel says.  In camp settings where employees are often working one-week-on and one-week-off rotations, engineers with families can have a hard time adjusting to the schedule.

For prospective graduates, being prepared for the workforce is possibly the most intimidating part of graduating, especially if you’re offered a job somewhere like a diamond mine in a remote part of the Northwest Territories. So what can schools do to ensure that their students are adequately prepared?

Amanda Fitch, a Jr. Mining Engineer with BBA (a Canadian consulting company focused in energy and mining & metals sectors) graduated from McGill University in 2010 and feels that her program prepared her for her first job. “Unlike many engineering programs, [McGill’s bachelor program] offers the possibility for four co-operative work terms.” The benefits to gaining hands-on practice in your field while still studying are tremendous, Fitch adds: “Working underground 12 hours a day in my first internship led to invaluable life experiences.”

In Dr. Apel’s opinion, the demand for Mining Engineers is going to remain steady in Canada, and will probably continue to grow. “Look at the world population, which is drastically increasing in countries which have emerging economies. They’re running out of natural resources. Canada will, I believe, be their supplier.”

Good news for Mining engineering and geology students, and food for thought for prospective engineering students who haven’t yet decided on a program.