Grant: Collaborative Research and Training Experience

This Industrial Stream NSERC CREATE Research and Training Program in Sustainable Aviation is aimed at graduate and undergraduate students and emphasises the scientific and engineering disciplines responsible for the knowledge and skills needed to build future generations of aircraft which have reduced environmental impact. This proposal addresses the strategic target area of environmental science and technologies through its focus on environmental science and the engineering technologies needed to mitigate the impact of aircraft on the environment. The program will provide trainees with the skills appropriate for both industrial and academic career paths, and will therefore increase Canada's research and development capacity. Trainees will gain the interdisciplinary technical skills necessary to understand the relationship between the science of climate change and the engineering of aircraft, coupled with insights into the political and legal framework surrounding climate change. The students will be exposed to a unique range of topics, including aerodynamics, flow control, microarchitectured composite materials, combustion, aeroacoustics, multidisciplinary optimization, biofuels, lifecycle analysis, atmospheric physics, and political, legal, and economic aspects of aviation and climate change. This material will be conveyed to them by a group of recognized experts, including the applicants and the collaborators, from industry and academia in Canada, the US, and the UK. In addition, trainees will receive professional development to provide them with the skills demanded by high-tech employers in Canadian industry: communication, management and teaching skills. This CREATE program will use a fivefold strategy to accomplish these goals: (1) Training through relevant courses; (2) training through research projects supervised by leading scientists and engineers on the program team; (3) interdisciplinary exchanges between program participants and with external collaborators; (4) professional development seminars, workshops and project management experience; and (5) integrated internships with major Canadian companies which hire graduate scientists and engineers.