Grant: Industrial Research Chairs for Colleges Grants

Today's global marketplace demands an ever-greater rate of product and technology innovation, forcing many companies to re-examine their approaches to new product development and production processes. Essential to the development of any product or technology to the manufacturing stage is the development of a highly effective production process. Any process development faces various types of challenges from cost, e.g. capital, labour, required energy and water, to operating limitations and equipment efficiencies. Optimization is the key to operate optimally while minimizing cost, meeting all regulatory requirements and process limitations and variations. Instrumentation, process automation and control are the applied tools for implementing an optimized process. The proposed Industrial Research Chair (IRC) for Lambton College (LC), Dr. Mehdi Sheikhzadeh, will support local and regional industrial partners with his expertise in industrial process optimization as well as automation, advanced process control and modeling. Dr. Mehdi Sheikhzadeh has the advantage of significant industrial as well as academic experience. He will lead these projects in collaboration with various regional companies; confirmed are GreenField Ethanol, TEAM Aquatic Management and Cennatek; others are under negotiation. The Industrial Research Chair for College (IRCC) program will be very beneficial to local companies and is expected to have a significant impact on the Sarnia-Lambton Economy. At Lambton College, the IRC is anticipated to build applied research capacity, contribute significantly to the training of highly qualified personnel, especially regarding applied research skills, and to transfer project experience into curriculum.