Carleton University’s groundbreaking work on fibre optics and laser sensors has received $599,000 in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
“This strategic project grant will allow us to take our work to the next level,” said Jacques Albert, Canada Research Chair in Advanced Photonic Components and a member of Carleton’s Department of Electronics. “We are now going to go after real-world problems in the medical and environmental fields and find solutions to them.”
Prof. Albert said that much of the money will go toward funding salaried positions for students ranging from the postdoctoral level to undergraduates. “We have the infrastructure in place to do research, but it’s important to properly train students to do this kind of research as well,” he said. “They are an integral part of moving forward to making more discoveries.”
The grant was awarded on Feb. 13 during a national announcement that took place at Carleton by the Honourable Gary Goodyear, minister of state (Science and Technology).
Prof. Albert’s MOSAIC project (Multimodal Optical Sensor Applications, Interfaces, and Controls) is a fibre optic sensing technology combined with nanoscience in chemistry to build better sensors that will have important applications within the biomedical and environmental research worlds.
Mohammad Zahirul Alam, a second year master’s student, works in Dr. Albert’s lab. He explained his research while the Hon. Gary Goodyear toured the lab.
Albert has three industry partners that are allowing for knowledge dissemination, economic development and possible commercialization of his work. Their financial and in-kind contributions will increase the full amount of funding to more than $750,000.
Spartan Biosciences Inc. plans to use the technology in point-of-care genetic testing where doctors check a patient’s saliva for certain genes so they can better recommend drug therapies.
Another industry partner, Weatherford International, works with the oil and gas industry and is interested in developing the sensing technology to help refine different processes to extract oil from the tar sands. The technology allows for a cleaner and more efficient extraction method. Fibre optic technology is the only way to measure the necessary parameters up to several kilometers underground.
The third partner is L’Institut Nationale D’Optique, which is working closely with one of the project’s PhD students on a variety of applications.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 in Grad Student Research, News
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