Echolocation in bats, smart pavement, aircraft propulsion, drug discovery, and clean combustion — these are a just a handful of the new University of Windsor research projects the federal government will fund for the next five years.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has announced it will fund 22 UWindsor researchers with grants totalling more than $3.8 million. Most of the funding comes from the Discovery Grants program, NSERC’s largest and longest-standing grant program.

“Canada’s science and research sector is solving some of the world’s greatest challenges, all while driving innovation, growth, and productivity,” said François-Philippe Champagne, federal Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, in announcing the funding recently. “Research programs like Discovery give researchers the flexibility to explore the most promising avenues of research as they emerge to ensure Canada remains a world leader in science and new technologies.”

The UWindsor grants are among $554 million in NSERC Discovery Grant funding nationally. Early career researchers who qualified for grants received additional $12,500 supplements to help set up their labs, and one researcher — Jeremy Rawson, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry — received $91,400 for the purchase of equipment under NSERC’s Research Tools and Instruments grant program.

Shanthi Johnson, vice-president, research and innovation, said the University of Windsor is grateful to the federal government and NSERC for this significant funding.

“As the name suggests, Discovery Grants allow researchers to explore emerging avenues of research and make breakthroughs, expanding the boundaries of their fields, and training the next generation of scientists and engineers,” Dr. Johnson said. “These grants are absolutely crucial to discovery in the natural sciences, computer science, mathematics, and engineering, and allow our faculty members to pursue bold and impactful research.”

Gordon Drake, a professor emeritus of physics, received the largest Discovery grant of any UWindsor researcher — $305,000. Dr. Drake’s project relates to the theory of atomic and molecular processes. Other notable grants include $275,000 to mechanical, automotive, and materials professor Ming Zheng for clean combustion studies; $260,000 to civil and environmental engineering professor Ram Balachandar for the study of wake dynamics; and $230,000 each to electrical and computer engineering professors Bala Balasingham for electric vehicle research and Merhdad Saif for research into autonomous driving systems.

Other Discovery Grant recipients are:

• Adeyemi Adesina, “Integrative Development of Smart and Low-Carbon Cementitious Materials for Enhanced Sustainability and Climate Resiliency of Infrastructures” ($180,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)
• Tirupati Bolisetti, “Improved Spatial Modelling of Water Quantity and Water Quality Regimes Using Satellite Remote Sensing Data” ($155,000)
• Rupp Carriveau, “Advancing the Value of Wind Energy in a Climate of Rapid Change” ($160,000)
• Jeff Defoe, “Advancing Design and Increasing Access to Analysis of Fans for Future Aircraft Propulsion” ($160,000)
• Kevin Granville, “Spatial Interpolation and Spatial Queueing Models: Theory and Tools to Assist Wildland Fire Management” ($95,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)
• Scott Mundle, “Stable Isotope Approaches to Mitigate Exposure to Industrial Pollutants” ($150,000)
• Alioune Ngom, “Graph Representation Learning Approaches for Computational Drug Repurposing and Bio-Molecular Association Prediction” ($175,000)
• Grace Oyeyi, “Innovative Sustainable Construction and Smart Pavements: Toward an Efficient Pavement Management System” ($135,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)
• Ali Saber, “Development of an Integrated 3D Hydrodynamic-Water Quality- Ecological Framework to Evaluate the Response of Lake Ontario to the Current and Projected Anthropogenic and Climatic Stressors” ($130,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)
• Vijendra Sharma, “Identification of Cell-Type-Specific mRNA Translational Control Mechanisms in Synaptic Plasticity and Memory Formation” ($195,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)
• Paul Sudhir, “Analysis of Discrete Data (Counts-Proportions-Regression Models), Survival Data, and Longitudinal Data with Over Dispersion, Zero Inflation, Missing Responses, Missing Covariate Information, Covariate Measurement Error, and Bias Correction” ($105,000)
• Andrew Swan, “Spatial and Temporal Control of Meiosis” ($200,000)
• Hannah Ter Hofstede, “Ecological and Evolutionary Context in the Coevolution of Sensory Systems and Behaviour” ($200,000)
• Edward Timko, “Multivariate Operator Theory and Analytic Constraints” ($23,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)
• John Trant, “Cavitands for Molecular Recognition” ($145,000)
• Caniggia Viana, “Electric Vehicle Powertrain with Reduced Components and Costs” ($145,000 plus $12,500 Discovery Launch Supplement)