News and Events

Shayan Shirzadian is the first first recipient of the Iranian Students Memorial Scholarship - Remembering Flight PS752.

It was just a casual conversation with a fellow UWindsor graduate student, but one Shayan Shirzadian will always remember.

He and engineering doctoral candidate Hamidreza Setareh Kokab, both international students, talked about living in Canada. Setareh Kokab was happy to offer advice.

“My overall feeling from our conversation was that I was joining a community with great people who love to help,” Shirzadian says. “It left an impression on me.”

A month later, Shirzadian was shocked to learn Setareh Kokab’s life was taken in a plane crash in Iran while returning to campus for the winter semester. The incident claimed the lives of all 176 on board, including four other members of UWindsor’s community — engineering doctoral candidates Pedram Jadidi and Zahra Naghibi and her spouse Mohammad Abbaspour Ghadi and biology research assistant Samira Bashiri.

They were caring friends and talented researchers who were on the cusp of promising careers. Countless stories emerged as the campus community mourned such a significant loss.

An immediate outpouring of support from the UWindsor community and general public followed to establish the Iranian Students Memorial Scholarship - Remembering Flight PS752, a graduate scholarship that will annually support two international students conducting vital research in the Faculties of Engineering and Science.

Calling her “an inspiration for women in research and engineering around the world,” Denmark’s Aalborg University conferred an honorary doctorate on UWindsor professor Hoda ElMaraghy in an online ceremony April 15.

Aalborg’s Faculty of Engineering and Science noted Dr. ElMaraghy’s contributions to the development of modern manufacturing systems. A distinguished university professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering and director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Centre, she pioneered the use of “learning factories” in teaching and research. A “Smart Production Lab” at Aalborg University was inspired by her work.

ElMaraghy and four other honorees — women academics from France, Norway, and the United States — participated in a round-table discussion on the theme “Research collaborations in a changed world” before the awards ceremony.

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From a multi-criteria decision support system to optimize restaurant menus during a pandemic to boosting the efficiency of local manufacturing shopfloors, UWindsor students are improving the community through industrial engineering.

Seven student teams presented their capstone designs during the Industrial Engineering Virtual Capstone Showcase on March 26. Capstone projects challenge fourth-year engineering students to apply the formal knowledge they’ve gained during their undergraduate studies and partner with industry to solve real-world problems.

“Our students spend the fall and winter semesters working on sponsored projects from initial concepts to final designs,” says Jill Urbanic, capstone co-ordinator for the industrial engineering program.

“Although the present COVID-19 pandemic situation has altered how we do business, these students have met the challenges head-on.”

A new addition to this year’s showcase was the Windsor Mold Group Capstone Endowment Awards. Students had the chance to win three cash prizes for their innovative designs. The top three teams were selected by Windsor Mold Group representatives Keith Henry, Sandeep Singh, and Marc DiDomenico, and guest industry judges Mark Dolson of TRQSS and Pete Naysmith of Valiant TMS.

Earthquakes that occurred in Canada in the last 30 days are shown in a graphic produced by Earthquakes Canada. The latest occurrence involves a 3.9 magnitude earthquake reported on Feb. 18, 2021 near Arctic Bay, Nunavut.

Would you be surprised to learn there are more than 1,450 earthquakes across Canada each year?

Although only a small fraction is of large enough magnitude to feel, the data published by Natural Resources Canada includes damaging earthquakes peppered throughout the nation’s history, which will inevitably occur again, according to the federal ministry.

Niel Van Engelen, an assistant professor in the University of Windsor’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is leading a project that can help Canada mitigate the loss of life and financial ruin caused by these large-scale earthquakes.

The $258,000 project is funded equally by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Ontario Research Fund with $46,000 support from the Faculty of Engineering.