INNOVATION DAY – 2016

Innovation Day is SIMTReC’s networking event of the year. This year it was held on October 26, 2016. It brought together representatives from academia, industry, and government.

The day began by browsing through a display of posters prepared by SMITReC graduate students and research staff. We had our first Best Poster Competition and the Best Poster Award went to Ms. Sarah Boila (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Manitoba) for her poster titled: Thermally Broken Reinforced Concrete Slabs. This project, led by Professor Svecova is being completed in collaboration with Red River College and Crosier Kilgour and Partners Ltd. Short description of the project may be found in this issue of The Innovator.

The first morning session featured two key-note speakers: Dr. Sami Rizkalla, Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering from North Carolina State University, and Mr. Glenn Hewus from the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited. The presentations inspired our attendees to work with innovative materials, and made it clear that collaborations between University researchers and industry are essential for bringing innovation to industry.

The remainder of the day was spent on presentations from SIMTReC project leaders, which included presentation on monitoring of bridge in Morris, Manitoba, the development of Bridge-Weigh-in-Motion monitoring system, and development of new ways to detect cracking in steel bridge girders and in heavy ground vehicles. There was something for everyone to choose from. The day concluded with our lunch presenter Dr. Brian Westcott from Intelligent Structures, Inc. Dr. Westcott presented on the mission of the company that is to combine the technologies of the Industrial Internet of Things (I-IoT) with Structural Health Monitoring to create intelligent bridges and solve the world issue of infrastructure decay.

We are looking forward to see you again at our next year’s event.