S M L Reset to Default

Beefing up the bona fides

Memorial University is turning St. John's into a hub of research activity and a centre of harsh-environment engineering

by Rob Antle

Claude Daley is getting to work creating tools, but his work doesn’t involve hammers and nails. Instead, it will result in spreadsheets and knowledge. Engineers will be able to use the fruits of Daley’s labour to help them design and develop a new generation of large ships and offshore structures for use in harsh Arctic environments. “We’re creating, in effect, a toolbox—one that people can count on,” says Daley, a professor of engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s.

Daley is kick-starting a large Arctic research project that has garnered $6 million in cash and involves $8 million over the next five years. Half the cash ($3 million) is coming from ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund (AIF). Other public sector sources, including Newfoundland and Labrador’s new Research and Development Corporation, ponied up another $1.5 million. The remaining $1.5 million has been leveraged from major industrial sponsors: a classification society; two major oil companies; a large shipbuilder; and a large consulting firm.
 
“The Arctic is known to be a tremendous opportunity in terms of resources,” says Daley. “It’s also a challenge in terms of the environmental issues, the wildlife questions, the indigenous people. It’s a non-trivial place to go and get those resources, given all the other challenges.”
But the potential is “quite staggering,” Daley adds, with estimates of up to $40 trillion worth of oil, gas, and resources in the area. The race is on to develop those resources, and that’s where his project comes in.
 
Industry is looking at building bigger and higher ice-class ships than ever before. Offshore structures will be needed for both seasonal and year-round operation. A whole new generation of platforms and vessels is required. “We’re focusing on ice load and structural-response understanding, captured into design and assessment tools for ships and offshore structures,” says Daley. “So the final outcome of our project will be what I’d call an engineering design and assessment tool set.” 
 
Daley’s project is just one of many research-related initiatives at the university, which has received a boost of publicity for its R&D work. Earlier this year, Memorial announced it had topped a list of Canada’s top 50 research universities. According to figures compiled by Research Infosource, a Canadian R&D trade publication, Memorial’s research income growth jumped 116.7% between 2002 and 2007. That ranked it at the top of the heap in research growth for medical/doctoral schools.
 
“It’s a big deal because it represents an accomplishment with respect to some objectives that we have for growth in research—the evolution of the university from that of a primarily undergraduate-focused institution to one that has more of a balance between teaching and research,” says Ray Gosine, who is currently serving as the vice-president of research at Memorial. “It’s a critical piece of the sustainability of the university.”
 
 
To trumpet its success, Memorial recently launched a splashy media campaign, replete with a national ad buy, glossy promotional materials, and an eye-popping website. Gosine says it is important for the university to make its achievements more widely known.  
 
When high-profile powerbrokers come to Memorial, they are “overwhelmed with what they see,” says Gosine. That’s important, because their decisions influence research funding for the school. “It’s always a high point of a visit. The problem is, until they get here they don’t know what is possible here.” 
 
The university has seen interest pique since it launched the campaign touting its No. 1 status. The website, www.mun.ca/big, had about 34,000 unique visits during its first month. Several months later, the site was averaging about 500 unique visits a day. “It has raised our profile,” says Gosine. 
 
Currently, Memorial research is focused on several areas that are the keys to the future of the province. Oceans research is the largest, comprising one-third of funding. Other work considers genetics, heritage and culture, energy and the environment, and natural resources. Research funding is also an important economic driver, says Gosine. The cash—more than $90 million a year—primarily flows in from outside the province. 
 
The funding has hit a plateau, at least for now. Growth is much more modest, but there is a simple reason for that. “We’re fundamentally limited by infrastructure,” says Gosine. Much of the university was constructed in the 1960s, with the most modern science buildings dating back to the 1980s. Over the last decade, as the university has increasingly directed more of its energy toward research, it hasn’t added the necessary physical capacity. “There is a lot more money in the system that we could and should be accessing,” says Gosine, “but you can’t bring in a $10-million program and have nowhere to base it.”
 
Gosine believes Memorial has the potential to be a $150-million-a-year research enterprise, based on the talent at the school and the type of people hired. But there is a need for bricks and mortar—and labs and equipment—to make that happen. The university is working with the government to formulate a plan; meanwhile, Memorial researchers continue their work.
 
Paul Snelgrove finished his undergraduate studies in Newfoundland 25 years ago. Like so many others he left the province, making stops in Montreal, New Jersey, and Cape Cod. Today Snelgrove is back at Memorial, working as a biological oceanographer and network director of a national research initiative.
 
The Canadian Healthy Oceans Network (CHONe) based at Memorial has its sights set on seeking a better understanding of the oceans and a more holistic approach to ocean management. CHONe is an initiative of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); it includes researchers from 15 universities across the country, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and seven other government laboratories.
 
“What better place for such an effort than in Newfoundland, which I would say has stronger cultural and economic ties to the ocean than any other province in Canada,” says Snelgrove. Memorial’s motto is Provehito in altum, which is Latin for “launch forth into the deep.” Adds Snelgrove: “Memorial is a great fit and also a great supporter of this program.”
 
From national networks to international recognition, Claude Daley says the province’s capital city is burnishing its research bona fides. “St. John’s is getting to be recognized globally as a key centre—I would argue, the key centre—of Arctic engineering,” he says. “From an objective point of view, we probably have more going on in St. John’s that relates to harsh environments and ice and Arctic technology and cold regions technology than any other city in the world, period.”
 
When Daley joined Memorial 15 years ago, research expenditures in the engineering department came in at just $20,000 per faculty member. Today the number is closer to $200,000, and that figure doesn’t include Daley’s project now coming onstream.  “St. John’s is a hive of activity,” says Daley. “There are so many things going on that everybody doesn’t realize the extent of it.” 
 
 
Subscribe to the Articles feed

advertisement