UBCO researchers have determined that flower gardens intentionally planted beside fruit crops can double crop yield if the timing and blossoms appeal to the targeted bumble bees. Photo credit: Dr. Amanda Liczner.

The term “if you build it, they will come” has taken on a whole new meaning when it comes to creating flower gardens to attract specific pollinators like wild bumble bees.

UBC Okanagan researchers Drs. Rebecca Tyson and Bruno Carturan, both with the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, wanted to investigate whether flower gardens—specifically placed beside a crop to attract and support insect pollinators—actually benefit both the bees and crop production.

“Planting wildflower patches near crop fields is considered a potentially effective strategy to support both the abundance and diversity of pollinators and the services they provide,” says Dr. Carturan. “But these management strategies can be costly and not always effective in enhancing crop yield.”

Planting supplemental gardens can lead to larger and healthier wild bee populations, which should be good for crop pollination. However, field studies show contradictory results—while some indicate an increase in crop yield directly related to pollination services, others show no discernible effect.

“While the plan makes sense on paper, it can create a conundrum,” he says. “With more bees in the landscape, there is the potential for greater pollination of crop flowers. But bees can prefer different flowers, guided by nectar sugar content, flower shape and pollen nutrient composition. Consequently, the presence of wildflower patches beside a berry crop could divert bees from pollinating the crop.”

Curious about this distraction phenomenon, Dr. Carturan set out to understand the interplay between the relative timing of crop and wildflower bloom, as well as the quantity, quality and relative attractiveness of the flowers.

For this study, he focused specifically on blueberry crops, an emblematic agricultural product in BC, and bumble bees, which are known for their superior efficiency in pollinating blueberry flowers compared to honey bees. He wanted to vary the size of the crop area, the size of the planned garden relative to the crop and the relative nutritional quality and bloom time of both the crop and additional flowers.

“Creating a field study large enough to properly test how bumble bee pollination services respond to changes in all of these different parameters would be quite a challenge,” he explains. “So, we chose a mathematical modelling approach which required two steps that involved a lot of reading and thinking.”

The first is to design a model that aligns with the goals of the project and realistically captures the key ecological processes at play in the ecosystem. The second is to find proper values for the model parameters.

Dr. Tyson explains the model is fairly complex and they ran thousands of simulations—each characterized by a unique combination of wildflower patch size, nutritional quality of the blossoms and blooming period—before they were able to predict blueberry crop yield.

“Such an extensive sampling design, attainable only through simulation, offers a comprehensive picture of the interacting processes and trade-offs within the system,” she says.

The net result of those simulations determined that providing highly nutritious wildflower resources before the crop blooms can more than double the crop yield. Conversely, providing wildflower resources at the same time as crop bloom can reduce the yield by up to 50 per cent.

“The main result of our virtual experiment clearly shows that the most beneficial strategy is to generate a temporal spillover effect by providing a continuous supply of resources to the bees and avoiding too much competition between the wildflowers and the crop flowers,” she explains. “This keeps the bees well fed during the early foraging season when the colonies are growing, and it prevents a potential distraction effect during crop bloom.”

The researchers hope to refine the model to implement additional aspects of the ecosystem by, for instance, modelling several different bumble bee species rather than just one “average” species. The ultimate goal is to calibrate the model with locally relevant empirical data to help inform planting strategies on a real farm.

However, they advise caution while interpreting these results as they pertain to a virtual system, not actual bees and blueberry crops.

The research appears in Ecological Modelling.

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UBCO’s Dr. Adam Ford was part of a research team investigating how a tiny invasive ant is changing the eating habits of Kenya’s lions and improving the sustainability of zebras.

A newly published research paper demonstrates how a tiny, invasive insect has helped make savanna landscapes safer for zebras.

A joint project, including researchers from the University of Wyoming and UBC Okanagan, shows how invasive big-headed ants in a Kenyan savanna have caused lions to change their predatory habits— shifting their preferred prey from the iconic zebra to buffalo.

The paper, published today in the journal Science, determined the big-headed ants at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy have made lions less effective when it comes to stalking and killing zebras, their primary prey.

It’s a clear example of how important interdependent relationships can be, says UBCO’s Dr. Adam Ford, a researcher with the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science and Principal Investigator of UBC’s Wildlife Restoration Ecology lab.

Whistling thorn trees, the dominant tree species in much of East Africa, provide nectar and shelter for native ants. In exchange, the ants defend the trees against grazers by biting them and emitting formic acid.

“The native ants defend these trees against elephants and other herbivores,” Dr. Ford says. “But the invasive ants kill these tiny defenders and eventually those invaded trees are killed by elephants. With fewer trees, lions aren’t able to stalk and ambush zebras.”

Along with Dr. Ford and UBCO’s Dr. Clayton Lamb, the research team included Wyoming doctoral student Douglas Kamaru along with researchers from the Nature Conservancy, the University of Florida, the University of Nairobi, Duke University, the University of Glasgow, Karatina University, the University of Nevada-Reno and the US Geological Survey.

“The good news is that the lion population hasn’t declined since the insect invasion,” says Kamaru, who’s part of Professor Jacob Goheen’s research group at the University of Wyoming’s Department of Zoology and Physiology. “This is likely because lions have switched their diets from zebras to African buffalo, which are equally at risk of lion predation in invaded areas.”

The researchers hypothesized that the loss of tree cover would affect the interactions of lions and their primary prey species, zebras. Using a number of study plots—some invaded by big-headed ants, some not—and studying zebra and lion activity, the scientists found that the big-headed ant invasion reduced the occurrence of zebra kills by lions by increasing openness across the landscape.

“We show that the spread of the big-headed ant, one of the globe’s most widespread and ecologically impactful invaders, has sparked an ecological chain reaction that reduces the success by which lions can hunt their primary prey,” the researchers wrote.

The study took place at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a working ranch in the Laikipia region of central Kenya. The researchers say such properties are invaluable for understanding savanna ecology.

“The coexistence of lions, large wild herbivores and ranching in Kenya helped make this study possible. Such landscapes are under ever-increasing pressure to develop agriculture and housing, yet this property persists through sustainable land use management,” says Dr. Ford. “We were very fortunate to work with Kenyan students, researchers and government to study some of the most iconic species in the world today.”

Whistling thorn trees provide nectar and shelter for native ants. Invasive ants kill the native ants and eventually those invaded trees are killed by elephants.

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Local writer Shelley Wood is UBCO’s latest Writer in Residence and this year’s judge of the annual short story contest.

Kelowna-based author Shelley Wood is spending two weeks this spring at UBC Okanagan as the campus’s next Writer in Residence.

Part of her role will be to read and provide feedback on manuscripts from local writers, host a public lecture and judge the many entries for the Okanagan Short Story Contest.

The goal of UBCO’s Writer in Residence program is to promote Canadian authors and literature to Okanagan residents while at the same time, providing budding writers an opportunity to receive feedback on their creative work, explains Andrea Routley, Lecturer of Creative Writing and organizer of the residency program.

“Getting fresh eyes on your work can help you see what’s missing—tension, layers, characterization, pacing, or voice—or what you might need to cut for the work to draw a reader in. Sometimes that means helping you see what you need to change or fix and discussing ways to do that, but a consultation may also clarify for you what you absolutely can’t bear to part with, which can be the incentive you need to roll up your sleeves and get back to work,” Wood says.

Originally from Vancouver, Shelley Wood earned her undergraduate degree in English literature from McGill University and her master’s degree in journalism from UBC. Her short stories and creative nonfiction have been published in Grain, Room, Causeway Lit, Canadian Notes & Queries, Phoebe, the Antigonish Review, The New Quarterly, Bath Flash Fiction, Freefall and the Saturday Evening Post. Her debut novel The Quintland Sisters was an instant Canadian bestseller and her second novel The Leap Year Gene will be published next summer by Harper Collins Canada and Union Square Press in the US. She divides her time between her home in Kelowna, BC, and her work as a medical journalist and editorial director for the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York, NY.

Local writers of adult fiction or non-fiction are invited to submit manuscripts for Wood’s review and feedback. Wood will also meet with a select number of UBCO students and community writers between February 26 and March 8 to coach their writing.

Anyone who would like to submit their manuscript to Wood can find out more at fccs.ok.ubc.ca/about/events-workshops/authors. Manuscripts will be accepted between February 1 and 12.

Wood will also host a public reading and reception on Wednesday, March 6 in UBCO’s Creative and Critical Studies Building gallery at 7 pm. And as the judge of the Okanagan Short Story Contest, Wood will announce the winners on Wednesday, March 27 at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. Both events are free and open to the public.

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Next-generation mobile networks are expected to outperform 5G on many fronts thanks to research from UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering.

A new wave of communication technology is quickly approaching and researchers at UBC Okanagan are investigating ways to configure next-generation mobile networks.

Dr. Anas Chaaban works in the UBCO Communication Theory Lab where researchers are busy analyzing a theoretical wireless communication architecture that will be optimized to handle increasing data loads while sending and receiving data faster.

Next-generation mobile networks are expected to outperform 5G on many fronts such as reliability, coverage and intelligence, explains Dr. Chaaban, an Assistant Professor in UBCO’s School of Engineering.

And the benefits go far beyond speed. The next generation of technology is expected to be a fully integrated system that allows for instantaneous communications between devices, consumers and the surrounding environment, he says.

These new networks will call for intelligent architectures that support massive connectivity, ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, high-quality experience, energy efficiency and lower deployment costs.

“One way to meet these stringent requirements is to rethink traditional communication techniques by exploiting recent advances in artificial intelligence,” he says. “Traditionally, functions such as waveform design, channel estimation, interference mitigation and error detection and correction are developed based on theoretical models and assumptions. This traditional approach is not capable of adapting to new challenges introduced by emerging technologies.”

Using a technology called transformer masked autoencoders, the researchers are developing techniques that enhance efficiency, adaptability and robustness. Dr. Chaaban says while there are many challenges in this research, it is expected it will play an important role in next-generation communication networks.

“We are working on ways to take content like images or video files and break them down into smaller packets in order to transport them to a recipient,” he says “The interesting thing is that we can throw away a number of packets and rely on AI to recover them at the recipient, which then links them back together to recreate the image or video.”

The experience, even today, is something users take for granted but next-generation technology—where virtual reality will be a part of everyday communications including cell phone calls—is positioned to improve wireless systems substantially, he adds. The potential is unparalleled.

“AI provides us with the power to develop complex architectures that propel communications technologies forward to cope with the proliferation of advanced technologies such as virtual reality,” says Chaaban. “By collectively tackling these intricacies, the next generation of wireless technology can usher in a new era of adaptive, efficient and secure communication networks.”

The research is published in the latest issue of IEEE Communications Magazine.

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Researchers have created a physical theory encompassing both quantum mechanics and general relativity which can help scientists construct a complete theory of how the universe works. Photo credit: Bryan Goff on Unsplash

In a new study published in Nature Reviews Physics, an international research team, including UBC Okanagan’s Dr. Mir Faizal, has ventured into uncharted territories for physics by trying to blend Einstein’s theory of general relativity with quantum mechanics. This innovative approach paves the way for new insights into the nature of space and time.

General relativity explains the structure of the universe at a very large scale—the scale of galaxies. However, the universe at a small scale, such as atomic physics is described by quantum mechanics.

It has not been possible to construct a complete theory of the universe, encompassing both quantum mechanics and general relativity, explains Dr. Faizal. Physicists have long argued that any such theory cannot emerge from space and time.

This mind-bending observation of space and time emerging from something that is neither space nor time challenges our conventional understanding of the universe, he explains. This is the reason why blending general relativity with quantum mechanics is so difficult Dr. Faizal adds.

However, these researchers point out that this emergence can be understood using water as an analogy.

“Water is made up of individual molecules,” explains Dr. Faizal, an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics and Physics with UBCO’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science. “Water also forms shapes like a whirlpool, when it is drained. However, at the scale of individual molecules no such shape exists, and this geometric shape is an emergent structure. Similarly, the geometrical shape of space and time is emergent.”

This analogy helps to explain how space and time can emerge from a theory which does not exist within the confines of either.

“Any attempt to construct quantum gravity seems to indicate that spacetime would emerge from something that exists neither in space nor in time. So, we are now looking at a physical theory which is beyond space and time,” adds Dr. Faizal, who is also the Scientific Director of the Canadian Quantum Research Center.

Researchers now have used moving fluids to understand the emergence of space and time. This allows them to further investigate some deep questions related to the quantum physics of black holes. They hope this will foster collaboration between researchers from different disciplines to further the understanding of these complex phenomena.

The global research team includes Dr. Samuel Braunstein from the University of York in the UK, Dr. Lawrence Krauss, Dr. Francesco Marino from the National Institute of Optics in Italy and Dr. Naveed Shah from the Jamia Millia Islamia University in India.

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UBC Okanagan uses several low-impact developments, like this vegetative area outside the Commons building, that are intentionally created to help control and retain rainwater. Geoff Lister photo.

Climate change and varying rainfall patterns are forcing municipalities in semi-arid regions such as the Okanagan to investigate more resilient ways to retain and use stormwater.

With this in mind, a team of UBC Okanagan researchers used the campus itself to examine and evaluate the lifecycle of low-impact developments (LIDs) that are intentionally created to help control and retain rainwater.

“The Okanagan is a great case study that can help us better understand what developers and governments need to consider when building much-needed new housing without adversely impacting our environment,” explains lead author Dr. Sadia Ishaq, who recently completed her doctoral degree at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering.

Increasing populations and development trends are modifying urban land landscapes while producing large amounts of rainwater runoff, rendering curbs and gutters obsolete for overflow transport. The major limitations of conventional systems are related to a reduction in baseflow and groundwater recharge, which results in valuable resources being drained into streams or rivers.

Examples of LIDs include retention ponds, porous pavement, rain gardens, green roofs and bioswales—intentionally created vegetative areas that retain rainwater—to help reduce flood risks and collect runoff.

Using a lifecycle management analysis of LIDs at UBC’s Okanagan campus, Dr. Ishaq, along with Dr. Anber Rana, considered the resources and energy required throughout the lifecycle of the LIDS, as well as the release of waste and pollutants into the environment.

The aim was to evaluate the environmental impacts of LIDs installed at UBC Okanagan over an assumed service life of 30 years; construction costs and materials were also considered.

The university’s goal for sustainable runoff management is to capture 90 per cent of the annual rainfall and divert 100 per cent of it from the municipal sewage system through capture, reuse, infiltration and storage. Existing campus LIDs include the development of depressed rain gardens, bioswales, box planters and wetlands. These LIDs are intended for an area of 389 hectares and operate by gravity flow of runoff via the drainage system without pumps.

“Rainwater is considered a valuable resource at UBC Okanagan, and the campus has a series of on-site runoff retention and infiltration infrastructure, which aims to support zero-net impact targets on the environment,” explains Dr. Rana, study co-author and a postdoctoral fellow.

The findings determined that box planters and naturally occurring wetlands provide significant environmental and financial benefits beyond simple stormwater management, with box planters offering the lowest impacts.

“LIDs can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy costs,” adds Dr. Ishaq. “Conservation of natural features with water holding capacity is highly recommended to reap ecosystem sustainability as well as cost savings.”

The researchers are now turning their attention to other circular economy principles when comparing other green infrastructure to gauge their potential compared to traditional methods.

A substantial investment by the federal government into green infrastructure, as part of the Nature Smart Climate Solutions Fund, suggests the government also sees the benefits of green infrastructure.

This study was carried out under the guidance of Drs. Rehan Sadiq and Kasun Hewage at UBCO’s Life Cycle Management Laboratory. This research was published recently in the Journal of Cleaner Production and was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Faculty of Management researchers Dr. Amir Ardestani-Jaafari (right) and Dr. Amin Ahmadi Digehsara discuss their gaming strategy that helps protect infrastructure from attack with student Mohammad Mosaffa (left).

As technology continues to advance, the likelihood of malevolent attacks and subsequent failures on society’s critical infrastructures increases. Blackouts, water shortages, transport collapses—these potential threats to cities not only come with a hefty price tag but are likely to cause chaos and affect the health and safety of communities.

UBC Okanagan Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Amin Ahmadi Digehsara, along with Assistant Professor Dr. Amir Ardestani-Jaafari, both with the Faculty of Management, recently published a study that will enhance the resilience of vital infrastructures against malevolent attacks.

“We rely heavily on various interconnected systems and networks, like electricity, water and transportation,” says Dr. Ahmadi Digehsara. “Imagine these networks as a series of roads and intersections. If certain roads or intersections are blocked due to an attack or disaster, it can cause significant problems within our community.”

Their study tackles the ever-growing challenges associated with safeguarding power stations, water systems, railways, highways, subway stations, roads and other key components of a community’s infrastructure. As threats, ranging from warfare and criminal acts to terrorism, continue to loom it becomes imperative to devise robust strategies to defend against these vulnerabilities.

“Our research is crucial because it helps us better prepare to support our communities during disasters,” says Dr. Ahmadi Digehsara. “By identifying which roads and intersections are crucial, we can reinforce them so our daily lives are less disrupted during emergencies. This isn’t just about avoiding inconvenience; it’s about ensuring safety, health and even saving lives during disasters.”

Dr. Ardestani-Jaafari explains how they used a gaming strategy to devise ways to prevent potential blockages or infrastructure attacks.

“For our research, we acted like city planners. By thinking ahead, we try to strengthen important roads and intersections—we call these nodes and links—to keep the city running smoothly, even when trouble happens,” he says. “However, it’s tricky because we don’t know exactly where or how these blockages might occur. So, we’ve created a three-part strategy, like a game, involving a defender which is us, an attacker who created blockages, and then the defender again.”

In their study, the first defender makes strengthening plans and the attacker finds weak spots to hit and create damage. Then the second defender makes quick moves to fix issues and find the best paths within the damaged network.

“To figure out how to do this efficiently, we used a special method—like a problem-solving tool—to test our strategy on known examples. We found out that with smart planning, we can make really strong protection plans quickly, even when facing complex problems.”

The research, published this month in Annals of Operations Research, proved that by strengthening the most important roads and intersections, cities become more resistant to unexpected disasters and attacks. Their paper also determined that by properly preparing for disaster, the financial consequences can be decreased.

“Even if we don’t know exactly what’s coming, we have smart tools and strategies that help us prepare to respond effectively,” adds Dr. Ardestani-Jaafari “Our approach isn’t just theoretical. We’ve tested it, and it will keep things running more smoothly in emergencies while simultaneously saving money and resources in the long term.”

Though the research is promising, Dr. Ahmadi Digehsara cautions that as threats change and networks continue to grow, it is imperative to keep adapting to these changes in order to improve defences.

“This isn’t a one-time effort,” he says. “As threats change and our networks grow, it is important to keep adapting and improving the response. In simple terms, we’re like the guardians of the city’s lifelines, working behind the scenes to make sure everyone can continue living their lives with minimal disruption, no matter what surprises come our way.”

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A first of its kind study from the Okanagan School of Education has determined that canine therapy can help students feel better and more optimistic regardless of their gender. Photo credit: Freya Green.

While there are a number of studies demonstrating that dog therapy programs can improve a person’s social and emotional wellbeing, many typically have a disproportionate number of female participants.

Recent research led by Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, an Associate Professor in UBC Okanagan’s School of Education and Director of Building Academic Retention through K9s (BARK), evaluated if there are gender differences in wellbeing by setting up separate dog therapy sessions for those who identified as female, male and gender diverse participants.

Dr. Binfet has conducted numerous studies on the benefits of canine therapy, but to his knowledge, this is the first gender-specific study about canine therapy.

“Previous research has explored if it works and how it works, but not who it works for,” says Dr. Binfet. “This was one of the first studies that examined whether canine-assisted interventions work equally well for varied genders.”

For the study, students self-selected their gender cohort and were assigned to a session on a first-come first-serve basis. Prior to the sessions, they provided reports of wellbeing; specifically measuring their self-perceptions of campus and social connectedness, happiness, optimism, stress, homesickness and loneliness.

A total of 163 students—49 per cent women, 33 per cent men, and 17 per cent non-binary and other genders—participated in 20-minute sessions. In groups of three to four, the students engaged with a therapy dog and handler, and following the session they filled out a survey. The results showed, as expected, that there was a significant increase in wellbeing and a decrease in homesickness, stress and loneliness. The results also demonstrated that canines have a comparable positive wellness effect across diverse gender identities.

“In light of previous studies that note participants were predominantly women, our sampling of men, genderfluid and two-spirit participants furthers our understanding that the efficacy of these interventions does not appear to be gender dependent,” says Dr. Binfet. “The vast majority of responses showed that the dogs helped the students feel and experience something positive regardless of their gender.”

The findings could influence post-secondary mental health and wellness programs as educators continue to seek low-cost and low-barrier inclusive options for students.

The research, published in CABI Human-Animal Interactions, was supported by the BARK program.

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UBC Okanagan researchers Dr. John Braun and Dr. Kevin Hanna are among the first to join the newly created US-Canada Centre on Climate-Resilient Western Interconnected Grid. Their research is designed to protect infrastructure vital to 14 western states, BC and Alberta.

Wildfire modelling has advanced enough in the past 10 years that UBC Okanagan researchers say devastating losses like those witnessed in Fort McMurray, Alta., could become easier to prevent.

Dr. John Braun and Dr. Kevin Hanna are among the first to join the newly created US-Canada Centre on Climate-Resilient Western Interconnected Grid. Their work is helping highlight the need for improved wildfire prediction models and eventually establish better data access to mitigate or prevent damage to vital North American infrastructure.

“Today’s technology allows us to gather much more high-quality data than even a decade ago,” says Dr. Braun, a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics in UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science.

Heightened consideration of topography and advanced data collection tools such as satellites and drones can significantly enhance fire models and help determine fire spread rates, especially in alpine areas, he says. Correctly accounting for this can substantially augment fire models’ accuracy, allowing for more effective and timely firefighting strategies and infrastructural safety assessments.

Dr. Braun’s research, focusing on fire spread models, explores stochastic models that consider uncertainty. These can offer a more reliable range of predictions than deterministic models, which offer one likely conclusion. He cites the 2016 Fort McMurray fire, where advanced stochastic models could have significantly improved decision-making and resource allocation, potentially averting extensive damage and loss.

The Fort McMurray fire is still Canada’s most costly disaster and left behind $9.9 billion worth of damage. It destroyed 2,400 homes and forced 88,000 people to evacuate. During the emergency, a turning point for firefighters came as the blaze jumped a river and looked like it could pose an immediate threat to the city itself.

Officials used a deterministic model and estimated flames could reach city limits by 11 pm. That led them to divert resources to where they were needed most at the time. Dr. Braun says they may have reconsidered this decision if they’d had access to today’s tools.

“Initial calculations showed a five per cent probability that the fire could reach the city limits by 6 or 7 pm—which is actually about when it did,” Dr. Braun says. “If they had known this, they might have made a different decision. These models serve as essential decision support tools, improving both infrastructure safety and firefighting efforts.”

The researchers are also aiming to further risk and vulnerability assessments used in planning projects. Dr. Hanna is examining the specific information that regulators need for approving power projects in Canada. Their research seeks to establish robust processes for assessing risk and safety points along electric transmission routes, ensuring they withstand the impact of sudden events like wildfires.

“This project provides a unique platform to unify various research disciplines for addressing energy resiliency and security in the face of evolving climate challenges,” says Dr. Hanna, an Associate Professor in Earth Sciences and Director of UBC’s Centre for Environmental Assessment Research.

The centre has received US$5 million from the US National Science Foundation and C$3.75 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. It involves 11 North American universities and institutes that aim to address the growing challenges of wildfires, heatwaves, drought and flooding.

Such extreme weather events not only endanger lives and the environment but also threaten the grid providing power to millions of people across two Canadian provinces and 14 western states. The western interconnected grid stretches from the northern edge of British Columbia to the Mexico border, and from the California coast to the Rockies. It serves roughly 80 million people over 4.66 million square kilometres.

“This will help safeguard infrastructure, particularly power lines and natural gas systems, and potentially save billions in damage and replacement costs,” Dr. Hanna says.

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UBCO researchers are investigating ways to ensure wear-resistant coatings, designed to protect turbines, propellers, bridges and other structures, are not deteriorating over time.

As the wind and rain pound the blades of a wind turbine, UBC Okanagan researchers carefully monitor screens, hundreds of kilometres away analyzing if the blade’s coatings can withstand the onslaught.

While this was only a test in a lab, the researchers are working to improve the way structures such as turbines, helicopter propellers and even bridges are monitored for wear and tear from the weather.

A changing climate is increasing the need for better erosion-corrosion monitoring in a wide range of industries from aviation to marine transportation and from renewable energy generation to construction, explains UBC Okanagan doctoral student Vishal Balasubramanian.

In many industries, wear-resistant coatings are used to protect a structure from erosive wear. However, these coatings have a limited service life and can wear out with time. As a result, these coated structures are periodically inspected for abrasion and breaches, which are then fixed by recoating the damaged areas.

Currently, these inspections are done manually using a probe, and Balasubramanian—one of several researchers working in UBC’s Okanagan Microelectronics and Gigahertz Applications (OMEGA) lab—is working to develop sensors that can be embedded directly into the coatings. This could take away any chance of human-caused errors and drastically reduce the inspection time. By integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) into these embedded sensors the researchers can monitor in real-time the wear and tear of protective mechanical coatings designed to prevent catastrophic failures.

“By leveraging AI technologies into our microwave resonator sensors, we’re able to detect not only surface-level coating erosion but we can also distinguish when an individual layer is being eroded within a multi-layer coating,” explains Balasubramanian, lead author of the research recently published in Nature Communications.

Some studies suggest that metal corrosion in the United States has a cost of nearly $300 billion a year; more than three per cent of that country’s gross domestic product.

But it’s not just about money.

Erosion can cause irreversible damage to the exterior surfaces of bridges, aircraft, cars and naval infrastructure, explains Balasubramanian. History has a long list of disasters where erosion was identified as the primary reason for structural failures that have led to the loss of thousands of lives—including the 2018 Genoa bridge collapse in Italy, the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in India and the 2000 Carlsbad gas pipeline fire in Texas.

“Being able to proactively monitor and address equipment degradation—especially in harsh environments—can undoubtedly safeguard important infrastructure and reduce the effect on human life,” says Dr. Mohammad Zarifi, an Associate Professor in UBCO’s School of Engineering and principal investigator at the OMEGA Lab. “For several years, we’ve been developing microwave-based sensors for ice detection and the addition of newer technologies like AI and AR can improve these sensors’ effectiveness exponentially.”

The newly developed sensors can detect and locate the eroding layer in multi-layered coatings and can also detect the total wear depth of protective coatings. This information is collected and can provide a detailed understanding for engineers and stakeholders of the potential damage and danger of failures.

In the lab, the differential network device interface system was tested at varying temperatures—extreme hot and cold—and different levels of humidity and UV exposure to mimic several harsh environments. The developed system was tested with different types of coatings and its response was monitored in four different types of experimental setups that performed the desired environmental parameter variations.

“We tested our sensors under some of the harshest environments including various temperatures, humidity and UV exposures,” says Balasubramanian. “We continue to push the limits of what these sensors are able to withstand in order to stay ahead of what’s transpiring around the world.”

For his work, Balasubramanian was recently recognized with an Award for Excellence in Microsystems CAD Tool & Design Methodology by CMC Microsystems and sponsored by COMSOL. The award recognizes a graduate student who demonstrates a novel design technology advancement with the most potential for applicable improvements to microsystems manufacture and deployment.

The research was supported by funding from the Department of National Defence of Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

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