O’Brien and Ormeci win Research Achievement Awards

The Office of the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) and Office of the Vice-President (Research and International) announced the recipients of the 2015-16 Achievement Awards, and theDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering is excited to have a two professor receive a Research Achievement Award.

Liam O’Brien, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Design
Project Title: Demonstration of Occupant Behaviour Models in the Building Design Process.
Professor O’Brien is the principle investigator of the Human Building Interaction Lab, a multidisciplinary research group of 10 researchers who are focused on better understanding the complex interrelationships between humans, buildings, and energy use. His project focuses on developing a methodology and design guidelines for using stochastic occupant behaviour models to support better building simulation and design

Banu Ormeci, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Design
Project Title: Developing a Microalgae-based Wastewater Treatment System for the Removal of Emerging Substances of Concern, Heavy Metals, and Pathogens
Using microalgae for wastewater treatment offers several potential benefits such as removal of organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, emerging substances of concern (ESOCs), heavy metals, and pathogens. Professor Ormeci’s research shows excellent capability of microalgae to remove nutrients and organic carbon from wastewater under Canadian conditions and her project will study the potential of microalgae to remove ESOCs, heavy metals, and pathogens from wastewater to make it a complete treatment process.