Congratulations to University of Ottawa MASc candidate Robert (Kibby) Pollak, CEO of MyPitboard!, on being awarded the Best Business Opportunity Award at the Startup Garage Rally which took place on August 29, 2019. MyPitboard! is a new startup developed and created by current University of Ottawa Faculty of Engineering students. It is a newly developed racing performance and training application designed and built to enhance training of motorcycle athletes. A full article and video can be found here.
Winning Teams Announced for NSERC CREATE TOP-SET Second Annual Challenge
The second NSERC CREATE TOP-SET Annual Challenge was launched at this year’s Summer School in July 2019. Five teams of four and five undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows from the University of Ottawa, Université de Sherbrooke and McMaster University were formed and over the course of the next few weeks, each team analyzed future prospects for new devices or systems, drawing together science, engineering, and economic analysis. Teams reported back via videoconference on September 3 in front of a panel of three judges composed of Richard Beal, co-founder and CEO at Spectrafy, Adina Luican-Mayer, assistant professor in the department of physics at the University of Ottawa, and Geoff Wright, vice president market research at Brookfield Renewable.
The high level of this year’s presentations resulted in two teams winning this year’s Annual Challenge:
- From the University of Ottawa, undergraduate summer students Adam Johnston (McMaster University) and Avya Stolow (McGill University), and MSc physics candidate Erin Tonita as well as McMaster University MASc engineering physics candidate Ruslan Khabibrakhmanov for their presentation titled “The Economic Case for Bifacial Solar Installations in the Canadian Arctic”;
- University of Ottawa electrical engineering MASc candidate Kevin Shimotakahara and PhD candidates Neda Nouri and Mikhak Samadi, Université de Sherbrooke PhD electrical engineering candidate Alexandre Heintz and McMaster University MASc engineering physics candidate Taz Colangelo for their presentation titled “Residential Energy Cost Analysis: A Demand Management Case in Ontario”.
Congratulations to all!
The University of Ottawa is hosting the 19th International NUSOD Conference
NSERC CREATE TOP-SET is pleased to hold its summer school as part of the 19th International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices (NUSOD), July 8 to 12, 2019. TOP-SET leader Karin Hinzer is this year’s conference local chair.
The NUSOD conference brings academic researchers, device engineers, software developers and students together to connect theory and practice in optoelectronics. There will be oral presentations, poster sessions, and discussions about the advancement and the practical use of numerical methods in photonics and electronics. For a full list of the topics and devices of interest, click here.
Students and researchers are encouraged to submit post-deadline papers. If accepted, post-deadline papers will be included in the conference program and published on the NUSOD website. The deadline for submitting post-deadline papers is May 31st, for more details click here.
Registration is open until May 31st. Click here to register!
Winning Team Announced for NSERC CREATE TOP-SET First Annual Challenge
The first NSERC CREATE TOP-SET Annual Challenge was launched at this year’s Summer School at the end of May 2018. Small teams of two to four undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral fellows from the University of Ottawa, Université de Sherbrooke and McMaster University were formed during the Summer School. Over the course of the summer, each team analyzed future prospects for new devices or systems, drawing together science, engineering, and economic analysis. Teams reported back via videoconference on September 4 and a panel of two judges picked a winning team. Congratulations to Pierre Albert and Jules Voisin, respectively PhD and MASc students in electrical engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke, as well as Amanda Lewis and Emily Zhang, respectively MASc student in electrical engineering and BSc student in physics at the University of Ottawa for winning this year’s Annual Challenge with their work on the “Comparison of rates of return of bifacial and monofacial solar cells”.
NSERC CREATE TOP-SET Holds Its First Summer School Program
The NSERC CREATE TOP-SET program held its first summer school program from May 28 to June 1, 2018, at the University of Ottawa. A total of 78 participants hailing from five universities as well as the public and private sectors took part in the program which focused this year on high efficiency photovoltaics. Guest speakers included Dr. Yves Poissant from Natural Resources Canada, Dr. Kevin Schulte from the U.S. Renewable Energy Laboratory, Dr. Matthew Lumb from George Washington University & U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Dr. Stefan Myrskog from Morgan Solar, as well as NSERC CREATE TOP-SET co-investigators and collaborators.
Awards were given to the best student poster and oral presentations. Ms. D. Paige Wilson won first place in the oral presentation competition for her presentation titled “Increasing nanowire diameters for solar cell applications”. Ms. Wilson is a PhD student in engineering physics under the supervision of Dr. Ray LaPierre at McMaster University. Ms. Meghan Beattie won first place in the poster presentation competition for her poster titled “III-V multi-junction solar cells on Si substrates with a voided Ge interface layer: A modeling study”. Ms. Beattie is a PhD student in physics under the supervision of Dr. Karin Hinzer at the University of Ottawa. Congratulations to both!
Planning for the 2019 NSERC CREATE TOP-SET summer school is already under way. Watch this page for details.
NSERC CREATE TOP-SET Website Launch
We are pleased to announce the launch of the NSERC CREATE TOP-SET website. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program titled “Training in Optoelectronics for Power: from Science and Engineering to Technology” (NSERC CREATE TOP-SET) is a training program that aims to form a cohort of highly qualified personnel with comprehensive understanding of optoelectronics including high-efficiency photovoltaics and systems for solar cells, energy systems, communication and control systems for the power grid, as well as cost-modeling and business analysis. The program, led by associate professor Karin Hinzer from the University of Ottawa in collaboration with the Université de Sherbrooke and McMaster University, will provide students with regular seminars, advanced summer school classes, hands-on interdisciplinary activities at other partner universities, as well as internships at leading national and international academic, government and industry institutions.
Browse our new website and direct any questions to [email protected].