Tech-Access Canada, the national network of Canada’s 30 Technology Access Centres (TACs), last week announced its Advisory Board members for 2017.
Red River College is home to two of Canada’s TACs:
The Building Envelope Technology Access Centre (BETAC)
The Technology Access Centre for Aerospace & Manufacturing (TACAM)
Among the Advisory Board members are Ray Hoemsen, Executive Director of Research Partnerships & Innovation at Red River College.
About Tech-Access Canada
The newly appointed nine-member Advisory Board is made up of representatives from the member Technology Access Centres across the country, and is responsible for setting and adjusting the strategic objectives for Tech-Access Canada.
David Berthiaume, Executive Director of OLEOTEK, was elected Chair of Tech-Access Canada.
Technology Access Centres are specialized applied R&D centres affiliated with Canadian colleges or Cégeps.
Demand-driven TACs help Canadian businesses – especially SMEs – advance their products, processes and services by:

• Conducting applied research and development projects focused on company problems
• Offering specialized technical services and objective advice
• Providing training related to new types of equipment and processes

Tech-Access Canada is the national network of Canada’s Technology Access Centres (TACs).
The network enables the TACs to serve any company, anywhere in Canada, and help them access the expertise, equipment, and facilities they need to solve their innovation challenges. The network’s members provide clients and partners from across Canada with access to:

• Expertise and experience of over 1,000 business innovation and applied R&D experts;
• Over 2.4 million square feet of innovation and applied research space; and
• Over $250 million worth of highly-specialized equipment and facilities.

Read the full press release here.

CTV Morning Live reporter Rachel Lagacé hung out with Baxter the robot this morning during Red River College’s Open House.
“The new paradigm in robotics is what we call collaborative robotics,” said Oyedele Ola, Manager of the Technology Access Centre for Aerospace & Manufacturing. “The essence of that is to get robots to work alongside human beings.”
During the CTV interview, our collaborative robot Baxter can be seen picking up Easter eggs and placing them into appropriate baskets by matching the egg’s colour to the basket colour.
Jasvir Bharj, an Instructor in Manufacturing Engineering Technology, says that he and others work to teach students how to program robots, how to run those programs and apply them to things like welding, cutting and handling materials.
CTV Morning Live were on campus as part of Red River College’s Open House, which continues this evening and on Wednesday.
You can watch the interview here.

Organizers of the Red River College inaugural Applied Research & Innovation Day on April 6 are now accepting student project submissions, giving students an opportunity to share their work, network with industry participants and win cash prizes!
The student registration deadline is March 3, 2017.
Student Registration and Submission Details Here.
Why should students participate?

• Showcase your capabilities to industry and community stakeholders
• Exposure to potential employers and partners
• Over $3,000 in cash prizes for top projects
• Any project in which a student was meaningfully involved can qualify (accepting projects by current students or graduates from 2015 onward)
• Top projects selected by panel and some will have opportunity to present at our industry luncheon

CONTACT: If you have any follow up questions, please contact Brent Wennekes at bwennekes@RRC.CA.

The grain that goes into making this freshly poured beer can be put to good use. (Photo by Flickr user Adam Barhan, Creative Commons Licence.)

Manitoba is witnessing the emergence of a flourishing beer brewing market, and malt is a core ingredient of the brewing process.
Mashing malt is one of the first steps in the beer production process, and the resulting spent grains are typically used as animal feed.
But researchers at Red River College are exploring an innovative new way to use these spent grains.
In partnership with two local brewers, Torque Brewing and Farmery, the Red River College Culinary Research Program will explore the possibility of using these two sources of spent grains to create Miso, a traditional fermented bean or grain paste that has been around for over 1,000 years. Miso is widely used to flavour soups and broths in many Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea.

Tourque spent grain on the left and Farmery spent grain on the right. Can these grains help make Miso?

A warm soup with some miso flavouring. (Photo by Flickr user Stacy Spensley, Creative Commons Licence.)

From Breweries to Miso: Behind the Science
Miso develops a rich meaty flavour through a two-step fermentation process using molds and bacteria to break down the base-substrates into a rich cocktail of amino acids, free fatty acids and sugars.
The first step in the process is to create “koji” or “moldy grain” which provides a source of enzymes to the second step in the process—fermentation.
The typical starting material to make koji is polished rice, barley, or soy beans.
This research project aims to test the potential of spent grains (SG) from local brewers to act as the substrate for koji mold rather than using whole barley.
Unlike the traditional grains, spent grain is broken up and nutrients have been extracted during the wort production, so it is unknown if spent grain will provide sufficient nutrients for the koji molds to properly form or if suitable flavours develop.
As to how koji is traditionally made, the hydrated grains are inoculated with Aspergillus oryzae spores and allowed to grow for up to 48 hours to develop a thick white mat of mold, but stopped before spores develop. If spores develop, the koji has been left too long and may create flavour and safety concerns.

Putting it to the test: a microscopic view of the fomentation process, taken at the University of Manitoba, a partner in this research project.

The koji is then mixed in with cooked and cooled soybeans or barley and up to 12% salt, then inoculated again with a miso seed culture consisting of a mixture of beneficial yeasts and bacteria.
This mixture is allowed to ferment from a minimum of 2 months up to 3 years.
This process develops the rich flavours and colours associated with miso. Unpasteurized miso also provides a source of healthy gut bacteria or probiotics.
We look forward to seeing whether spent grains from local brewers can act as the substrate for koji mold rather than using whole barley.
You can follow the progress of this miso production trial @RRCResearch.
This project is supported by MAHRN and NSERC through Red River College.

Although the concept was almost unknown in the design and construction industry 25 years ago, is now widely recognized as one of the most critical parameters affecting a building’s performance in terms of energy use, comfort, indoor air quality and durability.

Recognition of the importance of reducing air leakage first occurred in the low-rise housing sector and has since spread to the commercial building sector. The need for airtightness was initially seen only as an energy issue since uncontrolled air leakage can create a significant energy penalty. However, it was soon realized that there are additional benefits including building durability improved comfort, improved indoor air quality and reduced noise transmission.

The large building airtightness testing workshop will educate the students on the

differences between residential and commercial tests; building science and driving forces of air leakage; testing standards and code requirements; test considerations and planning; and required materials and equipment. The final part of the workshop will focus on the setup and use of blower door equipment. It will conclude with a full live test of the CARSI building at Red River College, which will incorporate diagnostic tools and analysis/reporting of the test data.

Course Date and Cost

Dates: February 22-24, 2017
Times: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm (2 pm on Feb.24^th to allow for travel)
Cost: $1,495 + GST
Course Code: TRAD-9017
Course cost includes: parking, lunch and morning coffee.

For more information, contact Rob Spewak at 204-632-2357 or rspewak@rrc.ca.

To register, contact Katrina Florendo at 204-632-2195 or kflorendo78@rrc.ca.

Cancellation Policy

Students who withdraw from a course seven or less days before the start of a course will be charged a $100 cancellation fee.

About the Instructors – Cory Carson, Kevin Knight, Gary Proskiw

Cory Carson, a Mechanical Engineering Technologist, has over 5 years’ experience in applied research related energy efficiency and has tested over 40 large buildings for airtightness. Kevin Knight, a building envelope authority, has over 30 years’ experience in field observation and testing, commissioning, research, education and training. Gary Proskiw is a mechanical engineer with 40 years’ experience; he has conducted hundreds of airtightness tests on houses and commercial buildings and has been active in code and standard development.

Download this form for registration: TechSolutionsRegistration

*Filling out the form: Please make sure that the course name and course code are indicated on the form.

WUFI^® is an acronym for Wärme Und Feuchte Instationär—which, translated, means heat and moisture transiency.

Today’s residential and commercial building envelopes in North America are required to be energy efficient, which mainly means the envelope needs to meet R value and air tightness requirements. Practical experience in the last decades all over the world and physical principles show that a higher risk of moisture failures go along with these energy efficiency requirements.

The WUFI® Workshop will educate the students in the principles of building science, based on the latest research as well as train them how to do hygrothermal performance assessments using the WUFI® tool to eventually design a durable building envelope. Effects like material properties, climate regions, indoor moisture generation are shown and their impact on the durability discussed. ASHRAE Standard 160 will be introduced as a basic guideline on how to apply “Criteria for Moisture-Control Design Analysis in Buildings”.

Course Dates and Cost

Dates: February 14 and 15, 2017
Times: 8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Location: Red River College, Notre Dame Campus – 2055 Notre Dame Ave.
Cost: $850 + GST
Course Code: WRKS – 9121
Course cost includes: parking, lunch and morning coffee.

For more information, contact Tammy Harper at 204-632-2942 or tvharper@rrc.ca.

To register, contact Louise Wood at 204-632-3017 or lowood@rrc.ca.

About the Instructor – Manfred Kehrer

Manfred has been active in the field and heat and moisture analysis in Building Science for more than 25 years. After many years of scientific work at Fraunhofer IBP, Germany, where he was leading the WUFI^® software development as well as conducted laboratory measurements, he worked for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN, USA, for five years as a Sr. Researcher in Building Science. Since early 2016, he is president of the start-up company justSmart Solutions LLC in the field of building science consulting and acts as the Official WUFI^® Collaboration Partner for USA and Canada. Mr. Kehrer is a voting member of several ASHRAE and ASTM committees and on the editorial board of the “Journal of Building Physics”.

Download this form to register: TechSolutionsRegistration

*Filling out the form: Please make sure that the course name and course code are indicated on the form.

Top row: Rob Spewak, RRC BETAC Manager; Lloyd Kuczek, VP with Manitoba Hydro; Jose Delos Reyes, RRC Research Manager. Bottom row: Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science; Ray Hoemsen, RRC Research Director; David Johnston, Governor General of Canada; Neil Cooke, Dean, Teaching Excellence, Innovation and Research, RRC; Mario Pinto, President of NSERC. Credit: MCpl Vincent Carbonneau, Rideau Hall, OSGG

Red River College is #1 on the Prairies in research, according to the latest Top 50 ranking of Canadian research colleges.
It’s not the first time RRC has been recognized as a leading college research institution, having ranked previously in Research Infosources’s top ten for three years running, and having earlier this year received the prestigious Synergy Award for Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Governor General of Canada.
“We definitely appreciate the acknowledgement of our efforts, but the true value of this recognition is realized when we further spread the word that Red River College serves as a critical partner in innovation for so many organizations,” says Paul Vogt, RRC’s president and CEO.
“As we continue to make substantial investments in applied research and learning resources, we see increasing interest from industry partners for us to help them solve problems, innovate, and produce graduates with the advanced technology training needed for today’s globally-competitive environment.”
The College’s swath of research resources continued to expand this year when RRC received $5.9-million in federal funding – the largest influx of research dollars in the College’s history – from NSERC and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This new investment allowed the College to boost innovation capacity in Manitoba’s vehicle technology and food development sectors.
“It’s exciting to see how far we’ve come in such a short period of time, and to witness the positive impact our work has had on so many projects throughout our province,” says Ray Hoemsen, executive director of Research Partnerships & Innovation at RRC.
The College has been involved in a number of notable projects, such as the all-electric transit bus (developed in conjunction with New Flyer, Manitoba Hydro, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the province, and others), and Manitoba Hydro’s downtown office building, where RRC tested and evaluated advanced designs and building products that helped make the structure one of the most energy efficient in North America.
“We’ve had a number of high-profile projects which really help raise awareness of our capabilities,” says Hoemsen. “But there is so much more going on beneath the surface, especially in areas like early child development, international business intelligence, clean water technology, and in the area of startup/entrepreneur support.”
Some of the latest research being pioneered at the College relates to the development of MotiveLab, which will feature a 3,000-square foot environmental chamber (large enough to fit a bus) that allows local industry to test products in all manner of environmental conditions.
The College has also recently emerged as a key player in culinary research, having helped Manitoba food producers and distributors create new products and develop innovative uses for locally grown food in healthy menu items.
“From the food we eat, to the transit buses on our road, to the office buildings that we work in, our research has expanded to a point where we are seeing more and more tangible results that will give Manitoba industry a competitive advantage on a global scale,” says Vogt.“It’s something all of us can be proud of.”

In collaboration with BlackBerry, the Executive Leadership Roundtable is taking place at the Information and Communication Technologies Association of Manitoba (ICTAM) on November 10, 2016. This half-day event will focus on the topic of Enabling and Building Business Resilience to Drive Performance.
During this session, executives from IT, Operations, Finance, HR and Innovation will come together to discover how other leading-edge organizations are enabling and building business resilience to deliver superior performance. Participants will also identify emerging challenges brought on by innovation, technology development, and disruption, and explore ways that leaders can respond to these issues while leveraging technology for opportunity. As part of the session, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about some of the innovative technology solutions being used to enable business resilience at the enterprise level. Attendees will also take part in a facilitated discussion with peers, identifying actionable steps they can take in their own organizations. A balanced approach of presentations, facilitation, and open discussion will be used throughout the event.
To view the detailed agenda and program for this special half-day Executive Leadership Roundtable, Click here.
This is a complimentary event and includes a luncheon. To register, please complete the registration form.

In 2014/15 the École Heritage Immersion School in St Pierre-Jolys, Manitoba, underwent a major building envelope upgrade including complete removal and replacement of the west and north exterior walls plus the courtyard area.

Services Provided

• As part of this work, BETAC conducted a pre-retrofit test on the building in 2013 to quantify its air leakage characteristics and to identify significant air leakage sources on the building envelope.
• Following the retrofit, a second test was performed in 2016, allowing the impact of the test to be assessed.

Results

• The retrofit was able to reduce the measured air leakage of the building by over one-third, depending on the metric.
• The Equivalent Leakage Area (ELA₁₀) was reduced by 34%, or 0.39 m²(4.2 ft²).

The Public Schools Finance Board has expressed interest in collaborating with BETAC to further these research activities as they apply to schools around the province.

The Townview Manor in Minnedosa, Manitoba is a mid-rise, multi-unit residential building (MURB) that is undergoing a major building envelope upgrade, focused primarily on the exterior wall system and installation of a new wall system, new windows and a new high performance ventilation system.

Services Provided

• BETAC conducted a pre-retrofit airtightness test on June 30, 2016 and construction on the retrofit began in late 2016.
• The post-retrofit airtightness testing will be carried out once the retrofit is completed.  This is anticipated to occur in 2017 or 2018.

Results

• BETAC will be using the results of this testing to further expand their growing data base on airtightness characteristics of large commercial-style buildings which began in 2013 with the testing of 26 buildings in Manitoba.
• Manitoba Housing has expressed interest in collaborating with BETAC to further these research activities as they apply to their portfolio of buildings, located around the province.