I am currently employed as an environmental engineer for a consulting firm in Ontario, Canada, where I work on environmental projects for the railway and automotive industries, as well as emergency spill response. I am a graduate of the Civil Engineering program at Queen's University. After completing the general portion of the curriculum and gaining basic knowledge in the areas of environmental engineering, hydraulics, structural design, and geotechnical engineering, I decided to focus my studies on environmental engineering and appropriate technology. As an undergraduate, I was a member of the Queen's Applied Sustainability Group (QAS) - Appropedia page here.
Interested in water, sanitation, and hygiene for international development, with a focus on applications of appropriate technology in impoverished regions.
Research: Optimizing the SODIS Method by Decreasing Turbidity with NaCl[edit | edit source]
Research that I completed as a member of QAS has been published in the Journal of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Development. The research investigates the use of common table salt (NaCl) as a flocculating agent to remove suspended clay particles in solution as a pre-treatment to Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS). The project page is available Decreasing turbidity to optimize solar water disinfection on Appropedia. The full Open Access version of the article is available here.
Past Projects[edit | edit source]
Household Water Treatment[edit | edit source]
This research was aimed at decreasing turbidity in water prior to solar water disinfection (SODIS) using basic table salt (NaCl) to facilitate flocculation of particles and subsequent settling. My project page can be viewed here.
Appropriate Technology[edit | edit source]
I worked on a project for MECH 425, where my focus was on the development of a low-cost household water treatment unit based on solar water disinfection (SODIS) technology. The aim of the project was to optimize the traditional SODIS design by decreasing turbidity prior to solar treatment. It should be able to be reproduced with minimal materials and technical knowledge in almost any place of need. The MECH 425 AT Project page can be found here.
Green IT[edit | edit source]
I worked on a Green IT project for MECH 425: Engineering for Sustainable Development. The goal of the project was to encourage organizations to employ energy conservation measures that will both reduce their operational costs and minimize their environmental footprint.
My group created an original model that can be used by organizations that are looking to capitalize on energy conservation measures. This particular model will allow organizations to explore the financial and environmental savings that are possible by shifting from using conventional ground and air mail services to electronic document sharing systems. A full description of my group's project and the model can be found here.
Waste Management[edit | edit source]
As an individual project for CIVL 472: Waste Management, I conducted a critical review of the current state of waste management methods employed by municipalities that experience very heavy tourist traffic. The city of Paris was used as a case study and its current means of waste management and diversion techniques were explored and compared to more effective contemporary methods in other cities. Recommendations were offered for application of these techniques to Paris and other highly-concentrated tourist regions in the world.
Links[edit | edit source]
The Appropriate Technology Sourcebook reviews over 1,150 of the best books on appropriate technology. Most of the literature in the sourcebook is under copyright although some is in the public domain; those in the public domain are in the process of being made available by students in MECH 425: Engineering for Sustainable Development.
User Talk[edit | edit source]
My User Talk page is here.
