A new study co-authored by researchers in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering quantifies the cost of permitting delays and other forms of red tape on the economic viability of offshore wind farms—one of the most promising technologies for deep decarbonization. Existing models broadly assume that technology can be deployed either overnight (i.e., immediately) or on a fixed timeline; this is for the most part unrealistic.

Published in , this study quantifies the cost of regulatory obligations on the viability of offshore wind projects. It finds that cutting approval timelines by a year can lower costs by approximately 100 million Euros. While the analysis is focused on offshore wind, the methods developed are generalizable to other technologies and can be used by analysts and policy makers to estimate the benefits of improved regulatory policy. The study was led by Dr. Rudolph Santarromana, postdoctoral fellow at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland, and colleagues at Institute Superior Technico in Portugal and Carnegie Mellon University in the United States.

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Hydrogen is being proposed as a strategy to decarbonize several hard-to-abate sectors of the global economy, including heavy-duty road freight. (MASc, 2026) and Ahmed Abdulla, published in Environmental Science & Technology, compares the effect of converting this critical transportation sub-sector into either battery-electric trucking or hydrogen fuel-cell trucking, with a focus on the newfound interdependency between zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles and the electricity grid.

By developing a sector-coupling generation expansion planning model to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050, they demonstrate that when considering the electric grid impacts of zero-emission trucks, battery-electric trucks offer the cost optimal approach, with up to 47% savings compared to the hydrogen alternative.

In fact, current hydrogen price targets, including America’s “hydrogen shot” of achieving $1/kg by 2030, are too high to achieve decarbonization via hydrogen fuel-cell trucks; parity with batteries is only achieved when hydrogen prices for the consumer (in other words, at the pump) fall below $1/kg. Their research also shows that abatement costs for decarbonizing heavy-duty vehicles are within the scope of Canada’s former carbon pricing schemes, which were eliminated by the Carney government. Diesel fuel prices must rise by 20–50¢/L to promote decarbonization of heavy-duty trucking for both BETs and HFCTs, which was happening before Carney’s elevation to the post of prime minister.

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ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s Team Ravens proudly received the Best New Entrant Award in the Undergraduate Category of the 43rd Annual Vertical Flight Society (VFS) Student Design Competition. Sponsored by Leonardo Helicopters, this year’s competition challenged university teams to redesign the historic XV-15 tiltrotor aircraft using hybrid-electric propulsion. Read more about Team Ravens and their design below.

Photo credits to Team Ravens.

Written by William Chen, Team Captain:

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the team:

The name â€Á貹±ą±đ˛Ô˛ő” was chosen both to represent ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and its mascot and to reflect the unique capabilities of a tiltrotor aircraft — a vehicle capable of hovering and taking off vertically like a helicopter while also transitioning into efficient, high-speed airplane flight.

Throughout the project, our team worked under the supervision of Professor Jeremy Laliberte from ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The project gave us the opportunity to apply concepts learned throughout our aerospace engineering studies to a complex, multidisciplinary aircraft design problem.

Receiving the Best New Entrant Award was especially meaningful to us as a first-time entrant in the competition and recognized the months of research, engineering analysis, trade studies and teamwork that went into our final proposal.

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the competition:

The Vertical Flight Society Student Design Competition is an international university aircraft design competition focused on advanced vertical flight technology.

For the 43rd Annual Student Design Competition, sponsored by Leonardo Helicopters, teams were challenged to develop a Hybrid Electric Tiltrotor based on the Bell/NASA XV-15 research aircraft.

The competition required a two-phase design approach. In Phase I, teams had to retain much of the original XV-15 configuration while integrating a hybrid-electric propulsion system. Phase II allowed greater design freedom to further improve aircraft performance while maintaining several important characteristics of the original aircraft.

Teams were required to evaluate not only aircraft performance, but also propulsion architecture, weight, aerodynamics, structures, reliability, manufacturability, technology readiness and overall system feasibility. Trade studies and engineering justification were an important part of the evaluation process.

ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the aircraft we designed:

Our final concept retained the XV-15 as the foundation of the aircraft while introducing a parallel hybrid-electric propulsion architecture.

For Phase I, our design combined the aircraft’s conventional turboshaft propulsion system with a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)-based electric power system. The hybrid architecture was developed to provide electrical power contribution while working within strict aircraft weight, geometry and mission-performance constraints.

A major part of the design process involved determining where electrification could provide the greatest benefit without adding excessive system mass. This required detailed analysis of the fuel-cell system, hydrogen storage, electric machines, power distribution, thermal management and other balance-of-plant components, together with aircraft-level performance and weight calculations.

For Phase II, the team investigated additional improvements including composite structural components, aerodynamic refinements, weight reduction and flight-control improvements. These modifications were evaluated as part of a complete aircraft-level design rather than as isolated technologies.

Throughout the project, our team developed performance models for hover, climb, cruise, descent, short takeoff and landing, one-engine-inoperative conditions, payload-range capability and the aircraft flight envelope. We also evaluated how changes to individual subsystems affected the performance and feasibility of the aircraft as a whole.

One of the most valuable lessons from the competition was that aircraft design is fundamentally a multidisciplinary process. A change to propulsion affects weight; weight affects hover power and range; structural changes influence aeroelastic behaviour; and changes in propulsion and aerodynamics can ultimately affect flight control and aircraft operation.

The project gave our team an opportunity to move beyond individual coursework and experience the iterative engineering process involved in developing and defending a complete aircraft concept.

The project gave our team an opportunity to move beyond individual coursework and experience the iterative engineering process involved in developing and defending a complete aircraft concept.

We would like to thank Professor Jeremy Laliberte for his guidance and support throughout the project, as well as everyone at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University who provided advice and feedback during the design process.

We are proud to have represented ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the 43rd Annual VFS Student Design Competition, and we are honoured to have our work recognized with the Best New Entrant Award.

 To view the News on VFS website, please click .

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Accurate calculation of near surface (0 – 100m above ground level) meteorological variables, such as wind speed, are still difficult for computational atmospheric physics models, including numerical weather prediction (NWP) models which provide the world’s weather forecasts.

A recent paper in  details a new method, developed by Siddhant Srivastava (MASc, 2026) and Professor Schell, to better calculate wind speed, through the improved representation of aerodynamic roughness length within NWP models. This method is shown to more accurately calculate near surface wind speed, which has implications for advancing wind power forecasting.

The post Improved representation of terrain’s impact on surface wind speed appeared first on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Military and law enforcement personnel, such as breachers, may experience repeated exposure to low-level blast waves during training and operations. Concerns have been raised that these exposures could contribute to brain injury over time, but the biological mechanisms responsible remain unclear.

One proposed cause of blast-related brain injury is stretching of brain tissue, known as strain, which can damage nerve cells when it reaches sufficiently high levels. In this study, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University researchers led experiments to measure the amount of strain produced inside a laboratory model of the head during blast exposures representative of those experienced by breachers.

Using high-speed cameras and advanced image analysis techniques, the team found that strains within the head model were consistently below 0.5%. These values are far lower than strain levels previously associated with disruptions in brain function or damage to nerve fibers. The results also agree with previous computer simulations that predicted similarly low strains under comparable blast conditions.

These findings suggest that tissue strain alone is unlikely to be the primary cause of injury during typical breacher-level blast exposures. Instead, the results point to the need for further research into other possible mechanisms of injury, such as the formation of microscopic cavities within brain tissue, known as cavitation, or other pressure-related effects. Improving our understanding of these mechanisms is important for assessing risk and developing better protective measures for personnel routinely exposed to blast waves.

Read more:

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Healthy joints requires healthy articular cartilage. In joint disease, such as osteoarthritis, articular cartilage is damaged, compromising its functions of load transmission and lubrication, ultimately leading to joint pain that limits mobility. In this research, a team led by Prof. Eng Kuan Moo investigated the effect of a tissue-infiltrating bioagent called HAMA on the dynamic viscoelasticity of articular cartilage. They created a healthy and damaged cartilage model in the lab using food-grade pig’s knee. Healthy and degraded cartilage were treated by HAMA and tested for their mechanical properties. They found that HAMA treatment synergistically restored the viscoelastic dynamic properties of damaged cartilage to match those of healthy cartilage. Healthy cartilage was minimally affected by HAMA. This study provides support to the use of HAMA in stabilizing and reinforcing damaged cartilage. HAMA may be a promising alternative for joint preservation therapy to slow the progression of early osteoarthritis.

Read more:

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We are now accepting applications for an Assistant or Associate Professor in Aerospace Engineering. Please read the job posting for more information and instructions on how to apply. The job posting can be found under Positions Available on our website,

The post Faculty Hiring appeared first on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Congratulations to Prof. Mehdi Eshaghi on receiving the New Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award for 2025.

The post Congrats to Prof. Eshaghi! appeared first on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The department would like to congratulate Jason Anstey, Laboratory Technologist as a recipient of the Excellence in Learning Support Award!

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The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering awarded two students with the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) Gold Medal at convocation last week.

Congratulations to Joey Blondin (UG graduate) and Cem Kalkan (PhD graduate) on this outstanding achievement!

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