Posted on Oct. 28: Engineers win national innovation award for research partnership
McMaster engineers John MacGregor and Theodora Kourti, along with Canadian manufacturers Dofasco Inc. and Tembec Inc., have won a 2003 Synergy Award for Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Conference Board of Canada.
The researchers and their partners claimed the prize for their pioneering methods of recovering and interpreting data. Their methods advanced statistical modeling techniques known as multivariate statistics manage many variables simultaneously and extract valuable information from manufacturing processes data flows. These methods have lead to major economic benefits and process and product improvements.
MacGregor, a chemical engineer and an expert in process control, says he recognized that “many companies created massive data graveyards' databases loaded with millions of bits of information about their industrial processes yet more than 99 per cent of the information was never used.”
The researchers designed a system to retrieve and analyze key bits of information to measure performance and ultimately, improve productivity. Both Dofasco and Tembec employed the methods in order to provide operators with the information they needed to work more effectively. In the end, both companies say that the system has resulted in major cost savings and substantial quality improvements.
Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president research & international affairs, is a strong advocate of the partnership approach to research and development, noting that McMaster, with its extraordinary faculty and state-of-the-art facilities, has a proven track record of successful partnerships. “University-industry partnerships are making a difference in real terms and everyone benefits industries are saving money, while universities and students in particular, are getting hands-on experience.”
The Synergy Awards for Innovation were launched in 1995 by NSERC and the Conference Board of Canada and recognize the most outstanding achievements of university-industry collaboration.
This is the fifth time McMaster researchers and their partners have won this award.
