The Faculty of Applied Science comprises a unique constellation of professional disciplines including; Architecture & Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Nursing and Community & Regional Planning. The core purpose shared across all of our four disciplines is to discover, create and apply knowledge, provide unwavering top-tier education and champion a community of responsible professionals devoted to serving a thriving, sustainable and healthy society. Our work and the professions which our graduates represent span the entire human-centred built environment.
The disciplines within the Faculty of Applied Science are celebrated for the scope, strength and impact of their research activities. Our Faculty claims the spotlight in the global arena for our research in clean energy, communication and digital technologies, health and health technology among many others. We offer disciplinary-specific research based graduate programs as well as a range of professional graduate programs and pride ourselves on our ability to open doors of opportunity to students beyond their time within our Faculty.
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Applied Science.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Dr. Ai developed a photo-acoustic imaging system through optical excitation and acoustic detection to illuminate the prostate from within the urethra using a transurethral probe. This technique will improve the detection and imaging of malignant tissue and prostate cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. King-Scobie studied how Canadian cities manage floods and recover from flood disasters. Her research developed new data, analysis, and tools to support municipal planning in balancing the protection of functioning rivers while protecting cities from floods. | Doctor of Philosophy in Planning (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Luan explored optical sensing architectures to improve diagnostic sensitivity, accuracy, and economy. He developed two types of sub-wavelength grating-based sensors, which present an improved sensitivity compared to conventional counterparts. This will impact medical diagnostics and healthcare services, particularly in developing countries. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Nkansah-Boadu studied the treatment of selenium-contaminated coal mine-affected water using microbial consortia from mine-affected sediments. He discovered novel selenium-reducing bacteria and selenium removal pathways. His findings contribute knowledge for designing systems for remediating selenium-contaminated mine waters. | Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Freshwater depletion has become a major problem for the global minerals industry. Dr. Hashemzadeh studied the use of seawater for copper extraction from ores, demonstrating the feasibility of using seawater in the extraction process. His findings will help to address water-related challenges facing the resources sector. | Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Shu addressed power management issues in a mobile sensor network, with specific application to automated water quality monitoring. He developed energy-efficient methods to prolong the lifetime of the sensor network, which could be applied to various other environmental monitoring systems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Azimi developed an efficient representation for digital colors based on the human visual system in order to improve the color quality of HDR videos without increasing the required bandwidth. Her results showed that her method can be effectively used for efficient compression in video transmission, outperforming current practices. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Ghaffari Touran investigated one of the main fundamental mechanisms affecting the separation of multi-component ores. She showed how prolonged conditioning and gradual dissolution of salt-type minerals destroy the selectivity of the separation process. Her findings will help to improve product quality in the mineral industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mining Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Jana explored the application of faster-than-Nyquist technology to compete with the skyrocketing traffic demands in the existing fixed transmission networks, which serve as the backbone for the Internet and the cellular data traffic. The powerful signal processing techniques he designed can significantly enhance the capacity of these networks. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2020 | Dr. Cheng studied the spectral design of silicon waveguide-based integrated Bragg gratings (IBGs), which are used as filters to block certain wavelengths, or as wavelength-specific reflectors. This work facilitates the use of IBGs in applications where customized spectral responses are required, like optical communications and signal processing. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |