The UBC Faculty of Applied Science and CMC Microsystems have opened an innovative new microsystems research lab called the Adaptive Microsystems Laboratory, or “AdaMist”. The facility is now part of the nation-wide Embedded Systems Canada (emSYSCAN) initiative.
emSYSCAN is a five-year project worth over $50 million, and involves more than 350 university researchers spread across 37 Canadian institutions. The emSYSCAN infrastructure shortens the microsystem development cycle, leading to rapid commercialization, publication, and training of highly qualified personnel within a national and international multidisciplinary research environment.
As Project Manager and strategic partner of emSYSCAN, CMC Microsystems is providing management and engineering development services personnel to purchase, install, operate and maintain the national infrastructure.
“Through the emSYSCAN network, which now includes UBC, CMC Microsystems enables and supports the establishment and integration of microsystems research, creating access to prototyping and manufacturing capabilities through partnerships with industry,” explains SFU Professor and CMC Board Chair Bozena Kaminska. “I strongly believe that our national joint effort will create extraordinary value for Canada, with organizations sharing ideas and information and working together to build both a global vision and the infrastructure necessary to realize it.”
During a visit to UBC to mark the opening of the new lab, CMC Microsystems executives, including CEO Ian McWalter and Dr. Kaminska, joined industry representatives, faculty and graduate students from ECE on a guided tour of seven laboratories in the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL), including the new AdaMist Lab. They were treated to demonstrations in each lab illustrating the cutting-edge microsystems research and development currently occurring in AMPEL, ranging from flexible electronics and energy, to molecular mechatronics, biomedical microdevices, and 3D bio-printing.
“Our vision in the AdaMist Lab is to utilize a flexible infrastructure to create alternative, complementary routes for rapid microfabrication and characterization of microsystems,” says ECE Professor Edmond Cretu, Principal Investigator of the new UBC lab. “In AdaMist, as part of the national emSYSCAN network, theory and experimentation will continuously interact to create innovative new technologies for microtransducer systems, printed electronics and sensor networks, with applications in biomedical, automotive and communication fields. We want to drive a synergic integration between the more conventional technologies already existing in AMPEL and the new AdaMist infrastructure, fostering the development of complex heterogeneous microsystems.”
The Faculty of Applied Science would like to thank CMC Microsystems and Dr. Cretu for their efforts in bringing emSYSCAN and the new AdaMist lab to UBC.
About CMC Microsystems
With a 25-year history, CMC Microsystems enables and supports the creation and application of micro- and nano-system knowledge by providing a national infrastructure for excellence in research and a path to commercialization of related devices, components and systems. This includes provision of leading-edge tools and technologies for creation of fully working proof-of-concept prototypes, opportunities for networking, partnerships & collaborations, and support to translate research to commercial success.
About the Faculty of Applied Science
The Faculty of Applied Science oversees administrative procedures for the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the School of Community and Regional Planning, the School of Nursing, and all engineering activities at the Vancouver campus and the UBC Okanagan School of Engineering. In total, Applied Science comprises more than 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students and approximately 300 faculty members, whose core purpose is to create and apply knowledge and to educate globally responsible professionals empowered to effect enduring, positive change for society.
[PHOTO – L to R: UBC AVP Research Helen Burt, ECE Professor John Madden, ECE Professor Edmond Cretu, CMC Microsystems CEO Ian McWalter, CMC Microsystems Board Chair Bozena Kaminska, CMC Board Member Richard Oleschuk. Photo Credit: Don Erhardt.]