Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group

Our group was well represented at the Faculty of Engineering at Western University Annual Graduate Award Ceremony. Congratulations to all the recipients 🎉.

At the OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge held recently in New York City, Western Engineering undergraduate students, advised by Joshua Pearce, received the Best Research Award for their creation of a fully automated Direct Air Carbon Capture device. Congratulations, Kierra Holowachuk, Ben Rowatt, Sarah Lacroix, Liam Israels, Eric Suszek, Ethan Milroy, Lewis K. and Mahmoud Abdelmageed! https://lnkd.in/g-QctPgN

Hey everyone! Over the past five years at of studying Civil Engineering at Western University, I've had the privilege of diving into some truly amazing experiences that I’ll never forget. I was privileged to work a summer co-op term and one year internship at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation/ Ministère des Transports de l’Ontario, where I was inspecting some of the coolest infrastructure projects in the province. I’ll never forget how the Westchester Bourne Underpass project gave me that lightbulb moment that told me I’m truly living what I’m passionate about. Thank you all to my MTO mentors and friends that I’ll remember forever. Since 2020, I’ve been actively involved in the Western Engineering Steel Bridge Team and this year, I served as the lead captain in guiding our team to Laval University for this year's Canadian National Steel Bridge Competition. I can’t count the number of hours we spent deep in hand calculations and SAP2000, designing and analyzing the bridge. But I’m most proud of the fact that our team went from never cutting/welding steel before, to fabricating the entire bridge in just a few months, all while balancing our hectic school and work schedules. Well done everyone, and thank you for your commitment to the club! Since 2021, I was lucky to work with the Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group under the incredible Dr. Joshua Pearce. Over this period, I designed multiple DIY wooden solar panel racking systems, and built these systems only using material and tools from the hardware store down the road. From this experience, I was able to be a co-author of 9 publications on these designs, being the first author of 5 of them. Please check them out in my profile. Special thanks goes to my friend Uzair Jamil for his dedication in working with me through thick and thin, and to all my friends at FAST that I co-wrote and built with! Now, I am thrilled to be developing my engineering career as a structural designer at VanBoxmeer and Stranges Engineering Ltd. It’s only been a few weeks, and I already love what I do. A heartfelt thank you to the professors, managers, classmates, family, and friends who have supported and encouraged me along this journey. Your belief in me has pushed me to be the best engineer I can be, and I promise to make you extremely proud one day. Cheers!

Authors of the Outstanding Paper titled ‘The impact of snow losses on solar photovoltaic systems in North America in the future’ published in #EnergyAdvances in 2023 chose to publish with our journal as they are firm believers that all science research should be open access for everyone in the world! 🌍 https://lnkd.in/ew6UEmTB The group is a team up with Ryan Williams and Daniel Lizzadro-McPherson of the Geospatial Research Facility at Michigan Tech in Michigan's upper peninsula and Joshua Pearce, a solar photovoltaic expert from the Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group at Western University in Canada. We asked them more about their research to find out what they hope their article can achieve and who will benefit from it 👇 “Snow loss estimations of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the north are important as project financing requires highly accurate energy generation estimates to provide long-term performance guarantees. PV systems last more than 25 years -so how climate is changing over time will impact snowfall and these losses. We quantified the losses to potential PV electricity generation due to snow in the future. Our results as you can see in the snow maps were shocking! While it is good news for solar energy that snow losses will drop aggressively through most of north America - the results indicate there is simply not going to be much snow even in areas that are known for winter sports like skiing which will cause environmental and economic hardship. Overall, climate change is substantially reducing snow losses for PV systems over most of North America and it is essentially a non problem going forward. We hope this galvanizes a more aggressive effort to stop carbon emissions an that others. Our results show in 20 years even in the most optimistic scenario many areas in the northern U.S. and southern Canada will be reduced below 5% snow losses. In the more pessimistic scenario, heavy snow regions become nearly snowless. start to include the time dependent reduction in snow losses for a PV in northern latitudes in modeling of the life cycle performance.” – Joshua Pearce Read their full #OpenAccess paper in our 2023 Outstanding Paper collection ⭐ https://lnkd.in/eudX5ub2

Western University and Faculty of Engineering at Western University have the opportunity to take a major leadership role in #photovoltaics to show homeowners how to do it by going beyond #solar powered ACEB and make all of our new construction net positive solar energy with some smart #BIPV

Fueling my passion for 3D Printing and innovation, I am excited to have joined Dr. Joshua Pearce and the open-source Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group. I'm looking forward to embracing new projects and challenges, bonding with the amazing team of bright minds and contributing to advancing the world around us by pushing the limits of 3D Printing for a lasting positive impact.

I'm working on bolstering & revising online content for my open source 3D printing class, and I decided to try a new approach to video production. In this video I discuss "how much patents and copyright end up costing the average American family" - Let me know your thoughts below! #IntellectualProperty #Copyrights #Patents #Economics #TechLaws

🎉 Exciting News! 🎉 I am thrilled to share that I have been selected as the recipient of the 2023-2024 Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research by the Faculty of Engineering at Western University!🏆✨ This prestigious award, presented by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, recognizes outstanding research achievements by graduate students. I am deeply honored to be acknowledged for my contributions in the field of Photovoltaic (PV) Technology and Energy Policy. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Joshua Pearce and Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group members for their invaluable guidance and encouragement. A special thank you goes to my incredible wife Samaneh Norouzi for her continues love and support through the life, being the bedrock of my success. I am excited for what the future brings and remain committed to pursuing excellence in my research endeavors. Wishing you all the best!🌟 #Award #Western #Research #Photovoltaic #Energy #Policy #Engineering

🏆 Excited to share some fantastic news! 🏆 I honored to announce that I've been chosen as one of the recipients of the prestigious 2024 Hydro One scholarship! 🎉 This scholarship acknowledges not only my academic achievements but also my contributions to the field of Power Systems Engineering at the Western University ECE Department, under the esteemed guidance of Dr. Joshua Pearce. Heartfelt gratitude goes to Hydro One for recognizing the dedication and passion I've poured into my studies, further fueling my commitment to advancing the #FloatingPV field. A massive shout-out to the Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) Research Group and my incredible lab mates for their unwavering support! 😊 #ScholarshipRecipient #Gratitude #EngineeringExcellence 🌟