Master's Thesis Project

Significant amounts of unmanaged organic waste are produced in both rural and urban India. As existing technologies are mostly unable to convert bulky, heterogeneous biomass into a useful fuel, much of this waste is burned in the open air, creating a health and environmental hazard. 

We are working on a small-scale, low-cost, and decentralized thermochemical torrefaction system that upgrades the qualities of the biomass waste at source, reducing transportation and processing costs. 

For someone with a spinal cord injury, the wheelchair remains the only assistive device suitable for everday mobility. In a world designed for bipedal motion, living in a wheelchair is accompanied by countless physical, social, and emotional barriers. UBC and BCIT's CoMBO project aims to merge the reliability and convenience of a manual wheelchair with the health benefits and freedom offered by a powered walking exoskeleton.

My role in this project was to develop a virtual prototyping tool that would allow researchers to study the interaction of a robotic assistive device with a musculoskeletal model. Using OpenSim, I developed a model which could move naturally using muscle activation, or could be moved using the exoskeleton's actuators.

A fundamental goal when designing cryogenic systems is to minimize heat transfer to the liquid helium and nitrogen systems. As a member of the Vacuum and Cryogenics group at the TRIUMF particle physics lab in Vancouver, I developed finite element models of heat transfer through critical components of the 4 Kelvin to 2 Kelvin helium conversion units being used in the new ARIEL electron linear accelerator. Based on these models, I was able to make design recommendations which resulted in a more efficient and cost effective system by reducing helium losses.

I had the opportunity to present this work at the 2012 Canadian Women in Physics Conference in Vancouver, BC. 

A doctoral student at UBC was studying the dispersion of airborne contaminants in hosptial ventialtion systems with the long-term goal of simultaneously reducing energy consumption and infection risk. To support this project, I developed Matlab programs for data analysis and supported the development of CFD simulations in order to make comparisons with the experimental results.

Please take a look at Dr. Aliabadi's website!