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Winning a pitch competition is never easy, but it becomes even more challenging when there is no prototype or product ready for market. Despite these obstacles, Capstone Group 4 defied the odds and won $12,000 to advance their project!

The project, called Direct-Li, won the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Award for Capstone Design. The group proposed a more efficient and eco-friendly process for lithium extraction.

Through engineering innovation, Group 4 developed a two-stage process called direct lithium extraction (DLE). Group members Rachel Kumara, Sophie Campbell, Maeve Seto and Louise Tayzon utilized nanofiltration and ion pump separation to extract 90 per cent more lithium per litre of water in half the time compared to��industry standards.

“We were delighted that we were successful in conveying our idea in a way that made the judges see value in something that we do not actually have, a solid prototype. Our ideas are based on simulations and models. We were shocked to win! We were just happy to be there and to be challenging ourselves, especially since we were the only all-women group in the competition!”

Professor Valerie Ward��is part of a new global coalition to revolutionize vaccine production with disruptive health technology. The technology is designed to enable local vaccine production, reducing production time from nine days to just one day. A breakthrough that has the potential to save millions of lives and significantly lower the cost of vaccine production.

A research coalition led by the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) received $2.8 million from the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) to fund technology development to combat epidemics and pandemics. The aim is to make small transportable units to manufacture vaccines, making vaccines more accessible and better able to deal with local outbreaks.

Ward is working with researchers and industry partners in Brazil, the UK, and Canada to aid the world in responding more swiftly and equitably to future epidemics and pandemics.��

The grant focuses on developing technology to meet two specific goals. The first is rapid production of vaccines. The second is to decentralize manufacturing so it can be produced at different sites in smaller batches.

Researchers from the Universitat Duisburg-Essen in Germany and the University of Cambridge arrived at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ in June to participate in ongoing graduate student training aimed at leveraging 2D materials for various manufacturing applications. This international collaboration is supported by an NSERC CREATE grant, with Professor Michael Pope from the Department of Chemical Engineering serving as lead Principal Investigator. Researchers from the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Science and the ��ݮ��Ƶ Institute for Nanotechnology are involved in the collaboration.