Warming temperatures mean shorter ice seasons in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut. As a result, the stretches of landfast ice formed from frozen seawater that Inuit use to travel and hunt on are increasingly unpredictable and unsafe.
Recent À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Engineering graduate Neil Brubacher (BASc ‘21 and MASc ’24) led the community sea ice safety project as part of his thesis under the supervision of Dr. David Clausi, co-director of the VIP Lab and a professor of systems design engineering, and Dr. Andrea Scott, associate professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, with support from the Mitacs Accelerate Indigenous Pathways program.
Being there in-person and hearing first-hand the incredible depth of knowledge around sea ice, weather and travel safety practices was crucial to the project’s success. The local insights and experiences gave me the context I needed to better understand the interface between our system and the community.
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