With more than 200 researchers and thousands of graduate students swarming in the research laboratories,
works daily to design and implement concrete and innovative solutions to various societal issues, particularly in terms of health and the environment.
Since its founding in 1974, ÉTS has made applied research and industrial partnerships one of its priorities.
It’s true: more than half of ÉTS’s research activities are carried out in collaboration with private companies, ministries, hospitals or municipalities in order to provide grist for the mill of Quebec’s socio-economic development. It must be said that half of the innovations resulting from ÉTS research units and chairs end up being actually used in local companies!
Find out how these researchers are taking Quebec further.
Using 3D printing… to keep us healthy
Credit: ÉTS
As health needs increase in Quebec and Canada, the ÉTS research community develops innovative technologies to improve well-being, quality of life and health care in all its forms.
In collaboration with industrial and clinical partners, researchers are focusing on areas such as medical imaging, virtual reality in rehabilitation, speech recognition, biomaterials, surgical simulation, orthopedic implants and personalized medicine.
For example, researchers Yvan Petit and Éric Wagnac, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, created a football helmet intended to prevent concussions. Thanks to grants from the NFL, the team was able to develop a 3D printed structure optimized to minimize the impact of blows to the head. Their invention will be commercialized shortly!
In the Department of Electrical Engineering, researcher Rachel Bouserhal can detect the presence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s, using tiny internal microphones that make it easier to listen to the physiological sounds emitted by the human body.
Finally, a joint team of researchers from ÉTS, the Research Center of the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CRCHUM) and TÉLUQ created kneegraphy, a type of electrocardiogram of the knee. Thus, for 20 years, the examination has been used across eight countries, including Canada and France, in order to make diagnoses and personalize patient treatments.
Recyclable shoes?
Credit: ÉTS
Through its 17 chairs and multidisciplinary research units linked to the environment and sustainable development, ÉTS develops concrete solutions to reduce waste, improve the treatment of water, air and soil and promote sustainable city — all from a circular economy perspective.
Thus, 80% of sustainable development research is carried out in partnership with companies, particularly in the areas of the circular economy and clean technologies.
Concrete examples? The team of Professor Lucas Hof, at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is developing new innovative eco-design methods, integrating the entire life cycle of products. For example, his team designs recyclable shoes using 3D printing and carefully selected materials. While only 5% of shoes can usually be recovered, his invention increases the recyclability potential of shoes and has a positive impact on the highly polluting fashion environment.
Mathieu Lapointe, a researcher in the Department of Construction Engineering, has developed a technology that purifies the water treated in factories in order to ensure the quality of drinking water supplied to the population. Economical and ecological, its process is already in use on the Quebec market.
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