On February 14, OCAD U joined the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) and six other research institutes to launch the first-ever cluster of post-secondary institutions dedicated to researching battery electric and fuel cell electric buses – collectively known as “zero emissions buses” (ZEB).
Hosted by OCAD U, the event featured the announcement of more than $4.7 million in federal and industry funding to support low-carbon and smart mobility research.
CUTRIC and its members are contributing a total of $4.2 million in funding over three years with an additional $551,000 through the federally supported Mitacs Accelerate and Elevate programs to fund CUTRIC’s National Academic Committee on Zero-Emissions Buses (NAC-ZEB).
“We are proud to contribute to this important initiative because it fits securely with our ongoing commitment to designing sustainable practices in all domains of our economy, infrastructure and society,” said OCAD U President Dr. Sara Diamond. She is the co-principal investigator of the university’s project, Visualization Analysis of e-Bus Routes and Facilities Design being undertaken in the Visual Analytics Lab.
CUTRIC’s NAC-ZEB research will allow federal, provincial and municipal governments to make better decisions when it comes to procuring and deploying zero-emission buses across the country. It will also move Canada closer to achieving the goal of electrifying 5,000 buses across the country.
“Our research will answer the question of how researchers and implementation teams can accurately track the progress and impacts of ZEB implementation,” said Jeremy Bowes, a tenured Professor in Design at OCAD U and co-principal investigator. “We are working closely with CUTRIC to develop visualizations that will highlight key factors as decision support for the overall process of ZEB adoption, testing and evaluation in Canada.”
In addition to OCAD U, partners include Ontario Tech University, Queen’s University, the University of Windsor, Centennial College, York University and Canadian Nuclear Labs.
Read CUTRIC’s full announcement here.