In recent years, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have rallied the research and development community to address important health, equity, and sustainability issues. The lack of reliable access to water and energy is heavily featured in the SDGs as it is at the heart of health, social, economic, and climate challenges for many marginalized communities. Technologies engineered for the industrialized context often don't account for important local factors, resulting in failure when implemented in marginalized areas. This talk will discuss the challenges associated with the design, validation, and manufacturing of water and energy technologies in the developing world. Work currently being done by the Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) and the Water and Energy Research Laboratory (WERL) at the University of Toronto in the areas of renewable energy, sustainable aeration technologies to improve small-holder aquaculture production, improved irrigation technologies, drinking water, and sustainable sanitation will highlight these challenges and present the potential impact of appropriately designed water and energy technologies.
Amy Bilton is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering and the Director of the cross-disciplinary Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) at the University of Toronto. Her research group, the Water and Energy Research Lab (WERL), focuses on developing innovative water and energy technologies which are geared towards global development. She has worked with industry and NGOs around the world, most notably in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Mexico, and Nicaragua. She completed her PhD and MS in Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and her BASc in Engineering Science (Aerospace) from the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in top journals such as Science Advances, Nature Sustainability, Environmental Science and Technology, and World Development. She is a fellow of Engineers Canada and has been recognized for her work through many awards, including the Engineers Canada Young Engineer Achievement Award.