News Release Communique
Engineering Firm Wins Award for Work on CLS
UMA Group Ltd. has won an award of excellence for technical innovation from the Consulting Engineers of Saskatchewan recognizing work on the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron project under construction at the University of Saskatchewan.
UMA is providing project and construction management, engineering for the design of the building, and support engineering for the entire $173.5-million project, which is on time and on budget.
"We felt that the constraints they had to meet were very demanding and required innovative solutions," said Bob Gander, U of S electrical engineering professor and one of the judges for the award. "The most amazing constraint to me was that the floor has to stay level to 35 microns. It’s phenomenal that they can design a floor which is a slab the size of a football field and can stay that stable."
Gander noted the building must be stable enough that vibrations from traffic or wind won’t disturb the sensitive equipment. Another major challenge was designing the booster and storage ring enclosures which must be kept at 27 degrees Celsius, and can vary only by 0.1 degree.
"It speaks to the caliber of Saskatchewan engineers that this kind of project was designed in the province using local engineers," Gander said.
UMA, a Canadian employee-owned company founded in Saskatoon and based in Vancouver, has been part of the CLS since it was in the conceptual stage in 1996. The engineering firm will manage the construction of the synchrotron until it begins operations in early 2004.
Sub-consultants working with UMA on the CLS include AODBT Architects, AMEC Earth & Environmental, Bruce Sparling and BKL and Associates. U of S Facilities Management provided the climate control system design.
The synchrotron is a huge, doughnut-shaped ring that accelerates a stream of electrons and manipulates them to create a beam of light billions of times brighter than the sun. This rare light can then be used by industrial and university researchers as a revolutionary new tool to observe structures and chemical reactions at a molecular level.
CES is an organization that works to strengthen consulting engineering in Saskatchewan and promote excellence in engineering.
The CLS is wholly owned by the University of Saskatchewan. Construction of the project is mainly funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian government, the Saskatchewan government, the Ontario Innovation Trust, the Alberta government, the U of S, the City of Saskatoon and SaskPower.
Information on CLS is available from the www.lightsource.ca.
For more information, contact:
Kathryn Warden
Research Communications Officer
Office of the Vice President (Research)
Tel: (306) 966-2506
Fax: (306) 966-2411
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
Office of the Vice-President (Research)
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:02