Research & innovation
Concrete is still an open problem
The chapter’s fourth aim is to support the exchange of ideas and innovations related to sustainable, resilient, and advanced concrete technologies. This page is where that exchange is organised.
Why a student chapter does research at all
Most of what a civil engineering student learns about concrete arrives finished: a code clause, a specified strength, a table of factors. The work that produced those numbers — the mixes that failed, the specimens that cracked early, the arguments in committee — is invisible by the time it reaches a lecture slide.
The chapter exists partly to make that work visible again. Not to run a parallel research programme — the faculty already does that — but to give the research happening around us somewhere to be discussed by people who are not already specialists in it.
In practice that means a poster series, webinars with researchers, and a showcase where student teams present designs and results to an audience that includes practising engineers. The audience matters as much as the work: explaining a result to someone who will push back on it is a different exercise from writing it up.
Support the exchange of ideas and innovations related to sustainable, resilient, and advanced concrete technologies.
Chapter aim 04
Where we focus
Three themes we keep returning to
These are the subjects our sessions and posters keep circling back to. They are not exclusive — if you are working on something else in concrete, we want to hear about it.
Sustainable mixes
Supplementary cementitious materials, lower-clinker binders, and the trade-offs that come with them — what you give up in early strength or workability to take carbon out of a mix.
Durability & resilience
Freeze-thaw, chlorides, and service life in an Ottawa winter. Structures here are designed for a climate that tests them twice a year, every year, and the local record is worth studying.
Advanced technologies
Fibre reinforcement, ultra-high-performance mixes, self-healing systems, and digital fabrication — the material behaving in ways the standard textbook chapter does not cover.
Get your work seen
Present with us
You do not need a finished paper. Undergraduate design projects, a capstone in progress, a thesis chapter, or a result you cannot yet explain are all worth a slot.
What we can offer
- A poster slot at the civil engineering showcase
- A webinar session with a live question period
- An audience of students, faculty, and industry guests
- A practice run before you take it to a conference
Ready to build something that lasts?
Membership is open to all uOttawa students. Join for the workshops, stay for the people.