(October 16, 2023) - Laurentian University’s Steven Beites, Assistant Professor at the McEwen School of Architecture, will be among the researchers present at the Council of Ontario Universities’ first Queen’s Park event since the pandemic: A Plan for Prosperity: Fueling the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain.
Taking place on Monday, October 16, from 5 pm to 7 pm, the reception will provide an opportunity to interact with provincial leaders while highlighting the role of universities in creating a stronger Ontario.
At Queen’s Park, Professor Beites, who will be accompanied by PhD student Ethan McDonald, will showcase his research which hopes to address the affordable housing crisis, particularly in Northern Ontario, by developing automated construction processes and novel prefabricated modular assemblies, with a focus on low-carbon construction. He will engage Members of Provincial Parliament, Ministers, ministerial staff and other stakeholders with the help of an example of the automated construction process, posters about the research, and prototypes of the novel prefab assemblies.
This research is the result of work developed both in Steven's Graduate Studios, and by a transdisciplinary team that also includes the Bharti School of Engineering’s Marc Arsenault, the School of Natural Sciences’ Blake Dotta, and Reza Foruzanmehr. The research team received an Exploration grant from the New Frontiers in Research Fund in 2021 for their research titled ‘Human-Robot Interaction and Collaboration as a Catalyst for Creative Economy, Community Outreach and Emerging Design-Build Solutions in Ontario's North’.