College Receives Research Grant to Continue Partnership With Cypher Environmental on Solutions for Dust Control

Red River College has received a $65,000 research grant to continue product development work with a local company specializing in environmental solutions for dust control.

The Applied Research and Development (ARD) grant — awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) — will allow RRC’s faculty researchers, staff and students to collaborate with Cypher Environmental staff to continue development and testing of DUST/BLOKR®, their dust control and dust suppression product.

This project will significantly enhance R&D capacity at RRC by engaging staff in a challenging multi-disciplinary area of research. The knowledge and experience generated will enrich curricula and teaching in different departments at the College; student engagement will contribute to new applied learning and expose students to real life experiences.

Through the National Research Council – Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), Cypher has been working with RRC researchers from Civil Technology (Neil Chandler) and Life Sciences (Aman Abrha, Said Hassan and Michael Judge) on different facets of product characterization and testing. Judge and Hassan will lead the next phase of the year-long NSERC ARD project, which commences this month.

Earlier in September, RRC and Cypher hosted a delegation from Honduras and Mexico, whose members visited Manitoba to review a significant DUST/BLOKR® stabilization project.

“This is a perfect example of what the College is all about — educating people for local industry and then partnering with that industry to do applied research in response to real world needs,” says Louise Gordon, Dean of RRC’s School of Health Sciences and Community Services, who welcomed the guests of the breakfast reception and lab tour.

Several of Cypher’s staff — including company president Todd Burns — are Red River College graduates. In addition to dust control, Cypher also provides environmental solutions for soil stabilization and water treatment.

Shown below (from left): Shari Bielert, Chair of Civil Technology, RRC; Isabel Bright, Chair of Life Science, RRC; Armando Limon, Distributor, Firmas UC (Mexico); Alejandro Vizarro, Project Development Manager from Grupo Dragon Mexico; Abi Olubodun, Wastewater Specialist, Cypher Environmental; Todd Burns, President, Cypher Environmental; Ebal Diaz, Executive Secretary of Council of Ministers (Honduras)