Professional Engineer (Alberta)

Ph.D. (Queen’s University)

Graduate Diploma (Applied Systems Science), Kyoto University, Japan

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My research interests focus on automating diagnostics to improve the reliability of complex energy and environmental systems. Reliability is the likelihood that some system will remain operating properly for a required length of time. As systems become more complex, it becomes harder to predict whether something will last, and what to do as a system begins to fail.

I am currently working at a system level on how to determine risk-based maintenance decisions that include possible production losses and consequential damage. At a technology component level, I am primarily on modelling failure mechanisms for mechanical and electrical components, as well as automated methods of collecting measurements of condition. This is very pertinent to a range of industrial systems, and entails comparative assessment of different diagnostic techniques, from physics of failure through machine learning.

I am also designing and developing in robotic systems for remote and hazardous environments, such as defining mission plans for observability requirements, developing aerial manipulation control methods, designing and testing payloads for robotic systems that collect machine condition monitoring data and samples, monitor distributed assets such as pipelines and electrical distribution systems, navigate on water to collect samples, and drive amphibiously over highly variable terrain to assess geotechnical properties of tailings impoundments and wetlands. This work is part of making industrial processes more sustainable.

Before coming to the University of Alberta, I was an industrial researcher  for Syncrude Canada Ltd., including mining automation and extraction processes. Prior to that, I did reliability research, and developed remote tooling and robotic systems, for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd (AECL).

I consult on energy systems engineering through Trekker Engineering; I provide satellite systems design support to Wyvern Space; I develop embedded monitoring methods and field robotic systems with Copperstone Technologies; and I work on novel applications of optical reflectance spectrometry with SpectraSight Inc. I am a faculty advisor to several student groups: AlbertaSat (cubesatellite design), the Autonomous Robot Vehicle Project (autonomous submersible design and control), and SPEAR (Mars rover competition team).

How to Contact Me:

M.G. Lipsett Ph.D. P.Eng.

Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Ernest and Gertrude Poole Chair in Management for Engineers

Director of Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship ProgramsFaculty of Engineering, University of Alberta
10-273 Donadeo Innovation Centre for Engineering
9211 116 St NW
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta  T6G 1H9   CANADA
tel: 780-492-9494      fax: 780-492-2200

Email: michael [dot] lipsett [at] ualberta [dot] ca

Twitter: @reliablengineer