2026 YOUNG ENGINEER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Dr. Yulin Hu's research focuses on sustainable biomass conversion technologies, addressing global challenges in clean energy and environmental sustainability. In hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as the cement and iron/steel industries, aside from the use of low-carbon fuels, it is important to develop highly efficient CO2 capture technologies. Her work on biocarbon materials that are derived from low-value biomass and organic waste for CO2 capture and emission control, particularly at high temperature application. offering a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative for industrial emission control.

H2 as an indispensable element to achieve net zero economy. Dr. Hu has advanced green H2 production through both thermochemical and photochemical routes, which diverts from the grey H2 production via steam methane reforming. A significant contribution is the development of a new photocatalyst, which has shown outperformance in H2 production than conventional photocatalysts.

Aside from gaseous fuels, Dr. Hu also contributed to solid and liquid biofuels by different biomass conversion

technologies. Her contributions to biofuels production by pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction have promoted biooil production while minimizing waste generation. Novel pre-treatment approach has been developed to replace energy-intensive conventional methods that help reduce operating costs and alleviate environmental impacts, making biofuel productions more economically feasible and environmentally friendly.

Through collaborations with industry partners, Dr. Hu's research group has been consistently collaborating with local industry partners to translate the technologies developed at the lab into real-world applications, fostering economic growth and sustainable practices. Her contributions significantly impact the transition to a low-carbon economy, providing practical solutions for clean energy and environmental challenges.

2026 JOHN TURNBULL AWARD

Dr. David B. Levin has been engaged in the world of academia since 1991 when he joined the Department of Biology at the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor. During the first 15 years of his academic career at the University of Victoria, David progressed to the rank of Associate Professor and held an NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Biotechnology from 1991-1996. In 2006, David was recruited to come home to Winnipeg where he joined the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Manitoba. He achieved his final promotion to the rank of Professor in 2014. Dr. Levin holds a unique role in the Department of Biosystems Engineering given that his university education includes a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies (University of Waterloo), an MSc in Entomology (University of Guelph) and a PhD in Virology (McGill University); he is the lone non-engineer in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Manitoba (and is the logical professor to teach the “Biology for Engineers” course). Dr. Levin’s research approach integrates microbiology, molecular biology, genome sciences and bioprocess engineering. During his first decade at the University of Manitoba, David’s research focus was on the development of new processes for next generation biofuel production with lower input costs. In recent years, his research has transitioned from an emphasis on biofuel production to i) production of renewable biodegradable polymers synthesized by bacteria and ii) microbial degradation and biorecycling of plastics. Professor Levin has an outstanding publication record (over 180 refereed publications), is highly regarded as an expert in the field (78 invited keynote speeches) and has supervised more than 90 research personnel through the continuum from undergraduate student to postdoctoral fellow. Dr. David Levin is a worthy recipient of the John Turnbull Award due to his excellent contributions to waste management during his academic career in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Manitoba.

2026 JOHN CLARK AWARD

Dr. Chyngyz Erkinbaev is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering. He is a food process engineer by training, and his research focuses on the development and integration of smart sensing technologies for real-time monitoring of food quality and safety with an emphasis on the development of computational tools. He believes that smart technologies will help agri-food systems to be more productive, efficient, and sustainable. His current research includes a multimodal approach for non-destructive and accurate quality assessment of food samples during processing. He has extensive international research and teaching experience in food and biosystems engineering, advanced spectroscopy and imaging, biophotonics and optical sensor design, AI and machine learning, and chemical and 3D microstructural mapping of food matrices. He received the Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Award and multiple institutional teaching awards for his outstanding contributions to research and teaching.

2026 JOHN OGILVIE RESEARCH INNOVATION AWARD

“Sustainable Approaches for Upcycling of Industrial Pea-Starch Waste into Nanomaterials for Potential Agricultural and Food Applications”

Canada is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of pulses, with pulse exports valued at approximately $3 billion in 2024. While this export strength has traditionally been built on raw pulse commodities, Canada has a major opportunity to expand further into higher-value plant-protein ingredients and food applications. Realizing this opportunity requires rapid, reliable, and evidence-based tools for assessing protein quality, particularly amino acid composition. However, current amino acid and protein-quality testing methods are often slow, costly, destructive, and difficult to apply in high-throughput quality-control settings.

To address this need, a multidisciplinary collaborative research project was carried out from 2022 to 2026, bringing together researchers from the Department of Biosystems Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba, the Department of Computer Science at the University of Winnipeg, and the National Research Council Canada (NRC). The project focused on evaluating protein quality using protein extracted from field peas (Pisum sativum), a crop central to Canada’s pulse-protein isolate industry. The team, consisting of engineers, chemists, plant breeders, and computer scientists, has developed an integrated platform combining microfluidic lab-on-a-chip sample preparation, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), bicinchoninic acid assay (BCA), UV-visible spectroscopy, and artificial intelligence-based spectral modelling.

This seminal initiative encompassing two large projects received funding from the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, Mitacs, NSERC, and NRC, securing $1.8 million over a six-year period. The project has so far resulted in six journal manuscripts, including two published papers, one accepted paper, one manuscript submitted as a revised version following peer review, one manuscript with revisions in preparation for resubmission, and one submitted manuscript, as well as three conference presentations/posters and one invention disclosure currently in process. It has also trained 13 highly qualified personnel, including 7 postdoctoral fellows/research associates, 2 graduate students, and 4 undergraduate students, across engineering, spectroscopy, microfluidics, artificial intelligence, and food/protein analysis.

By demonstrating reliable and rapid cysteine prediction in pea protein using a low-cost, non-destructive microfluidic-SERS-AI platform, the project advances a practical analytical approach for next-generation protein-quality assessment. Its outcomes are relevant to pulse breeding, protein ingredient quality control, and value-added growth in Canada’s plant-protein sector. Some of the highly qualified personnel (HQP) trained through this initiative have progressed to careers in industry and academia, while others remain engaged in the research. The success of our HQP demonstrates the project’s role in building interdisciplinary talent and supporting Canada’s value-added plant-protein sector.

2026 JOHN OGILVIE RESEARCH INNOVATION AWARD

“Automated Smart Imaging System for Real-Time Canola Seed Quality Detection”

Started as a small seed grant of $9,984 funded by the University Research Grant Program (URGP) of the University of Manitoba, Dr. Erkinbaev had proposed the development of a smart imaging sensor for real-time determination of canola seed quality. He was driven by the idea of moving away from the visual inspection of canola seed by trained personnel, which was a labour-intensive, subjective and time-consuming process. Later, this research has grown into a larger initiative with several funded research and infrastructure projects, which aimed to help with quality control of canola from farm-to-fork and provide an intelligent tool for better and more efficient decision making in the canola processing industry. With a team of only one MSc student (Mr. Angshuman Thakuria), a hypothesis was tested by developing detection algorithm of damaged seeds based on image and video recordings coupled with an edge device. They published their research findings and results on achieving higher accuracy, less computational models and faster speed in a peer-reviewed journal in the area of smart agricultural technology. Inspired by the preliminary results from this seed grant, they were excited to expand the project with a focus on industrial application, which resulted in securing the highly competitive Proof-of-Concept Grant ($100,000) from the Research Manitoba and the Manitoba Government ($129,000) for the development of a smart imaging system for real-time canola quality prediction (Mr. Thirukumaran Ramesh). Innovative nature of the project led to expanding the objectives from monitoring of incoming raw canola seeds to prediction of intermediate and final canola oil and meal products resulted in securing two capacity building grants ($316,800) from the Manitoba Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, Manitoba Government, for development of an online quality control system for canola processing: from single kernel characterization to oil and meal products.

2026 JOHN OGILVIE RESEARCH INNOVATION AWARD

“ProteinProcessIO: A GPU-Accelerated, Experimentally Validated Digital Twin for the Complete Dry Fractionation of Canadian Pulse Crops”

ProteinProcessIO is the first integrated, physics-based digital twin that predicts the end-to-end performance of the complete dry fractionation chain in a single computational environment. Developed at McGill University in collaboration with NRC Canada under the federal Sustainable Protein Production Program, the platform covers all three interdependent stages — RF dielectric pretreatment, hammer milling, and air classification — and couples them in an automated pipeline where the outlet conditions of each stage feed directly into the inlet of the next. This end-to-end coupling is scientifically critical: a change in pretreatment temperature modifies seed brittleness, which reshapes the milling particle-size distribution, which in turn shifts the air classifier cut-point and protein recovery yield. Stage-isolated models cannot capture this cross-stage sensitivity.

The RF pretreatment module is a full digital twin of the QMTI GP-15 15 kW RF heating system at NRC Canada. It couples ten physics and control sub-models per timestep — including RF field propagation, volumetric dielectric heating, thermal conduction, moisture diffusion, evaporation kinetics, belt kinematics, oscillator circuit dynamics, and full PLC controller logic. The model was calibrated on actual PLC telemetry from a 61 kg NRC Canada production run, simultaneously matching outfeed temperature, anode current trajectory, and electrode gap. It was then blind-validated on an independent 90 kg run, predicting electrode gap within 1.2% (93.0 mm predicted vs. 94.1 mm measured). The milling module reproduces measured D50 to within 0.1 μm at 6,000 RPM using a calibrated Rosin-Rammler breakage function. The air classification module implements Lagrangian particle tracking through 36 fully parameterized equipment components — venturi eductor, zigzag preclassifier, high-speed wheel classifier (to 5,000g), three-stage cyclone cascade, and bag filter — accelerated via NVIDIA Warp GPU kernels.

The platform is released free of charge as a self-contained desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux, placing the simulation capacity of a fully equipped pilot plant in the hands of any Canadian research group or processor with a standard laptop.

2026 CSABE/SCGAB FELLOW

As a faculty member at the University of Saskatchewan for the past 26 years, Dr. Huiqing Guo has developed a strong research and student training program in the area of controlled environments for greenhouses and livestock operations. She is a nationally and internationally recognized researcher and well-respected educator. She developed the odour setback distance model OFFSET for livestock operations, set odour guidelines for the Province of Saskatchewan, and proposed a comprehensive indoor air quality index for animal barns. Her research group also developed technologies for greenhouse energy saving and dehumidification. She was awarded the John Turnbull Award by CSABE-SCGAB in 2020 for her outstanding teaching and research contributions in agricultural building systems and waste management. Dr. Guo has been an active CSABE-SCGAB member since 1998 and has served the Society in various roles, including Chair of the Awards Committee; member of the 2006 and Chair of the 2010 ASABE/CSABE North-Central Conference Committee; and member of the Editorial Board of Canadian Biosystems Engineering (CBE). She is a regular manuscript reviewer for ASABE journals and a frequent contributor to CBE.

ASABE  ¼ Scale Tractor Student Design Competition - $500

Design and construction of a four-wheel-drive tractor taking into consideration the rules specified by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)

University of Manitoba Association of Tiny Tractors (UMATT) – Ariel Mesongnik, Nicol Mesongnik, Kevin G. Sim, Robert D. Tully, Adam J. M. Zalevich, Fiona Awan, Rudy Kissel, Ethan Friesen, Bruce J. W. Niemi & Samuel C. Kuxhaus

McGill University, MuTrac Team – Vincent Boa, Catherine Grammond, Olivia M. Giguère, Gabriel Morin, Thomas Brunet, Madeleine C. Hétu, Carley R. Kiiskila, Isabel J. Heger, Marguerite Deseau, Selena Amirzada & Florence Brun

Université Laval, Équipe ULtrac – Simon Dallaire, Alexis Pellerin, Émérick Prince, Lauralie Milette, Antoine Néron, Gabrielle Arel, Frédérick Leclerc, Roxanne Pelletier, Cassandre Séguin & Érika Barbeau

ASABE Robotics Student Design Competition

The competition requires teams to build a robot, which accomplishes a simulated agricultural task. The robots must be fully autonomous and able to complete the task without human intervention.

University of Manitoba, UM-agBOT – Stephane Le Heiget, Krish S. Bhalala, Laraib Mahdi, Arqam Adiyan, Niraaj Ojha, Ben R. Friesen & Isabella A. C. Panduro

CSBE/SCGAB FOUNDATION  Undergraduate Scholarship - $400

Recognizes academic excellence among student members of the Society.  The Scholarship is awarded each year to the student member of the Society with the highest GPA in the preceding semester.

University of Manitoba – Brook Singbeil

Université Laval, Génie agroenvironnemental – Thomas Talbot-Lanciault & Christopher Gagné (ex aequo)

Université Laval, Génie alimentaire – Livia Bolduc Painchaud

Dalhousie University – Dylan Long

University of Prince Edward Island – Courtney Marie McBride

University of Prince Edward Island – Yuvraj S. Gill

Undergraduate Awards – $100

Undergraduate Design Project

University of Manitoba – Amy Dixon, Gerald E. Onwuka, Adam A. Patton, Axcell V. Saqui & Brooke Singbeil for a design project entitled “Rii Faroosh (Wild Rice) Small Scale Processor” (Advisor: N. Jacobson).

University of Guelph – Janelle Chan, Ryan Landry, William Rocheleau & Emily A. M. Younghans for a design project entitled “Identification and Evaluation of Nanoencapsulation Techniques for A. Nodossum Seaweed Extracts” (Advisor: A. Singh).

McGill University – Olivia M. Domingos, Noelle Ciravolo, Lisa El Khazen, Abby Newsham, Sylvio Chamoun for a project “Automated Wind Farm Site Selection” (Advisor: J. Dhiman).

Université Laval – Mégane D'Aoust, Camylle Michaud & Marie Poissant for a project “Serre-étable : évaluation des répercussions de la lumière naturelle et d’une canopée végétale sur le bien-être animal et l’environnement (Greenhouse Dairy Barn: Assessment of the Impact of Natural Light and a Plant Canopy on Animal Welfare and the Environment)” (Advisor: S. Fournel).

Undergraduate Thesis

University of Manitoba – Brooke Singbeil for a thesis entitled “Fate and Distribution Mechanisms of Tebuconazole” (Advisors: A. Brown & W. Blunt).

McGill University – Aleix Toews, Philippe Charest & Khloe Lu for a project “Pneumatic Electrical Trigger to Improve Nitrogen Cannons for Avalanche Control” (Advisor: C. A. Madramootoo).

University of Prince Edward Island – Yuvraj S. Gill for a thesis entitled “Design and Development of a Dual-Mode Robotic-Human Framework for Spatiotemporal Assessment of Soil Compaction in Agricultural Fields” (Advisors: G. Randhawa & A.A. Farooque).

CSABE/SCGAB National MSc/PhD Thesis Award – $500

MSc Finalists

University of Saskatchewan – Emmanuel Ezechinyelu for a thesis entitled “Thermal Environment Modelling, Optimization and Economic Feasibility Analysis of a Double-Roof Chinese Solar Greenhouse in the Canadian Prairies” (Advisor: H. Guo).

University of Manitoba – Obasi Ukoji for a thesis entitled “Effects of Chickpea Milling and Pretreatment on the Physical and Microstructural Characteristics of Enriched Bread and Pasta” (Advisor: J. Paliwal).

University of Manitoba – Thirukumaran Ramesh for a thesis entitled “An Integrated Storage and Seed Treatment Approach for Improving Oxidative Stability and Oil Quality of Canola Seeds” (Advisor: C. Erkinbaev).

PhD Finalists

University of Saskatchewan – Pabitra Chandra Das for a thesis entitled “Postharvest Processing of Cannabis (Cannabis sativa) and Valorization of its Stalks” (Advisor: L. G. Tabil).

University of Manitoba – Abhinav Tiwari for a thesis entitled “Moisture Isotherm of Oilseeds (Hemp and Canola) and Sub-Zero Temperature Drying and Storage of Canola” (Advisor: F. Jian).

Université Laval – Andrea Katherín Carranza Díaz for a thesis “Évaluation et optimisation des méthodes indirectes pour l’estimation du taux de ventilation servant au calcul des émissions de gaz en élevage de poules pondeuses (Measurement of Gas Emissions in Laying Hen Housing Systems: Evaluation and Optimization of Indirect Methods for Ventilation Rate Estimation)” (Advisor: S. Fournel).