Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Fleming College’s Centre for Advancement of Water and Wastewater Technologies (CAWT) has been awarded $450,000 through an Applied Research and Development (ARD) grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The funding will support a three-year research project aimed at identifying water system failures before they happen.
The ARD project is a new phase in a long-standing collaboration between the CAWT and Mueller Canada, a leading manufacturer of infrastructure products and solutions for water management. Echologics, a division of Mueller Canada, has developed advanced technologies to assess the condition of underground water pipes without the need for digging. Now, they’re teaming up with researchers at the CAWT to advance the next generation of their technology.
Led by Dr. Reza Moslemi, P.Eng., Principal Researcher at the CAWT, the new project builds on the momentum of an earlier five-year project that he also led as Fleming’s NSERC Industrial Research Chair for Colleges in Predictive Water Network Analytics. Drawing on this deep foundation, the joint Fleming-Mueller research team will apply its combined expertise in pipe network modeling, hydraulic analysis, and machine learning to improve a tool that predicts when and where pipe failures are most likely to occur. This project will help municipalities better plan pipe renewal activities and effectively manage their aging water infrastructure.
“This new project builds on years of strong collaboration between Fleming College’s CAWT and Mueller Canada,” said Dr. Theresa Knott, Acting Co-President of Fleming College. “With the leadership of our NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Predictive Water Network Analytics, this partnership has already advanced the field of water main condition assessment. Now, we’re taking that work further to support smarter, more resilient water infrastructure. It’s a powerful example of applied research that delivers long-term impact.”
The resulting predictive model will become part of Mueller Canada’s suite of smart infrastructure solutions, helping the company and its municipal and utility clients make better decisions, reduce costs, and help support more sustainable and reliable water systems across Canada.
Image credit to Fleming College.
