Engineering Research Group
The goals of the Engineering Research Program at the Prairie Swine Centre are to improve the barn’s physical environment and reduce overall production cost by developing economical and practical techniques and by modifying the barn operational systems to enhance efficiencies and ensure the health and safety of barn workers and animals. In addition to reduce the environmental footprint of pork production through breakthroughs in the science of odour and gas emissions, nutrient and water management, and utility and resource efficiency.
Dr. Predicala manages the Engineering Research Program at PSCI with the following goals: to address environmental sustainability issues associated with swine production and to optimize the physical environment in swine production facilities to enhance performance and reduce production cost. For the past 7 years, Dr. Predicala has secured more than C$1.7 million in extramural research funding for individual and collaborative projects mainly aimed to ensure health and safety of barn workers and pigs, control environmental emissions, and comply with applicable environmental and occupational regulations. During this period, he has supervised and coordinated the work of a team of Post-doctoral Fellows (2), Research Assistants (4), Research Technicians (3), Graduate Students (3 Ph.D. students, 4 M.Sc. students), and Undergraduate Student Assistants (4) in the implementation of project workplans. Dr. Predicala also holds concurrent appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. He is also actively engaged with professional societies, currently serving as an officer of the Canadian Society for Bioengineering, as member of various committees of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, and as Associate Editor and reviewer for professional journals.
Alvin Alvarado is an Engineering graduate student who will continue the work on investigating the use of nanoparticles for controlling emissions from manure slurry. He started on his M.Sc. program at the Department of Agricultural and Bioresource Engineering this January 2009. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Engineering (with honors) from Leyte State University, Philippines in 2005 and was the topnotcher in the Philippine licensure examination for professional agricultural engineers in the same year. Alvin worked as an instructor in the same university where he taught courses in Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, and Physics prior to coming to Saskatoon.
Melvin is a professional Agricultural and Biosystems Engineer in the Philippines. He obtained his undergraduate degree at Visayas State University (Main Campus) in 2015. He worked under the Regional Agricultural Engineering Division at the Department of Agriculture from 2016 to 2023. He was also affiliated as a part-time instructor at the Central Philippine University, Philippines teaching agricultural and biosystem-related courses. Currently, he is pursuing his MSc degree program in Biological Engineering at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan. His research focuses on advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology with machine vision and deep learning techniques for precise detection of real-time health and welfare conditions of pigs in different production stages and onset of farrowing.
