Specialization: Environmental Hydraulics
Katy has an active research program in ecohydraulics, participating in multidisciplinary projects using numerical and physical models to understand dynamic river processes, including movement and fate of sediment. Working with biologists to understand the interactions with aquatic species, she and her students have conducted research in the hydrodynamically complex industrial Port of Saint John, the ecologically important and diverse mudflats of the Bay of Fundy, and the sediment laden Petitcodiac River.
More recently, her team has been developing hydrodynamic and sediment transport models of the Wolastoq|Saint John River as part of the Mactaquac Aquatic Ecosystem Study (MAES). MAES is an NSERC Collaborative Research and Development-funded project with industry collaborators, NB Power.
Katy also has interest in developing alternative pedagogies and curricula that incorporate social justice issues into conventional engineering classrooms, with a hope of increasing diversity and equity and reshaping the future of the engineering profession towards one that is positive and ethical.