Two-dimensional materials could make electronic devices thinner and more flexible, but a new study shows that the variability of their mechanical properties represents a key barrier. (Photo: U.S. Army RDECOM, via Wikimedia Commons)

Manufacturers of consumer electronics dream of making their products thinner, lighter and more flexible — but a new study is sounding a note of caution about some of the materials a lot of them are pinning their hopes on.

The study represents the first large-scale survey of fracture strength and fatigue lifetime for a family of materials known as transitional metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs.

“TMDs are attractive because of their electronic properties: they act as semiconductors in a very similar way to silicon, which is the gold standard for microchips today,” says Professor Tobin Filleter (MIE), final author on a new paper published today in Matter.

“Unlike silicon, TMDs are what we call a two-dimensional material, which means that it’s very easy to form them into sheets that are only a few atoms thick. In theory, that could mean thinner electronics. But until our study, we didn’t know much about some of their other properties, such as fracture strength or mechanical fatigue.”

Fracture strength refers to the maximum stress that a material can take before breaking, while fatigue describes its behaviour under lower stresses that are either sustained or repeated many times. If TMDs are to be used in flexible, wearable devices, they will need to be resilient to both.

Having previously studied the mechanical fatigue of graphene, another two-dimensional material, Filleter and his team decided to use a similar approach for TMDs.

Working collaboratively with teams at the University of Tokyo and Rice University, they obtained samples of two different TMD materials: molybdenum sulfide (MoS₂) and tungsten selenide (WSe₂). In both cases, the samples were less than one nanometre thick, representing only three layers of atoms.

In the lab, they stretched these sheets over a piece of silicon etched with thousands of holes — each only a few micrometres in diameter, like an array of microscopic drumheads. They then used an atomic force microscope with a diamond-tipped probe to push on the centre of each hole.

Fracture strength was measured by increasing the force until the TMD sheets snapped, while fatigue was assessed using a lower force — typically 50-90% of the fracture strength — and then either keeping it there for hours to test static fatigue, or repeating the stress cycle millions of times to test dynamic fatigue.

While there had been a handful of previous attempts to measure facture strength for TMDs, they were based on a relatively small number of samples. The new approach allows for a greatly increased sample size, which the team expected would help them zero in on the true value. To their surprise, the numbers were all over the map.

“The variability for both fracture strength and fatigue lifetime were very high,” says Dr. Teng Cui (MIE PhD 2T0), one of the two co-lead authors of the new study. Cui did the experimental work as a postdoctoral fellow at U of T Engineering, and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University.

“For example, with fracture strength, the TMD over one hole might break under less than half of the stress than the one next to it. Under fatigue, one might last for more than 10,000 seconds but the next may not even last one second.”

As an analogy, Cui’s statistical analysis showed that the variability of fracture strength and fatigue lifetime were about on par with typical measurements for glass or ceramics.

“Imagine dropping a plate or drinking glass on a hard kitchen floor. Depending on how it lands, it might break, or it might not. That’s sort of where we are with TMDs right now.”

“The cause of this unpredictability is likely defects within the crystal structure of the individual TMD sheets,” says Dr. Sankha Mukherjee, the other co-lead author. Mukherjee is a former postdoctoral fellow at U of T Engineering, now an assistant professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Mukherjee performed molecular simulations to reveal the strong effect of defects on the reliability of TMDs. Eliminating these defects won’t be easy, but it won’t be unprecedented either: a similar issue is faced by silicon chip manufacturers today.

“All the raw silicon wafers have some type of defect, and many can’t be made into microchips,” says Filleter. “Chip makers know this, and they have integrated sophisticated quality control checks into their manufacturing processes to deal with it. We demonstrate that a similar approach can be applied to TMDs as well.”

“Like graphene, TMDs might be attractive for their two-dimensional nature, but our study shows that you still need to worry about defects, and to find those, you need rigorous mechanical testing.”

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 27, 2022 by Tyler Irving

Left to right: Tatiana Estevez (Permalution), Valerie Ajayi (MechE 2T1 + PEY), Kelly Chu (MechE 2T1 + PEY), Eva Liu (MechE 2T1 + PEY) in phone picture, Alyson Wong (MechE 2T1 + PEY) and Professor Markus Bussmann (Chair, MIE) stand next to a prototype fog harvester in the student arena within the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship. (Photo submitted)

When Eva Liu (MechE 2T1 + PEY) signed up for her fourth-year capstone course, she had never heard of fog harvesting. But after some preliminary research, she quickly found herself drawn in by the potential impact the technology could have.

“I was excited to see a capstone project where the client was an organization with humanitarian aims,” says Liu. “It was a unique opportunity to apply what we’ve learned over the last few years to a project with global and environmental reach.”

Liu  and her teammates — Alyson Wong (MechE 2T1 + PEY), Valerie Ajayi (MechE 2T1 +PEY) and Kelly Chu (MechE 2T1 + PEY) — have spent the last year working on a challenge brought forward by Permalution, a cleantech startup that develops fog water harvesting technology.

Since 2018, Permalution has been working with the state of Nayarit in Mexico to leverage fog harvesting as a way of meeting the region’s unique challenges.

“Nayarit is home to a number of protected natural areas that contain many endangered species,” says Tatiana Estevez, CEO of Permalution.

“Forest fires are a big problem there. While the area is exposed to fog for 80% of the year, it almost never rains. Fog harvesting can help conservationists get water to fight forest fires, but it would also be a useful source of water for the local population.”

Permalution’s existing fog harvester is built around a polypropylene mesh that collects condensation and directs it toward an irrigation point. However, the design often requires trained personnel to set it up, something that can be a challenge in Nayarit.

“The areas where we want to deploy this device are very mountainous, and often can only be reached on foot,” says Estevez.

“It’s difficult and costly to send our own staff there, and the challenge got worse due to the travel restrictions being imposed as a result of COVID-19. We wanted to make it easier for people already on the ground to set up these devices without outside help.”

The connection between Permalution and the students was facilitated through Dr. Yu Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at U of T Engineering’s Centre for Global Engineering. Chen had met Estevez years earlier when they were both working on projects related to urban development in Guadalajara, Mexico.

“When I heard about what she was doing with Permalution, and the challenges she wanted to address, I knew it would make a perfect capstone project for a team of undergraduates,” says Chen.

Ajayi says that the team’s task was essentially to ‘IKEA-fy’ the design of the fog harvester.

“Like IKEA products, we wanted a design that would be durable, easy to ship, easy to assemble and affordable,” she says. “We also wanted it to be expandable as needed.”

“The approach we decided on was to make the new design modular,” says Wong. “That means that there are standard units that can be connected to one another in any combination, so that the size of the fog catcher can be whatever size the client would like.”

Over the course of two semesters, the team tried out many different designs, with their final iteration presented in the capstone showcase at the end of the course.

“The main lesson that will stick with me is the importance of prototyping,” says Chu. “We mapped out the conceptual idea of the module for many weeks, but it wasn’t until we started actually building it that we really gained a sense of how feasible our design would be.”

That team’s prototype is now with Permalution in Sherbrooke, Que., where it is undergoing a mechanical review of the module. Estevez says the next step will be to design for manufacturing.

“Partnering with U of T helped us achieve a significant milestone in our product development roadmap,” says Estevez. “This project has been a great starting point toward our goal of being able to deploy more of our fog collecting solutions worldwide.”

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 21, 2022 by Tyler Irving

Mosquitoes are responsible for killing at least 725,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization. (Photo: istock/Noumae)

As the planet warms, outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases are becoming more common around the world. Traditional solutions include bed nets or chemical treatment — but U of T Engineering researchers are trying a new angle: mosquito-repellent paint. 

The team, led by Professor Kevin Golovin (MIE), aims to develop new paint formulations that makes walls, the two-winged insect’s preferred indoor resting place, inhospitable. 

The project is one of five supported by the Global Engineering Seed (GESeed) program in its first round. The catalyst fund was created at U of T Engineering’s Centre of Global Engineering (CGEN) to support the development of community-engaged research that addresses critical challenges in Indigenous communities and developing countries in the Global South. 

Mosquitoes are responsible for killing at least 725,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization, earning them the title of ‘world’s deadliest animal’ by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

 “It’s actually only the female mosquitoes that bite humans and transmit disease,” says Golovin. “And it’s only when they’re hungry and looking for a blood meal, which is usually around dawn and dusk. For the rest of a day, mosquitoes are resting — and they like to rest on surfaces that are dark, warm and vertical.” 

Golovin was working on an anti-mosquito compound with Dr. Mark Rheault, a biology professor at the University of British Columbia, when one of his students, Letícia Recla (MIE PhD candidate), noticed that the mosquitoes kept sliding down the sides of the chambers that housed the insects during the controlled lab testing.  

“We started thinking that maybe they couldn’t grip it,” says Golovin. “So, we began designing experiments where we changed the surface structure of the side walls to see when they could no longer grip it.” 

The researchers found that if they took a piece of glass and changed its roughness, it eventually became smooth enough that mosquitoes couldn’t land on it. 

“Covering all surfaces with glass throughout regions in the Global South is not a realistic option,” says Golovin. “So, we want to take that same value of smoothness and translate it into a paint that could coat the places mosquitoes tend to sit when resting, forcing them to migrate elsewhere and be away from humans when it is time for their blood meal.” 

 Golovin teamed up with Loop Recycled Products, a recycled paint company based in Niagara Falls, Ont., that works to divert paint from landfills and incineration by sourcing unused paint and turning it into a new product.  

 “We are currently trying to make the paint as smooth as possible. We are trying out different additives with different concentrations and exploring several paint colours,” says Golovin. “We are iterating through this parameter list so that we can have something that works on many different surfaces, including rough and porous surfaces, such as brick.” 

Once this is achieved and the researchers have created a commercially viable paint additive, the plan is for Loop Recycled Products to add it to their paint and distribute it to their partners in the Global South. The Ontario company already has a presence in developing countries through its free paint initiative, working with non-profits and humanitarian organizations.  

Four more projects were supported by the GESeed fund in its first round: 

• Professor Jorg Liebeherr (ECE) is working with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay on a Large-scale Low-Cost Environmental Monitoring System for Smart Agriculture 
• Professor Jeff Brook (Dalla Lana School of Public Health, ChemE), along with Professors Greg Evans (ChemE, ISTEP), Arthur Chan (ChemE) and Jeffrey Siegel (CivMin) is working with Fort McKay First Nation Sustainability Department, AUG Signals Ltd., on Cleaner Air for an Indigenous Community Heavily Impacted by Energy Development 
• Professor Chi-Guhn Lee (MIE) is working with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Sensartics Private Limited on Optimal Irrigation Control in Environments Impacted by Climate Change 
• Professor Moshe Eizenman (BME) is working with Dr. Myrna Lichter on Revolutionizing vision care in Indigenous communities 

CGEN program manager Ahmed Mahmoud is overseeing the first round of GESeed. He understands the challenges in finding funding opportunities for projects that have yet to reach a certain level of technological readiness, especially if the approach is original or non-intuitive. 

“The aim of the GESeed is to provide early-stage funding to promising projects with a high potential for social impact, allowing researchers to gain the pilot data to prove their concept,” says Mahmoud. “By partnering with organizations, they can help scale their products and ensure they’re informed by consumer needs in the market.” 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 21, 2022 by Safa Jinje

This year’s 14 “Grads to Watch” — selected by their home departments and institutes — embody the spirit of U of T Engineering. Their stories illustrate the creativity, innovation and global impact that define our community. Watch their next steps!

MIE’s students are highlighted below – visit the U of T Engineering News site to see all 14 “Grads to Watch”!

BUILDING STRONGER COMMUNITIES

Valerie Ajayi (MechE 2T1 + PEY)

Valerie Ajayi. Photo: Regis Zhao.

Between working part time and commuting two hours each way from just outside of Brampton, Ajayi found it difficult in her first year to participate in Skule™ life, especially on weekends. But she did not let that challenge stand in her way for long.

“There are so many opportunities across a campus as large as St. George and a community as passionate as Skule™,” she says. “I wanted to take advantage of it as best as I could.”

Ajayi eventually found a place closer to campus and joined the Skule™ Orientation committee, becoming its vice chair, finance. She placed first in her categories in both the CUBE Biomedical Engineering Competition as well as the U of T Engineering Kompetitions (UTEK). Her experience representing Skule™ at the Ontario Engineering Competition inspired her to lead UTEK the following year as its director. She currently serves as vice-president, finance of the U of T Engineering Society.

“It’s been great to have the chance to work with so many incredible students as we navigate what has been an uncertain and challenging time for all,” she says. “I’m very proud of the projects we were able to advance this year.”

Thanks to the PEY Co-op program, Ajayi is graduating with work experience at Bombardier and Comtek Advanced Structures under her belt. She plans to pursue an MASc degree focused on the solid mechanics of new materials, with applications in safety and sustainable production of composites for automotive and aerospace components.

“I have learned so much about leadership, discipline and passion through my extracurricular involvements,” says Ajayi. “I am certain that these will help me succeed in my future endeavours.”

“I’d like to thank all the people I have had the opportunity to work with, both academically and through EngSoc, including my Orientation co-chairs, co-officers in EngSoc, UTEK leads, U of T Engineering Business Manager Rhonda Meek, teammates on projects and supervising professors.  I am incredibly grateful for all they have shared with me, and I hope I have given them something in return.”

 

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Laura Berneaga. Photo: Shevien Rhule.

LEADING TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

Laura Berneaga (Mech MASc 2T2, Mech 1T9 + PEY)

Laura Berneaga works on problems at the intersection of engineering and humanity.

Her thesis revolves around the manufacturing of ventilators, one of the earliest healthcare bottlenecks exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We focused on the controller since it is the most complex component, responsible for all the major decisions the ventilator makes,” she says.

“Today, the code for the controller is highly dependent on the specific hardware components. We created a framework for an open-source design, one that could be adopted by manufacturers anywhere in the world, helping them quickly scale up in a crisis.”

An experienced student leader, Berneaga served as the president of the U of T Engineering Society during her undergraduate degree and as president of the Graduate Engineering Council of Students during her master’s degree.

“Both roles presented me with opportunities to advocate for better experiences for the students, and it was extremely rewarding to see initiatives I pushed for come to life,” she says.

“But I equally valued my involvement in projects such as Fr!osh Week and Skule™ Nite. I’ve always believed that you shouldn’t have to choose between the technical aspects of engineering and the more artistic and creative parts of your personality.”

This summer, Berneaga moved to Germany to take up an internship at the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin. She is designing and implementing improvements to a highly sensitive X-ray spectroscopy machine, a piece of analytical equipment used across a wide range of disciplines.

Berneaga says that two big lessons she took from U of T Engineering were to never be afraid to follow your passion, and to take initiative for the things you want to achieve.

“It’s easy to go with the flow, but it’s so much more rewarding to take charge and pursue the things you want, the way you want them.”

“I would like to give a huge shoutout to Rhonda, our business manager in EngSoc, as well as my officer team — Alex, Najah, Zahir, and Zach, and my Vice-Chair Daire— for making EngSoc and GECoS such fun yet rewarding experiences, and for keeping me sane even in the most insane moments!”

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 13, 2022 by Safa Jinje and Tyler Irving

Dr. Craig Simmons’ distinguished contribution to engineering has earned him a place as a fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Craig Simmons is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, the Distinguished Professor in Mechanobiology at the University of Toronto and Scientific Director of the Translational Biology and Engineering Program in the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. A world leader in the field of mechanobiology, Dr. Simmons has made pioneering contributions in understanding how biomechanical forces contribute to heart valve disease and regeneration and has developed lab-on-a-chip microtechnology to model tissues and organs for drug discovery. He is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical & Biomedical Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering.

Over the course of his professional career, Professor Simmons has published more than 140 peer-reviewed research articles in high-impact journals that have received close to 12,000 citations. He had also authored the textbook, Introductory Biomechanics: From cells to organisms, and contributed to various book chapters related to mechanobiology, cardiovascular health, and cellular transport. Professor Simmons has contributed greatly to scientific translation, with 4 patents and 8 invention disclosures under his name.

During his tenure at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE), Professor Simmons has mentored more than 50 Ph.D. and MASc candidates, and hundreds of undergraduate thesis students and high school trainees. Many of his mentees have flourished in academia, start-ups, and various industry ventures.

The impact of Professor Simmons’ research has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Canada Research Chair in Mechanobiology; the Ontario Early Researcher Award; the McCharles; the McLean Award, Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering; and the Heart and Stroke Foundation CP Has Heart Award.

A rendering of an electric vehicle prototype shows the conduits that carry fluid to cool different internal components, such as the battery, motor and other electronics. (Image: U of T Electrification Hub)

A multidisciplinary team of researchers, led by Alumni Distinguished Professor Cristina Amon (MIE), has been awarded an NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant to accelerate training and research into extending electric vehicle (EV) performance and lifetime of battery systems by improving the way they manage cold and hot temperatures. 

The NSERC CREATE in Thermal Management of Electrification Technologies (TherMET) project will be directed from U of T’s Electrification Hub — a research hub seeded by the Dean’s Strategic Fund in 2020. The team includes 10 professors from three Ontario universities at the centre of Canada’s automotive corridor — U of T, Ontario Tech University and the University of Windsor — as well as 21 collaborators from government, Indigenous communities, academia and industry, including companies such as Ford Canada, Tesla, Lion Electric, eCAMION, Covestro and Flex-N-Gate. This multidisciplinary team includes Professors Sanjeev Chandra (MIE), Alison Olechowski (MIE) and Mohini Sain (MIE) as well as MIE alumnus and Ontario Tech professor Marc Rosen.

Providing $1.65 million of funding from NSERC, this is the only CREATE grant awarded to U of T in this round, and the first in three years. TherMET’s pioneering training program is strategic for U of T, which will invest, together with Ontario Tech University and University of Windsor, an additional $2 million in management and students’ support over the CREATE’s six-year grant. This significant investment will leverage several other EV-related emerging initiatives at U of T, including new curricula, research and teaching labs, and technology hubs. 

Last year, EVs made up more than 5% of new vehicle registrations in Canada for the first time, and the recent Canadian federal budget calls for that proportion to grow to 60% by 2030. At the same time, large stationary battery packs are increasingly being deployed as backup power solutions for homes and businesses, as storage for renewable solar and wind energy, and as components of off-grid generation systems.  

These shifts are rapidly increasing demand for highly qualified personnel with strong technical expertise in all aspects of batteries and related technologies, from component design to manufacturing, integration and testing. They will also need an ability to work across disciplines to address complex challenges in a range of domains.

One of the key challenges is thermal management. High temperatures are detrimental to lithium-ion batteries, impacting their charging speeds, expected lifetime and overall safety, as well as the driving range of the EVs that contain them. 

But extremely low temperatures, such as those encountered during a typical Canadian winter, are also a challenge. The TherMET program will establish innovative and sustainable training programs in advanced thermal management of core electrification technologies for both extremely hot and cold climates.   

“Thermally dependent core electrification technologies still require transformative developments in battery packs, chargers, electric motors and thermal management strategies to improve their reliability, performance and safety,” says Dr. Carlos Da Silva, Electrification Hub Executive Director. 

“Our program aims to meet these challenges by establishing a pioneering and sustainable training program within a holistic component-to-system training scope. We will train and mentor Canada’s future leaders on core electrification technologies leading to thermally safer, lighter, more durable and environmentally friendly batteries and EVs,” says Amon.  

TherMET is organized under three research pillars, with 12 training components: 

• Core EV sub-systems for thermal management of battery packs, onboard EV electronics and electric motors 
• EV system and integration technologies for intelligent EV thermal management strategies tolerant to extreme cold and hot climates 
• Stationary battery application and repurposing to create resilient energy storage solutions for Canada’s urban and northern populations 

The interdisciplinary focus of the program will allow trainees from engineering disciplines, social sciences and public health to work together to promote awareness of the environmental and social consequences of implementing electrification technologies in urban and rural settings. 

 One of the training components is focused on knowledge translation with northern and Indigenous communities to examine the community, technical, environmental and social implications of deploying stationary battery systems in extreme cold climates, as well as their thermal management needs.  

“Remote, northern communities face particular challenges with energy systems including cold weather, changing climate, limited infrastructure and transportation options. These factors, along with small population and vast geographical distances, make the transition to renewable energy challenging but not impossible. Stationary battery systems are key to improving penetration of renewables in many northern and Indigenous communities piloting solar- and wind-powered energy systems. Our trainees will have unprecedented opportunities to visit northern renewable energy projects and learn from northern and Indigenous partners leading these initiatives including Yukon University, Yukon Solar Corporation, the Municipality of Sioux Lookout, and the Sioux Lookout Friendship Accord Corporation,” says Professor Tracey Galloway (Anthropology UTM), a co-investigator in this project.  

“Our CREATE program will nurture the next generation of professionals and leaders to instill the talent and skills needed to advance thermal management innovations suitable for extreme cold and hot climates, and to act on the environmental and social issues affecting these core electrification technologies,” says Amon. 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 9, 2022 by Safa Jinje

Cristina Amon (MIE) is widely recognized as a visionary leader, a champion for diversity in engineering programs and across the profession, as well as a pioneering researcher. Under her leadership, U of T Engineering became Canada’s top ranked engineering school and one of the best in the world. (Photo: Daniel Ehrenworth)

Cristina Amon (MIE), Dean Emerita of U of T Engineering, has been appointed to the rank of University Professor. This is the University of Toronto’s highest and most distinguished academic rank, recognizing unusual scholarly achievement and preeminence in a particular field of knowledge. The number of such appointments is limited to two percent of the University’s tenured faculty. 

Cristina Amon is Alumni Distinguished Professor in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. Her responsibilities as Dean (2006 – 2019) included the strategic and visionary leadership of more than 750 faculty and staff, and 8,000 students. Under her leadership, U of T Engineering has become Canada’s top ranked engineering school and a global hub for multidisciplinary research, education, and innovation, known for its strategic Faculty-wide initiatives, cross-Faculty centres and institutes, and innovative undergraduate and graduate programming. Her commitment to outreach, diversity and inclusion has set a new standard for engineering schools worldwide. During her term, the number of women faculty members at U of T Engineering almost tripled and the Faculty celebrated an historic 40% women first-year undergraduate enrolment for three consecutive years. 

Prior to joining U of T in 2006, Amon was the Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems at Carnegie Mellon University. She has pioneered the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics and the development of multidisciplinary multi-scale hierarchical modelling, concurrent design and optimization methodologies for thermo-fluid transport phenomena, with applications to thermal management of electronics and electric vehicles, renewable energy, and biomedical devices. 

Amon was appointed to the Order of Canada and inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Hispanic Engineer Hall of Fame, Royal Society of Canada, Spanish Royal Academy and U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE). She is a fellow of all major professional societies in her field and has contributed over 400 refereed articles to the education and research literature. Among her many accolades, she received the Ontario Professional Engineers Gold Medal, Engineering Institute of Canada Sir John Kennedy Medal, and the Engineers Canada Gold Medal, for outstanding public service, technical excellence and professional leadership. She was recognized as one of Canada’s Most Influential Women and a YWCA Woman of Distinction, and received the Engineers Canada Award for the Support of Women. 

Active in executive boards and professional societies, Amon has served as director and adviser on boards in North America and abroad, including independent director of MKS Instruments Inc. She was chair of the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science research committee and founding chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council, and has served on advisory boards for several institutions, including MIT, NAE, Stanford, UBC, UCLA, and Waterloo, and foundations for science, engineering, and technology in Canada and around the world. 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 3, 2022 by Carolyn Farrell

Early April marked the end of a yearlong project for fourth year MIE students as they presented their final capstone projects to their industry clients.

In the MIE490/491 courses student teams are matched with a client and assigned an engineering design challenge. Top-scoring projects in each course receive prizes for their designs. This year students responded to client needs with projects including a 60-second COVID test kit and a personal recommendation system to maximize your road trip.

“Every year I am impressed by the thoughtful and creative solutions our students develop in these courses,” said Markus Bussmann, MIE Department Chair. “Congratulations to our winning teams!”

Mechanical Engineering Project Winners

Left to Right: Usama Ansar, Sumyung Jang, Arjun Gopal, Sohiel Hassan

First Place:  60-Second Covid Test – A Test Kit You Can Count On!
Project Team: Usama Ansar, Arjun Gopal, Sohiel Hassan and Sumyung Jang
Supervisor: Professor Mohini Sain Client: GreenNano Technologies Inc.

The current COVID-19 rapid testing kits available on the market have the following drawbacks: they can be difficult to use, are not biodegradable and take up to 15 minutes to provide a result. The project team was given the challenge to develop a faster, more accurate COVID test that also minimizes plastic waste. The team built a compact test kit that uses electrical signals produced from the interaction between a saliva sample and functionalized electrode. These kits produce test results at a rate of up to 93% faster than the chemical test kits, are more intuitive to use and create less plastic waste.

View Project Summary

Left to Right: Varun Khanzode, Hamza Arshad, Shauna Mauceri and Zannatul Naiim

Second Place: Precision Dispensing System for Iodine-131 Radiopharmaceutical Pill
Project Team: Hamza Arshad, Varun Khanzode, Shauna Mauceri and Zannatul Naiim
Supervisor: Professor Eric Diller Client: Isologic Innovative Radiopharmaceuticals

The current method of remotely dispensing radioactive Iodine-131 solution into pills has limited accuracy due to changing flow rates, turbulent flow and degradation of pump tubes. This causes both pill defects and variability in the manufacturing process. The project team was asked to design a mechanism to reliably dispense the solution with +/-6% precision. The team’s design uses a linearly-actuated syringe to control the dispensing of Iodine-131 instead of a peristaltic pump. They also used simple mechanisms and an off-the-shelf, modular design to reduce potential failure modes.

View Project Summary

Left to Right: Ava Guse, Sophia Kotelnikova, Emily Ding, and Hillary Fung

Third Place: Reducing Injury During Post-Mortem Examinations of Obese Bodies
Project Team: Emily Ding, Hillary Fung, Ava Guse and Sophia Kotelnikova
Client: Provincial Forensic Pathology Unit Supervisor: Professor Kamran Behdinan

During autopsies forensic pathologists at the Provincial Forensic Pathology Unit (PFPU) currently move or flip a body over manually to access the back during autopsies. This can cause physical strain on pathologists, especially when working with a body weighing over 100kg and cause delays in workflow when waiting for additional workers to be available to help maneuver a body. The project team was tasked with creating a device to help automate the flipping and transfer of a body between the gurney and autopsy table. The team designed a wheeled mechanism with an I-beam similar to a medical lift. The design will allow all movement to be remotely controlled to minimize physical strain and is light enough to be moved manually allowing the worker to store the mechanism outside of the autopsy bay when not in use to minimize disruption in the work area.

View Project Summary

Industrial Engineering Project Winners

Left to Right: Danielle Page, Margaret Tkatchenko, Maria Papadimitriou and John Volpatti

First Place & The Peri Family Industrial Engineering Design Award: Switching Gears: A Comparison Tool Reshaping How Cities Plan Bike Routes
Project Team: Danielle Page, Maria Papadimitriou, Margaret Tkatchenko and John Volpatti
Supervisor: Professor Scott Sanner Client: Mott MacDonald

The client advises the City of Toronto on the planning and construction of new bike lanes which is currently a manual, time-consuming and unstandardized process. The team was asked to design a tool to help compare potential lane locations and make decisions under uncertainty. The team built a web-based application to compare bike lane options. The user is able to view current bike lanes and draw potential bikes lanes for comparison and possible implementation. The tool calculates the length, cost, projected ridership, saved emissions and estimated safety of the potential bikes lanes to help the user make informed decisions. The tool will allow for faster and more efficient comparisons with standardized data points for consideration.

View Project Summary

Left to Right: Salma Dessouki, Kyra Disimino and Matteo Bruzzese.

Second Place: Classifying North York General Hospital Patient Feedback Data
Project Team: Matteo Bruzzese, Salma Dessouki, Kyra Disimino, Chloe Macdonald and Chris Overvelde
Supervisor: Professor Eldan Cohen Client: North York General Hospital

North York General Hospital collects patient feedback upon discharge. The survey includes free-form text comments, which provides too much data for the hospital to analyze manually. The project team was asked to create an automated comment classification system to help the hospital interpret and implement the feedback to improve patient experience. The team developed a system that classifies patient comments by sentiment (positive, negative, neutral) and aspect (food, time, doctor, staff). Results can be displayed in a visual dashboard to allow for quick analysis of trends in feedback data and to see key performance indicators.

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Left to Right: Yiyang (Yvonne) Sun, Xinrui (Rayna) Zheng, Yiyan(Iris) Tang and Yubo(Chloe) Wang

Third Place: ChattyTrip – A Conversational Trip Planning Tool
Project Team: Yiyang Sun, Yiyan Tang, Yubo Wang and Xinrui Zheng
Supervisor: Professor Scott Sanner Client: iNAGO Inc.

When planning a road trip, adding points of interest is a must and we turn to tools like Google Maps to plan routes and stops. However, the Google Map route cannot be modified while driving or provide personalized recommendations. The project team was asked to develop a fully conversational tool that provides personalized recommendations for trip planning. The team developed ChattyTrip, a web application that integrates a conversational and recommender system to provide the user with personalized routes. The user is able to interact with the tool using voice commands making it completely hands-free. The tool will plan the route with recommended stops and adjust the trip plan according to feedback from the user.

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The U of T Supermileage Team (UTSM) raced custom-designed vehicle at 2022 Shell Eco Marathon in Indianapolis

The UTSM Prototype Team with their Endurance vehicle at the Shell Eco Marathon. Back row, L to R: Maya Edie-Maxsom (TrackOne 2T5), Shreyansh Nair (MechE 2T4), Peter Di Palma (MechE 2T2 + PEY), and Tony Tao (2T1+PEY). Front row, L to R: Jake Blimkie (MechE 2T4), Mitchell Palermo (CompE 2T5), Shannon Lee (MIE MEng Candidate), Rohak Bardalai (MechE 2T1 + PEY), and Tyler Barry (MechE 2T1 + PEY). (Photo: Submitted)

In April, the University of Toronto Supermileage Team (UTSM), led by Tyler Barry (MechE 2T1+PEY), travelled to Indianapolis for the three-day Shell Eco-marathon Competition, which takes place annually — this year at the illustrious Indianapolis 500 track.

More than 50 teams from across North America participated in the competition to design, build and operate the most energy-efficient vehicle possible. And even though the final race was cancelled due to weather, UTSM came home with an honourable mention in the Technical Innovation award category for their custom-built engine.

While many competing teams use off-the-shelf engines, often from Go-Karts, the UTSM team’s engine is entirely custom-built. The single-piston internal combustion engine has been modified over the years to eliminate unnecessary parts and maximize fuel efficiency.

“Our engine is completely unique,” says Barry, “It was originally built in 2013 as a Capstone project by previous members of the team, and over the years UTSM has continued to modify and build upon the original design.”

This year, the team designed and prototyped a slider mechanism to help start the engine without clogging the gears. They were unable to implement the design in advance of the competition; however, the judges were very impressed by their design.

The Endurance under inspection on Day 1 of the competition. (Photo: Submitted)

On the first day of the competition, the UTSM prototype team was the first to pass the technical inspection conducted by racing officials.

“We spent hours finding spare parts and modifying our systems,” says Shannon Lee (MIE MEng candidate), the Structural Lead and Driver for the team. “It was an honour to be the team awarded the first sticker from the technical inspection officer.”Day two, practice day, was the most exciting for Lee. She had the opportunity to drive the car around the famous racetrack twice.

“While I was driving all I could think about was how proud I am of the team and all the work we did together to make it this far,” says Lee. “It’s such a unique experience to have a roaring engine right behind your head. Having the privilege of driving the culmination of our work around the track was an amazing experience.”

Unfortunately, due to a thunderstorm and tornado warning on the last day of the competition, teams were unable to compete in the final race. The UTSM prototype team is confident that their unique engine would have led to a win and hope to have the opportunity to pursue first place next year.

“Even though we were not able to finish the competition the way we would have liked, this past year has been incredibly successful for UTSM,” says Barry. “With past members graduating and a lack of recruitment opportunities due to COVID-19, we were left with only three members in September. However, we managed to put together a team of over 30 dedicated members since then, and I am confident that the team will be stronger than ever next year.”

“I have a feeling first place will be waiting for us next year,” adds Lee. “I encourage anyone who is interested in being a part of this team to reach out.”

-Published May 3, 2022 by Lynsey Mellon, lynsey@mie.utoronto.ca