November 10, 2017 – MIE alumnus Andrew Gillies (MechE 0T7) is among 10 exemplary members of U of T Engineering’s alumni community who were recognized on Thursday, Nov. 2 at the Engineering Alumni Network (EAN) Awards.

The ceremony, held annually at the Great Hall at Hart House, celebrates alumni for their outstanding contributions to the Skule™ community as well as their remarkable career achievements.

“These alumni are exceptional ambassadors of Faculty in industry, government, entrepreneurship and academia,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “Their tremendous contributions to their fields and to our Faculty are testament to the strength of our alumni community. On behalf of our U of T Engineering community, I would like to extend my most heartfelt gratitude and warmest congratulations.”

View photos from the ceremony on Flickr.

Gillies was recognized with the 7T6 Early Career Award. The Class of 7T6 annually presents the 7T6 Early Career Award to engineering graduates who have attained significant achievement early in their career and shows promise of further contributions. The award is presented to an individual who is distinguished early in their profession, community, university and other related fields.

November 2, 2017 – Engineers are the makers, innovators and entrepreneurs behind so many of the world’s newest technologies, such as smartphones, self-driving cars and virtual voice-activated assistants. The engineering educational environment is quickly evolving to mirror the fast pace and collaborative nature of the profession.

The Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CEIE) is leading the way. When it opens next spring, U of T Engineering’s newest building will set a new standard for engineering education and research, incorporating experiential learning into every element of the building’s design.

The CEIE expands on the Faculty’s rich suite of programs that provide meaningful opportunities for students to apply their technical abilities in context. For example, U of T Engineering students and researchers have launched a startup to turn food waste into bioplastics, designed a solar car to race across the Australian outback, and developed new ways to conserve water and clean up contaminated sites.

“We are educating the next generation of engineering innovators and leaders,” said Cristina Amon, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “The CEIE is our bold commitment to engineering innovation, enabling the opportunities for experiential learning, student entrepreneurship and multidisciplinary research that distinguish us as Canada’s #1-ranked engineering school and among the world’s best.”

The CEIE is designed to enhance the student experience and enable collaboration between students, faculty, alumni and industry partners. It contains versatile design studios and meeting rooms, as well as a two-storey robotics lab big enough to allow for drone flight and testing. Its unique features reflect the U of T Engineering spirit of creativity, inclusivity and leadership.

In 2016 the Ontario government announced an investment of $15 million in the CEIE, a recognition of the building’s place at the heart of the province’s innovation supercorridor and its critical role in advancing Canada’s knowledge economy. This economy will be driven by tomorrow’s engineering leaders.

Here are five spaces in the CEIE that will enrich experiential learning and entrepreneurship opportunities for the next generations.

Technology-enabled auditorium

The centrepiece of the main level, this 500-seat auditorium is designed to facilitate discussion, collaborative learning and direct communication between instructors and peers. The auditorium will be the only lecture hall of its kind in North America — its stage will be large enough to accommodate vehicles, structures and active demonstrations.

“When interactions are facilitated by a unique space like this, custom-designed for our increasingly diverse learning population, students participate in active learning more naturally — this optimizes knowledge transfer tremendously,” said Professor Chirag Variawa (IndE PhD 1T4), Director, First-year Curriculum. “This will further accelerate innovations in the curriculum as we tailor our courses to take advantage of the greater affordance of the space.”

Dedicated student club space

U of T Engineering student clubs and design teams are some of the best in the world — including the Supermileage Team that designs, fabricates and races hyper-fuel-efficient prototype vehicles; the University of Toronto Aerospace Team (UTAT) that builds and flies aircraft, satellites and rockets; and the Human-Powered Vehicle Design team that won the 2017 World Human Powered Speed Challenge. The CEIE’s lower level will be home to many teams and clubs. With flexible meet/work spaces, immediate access to fabrication facilities as well as a place to host events, this space will be a game-changer for student groups.

“Our team is internationally competitive — every year we strive to be the best,” said Katie Gwozdecky (Year 4 MIE), UTAT’s Director of Space Systems. “That demands constant optimization of our aircraft, rockets and space-bound satellite. The club space in the CEIE and proximity to project studios and fabrication equipment will give our 120 members more space to experiment, test and iterate — and that’s how we’ll keep getting stronger.” 

Multidisciplinary design and TEAL rooms
The CEIE includes eight design studios that will support engineering design across the curriculum, from first-year courses such as Engineering Strategies and Practice and Praxis, through to fourth-year capstone projects, including the Multidisciplinary Capstone Projectfacilitated by the Institute for Multidisciplinary Design & Innovation (IMDI).

On the third floor, these design rooms are integrated with Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) rooms, which support blended modalities of teaching and creative design activities. TEAL rooms also enable instructors to deliver their materials in innovative ways, interacting more directly with students, moving throughout the room during the class or lab and fostering group learning.

“Engineering design is about balancing competing goals — between analysis and synthesis; thinking and doing; and conceiving and communicating,” said Professor Jason Foster (EngSci), instructor of the Praxis first-year design courses. “The TEAL rooms and Design Studios provide a rich environment for us, as professors, and for our students to explore new and innovative ways to balance these goals. Together we are designing new ways to teach and learn engineering in this innovative educational environment.”

The Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Aspiring entrepreneurs will congregate on the CEIE’s sixth floor, where The Entrepreneurship Hatchery will be located adjacent to project and meeting rooms. Championed by some of Canada’s foremost innovators and business leaders, the Hatchery is a true startup that creates startups and a vital part of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Toronto, one of the top universities in North America for launching research-based startups.

“The entrepreneurial spirit is taking hold in U of T Engineering,” said Joseph Orozco, co-founder and executive director of the Hatchery. “The CEIE will truly propel participants’ startups to the next level, allowing them to drive their bold ideas from concept to prototype and beyond. This unique space will encourage collaboration, teamwork, and enable the next generation and those that follow to gain guidance and feedback from established entrepreneurs and prospective investors.”

Space for alumni to mentor the next generation

The CEIE will be the heart of student experience as they journey through U of T Engineering — and it will remain their centre after graduation. Alumni will find their “home on campus” in the building, with meeting rooms and offices for their use situated next to The Entrepreneurship Hatchery.

“U of T Engineering alumni are leaders in a diverse range of fields, from mining and finance to technology and medicine,” said Sonia De Buglio (ChemE 9T4, MASc 9T8), director of alumni relations. “This global network is tremendously passionate about giving back to the engineering students who are following in their footsteps. Regardless of where in the world they live and work, our alumni will always have a Toronto headquarters here in the new CEIE.”

October 31, 2017 – When the host of the Miss Universe Canada beauty pageant read the winner’s name, Lauren Howe (IndE 1T6) didn’t register it immediately. “I was feeling every emotion possible,” recalls the U of T Engineering alumna. “It takes a second to realize it’s you.”

Howe had competed for the crown two years previously and finished as second runner-up. Now, she’s happy she didn’t win earlier. “I was still in second year of engineering, and looking back, I learned so much in third and fourth year that I can now apply,” she says. “A lot of that experience came through my capstone project,” designing a sustainable sanitation facility that uses waste water technology under the supervision of Professor Mark Fox (MIE).

During her time in U of T Engineering Howe was an active volunteer at recruitment and outreach events for the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, and she has long been a vocal advocate for encouraging women and girls to see themselves in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.

On November 26, Howe will represent Canada at the Miss Universe competition. Before she heads to Las Vegas, Nev., Howe spoke with Marit Mitchell about why she chose engineering, tired stereotypes she’s faced, and the exciting year ahead. This interview has been edited and condensed. 

Why did you choose to study Industrial Engineering at U of T?

I was initially planning to join the Engineering Science program, with the intention to focus in biomedical engineering. Despite being passionate about biomedical engineering, I was nervous that it would be too specialized if I wanted to switch to a new sector. About a week before my start date, I came across industrial engineering and was drawn to the fact that it could be applied in a multitude of industries — the combination of optimization and human-centered design caught my attention. I really enjoyed the idea of taking creative engineering solutions and ensuring that they would be applied to impact the people they were designed for.

How do you think your engineering education has prepared you to work towards and achieve your goals?

I learned to love coffee! As much as it’s a joke, it really isn’t. Earning a degree in engineering requires determination and hard work. Aside from what we learned in our textbooks, one of the most valuable aspects of an education in engineering is the ability to be given a problem that you have no idea what it is about, then have to work hard to decipher it and come up with a solution. That’s what I feel sets engineering programs apart — when given a problem to solve, you have no time to think ‘this is impossible’. You find a way to make it possible.

You have been a vocal champion for women and girls in STEM. What motivates you and how do you hope to advance this cause?

I faced a number of stereotypes growing up. One of the things I’ve heard over and over is, “Oh, you don’t look like a typical engineer,” and this never really made sense to me. Is there truly a “typical” engineer? No. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your background is, what your gender is or anything else. You have the privilege to choose to study whatever it is you want to study.

I am a personal advocate for women and girls in STEM for a number of reasons. First, girls in middle school and high school are faced with critical decisions early on, when it’s time for them to select courses. Unfortunately, many of these decisions can restrict your options when it’s time to apply to university.

For example, I never studied Grade 12 physics, which prevented me from applying directly to engineering programs. I was fortunate to be able to make it up later after I decided to apply to engineering in June of Grade 12 — it was a very narrow window to be able to enter my chosen field! But what happens to the girls who choose not to take science in high school? It’s critical that we offer the opportunity to girls to explore STEM disciplines early on, as early on as elementary school, in order for them to be aware of what they are capable of accomplishing in these fields.

Secondly, equality for women in STEM is still a battle being fought. Not only is there a gap in the number of women who are working in STEM fields, but also a gap in pay between men and women. Part of this solution comes from what can we do now. Young women will likely be much more drawn to STEM fields if we can show that we aren’t afraid of the challenge ourselves. By having female mentors that are inspiring and accessible, we pave a path for generations to come.

Regardless of the outcome in Las Vegas on November 26^th, what are your goals for the next year?

Of course leading into Vegas, I’m focused on making Canada proud and bringing home the title. No matter what happens in Vegas, I want to spend the next year continuing to advocate for women in STEM, launch my business (within the financial technology sector) and some other exciting projects. That’s all I can share for now, but stay tuned!

October 27, 2017 – Engineers at Harvard University have developed a tiny, insect-like robot — complete with flapping wings — that can fly through the air, land on water and take off again. Professor Eric Diller, who runs the microrobotics laboratory at MIE, said medical applications are the other big area of potential for these little robots. In future “we could actually put small mechanical devices inside the body, maybe with a very small tether or even potentially wirelessly moving inside the body, which would be a revolutionary type of approach to monitoring, taking samples or even doing surgeries inside the body.”

Read more.

October 13, 2017 – To address challenges ranging from ensuring aircraft safety and reliability to improving social media analysis, a diverse range of companies all come to the same place: the University of Toronto Institute for Multidisciplinary Design & Innovation (UT-IMDI).

Founded in 2012 by Professor Kamran Behdinan (MIE), UT-IMDI catalyzes multidisciplinary collaborations between engineering students and industry partners. Undergraduate and MEng students apply for paid internships lasting several months, providing engineering solutions for companies in a variety of sectors. The students get a vibrant experiential learning environment, while partner companies benefit by leveraging innovative new ideas and identifying potential future talent.

“UT-IMDI is a cornerstone in our Faculty’s strategy to prepare students to be competitive in a complex global engineering environment,” said Tom Coyle, U of T Engineering vice-dean, undergraduate. “Congratulations to our students on completing these innovative projects — I hope you are as proud of your accomplishments as we are.”

This year more than 75 companies partnered with UT-IMDI. On Oct. 10, 2017, students and industry partners gathered to celebrate the completion of 25 projects and recognize Jon Novacek (CompE 0T2), recipient of the 2017 UT-IMDI Recognition Award.

“For engineering students and professionals alike, working on real-world problems is the ultimate,” said Novacek. “Working with the students, helping them develop their technical and professional capabilities, and watching them bring a fresh mindset to our challenges is both enriching and refreshing.”

Meet three students working across disciplines to address industry challenges:

Beston Leung (Year 3 CompE)

Client: Safran Electronics Canada

Project: Safran makes aircraft landing gear and control systems — and safety is its top priority. Leung developed a set of resources to facilitate safety and reliability analysis during multiple project phases, including bid, preliminary and detailed design. He created a component library containing all parts and their respective failure rates, which is used to perform fault tree analysis.

Takeaway: “The highlight of the project is that I know what I did will be used by the company in the future in other projects. This gives me an immense sense of achievement,” said Leung.

 

Anna Bucholc (MIE MEng candidate)

Client: Pratt & Whitney Canada

Project: Bucholc worked on two projects: she performed detailed finite element analysis of highly stressed locations in an aircraft engine to optimize performance, and collected and analyzed data on displacement for a rig system simulating vibration of a Jeffcott rotor model.
Takeaway: “I had an exceptional working experience at Pratt & Whitney Canada,” said Bucholc. “The people are really friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable. I worked closely with my supervisors and a research fellow — they encouraged a dynamic and practical learning environment even when they had busy schedules.”

 

Herman Chandi (Year 3 IndE)

Client: Bombardier Aerospace

Project: When the unexpected happens on Bombardier aircraft — such as aborted takeoffs or emergency landings — operators file incident data reports. Chandi’s project was to analyze the current mechanisms for mining these aircraft incident data sets and optimize it by restructuring the process, automating some elements, and also rewriting much of the code.

Takeaway: “I really enjoy working with data and I also found the process optimization aspect of this project very interesting. I’m currently in 3rd year so I’m planning on going on my Professional Experience Year (PEY) next year — I think on PEY, I’d like to work in these areas in a different context to get a wider variety of experience,” said Chandi. “Ultimately, as I learned on this project, what I really enjoy the most is working on difficult problems and making the world around me work better, whether it be processes, work flows, or organizations.”

October 13, 2017 – The Toronto Star’s Rosie DiManno recently wrote a column on MIE alumnus and newly crowned Miss Universe Canada, Lauren Howe (IndE 1T6). “Howe’s personal spectrum of accomplishments and interests would likely surprise many. That engineering ring on her finger has been hard won. ‘I’ve had people ask me, oh, nice ring, did you buy that?’ No, she earned it with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Toronto,” writes DiManno.

“When I say I’m an engineer, people are surprised. And I want that to be different for my future daughters.” said Howe. “Taking engineering was my point to prove I can do it, I can talk the talk, I can walk the walk. I’m definitely more interested in the business side of things but I wanted to understand what business engineers do. So when I work with engineers, I’ll have credibility.”

Read more at the Toronto Star.

October 12, 2017 – Professor Amy Bilton recently joined host Steve Paikin on TVO’s The Agenda to discuss and champion women in the engineering profession. The discussion revolved around the changing face of engineering, and how the demand for skilled talent is ever-growing – however, there aren’t enough women in those sectors. The Agenda welcomed three generations of women engineers, including Professor Bilton, all 2017 recipients of Engineers Canada Awards, who have experience making their way in a profession long dominated by men.

October 11, 2017 – MIE alumnus Ahmed Mahmoud (MechE 1T1, MASc 1T6) and his former supervisor Professor Amy Bilton have won a $50,000 prize for Innovative Agricultural Solutions in Nepal, for their  startup company, Spero Analytics. The USAID/Feed The Future Data-Driven Farming Prize recognizes innovative solutions that help Nepal’s smallholder farmers improve productivity and make informed decisions using actionable data insights. Spero Analytics won the award for demonstrating significant potential for their wireless solar mesh network to communicate soil moisture data to agricultural extension services and research organizations.

 

September 19, 2017 – Alison Olechowski recently joined MIE as an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, and is cross-appointed to the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead). In her short time at U of T Engineering, she has already begun to accomplish her teaching focus: giving students the tools and confidence to become engineering leaders.

This fall, in addition to teaching an MEng course, she will be supervising a MIE491 Capstone team.

Professor Olechowski, who completed her PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Mechanical Engineering, studies the processes and tools that teams of engineers use in industry as they design innovative new products. She has studied engineering products and projects in the automotive, electronics, aerospace, medical device and oil and gas industries.

Learn more about Professor Olechowski and what she hopes to accomplish at U of T Engineering:

What is your teaching focus?

This fall, I’m teaching a class for the ELITE Certificate for MEng students called “Leading Engineering Design Projects,” and I think that captures my teaching focus pretty well.

Being co-appointed at MIE and ILead means I get to focus on engineering design – which I really have a passion for teaching – and the ideas of project management. I think those topics lie at the intersection of mechanical and industrial engineering, and leadership.

Why is leadership so important to you and your teaching?

During my PhD, I studied teams of engineers in industry. I studied the ways teams come together to design complex new products with cutting-edge technology. I saw the technical design challenges that the teams were facing, but I also got to see how important leadership, teamwork and strategy were to the success of these projects.

It emphasized for me how important it is that we give engineering students the technical skills that they need, but also equip students the skills they need to work as a team and to flex their leadership skills, so they can have high impact and make change for the better.

On the MIE side, what else are you focusing on?

I’m hoping to advise an MEng student at MIE. I’m interested in continuing studying what methods and tools engineers can use to be more effective designers. One of my big interests right now is collaborative computer-aided design (CAD) software.

Traditionally, CAD modelling was very solitary endeavor, with challenges such as version management and cumbersome installs. In recent years, CAD modeling software has finally caught up to the rest of the world and is starting to build cloud-based collaborative tools, and I think it’s really interesting to look at how you can go from something so solitary to having a team working on, let’s say, designing a 3D model.

We currently don’t understand how these teams should work together or communicate, or even what the composition of their team should be. We don’t even know if these new tools will lead to more innovative, higher quality, or less costly products. That’s something I hope to look at more closely with an MEng student.

Why did you choose U of T Engineering?

I looked for institutions with world-class students, research and teaching. U of T fit that bill for me, and I was excited to be in Toronto.

What do you hope to accomplish as an educator?

Part of my goal is to give students confidence. I want to empower them to tackle problems and remind them that a good engineer doesn’t just have a strong technical foundation.  You also need to know how to lead, how to be creative and how to communicate. That’s what makes a solid engineer.

September 13, 2017 – Startups founded by engineering students are poised to address challenges from sustainability to surgery. Twelve companies pitched their vision to a room of judges, investors and faculty members at the fifth annual Hatchery Demo Day, held September 6 at U of T Engineering.

“Five years after we founded the Hatchery, the spirit of entrepreneurship continues to be the engine of all that we do,” said Joseph Orozco, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, in his opening remarks. “We nurture the mindset for entrepreneurial thinking, and we have seeded the ideas that I believe will transform our society. Together, we are building the Canada of tomorrow.”

Demo Day is the culmination of The Hatchery Nest program, a four-month accelerator which pairs student teams with experienced mentors — including executives, lawyers, medical professionals and engineers — to develop their businesses. They receive detailed feedback on their business plans, explore their proposed market, learn about patents and marketing and build prototypes using 3D printers and other fabrication resources. A second Hatchery program, Hatchery Launch Lab, focuses on supporting startups built on graduate-level research in the Faculty.

Of the dozen teams that presented at Demo Day 2017, four took home a share of $42,500 in seed funding, including one $20,000 grand prize and two $10,000 runner-up prizes donated by alumnus Anthony Lacavera (CompE 9T7), founder and chairman of Globalive Holdings and former CEO of WIND Mobile. An additional $2,500 Orozco prize is provided through funds raised by the students themselves.

MIE student Rachel Baker (IndE 1T7 +PEY) won a runner-up prize for her company, Tejo.

$10,000 Lacavera Prize: Tejo — A better way to buy makeup

“You’re supposed to pick from swatches, but different screens render colours differently,” said Rachel Baker (IndE 1T7 +PEY), co-founder of Tejo. “What looks great on your smartphone might not look great in real life.”

Baker and her business partner, fashion management student Lakshmy Subramanian, believe that artificial intelligence and machine learning offer a way forward. Tejo users simply take a selfie, which is then fed into software designed by the pair. Using open-source computer vision and a proprietary algorithm that accounts for ambient lighting conditions, Tejo determines a user’s precise skin tone and recommends an appropriate brand. If the user chooses to buy, Tejo collects a 5 to 10 per cent commission on the sale.

“Before we joined The Hatchery, we were really struggling to get people who don’t wear makeup to understand what our business is,” said Baker. “They provided us with excellent mentors and advisors, and really helped us to get a really clear vision of what we want our company to be.”

The pair plan to use the prize money to file a patent on their software and expand their e-commerce platform, which is already accepting early sign-ups online. Once they have penetrated their target market, they plan to expand their “recommendation engine” approach to other areas, including ethically sourced beauty products and men’s grooming.