From left: Ben Potter (IndE MASc candidate), Michael Shin (EngSci Year 4), Rafid Mahmood (IndE PhD candidate), Yusuf Shalaby (IndE 1T7), Professor Tim Chan (MIE) and Albert Loa (EngSci Year 3) used their expertise in operations research to create a tool that drafts the optimal roster for the NHL’s new expansion team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights. (Credit: Marit Mitchell)

June 12, 2017 – Hockey fans around the world are waiting anxiously to find out who will be drafted to the NHL’s new expansion team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights.

Industrial Engineering Professor Timothy Chan and his team of students already have an idea of who may have made the cut — though no one will know for sure until the Golden Knights’ general manager George McPhee makes the draft announcement on June 21.

Chan’s research group has developed and launched the , a web-based modelling tool that takes a deep drive into the draft data to predict what the 2017-18 Golden Knights roster may look like.

“We’re all big sports fans, and we were speculating about the expansion draft,” said Professor Chan, who worked with a team of five U of T Engineering students, including undergraduates and graduate students, over the course of a month to develop the site in time for the draft. “Knowing that the announcement was coming up, we thought this website would be a great tool to show operations research in action.”

Using the optimization model the group designed, the site determines who the Golden Knights should pick from the NHL’s 30 teams to maximize the “value” of their roster, taking into consideration the draft rules. The optimizer selects:

• One player from each existing club for a total of 30 players
• A minimum of 14 forwards, nine defensemen and three goaltenders
• A minimum of 20 players who are under contract for the 2017-18 season
• Players with an aggregate Expansion Draft value that is between 60-100 per cent of the prior season’s upper limit for the salary cap

It also allows hockey fans to fine-tune the results to their liking and sports expertise, choosing which players to “protect” or which to “expose” to the draft, and adjusting the metrics for what they think would be most valuable for the team, such as optimizing based on a player’s on-ice performance, or even by their EA Sports NHL 17 player rating. Fans can also get a sense of which players they could lose from their favourite team.

“This is bringing operations research out to the mainstream audience. Classically, OR is used very internally — a general audience may understand the concept of optimization, but they can’t explain what it is,” said Rafid Mahmood (IndE PhD Candidate). “This NHL optimizer brings it to the forefront, and shows why OR is so valuable.”

Ben Potter (IndE MASc candidate) knew the optimization model they created was doing its job when he noticed a name that kept popping up in the media and in their optimizer: The Chicago Blackhawks’ Trevor van Riemsdyk. “I don’t know a lot about the NHL but one of the recurring results was Trevor van Riemsdyk, and someone pointed out that there was speculation in the news that the Golden Knights were going to select him as part of a larger deal with Chicago.”

The website also clearly highlights some difficult situations some teams are facing in order to protect their star players. For example, the model indicates that the Pittsburgh Penguins’ starting goalie, Matt Murray, is slated to be exposed and chosen by Vegas, since their back-up goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, has a no-trade clause in his contract.

“If the draft were held today, that’s very likely what would happen,” said Chan. “However, most pundits believe that Pittsburgh will somehow find a way to keep Murray via trades or a side deal with Vegas.”

After McPhee makes the big draft announcement, and the roster of the 31st NHL team is known, Professor Chan’s group plans to have a post-mortem to see how well their optimizer did in predicting the team. After that, they hope to find other applications for their model.

“The foundation that this was built can be applied to a lot of other problems that require on-demand optimization. It could be useful for anything from scheduling to fantasy sports,” said Chan. “Of course, in the short term, if the Golden Knights want to use our team for some consulting, we’d be OK with that too.”

June 7, 2017 – Professor Craig Simmons is among six members of the U of T Engineering community to be honoured by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) with 2017 Ontario Professional Engineers Awards. Professor Simmons garnered the Research and Development Medal, for engineers who have advanced knowledge in engineering or applied science.

“These awards highlight the tremendous contributions made by U of T Engineers in every facet of engineering, through professional achievement, leadership in their fields, and service to the profession and the community,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “On behalf of the Faculty, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to all the recipients on this well-deserved recognition.”

Professor Simmons is a Distinguished Professor of Mechanobiology and Scientific Director of the Translational Biology and Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. He is recognized internationally for his innovative contributions to mechanobiology, an emerging discipline that aims to understand and control the mechanisms by which mechanical forces regulate the biological function of molecules, cells, and tissues. Simmons has made several fundamental discoveries that have improved our understanding of heart valve function and disease. He has also developed innovative lab-on-a-chip microtechnologies for cellular engineering, including miniaturized platforms for drug screening and testing biomaterials. Simmons is a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering and a recipient of the U of T Northrop Frye Award, for linking teaching and research.

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

Professor Timothy Chan (left) and Christopher Sun (right).

June 6, 2017 – Christopher Sun (IndE PhD candidate) is among four U of T Engineering students who will each receive $150,000 from the 2017 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships. The funding will support research into everything from faster download speeds to technologies to repair damaged hearts.

The Vanier Scholarship recognizes doctoral students at Canadian universities who demonstrate excellence academics, research impact and leadership.

After graduating from U of T’s Engineering Science program, Sun (EngSci 1T3+PEY) joined the lab of Professor Timothy Chan (MIE). His research focuses on optimizing the distribution of life-saving automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in public places across the city.

In 2015 he showed that many AEDs are located in buildings that are locked overnight. If a heart attack happens nearby but after business hours, it’s almost as though the AED isn’t there at all.

More recently Chan and Sun created a “Top 10” list of prime spots to place AEDs. Their ideal locations included coffee retailers like Tim Hortons, Starbucks and Second Cup as well as ATMs operated by large banks. All of these businesses are open late and have many locations across the city.

“It’s such an honor to have our research recognized by the experts in the field,” says Sun. “It’s also great to be able to help raise awareness of issues around AEDs, which plays a huge role in bystander response. The majority of people don’t know much about AEDs or how their work. Even just knowing where the closest AED is can make the life-saving difference during a cardiac arrest.”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

June 5, 2017 – MIE professors Eric Diller, Tobin Filleter and Edmond Young have been recognized with the Connaught New Researcher Award. The annual awards are only provided to U of T assistant professors within the first five years of a tenured-stream academic appointment to help them establish strong research programs. This year the Connaught Fund is awarding a total of $994,000 to 56 researchers across a range of disciplines.

“Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Connaught New Researcher Award on their well-deserved achievement,” said Professor Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

“This funding is designed to help some of the best up-and-coming U of T researchers get their vital projects off the ground and position them to go after and secure external funding to continue and expand their research down the road.”

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

•    Erin Bobicki of the department of materials science and engineering for “reducing water and energy use in mineral processing”

•    Eric David Diller of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering for “minimally-invasive surgery through miniaturized magnetic surgical tools”

•    Tobin Filleter of the department of mechanical & industrial engineering for “micro-mechanical studies of MoS2 dry lubricated contacts for space applications”

•    Jonathan Kelly of the Institute for Aerospace Studies for “seeing the light: advancing visual sensing for robust and reliable robot navigation and manipulation”

•    Edmond Young of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering for “development of microfluidic airway-on-a-chip for studying lung epithelial and smooth muscle cell interactions”

Read more at U of T News.

May 30, 2017 – Anna Jiang (MIE MASc candidate) cannot show off her thesis project because it is half-buried in the soil of Pedro Arauz, Nicaragua.

“I can show you the graveyard of things that didn’t work,” she says. “It took countless tries to arrive at my final design.”

Jiang, who is supervised by Professor Amy Bilton (MIE), aims to help farmers worldwide make better use of the little water they have for irrigation. Her device senses when the soil requires water and regulates the flow accordingly, all without the use of electricity.

“I wanted to apply my engineering skills to real-life challenges that could help create global equality,” says Jiang. “Using smart scheduling to save water could help in an area like Pedro Arauz, where the dry season lasts for eight months.”

The device is based on a tool used in the developed world, known as a tensiometer — a long, water-filled tube with a ceramic tip. When staked in dry soil, various physical and chemical forces draw water through tiny pores in the tip. That creates a negative pressure within the tube which, when connected to a pressure gauge, moves a needle to indicate how dry or wet the soil is.

Jiang’s insight was that the same negative pressure could be used to control a valve that would turn an irrigation system on or off. Her electricity-free controller uses a rubber membrane to operate a piston, providing water only when the soil is dry enough to require it.

In developed countries, farmers typically use electronic timers to control their irrigation systems. But because timers don’t take account of how much irrigation crops actually need, they can waste a lot of water. Controllers like Jiang’s could improve efficiency, lower costs and make farms more resilient in the face of drought.

Currently in Pedro Arauz, most farmers don’t have any irrigation at all. For the past two years, Bilton has been working with non-profit organizations Winds of Change and Seeds of Learning to build a wind pump for the community that could provide cost-effective irrigation using locally-sourced raw materials and labour.

Once wind pumps can provide water, the next challenge will be to regulate its flow. That’s where Jiang’s controller comes in.

“How do you get farmers who haven’t used irrigation before to save water?” she asks. “You can go in and teach them, but that takes a lot of resources. This controller takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.”

In February, Jiang travelled to Pedro Arauz along with Bilton and several other students. While the rest of the team checked up on a wind pump they had previously built, Jiang demonstrated her irrigation controller for local farmers.

“Trips to communities like Pedro Arauz are essential for people looking to engage in global engineering,” says Bilton. “It’s really important to be able to understand the context and be able to work with the potential end user of your technology. If you don’t do this, it’s easy to overlook important factors, which can render your product unusable.”

Jiang took full advantage of the opportunity. “I took the whole thing apart, put it on top of the barrel, and asked them to try putting it back together,” she says. “If anything were to break, they’d know exactly what to do.”

Jiang also travelled to a local hardware store and confirmed that it stocked the parts — primarily PVC tubing and rubber membranes — needed to repair and maintain the device. She even left a controller behind in order to gather data that will inform further improvements to the device’s design.

Bilton says there is still a long way to go before the water controller can be deployed. “Right now, we are developing models to really understand what’s going on and then validating them experimentally,” she says. “We’ll then use these to optimize the design for particular crops and evaluate the impact of the device on crop yields and water usage. We’ll be doing consultation with the community throughout the process.”

By that point, Jiang will likely have graduated, but the experiences she’s had in Pedro Arauz have inspired her to continue working in the field of international development. “In Nicaragua, I learned that that I would work well in field conditions,” she says. “I’m really excited to do more of that.”

Jiang’s passive water regulator is just one example of the ways that U of T Engineering research is generating water solutions for people around the world. Bilton and her colleagues in the Institute for Water Innovation are engaged in a number of projects, including: advanced technologies for drinking water treatment, techniques to help mining companies improve water management, and using microbes to break down chemical contaminants in water and soil.

Learn more about water innovation at U of T Engineering.

May 30, 2017 – This month, dozens of U of T Engineering students boarded planes to spend four months conducting research or taking courses abroad. Some of these exchanges are organized by the Centre for International Experience, others are facilitated through the Engineering Science International Summer Research program, and some have been arranged individually by students and principal investigators at partner institutions around the world.

Five of these students shared their stories with U of T Engineering News:

Anston Emmanuel (Year 3 MechE) — Singapore

Emmanuel is part of a team building a robotic manta ray under the supervision of Professor Chee-Meng Chew in the Control and Mechatronics lab at the National University of Singapore. “I will be developing a robust localization solution for the aquatic robot, which will allow it to accurately track its relative position in its environment at all times,” he says. “This is very difficult to do in an underwater environment as GPS signals and typical modes of wireless communication onshore are not effective underwater.”

One possible solution is to use a flow rate sensor that tracks how quickly water flows over the underside of the robot. Emmanuel is experimenting with this approach to provide a better estimate of the robot’s location. Manta rays are naturally ultra-efficient swimmers, so applications for a manta-like robot include offshore ocean monitoring, surveillance, remote water pollution detection, and even deep-sea searches.

In his spare time, Emmanuel is looking forward to immersing himself in Singaporean culture and community. “I’m excited to try the diverse food, and to travel to other locations in Southeast Asia when I get a chance,” he says. “I’ve been surprised by the alternative form of English spoken here, locally referred to as ‘Singlish.’ I’m still getting the hang of it!”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

May 30, 2017 – Professor Jason Bazylak is among six U of T Engineering faculty members who have been named the inaugural Hart Teaching Innovation Professors. Enabled by a landmark $20 million bequest from the estate of alumnus Erwin Edward Hart (CivE 4T0), the professorships support innovation in engineering education, from technology enhanced active learning (TEAL) to Indigenous outreach.

“These professors are leaders in pedagogical practice and are driving our Faculty’s innovation in engineering education,” said Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “Their creativity and dedication enrich the student experience and inspire the global engineering leaders of tomorrow.”

The new professorships complement the Percy Edward Hart and Erwin Edward Hart Professorships for early-career researchers, announced last fall. They are part of a rich suite of initiatives focused on enhancing engineering education across the Faculty and within the profession more broadly, including a recent workshop on educational technology and state-of-the-art learning facilities housed within the forthcoming Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Next month, U of T Engineering will host the annual conference of the Canadian Engineering Education Association, which brings together thought leaders in the field from across Canada and beyond.

Deepika Devadas’ research focuses on simulating breast cancer 3D models using microfluidics.

May 30, 2017 – U of T recently hosted the 12^th Annual Ontario-on-a-Chip Symposium, bringing together experts from government, industry and academia for a two-day forum on advances in microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip research.

This year featured talks from the U of T community, such as Professor Craig Simmons (MIE, IBBME), as well as keynote lectures from renowned researchers from around the world.

“Each year, we’re proud to welcome some of the best researchers in the field to U of T for the symposium, and this year was no exception. There were some excellent research talks,” said Professor Edmond Young (MIE, IBBME), who organized the event alongside Professors Milica Radisic (IBBME) and Scott Tsai of Ryerson University.

Keynote speakers included Professors Rashid Bashir (University of Illinois), Patrick Doyle (MIT), Jeff Karp (Harvard University) and Andrew de Mello (ETH Zurich). “It was also so great to see students exchange ideas and communicate their science, while having fun networking, interacting, and giving talks, as well as business pitches,” he added.

Deepika Devadas, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Young’s lab, was among the nearly 40 students and postdocs to present their research in a poster judging competition.

The event also saw podium presenters representing universities from across Ontario, including U of T, University of Waterloo and Ryerson University, just to name a few. Like Devadas’ fellow presenters, her research was a glimpse into the future, real-world impact of microfluidics in the biomedical field.

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Her work focuses on simulating breast cancer 3D models using microfluidics. “A lot of research out there is based on 2D in-vitro models, which has a very poor correlation to clinical trial outcomes,” she explained. “What we are trying to do is incorporate the complexity of tissue, in order to better mimic actual tissue. We hope that the model will encourage other researchers to adapt, and that it can become tomorrow’s gold standard for analyzing the effectiveness of a drug, for example.”

For the first time, the symposium was also held collaboratively with The Training Program in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering & Entrepreneurship (TOeP). TOeP is designed to equip U of T students and postdoctoral fellows in microfluidics and related lab-grown human tissue research with applicable knowledge to accelerate their commercialization.

Learn more about the annual OOAC Symposium.

May 29, 2017 – Professor Sanjeev Chandra has been named a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME). The award recognizes engineers who have attained excellence in mechanical engineering and who have contributed actively to the progress of their profession and of society.

Professor Chandra is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of heat transfer. He received his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (1981) his MS from Vanderbilt University (1983) and PhD from Cornell University (1990). He has served as the Acting Chair, Associate Chair (undergraduate studies), Associate Chair (graduate studies) and Vice-Chair of the MIE Department, and Acting Vice-Dean (undergraduate studies) of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

Professor Chandra is known internationally for his research on the dynamics of droplets and sprays. His research spans the areas of combustion, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and materials science and has also been applied in spray coating, spray cooling, fuel combustion and waste heat recovery. He has published over 200 papers in referred journals and international conference proceedings. He teaches courses in thermodynamics and heat transfer and has served as visiting professor at the University of Limoges (France) Korea University (S. Korea), University of Bremen (Germany) and the University of Darmstadt (Germany).

In 2015 Professor Chandra was awarded the Jules Stachiewicz medal for Heat Transfer by the CSME. In 2010 he was awarded the The Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research, awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to recognize outstanding collaborative research. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

May 25, 2017 – University of Toronto engineering students recently completed a project that was out of this world, in more ways than one.

They brought the far-off prospect of a mission to Mars a little closer to reality by devising a possible solution to a problem with deep space travel: the need to pack light and yet bring everything necessary.

With help from their U of T supervisor, assistant professor of chemical engineering Cathy Chin, and advisers at NASA, the undergraduate students came up with a way to make products like food, pharmaceuticals and fuel using elements of the Martian atmosphere.

The U of T project would require much more testing before it could safely make the 54.6 million kilometre trip through space. However, it shows promise, according to NASA environmental scientist John Hogan.

“Their work may have real applications,” he told U of T News. “Both in the future of Earth and in space, being able to efficiently manufacture materials from carbon dioxide will be a very valuable capability.”

Using carbon dioxide, which is abundant on the red planet, the U of T students say astronauts can follow a two-stage process to make acetic acid – a key component in vinegar. They chose that compound because there are well-established processes for making it, and it can be easily metabolized by bacteria to make useful products in bioreactors, explained Stephanie Gaglione, a chemical engineering student and Rhodes Scholar involved in the project. (A bioreactor is a vessel in which living organisms, particularly bacteria, synthesize materials.)

“Organisms can make very complex products that can’t be made by just mixing together chemicals,” she said, “but you need to feed these organisms carbon and an energy source.”

It was up to the mechanical engineering students, with expertise in thermodynamics, to test the concepts and see if they made sense within the constraints of a Mars mission.

“As a mechanical challenge, it’s a really interesting system,” said Kate Lonergan, in her last year of a bachelor of applied science in mechanical engineering. “As soon as you send anything into space it just takes on so many extra considerations.”

Among other design challenges, the system had to have a lifespan of at least 1,000 days, need little maintenance and be safe to operate – even in case of failure – so as not to endanger the astronauts.

The students say the system is capable of producing 24 kilograms of acetic acid per day and is 70 per cent more efficient than shipping everything needed to the planet. NASA’s target for a mission to Mars is the 2030s.

Read more at U of T News.