May 24, 2017 – At Spring Convocation on June 13, 2017, more than 1,800 U of T Engineering students will mark both the end of one journey and the beginning of another. Having enriched the U of T Engineering community as undergraduate and graduate students, they will transition into our vibrant, global network of Skule™ Alumni, where they will continue to address pressing challenges around the world.

This year’s 14 “Grads to Watch” embody the spirit of U of T Engineering. Selected by their home departments and institutes, they demonstrate the engineering values of creativity, innovation and global impact. MIE is proud to see graduate student Edem Dovlo (MechE PhD 1T7) and undergraduate Daksh Sikri (IndE 1T7) named among this year’s Grads to Watch. Watch their next steps!

Studying under Professor Andreas Mandelis (MIE), Dovlo designed new medical imaging systems that combine photoacoustic radar with traditional ultrasound. The advanced technique can detect cancer tumours at a much earlier stage than current techniques, and can even provide information on how malignant the cancer is likely to be. This in turn could lead to earlier interventions and better survival rates.

“My experience in MIE has been greatly shaped by the people here,” says Dovlo. “Having an experienced and knowledgeable supervisor who challenges his students and treats us with respect is a key part of that. The more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to discover.”

In addition to publishing several papers on her work, Dovlo served as a Project Manager for 1Room, a Kenya-based, community-focused project that leverages technology and evidence to make high-quality schooling affordable and accessible underserved populations. After graduation, she plans to work either in Canada or her native Ghana. “I am eager to incorporate the expertise acquired in my combined experiences to my future endeavours,” she says. “I do not know what the future holds but I am optimistic.”

Shout out: “I’d like to thank the Graduate office, Operations, External Relations & Communications support staff who have greatly enriched my experience at MIE (and UofT). Their dedication, insight and flexibility have been invaluable as they have worked to enhance services in response to the diverse needs of students.”

Born and raised in Mumbai, Sikri came to North America for the first time to join U of T Engineering. He found the perfect environment to pursue his passion for business and entrepreneurship. “The past four years have shaped my mindset, both personally and professionally,” he says.

Sikri was a driving force within the You’re Next Career Network, eventually serving as its president. In particular, he focused on growing its activities in the startup space, organizing new events and expanding the Startup Career Expo. He also completed internships in analytics and cloud computing at IBM, and business development at Pivotal Software. His undergraduate thesis, supervised by Professor Roy Kwon (MIE), involved building a piece of software that optimized asset liabilities for individual investors.

After graduation, Sikri plans to work on a startup venture he conceived during his undergraduate studies. He can’t reveal much about the venture itself, but is receiving support from Next Canada as well as The NextAI program and the Creative Destruction Lab. “I hope I can take the problem-solving and entrepreneurial mindset I developed here out into the world to identify big challenges and develop solutions,” he says.

Shout out: “I want to thank every friend, mentor, team and professor who made the past four years such an adventure and who convinced me that I’m up for all the different challenges. I’d also like to thank my parents and my sister for their unconditional love and support from halfway across the world.”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

May 24, 2017 – From Australia to Zimbabwe, students from abroad are applying to the University of Toronto in record numbers.

For the seven months leading up to May 1, international applications are up 24 per cent. The university has seen an across-the-board increase in interest from the three countries that are its top sources of international students: China, India and the United States.

Rishabh Mundhra (MechE 1T7) came to U of T from Mumbai for the university’s mechanical engineering program, consistently ranked first in the country and top-15 in North America.

Now going into his final semesters after a Professional Experience Year (PEY) at Toronto Hydro, Mundhra says the school and the city have exceeded his expectations.

He was particularly impressed with the diversity of Toronto.

“Everybody is equal, and all the cultures are given an equal platform to prosper and thrive, which is a great achievement for any international city,” he said.

The surge in interest from particular countries such as the U.S. and India “can be attributed to the perception of Canada as a particularly welcoming, stable, tolerant and inclusive destination” amid a climate of political uncertainty around the world, said Richard Levin, executive director of enrolment services and university registrar.

“Toronto in particular is seen as a positive place to study, and people feel welcome here.”

At the same time, the university has ramped up its outreach efforts in the U.S. recently with dedicated recruiters and admissions officers. In general over the last few years, U of T has also been making earlier offers of admission in January or February to international and domestic students, Levin said.

Read more at U of T News.

May 24, 2017 – Professor Amy Bilton is Engineers Canada’s recipient of the 2017 Young Engineer Achievement Award. In the video below, she shares insights on her research, mentorship and why she became an engineer.

May 23, 2017 – On May 18, MIE graduate students brought their research excellence to the forefront at the 8th Annual MIE Graduate Research Symposium. The event saw nearly 80 research projects on display at Hart House, through poster and oral presentations. The research topics ranged from designing a summative evaluation of ambient activity technologies for people with dementia, to optimizing solar powered reverse osmosis drinking water treatment systems for remote communities.

“At MIE, we are proud to have some of the best and brightest graduate students in the world, who conduct cutting-edge, innovative engineering research,” said Professor Chi-Guhn Lee, Interim MIE Chair and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. “I congratulate you on all you’ve accomplished so far. Through your commitment to excellence, you are strengthening our reputation on the world stage and maintaining our long-standing tradition of fostering engineering leaders.”

The event also featured two keynote lectures from renowned engineers and U of T alumni, Professor Ali Khademhosseini  of Harvard Medical School, Harvard-MIT’s Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and Cameron Ower (MechE 8T3, MASc 8T6), Chief Technology Officer for MDA’s Robotics and Automation business.

The sympsosium ended with Professor Edmond Young, the symposium’s faculty coordinator, announcing the winners of the best oral and poster presentations. The winners are:

Advanced Materials, Applied Mechanics and Robotics

• 1st place Oral Presentation:  Jiachen Zhang, “Reliable Grasping of Three-Dimensional Untethered Mobile Magnetic Microgripper for Autonomous Pick-and-Place”
• 1st place Poster Presentation: Tianqi Xu, “Photopolymer-based Fabrication of a 3D Magnetic Microgripper”

Industrial Engineering

• 1st place Oral Presentation: Chang Liu, “Exact Methods for the Senior Transportation Problem”
• 1st place Poster Presentation: Carolyn Busby, “The Influence of Surge Protocols in Hospitals”

Energy, Thermal and Fluid Sciences

• 1st place Oral Presentation: Aleem A. Hasham, “Improving Oil Sands Recovery: Profiling Bitumen Viscosity in Response to Heat and Diluting Agents”
• 1st place Poster Presentation: Pavani Cherukupally, “Stimuli-Responsive Foams for Energy-Efficient Oil/Water Separation”

Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering

• 1st place Oral Presentation: Christopher Yee Wong, “Automation of blastomere extraction during embryo biopsy”
• 1st place Poster Presentation: Shashi Malladi, “In-flow formation of Aligned Protein-Based Biomaterials”

May 19, 2017 – Most associate insomnia with the dark. But Amol Rao (IndE MEng 1T7) says we should pay more attention to our lights.

Rao cites a growing body of research that shows nighttime exposure to blue wavelength light – the type that illuminates our smartphones, tablets and laptops – messes with the body’s internal clock, tricking it into believing it’s the middle of the day.

“Light is like coffee,” explains Rao. “If you had a cup at 10 p.m., most people would expect it to have an effect on their sleep.”

The solution for those unwilling to unplug? Rao says lighting manufacturers will eventually shift the wavelengths of smart bulbs depending on the time of day. In the meantime, he suggests donning a pair of orange-tinted, blue-blocking sunglasses before bed – like the ones sold by Somnitude, a startup firm he founded with partner Daniel Giavedoni.

Somnitude will have its products on display this week at a U of T Mississauga conference held by U of T’s Smart Sustainable Lighting Network (SSLN), the country’s largest and most active cluster of lighting-focused researchers and industry participants. The group, part of the university’s Impact Centre business accelerator, works with lighting manufacturers and other partners to promote the development and adoption of sustainable lighting technologies in Canada.

Rao, who will soon be graduating with a Master’s at MIE, says his graduate studies at the department played an important role in his entrepreneurial endeavour. “I audited the important classes of the Human Factors segment, including the Design of Work Places course, which went into detail on circadian systems and jet lag. These helped me better understand the problem of circadian alignment which has helped refine the direction of the company,” he said, adding that other courses such as Enterprise Modeling, Systems Design, as well as data analytics courses have been very useful “as we’ve been using these techniques to better understand customer data, extract insights and make effective decisions.”

Read more at U of T News. Read more about entrepreneurship at MIE in the latest issue of Momentum.

May 19, 2017 – Professor Markus Bussmann has been appointed Chair of the Department of Mechanical &  Industrial Engineering (MIE) for a five-year term, beginning July 1, 2017.

Professor Bussmann joined MIE in 2002, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008 and to full Professor in 2015.  He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, a 3-time recipient of the MIE Teaching Excellence Award and in 2015 was awarded the MIE Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award. His research interests are in modeling multiphase flow, heat and mass transfer processes of a number of materials processes. He has authored more than 60 refereed journal papers and 60 conference papers.

Professor Bussmann has an outstanding record of administrative service at the Department and Faculty level.  He served as Associate Chair and Coordinator of Graduate Studies in MIE from 2009 to 2013, and currently serves the Faculty as Vice-Dean Graduate, a position he has held since 2013.

“I also take this opportunity to extend gratitude and warm thanks on behalf of the Faculty to Professor Chi-Guhn Lee for his service as Interim Chair of MIE since April 1, 2017.  His commitment to ensuring the smooth continuation of leadership for the Department is exemplary and greatly appreciated,” said Dean Cristina Amon.

May 15, 2017 – The University of Toronto Aerospace Team’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) team recently came in first place at the Unmanned Systems Canada Student Competition, the largest student UAV/drone competition in Canada.

The annual competition promotes and develops Canadian expertise, innovation and experience in unmanned systems technologies at the university and college levels. This year’s wildlife monitoring scenario tasked the teams to census and locate nests of three different types of geese in the remote Canadian wilderness. This year’s challenge required an Unmanned Aerial System to extract eggs from the nests to allow wildlife biologists to test the eggs for levels of pesticides.

The team consisted of:

• Team Captain: Erik Chau (Mech 1T6 + PEY)
• Chief Engineer: Oliver Wu (ECE 1T7 + PEY)
• Safety Pilot: Rikky Duivenvoorden (UTIAS MASc 1T6)
• Payload Lead: Winston Liu (EngSci 1T7 + PEY)
• Airframe Lead: Kevin Xu (ECE 1T9)
• Multirotor Lead: Andrew Ilersich (EngSci 1T8 + PEY)
• Avionics Lead: Kevin Dong (EngSci 1T8 + PEY(
• Mechanical Lead: Nicholas Guglielmin (Mech 1T7 + PEY)
• Airframe Team: Spencer Zhao (Eng Sci 2T0)
• Lu Chen (IndE 1T8 + PEY)
• Talha Javed (Mech 1T9)
• Ishaq Khan (Mech 1T9)

April 27, 2017 – Nine MIE students were among 28 from U of T Engineering to receive the 2017 Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Awards at a ceremony held on Tuesday, April 25. This marks the highest number of recipients from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering since the program’s creation in 1994.

Each year, the Cressy Awards are presented to graduating students who have made outstanding extracurricular contributions to their college, faculty or school, or to the university as a whole. This year’s U of T Engineering winners joined 191 other students from across the University of Toronto who were honoured for their leadership and commitment to improving the world around them over the course of their degrees.

The awards are named after former U of T Vice-President of Development and University Relations, Gordon Cressy, for his commitment to higher education, and leadership in fundraising and community service. Since their inception, over 3,000 students have received the award.

The MIE recipients are:

• Rejuana Alam 
• Daksh Sikri
• Vinoj Suthakaran
• Amreen Poonawala
• Vibhor Sachdeva
• Anita Tran
• Kate Lonegan
• Dawn Virginillo
• Areeba Zakir

Learn more about them at U of T Engineering News.

April 21, 2017 – Engineers Canada has recognized MIE professor Amy Bilton and MIE alumnus Ted Maulucci (MechE 8T9). The national awards celebrate engineers who have made distinguished contributions to Canada. Professor Bilton received the Young Engineer Achievement Award, recognizing an engineer under 36 years of age for outstanding contributions. Maulucci garnered the Meritorious Service Award for Community Service, presented to an engineer who makes exemplary volunteer contributions to the community. ChemE alumnus Larry Seeley (ChemE 6T6, MASc 6T8, PhD 7T2) received the Gold Medal Award, the organization’s highest honour, recognizing exceptional individual achievement and distinction in engineering.

“These three extraordinary engineers demonstrate the tremendous contributions that U of T Engineering faculty and alumni are making at all stages of their careers, as well as the impact and breadth of those contributions” said Dean Cristina Amon. “On behalf of the Faculty, I congratulate them on this richly-deserved recognition.”

Amy Bilton’s primary research focus is the development of water and energy solutions for the developing world. She has conducted and led projects in Bangladesh, Ghana, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Vietnam,  developing technologies to meet the needs of partner communities.  Bilton has developed a solar-powered technology which will improve water quality and fish production in aquaculture ponds. The system has been successfully piloted and is currently undergoing further trials at 80 fish farmers in rural Bangladesh. A business model for transitioning the technology to scale is underway. Bilton has also been working to address water-related challenges in Nicaragua. In partnership with Winds of Change, she has developed a cooperation program between a community in Nicaragua and U of T. This has enabled students to work directly with community members to help develop water and energy solutions. Projects have included a locally-sourced windmill for irrigating crops, as well as an irrigation management system to enable efficient water usage.

As Chief Information Officer of Tridel Corporation, Ted Maulucci leverages his high profile to help engineering programs gain access to industry resources and to help researchers form commercialization partnerships. In 2009, Maulucci co-founded One Million Acts of Innovation, an organization promoting innovation in Canada. In partnership with this group and the Information and Communications Technology Council, he created the “Coach to Career” program to help new Canadians establish their careers. Maulucci is chair of the Entrepreneurs in Residence Committee at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, which helps researchers commercialize healthcare products. He is an active volunteer at U of T, Waterloo and George Brown College, serving on advisory boards, lecturing, mentoring students, and promoting links between educational programs and industry. Maulucci’s many contributions to society and his community were recognized with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 and the Ontario Professional Engineers Citizenship Award in 2016.

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

April 19, 2017 – For infertile couples, the expense, duration and low success rates of assisted reproduction can make the process a physical and emotional ordeal.

Reza Nosrati (MechE PhD 1T6), a postdoctoral researcher at Queen’s University aims to change that. Using microfluidics and advanced microscopy, he and his colleagues are developing simple but functional technologies for analysing and selecting sperm, and ultimately improving fertilization rates.

Much of his work has focused on male infertility. As a PhD candidate working under microfluidics expert Professor David Sinton at University of Toronto, one of his earliest projects was to design a simple, easy-to-use microfluidic device that would select sperm by “racing” the cells in microchannels. Winners of this race, when examined, showed 80% higher DNA integrity, making them potentially more successful in commercialized reproduction.

This research, which is now being commercialized, led to a subsequent project to characterize how sperm swim within a micrometre of surfaces. It was a significant challenge to capture their motion, he says, because sperm are very small and swim very fast.

In collaboration with a U of T expert in fluorescence microscopy, Professor Christopher Yip, he made an intriguing discovery: when moving close to the surface, human sperm adapt their swimming style from a 3D “corkscrew” motion to a more streamlined 2D “slither” movement that enables them to swim faster. This may be important to successful fertilization, says Nosrati. This was a major breakthrough in understanding sperm movement, and targeting slither swimmers has the potential to improve sperm selection for assisted reproduction.

His subsequent work focused on paper-based microfluidics to identify concentration of sperm, and their motility – how many of them move successfully from point A to B? The device works like a pH strip, used for testing acidity or alkalinity: reagent-coated sections on the paper strip react to a droplet of semen, changing color according to sperm concentration and motility. The latter is an important indicator of the sperm’s success at fertilization, and Dr. Nosrati’s test is the first to quantify that attribute.

Their long-term plan is to pair the device with a cell-phone application that could analyse and track semen quality day to day, enabling individuals to test themselves. “Family doctors could also use it as a first-step diagnostic,” he says. “There’s a lot of embarrassment and anxiety around this, and there aren’t any comprehensive products on the market.”

A related microfluidics device developed with Toronto colleague Dr. Max Gong, aims to diagnose overall sperm health, an important factor in fertilization success, using just a drop of semen. Current gold-standard clinical testing requires access to flow cytometry, an expensive technology that many fertility clinics do not have access to. “We came up with the idea of breaking up the sperm cells to get the DNA out, and then separating healthy and damaged DNA using an electric field.” This low-cost, paper-based approach showed 100% agreement with respect to clinical decision as compared with the flow cytometry-based assay.

While challenges remain – the device requires fluorescent microscopy and a power source – this approach shows potential as an affordable, self-administered alternative to current clinical testing.

Read more at CMC Mircrosystems.