November 14, 2016 – When a person goes into cardiac arrest, every passing minute hurts their chances of survival. Now, a group of U of T Engineering researchers want to use drones to deliver life-saving automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) rapidly and directly to homes.

Justin Boutilier (IndE PhD candidate) envisions a future in which a bystander or family member who witnesses a cardiac arrest can call 911, and within minutes, an AED is flown to their doorstep or balcony to be administered, even before the paramedics arrive.

Boutilier is working under Professor Timothy Chan (MIE), Director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering at U of T, in collaboration with Professor Angela Schoellig (UTIAS) and researchers from the St. Michael’s Hospital Rescu program, in order to turn this futuristic idea into a life-saving reality.

This project comes on the heels of research by Chan’s lab on cardiac arrests that occur outside of hospitals, and the lack of accessible AEDs in public locations during non-business hours. Boutilier is now focusing on reducing deaths from cardiac arrests that occur at home.

About 85 per cent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in Southern Ontario take place within a private residence. “For those arrests, the public AEDs are not useful because it’s hard to get to them in time. It’s also not cost effective to put AEDs everywhere in the suburbs,” explained Boutilier.

“Not only is the survival rate of private-location cardiac arrests low, the response times are also slower than public locations,” said Chan. “So we thought, we need to come up with something completely new.”

Chan and Dr. Steve Brooks, an emergency physician at Kingston General Hospital and frequent collaborator at Rescu, found a video of a prototype AED drone designed at Delft University in the Netherlands. A PhD student had developed the prototype, complete with a camera and microphone, which weighed only four kilograms and travelled 100 kilometres per hour.

“To us, the idea of using a drone to deliver an AED to private location cardiac arrests seemed like a no-brainer,” said Chan.

Of the many benefits to AED drone delivery: “You don’t have to worry about traffic. You could get the AED there faster than paramedics so the bystander can start treatment as early as possible. And that’s very important. Every minute that goes by, the chance of survival decreases,” said Chan.

To determine where drones should be stationed and how many are needed to serve a given population, Boutilier obtained historical cardiac arrest data from eight regions in Southern Ontario, including dense urban cities and sparse rural communities.

“We conducted our analysis by imagining that this technology was implemented five years ago and asking, what would the next five years have looked like?” Boutilier explained.

What they found was that they were able to shave several minutes off the median ambulance response times in both rural and urban regions, and drones could arrive ahead of ambulances more than 90 per cent of the time.

“The one challenging thing is that it’s hard to know the number of lives we could have saved, which is what we’re looking at now,” said Boutilier.

Regulatory restrictions present another challenge to implementation — aviation, including drone flights, is strictly regulated by Transport Canada. Current rules stipulate that users are prohibited from flying drones out of their line of sight.

Schoellig, the Associate Director of the Centre for Aerial Robotics Research and Education (CARRE) at the University of Toronto, believes these restrictive regulations won’t last for long. “It is a matter of proving safety and reliability of this new technology to the regulators. This will require more technological breakthroughs — for example, giving drones the ability to detect obstacles. But drone technology has developed very quickly in the last five to 10 years,” she explained.

“Google and Amazon are already working on implementing delivery drones and have been lobbying the government to ease these regulations,” added Boutilier. “So if the government allows the drone delivery of commercial products, they would allow the delivery of AEDs, which is a life-saving matter.”

This past weekend, Boutilier and Chan presented their research at the American Heart Association Resuscitation Science Symposium in New Orleans, where Boutilier says he was excited to see the reactions from attendees.

“Depending on who you talk to, the response can be very different. When I talk to medical professionals, some say, ‘That’s too futuristic,’ but when I talk to tech people their reaction is often, ‘This technology has been around for the last few years; we could do this tomorrow.’”

“We’re trying to shake things up a bit within the field of health care, and change the way people are thinking about how we solve problems,” he added.

In the near future, Boutilier hopes to pilot the project in Muskoka, a region that has a high rate of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the slowest ambulance response time of all the regions they’ve gathered data from.

“I think the technology is there. I think the challenge is in the details of how to make this work,” said Chan. “It’s working through government regulations, coordinating with Emergency Medical Services, and making sure the public is behind this, that they have awareness of drones and its various purposes.

“But ultimately, it’s an idea that I think can really make a huge leap forward in our ability to get defibrillators to patients. I think within five to 10 years, drone deliveries will be a reality.”

November 9, 2016 – A robotics pioneer, a three-time Olympian and a Harvard-MIT professor were among nine exceptional alumni recognized with 2016 Engineering Alumni Association (EAA) Awards.

The awards, which celebrate alumni for their outstanding contributions to the Skule™ community as well as their remarkable career achievements, were presented at the Great Hall at Hart House on November 3.

“All nine alumni have enriched and strengthened our Faculty through their extraordinary achievements and their engagement with their alma mater,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “On behalf of U of T Engineering, I would like to extend my most heartfelt thanks and warmest congratulations to all our honourees.”

MIE recipients were:

Engineering Alumni Hall of Distinction Award

Paul Henderson (EngBus 5T7)

As a young boy spending his summers on Toronto Island, Paul Henderson dreamed of becoming a competitive sailor. His dream would become reality.

Henderson holds the record of having competed in all of the Canadian Olympic Sailing Trials from 1948 to 1984. He competed in three Olympic Games: 1964, 1968 and 1972, and would have represented Canada in 1980 if not for the Olympic boycott against the Soviet Union. He served for over 30 years in the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), the governing body for sailing officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee. For 10 years, from 1994 to 2004, he served as the ISAF’s first non-European president.

In his professional life, Henderson transitioned his family’s plumbing contracting business into a leading commercial food equipment company. The company grew to be one of the leading commercial food equipment service  providers in North America. By 2000, the company had 80 employees and operated out of a 25,000-sq-ft facility in Toronto. Through a network of technicians and sub-agents it serviced equipment and distributed parts throughout the Ontario market. The customer base included convention centers, major hotels, casinos, entertainment facilities, golf courses, chain restaurants, restaurants  and retirement homes.

At the turn of the century, Henderson sold controlling interest of the company to his employees and completed his career transition from the field of commercial food processing equipment sales and service to international sailing and sports management.

 

Ronald Bertram Sidon (IndE 6T6)

Ron Sidon was born in Woodstock, Ont., where his parents met and farmed after emigrating from Germany and Czechoslovakia. Up to age 19, he worked alongside his parents to expand and modernize their dairy farm. This business exposure taught him how to manage other workers, to be ingenious at fixing equipment and to find unique solutions to problems.

In 1966, Sidon graduated from the University of Toronto with a BASc in industrial engineering, and in 1968 he received his MBA from York University. He joined IBM in 1968 as a systems engineer and later as a sales engineer. He left IBM in 1971 to start the first of five unique entrepreneurial business ventures, including Enertech R & D, where he invented and patented the first electronic cream-dispensing machine. Tim Hortons and McDonald’s were among the first customers. He continued to acquire businesses and properties across Southwestern Ontario, and he formed Jarmal Sidon Developments Inc. to hold and control his companies.

A serial entrepreneur and philanthropist, Sidon became the primary donor and inspiration to complete the Malagosi water project in central Tanzania. This project spanned two years and included a dam in the mountains, settling tanks, a large storage tank, about 15 km of in-ground piping, 11 tap outlet stations, and a cattle-watering station. The villagers contributed their labour and a water committee operates and maintains the system that is now enjoyed by 3,500 rural residents.

 

John Weber (MechE 7T9)

John Weber’s career has focused on engineering and technology corporations at both the CEO and board of director levels. He has led several highly successful enterprises, including positions within GE, AlliedSignal, Honeywell, as well as high-tech ventures such as VIA Motors, Enphase Energy, Docutech and VitalizeMe.

His first professional experience was with Shell Canada in the fledgling tar sands operation in Alberta. However, his achievements at Remy International, a leading manufacturer, re-manufacturer and distributor of heavy-duty systems, starters and alternators, and hybrid power technology, stands as the clearest testament to his technical and leadership skills. When Weber was appointed CEO of Remy in 2006, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. He restructured the company, growing sales to over $1 billion, and took Remy public in 2011. By 2015, it was a profitable and sustainable global company with more than 6,000 employees worldwide. He retired as CEO in 2015, maintaining Remy’s board leadership.

Weber is also a highly committed volunteer. From 2010 to 2015, he was the founder and chair of the Department of Mechanical &

Industrial Engineering (MIE) Board of Advisors. Weber is currently the chair of the MIE Fundraising Committee and is actively pursuing significant fundraising opportunities. He has also been active with Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering and his faith communities in Aspen and Phoenix.

 

Read more at Engineering Alumni News.

November 7, 2016 — Calvin Rieder (Year 2 MechE) has been trying to solve the world’s water problems since Grade 7. Lost cause? Far from it. Read more at the Toronto Star.

October 28, 2016 — One summer Calvin Rieder (Year 2 MIE) went camping with his family. During the night, dew condensed on the inside of his tent, rolled down the fabric wall and made his pillow wet. To most, this event would mean minor discomfort. But to Rieder, that tiny rivulet of water inspired a design for an atmospheric water condenser — a portable device that pulls clean, drinkable water out of thin air.

Since waking up that morning in his tent, Rieder’s passion for developing sustainable solutions to address the urgent need for clean, potable water in developing nations has led him to become a member of the World Youth Parliament for Water, and was recently named in Plan Canada’s Top 20 Under 20. Now, his drive to promote universal access to clean water has put him centre stage on the famous TEDxToronto red carpet.

“We have to make changes that have sustainable impact — if we don’t, we won’t survive,” he told an audience of more than 1,000 attendees at the October 26 event, organized on the theme of ‘Symbols + Signals’. “I wanted to get clean water to where it’s needed, with no negative impact on the environment.”

“I didn’t want to create one problem while trying to solve another, so I thought about three things: accessibility, affordability and sustainability.” The first morning he went to check on his prototype, he was thrilled by the macabre scene: “The collecting basin was full of drowned flies, and I was delighted that there was enough water in there to do that.”

Currently a second-year engineering student in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Rieder is also working on a solar-powered still that purifies dirty water of both physical and bacterial contaminants. His vision is not only to supply drinkable water to rural, remote and developing nations where water treatment infrastructure is scarce or nonexistent, but to supplement overtaxed urban water resources.

Rieder was one of 18 thinkers, artists, researchers and inventors invited to speak and perform at TEDxToronto, an independently organized event dedicated to the core TED concept of sharing “ideas worth spreading.”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

October 24, 2016 — What will Toronto’s workforce look like in 50 years? One thing is for sure: MIE will play a big part in shaping it. Toronto Life spoke with two of our grad students, Christina Moro (MechE) and Maryam Merrikhpour (IndE) about their futuristic career paths. Read more.

October 24, 2016 — Professor Mark Fox gives expert comment on how Toronto’s population will change over the next 50 years. Read more.

October 24, 2016 — Reza Nosrati (MechE PhD 1T6) was recently honoured with the 2016 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence, in recognition for his pioneering work in microfluidics and nanotechnologies to more effectively treat male infertility.

Only one Colton Medal is awarded nationally each year, recognizing excellence in research leading to new understanding, novel developments and applications in microsystems and nanotechnology in Canada.

As a PhD student under the supervision of Professor David Sinton (MIE) — who was the 2006 recipient of the medal — Nosrati laid new groundwork for infertility treatment, developing microfluidic systems for male infertility diagnosis and treatment. In particular, his research focused on sperm motion near surfaces, semen analysis, and selection of sperm with high DNA integrity.

His research led to last year’s discovery of sperm that exhibit a more efficient two-dimensional slithering, “snake-like” motion near surfaces, instead of what is typically observed as a three-dimensional, corkscrew motion.

“The slither motion suggests a navigation strategy to better adapt to the highly confined and viscous lumen within the human fallopian tube,” Nosrati explained. In other words, human sperm can adapt their swimming style to their environment. “This observation provides a novel opportunity to sort the sperm for assisted reproduction.”

Nosrati also invented three micro-technologies for sperm selection and semen analysis, which are currently under the process of commercialization, in collaboration with the University of Toronto and MaRS Innovation.

“The device significantly outperforms the best current clinical practices by selecting sperm with over 80 per cent improvement in sperm DNA integrity,” said Nosrati. He has also developed technologies to quantify a male’s fertility potential and to test for sperm DNA integrity.

Nosrati is now an NSERC post-doctoral fellow in the department of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University, applying his microfluidics and nanotechnology work to cell biology and sensing, while also continuing his research on infertility issues.

“The ultimate goal with my research is to alleviate major emotional and financial burdens for families dealing with infertility in Canada and worldwide by providing affordable and accessible treatment for infertility,” he said.

October 18, 2016 — Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and Alumni Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, has been named an Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Amon was elected “for extraordinary contributions as a researcher focusing on heat transfer, as dean of engineering at the University of Toronto, as a leader in ASME and the broader engineering community, and as a champion for increased diversity in the profession.” She will be officially inducted at the Honors Assembly on November 13, 2016 during the ASME Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition in Phoenix, Arizona.

Dean Amon’s research pioneered the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for formulating and solving thermal design problems subject to multidisciplinary competing constraints. She has made pioneering contributions to concurrent thermal designs, innovation in electronics cooling, transient thermal management of wearable computers, nanoscale heat transfer, transport in biomedical devices, and optimization algorithms for renewable energy and wind farms. Her research has resulted in 16 book chapters, one textbook and more than 350 refereed publications.

Dean Amon has created several outreach initiatives at U of T to increase the representation of women in engineering, including Skule Sisters, Girls Leadership in Engineering Experience(GLEE) and the Young Women in Engineering Symposium. Her efforts resulted in a first-year cohort that is over 40 per cent women in 2016 — an increase of 100 per cent during her deanship and the highest percentage of female first-year engineering students in Canada. She has also enormously improved gender diversity in the professoriate and encouraged women to leadership positions within and beyond the Faculty. In addition, Amon is devoted to preparing graduating students for the 21st century engineering, focusing on such issues as globalization, engineering leadership, business, and the intersection of engineering/technology and public policy.

Active in professional societies and executive boards, Dean Amon has served the engineering profession with distinction and dedication. Among her many leadership roles, she has served as the inaugural Chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council, Director of the American Society for Engineering Education’s Engineering Deans Council Executive Board, Chair of Engineering for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Chair of the ASME Committee on Honors, and Chair of the Research Committee for the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science.

Dean Amon has been inducted into five academies (the Canadian Academy of Engineering, theHispanic Engineer Hall of Fame, the National Academy of Engineering, the Royal Academy of Spain and the Royal Society of Canada) and is a fellow of all the major professional and educational engineering societies in North America in her fields. She has received numerous accolades, including the ASME Gustus Larson Memorial Award, ASEE Westinghouse Medal and the ASME Heat Transfer Memorial Award. In 2010, Dean Amon received the Engineers Canada Award for the Support of Women in the Engineering Profession. In 2011 she was named one of the YWCA’s Women of Distinction and received the Society of Women Engineers’ Achievement Award, its highest honour. In 2012, she was named one of Canada’s 25 Most Influential Women. Dean Amon received the Ontario Professional Engineers Gold Medal in 2015 — Ontario’s most prestigious honour for engineering public service, technical excellence and professional leadership.

 

October 14, 2016 — Graduate students working to advance solar technology, design brain-machine interfaces and improve drinking water quality have been awarded Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships for 2016.

Vanier Scholarships, worth $50,000 per year for three years, are awarded by the Government of Canada to doctoral students at Canadian universities who demonstrate excellence in three areas: academics, research impact and leadership.

Meet the three U of T Engineering recipients:

Moien Alizadehgiashi — PhD, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Moien Alizadehgiashi’s doctoral research has far-reaching applications for fields from health sciences to sustainable energy. His PhD project, under the supervision of Professor Axel Guenther (MIE) focuses on using existing nanotechnologies to create “flowable” functional materials — advanced materials that are flexible and wearable, and can be produced inexpensively on demand, much like printing a newspaper.

These materials are highly customizable and could be used for a wide range of products, from solar cell windows to wearable health-monitoring devices. “The cost of solar energy has gone down 25 per cent in the last five months because of the huge strides being made in solar technology, funded by scholarships like the Vanier Scholarship,” said Alizadehgiashi.

Alizadehgiashi said that as an international student, support from the Vanier Scholarship is especially important for him. “It is a great honour and recognition,” he said. “This significant financial award will allow me to focus on my research.”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

October 11, 2016 — The National Academy of Engineering has honoured two University of Toronto undergrads – Rachel Andrade and Clara Stoesser – with a first-place award for their video “Refugee Crisis,” which explores how systems engineering can be applied to the plight of refugees.

Stoesser, a fourth-year student in industrial engineering, and Andrade, a third-year student in media studies at U of T Scarborough, examined how engineers can help improve everything from conditions in refugee camps to supports for newcomers in host countries.

The award was announced in Washington, D.C. The theme of the contest was Mega Engineering. Competitors were asked to submit 1- to 2-minute videos, introducing a particular mega-engineering project and highlighting its significance and contribution to society. They also had to suggest ways to further develop the project. Approximately 300 videos were submitted in four categories: middle school and younger (K-8), high school (grades 9-12), postsecondary (2-year college through graduate school) and the general public. Andrade and Stoesser won in the postsecondary or “tertiary education” category, receiving $5,000 for their efforts.

A judging committee chaired by Rob Cook, Pixar Animation Studios’ emeritus vice president of advanced technology, selected the winning videos based on the following criteria: creativity in the selection and presentation of content, anticipated breadth of public appeal and interest, and effectiveness in describing a mega-engineering project and its impact on people and society. The People’s Choice Award was chosen by the public through voting on the NAE website.

“It is so inspiring to see what students created for this year’s Engineering for You Video Contest,” said NAE President C. D. Mote, Jr. “The diverse projects and solutions touched the human spirit of engineering and its work on the world’s greatest challenges.”

Read more at U of T News.