February 16, 2016 — Professor David Sinton (MIE) of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering has been awarded a 2015 E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

The award will support Sinton’s research into optimizing the growth of algae and cyanobacteria — photosynthetic microorganisms that can use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO₂) into chemical products and ultimately fuels.

Though commonly thought of as “pond scum,” algae and cyanobacteria are among the fastest-growing photosynthetic organisms on earth. Some species accumulate high levels of fat and oil which could be refined into biofuels, or sugars that could be fermented into ethanol.

Despite decades of research, there is still much uncertainty about the exact conditions that each species needs to grow at its optimal rate, or accumulate the most product. The number of variables — light intensity, light spectrum, nutrient and CO₂ levels, temperature and more — makes designing experiments to cover all possible combinations both difficult and costly.

Sinton and his team are addressing that problem using their expertise in microfluidics and optofluidics, two fields that look at how fluids and light can be conducted through very small channels or optical conductors. They recently designed a “lab on a chip” that contains hundreds of individual chambers in which the microorganisms can grow.

Each chamber sits on top of a single pixel from an LCD screen, allowing the researchers to control the light conditions with precision. The chamber acts as a self-contained greenhouse where the organisms can be grown on blue light, red light, bright light, pulsing light and a host of other possible conditions. The next stage is to expand the device and allow researchers to vary CO₂, O₂, and nutrient levels across all chambers.

The platform could be expanded to thousands of chambers, allowing for simultaneous testing of many combinations of factors to find the best conditions for fast growth, oil accumulation or any targeted outcome for a given species of algae or cyanobacteria. The results will help researchers design large-scale facilities for microbial energy production.

“Professor Sinton’s innovative work offers a new approach to key challenges in energy and sustainability,” said Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I warmly congratulate him on this award.”

Sinton was presented with the award today at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. He is one of six researchers across Canada to receive an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship. Named after pioneering Canadian chemist Edgar William Richard Steacie, the awards provide up to $250,000 over two years to enhance the career development of outstanding and highly promising scientists and engineers.

February 11, 2016 —  On the first International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we’re excited to highlight eight U of T Engineering professors — all appointed in recent years — that are creating innovative solutions in bioengineering, sustainability, communications and enabling technologies. This article originally appeared in the 2015 issue of Skulematters.

Amy Bilton

Water and energy technologies for remote communities

Modern plants for water treatment or energy generation are typically designed to feed into existing infrastructure, such as city-wide plumbing or electrical grids. But people in remote communities — especially in the developing world — often lack this infrastructure. When areas with small or widely dispersed populations can’t afford the latest and greatest, they have to make do with older, less effective technologies, or simply go without.

Amy Bilton (MIE) and her team specialize in the creation of small, low-cost water and energy systems for remote communities in the developing and developed world. They use custom computer tools to optimize the design of technologies for local conditions, taking into account cost, availability of local materials and expertise required for maintenance. Where practical, they take advantage of renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar power.

One of Bilton’s projects involves working with communities in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and development organizations such as Fondo para La Paz to design small-scale desalination plants. These plants, which are powered by solar energy, take brackish groundwater and make it drinkable. Another project, still in the development stages, involves using renewable energy to improve oxygen exchange in fish farms in Vietnam. This will improve yields of fish, which are an important source of protein in the developing world.

This year, Bilton was approached by a team from Winds of Change, an organization doing development work in Pedro Arauz, Nicaragua. It was looking for help to design a windmill that could automate the pumping of groundwater to help farmers survive the long, dry season in that part of the world. Bilton assembled a multidisciplinary team of undergraduate students that flew to Nicaragua to consult with local farmers and gather data on weather patterns. The resulting windmill is due to be constructed this fall.

“Sometimes it’s the simple technologies that can make some of the biggest improvements in quality of life for people. I love working in an area where I can make a connection with a community and see the direct impact of my work.”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

February 10, 2016 — Professor Michael Carter gives expert comment to Global News on improving the efficiency of the Canadian healthcare system. View here.

February 9, 2016 — In a CBC News segment, Professor Dionne Aleman shared her research on developing a mathematical formula to make operating room scheduling more efficient, leading to shorter waits for patients and making a big difference in the system’s ability to deal with unexpected emergencies. Read more.

February 9, 2016 — Seven researchers from across U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have received significant federal support for their research with new or renewed Canada Research Chairs. MIE’s David Sinton and Birsen Donmez have been named new Canada Resarch Chairs (CRC), while Professor Andreas Mandelis CRC has been renewed.

The announcement was made today by Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan. The seven engineering chairholders join 27 others from faculties across the University of Toronto.

Duncan, a U of T graduate who has taught at the University of Toronto Scarborough and at Royal Roads University, congratulated the new research chairs. “The Government of Canada is proud to support these elite researchers who improve our depth of knowledge, strengthen Canada’s international competitiveness, and help train the next generation of our highly skilled workforce.”

The U of T Engineering chairholders will use the support to pursue a variety of projects, everything from tracking the fate of chemicals in the environment to developing new sources of sustainable energy.

“On behalf of the Faculty, I am very pleased to congratulate the new and renewed chairs on this important recognition of their outstanding research,” said U of T Engineering’s vice-dean of research, Professor Ted Sargent. “They are developing innovative solutions to some of society’s most important challenges, and their work will have significant impact not just here in Toronto, but around the world.”

Launched in 2000, the Canada Research Chair program is aimed at helping the country attract and retain research leaders in engineering and natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. Tier 1 Chairs last for seven years, and recognize outstanding researchers acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields. Tier 2 Chairs are for exceptional emerging researchers and last for five years.

Birsen Donmez (MIE), Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Transportation (Tier 2, new)

Driving a car is a complex process, requiring the ability to multi-task and pay attention to many simultaneous sources of information. By studying how humans behave under these conditions and developing tools to help them perform better, Donmez and her team aim to reduce the rate of traffic accidents.

Andreas Mandelis (MIE), Canada Research Chair in Diffusion-Wave and Photoacoustic Sciences and Technologies (Tier 1, renewal)

Mandelis has invented and developed a series of non-invasive imaging techniques related to diffusion-wave science and application technologies. His group focuses on advanced instrumentation and measurement technique development at the interface between two fields: industrial non-destructive testing/imaging and biomedical diagnostics. The techniques can help address a variety of challenges in biomedicine, dentistry, optoelectronics, photovoltaics, manufacturing and more.

David Sinton (MIE), Canada Research Chair in Microfluidics and Energy (Tier 1, new)

Sinton and his group apply innovations in microfluidics — a field relating to the flow of fluids through very small spaces — to advance new renewable energy technologies and to mitigate the negative impacts of current energy practices.

January 28, 2016 — For Randy Sinukoff, the best part of being a course instructor is watching new understanding take root. “I love it when the light goes on in someone’s head,” he says. “I love it when they discover something they never thought of before, or realize something that they can apply to their own life and work.”

Two more industry professionals who are involved with courses at U of T Engineering are profiled below:

Kim Iwasa-Madge, P.Eng (IndE 8T1)

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

January 28, 2016 — MIE students took first and second place at U of T Engineering’s Hatchery Accelerator competition on January 22 and 23.

The competition, hosted by The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, was kicked off by a special panel presentation from Silicon Valley seed accelerator Y Combinator, the incubator that has launched companies such as Dropbox, Reddit, and Thalmic.

Students worked in teams of four to create viable business models, judged by a panel of industry experts and entrepreneurs, including Isi Caulder (EngSci 8T9), Richard Helbig (GeoE 7T3), Michael Augustanavicous (ElecE 7T6), Dag Enhorning and Richard Louttet. Other mentors joined online, such as Catherine Lacavera (CompE 9T7), director of intellectual property and litigation at Google, who gave a presentation on intellectual property via Google Hangouts. The top team took home a grand cash prize of $2,000, and the runner up won $1,000.

“Accelerator Weekend 2016 was a huge success. One hundred students, 23 teams, six finalists, and two prizes. The 28-hour journey that participants went through is a true representation of the journey of an entrepreneur that normally takes years,” said Joseph Orozco, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery. “We are excited to see the student’s entrepreneurial spirit growing year after year. “

U of T Engineering News caught up with the two teams that came out on top:

First prize—$2,000: TouchDown

Members: Kyle Bimm (Year 2 MechE), Bryan De Bourbon, Sam Fang (Year 3 IndE), Bowen Wu (Year 3 Civil)

Elevator pitch: TouchDown is a parking management system to streamline parking for customers commuting into large cities. The system uses physical modules with Google Maps integration to help commuters find a registered parking spot before they start driving. After a quick selection, their parking space is booked and paid for, via in-app purchase, so commuters no longer have to worry about their parking situation once they start driving. This eliminates time wasted and money spent looking for parking for commuters as well as eliminates unnecessary parking enforcement for municipalities.

What problem does TouchDown solve?

Bryan: As a student that has to regularly commute between the Misssissauga (UTM) and the St.George Campus (UTSG), I became frustrated in my ability to make it on time to UTSG while still in my car, but still arrive 10 to 20 minutes late to my planned events because of the inability to find parking quickly and easily while driving around campus at saturated times. I thought “what if there was a system to allow me to see readily available parking spots before I even planned my route?” With a few more iterations we arrived at TouchDown!

What challenges did your team overcome during the competition?

Kyle: The team faced several challenges over the course of the competition that required a substantial amount of pivoting. The first obstacle we faced was the discovery of existing competition rather late on the first day. Hours spent scouring the internet for existing solutions to the problem proved little was being done in North America, and almost nothing in Canada in the way of smart parking. Upon research into parking related ideas for the company, after many other teams had already called it a night, we stumbled upon several different services that had flown under the radar up until that point. This forced us to rethink our business model and re-establish ourselves as an innovator in the parking world. We decided to create an all-in-one parking system that could not only link parking spot owners and commuters, but enhance security in commercial facilities and eliminate the need for regular, manned parking enforcement. The second challenge the team encountered was the strict regulations involving parking in private facilities like condos that require key access. This, coupled with the lack of previous information available on partnerships between parking services and commercial organizations, motivated the team to design the product launch with mainly the typical “house and driveway” consumer in mind, as a beta launch of sorts. Once a desire for the service was proven in the market, we would have the necessary backup to approach larger scale operations about joint business ventures with confidence.

What’s next for Touchdown—will you all continue to work on the business?

Team: All of us are considering the practicality of the project in industry given the availability of necessary technology and regulations currently in place. As of now time constraints among the group seem to be the biggest issue to get TouchDown to market, but we all are super excited about trying to do so.

Runner up—$1,000: Aurum

Members: Bonny Khanna (MechE 1T5), Min Lee, Rod Parsa, Lucas Huang

Elevator pitch: Aurum is a noise-cancelling product that dampens the constant background buzz we all hear while living and working in a city like Toronto.

What problem does Aurum solve?

Rod: Studies have shown that noise pollution has adverse health effects including higher stress levels, sleep disturbance, hypertension and tinnitus. Most of us go about our days without giving it a second thought, only to wonder why we aren’t working as hard as we’re capable of doing, or wake up groggy in the mornings. Furthermore, noise pollution has been linked to a 10-per cent decrease in housing prices in dense cities. Aurum solves this problem by bringing active noise cancellation to your living room, bedroom or office, creating an aura of tranquility conducive to studying, sleeping or just relaxing. This technology has already been put to use on a large scale in certain commercial aircrafts (where engine noise is a concern), as well as on a small scale in popular noise-cancelling headphones like the Bose QC series. Aurum bridges the size gap and creates a solution that doesn’t necessitate the use of bulky headphones or expensive installations. We came up with the idea when my teammate Bonny mentioned that ever since he had moved closer to a subway line, he’d had trouble sleeping. We did a bit of brainstorming and realized that short of expensive, thick, sound-proof glass windows, there was no real solution out there – we’d all have to suck it up if we wanted to live in the city.

What challenges did your team overcome during the competition?

Rod: I don’t think there were any major hiccups, maybe just a few minor ones. Our greatest concern was that we couldn’t show the judges any sort of proof of concept. Unlike many other app-based ideas, a product like ours may require millions in R&D before its viability can be ascertained. Nonetheless, we were confident in the value that it offered, should it come to fruition; nearly everyone who heard about our idea wanted one and was willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a working solution. In the short context of the 28-hour marathon, we figured we’d make promises first and apologize later.

What’s next for Aurum—will you all continue to work on the business?

With regard to the future, we’re considering applying for the Hatchery summer incubator program. Our mentor Rob Klein is very supportive of us, and it would allow us to get started on a functional proof of concept in the form of a primitive prototype.

January 26, 2016 — U of T engineers have partnered with residents of Pedro Arauz, Nicaragua to design and construct a water-pumping windmill, providing critical irrigation during the area’s long dry season.

The project was led by Professor Amy Bilton (MIE) and was part of MIE 491: Capstone Design, a fourth-year course in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. Over the last two years, three different teams of undergraduate students have worked closely with members of the community as well as the Winds of Change initiative to make the windmill a reality.

The initial idea was sparked in February 2014 when two Canadians, engineer John Shoust and management consultant Rob Scott, travelled to Nicaragua on a volunteer trip. There they saw first-hand the need for a better method of irrigation.

“For six months of the year, the land basically goes dry,” says Shoust. “Cattle literally drop dead from starvation and lack of water. If we could somehow find a fix for that dry season, it would have a huge impact on the community.”

The area has plenty of groundwater and dug wells, but what is lacking is the technology to efficiently pump the water out of them. Hand pumps — currently the most widespread technology — are simply not powerful enough to produce the thousands of gallons of water required for crop irrigation. The use of diesel and electrical pumps is limited by a lack of infrastructure, high cost and difficulties with the importing of goods.

By contrast, wind pumps can be built and maintained using locally available materials, and the climate in Nicaragua is windy enough to provide the required energy. With this in mind, Shoust and Scott started the Winds of Change initiative and began searching for a team of engineers who could take on the project of designing a low-cost windmill for the people of Pedro Arauz.

“We sent out a message to a few universities, and U of T came back with the best proposal,” says Shoust. “The Institute for Sustainable Energy and Professor Amy Bilton were extremely eager to get involved in the project.”

When Bilton proposed the project in her fourth-year capstone design course, she was inundated with applications from students who wanted to participate. “It was definitely the project with the most social relevance, which I think is why so many teams were interested,” says Kshitij Gupta (MIE 1T5), one of the first team members to work on the project.

Along with his teammates Akash Kumar, Tiffany Hu and Eleanor Li (all MIE 1T5), Gupta travelled to Nicaragua in October 2014. The team took wind speed measurements and consulted extensively with community members about their irrigation needs, as well as the resources they had. “What I remember the most was how enthusiastic the locals were about our project,” says Li. “Everyone was very nice and they welcomed us with a cultural performance. It was rare for them to see anyone to go there and try to help them make a better life.”

The team spent the next several months designing the windmill from scratch, using materials they knew would be accessible to the locals. One of the key questions was how to maximize power from the blades, and match it to a pump strong enough to provide adequate irrigation. In the end, they designed and built a prototype of a windmill that, when built at scale, could deliver 15 cubic metres of water every day.

Bilton and the Winds of Change team returned to Pedro Arauz a second time in the spring of 2015 and, with the help of community members, succeeded in digging a foundation for the windmill. Over the summer, she recruited two more teams of undergraduates to address a couple of outstanding design issues.

One team, consisting of James-Evan Boyce, Emma Bowman, Austin McLean, and Greg Pollieri (all Year 4 MIE) focused on creating a braking mechanism that could stop the windmill to perform maintenance, or shut it down if wind speeds rose dangerously high. The other, composed of Xingjian Gan, Grant Gruenspan, Gene Ortega, and Jikeon Yoo (all Year 4 MIE) refined the technical design of the pumping mechanism.

This month, five of the eight students accompanied Bilton on her third trip to Pedro Arauz. In collaboration with community members, the team built a windmill out of wire, sheet metal and PVC piping in four and a half days. “It pumped water for the first time just before we headed home, so students were really excited about that,” she says.

For Bilton and the students, the project was an extremely valuable learning experience. “Challenges like this provide a really interesting engineering environment that requires a really inventive design,” she says. However, she believes the key to making it all work was the participation of local residents in all stages of the process.

“From the beginning, it was student engineers working together with community members who provided great suggestions in terms the local practices and available resources,” says Bilton. “Everyone was so kind and so welcoming. I think that was really what moved the students and helped motivate them as they worked on the project.”

January 26, 2016 — Professor Craig Simmons (MIE, IBBME) has been named the University of Toronto Distinguished Professor of Mechanobiology, an honour that recognizes his exceptional career accomplishments and promise.

Issued by the U of T Office of the Vice-President and Provost, Simmons will hold the title for a five-year period, beginning July 1, 2016. He is one of 29 U of T faculty members and seven Engineering professors that currently hold this distinction.

“On behalf of the Faculty, I warmly congratulate Professor Craig Simmons on this appointment,” said Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “It is a richly-deserved recognition of his excellence in research, education and leadership within our community.”

As a mechanobiology expert, Simmons is recognized internationally for his work that combines mechanical engineering, biomaterials science, and cell and molecular biology to develop new methods of treating cardiovascular disease. Specifically, his research focuses on investigating new treatments for damaged or diseased heart valves and blood vessels, including strategies to regenerate cardiovascular tissues using stem cells and biomaterials.

His lab also leads the development of a 3D human liver model for the purpose of improving drug testing. Collaborating with University Professor Michael Sefton(ChemE, IBBME) and other team members, the model allows for the safe and accurate screening of chemical compounds in new drugs that could lead to potential negative effects on the human body.

Professor Simmons is also a committed educator who has won multiple teaching awards, including the 2009 Early Career Teaching award from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the 2015 Teaching Award from the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering.

Beyond his own research and teaching, Professor Simmons has supported research at U of T in multiple administrative roles. From 2009-2015, he served as director of the NSERC CREATE program in Microfluidic Applications & Training in Cardiovascular Health (MATCH), which provided interdisciplinary scientific and professional training to over 75 graduate students. He has also served as the associate director of research in the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) since 2013, where he has successfully implemented new seed grant programs, grant writing workshops and review processes.

In 2015, Simmons was appointed as the scientific director of the Translational Biology & Engineering Program (TBEP) in the recently established Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. Located in the MaRS Discovery District, this unique, interdisciplinary research initiative brings together leading experts in engineering and medicine from U of T and its partner hospitals to advance discoveries and accelerate new treatments for cardiovascular disease.

January 22, 2016 — This weekend’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) National Conference is designed to showcase a side of engineering and science you haven’t seen before.

Its theme, ‘A Mosaic of Talent,’ was chosen to reflect the plethora of opportunities that an education in the STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and math — provides for students of both genders.

“We want to highlight that with these degrees, you don’t have to go down a traditional career path, like being a doctor or a civil engineer — you can do so much more with it,” says Amreen Poonawala (Year 4 IndE), President of the WISE University of Toronto Chapter.

This year’s WISE National Conference, dubbed #WISENC16, will be hosted in Downtown Toronto at the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Jan. 23 and 24, 2016. More than 250 delegates, both male and female, are expected to attend from universities across Ontario. The schedule includes inspirational chats, workshops, design challenges and networking opportunities with companies such as General Electric, TATA Consultancy Services, Microsoft, Accenture, Hydro One, Unilever, Samsung, Altera, TD, Aecom, Aecon, AMEC, AMD and more.

“You see articles in the news about females being shy or risk-averse, and these become stereotypes,” says Poonawala. “Our focus is on empowerment and sparking passion for engineering and science careers, so that delegates can learn from the best leaders out there who are disproving these stereotypes.”

For Poonawala, the most exciting event will be a keynote address by Dr. Jaqcueline Shan, founder of Afinity Life Sciences Inc., and one of the discoverers of the hugely popular cold and flu remedy Cold-FX.

An aspiring entrepreneur herself, Poonawala was drawn to the personal side of Dr. Shan’s story, which she says motivates her to continue towards her goal of starting an engineering consultancy business.

She has another role model as well. “When I decided to do engineering, people asked me, ‘Why? Isn’t it mostly men?’” Poonawala recalls. “So I started doing some research and learned that Dean Cristina Amon, who represents U of T to the profession at a very high level, is female. Not only is she highly educated but is also supportive of initiatives that allow students to grow as leaders.”

Revitalized in 2012 by U of T Engineering student Chakameh Shafii, then a graduate student in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, in recent years WISE has grown to include 24 executives and a volunteer network of more than 100 students in both engineering and sciences. The group runs mentorship programs, networking events and high-school and community outreach initiatives year-round, which build toward its flagship WISE National Conference.