January 11, 2016 — Som Seif (IndE 9T9) had a big chip on his shoulder after he found himself forced to sell his first company, Claymore Investments. Today, he retains full control of his new venture, and says he’s ready to take on the competition as new low-fee players pile in. Read more.

January 6, 2016 — Professors Kamran Behdinan (MIE), Doug Hooton (CivE), Hugh Liu (UTIAS), and Heather MacLean (CivE), along with alumnus Marc Rosen (MechE 8T1, MASc 8T3, PhD 8T7) have been recognized by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for their distinguished engineering achievements. Professor Hooton received the Julian C. Smith Medal “for achievement in the development of Canada”. Dr. Rosen garnered the John B. Stirling Medal “for leadership and distinguished service at the national level within the Institute and/or its member societies.” Professors Behdinan, MacLean and Liu have been named EIC fellows for their exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada. EIC medal recipients and new fellows will be honoured at the Institute’s Annual Awards Banquet at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa on March 12, 2016.

Before joining U of T in 2012, Kamran Behdinan was founding chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and founding director of the Institute for Aerospace Design and Innovation at Ryerson University. He is currently the NSERC Chair in Multidisciplinary Engineering Design. Professor Behdinan is founding director of the Institute for Multidisciplinary Design and Innovation, a project-based learning institute working in partnership with major aerospace and automotive companies to provide students with industry-based design experience. He has also spearheaded the creation of several capstone design courses. A leader in his professional community, he served as president of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) from 2010-2012. Professor Behdinan is a fellow of CSME and the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). In 2015, he received the C.N. Downing Award, recognizing distinguished service to CSME.

Marc Rosen is a Professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, where he served as founding dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science from 2002 to 2008. From 1986 to 2002, he was a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Ryerson University, where he served as department chair and director of Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Rosen has carried out extensive research on sustainable energy, leading to increased efficiency and reduced emissions and costs. He has been a pioneer in the development of advanced thermodynamic methods based on exergy. Dr. Rosen has served as president of EIC and as president of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME). He is a fellow of EIC, CSME, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the International Energy Foundation. Dr. Rosen received the 2T5 Mid-Career Achievement Award in 2003 and was inducted into U of T’s Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2010.

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

December 18, 2015 — A one-hour talk on the future of health, robotics and energy could have easily been mistaken as a talk on science fiction: from replacing body parts with living tissue that grows as you age, to creating robots that help the elderly get ready in the morning, to regenerating a waste product like CO2 into a future-fuel for airplanes.

But what people thought was science fiction 20 or 30 years ago are now today’s innovations, whether it’s wireless technology or virtual reality headsets, just to name a few. U of T mechanical engineering professors Craig Simmons (MIE, IBBME), Goldie Nejat (MIE) and David Sinton (MIE), and their industry collaborators, hope to revolutionize the next 20 or 30 years with research in their respective fields: health, robotics and energy.

The panel discussion, ‘Your Future, Our Future,’ – held at the Isabel Bader Theatre on December 4 – was a culmination of a year-long celebration by the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering to commemorate 125 years of mechanical engineering at U of T. The event was an opportunity to welcome the Toronto community together to learn how mechanical engineering research can be applied to industry, and more importantly, how this research will make a positive impact on society.

The talk was moderated by University Professor Ted Sargent (ECE) and also featured industry panelists Dr. Mitesh V. Badiwala, surgical director of the Heart Transplant Program at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre; Ted Maulucci (MechE 8T9), Chief Information Officer of Tridel Corporation; and, Chris Twigge-Molecey (MechE MASc 6T9, PhD 7T2), Senior Advisor at Hatch Limited.

“Craig, if you were successful [in your bioengineering research], in five or 10, 15 years, how could the experience with a patient be different?” asked Sargent, kicking off the talk.

“Babies born with a congenital heart defect, they often require surgery early in life,” explained Simmons, who is the Canada Research Chair in Mechanobiology, and the scientific director of the new Translational Biology and Engineering Program (TBEP) at Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.

“The materials used to repair that valve are things like fabrics, synthetics. Those don’t last a lifetime, so a baby might have to have multiple operations. What we’re imagining is: what if instead of doing that, we could take stem cells from the umbilical cord and combine it with a biomaterial and use mechanical forces to exercise that growing tissue to become a robust heart valve tissue, which could be used instead of synthetic material.”

This work closely relates to a future Dr. Badiwala hopes to see: minimally invasive valve replacement technologies. “The area of heart surgery that I’m interested in, that will totally revolutionize heart care, is heart-replacement technology and advancements in transplantation,” he said. “Hopefully in my lifetime, there may come a day where we take a diseased heart out of a patient, replace it temporarily with a pump but then repair their own heart outside of their body and then re-transplant it.”
Sargent then asked Nejat to describe how robotics is helping to answer health and social questions related to aging. According to Statistics Canada, people aged 65 and older will account for almost a quarter of the population by 2051.

“We’ve been focusing on developing robots that can live in your home and help you with activities of daily living as you age, like prompting you through steps of getting up in the morning, making a meal and eating it,” said Nejat, the Canada Research Chair in Robots for Society and the director of the Institute for Robotics & Mechatronics.

“We’re also looking at using robots to provide simulation during leisure activities. A lot of older adults are isolated from their families, and that has negative impacts on your health. Our robots provide recreational activities that older adults can engage in, and through that, we improve their social and cognitive stimulation.”

On the topic of renewable energy, Sinton, who is MIE’s Associate Chair of Research and specializes in the study and application of small-scale fluid for use in energy systems and analysis, spoke on the challenges of a slow-moving industry and the future of renewable energy.

“I would think that energy companies must be so jealous of Facebook, because they can wake up and see a hundred thousand new users,” said Sinton. “The energy industry is resource intensive… it moves very slowly.”

“But renewable energy, that’s the future. We’re looking ahead at developing next-generation technologies, using renewable energy to take this waste product, CO2, and turning it into useful products, hopefully high-value products. The challenge [ahead] is turning CO2 into fuels that can go into airplanes and freighters. Those are exciting new areas that we’re working on every day.”
Sargent ended the hour-long lively discussion by opening the floor to audience questions. Those in attendance included fellow engineering researchers, alumni, staff, graduate students, industry representatives, hospital workers, high schoolers, and even younger students.

Craig Brown brought his two sons, aged 10 and 12. “My 12-year-old son, Aiden, he’s a budding engineer. He does really well in math and has a keen interest in how things are built and is always asking about how things will be built in the future,” said Brown. “So I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring them here and expose him to engineering and what the future holds.”

View more photos from the event.

Watch a clip from the talk below:

December 17, 2015 — More than a dozen U of T Engineering students and professors spent four days last month in China collaborating with colleagues from two universities on projects ranging from satellite design to assistive devices.

The trip was part of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering’s fourth-year international capstone course, which allows students to work collaboratively across continents and cultures on industry-sponsored engineering projects.

“We are training and educating students to be able to effectively communicate and work on a global scale,” said Professor Kamran Behdinan (MIE), who holds the NSERC Chair in Multidisciplinary Engineering Design and has been one of the key people behind the international capstone program. “It brings another dimension to their education, and to collaborative engineering design.”

“Diversity is very important in engineering,” he added. “Students learn from each other, bringing new perspectives from their respective environments that have a positive impact on design and innovation.”

The course, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, includes partnerships with Peking University (PKU) in Beijing, the National University of Singapore, the University of California, Irvine and, new this year, Beijing’s Tsinghua University. Many of the projects are sponsored by industrial partners in Canada or the partner country.

Fausto Fanin (Year 4 MechE) is part of a group that is working on ways to stabilize the motion of a CubeSat, a versatile type of satellite that is no bigger than a toaster. “The PKU students have a great variety of different specializations: materials science and engineering, structural analysis, energy and resource engineering,” he said. “It brings a wide range of abilities to the team.”

The students meet in person only twice. In November, the U of T teams travel abroad to meet their collaborators face-to-face, and in April students from the partner institutions come to Toronto to present their final designs. However, the students are in constant contact via email and other online tools.

December 17, 2015 — A new multidisciplinary collaboration from the Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN)is bringing together researchers from across the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering to address hunger and malnutrition, which affect billions of people around the world.

The Food & Nutrition Security Engineering Initiative (FaNSEI) seeks to leverage the Faculty’s diverse expertise to advance engineering solutions to these issues. According to Professor Yu-Ling Cheng (ChemE), director of CGEN, the fact that food and nutrition are complex and intertwined with issues like agricultural productivity, water availability, energy resources, food preservation, transport and storage make them ideal challenges for engineers to take on.

“Many of our professors already work in areas that are relevant across the entire value chain of food production, but may not have thought of themselves as being able to contribute to food-related challenges,” said Cheng. “This project is about connecting the dots between our faculty’s expertise and global problems.”

The group first met in October and has received seed funding from the Dean’s Strategic Fund, which supports strategic collaborations that have a broad impact in the Faculty. FaNSEI members include Professors Edgar Acosta (ChemE), Stewart Aitchison (ECE), Amy Bilton (MIE), Chi-Guhn Lee (MIE), Timothy Chan (MIE), Levente Diosady (ChemE), Elizabeth Edwards (ChemE), Emma Master (ChemE) and Arun Ramchandran (ChemE). The team has also sought input from U of T researchers outside engineering, including plant biologists and experts in food security and nutrition.

According to the World Health Organization, 800 million people around the worlddo not have enough to eat to be healthy. Even more — as many as 2 billion — suffer from deficiencies of key nutrients that lead to malnourishment.

Improving aquaculture

Fish is a key source of protein worldwide, and in Vietnam, fish farming accounts for more than five per cent of gross domestic product. Any innovation to improve the productivity of these farms could have a significant impact on food security and nutrition.

Professor Amy Bilton and her team have taken up this challenge by looking at sustainable ways to raise the level of dissolved oxygen in fish ponds. “Oxygen is what fish need to grow and live; it’s a key factor that impacts productivity,” she said. In the developed world, farmers use electric blowers or paddlewheels to aerate the water. But in the developing world, electricity is not always reliable, and the high cost of buying equipment is a barrier.

Bilton and her team have designed a passive aerator that uses solar heat to circulate water, eliminating the need for costly equipment or electricity. “In nature, sunlight interacts with algae and produces oxygen, but that really only happens at the top of the pond,” Bilton said. “What we’re doing is circulating the water to bring that oxygen-rich layer down to the bottom.” Preliminary results show the device could increase the level of dissolved oxygen in the water by as much as 30 per cent, which in turn could increase fish production.

Bilton has partnered with a U of T alumnus, Tuan Nguyen Quang, who now is Vice President of the National Institute for Science and Technology Policy and Strategy Studies in Vietnam. Quang arranged for a machine shop in Hanoi to build a prototype based on the design Bilton and her team provided. Last month, the prototype was installed in a test facility in Vietnam. The team also travelled to Bangladesh to scout out possible sites for testing in that country.

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

December 14, 2015 — Interview with MIE Professor Greg Jamieson on how complex algorithms can help by telling soldiers where to shoot, and where not to. Read more.

December 14, 2015 — Ambitious project aims to eventually tap into existing fuel-delivery systems at Canadian airports. The University of Toronto, McGill University and the International Air Transport Association are part of the project as members of the BioFuelNet Aviation Task Force, of which MIE Professor Murray Thomson is Chair. Read more.

December 10, 2015 — For North Americans, it can be easy to take emergency medical services (EMS) for granted. But in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh there is no EMS system, no centralized ambulances, and no 911 service. Justin Boutilier, a PhD candidate in industrial engineering working under the supervision of Professor Timothy Chan(MIE), hopes to close this health-services gap in developing countries.

In Toronto, simply calling 911 gets an ambulance to the scene in approximately six minutes. From there, the ambulance takes the fastest route to the hospital — sirens blaring — as cars on the road yield or move out of the way. In Dhaka, the 11^th largest city in the world where the population is five times larger than Toronto’s, the situation is very different.

In September, Boutilier spent three weeks in Dhaka working with local collaborators. Among his findings were the following:

• 34 per cent of patients took a rickshaw, 25 per cent took a CNG (a three-wheeled cab that runs on compressed natural gas), while only 8 per cent took an ambulance;
• Ambulances are by far the most expensive method, costing anywhere between 500 to 5,000 Taka (BDT), which is approximately $9 to $87 CAD;
• The average response time for ambulances is 60 to 80 minutes; and,
• Some patients spent more than 5 hours to get to the hospital.

These results are alarming when considering that more than 33 per cent of deaths in developing countries are attributed to time-sensitive medical emergencies, from cardiac arrests to maternal or child health issues.

Boutilier and Chan, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health aim to vastly improve these numbers — and save lives — by optimizing emergency medical response.

“Our goal is to reduce ambulance response times by developing a software system leveraging existing infrastructure that optimizes ambulance pre-positioning locations, and provides real-time travel estimation and route optimization information to drivers,” said Chan.

“Our research has two components: first, locate the ambulances throughout the city, and second, routing them to the patients,” said Boutilier. “If the city of Dhaka is going to implement an ambulance service, where should these be stationed around the city, how many are needed, and what are the most effective routes?”

To find the answers, Boutilier and local collaborator Moinul Hossain, a traffic engineer and professor from Islamic University of Technology (IUT), collected data through a patient survey and created a GPS device with an android app to put into rental cars. They then had the cars drive around the city throughout the day in order to collect their locations and learn about the traffic patterns.

With traffic congestion being a constant issue in Dhaka, finding an optimized route is a big hurdle in Boutilier’s research. “Once it took me three hours to drive 11 kilometres,” said Boutilier. “Even if cars wanted to move out of the way [for an ambulance], there is no space to move aside.”

That is why implementing a North American system in a developing country is not an option.

“Some people think, why can’t you just use the existing system from North America and bring it there? But the challenge is the cultural differences. A lot of the assumptions we make in North America are not valid there,” explained Boutilier. “For example, it is not the norm to yield for ambulances, a common assumption that allows ambulances to quickly reach the scene in North America.”

“Because people are not able move out of the way, location actually becomes more important because you want to avoid really busy roads and route accordingly,” said Chan.

With these kinds of challenges, Boutilier and Chan are focusing on the policy side of the Dhaka ambulance system. “We hope we can use our model to go to private companies to recommend spatial positioning for better service,” said Boutilier.

In addition to developing an optimization model for ambulance services, Boutilier and Chan will be evaluating other forms of transportation, such as CNG or Rickshaw ambulances, in order to address issues with reaching patients in areas without adequate access to ambulance transport, such as slums.

In the long term, Boutilier hopes to bring health optimization to other cities in developing countries. “North America is already quite optimized, so the gains made by optimization are marginal,” he said. “But in developing countries, operations research can make a huge impact.”

December 10, 2015 — Sylvia Mwangi, a second-year U of T Engineering student, was raised in the mountainous central highlands of Kenya, and developed a passion for science and
math early on. But in sub-Saharan Africa, where education beyond high school is rare, her odds of being able to fulfill her ambitions were low.

Fortunately, Mwangi discovered an initiative that could help her do just that. While interning at a bank in Nairobi, she learned about the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program, which has given her the education that had once seemed unlikely.

The MasterCard Foundation has committed $500 million over ten years to provide disadvantaged students, primarily from sub-Saharan Africa, the opportunity to study at universities around the world. In addition to covering tuition and books, MasterCard also supports Mwangi’s living expenses, and helps her source internship, volunteer and social activities. She is now in her second year with the program, and one of 23 such Scholars currently studying at U of T.

With 60% of its citizens under the age of 25, sub-Saharan Africa is rich with the potential and promise of youth. Unfortunately, fewer than 7% are ever educated beyond high school. Within that small group, far fewer than half are female. Which is why brilliant students like Sylvia Mwangi are true trailblazers.

Now in residence at New College and studying industrial engineering, she also considered programs in law or pharmacy. But as a result of her experience in Toronto, she is newly motivated by the prospect of working in health care or the relatively new area of oil and gas exploration back home.

“I’m not just interested in mining, but in community development,” she says. “How do we make sure we give back? We must always remember that the resources belong to the people, and that they should see benefits, too.”

Giving back is a theme that recurs in conversation with Mwangi. A key program requirement is that she will spend the summer after her third year interning in her home country. After graduation, her ultimate plan is to return to where she came from.

This is no small point, as sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a “brain drain”: for example, even though few people living there can take advantage of medical training, in many African countries, the majority of locally-trained doctors ultimately take their skills elsewhere — instead  of staying home where they are often badly needed.

This situation reflects both the good and bad news emanating from countries like Kenya. On the one hand, government funding and newly booming economies have resulted in greater school enrollment at early levels (the MasterCard Foundation also funds secondary education). But lacking teachers, school buildings, transportation and money for school fees, there is a limit to how far education can currently go for most students. This is especially true for girls, who are often forced to give up school in favour of domestic responsibilities.

So it is up to the brightest of these students to create change. Because Canada has a well-established mining industry, Mwangi knows that many in the burgeoning resource sector in Kenya can profit from the lessons she will bring back from her classwork and internships. In a way, teaching her means teaching many other Africans as well.

“Canada has the resources, and we students have the skills,” she says. “This program gives a perfect opportunity to match the two. I really look forward to going home and sharing what I’ve learned.”

MasterCard Foundation Scholars are also offered counselling and mentorship, to help her adjust to the culture and climate shock of their home away from home. Though she’d never travelled from her infinitely warmer homeland before, she didn’t have much trouble fitting in.

Gregarious, kind and funny, she’s adjusted easily to her “home away from home” (while admitting she could certainly do without the cold of winter). On top of studying and volunteering, Mwangi has tried her hand at martial arts and leadership opportunities through the Rotoract Club.

She has found Canada to be safe and friendly, and appreciates the range of viewpoints on offer in a diverse city like Toronto. This is something Mwangi has absorbed through the frequent group work in her engineering classes, something she’d never done in Kenya: “That was a whole new concept for me,” she says.

Mwangi has already learned a great deal in Canada — but Canada has much to learn from her, too. Her courageous journey is a powerful reminder that North Americans should never be complacent, bored or cynical about the rewards of education. And that even a young person is capable of taking on the biggest challenges.

Professor Hani Naguib (pictured) acknowledges the launch of the Toronto Institute of Advanced Manufacturing at the Industry Partners Reception on November 18. (Photo: Roberta Baker)

November 30, 2015 — On November 18, the U of T Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering held its annual Industry Partners Reception to thank existing collaborators for their support, guidance and enthusiasm for the research and education that takes place at U of T Engineering.

This year’s event, which was hosted at The Faculty Club and attracted representatives from both large multinational organizations and startup companies, was also an opportunity to acknowledge the launch of the Toronto Institute of Advanced Manufacturing (TIAM).

TIAM brings together 17 professors from six academic areas with expertise in the manufacturing of advanced materials, processing methods and knowledge-based manufacturing.

“The manufacturing sector is a hub for major and vital economic growth for the country — especially here in Southern Ontario,” said Professor Hani Naguib (MIE, MSE), director of TIAM. “Our mission is to strengthen and lead in these areas. Not only in Ontario, but also across Canada and the world, knowing that we have the expertise and the infrastructure to do so.”

TIAM has already collaborated with Magna International, BlackBerry, Pratt and Whitney, Bombardier, GE Digital Energy and Celestica.

Brad Jackson, vice-president of strategic business development at Celestica, was on hand to discuss the electronics manufacturing service company’s longstanding 15-year partnership with U of T. What began with the establishment of the Celestica Chair in Materials for Microelectronics — currently held by Professor Doug Perovic(MSE) — has developed into a key partnership within TIAM.

“I often get asked: ‘What’s the future of manufacturing in Canada?’ Jackson said. “If manufacturing is defined in a traditional way, we’re missing the mark. I really do believe, as Hani mentioned, that knowledge-based manufacturing is an opportunity for Canada. And that’s why we’re so excited about the work we’re doing in partnership with GE Digital Energy and U of T Engineering at TIAM.”

U of T Engineering attracted over $80 million in external research funding in 2013-2014 with nearly $8 million coming from industry partners — both are record-setting figures for the Faculty.

Professor Thomas Coyle (MSE), vice-dean of undergraduate studies, highlighted a couple of other key partnerships the Faculty has with industry at the event.

“Hatch Inc. has a very comprehensive relationship with U of T,” Coyle said. “The company mentors our students, recruits many of our best and brightest graduates, supports research projects, participates in industrial advisory boards, and invests in undergraduate/graduate scholarships.”

In 2013, the Faculty also received a generous gift from Hatch that will go towards naming a project room in the forthcoming Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship building.

Another key industry partner highlighted by Coyle is Hitachi High-Technologies Canada, which partly funded the $20-million Ontario Centre for Characterization of Advanced Materials (OCCAM). The facility, which opened in 2014, features state-of-the-art electron microscopes that allow researchers in energy, transportation, health care and more to develop safer, cleaner and more sustainable materials.

U of T Engineering currently collaborates with more than 300 partners in a range of sectors, such as telecommunications, mining, automotive, health care, information technology and power generation.