October 22, 2015 — U of T Engineering professor Ridha Ben-Mrad (MIE) has been appointed Mitacs’ new associate academic director, beginning January 2016.

Mitacs is a national, not-for-profit organization that offers research and training programs for Canadian undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Partnering with 60 universities, thousands of companies and both federal and provincial governments, they collaborate across all disciplines to foster industrial and social innovation.

“Mitacs has done a great job of growing Canada’s knowledge economy and making many young Canadians achieve their dreams of being leaders in their fields,” said Ben-Mrad. “I am looking forward to contributing to this great effort.”

Ben-Mrad is director of the Mechatronics and Microsystems Group at U of T’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. His recent research focuses on developing new types of sensors and actuators for extremely small devices that operate at the micro-scale — known as microsystems technologies.

For example, in the field of adaptive optics, Ben-Mrad is building the mechanisms behind enhanced image stabilization and auto focus for your smartphone camera. He is also developing micro-mirrors for display applications, including those used in “head-up displays” that use low-level lasers to flash warnings onto your car’s windshield when you’re driving.

Many of Ben-Mrad’s research projects involve industry partners, and they have led to a number of new inventions, including 10 Canadian, U.S., European and Chinese patents, in addition to more than 160 research publications.

Prior to joining U of T Engineering in 1997, Ben-Mrad held positions at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Ford Research Laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1994.

“The University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, along with Mitacs, is focused on developing the next generation of innovators and strengthening partnerships with industry and government,” said Dean Cristina Amon, who is a member of the Mitacs Research Council. “We are honoured that Mitacs has chosen Professor Ridha Ben-Mrad to continue advancing innovation in Canada, and I congratulate him on this prestigious appointment.”

October 20, 2015 — Three U of T Engineering graduates have been named to the ‘Highly Commended’ list for the 2015 Undergraduate Awards — an international competition that invites high-achieving undergraduates to share innovative research projects. Winners take part in the UA’s Global Summit in Dublin starting November 10.

This year’s Engineering winners include Raghav Singal (IndE 1T4 + PEY), Dominic Liao-McPherson (EngSci 1T4 + PEY) and Xiyu Liu (EngSci 1T4 + PEY). They join five other alumni from across  U of T named to the prestigious ‘Highly Commended’ list.

To be ‘Highly Commended’, a student’s research or academic paper must be ranked in the top 10 per cent of more than 5,000 worldwide submissions. The competition is open to students in their final or penultimate year of studies.

“Becoming a winner, or even highly commended, means you are in the top of your field,” explains UA’s website. “The Undergraduate Awards identifies and recognizes the most creative and nuanced arguments and ideas coming out at undergraduate level internationally.”

U of T News spoke with Engineering winner Raghav Singal to learn more about his submission.

What is your paper about?

The paper discussed multiple methods that can be used to improve the image quality of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans. CBCT scans are used during radiotherapy treatments in order to evaluate and dynamically plan the treatment. As compared to CT scans, they do not expose the patient to a lot of radiation and therefore are less harmful. However, the image quality of CBCT scans is relatively poor. Professor Dionne Aleman (MIE), Professor Doug Moseley and I proposed novel mathematical models that can be used to improve the CBCT image quality.

Why do you care about this subject?

I believe in making the world a better place, and cancer is one of the biggest problems faced by us.

What’s next for you?

I just started my doctoral degree in Operations Research at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University. It is hard to say where I will end up five years down the road, but academia is a possibility. Regarding areas of research, I am mostly interested in mathematical optimization applied to healthcare, finance, sports and energy.

Any supporters at U of T who helped you along the way?

Professor Dionne Aleman from the department of mechanical and industrial engineering supervised me on this research project. We started in September 2012 and worked on it for almost three years. She was very helpful and patient throughout the project.

How else did you get involved at U of T?

I served as class rep for the Industrial Engineering Club 2013–14 and became the group’s academic director for 2014–15. I also served as vice-president, academic on the Chestnut Residence Council from 2013–14 and as the Council’s Speaker for 2014–15. In terms of volunteering, I provided notes to students with disabilities for over 15 courses.

October 19, 2015 — Two years ago, U of T Engineering professor Mark Fox (MIE) spent 36 hours living on the street. He did it partly as a charity fundraiser, but mostly to get a better sense of how the homeless live and how social services are delivered. “It led me to ask the question: what are we doing as engineers to address the needs of people less fortunate than ourselves?” he says.

As a result of his experience, Fox co-founded the Centre for Social Services Engineering (CSSE) at U of T. Now more than a year old, the Centre applies industrial and systems engineering techniques — including mathematical analysis, big data and machine learning — to improve the delivery of goods and services to vulnerable populations in urban centres.

Fox, who was named U of T Distinguished Professor of Urban Systems Engineeringearlier this year, has spent decades proposing how to make organizations more efficient. In his field of industrial engineering, innovations like supply chain management and just-in-time delivery are routinely used to help companies lower their costs and improve performance.

The same techniques that are used to analyze what goes on within a manufacturing corporation can be just as easily applied to other sectors. In the last 30 years, banks, hospitals and other organizations have increasingly hired industrial engineers to redesign their operations and make them more efficient and effective. According to Fox, there’s no reason why social services shouldn’t benefit as well.

How exactly does an engineer help meet social needs? Fox provides an example: “Imagine that you’re a recent immigrant to Toronto, and that you’re pregnant,” he says. In this scenario, as a new mother you’ll need a crib, but you have very little money and no social network to rely on. Meanwhile, a grandmother living in a more affluent neighbourhood has bought a crib for her grandchildren for when they visited, but they have outgrown it.

“The crib has been sitting in the basement for the last three years or so, and she doesn’t even remember it’s there,” explains Fox. The crib is sitting unused and the grandmother doesn’t know there is a need in her community. Furthermore, because she’s forgotten it, she hasn’t even thought to post it on an online classified site or donate it.

Fox’s idea is to use the same tools that marketers use to build profiles of their target audiences — analyzing purchases from anonymized credit card data or looking at household surveys — to build up a picture of what resources are available and where. The goal, he says, is “to be able to learn what the supply side has, and then figure out a way in which we can reach out. Such a system would identify people who have goods and services that people need but are unaware of.”

Fox also notes that in Ontario alone, there are 45,000 charities or non-governmental organizations that provide a wealth of services. ”Some may be furniture banks, some may provide transportation, some may just provide money,” he says. He envisions a kind of virtual NGO that would integrate all of these services and make them available through a single portal. Fox also hopes to integrate the social needs marketplace into existing programs like 211 Toronto, a hotline that helps Torontonians find social services.

Another CSSE project focuses on the representation and analysis of city indicators. It builds on the recently developed ISO 37120 standard of 100 indicators to measure city performance, led by Professor Patricia McCarney at U of T’s Global Cities Institute. The CSSE’s PolisGnosis project, named after the Greek words for “city” and “knowledge”, seeks to create a consistent and meaningful way of representing these indicators on the Semantic Web, and automate the diagnosis of a city’s performance.

As an example, Fox refers to the ratio of students to teachers, one of the ISO indicators. Many cities don’t yet provide the data from which their indicator was derived, and those that do could be using data inconsistent with the indicator’s definition. For example, they may count school board administrators as teachers, or use different dividing lines between primary and secondary school. By enabling consistent, meaningful analysis of such metrics, the PolisGnosis project aims to help lower-performing cities to make improvements by diagnosing the root cause of their under performance.

Fox believes there are lots of ways that engineering analysis can help make life better for those in need. While the CSSE is not the first attempt to use organizational management techniques to address these problems, Fox says it is the first time that it’s been raised to such a level within an engineering faculty.

“It’s not a question of why is it opportune now,” he says. “It could have been done 30 years ago. It’s really a question of why did it take so long.”

September 22, 2015 — Professor David Sinton has been named to the 2015 cohort of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. Now in its second year, the College recognizes and brings together an emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leaders from multiple disciplines.

“The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists is an exciting addition to the venerable Royal Society of Canada,” said Professor Sinton. “I’m delighted and honoured to be included.”

Sinton is a pioneer in applying small-scale fluid mechanics research, known as microfluidics, to improve energy technologies, such as fuel cells and those used for oil extraction. Prior to his research contributions in this area, the field of microfluidics was almost entirely focused on biological applications.

Inspired by issues with fluid transport in fuel cells, Sinton’s first breakthrough led to a radical new understanding of how water is moved in porous fuel cell electrodes. This greatly enhanced the efficiency and performance of the cells in terms of power density and fuel utilization.

Building on this success, Sinton applied microfluidics to improve oil recovery processes that operated at massive scales. His insights underpinned several new reduced-carbon-footprint strategies for heavy oil extraction. The advances demonstrate the potential of microfluidic technology to improve the efficacy and reduce the carbon footprint of Canada’s largest energy processes.

Sinton has received several awards for his research, including the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering’s I. W. Smith Award and the McLean Award from U of T. He is a fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Engineering Institute of Canada.

“I am delighted to congratulate Professor David Sinton on earning this tremendous honour, which recognizes his pioneering research and places him among the finest emerging scholars in Canada,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “He has made exceptional contributions to the fields of energy and microfluidics that could reduce the carbon footprint of oil extraction and point to more sustainable ways of meeting the world’s energy needs.”

“The Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering is proud to have such a breadth of excellent scholars, who continue to make important contributions to engineering research and society,” said Professor Jean Zu, Chair of MIE. “On behalf of the department, I extend my congratulations to Professor Sinton.”

The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists was created to gather scholars, artists and scientists at a highly productive stage of their careers into a single collegium where new advances in understanding will emerge from the interaction of diverse intellectual, cultural and social perspectives.

The initiative’s mandate is to address issues of particular concern to the group of interdisciplinary collaborators, for the advancement of understanding and the benefit of society, taking advantage of the interdisciplinary approaches fostered by the RSC.

The new members of the College will be inducted at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in Victoria, B.C. on November 27.

September 21, 2015 — Thirteen exceptional members of U of T Engineering’s alumni community will be recognized on Thursday, Nov. 5 at the Engineering Alumni Association (EAA) Honours and Awards. Four MIE alumni were among this year’s recipients.

The ceremony, which is held annually at the Great Hall at Hart House, celebrates alumni for their outstanding contributions to the Skule™ community as well as their remarkable career achievements.

“On behalf of the EAA, I would like to congratulate this year’s award winners on your accomplishments,” said Elias Kyriacou (ChemE 7T6), president of the EAA Executive Board. “Collectively, your remarkable contributions to education and research continue to elevate U of T Engineering as the top engineering school in Canada. We are incredibly proud to have you as members of the engineering community.”

See below for a list of this year’s EAA Awards categories and winners.

View photos from the 2014 EAA Honours and Awards ceremony.

Engineering Alumni Hall of Distinction Award

Selected by their peers, these extraordinary alumni are recognized for their lifelong accomplishments. Commemorated in a display in the Sandford Fleming Building, Hall of Distinction members are a familiar daily presence in the lives of students and serve as examples to future generations of U of T engineers.

Emil Frind
(CivE 6T6, MechE MASc 6T7, CivE PhD 7T1)

Frind’s background in engineering combined with his interest in water resources put him on the leadin
g edge of the emerging field of quantitative groundwater science. In 1971, he joined the University of Waterloo’s Department of Earth Sciences as a core member of its then-newly established groundwater group. Most recently, Frind collaborated with the Regional Municipality of Waterloo in developing a strategy for the sustainable use of local groundwater as a drinking water source, saving taxpayers the billion-dollar cost of a Great Lakes pipeline. Frind remains active as a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo.

 

2T5 Mid-Career Achievement Award

Celebrates individuals who have earned respect within the profession and broader community, and attained significant achievement within 25 years of graduation.

Janet Elliott
(EngSci 9T0, MechE MASc 9T2, PhD 9T7)

Elliott is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Thermodynamics in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta. Elliott currently serves on the editorial board of the journal Cryobiology and has been recognized for excellence in research and teaching throughout her career. In 2015, she was named a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada and in 2002 Time magazine recognized her accomplishments in an article titled, “Canadians Who Define the New Frontiers of Science.”

 

Engineering Alumni Association Honorary Member

Acknowledges the exceptional contributions of an individual who is not a member of the EAA but has contributed in a very significant way to bettering the Faculty, the EAA and/or the lives of current or future members of the EAA.

Ronald D. Venter
(MIE)

Professor Emeritus Venter began his career at U of T Engineering in 1975. Venter has served in leadership roles at the University, most notably as chair of Mechanical Engineering and vice-dean of the Faculty. He has volunteered his time and expertise on a number of committees and was a member of Governing Council. Venter chairs the Project Planning Committee, which was instrumental in developing the much-anticipated Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

 

L.E. (Ted) Jones Award of Distinction

Honours Skule™ students who exemplify Professor Emeritus L.E. (Ted) Jones’ great appreciation of the arts and his love of music.

Luca Casciato
(MechE 1T5)

While studying at U of T Engineering, Casciato found his way into many of Canada’s leading orchestras as a violist and has studied with some of the most distinguished classical musicians of our time. He recently performed with the renowned New York String Orchestra for two sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall. Around campus, Casciato could be seen performing regularly with the Appassionata Music Ensemble and the Iron Strings Quartet. He is also an occasional performer of jazz and traditional Italian folk music.

Read more at U of T Engineering Alumni News.

September 21, 2015 — First-year engineering students Christopher Choquette-Choo (Year 1 EngSci) and Daniel McInnis (Year 1 MechE) have been recognized with 2015 Schulich Leader Scholarships.

Started in 2012 by business mogul and philanthropist Seymour Schulich, the program awards 50 students annually across Canada who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and have demonstrated significant leadership qualities. Choquette-Choo and McInnis each received $80,000.

“These awards are a testament to the innovative leaders and creative program solvers that our engineering programs attract,” said Micah Stickel, chair, first year engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I offer my deepest congratulations to both of these students, and I thank Seymour Schulich for encouraging young leaders across Canada.”

U of T’s Xarissa Thompson spoke with Choquette-Choo and McInnis about the award and why he chose to study engineering at the University of Toronto.

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What got you started volunteering? What have you learned from engaging with your community?

Christopher: I learned that I prefer to work as part of a team. In groups I’m usually the last person to talk, because I watch and listen to everyone else first. I value diverse perspectives, because then you can work to encompass everyone’s needs. You can bring what you’re good at to the table and the group will counterbalance everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.

Daniel: I volunteered at a retirement home that had a unit for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. It could be very sad, but it helped me appreciate what I had and understand that there are solutions to all kinds of problems if you work on it. When I was a student trustee for the Ottawa Catholic School Board, we worked to get our school board to raise student scholarship amounts by 50 per cent. We also found out about resources our board had that no one knew about, and tried to find a way to increase awareness and enrich our programs. The best part of all of it was getting the adult perspective on things and then being able to contribute the student point of view.

What do you want to do to combine your interest in science and your background in community work?

Christopher: I’ve always wanted to be an inventor. My father was a handyman and I learned about things like electrical circuits when I was pretty young. I’m studying Engineering Science, which has a bit of everything, and my interest is in the biomedical, robotics and aerospace fields. I’m really passionate about innovation and I want to use engineering and design to make society better in some way.

Daniel: In high school I entered science fairs and competed nationally. I had a couple of concussions from playing hockey, so I designed a helmet and did drop tests to compare it to other helmets on the market. I currently have a Canadian patent issued and a U.S. patent pending on an improved hockey and football helmet design. One of the things I’m excited about is that I’ve only scratched the surface of where I can go. It’s not just about the little details; it’s about knowing what you want to do and working with people to make it happen. In terms of having an impact, engineering gives me that opportunity.

September 16, 2015 —  A more reliable way to remember birth control pills, a single tool that fixes most bike problems, and a satellite communications network that can help ensure tragedies like the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 never happen again.

Students from across U of T Engineering pitched these and 10 other startup ideas at this year’s Hatchery Demo Day last Thursday, vying for $42,500 in seed funding and the chance to see their ideas boosted toward commercialization.

“You have made us proud, you have delivered and you have raised the bar once again,” said Joseph Orozco, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery at U of T Engineering. “Today is the culmination of a rigorous journey, but what you’ve started is just the beginning.”

Prior to the Demo Day competition, students developed their ideas through the Hatchery’s intensive summer program that involved building prototypes, assessing business viability and receiving valuable mentorship from professors and industry experts. Teams will continue to access the Hatchery’s resources to build their ventures in the time ahead.

The seed funding at Demo Day was provided through three prizes donated and presented by alumnus Anthony Lacavera (CompE 9T7), chairman and CEO of the Globalive Group and Wind Mobile, as well as a fourth — the Orozco prize — which was provided through funds raised by the students themselves.

TeleHex ($10,000 Lacavera Prize)

Peter Wen (Year 3 MechE) has been a serious cyclist for many years, and honed his craft working on the University of Toronto Human Powered Vehicle Team. His company, TeleHex, aims to make bike repair easier, not just for pros like himself, but for newbies as well. “Biking should be a simple pleasure, but a lot of people don’t fix their bikes,” he said. “One of the barriers is that they don’t want to mess around with the tools.”

For example, on many bikes, the hexagonal-shaped socket that adjusts the handlebars might be a completely different size from that which controls the brake line. This forces riders to carry and fumble around with many different-sized keys.

Wen has designed a unique telescoping tool that automatically adjusts to fit the metric bolt sockets on most bikes. He partnered with U of T Rotman MBA student Rishi Persad to form the company.

The device is half the weight and volume of products currently on the market, and it generated major buzz when the team posted about it on the online forum Reddit. In addition to the Hatchery prize money, Wen and Persad are well on their way to raising a further $15,000 in a Kickstarter campaign.

“I’m very humbled that there are so many people enthusiastic about being early adopters of this technology,” said Wen. “It’s an engineer’s dream come true.”

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

September 11, 2015 — Professor Kamran Behdinan was recently named an Associate Fellow by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

The distinction recognizes individuals who have accomplished or been in charge of important engineering or scientific work; who have done original work of outstanding merit; and, have made outstanding contributions to the arts, sciences or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.

Professor Philippe Lavoie of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies was also named Associate Fellow.

“On behalf of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, I would like to congratulate Professor Behdinan on yet another richly deserved honour,” said Professor Jean Zu, Chair of MIE.

This summer, Professor Behdinan was named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy in Engineering and made Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Professor Behdinan is the NSERC Chair in Multidisciplinary Engineering Design and the Director of the University of Toronto Institute for Multidisciplinary Design & Innovation (UT-IMDI). His research fields include: design and development of light-weight structures for aerospace, automotive, and nuclear applications, multidisciplinary design optimization of aerospace and automotive systems, as well as multi-scale simulation of nano-structured materials and composites at elevated temperature.

He has also published more than 90 peer-reviewed journal papers and 140 conference papers, and six book chapters. He has been the recipient of many prestigious awards and recognitions such as the Research fellow of Pratt & Whitney Canada, fellow of the CSME, and the Ryerson FEAS research awards in 2004 and 2010.

AIAA is the largest aerospace professional society in the world, serving a diverse range of more than 30,000 individual members from 88 countries, and 95 corporate members.

September 8, 2015 — A bold, colourful and unconventional collaboration has taken shape at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. Street artist Jason Wing, also known as SKAM, has painted a massive 276-foot (84-metre) installation that spans the outer wall around the construction site of the Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CEIE). It is the longest single graffiti installation in Toronto.

“The vibrant imagery in this mural installation represents the rich history and tremendous impact that U of T engineers have around the world,” said U of T Engineering Dean Cristina Amon. “At the same time, it looks toward the future, highlighting the pioneering research, transformative education and inspiring entrepreneurship that will take place within the CEIE.”

Located at the heart of U of T’s St. George campus, the CEIE will set a new standard for engineering education and research. The building will be a catalyst, enabling students, researchers, alumni and industry partners to work together across disciplines to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Illustrating engineering’s impact

With a surface area that rivals that of a standard tennis court, the work contains more than 50 unique design elements. They depict innovations such as Horizon, the solar vehicle created by the Blue Sky Solar Racing team, and Nanoleaf, the world’s most energy-efficient light bulb, invented by U of T Engineering alumni Gimmy Chu (ElecE 0T6), Tom Rodinger (IBBME PhD 0T7) and Christian Yan (ElecE 0T6).

Other images such as wind turbines, a streetcar, a satellite and a human heart illustrate the multidisciplinary and collaborative research and industry partnerships for which U of T Engineering is known around the world. The artwork also includes the Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad [sic], Skule Cannon and other examples of the Faculty’s energetic student community and traditions.

A unique collaboration

Stretching along the east side of St. George Street north of College Street, the installation also highlights the connections between the University and the city. “Street art and other forms of popular culture are accessible to a wide audience,” said David Roberts, a professor in the Urban Studies Program at U of T’s Innis College who teaches a course on popular culture and the role of graffiti.

“I think this sort of project helps to break down barriers by making engineering more legible,” he explained. “You can start to have a conversation about all of the different things that engineering is.”

As one of the most established graffiti artists in the country, Jason Wing was the natural choice to create the installation. Wing’s signature style of graffiti has covered streetscapes across North America for more than 25 years. He is one of the key figures responsible for Toronto’s iconic Graffiti Alley and his clients have included Louis Vuitton, MuchMusic, Nike, Google, Adidas among many other global brands.

Read more at U of T Engineering News.

August 13, 2015 — With the sun beaming down on its solar surface, Horizon looked poised to tear off its platform and hit the road.

The sleek new vehicle was unveiled today by the University of Toronto’s Blue Sky Solar Racing team. The eighth-generation, custom-built solar car boasts several design innovations, including adopting a catamaran-shaped aerobody, improved seams, lighter batteries and more sophisticated safety systems.

The team, composed of a multidisciplinary group of undergraduates from across U of T Engineering, has been working relentlessly over the past 18 months toward competing at the 2015 World Solar Challenge competition in Australia.

“This vehicle is the fruits of our collective labour,” said Zhe Gong (ElecE 1T4+PEY), the team’s managing director. “To us, Horizon represents the distance between what is currently the case and what could be in the future.”

For Horizon, the future is coming up fast: with just over a month until they ship out to competition, it’s crunch time. In the next few weeks they will install, calibrate and test the electrical systems, brakes, steering and cockpit, then hit the pavement for extensive road tests.

“We definitely have more obstacles ahead of us this time,” said Maria Xie (ElecE 1T6+PEY), one of the team’s electrical leads. “The competition is tougher, and a lot of the specs are much stricter. But we’re also better prepared.”

The World Solar Challenge will pit 42 teams from around the globe in a gruelling race to prove they’ve built the world’s most efficient electric car. Powered only by the sun’s rays, they will drive their custom vehicle 3,021 kilometres north-to-south across Australia, starting in Darwin and finishing in Adelaide.

The 2015 World Solar Challenge runs from October 18 to 25. The University of Toronto’s Blue Sky Solar Racing is the only Canadian team registered. The team recently launched an Indiegogo campaign to help cover the travel costs associated with participating in the race.

“I see the Blue Sky Solar Racing team as a great ambassador for the Faculty, showcasing the best of what we do here at UofT,” said Professor Thomas Coyle, vice-dean, undergraduate for the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “It’s something that I think all of us in engineering recognize requires an incredible amount of work…this team is an inspiration to us all.”

For Jerry Song (MechE 1T7), the Blue Sky Solar Racing team was one of the draws to UofT Engineering. “I wanted to get involved in something meaningful,” he said. ” It’s been a really challenging and motivating experience. Right now there’s a lot of pressure on us, but we’re going to do the best we can.”

Blue Sky Solar Racing cracked the top 10 at the 2013 World Solar Challenge, with an eighth-place finish. In that race their vehicle, B-7, crossed the line in 45 hours and 38 minutes, achieving an average speed of 65.71 km/hour. Xie says that this year they’re hoping to hold onto the top 10, but it’s an ambitious target.

“For us the goal has always been to finish this car, go to the race, and finish the race,” said Gong. “But this story is not over—stay tuned for the end.”