Tyler Irving

Researchers at U of T, partner hospitals receive $35 million in provincial support

lanthierj — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 18:57:47 +0000

Researchers at U of T, partner hospitals receive $35 million in provincial support

lanthierj Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:57

Cutline

The performance of lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles, like the ones plugged into these chargers, can be degraded by temperature fluctuations – a limitation researchers at U of T Engineering are working to change (photo by koiguo/Getty Images)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Our Community

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Leah Cowen

Sinai Health

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Unity Health

Cell and Systems Biology

Anthropology

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Biochemistry

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Chemistry

Computer Science

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Hospital for Sick Children

Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Mathematics

Physics

Psychology

Research & Innovation

University Health Network

UTIAS

Subheadline

From better batteries to preventing memory loss, nearly four dozen projects at U of T and its partner hospitals are being supported by the Ontario Research Fund

Researchers in the University of Toronto’s Thermal Management Systems (TMS) Laboratory are working to improve the way battery systems handle heat and develop structural battery pack components. 

“Whether they are being used for electric vehicles or for stationary energy storage systems that reduce strain on the grid, lithium-ion batteries are transforming the way we use electricity,” said Carlos Da Silva, senior research associate at the TMS Lab in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and executive director of U of T’s Electrification Hub.

“Unfortunately, today’s batteries are still sensitive to temperature: if they get too cold or too hot, it can degrade their performance and even present safety risks. We are working on new technologies that make batteries more resilient to thermal fluctuations.”

The battery-related research is among nearly four dozen projects at U of T and its partner hospitals that are receiving almost $35 million in support through the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence (ORF-RE) and the Ontario Research Fund – Small Infrastructure (ORF-SIF). (See the full list of projects and their principal researchers below).

"Research at the University of Toronto and at all universities and colleges across Ontario is the foundation of the province’s competitiveness now and in the future,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“This investment protects and advances cutting-edge, made-in-Ontario research in important economic sectors and helps ensure universities can continue to train, attract and retain the world’s top talent."

At U of T Engineering’s TMS Lab, researchers led by Cristina Amon, a University Professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, are working on two funded projects. They are developing advanced computational modelling and digital twin methodologies that predict and optimize how heat flows through battery packs. The methodologies are carefully calibrated and validated through industry-relevant experiments in the lab.

Senior Research Associate Carlos Da Silva, left, and University Professor Cristina Amon, right, chat in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering's Thermal Management Systems Laboratory (photo by Aaron Demeter)

These methodologies will help battery designers anticipate and prevent thermal management challenges before they arise. It can also enable them to optimize the design and deployment of fire mitigation measures, such as ultra-thin heat barriers, within their battery systems.

The team is also collaborating with Ford Canada and several other companies in the energy storage space. For example, they have worked with Jule (powered by eCAMION) on the development of direct current electric vehicle fast chargers with integrated battery energy storage systems, one of which was recently unveiled on the U of T campus.

“We are grateful for this ORF-RE funding, which will accelerate our research and help us further expand our partnerships, ensuring that battery thermal innovations have a seamless transition from the lab to the marketplace,” Amon said.

“As a result of this work, the next generation of batteries will be safer and more resilient than ever before, which is especially important in colder climates like ours here in Ontario.” 

Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence:

Cristina Amon in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Powering Ontario’s grid transformation and electric vehicle fast charging with thermally resilient battery energy storage & Next-gen electric vehicle battery systems: Lightweight, thermally performant and fire safe for all climates
Morgan Barense in the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – HippoCamera: Digital memory rehabilitation to combat memory loss
Aimy Bazylak in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering – RECYCLEAN: Critical minerals recycling & re-manufacturing for the energy transition
Ian Connell at University Health Network and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – MRI-compatible innovations for neuromodulation
Simon Graham at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Technological innovations for clinical MRI of the brain at 7 tesla
Clinton Groth in the Institute for Aerospace Studies in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Hydrogen as a sustainable aviation fuel – combustion research to remove impediments to adoption in gas turbine engines
James Kennedy at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the department of psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Clinical utility and enhancements of a pharmacogenomic decision support tool for mental health patients
Shaf Keshavjee at University Health Network and the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Advanced solutions to human lung preservation and assessment using artificial intelligence
Aviad Levis in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science – AI and quantum enhanced astronomy
JoAnne McLaurin at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of laboratory medicine & pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Conversion of astrocytes to neurons to treat neurodegenerative diseases of the brain and the eye
R. J. Dwayne Miller in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science – PicoSecond InfraRed Laser (PIRL) “cancer knife” with complete biodiagnostics via spatial imaging mass spectrometry
Javad Mostaghimi in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – A new generation of compact, transportable mass spectrometers for rapid, in-field sample analysi
Xiao Yu (Shirley) Wu in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy – Molecular dynamics modeling and screening of excipients for designing amorphous solid dispersion formulations of poorly–soluble drugs

Ontario Research Fund – Small Infrastructure Fund:

Celina Baines in the department of ecology & evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Impacts of environmental change on organismal movement
Sergio de la Barrera in the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Facility for quantum materials and device assembly from atomically thin van der Waals layers
Michelle Bendeck in the department of laboratory medicine & pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – 4D quantitative cardiovascular physiology centre
Laurent Bozec in the department of laboratory medicine & pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – 21st Century challenge for Dentistry: Breaking the cycle of irreversible dental tissue loss
Mark Chiew at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Next generation computational MRI for rapid neuroimaging and image-guided therapy
Haissi Cui in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science – A molecule to mouse approach to study the intracellular localization of genetic code interpretation in mammalian cells
Andy Kin On DeVeale at the University Health Network and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health – Sarcopenia and musculoskeletal interactions (sami) collaborative hub
Ali Dolatabadi in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Advanced cold spray facility
Spencer Freeman at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Imaging biophysical determinants of the innate immune response
Liisa Galea at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Institute of Medical Science in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Sex and sex-specific factors influencing brain health across the lifespan
Maged Goubran at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – AI platform for mapping, tracking and predicting circuit alterations in Alzheimer’s disease
Eitan Grinspun in the departments of computer science and department of mathematics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – A computer graphics perspective on entanglement of slender structures
Levon Halabelian in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins
Ziqing Hong in the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Ultra-sensitive cryogenic detector development for dark matter and neutrino experiments
Eno Hysi at the Unity Health Toronto and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Structural and functional assessments of diabetic skin microvasculature using photoacoustic imaging
Lewis Kay in the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Helium recovery system for the biomolecular NMR facility
Xiang Li in the department of chemistry and the department of physic in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Real-time multi-faceted probes of quantum materials
Qian Lin in the department of cell & systems biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – 2p-RAM for whole-brain single-neuron imaging of behaving zebrafish to study neural mechanisms of cognitive behaviours
Xilin Liu in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Integrated circuits for wireless brain implants with multi-modal neural interfaces
Stephen Lye at the Sinai Health System and the department of physiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) analytics platform
Caitlin Maikawa in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Biointerfacing materials for drug delivery lab
Emma Master in the department of chemical engineering & applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Accelerating biomanufacturing innovation through enhanced capacity for scale-up and downstream bioprocess engineering
Roman Melnyk at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – The H-SCREEN: A platform for high throughput and high content imaging-based small molecule screens for disease modulation
Juan Mena-Parra in the department of astronomy & astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – An advanced laboratory to enable novel radio telescopes for cosmology and time-domain astrophysics
Seyed Mohamad Moosavi in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Machine learning for nanoporous materials design
Enid Montague in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Automation and equity in healthcare laboratory
Michael Norris in the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Infrastructure for structural and functional virology research hub
Amaya Perez-Brumer in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health – 3P lab: Centering power, privilege and positionality for health equity research
Monica Ramsey in the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga – Ramsey Laboratory for Environmental Archaeology (RLEA): How human-environment interactions shaped plant-food
Arneet Saltzman in the department of cell & systems biology in the in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Heterochromatin regulation in development and inheritance
Mina Tadrous in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy – Developing a centre for real-world evidence to improve the use of medications for Canadians
Shurui Zhou in the department of electrical & computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Improving collaboration efficiency for fork-based software development
Olena Zhulyn at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Targeting translation for tissue regeneration and repair
Christoph Zrenner at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Next-generation real-time closed-loop personalized neurostimulation

U of T experts use machine learning to analyze where bike lanes should be located for maximum benefit

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 14:07:11 +0000

U of T experts use machine learning to analyze where bike lanes should be located for maximum benefit

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 10/23/2024 - 10:07

Cutline

Researchers from U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering used novel computing approaches to compare utilitarian and equity-driven approaches toward expansion of protected bike lanes (photo by Michelle Mengsu Chang/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

department of mechanical and industrial engineering

Artificial Intelligence

Cities

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Sustainability

Subheadline

“If you optimize for equity, you get a map that is more spread out and less concentrated in the downtown areas"

A team of researchers from the department of civil and mineral engineering in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering are wielding machine learning to understand where cycling infrastructure should be located in order to benefit the most people.

In a paper published in the Journal of Transport Geography, researchers used novel computing approaches to compare two strategies for expansion of protected bike lanes – using Toronto as a model.

“Right now, some people have really good access to protected biking infrastructure: they can bike to work, to the grocery store or to entertainment venues,” says post-doctoral fellow and lead author Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, who previously researched interactions between bacteria and viruses before applying her data analysis skills to active transportation. “More lanes could increase the number of destinations they can reach, and previous work shows that will increase the number of cycle trips taken.

“However, many people have little or no access to protected cycling infrastructure at all, limiting their ability to get around. This raises a question: is it better to maximize the number of connected destinations and potential trips overall, or is it more important to focus on maximizing the number of people who can benefit from access to the network?”

To delve into the question, Bonsma-Fisher and co-authors used machine learning and optimization, a challenge that required them to explore new computational approaches.

“This kind of optimization problem is what’s called an ‘NP-hard’ problem, which means that the computing power needed to solve it scales very quickly along with the size of the network,” says Shoshanna Saxe¸ associate professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering and one of Bonsma-Fisher’s two co-supervisors alongside Professor Timothy Chan of the department of mechanical and industrial engineering. “If you used a traditional optimization algorithm on a city the size of Toronto, everything would just crash.”

To get around the problem, PhD student Bo Lin invented a machine learning model capable of considering millions of combinations of over a thousand different infrastructure projects in order to test where the most impactful places are to build new cycling infrastructure.

Using Toronto as a stand-in for any large, automobile-oriented North American city, the team generated maps of future bike lane networks along major streets, optimized according to two broad types of strategies.

The first strategy, dubbed the utilitarian approach, focused on maximizing the number of trips that could be taken using only routes with protected bike lanes in under 30 minutes – without regard for who those trips were taken by.

The second, an equity-based strategy, sought to maximize the number of people who had at least some connection to the network.

“If you optimize for equity, you get a map that is more spread out and less concentrated in the downtown areas,” says Bonsma-Fisher. “You do get more parts of the city that have a minimum of accessibility by bike, but you also get a somewhat smaller overall gain in average accessibility.”

This results in a trade-off, says Saxe. “This trade-off is temporary, assuming we will eventually have a full cycling network across the city, but it is meaningful for how we do things in the meantime and could last a long time given ongoing challenges to building cycling infrastructure.”

Another key finding was that certain routes appeared to be essential no matter what strategy was pursued – for example, protected bike lanes along Bloor Street West.

“Those bike lanes benefit even people who don’t live near them and are a critical trunk to maximizing both the equity and utility of the bike network. Their impact is so consistent across models that it challenges the idea that bike lanes are a local issue, affecting only the people close by,” Saxe says. “Optimized infrastructure repeatedly turns out in our model to serve neighbourhoods quite a distance away.”

The team is already sharing their data with Toronto’s city planners to help inform ongoing decisions about infrastructure investments. Going forward, the researchers hope to apply their analysis to other cities as well.

“No matter what your local issues or what choices you end up making, it’s really important to have a clear understanding of what goals you are aiming for and check if you are meeting them,” says Bonsma-Fisher.

“This kind of analysis can provide an evidence-based, data-driven approach to answering these tough questions.”

Large-scale adoption of electric vehicles can lead to human health benefits: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 14:05:14 +0000

Large-scale adoption of electric vehicles can lead to human health benefits: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 10/21/2024 - 10:05

Cutline

Researchers from U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering used computer models to simulate the impact of large-scale adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. (photo by: Plexi Images/Glasshouse Images/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

Subheadline

"Our simulation shows that the cumulative public health benefits of large-scale EV adoption between now and 2050 could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars"

Large-scale adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) could lead to significant health benefits for populations, according to a new study from the department of civil and mineral engineering in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

Researchers used computer simulations to show that aggressive electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet, coupled with an ambitious roll-out of renewable electricity generation, could result in health benefits worth between US$84 billion and 188 billion by 2050.

Even scenarios with less aggressive grid decarbonization mostly predicted health benefits running into the tens of billions of dollars.

“When researchers examine the impacts of EVs, they typically focus on climate change in the form of mitigating CO2 emissions,” says Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou, one of the co-authors of the study, which was published in PNAS.

“But CO2 is not the only thing that comes out of the tailpipe of an internal combustion vehicle. They produce many air pollutants that have a significant, quantifiable impact on public health. Furthermore, evidence shows that those impacts are disproportionately felt by populations that are low-income, racialized or marginalized.”

The research team previously used their expertise in life-cycle assessment to build computer models that simulated the impact of large-scale EV adoption in the U.S. market.

Among other things, they showed that while EV adoption will have a positive impact on climate change, it is not sufficient on its own to meet the Paris Agreement targets. They recommended that EV adoption be used in combination with other strategies, such as investments in public transit, active transportation and higher housing density.

In their latest study, the team sought to account for the non-climate benefits of EV adoption. They adapted their models to simulate the production of air pollutants that are common in fossil fuel combustion, such as nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and small particles known as PM2.5.

“Modelling these pollutants is very different from modelling CO2, which lasts for decades and ends up well-mixed throughout the atmosphere,” says study co-author Daniel Posen, an associate professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering.

“In contrast, these pollutants, and their associated health impacts, are more localized. It matters not only how much we are emitting, but also where we emit them.”

While EVs do not produce tailpipe emissions, they can still be responsible for air pollution if the power plants that supply them run on fossil fuels. This also has the effect of displacing air pollution from busy highways to the communities that live near those power plants.

Another complication is that neither the air pollution from the power grid nor that from internal combustion vehicles is expected to stay constant over time.

“Today’s gasoline-powered cars produce a lot less pollution than those that were built 20 years ago, many of which are still on the road,” says Jean Schmitt, post-doctoral fellow and lead author of the study.

“So, if we want to fairly compare EVs to internal combustion vehicles, we have to account for the fact that air pollution will still go down as these older vehicles get replaced. We can also see that the power grid is getting greener over time, as more renewable generation gets installed.”

The team, which also included Professor Heather MacLean of the department of civil and mineral engineering and Amir F. N. Abdul-Manan of Saudi Aramco’s Strategic Transport Analysis Team, chose two primary scenarios to simulate to the year 2050. In the first, they assumed that no more EVs will be built, but that older internal combustion vehicles will continue to be replaced with newer, more efficient ones.

In the second scenario, they assumed that by 2035, all new vehicles sold will be electric. The researchers described this as “aggressive,” but it is in line with the stated intentions of many countries. For example, Norway plans to eliminate sales of non-electric vehicles next year, and Canada plans to follow suit by 2035.

For each of these scenarios, they also considered various rates for the transition of the electric grid to low-emitting and renewable energy sources.

Under each set of conditions, the team simulated air pollution levels across the U.S. and used calculations commonly used by epidemiologists, actuaries and policy analysts to correlate pollution levels with statistical estimates of the number of years of life lost, as well as with estimates of economic value.

“Our simulation shows that the cumulative public health benefits of large-scale EV adoption between now and 2050 could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars,” says Posen.

“That’s significant, but another thing we found is that we only get these benefits if the grid continues to get greener. We are already transitioning away from fossil fuel power generation, and it’s likely to continue in the future. But for the sake of argument, we modelled what would happen if we artificially freeze the grid in its current state.

“In that case, we’d actually be better off simply replacing our old internal combustion vehicles with new ones – but again, this is not a very realistic scenario.”

This finding raises the question of whether it’s more important to decarbonize the transportation sector through EV adoption, or to first decarbonize the power generation sector that’s the ultimate source of pollution associated with EVs.

To that, Hatzopoulou notes that vehicles sold today will continue to be used for decades. “If we buy more internal combustion vehicles now, however efficient they may be, we will be locking ourselves into those tailpipe emissions for years to come, and they will spread that pollution everywhere there are roads,” she says. “We still need to decarbonize the power generation system – and we are – but we should not wait until that process is complete to get more EVs on the road.

“We need to start on the path to a healthier future today.”

3D-printed soil? U of T startup expands sustainable urban farming footprint in Toronto

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 15:07:18 +0000

3D-printed soil? U of T startup expands sustainable urban farming footprint in Toronto

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/11/2024 - 11:07

Cutline

Leo Hua and Adnan Sharif show off fresh basil that was grown with Lyrata’s sustainable farming system at Toronto’s Casa Loma (photo by Liz Intac)

Topic

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Startups

Sustainability

U of T Scarborough

Subheadline

With new installations at Casa Loma and U of T Scarborough, Lyrata is supplying freshly grown produce to local caterers and restaurants

A startup co-founded by a University of Toronto graduate student has its roots in an experience that is all too common for many of us.

He kept forgetting to water his plants.

“I was working in a plant immunity biology lab, so if I didn’t water them, I’d have no plants to do experiments with,” says Adnan Sharif, who is pursuing a master’s degree in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

He says his solution was inspired by his father.

“My dad is a mechanical engineering professor at a university in Japan, and he knows a lot about manufacturing materials with porous, three-dimensional structures,” he says. “That’s how I got the idea to make my own 3D-printed soil construct, which could retain water for a week or more.

“That way, I wouldn’t have to go into the lab and water the plants so often.”

The innovation – which Sharif came up as an undergraduate working in the lab of Keiko Yoshioka, a professor in the department of cell and systems biology in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science – is one of several that now underpins Lyrata, a startup that grows fresh produce for caterers and high-end restaurants across the Greater Toronto Area.

The company, which got its start in a greenhouse on U of T’s St. George campus, has recently expanded with operations at U of T Scarborough and Casa Loma, a museum, event space and historic site in midtown Toronto.

Growing plants without soil, known as hydroponics, is a technique commonly used in greenhouses worldwide. But Sharif and his team see an opportunity to make the industry more sustainable, starting with the soil replacement that the plants grow in.

“The product that almost everyone uses today is basically the same as house insulation,” Sharif says. “It’s made from rocks that are mined in remote places and shipped hundreds of kilometres to a production facility, where they are heated to thousands of degrees in a giant furnace to make a porous, chemically inert material. This material then needs to be shipped again to where it’s needed, and when you’re finished, you throw it in the garbage.”

By contrast, Lyrata’s SmartSoil is 3D-printed using biopolymers such as polylactic acid, which is derived from corn. These materials can be locally sourced and require much lower temperatures to melt and form into porous structures.

When the growing cycle is complete, the product goes through a low-heat proprietary cleaning process and can be used again. Sharif says that SmartSoil has a total lifespan of about two years, after which it can be composted along with crop residue. Together, these changes greatly lower the carbon footprint of indoor farming.

In 2020, Sharif and his co-founders brought his idea to The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, U of T Engineering’s startup incubator and one of several entrepreneurship hubs across U of T’s three campuses. Through the Hatchery’s Nest process, they were connected with business mentors, including alumnus Xavier Tang, a consultant and venture capitalist who still advises the company today.

Over the next few years, the team evolved, with some original members leaving and others joining. They include Leo Hua, who has been pivotal to speeding the development of 3D printable soil. The concept evolved, too, as the team realized that producing food was a better business for Lyrata than rather than selling their growth medium to other farmers.

The Hatchery team – in particular, Executive Director Joseph Orozco, Go-To-Market Lead Erika J. Murray and a team of work-study students, mentors and legal externs – helped Lyrata develop their technology and business. In 2022, the Hatchery provided $155,000 in seed funding, enabling the founders to be employed by their company and further supporting business development. The funding also enabled the company to rent greenhouse space on campus, where they began growing lettuce to provide to Spaces and Experiences at U of T.

Lyrata also developed something new: a modular unit that works exclusively with their SmartSoil and contains everything required to produce a variety of indoor crops – from lights and growth medium to irrigation systems.

“None of these technological and business developments would have taken place without the generous support of the over 50 Hatchery mentors, work-study students, and legal externs who contributed to our success,” says Sharif.

“Our current concept is what we call farming-as-a-service,” Hua adds. “The SmartGrow unit we developed is small enough to fit into a standard parking spot. Our clients sign a contract with us to place a unit on their site and we take care of everything from planting to harvesting.

“For a flat fee, they get a self-contained farm that provides a reliable quantity of their desired crop over a set period of time.”

In addition to providing a locally sourced, sustainable product, Sharif says the approach can also help mitigate fluctuations in the price of wholesale produce.

“In Canada, most of our lettuce comes from California, which has been dealing with drought and many other issues,” says Sharif. “Supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 were also a big challenge for restaurants, which have very thin margins to begin with. At one point, the price of lettuce increased by a factor of six, so you can imagine the effect that would have.”

So far, Lyrata has produced more than 15 different types of crops, including basil, parsley and mizuna, also known as Japanese mustard greens.

Support from the U of T Engineering community has been key to Lyrata’s success.

For example, it was a U of T Engineering alumni connection that recently led to Lyrata launching an installation at the historic Casa Loma museum and landmark in Toronto.

“Lyrata’s competitive edge is that they provide an on-site, full service and they do not take up very much space,” says Nikol Watlikiewicz, Casa Loma’s horticulture and grounds manager. “In a small corner of our potting shed, we were able to build two grow units that provide a good yield weekly, without having to train our staff on the complicated system.

“Growing indoors gives us the stability and control that traditional agriculture does not. It’s an excellent example of how engineers can help solve the global food crisis with innovative thinking.”

In August, Lyrata launched another growing unit at U of T Scarborough, located within the Harmony Commons Dining Hall.

The priority for the next few years is growing Lyrata’s crop offerings and client base with ongoing support from The Hatchery. The incubator has facilitated graduate student placements through Mitacs, with matching funds. It also backed a recent $167,500 project with the Ontario and Canadian governments through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership program to further advance the yield and efficiency of the SmartSoil system.

“The fact we’ve been able to come this far in such a short time is in large part due to the help we’ve had from U of T Engineering, and especially the Entrepreneurship Hatchery,” says Sharif.

“Whether it was getting seed funding, finding mentors, hiring work-study students or making important connections through their alumni network, we wouldn’t be here without their support.”

U of T Engineering student team wins international prize with sustainable wind turbine

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 13:44:46 +0000

U of T Engineering student team wins international prize with sustainable wind turbine

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 08/06/2024 - 09:44

Cutline

From left to right: UTWind team members Robert Zhao, Joeun Yook, Micheal Jing, Dhara Patel, Alexis Terefenko, Justin Ding, Andre Li and Alex Chen (photo by Niels Adema)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Our Community

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research and Innovation

Sustainability

Undergraduate Students

Subheadline

It’s the UTWind team’s second victory at the International Small Wind Turbine Contest, following their win in 2022

A team of students from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have earned top spot in the International Small Wind Turbine Contest with a design that utilized components from recycled pop bottles and plant-fibre composites.

The competition, which is hosted annually at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen in the Netherlands, challenges student teams to design and build a small-scale wind turbine for deployment in sub-Saharan Africa. Teams are evaluated on the overall energy yield of their turbine, the sustainability of their design, the quality of their construction and the presentation they give to the judges.

The UTWind team's first-place finish saw them outcompete seven other teams from countries including Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain. This is the second time the team won the contest, following their debut performance in 2022.

Justin Ding, a second-year mechanical engineering student and incoming co-lead of UTWind's mechanical and manufacturing team, says the team made improvements to the pitch system for this year’s design and implemented more sustainable materials.

“For example, we used plant-based flax fibre composites to make the blades, which makes them lighter. The nose cone was made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate, or PET plastic, which is more sustainable than using new material,” Ding says.

“We gathered plastic pop bottles from around campus, including the student-run Hard Hat Café,” says third-year mechanical engineering student Elena Sloan, the other co-lead of the mechanical and manufacturing team. “We then cut these bottles into strips and extruded them through a heated nozzle to make 1.75 mm diameter filament, which we could use in our 3D printer.”

Once the turbine was complete, it was disassembled and packed into four bags of checked luggage for the flight to the Netherlands. The team’s first stop was Delft, where their turbine underwent testing in a wind tunnel at Delft University of Technology’s Open Jet Facility.

The testing showed that the team was able to harvest about 36 per cent of the available energy at a wind speed of 8.5 metres per second, a solid, but not outstanding result.

From there, the team members took a three-hour train ride across the country to Groningen, where they gave their technical presentation, followed by the awards ceremony.

“We didn’t really expect to win best overall, but we thought we had a decent chance at winning for the most sustainable design,” says Dhara Patel, incoming co-president of UTWind and a second-year electrical engineering student.

“When we found out we didn’t win that award, we were pretty devastated, but it was a complete shock to then find out that we won the whole competition – our mouths just hung open for a while.”

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A post shared by UTWind (@utwindclub)

Going forward, Patel says the team would like to try building a vertical-axis turbine in addition to their standard horizontal-axis version. “Vertical-axis turbines look really cool, and they are structurally simpler and have a lower profile than horizontal-axis ones,” she says.

“Only one other team has tried that. We’d like to take on that challenge, and ultimately put one on our own campus buildings to generate clean wind power.”

Patel was a high school student when UTWind won their first competition in 2022, and says reading about their success was one of the things that inspired her to study engineering at U of T. The team she eventually came to co-lead now includes more than 50 engineering students as well as some from the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Students are divided into five sub-teams: aerodynamics, mechanical and manufacturing, control systems, power systems and sustainability.

The team members say they’re energized by their win, and have big plans for next year.

“We’ve learned so many lessons – before, during and after the contest,” says Robert Zhao, UTWind's other incoming co-president and an undergraduate student in the department of physics.

“But our competitors have also learned those lessons, and there are more of them than ever before. We need to improve our winning design, making it more robust and more mature to better defend our title.”

More with less: Researchers map a more sustainable path to home construction in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 18:16:30 +0000

More with less: Researchers map a more sustainable path to home construction in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 07/31/2024 - 14:16

Cutline

(photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Cities

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Graduate Students

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

Subheadline

From more multi-unit projects to fewer basements, a computer simulation shows that multiple building strategies will be necessary to address the country's housing affordability while meeting climate targets

Adopting the right mix of sustainable construction practices could allow Canada to meet its housing goals – as many as 5.8 million new homes by 2030 – without blowing past its climate commitments.

Researchers in the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment (CSBE) developed a computer simulation that forecasts the emissions associated with new housing and infrastructure construction.

The work builds on previous CSBE research that showed that, in order for Canada to meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets, homes built in 2030 will need to produce 83 per cent fewer greenhouse gases during construction than those built in 2018.

“There is an obvious tension between our commitment to reducing our emissions and the need to restore housing affordability,” says Shoshanna Saxe, an associate professor of civil and mineral engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who is the CSBE’s director.

“But that tension only exists because of our status quo approaches to housing. As our research shows, we can build 5.8 million homes and cut GHG emissions from construction – it’s just that we must build them differently than we have in the past.”

In their latest paper, the CSBE team built what they call the future infrastructure growth (FIG) model, which enabled the team to evaluate the effect of implementing various strategies that aim to lower these emissions.

“We built our model using open data from the roughly 50,000 neighbourhoods we currently have in Canada,” says Keagan Rankin, a PhD student who is first author of the new paper published in Environmental Science & Technology.

“We looked at aspects such as how many units there are per neighbourhood, what type of housing stock comprises them, what length of road services them, etc. We then used what we know about current construction methods to model what the embodied emissions would be if you built a given number of new homes in the future, using the same distribution of neighbourhood types.

“Once we had that, we were able to ask the question: how much could we reduce those emissions by adopting sustainable construction strategies, such as denser neighbourhoods or better building design?”

The team looked at five strategies that could be implemented to reduce emissions associated with housing construction:

Urban form: Analysis of existing neighbourhoods showed that emissions per unit are lower for those that contain more multi-unit buildings (either high-rise or low-rise) than they are for those that consist mostly of suburban, single-family homes. This strategy would involve a shift toward more of these multi-unit neighbourhood forms.
Higher infill rate: This refers to placing new housing in existing neighbourhoods – areas that are already built up. Because it reuses existing infrastructure, such as roads and water pipes, this new housing can be built with lower emissions than greenfield developments.
Circularity: This strategy involves re-using existing buildings or infrastructure in the construction of new ones. For example, renovating a single-family home to become a multi-unit dwelling would require fewer materials than razing it and starting from scratch.
Material technology improvements: Innovations in the way that materials such as concrete or steel are manufactured can reduce their carbon footprint. This strategy assumed that by 2030, our main construction materials will be produced with 20 to 25 per cent fewer emissions than today.
Best-in-class design: The team found that some housing designs were associated with lower emissions per unit, such as making the home smaller overall through better layouts. Another example involves the proportion of residential building that is underground. Since basements are typically made of carbon-intensive concrete, the same sized dwelling with a smaller basement would have lower emissions.

Multiple strategies will be required

Using the FIG model, the researchers showed that building housing at the rate required to restore affordability without any changes to construction practices would cause Canada to overshoot its climate commitments by 437 per cent.

However, if the above strategies are implemented, the FIG model suggests that they would in fact be able to reduce emissions to below the target level.

The model also showed that while all five strategies are needed to reach the target, some of them had a stronger effect than others. For example, changing urban forms and using best-in-class design together accounted for roughly two-thirds of the improvements needed. By contrast, the strategies of infill, circularity and improvements in manufacturing each accounted for roughly one-tenth of the changes needed.

The researchers found that for the next one to two decades, the most important elements of sustainable building will be designing better buildings and building denser neighbourhoods.

“The numbers are very close, and of course there’s a certain amount of uncertainty associated with all of these estimates, but it was good to see that we came in below the line, because it means the situation is not completely hopeless,” says Rankin.

“There’s no question that building 5.8 million homes by 2030 is an aggressive target. We may not get there, and if not, it would of course make it a bit easier to stay within our carbon budget.

“But we’ve done ambitious things as a country before, such as building a railroad from coast to coast in just five years. This analysis shows that the strategies we already know about are sound, and that all of them will be needed if we are going to prevent the worst impacts of climate change while also restoring housing affordability.”

New contaminant-tolerant catalyst could help capture carbon directly from smokestacks

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:45:48 +0000

New contaminant-tolerant catalyst could help capture carbon directly from smokestacks

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 07/24/2024 - 12:45

Cutline

PhD students Rui Kai (Ray) Miao (left) and Panos Papangelakis (right) hold up a new catalyst that is designed to convert captured CO2 gas into valuable products (photo by Tyler Irving)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

David Sinton

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Research & Innovation

Sustainability

Subheadline

The research marks an important step towards developing economically viable techniques for carbon capture and storage

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have designed a catalyst that can efficiently convert captured carbon into valuable products – even in the presence of contaminants that degrade the performance of current versions.

The discovery, described in a paper published in Nature Energy, is an important step toward more economically viable techniques for carbon capture and storage that could be added to existing industrial processes.

“Today, we have more and better options for low-carbon electricity generation than ever before,” says David Sinton, professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering and senior author on the paper. “But there are other sectors of the economy that will be harder to decarbonize: for example, steel and cement manufacturing. To help those industries, we need to invent cost-effective ways to capture and upgrade the carbon in their waste streams.”

Sinton and his team use devices known as electrolyzers to convert CO2 and electricity into products such as ethylene and ethanol. These carbon-based molecules can be sold as fuels or used as chemical feedstocks for making everyday items such as plastic.

Inside the electrolyzer, the conversion reaction happens when three elements — CO2 gas, electrons and a water-based liquid electrolyte — come together on the surface of a solid catalyst.

The catalyst is often made of copper but may also contain other metals or organic compounds that can further improve the system. Its function is to speed up the reaction and minimize the creation of undesirable byproducts like hydrogen gas, which reduce the efficiency of the overall process.

While several high-performing catalysts have been developed around the world, nearly all of them are designed to operate with a pure CO2 feed. But if the carbon in question comes from smokestacks, the feed is likely to be anything but pure.

“Catalyst designers generally don’t like dealing with impurities, and for good reason,” says Panos Papangelakis, a PhD student in mechanical engineering and a co-lead author on the paper.

“Sulphur oxides such as SO2 poison the catalyst by binding to the surface. This leaves fewer sites for CO2 to react, and it also causes the formation of chemicals you don’t want.

“It happens really fast: whereas some catalysts can last hundreds of hours on a pure feed, if you introduce these impurities, within minutes they can be down to five per cent efficiency.”

Although there are well-established methods to remove impurities from CO2-rich exhaust gases before feeding them into the electrolyzer, these require substantial time, energy and expense. Furthermore, in the case of SO2, even a little bit can be a big problem.

“Even if you bring your exhaust gas down to less than 10 parts per million, or 0.001 per cent of the feed, the catalyst can still be poisoned in under two hours,” says Papangelakis.

In the paper, the team describes how two key changes to a typical copper-based catalyst can make it more resilient to SO2.

On one side, they added a thin layer of polyteterafluoroethylene, also known as Teflon. This non-stick material changes the chemistry at the catalyst surface, impeding the reactions that enable SO2 poisoning to take place.

On the other side, they added a layer of Nafion, an electrically conductive polymer often used in fuel cells. This complex, porous material contains some areas that are hydrophilic, meaning they attract water, as well as other areas that are hydrophobic, meaning they repel water. This structure makes it difficult for SO2 to reach the catalyst surface.

The team then fed this catalyst with a mix of CO2 and SO2, with the latter at a concentration of about 400 parts per million, typical of an industrial waste stream. Even under these tough conditions, the new catalyst performed well.

“In the paper, we report a Faraday efficiency — a measure of how many of the electrons ended up in the desired products — of 50 per cent, which we were able to maintain for 150 hours,” says Papangelakis.

“There are some catalysts out there that might start at a higher efficiency, maybe 75 per cent or 80 per cent. But again, if you expose them to SO2, within minutes or at most a couple of hours, that drops down to almost nothing. We were able to resist that.”

Papangelakis says that because his team’s approach doesn’t affect the composition of the catalyst itself, it should be widely applicable. In other words, teams that have already perfected high-performing catalysts should be able to use similar coatings to confer resistance to sulphur oxide poisoning.

Although sulphur oxides are the most challenging impurity in typical waste streams, they are not the only ones, and it’s the full set of chemical contaminants that the team is turning to next.

“There are lots of other impurities to consider, such as nitrogen oxides, oxygen, etc.,” says Papangelakis.

“But the fact that this approach works so well for sulphur oxides is very promising. Before this work, it was just taken for granted that you’d have to remove the impurities before upgrading CO2.

“What we’ve shown is that there might be a different way to deal with them, which opens up a lot of new possibilities.”

U of T study highlights tension between Canada’s climate and housing goals

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 15:56:06 +0000

U of T study highlights tension between Canada’s climate and housing goals

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 07/03/2024 - 11:56

Cutline

A study led by researchers at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering shows that Canada will not be able to meet its targets for both new housing and emissions reductions without significant changes to residential construction practices (photo illustration by Adrian So/elxeneize/edb3_6/Envato Elements)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

"Unless things change, by 2030 nearly half of all the allowable emissions in Canada would be due to construction alone"

Canada cannot simultaneously meet its targets for emission reductions and new housing unless there’s a drastic change in construction practices, according to research from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

The new study, published in Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, found that if Canada is to stay within its emissions targets, homes built in 2030 will need to produce 83 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions during construction compared to homes built in 2018.

“Our analysis shows that in 2018, which is the latest year for which we have the data, the construction sector in Canada was responsible for the equivalent of 90 megatonnes of CO2,” says Shoshanna Saxe, an associate professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering and one of the senior authors of the study. “That was about eight per cent of Canada’s total emissions at the time, but we were not producing nearly as much housing as we needed then, let alone what we need now. To restore housing affordability, we need to triple the rate of housing construction by 2030.”

At the same time, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions target for 2030 is to be 40 per cent below 2005 levels, which works out to 443 megatonnes, Saxe notes.

“That means that unless things change, by 2030 nearly half of all the allowable emissions in Canada would be due to construction alone.”

Saxe is the director of U of T’s Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment (CSBE), which carries out research on the construction and urban design pathways that will enable Canada to meet its housing and infrastructure needs while curbing greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, an international climate change treaty enacted in 2015.

The CSBE team’s first step was to quantify the scale of the challenge – but they faced hurdles in gathering data on the construction industry’s carbon footprint.

“What we found was that this data is split across many different parts of the economy: manufacturing, buildings, transportation, etc.,” Saxe says. “There are also questions around consumption versus production: if a piece of steel is made in China and used for a building in Canada, whose emissions are those?

“Until now, it’s been difficult to get a picture of the construction sector as a whole, which is partly why it’s been overlooked.”

Hatzav Yoffe, a post-doctoral fellow and lead author on the paper, used what’s known as an environmentally extended input-output model to conduct a high-resolution, top-down analysis of Canada’s construction sector.

The researchers calculated that residential construction was responsible for the largest share of total construction emissions, at 42 per cent.

Their model also enabled them to ask another question: given the expected increase in housing construction, how much would emissions per constructed home have to decrease by in order to stay within emissions targets?

“You can’t just take the overall 40 per cent reduction target and apply that to the construction sector. That won’t be enough, because you are also tripling the rate of housing construction,” says Saxe.

The other members of the research team included Keagan Rankin, a PhD student in the department of civil and mineral engineering, Daniel Posen, an associate professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering and Christian Bachmann, associate professor at the University of Waterloo.

While the study throws the tension between Canada’s housing targets and its climate targets into sharp relief, Saxe and her colleagues believe it is still possible to reconcile the two – and are researching ways to tackle the challenge.

“For example, if you build more densely, you use fewer materials to build the same number of units. If you are strategic about where you place those units, you don’t have to build as many new roads or sewers to service them,” Saxe says.

“We can also think about changing the balance between housing construction and other types of infrastructure, such as oil and gas infrastructure.

“At the end of the day, if we’re going to build what we need while avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, we need to seriously think about how we can deliver more with less.”

Academic hospital network joins centre for research on microfluidic devices for human health

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:05:46 +0000

Academic hospital network joins centre for research on microfluidic devices for human health

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 02/14/2024 - 12:05

Cutline

Researchers work in the Device Foundry, one of three facilities that are part of the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (photo by Dahlia Katz)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Our Community

Institutional Strategic Initiatives

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Unity Health

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

The Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies, or CRAFT, is a partnership between U of T, the National Research Council of Canada and, now, Unity Health Toronto

The Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) has expanded to formally include Unity Health Toronto, an academic hospital network and leading Canadian health research institute.

A partnership between the University of Toronto, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and now Unity Health Toronto, CRAFT develops leading-edge microfluidic devices – technologies that take advantage of the fundamental difference in behaviour of many fluids at the micro-scale – that can address many challenges in human health.

The latest agreement, which includes $21 million in new investments and an extension of the partnership to 2028, will support dozens of U of T trainees who will work alongside NRC scientists and engineers, as well as clinical scientists, on projects related to diagnostics bio-fabrication and organ-on-chip systems.

With the addition of Unity Health Toronto, clinicians will now join CRAFT scientists in developing new microfluidic technologies such as detection and monitoring risks of infection in intensive care unit (ICU) environments and rapid detection of arterial peripheral diseases. This will allow scientists and clinicians to directly test and validate their technologies in care settings, and develop new pathways to work with industry partners.

“CRAFT was built from the common vision that microfluidics could make a real impact on Canada’s scientific and clinical fields,” says Teodor Veres, director of R&D at the NRC’s Medical Devices Research Centre and co-director of CRAFT.

“Focused on providing new student generations with opportunities to forge ground-breaking scientific and technological advancements in microfluidic devices, these advancements have the potential to revolutionize disease diagnosis and treatment in Canada and globally. This vision was crucial to our initiative’s growth and our current success.”

Left to right: Claudia dos Santos, Pamela Plant, Valeria DiGiovanni and Marlene Santos at the CRAFT Translational Research Station inside the Medical Surgical ICU at St. Michael’s Hospital (photo by Unity Health Toronto)

Microfluidics refers to the study of fluids’ unique behaviours at the scale of microns – one thousandth of a millimetre – or smaller, as well as the design and manufacture of devices with tiny channels or other features that can precisely control these fluids. That, in turn, offers new approaches to a variety of challenges in engineering, medicine, biology and chemistry by miniaturizing, automating or innovating on established laboratory techniques.

Applications include rapid diagnostic devices that help clinicians to reliably test for the presence of certain diseases at the patient’s bedside while avoiding the cost and time delays associated with sending samples to large testing laboratories. Microfluidics are also used in biosensors that allow patients in remote communities to send accurate data to specialists located hundreds of kilometres away.

As an example, Claudia dos Santos, Unity Health critical care physician and scientist, has pinpointed a need to quickly identify ICU patients at risk of sepsis. She is working with CRAFT researchers to develop a microfluidic instrument that can detect biomarkers for sepsis on the ICU floor. Such an instrument will allow for faster diagnosis and treatment of sepsis, which can be deadly if left untreated.

“With Unity Health Toronto formally joining CRAFT, we are bringing the power and potential of microfluidic devices into clinical settings. This partnership will allow clinicians to merge their expertise with CRAFT scientists, and take the next major steps towards transforming patient care,” says dos Santos, who is an associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

Another application of microfluidics, known as organ-on-a-chip, enables cells, tissues or even portions of working organs to be grown outside the body in microfluidic devices. These biological models can be used in high-throughput screening of large libraries of potentially therapeutic molecules for specific functions – for example, determining which ones would be most effective against a particular type of cancer. Such screens could even suggest the ideal therapies for an individual patient, opening the door to precision medicine.

CRAFT was founded in 2018 and includes three research and development facilities for microfluidic devices: the Tissue Foundry for bioprinting and device preclinical validation; the Device Foundry for microfluidic device design, prototyping and small-scale fabrication; and the NRC Device Fabrication and Scale-Up facility. The first two are located at U of T and available for use by academics, students, industry and government. The latter is located on the NRC campus in Boucherville, Que.

In 2023, the facilities hosted 125 unique users from across U of T as well as partner hospitals, including Sunnybrook, the Hospital for Sick Children and University Health Network. Since its inception, CRAFT has engaged 44 researchers and 114 trainees in a wide range of projects, leading to 69 peer-reviewed publications, 22 patent submissions and three spin-off companies.

“CRAFT has been a team effort all along. In addition to the NRC, we have been supported as an institutional strategic initiative through U of T’s Division of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and by U of T’s faculties of Engineering, Arts & Science, Medicine and Pharmacy. We all look forward to an exciting next chapter in partnering with Unity Health,” says Axel Guenther, a professor of mechanical engineering at U of T and co-director of CRAFT.

“Developing the next generation of made-in-Canada microfluidic technologies and bringing them to the people who need them most – patients, health-care professionals and pharmaceutical companies – will require strong partnerships within and outside of CRAFT, with our clinical partners, U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and Canadian industry.

“We invite everyone to visit and use our open research facilities in Toronto, attend our Microfluidics Professional Course on July 17-19, or attend our research symposium in Boucherville on Oct. 12, 2024.”

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Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies

U of T Data Sciences Institute trains workers in data analytics, applied machine learning

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 20:44:51 +0000

U of T Data Sciences Institute trains workers in data analytics, applied machine learning

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 11/28/2023 - 15:44

Cutline

(Photo: skynesher via Canva, Getty Images)

Tyler Irving

Topic

Our Community

Data Sciences Institute

Institutional Strategic Initiatives

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

Powered by Upskill Canada, the Data Science and Machine Learning Software Foundations Certificates aim to upgrade workers' skills in fast-growing fields

A new training initiative launched by the University of Toronto’s Data Sciences Institute (DSI), an institutional strategic initiative, is helping Canada meet its growing need for talent in data science and machine learning.

Applications for the DSI Data Science and Machine Learning Software Foundations Certificates opened in October to strong demand. DSI is now gearing up for a second session, scheduled to begin on Jan. 15.

By 2026, digital literacy is projected to be essential for 90 per cent of jobs in Canada

The certificates offer affordable, flexible and rigorous upskilling opportunities, designed for learners with a university degree or college diploma who have three or more years of work experience.

Prospective DSI Certificate participants can be employed or actively seeking employment and do not need experience or education in the field of data science. These certificates are accessible to individuals from all backgrounds, and do not require prior affiliation with the university.

The certificates are powered by Upskill Canada, a national initiative run by Palette Skills and funded by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED). Upskill Canada is designed to meet the talent needs of high-growth sectors while building a more inclusive economy.

Supported by funding from ISED’s Upskilling for Industry Initiative, more than 15,000 Canadian workers will benefit from an innovative approach to skills training. Central to the Upskill Canada initiative is the role of community training providers, who work closely with local and national employers to identify precise suites of skills being sought by industry. Equipping workers with these skills will create new career pathways for Canadians and better position Canadian companies to compete both domestically and internationally.

“What we’re hearing from our partners in industry is that targeted training in key areas can greatly increase the available talent pool in this fast-moving sector,” says Lisa Strug, academic director of the Data Sciences Institute, a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children and professor in the departments of statistical sciences and computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and the division of biostatistics in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“We’re pleased to be able to leverage U of T’s leadership in machine learning and data sciences to provide new opportunities for workers in the digital economy.”

“Through the industry advisory group, prospective employers like Thomson Reuters are actively engaging with the Data Sciences Institute as they develop learning opportunities that address the evolving data science and machine learning demands across small-, medium- and large-sized enterprises,” says Carter Cousineau, vice-president, data and model (AI/ML) governance and ethics at Thomson Reuters.

“This collaborative approach helps ensure learners gain the necessary skillsets to pursue new roles, or identify opportunities for advancement, in this swiftly changing landscape.”

Both certificates offer foundational concepts in data science and machine learning knowledge and provide opportunities for practical application through employer case studies. Each certificate also includes sessions dedicated to career advancement – from support for resume writing to networking and interview skills development.

The technical and job readiness programming will be delivered as online modules with in-person and hybrid opportunities for professional networking. Certificate recipients will be well positioned for roles such as data analysts, data managers or applied machine learning analysts.

The courses and job readiness sessions are offered part-time, allowing learners time to balance existing commitments and still accomplish their career goals. Over the course of the next two years, five cohorts of learners are expected to complete the 16-week certificates. Initially, the training will be offered to learners at a substantially reduced rate of $425 (+HST) per certificate, thanks to the support of Upskill Canada. The DSI has also committed accessibility funding for those with financial need.

“We’re so proud to formally launch Upskill Canada with our inaugural class of workers and training service providers,” says Rhonda Barnet, CEO of Palette Skills, which was chosen by ISED to run the Upskill Canada initiative.

“This is a big first step – but it’s only the beginning. We’re looking forward to working with our supporters in government and industry to upskill many more Canadians so they can transition into high-demand roles in the modern workforce – and help fast-growing companies achieve their full potential.”