RJ Taylor

Going green? Eco-alternatives could do more harm than good – it depends where you live

sgupta — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 09:12:52 +0000

Going green? Eco-alternatives could do more harm than good – it depends where you live sgupta Thu, 03/05/2015 - 04:12

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Professor Chris Kennedy (seen here with PhD student Lorraine Sugar) proposes a new 600-ton threshold that could indicate when switching to “green” alternatives may actually increase overall carbon emissions (photo by Roberta Baker)

RJ Taylor

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Knowing where your electricity comes from is key, researchers say

Whether it’s swapping your car for an electric vehicle or your natural gas furnace for geothermal heating, transitioning from fossil fuels to electric-powered technology is widely believed to be the best way to lower carbon emissions.

But U of T civil engineer Chris Kennedy says knowing where the electricity comes from to power those “eco-alternatives” is critical. If that electricity comes from burning oil and coal, it might mean that green alternatives aren’t that green after all.

Kennedy’s study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, proposes a new decision-making threshold for when to move from fossil fuel technology to electric power (called electrification), and at what point that move may increase or lower carbon emissions.

Although regions may welcome “green” technology like electric vehicles, high-speed rail and geothermal heating, they aren’t green if the electricity to power them creates even more carbon emissions than their oil-driven counterparts.

For electrification to lower emissions, Kennedy says that a region needs to produce its electricity at a rate below his threshold: approximately 600 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per gigawatt hour (GWh). This means that for every gigawatt hour of electricity generated (the power needed to run about 100 homes for a year), less than 600 tons of greenhouses gases (measured as “CO2 equivalent”) can be emitted.

Which is the lowest carbon alternative? That may depend where you live

If a region’s electricity production exceeds this 600-ton threshold, as is the case in countries such as India, Australia and China (as shown below in Figure A), electrification could actually increase carbon emissions and accelerate climate change.

Countries such as these generate much of their electricity using coal, which he says produces about 1,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per GWh – nearly double the suggested threshold. Natural gas, on the other hand, produces 600 tons, and hydropower and nuclear energy produce nearly zero.

“You could speculate that incorporating electrified technologies such as high speed rail in China may not lower overall emissions,” says Kennedy. “It might even be more carbon friendly to fly.”

Kennedy employed an industrial ecology approach to dig into the data from four previous studies – including one from the International Energy Agency and others from Canada, the U.S. and countries in Europe.

As a nation, Canada’s electricity does not produce very much carbon in comparison to other regions. It ranks low on the list, at just under 200 tons of CO2 equivalent per GWh.

“Despite that many believe our power is generated using fossil fuels from Alberta, most of Canada’s electricity mix comes from hydropower and nuclear facilities,” Kennedy says.

But when he zoomed in on certain regions in Canada, some of this good news changed. In a previous study, he compared the use of “green” geothermal heat pumps (used in homes) versus natural gas furnaces across different provinces. He found that the pumps were more eco-friendly in Ontario and British Columbia – owing to nuclear and hydropower – but in coal-dependent Alberta, it was greener to stay with a natural gas furnace.

In his recent paper, Kennedy also cites a study that found using plug-in electric vehicles emitted less carbon when used along the west coast of the United States, but produced the same, if not more, carbon when used in the Midwestern U.S.

Why does this threshold matter?

“Looking at overall carbon emissions of one country or a group of countries can only get you so far,” says civil engineering PhD student Lorraine Sugar, who worked as a climate change specialist for the World Bank for nearly five years.

“It’s hard to track progress and set goals internationally, while holding regions accountable. Having a specific and measurable target like this threshold is incredibly important, especially leading into the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year.”

According to Kennedy, this threshold puts a marker down in a policy arena where none has existed before – and it isn’t just valuable for government.

“It reframes part of the climate change debate by encouraging individuals around the world to better understand where their electricity is coming from before they adopt supposedly eco-friendly technologies,” he says. “And even more, it incites them to understand how much carbon is emitted during the entire life cycle of those technologies – from their ongoing operation to their manufacture and disposal.”

He recommends people search for their local government energy agencies to find out how electricity is generated. If it is largely coal, then electric-powered technologies like ground-source heat pumps or electric vehicles may not be the most eco-friendly alternatives. On the national and international stage, he hopes governments do the same research when developing environmental policies and incentives.

“Canada’s three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, have some of the lowest carbon emissions from electricity generation in the world,” says Daniel Hoornweg, an associate professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and a current U of T engineering PhD student.

“This threshold helps politicians make smarter energy decisions,” says Hoornweg, who recently retired from the World Bank after nearly 20 years in the urban sector. “Why aren’t we making better use of these advantages to electrify our transportation modes?

“And why are we so focused on one or two energy projects (like a pipeline) instead of working on a more comprehensive U.S.-Canada energy agreement that could better leverage our energy strengths?”

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New $5 million NSERC network uses enzymes for greener manufacturing

sgupta — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 14:26:40 +0000

New $5 million NSERC network uses enzymes for greener manufacturing sgupta Tue, 12/02/2014 - 09:26

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Professor Elizabeth Edwards heads up the new Industrial Biocatalysis Network based at U of T (photo by Sara Collaton)

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Instead of using fossil fuels to make plastics and industrial chemicals, what if we could harness eco-friendly enzymes – nature’s smallest helpers – to do the work?

On November 28, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) announced a five-year, $5-million grant to create the Industrial Biocatalysis Network (IBN). Based at the University of Toronto and led by U of T Professor Elizabeth Edwards of chemical engineering, the network will explore new methods of using enzymes to produce environmentally-friendly chemicals, plastics and other products.

Enzymes are special biological molecules that exist in every living organism. They act as catalysts that make nearly all of nature’s chemical transformations happen. In the most basic sense, they turn one substance into another. For example, they change cellulose into nutrient-rich glucose in a decomposing log, or break down fat and starch in your digestive system.

Through the new IBN, researchers from the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, Concordia University and several industry partners will work together to find enzymes that can convert renewable resources – such as agricultural or forestry waste – into new materials. These processes could substantially reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels.

“Recent genomic research has revealed tens of thousands of new enzymes, many of which may have capabilities relevant to industrial manufacturing,” said Edwards. “The IBN brings together a unique and world-leading combination of expertise in bioinformatics, bioengineering and fungal, yeast and bacterial enzymology to discover greener methods for manufacturing.”

Edwards’ team includes five professors from U of T Engineering’s BioZone, a research centre dedicated to bioengineering and applied bioscience, as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. They will be strategically mining the genomics data of enzymes and testing them for specific functions.

“Together, we’ll find the needles in the haystack,” she said.

Edwards is a pioneer in bioremediation, a technique in which living organisms are used to clean up environmental contamination. In a recent project with Geosyntec Consultants Inc., she developed microbial cultures that can degrade chlorinated solvents and other toxic chemicals in groundwater sites that have been contaminated. This work was recognized with the NSERC Synergy Award in 2009, and it’s being used to clean up over 400 polluted sites worldwide.

At BioZone, Edwards and her colleagues recently completed a major four-year research effort in environmental genomics funded by Genome Canada that aimed to catalog enzymes from extreme environments. The project yielded large numbers of potentially useful enzymes, some of which will be put to the test in the new IBN.

“Under Professor Elizabeth Edwards’ remarkable leadership, the Industrial Biocatalysis Network will accelerate the manufacturing innovations we need for a more sustainable future,” said Cristina Amon, dean of U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I offer my deepest thanks to Elizabeth for leading this transformative initiative and to NSERC for enabling this important collaborative research network.”

The Network was created through NSERC’s highly competitive Strategic Network Grants program, which supports large-scale, multidisciplinary research projects that require collaboration between academic researchers, organizations and companies. The program encourages research and training in targeted areas that show promise of enhancing Canada’s economy, society and environment within the next 10 years.

The IBN has been designed to support Canada’s growth in the emerging bio-based chemical and materials sector. Industrial partners include several manufacturing, chemical and petroleum companies, such as CanSyn Chem Corp., DuPont Canada Inc., Elanco Animal Health/Division of Eli Lilly, Lallemand Inc., Monaghan Biosciences Ltd. and Suncor Energy Inc.

“Strategic Network Grants foster the kind of collaboration that allows students, established researchers, businesses and others to work hand-in-hand on the discoveries and innovations that will have impact in a reduced time frame,” said NSERC president Dr. B. Mario Pinto. “The transformative breakthroughs that result from this kind of collaboration help to tackle complex research questions and accelerate solutions to some of society’s toughest challenges.”

U of T Engineering Professor Alberto Leon-Garcia was also awarded a Strategic Networks Grant in 2011 for the NSERC Strategic Network in Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure, intended to foster innovative application platforms, create new job opportunities in the computing and communications sectors and allow Canadians to share digital information more quickly and easily.

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Engineering a better healthcare system: placing defibrillators where they're needed most; redesigning clinic schedules to reduce wait times

sgupta — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 11:51:17 +0000

Engineering a better healthcare system: placing defibrillators where they're needed most; redesigning clinic schedules to reduce wait times sgupta Mon, 12/01/2014 - 06:51

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Professor Timothy Chan is the new director for U of T Engineering's Centre for Healthcare Engineering (photo by Mark Balson)

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Timothy Chan on how the Centre for Healthcare Engineering is making health care better, faster and less costly

Mending broken bones or prescribing medication may seem like simple tasks but they're part of a hugely complex healthcare system of hospitals, clinics, ambulances, research centres, suppliers and governments.

And according to Professor Timothy Chan of mechanical and industrial engineering, that system needs re-engineering.

Chan is the new director of U of T Engineering’s Centre for Healthcare Engineering (CHE) (formerly the Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering). The collaborative hub brings a highly interdisciplinary, systems engineering approach to drastically improve how health care works.

“Health-care systems are a lot like giant factories – they involve a large number of people and processes all working together in different stages to meet one goal,” said Chan. “At the CHE, we pioneer research that optimizes many of those stages, making health-care delivery more efficient, less costly and quicker.”

Engineering’s RJ Taylor spoke with Chan to learn more about how the Centre is taking the “waiting” out of “waiting room”.

Medical breakthroughs make headlines every day but they aren’t the only way to improve health care. How does CHE contribute?
Each year, Canadians spend over $200 billion on health care – that’s almost $6,000 a person. Healthcare spending can consume over 40 per cent of the annual budget of some Canadian provinces. With numbers like these, even small efficiencies can lead to significant cost savings and decreased wait times.

At the Centre for Healthcare Engineering, we use systems engineering to find and take action on these efficiencies. Hailing from many different fields, our researchers focus on optimizing health-care delivery, decision-making and policy. We collaborate directly with industry partners, lead fundamental research and also focus on educating the next generation of health-care engineers.

Can you explain what systems engineering is?
Systems engineering is a multidisciplinary field that looks at how a process or processes operate and often how to improve them. Projects can involve leveraging vast amounts of data to create computer simulation models – models that we can use to test variables and mimic potential outcomes, leading to better decision-making.

The field is rooted in industrial engineering, which historically examined the most efficient layouts for manufacturing facilities. Today, systems engineering can involve virtually any discipline linked to the process you’re trying to build or improve. With healthcare engineering, this can include public health, medicine, business, law, political science and more.

How are you using this systems engineering approach in your research?
Have you ever had to wait well beyond your appointment time at the doctor’s office? It was probably because of inefficient scheduling. Recently, Professor Michael Carter and I worked with Women’s College Hospital in Toronto to redesign their entire clinics scheduling system from scratch. By shifting clinic schedules to better balance resources – like not booking clinics that require time-consuming blood tests all at once – we were able to keep waiting to a minimum for both patients and staff.

Another project I’m working on looks at automatic external defibrillators (AEDs), which are publicly-available devices to treat patients suffering from cardiac arrest. With data on historical cardiac arrests, building layouts and current AED locations, my team and I can determine the ideal places to put these machines. Our computer models show that by using such comprehensive data – as opposed to merely placing AEDs according to population density – we can triple the number of cardiac arrests that are supported within 100 metres of a defibrillator. (Read more about this project.)

Internationally, I’m also involved in a collaboration to improve emergency medical care in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Unlike Toronto, Dhaka’s roads are congested with motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians that can be barriers for ambulances. We are developing models that use GPS data from cell phones to depict how traffic is moving in real time – recommending the best routes to an emergency scene. This can significantly cut down on response times and help emergency medical responders save more lives.

What about others at the CHE?
Radiation treatment for cancer can be a complex balancing act, as doctors deal with many different variables when trying to make sure that the right amount of radiation gets into a tumour without too much getting into healthy tissues. Professor Dionne Aleman and her team simplified this treatment by creating mathematical models and algorithms that can balance the many factors involved.

These models target tumours with greater than 90 per cent accuracy, a significant improvement on current plans. Working with Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Hospital and Elekta AB (a Swedish radiation equipment manufacturer), her team has already demonstrated that their models can save time and money, with better treatment.

A few years ago, Professor Carter also worked with the Ontario Ministry of Health to develop a plan that reduced wait times for cataract operations. The goal was to bring down the wait times from an average of one year down to six months – and his model figured out how many additional surgeries were required to meet the target. When implemented, his numbers accurately predicted the real-life numbers.

Where do students fit into CHE’s mandate?
Great question. With our researchers leading such groundbreaking research, we definitely want them to share it – as well as their expertise – with students. We offer a number of graduate and undergraduate courses in health-care engineering, systems and policy, as well as fundamental engineering methodologies that are applicable to health care.

At the graduate level, we offer a master of engineering certificate in health-care engineering, which includes specialized courses and an opportunity to work directly on an industry-related project. We are also looking to expand beyond engineering and engage students from across U of T campus.

What’s next?
At the Centre for Healthcare Engineering, we have ambitious plans to expand well beyond our home in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering. We are looking to actively involve researchers and students from across U of T: medicine, law, business, public health, you name it. We want to bring more diverse perspectives, add more collaborative projects, increase industry engagement and expand our student opportunities. And, of course, we want to improve health care for everybody around the world.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

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World's first consumer-ready OLED lamp

sgupta — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 08:10:34 +0000

World's first consumer-ready OLED lamp sgupta Wed, 10/15/2014 - 04:10

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aerelight™ – the world’s first consumer-ready OLED lamp, by U of T Engineering alumni (photo by Roberta Baker)

Luke Ng

RJ Taylor

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New product from alumni startup OTI Lumionics gives investors a glimpse of technology's potential

If you visit the lighting section of your nearest hardware store, chances are you’ll be bombarded by the latest mega-efficient LED bulbs – but to alumnus Michael Helander, that technology is old news.

Helander and a team of former U of T Engineering students recently released the world’s first organic LED (or OLED) lamp, aerelight™. The product harnesses the power of next-generation OLEDs to emit a warm light from a thin sheet of non-toxic, carbon-based materials.

The lamp uses less energy than traditional sources, providing up to 1,000 lux of illumination – double a typical office environment – with only seven watts. It also features a dimming capability, wireless smartphone charging built into the base and, of course, an advanced OLED panel. (Read more about aerelight.)

OLEDs are a sophisticated type of light-emitting diodes that pass electricity through carbon-based dyes and pigments to power lights and displays. While we’ve seen this technology in certain high-end smartphones and premium flat-panel displays, this is the first consumer-ready indoor OLED lighting product ever made.

“We started with a goal of building the aerelight desk lamp, first as a great product, and second as the first consumer-ready OLED lamp,” said Helander, who co-founded OTI Lumionics to commercialize OLEDs in 2011. The startup manufactures the lamps in-house, and is scheduled to ship them to consumers in early 2015.

“With traditional light sources, the bulb is a distinct separate entity from the fixture,” said alumnus and OTI senior product designer Ray Kwa. “With aerelight, I wanted to create a seamless, continuous frame integrating the base, frame and light – synonymous to the OLED light source itself which emits a diffused, fluid soft light.”

Although the lamp’s efficiency and sleek design are already making media headlines, aerelight is actually part of a much greater strategy from OTI to make OLED technology cheaper and easier to manufacture.

“OLEDs have many unique characteristics that make [them] the ideal light source of the future, but potential growth has been stifled by the high manufacturing costs,” said Helander.

In 2011, then-PhD students Helander and Zhibin Wang, along with their supervisor Professor Zheng-Hong Lu, discovered a new method for cost-effective production of OLEDs. Publishing their work in the leading journal, Science, the trio used a single-atom-thick layer of chlorine that simplified the internal structure of OLED technology, while still achieving high brightness and efficiency.

Shortly after the breakthrough, Helander and other U of T Engineering alumni spun off the technology into OTI – taking their ideas to the University's elite accelerator program in the Creative Destruction Lab, based at the Rotman School of Management. Over eight months, they honed the necessary technical and business aspects of their company, while also meeting with Canadian business and entrepreneurship titans.

The fledgling startup has already received significant interest from notable investors, including Lee Lau, ATI Technologies founder and a G7 fellow at U of T’s Creative Destruction Lab, and Roger Martin, former Rotman School of Management dean.

“This is a great example of how new materials like OLEDs can be showcased in a product that represents a paradigm shift in indoor lighting and sustainable technologies,” said Professor Jun Nogami, chair of U of T's department of materials science and engineering.

With their first product hitting desks soon, Helander and his team at OTI continue to make OLED technology more accessible than ever – suggesting a bright future is in store for them as well.

See aerelight for yourself:

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Sustainable development agreement for CAF and U of T Engineering

sgupta — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 11:12:40 +0000

Sustainable development agreement for CAF and U of T Engineering sgupta Thu, 10/02/2014 - 07:12

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Enrique Garcia, president and chief executive officer of CAF (photo by Sydney Goodfellow)

RJ Taylor

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President and CEO of Latin America's largest development bank addresses Faculty, business leaders

If emerging economies are to prosper and compete in the 21st century, Enrique García, president and CEO of Latin America’s largest development bank, says there are two areas in need of critical attention:

“Education and infrastructure…that is why we are here at the University of Toronto.”

Last Thursday, García and a delegation from CAF – the development bank of Latin America – signed a letter of intent with U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering to explore innovative methods for sustainable urban development.

“U of T Engineering is a global leader in transportation, water, energy and infrastructure research for sustainable cities,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “We are excited to collaborate with CAF on developing innovative solutions that will benefit communities in Latin America and around the world.”

CAF is one of the largest sources of financing for infrastructure in South America, providing more funding for projects than the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank combined. The organization stresses sustainable growth and regional integration, involving 18 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, as well as 14 private banks in the Andean region.

Senior CAF officials, including García and Antonia Juan Sosa, CAF’s vice-president of infrastructure, travelled to U of T last week for a day’s worth of knowledge sharing, research exploration and facility tours.

“Their visit provided an extraordinary opportunity for U of T to showcase our extensive research in sustainable infrastructure and urban development, while learning firsthand about challenges in Latin America,” said Eric Miller, director of the University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute (UTTRI), which hosted the group.

UTTRI will be the focal point for the University’s collaboration with CAF. Launched earlier this year, the Institute is a new transportation research hub led by the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. It brings together experts from engineering, economics, policy, urban geography and planning, computer science and more from across U of T. (Learn more about UTTRI.)

“Our new agreement will leverage UTTRI’s campus-wide research network,” said Miller. “Building on our recent exchange of knowledge and ideas, the next step is to identify an initial set of projects for the two organizations to collaborate on.”

Last Thursday’s visit also involved keynote addresses from García and Sosa to an audience of U of T researchers and Canadian business and government leaders, as well as a panel discussion on Latin American infrastructure with John M. Beck, executive chairman of Aecon Group Inc., Riccardo Cossentino, vice-president of infrastructure investment with SNC-Lavalin Capital, and Martin Doble, global managing director of infrastructure for Hatch.

“The link between research and development is very tight,” said García. “Applied research is a direct vehicle for the advancement of societies and the promotion of its productive capacities.”

CAF has also recently signed with several other major universities, including Harvard, Oxford and the London School of Economics. (Learn more about CAF.)

RJ Taylor is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto.

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Dyson Award for engineering students who developed way to print skin

sgupta — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 12:03:20 +0000

Dyson Award for engineering students who developed way to print skin sgupta Mon, 09/22/2014 - 08:03

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Meet the Engineering team behind the 3D skin printer (photo by Arianna McAllister)

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3D skin printer uses patient's own cells to create new skin for grafts, eliminates painful harvesting

While some of us are using the new power of 3D printers to make smartphone cases and chocolate figurines, two engineering students from the University of Toronto are using them to print functional human skin.

On September 18, Arianna McAllister and Lian Leng were named the Canadian winners of the 2014 James Dyson Award for their invention, the PrintAlive Bioprinter.

The machine – created in collaboration with Professor Axel Guenther, alumnus Boyang Zhang and Dr. Marc Jeschke, head of Sunnybrook Hospital’s Ross Tilley Burn Centre – prints large, continuous layers of tissue that recreate natural skin.

With serious burn victims, doctors typically must remove part of the patient's healthy skin and graft it onto the burned area. With PrintAlive, this painful step could be eliminated. The printed product includes hair follicles, sweat glands and other human skin complexities, providing an on-demand skin graft for burn victims.

Better yet, the machine uses the patient’s own cells, which McAllister said “would completely eliminate immunologic rejection, and the need for painful autografting and tissue donation.”

No larger than an average microwave, it’s also portable and can print skin grafts on the go, potentially revolutionizing burn care in rural and developing areas around the world.

“Ninety per cent of burns occur in low and middle income countries, with greater mortality and morbidity due to poorly-equipped health care systems and inadequate access to burn care facilities,” said Jeschke. “Regenerating skin using a patient’s own stem cells can significantly decrease the risk of death in developing countries.”

Since 2008, the team has developed hundreds of design iterations to optimize how the machine operates. Recently completing a second generation, pre-commercial prototype of the machine, they hope to scale up their device from its current bench-top process to a higher volume automated process.

Winning $3,500 in this leg of the competition, the duo now competes for the international James Dyson Award, which offers a prize of over $60,000 to inventors and their university, to be announced this November. The award was created by vacuum tycoon James Dyson to inspire students around the world to “design something that solves a problem.”

Read more about Canada’s winning team on CBC News and BBC News.

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Three big ideas from the opening of U of T’s new advanced materials lab

sgupta — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 16:01:05 +0000

Three big ideas from the opening of U of T’s new advanced materials lab sgupta Fri, 07/18/2014 - 12:01

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Not your average ribbon cutting. Indy champ Hélio Castroneves (left) and Professor Doug Perovic carve the name of U of T’s newest lab on a ribbon at nano-scale (photo by Roberta Baker).

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When three-time Indy 500 winner Hélio Castroneves speeds around the track at this month’s Indy races, he’ll be driving a racecar propelled by decades of materials research that makes it faster, safer and more efficient.

But with the opening of a new $20-million materials lab at the University of Toronto, the technology in Castroneves’ car could soon feel as old-fashioned as your grandma’s station wagon.

On July 17, Castroneves joined U of T Engineering to unveil the Ontario Centre for Characterization of Advanced Materials (OCCAM) – a high-tech facility that enables researchers to explore and develop novel materials that could be used in electronics, renewable fuels, construction, disease treatment and even futuristic racecar design.

Funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) and Hitachi High-Technologies Canada, OCCAM offers highly specialized tools to understand and manipulate matter at the atomic scale. The centre also emphasizes collaborative and multidisciplinary projects, anticipating over 350 different research programs annually involving academic researchers and private companies.

"This is expensive equipment to purchase and operate, but the new centre makes it available to everyone, from industry to academia,” said Professor Charles Mims (ChemE), a co-principal investigator for OCCAM alongside Professor Doug Perovic (MSE). The facility is a joint initiative between the Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) and the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry (ChemE).

To celebrate OCCAM’s grand opening, Castroneves used one of the lab’s high-power electron microscopes to “cut” the centre’s name into a ribbon at nano-scale. The width of each letter was nearly 1,000 times smaller than a human hair.

The MSE logo will also be featured on the front of the racecar of Castroneves – part of the Hitachi-sponsored Penske Team – at this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto races.

“OCCAM is a shining example of how U of T Engineering, in partnership with industry and government, is pursuing innovative solutions to some of world’s greatest challenges in health, city life and energy,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “We are profoundly grateful to CFI, MRI and Hitachi for their contribution to the creation of this unique world-class facility.”

Don’t miss MSE’s logo on the front of Castroneves’ racecar in the Honda Indy Toronto races this weekend.

Three big (and small) ideas enabled by OCCAM:

1. Car accidents that no longer kill people

“We have the technology today to make vehicles so safe that car accidents no longer kill people,” shared Professor Perovic. But if we have the means, why aren’t we using them? According to Perovic, the answer is cost – cost of materials and cost of manufacturing. That’s why, through OCCAM, he has partnered with Toronto-based Integran Technologies to develop newer, inexpensive methods of boosting vehicle safety and efficiency.

Integran is the only company in the world that can coat plastic and carbon fibre with nano-metals, allowing them to make virtually any material significantly stronger with one coating. While they are continuing to find ways of reducing cost, Integran’s technology has the potential for impact beyond the auto industry, from better spacecraft to lighter and more durable bicycles.

2. Stopping blood clots with non-stick nano-materials

Blood clots are essential in healing cuts, but they can be deadly for those requiring medical catheters (tubes that carry medicine or drain fluids in the body). Dangerous clots can form around the tubes in a process called thrombosis – an affiliction that leads to approximately 50,000 deaths in the United States each year.

To reduce the risk of blood clots, Professor Paul Santerre (IBBME), Jeannette Ho (ChemE/ IBBME MASc 9T7) and a group of other medical scientists and engineers have designed a method of producing catheters that include fluorinate oligomers, the same molecules that make frying pans non-stick. Already commercially available through licensing from Santerre’s spin-off company Interface Biologics, their invention has shown to reduce the rates of thrombosis by up to 75 per cent.

“OCCAM gives us access to tools and expertise that a small lab like us wouldn’t normally have,” said Roseita Esfand, director of research and development at Interface. “Collaborations such as this will help us to bring our technologies and products from bench to human.”

3. Solar fuels – If trees can do it, we can do it

Professor Ben Hatton (MSE) and a group of multidisciplinary researchers are using OCCAM’s advanced equipment to design nano-materials that mimic the photosynthetic processes of plants. While plant photosynthesis uses the sun’s rays to produce sugars and carbohydrates, Hatton’s lab is hoping to make materials that produce methane and other gases.

This technology could be used to power vehicles, houses and more – and to store energy we aren’t using for later consumption. In doing so, they could reduce, and even reverse, the detrimental impacts of fossil fuels. “We’re still in early development stages,” explained Hatton. “But we’re excited by the advances and resources that OCCAM will provide, and we look forward to making our technology better and more efficient.”

“If trees can do it,” he said, “we can do it.”

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Turbulence: new research ends decade-long physics debate

sgupta — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 11:49:05 +0000

Turbulence: new research ends decade-long physics debate sgupta Fri, 03/21/2014 - 07:49

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Professor Philippe Lavoie (right) and PhD student Jason Hearst used a fractal grid to end a long-standing physics debate (Courtesy Phillipe Lavoie)

RJ Taylor

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Turbulence. The word often conjures feelings of bouncing back and forth in an airplane seat. You tighten your grip on the armrests, and the intercom crackles, “Ladies and gentleman, the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign.”

But here on the ground, turbulence is everywhere. It’s what causes smoke to curl as it rises from a chimney, and mixes milk in your coffee as you stir. It also comes off your lips when you say things like ‘foxy’ or ‘pirate ship’.

Despite its ubiquity, scientists have struggled to predict and understand turbulence since the day we discovered it. Recent experiments have even disputed the most basic principles we thought we knew, threatening the accuracy of tools that many engineers need to model and simulate it.

However, new research in the Journal of Fluid Dynamics from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) has provided conclusive evidence that reinforces these basic principles and ends a decade-long debate in the field.

Published by PhD student Jason Hearst and Professor Philippe Lavoie (UTIAS), the study ensures the precision of our modern understanding of turbulence.

Writer RJ Taylor spoke to Lavoie to better understand why his research matters to engineering as we know it.

Turbulence refers to more than just airplanes and stock markets — can you explain what it is?

Turbulence can happen during any fast flow of liquids or gases. When the flow velocity increases past a certain value, among other things, it can become unstable and break down to a more chaotic state. (We refer to this as reaching a certain critical Reynolds number, a measure of the importance of inertial forces versus viscosity in a fluid flow). This results in a series of rapid fluctuations in velocity that we call turbulence. It can often appear as swirling patterns called eddies.

One way to understand turbulence is by looking in our kitchen sink. When you turn the tap on slowly, there is a smooth, steady stream of water. If you open the tap all the way, this smooth stream breaks down and the water can spray everywhere. Affected by speed, friction and other aspects, the flow reaches a high enough Reynolds number that viscosity can no longer dampen the instabilities. It becomes turbulent.

Another example can be found by looking at smoke rising off an incense stick. When the smoke first leaves the tip, it usually rises in a straight uninterrupted line. But as the jet of hot smoke rises, it becomes unstable and it starts to break down. That’s when you see the wisps and swirls of smoke, and that’s turbulence.

Why is it important for engineers to understand turbulence?

Turbulence affects engineers in almost every field, even weather prediction. This is because most industrial fluid flows are turbulent, as we often try to move a lot of liquids or gases very quickly. Just look at oil in a pipeline, air in a combustion engine, drainage under a city street and more.

Although there are no close-formed solutions to mathematically describe it, there are some fundamental concepts that help us to understand key aspects. These are incorporated in models that we use to build computer simulation tools.

It’s these tools that engineers use to design and test any number of systems across many industries. In order for their simulations to be accurate, we must understand the basic principles of turbulence.

Could you explain the debate your research addressed?

About 10 years ago, researchers started examining something called fractal turbulence. They would pass a fluid flow through a fractal object, such as a grid, so that it forces the turbulence at different scales. They can then see how it’s affected.

The results of these experiments did not behave as we would have expected, and thus seemed to suggest that our previous understanding of turbulence was wrong on some very fundamental points. It questioned some of the basic principles of turbulence theory.

And this brought significant debate over the past decade in your field. What did your results show?

To examine this debate, my PhD student, Jason Hearst, and I used a wind tunnel to test a new type of fractal grid that we designed. Our grid allowed us look at the problem in a different way than anyone had before.

Through this experiment, we were able to reconcile both regular and fractal grid turbulence data. We conclusively showed that fractal turbulence was behaving the same way as classical turbulence, which has not been shown before.

Although fractal turbulence has some different features, it’s not fundamentally different. This evidence settled a long debate, as it demonstrated that our understanding of turbulence does not need to be fundamentally altered.

What impact does this have for engineers?

Engineers rely on accurate computer simulation tools to design many processes and systems. If those simulation tools are incorrect, it has significant impact on the resulting efficiency of these fluidic systems.

When you’re designing a heat exchanger, for example, the rate at which heat will be transferred depends on the turbulence in the flow field. So you need to be able to model that turbulence properly.

Also, what would happen if we did not have precise simulations for a new airplane wing design? The plane might not ever get off the ground.

Why hasn’t this debate been settled earlier?

It’s like the Indian parable about the blind men and the elephant. Each one only touches one part of the elephant, and given the limited information that each obtains, they all think they’re touching something very different.

It was basically a case of that. We thought we were looking at a different beast, because we weren’t looking at the whole picture. It just turns out we were just putting our finger on a different spot.

(Parts of this interview have been condensed and edited.)

RJ Taylor is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

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TTC's Andy Byford to Engineering students: leadership skills are key

sgupta — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 10:54:01 +0000

TTC's Andy Byford to Engineering students: leadership skills are key sgupta Mon, 03/03/2014 - 05:54

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Andy Byford (left) discusses PhD student Amit Deshwar's app for tracking the flow of TTC vehicles (photo by Fang Su)

RJ Taylor

Author legacy

RJ Taylor

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He doesn't have an engineering degree and admits to being hopeless at constructing the most basic IKEA furniture but Andy Byford, head of Canada’s largest transit system, knows that engineers with savvy leadership skills are a force to be reckoned with.

“Engineering as a discipline is amazing,” said Byford, Toronto Transit Commission CEO, who joined University of Toronto students on campus last week as part of National Engineering Month, “because [they] have to have an ability to think under pressure… think logically… see the bigger picture and be able to grapple with complex equations.”

Students with an engineering degree can aspire to top career positions, Byford told students, but only if they “can combine the fantastic skillset engineers have with the softer skills”. He focused heavily on people management and customer service abilities.

Hosted by the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead), Byford and more than 80 engineering students divided into small groups to tackle some of the TTC’s biggest challenges. In small groups, students debated solutions to popular transit topics such as: ‘Subways, streetcars or buses?’ to ‘How do you best allocate the TTC’s limited funding?’

Students also engaged Byford through an informal question period, where they could ask questions about his leadership and experiences at the helm of the TTC. They also explored his rise through the ranks of transit authorities in the United Kingdom and Australia.

“I think where the [London] Tube, and definitely the TTC, went wrong in the past was there was an absolute focus on engineering and on the disciplines of engineering – so actually just looking at the way the machines worked, and not paying enough attention to the softer side.”

Working closely with Byford, the goal was to have students see beyond the technical specifics of running the TTC, and critically understand the many aspects of leadership in large, complex organizations.

“It wasn’t what I expected. He was really down to earth,“ said Master of Engineering student David King, who had a chance to share his recent research with Byford. King, who studies civil engineering, is using pedestrian microsimulation to examine how slight changes in pedestrian behaviour – such as moving people to the back of a bus – can have greatly limit transit delays.

”You expect CEOs to have a stiff upper lip, but that’s not what you get with [Byford],” he said. “It’s a refreshing take, and I think it bodes well for a future vision for the TTC and our city.”

RJ Taylor is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto.

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Reddit co-founder to aspiring U of T entrepreneurs: failure is an option

sgupta — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 07:54:11 +0000

Reddit co-founder to aspiring U of T entrepreneurs: failure is an option sgupta Wed, 01/15/2014 - 02:54

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Alexis Ohanian addresses U of T entrepreneurs (photo by Roberta Baker)

RJ Taylor

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RJ Taylor

Before co-founding Reddit, one of the Internet’s most popular websites, Alexis Ohanian suffered some pretty big failures. The biggest was My Mobile Menu, a mobile app that could allow users to order food before arriving at restaurants.

It was an idea ahead of its time (smartphones were still rare) so when Ohanian and partner Steve Huffman pitched the notion to venture capitalist Paul Graham he was quick to reject it. But Graham was intrigued by the duo and asked for more ideas.

Ohanian and Huffman conceived Reddit and the rest is Internet history. The popular social news site had 100 million visitors in the last month alone, clicking through five billion pages of articles, photos and videos.

“Sucking is the first step to being sort of good at something,” explained Ohanian to more than 300 U of T students this week, hosted by the U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery.

Ohanian eagerly recalled his post-university days of inventing Reddit, encouraging students to “start having ideas and do them. Don’t let ‘I don’t know what I’m doing’ stop you from doing it.”

Ohanian was joined by U of T alumnus Yuri Sagalov who recently co-founded AeroFS, a start-up offering a file syncing and storage tool for businesses that need increased online security.

“My advice is to build something that you’re passionate about,” urged Sagalov. During an early funding pitch, he once had a potential investor get up and walk right out of the room but AeroFS overcame such early hurdles to attract investment from the likes of Reddit’s Ohanian and others.

Joseph Orozco, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, said failure is okay, as long as it’s not the end. “This is the time to take the risk. And if students have an idea, the Hatchery is a great place to start.”

Now in its second year, the Hatchery boasts a team of experienced mentors and 48 student entrepreneurs. Students are hatching ideas such as Air Xposure, an affordable way to take aerial video using helicopter drones, and Modly, a portable lighting system for smartphone photos.

The Entrepreneurship Hatchery will continue to grow in its new home in the Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a dynamic new environment that will foster creativity and inspire 21st-century learning and innovation, said Orozco. The Centre is set to break ground later this year.

Ohanian’s visit to U of T kicks off the second leg of a North American tour promoting his new book, Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed, which includes 77 university stops.

“Why 77 universities?” Ohanian finished, “because this is what I wish I’d been told when I was in school.”

RJ Taylor is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto.

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