Sayada Nabi

University of Toronto students win with Operation Carpageddon plan

sgupta — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:01:53 +0000

University of Toronto students win with Operation Carpageddon plan sgupta Tue, 03/22/2016 - 11:01

Sayada Nabi

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They can jump, fly and eat a third of their body mass per day, but Asian Carp aren’t superheroes – the invasive fish species pose an imminent threat to Ontario’s aquatic biodiversity.

Currently, Asian Carp are in American waters, and there are channels they could use to sneak into the Great Lakes and Ontario’s water system. But Operation Carpageddon, the winning U of T Scarborough student team at the recent Asian Carp Innovative Solutions Competition, has a plan.

“The idea was to have a Dragon’s Den type competition to come up with innovative ideas to prevent Asian carp from coming into the Great Lakes,” says U of T Scarborough Professor Nick Mandrak, an expert in aquatic ecology. Read more about the competition here.

The competition was organized by the Invasive Species Centre and advertised to various universities. When Mandrak heard about it, he created an assignment for his professional master’s class to come up with solutions. Master’s students Tisha Tan, Jacob Stone, Jacob D’Onofrio, Mieke Hagesteijn and Daniel De Ocampo worked together to create the winning project, Operation Carpageddon.

“Our plan was to pump in carbon dioxide along the Chicago area waterway system because they have a canal that links to the Great Lakes, where Asian Carp are located,” Tan says. “Asian Carp, like any other living organism on Earth, can’t live in an environment where there is a lot of carbon dioxide, because they breathe oxygen.”

The plan is to carbonate a section of the canal at a high concentration to deter the fish, but also at a length that if any carp were to pass through they would lose consciousness before reaching the end of the barrier between the waterways.

The team added a buffer to control acidity that would result from carbon dioxide in water, as well as a carbon dioxide recycler. “We had a CO₂ recycler that we would build in the area so that any carbon dioxide gas would be recycled and put back into our system to make it sustainable.” Tan says.

“They had an excellent presentation, they had a very interesting idea with the use of carbon dioxide to prevent the carp from moving through the canal system just south of the Great Lakes and they thought it all the way through,” says Mandrak.

D’Onofrio and Tan would love to continue developing the idea. “If they were to contact us and be serious about implementing it, we would be on board,” says Tan.

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TEDxUTSC brings big ideas to U of T Scarborough campus

sgupta — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 17:07:36 +0000

TEDxUTSC brings big ideas to U of T Scarborough campus sgupta Wed, 02/03/2016 - 12:07

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“I spend my days working with some of the most underprivileged students in the world,” UTSC grad Valerie Visani, who teaches at a university in Congo, told the audience (all photos courtesy TEDxUTSC)

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Sayada Nabi is a student intern at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Below, she shares her impressions of the TEDxUTSC conference held on Jan. 30.

Dare to know – that was the theme of the fourth TEDxUTSC conference, as a diverse range of speakers and performers shared tales of their quests for knowledge and self-discovery, encouraging audiences to reevaluate the way they think.

University of Toronto Scarborough alumna Valerie Visani started the day off with her presentation about what life is like for the students she teaches in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She discussed the obstacles and depths of corruption students have to combat in order to receive an education.

“I hope that you start the conversation for education...across Africa and the globe for students who are just fighting for their fair chance at a basic human right,” Visani said.

U of T Scarborough student and Oneida woman Diane Hill explored “what it means to be a university student as well as being a native woman, navigating a post-secondary institution.” She talked about her need to get in touch with her heritage and urged that education about Indigenous issues become mandatory in the Canadian post-secondary education system.

“How do you create community for yourself in a colonized world?” Hill asked.

Presentations by Associate Professor Shafique Virani and Associate Professor Maria Assif addressed the consequences of stereotypes and role of education in dealing with societal issues.

“When you construct stereotypes about others you are reducing the whole group to one particular instance in history,” said Assif, whose expertise includes such topics as racism, colonialism and the literature of Arab women.

“When we are presented with only a certain subset of a story we are liable to make errors of judgment and wrong decisions,” Virani echoed the sentiments. An Islamic studies expert, Virani is also known for his global volunteer work and support for schools in disadvantaged communities worldwide.

Keeping the audience on their toes, one presenter came with more than just a speech and a slide show. Admirers call him the father of wearable technology, and his presentation was packed with gadgets from the future. Only the future was now, and Steve Mann brought it to the audience.

Mann discussed augmented reality and demonstrated how the newest wearable technology works, to the fascination of the audience.

Along with the talks that focused on education and technology, several of the speakers challenged the audience to discover more about themselves.

Melanie Blackman, U of T Scarborough’s community development coordinator, urged the audience to find the rhythm of their lives, even if it requires stepping out of their comfort zone.

UTSC alumnus Hamza Khan’s presentation was a cautionary tale about his honest account of burning out due to his competitiveness and desire to constantly over achieve. “Burn bright, not out,” Khan said.

The conference concluded with Maliha Chishti reminding the audience “To do good, you have to be good.”

Sayada Nabi is a student at the University of Toronto Scarborough

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U of T Scarborough grad on Forbes 30 under 30 list

sgupta — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 10:35:14 +0000

U of T Scarborough grad on Forbes 30 under 30 list sgupta Tue, 01/19/2016 - 05:35

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“My suggestion to any entrepreneur would be to have persistence, what we commonly refer to as hustle, which is the unwavering commitment to certain vision or goal,” says Kanwar.

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Satish Kanwar says his time at U of T was fundamental to his career

He worked with Microsoft Canada as marketing associate. He worked with Hewlett-Packard as an associate program manager. He co-founded Jet Cooper, a company acquired by Shopify. And now he works as the director of product at Shopify.

U of T Scarborough alum Satish Kanwar did all this before turning 30.

These achievements are no small feat, and Forbes took notice. Kanwar, 29, is part of Forbes fifth annual 30 under 30 list, in ecommerce and retail.

“It was an unexpected and a pleasant surprise and a fun way to start 2016. I feel honoured and very fortunate to receive such an honor on behalf of the whole team at Shopify,” says Kanwar.

He is one of two U of T grads on the list. U of T Mississauga alumnus Mohammed Ashour earned an Honours Bachelor of Science in life sciences from UTM in 2009, and was cited as one to watch in the Social Entrepreneurs category. Read more about Ashour here.

The Forbes list assesses 15,000 applications in 20 different sectors, narrowing it down to the top 600. The judges for the ecommerce and retail sector this year included Jessica Alba, co-founder of the Honest Company, and CEO of her name sake Tory Burch.

Jet Cooper, a design agency, was in the beginning stages of inception while Kanwar was doing his undergraduate in business administration at UTSC. “My time at the University of Toronto was fundamental to creating my career. I met my co-founder for my first business while in my undergrad,” says Kanwar, “I am grateful for the caliber of people that the university was able to attract and for the opportunity to work with those people through my degree outside of my degree on campus and thereafter.”

Kanwar knows that an entrepreneur isn’t created overnight. “My suggestion to any entrepreneur would be to have persistence, what we commonly refer to as hustle, which is the unwavering commitment to certain vision or goal,” says Kanwar.

As for what’s in store for the future, we will just have to wait and see. “I am certainly really enjoying my time at Shopify, and we have a very entrepreneurial culture internally here, it’s been an amazing ride,” says Kanwar.

Sayada Nabi is a writer with UTSC.

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