Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation &amp; Entrepreneurship

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

One hundred years ago this month, scientists at the University of Toronto and its partner hospitals carried out the first studies that demonstrated the ability of insulin to lower blood sugar levels in animals and prevent their death from diabetes.

Three months later, insulin was successfully administered to a person with type 1 diabetes at Toronto General Hospital. His life would become the first of millions around the world to be saved by insulin – one of the landmark medical discoveries of the 20^th century.

On Friday, the historical significance of the discovery was marked by the unveiling of a commemorative bronze plaque at a ceremony hosted by Parks Canada and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC) at the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship on U of T’s St. George campus.

The event was attended by government dignitaries including Sonia Sidhu, member of parliament for Brampton South. The final location of the plaque, which is inscribed by bilingual text, will be determined at a later date.

“The story of insulin is a brilliant example of the power of collaboration – in this case, how a university, its hospital partners and a pharmaceutical company could work together and change the world,” said Christine Allen, U of T’s associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic initiatives.

“On this illustrious foundation, U of T and its hospital and industry partners built a culture of discovery, innovation and collaboration that has transformed health care and continues to have a ripple effect worldwide.

From left: Patricia Brubaker, Richard Alway, Sonia Sidhu, Christine Allen, Christine Loth-Brown and Lynn Wilson (photo by Johnny Guatto)

The ceremony marked the culmination of Insulin 100, a year-long campaign to mark the centenary of insulin’s discovery and celebrate a legacy of health innovation that continues to be advanced by U of T and its partner hospitals, research institutes and industry partners.

“The Parks Canada plaque not only serves as a fitting reminder of the critical research discoveries made here at U of T – it will also inspire future trainees and researchers whose work will be pivotal in the health research discoveries made over the next hundred years,” Allen said.

Patricia Brubaker, a professor in the departments of physiology and medicine at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and member of the faculty’s Banting & Best Diabetes Centre, described the key areas of diabetes research being investigated by U of T faculty and students today.

“Our interests cover the spectrum of diabetes research, including not only type 1 diabetes, but also type 2 diabetes, which is now reaching epidemic levels, affecting one in six Canadians, as well as gestational diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy,” said Brubaker, who has been conducting diabetes research for four decades.

“We are studying the causes of diabetes through research into obesity, a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes; we are interrogating new approaches to the treatment of diabetes, including stem cell replacement therapy and new pharmacologic treatments; and our researchers are exploring the fundamental mechanisms that underlie the normal regulation of glucose and fat metabolism and how this is disrupted in diabetes, leading to long-term complications such as kidney and cardiovascular disease.”

Brubaker also reflected on the impact of insulin and diabetes research on her own life. As a person living with type 1 diabetes, she noted she is “one of legions who would not be alive today without the discovery of insulin.”

In addition to saving countless lives, the discovery of insulin helped establish U of T, its partner hospitals and Toronto more generally as a vanguard of diabetes research and treatment.

In April, some of the latest developments in the field were discussed at the Insulin100 conference, a two-day virtual symposium that drew over 6,000 attendees from around the world.

Also in April, U of T’s Banting & Best Diabetes Centre and Diabetes Action Canada hosted “100 Years of Insulin – Celebrating its Impact on our Lives,” a public celebration and forum featuring an array of topics of interest to people living with diabetes.

It was at this public celebration that Canada Post unveiled a special stamp to commemorate the discovery of insulin. The stamp, which depicts a vial of insulin resting on an excerpt from Banting’s unpublished memoirs, was unveiled from the Banting House National Historic Site of Canada in London, Ont. – in the very room where Banting first got the idea that eventually led to the discovery of insulin. Brubaker and Scott Heximer, chair of the department of physiology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a principal investigator at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, worked with Canada Post and Banting House to ensure the stamp’s historical accuracy and help source archival material.

The stamp would be the first of several commemorations to mark the place of insulin in the cultural tapestry of Canada’s heritage.

In May, Historica Canada released a Heritage Minutes segment paying tribute to the discovery. The segment depicts the plight of 13-year-old diabetes patient Leonard Thompson, and the efforts of Banting and Best to formulate and refine the insulin treatment that ultimately saves Thompson’s life. Again, experts from U of T – including science and medicine librarian Alexandra Carter, archivist Natalya Rattan and medical historian Christopher Rutty – were consulted on the project to ensure historical accuracy.

In July, the Royal Canadian Mint issued its own commemoration in the form of a two-dollar coin depicting a monomer (a building block of the insulin molecule), insulin cells, blood cells, glucose and the scientific instruments used in early formulations of insulin.

The importance of insulin was recognized almost immediately after its initial discovery. In 1923, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Frederick Banting and James McLeod, who isolated insulin in U of T’s department of physiology. The prize was shared with physiology and biochemistry student Charles Best and biochemist James Collip.

U of T researchers continue to be recognized for their stellar work in advancing diabetes research.

Brubaker was honoured last year with a Lifetime Achievement Award from Diabetes Canada, a recognition of her longstanding contribution to diabetes research and the Canadian diabetes community. And, earlier this year, Daniel Drucker, professor of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and a senior investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Sinai Health, was awarded a Canada Gairdner International Award for research on glucagon-like peptides that has helped revolutionize treatments for type 2 diabetes – an honour he shared with collaborators at Harvard University and the University of Copenhagen.

Some assembly required: TA designs at-home lab gear, ships to students around the globe

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 14:40:19 +0000

Some assembly required: TA designs at-home lab gear, ships to students around the globe

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/12/2021 - 10:40

Cutline

U of T Engineering teaching assistant Crystal Liu designed, sourced and mailed 50 lab kits for students to build a mini mechanical tester from home (photo courtesy Crystal Liu)

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Graduate Students

University of Toronto students enrolled in MSE398: Materials Manufacturing and Design Laboratory received a box in the mail a few months ago that included everything they needed to build a mini-mechanical tester machine for their at-home labs.

The package included mechanical parts, electrical components, a printed circuit board and tools.

“You assemble the pieces like IKEA furniture,” says teaching assistant Crystal Liu, who is also a master's student in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

To keep remote learning engaging and hands-on during the pandemic, U of T Engineering instructors have gotten creative when it comes to adapting their teaching and lab exercises.

For Liu and course instructor, Scott Ramsay, an associate professor, teaching stream, in the department of materials science and engineering, it was paramount that third-year materials science engineering students still had an opportunity to gain experience performing hands-on work.

“Last spring, Professor Ramsay and I talked about the term ahead [and] we knew the pandemic was far from being over in a year’s time,” says Liu. “We both agreed that we couldn’t have students doing just simulations – it’s just not the same as a hands-on experience.

“So, we decided to send them something.”

Liu began designing a lab kit for the course and, in an effort to help others, made it freely available online. Through the summer, she sourced materials and components. For custom-designed parts, she worked with staff at the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship’s fabrication facility to produce them with 3D printers and laser cutting equipment.

By the fall term, Liu had the materials to package 50 lab kits. And by the winter term, she had mailed them to students as far away as the United Arab Emirates, China and Turkey. For students in Toronto, Liu delivered the kits to students’ homes or arranged for them to be picked up.

Teaching assistant Crystal Liu mailed the kits to U of T students as far away as the UAE, China and Turkey (photo courtesy of Crystal Liu)

The course’s first assignment is to build the tester. Once fully assembled, the device is the size of a shoe box. It comes complete with a custom-designed PCB, user interface and all firmware, as well as safety features such as a shield that must be installed for the machine to run and a large emergency-stop button.

For the second assignment, students were provided with a bag of material samples to analyze.

“These include 3D-printed samples, ranging from very brittle to very stretchy, and items you can find in daily life, like tapes and plastic bags,” Liu says.

Once students insert the sample, the machine stretches it, measuring the force being applied, as well as the displacement. The user interface shows the force-versus-displacement curve while the data is saved in real time. Students can then use the information to study the material’s properties and how the data is generated.

The students’ final assignment involved finding an adhesive seam to peel – such as the ones at the top of a bag of chips – to conduct their own peel-force test using the machine.

“They go from learning how to perform a tensile test that is already designed for them, to then having to apply what they learned in order to conduct their own experiment procedure from scratch,” says Liu. “What they’re learning and how they go about it is as close as you can get to what it would be like if they were operating equipment on campus.”

Liu and Ramsay have received positive feedback from students.

“They like how hands-on it has been and really appreciated the amount of time and effort we put into the course,” she says.

Liu’s experience designing the lab kit is helping to inform her own master’s project on designing and implementing open-source hardware in engineering research. The kits were partially funded by Ramsay’s Hart Teaching Innovation Professorship.

“Crystal has worked exceptionally hard on this project and it is impressive that she was able to put this together for our students,” says Ramsay. “The hands-on experience is one of the most important aspects of this course.

“I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to give the students some of that experience in the remote environment.”

After the term wraps up in a few weeks, Liu plans to turn her research, including two mechanical testers, into a startup with the support of U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery.

“I believe students learn better by building and playing, so this type of device could be beneficial to students at other universities, they could even be used in high school science labs,” says Liu. “However, not everyone can go from freely available design plans to components and to a product. So, through a startup, I’m hoping to make these designs even more accessible to others.”

'An outstanding scholar and a beloved teacher': U of T holds Ursula Franklin Street renaming ceremony

davidlee — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 17:06:38 +0000

'An outstanding scholar and a beloved teacher': U of T holds Ursula Franklin Street renaming ceremony

davidlee Tue, 09/22/2020 - 13:06

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Monica Franklin and Martin Franklin, children of the late University Professor Emerita Ursula Franklin, look at the street sign bearing her name on U of T's St. George campus (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

City & Culture

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Alumni

Cheryl Regehr

Cities

Massey College

Materials Science

The University of Toronto this week commemorated the renaming of a street on the St. George campus in honour of University Professor Emerita Ursula Franklin, the distinguished physicist and metallurgist who taught at U of T for more than 40 years.

Ursula Franklin Street connects Spadina Avenue and St. George Street on the western strip of campus, near the heart of U of T’s engineering footprint and such key buildings as the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Formerly Russell Street, the renamed roadway now commemorates one of the most influential scientists and engineers in Canada’s history and a feminist and peace activist whose contributions transcended her prolific scholarly achievements.

“Professor Franklin was an outstanding scholar and a beloved teacher who spent enormous amounts of time mentoring students,” said Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr at a small ceremony held on campus Monday. “She was also known for her incredible advocacy, as an advocate of women and girls and a peace activist.

“This street – this historical marker – is a true testament to Professor Franklin’s cherished intellect and societal impact. We are so very proud to have it here at the University of Toronto.”

Monday’s ceremony was also attended by several members of Franklin’s family and Professor Chris Yip, dean of U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

Councillor Mike Layton (left) delivers remarks at a small, physically distanced ceremony on U of T’s St. George campus (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Born in Germany in 1921, Franklin came to U of T as a post-doctoral student in 1949 after surviving the Holocaust. In 1967, she became the first female professor in what is now the department of materials science and engineering. In 1984, she became the first woman to receive the honorific of University Professor, a designation that recognizes unusual scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in a field.

Franklin received an array of honours including honorary degrees from more than 20 universities and was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, a member of the Order of Ontario and a recipient of the Award of Merit from the City of Toronto. Her work advancing the equality of girls and women was also recognized by a Governor General’s Award. Franklin died in 2016 at the age of 94.

From left to right: Councillor Mike Layton, Monica Franklin, Martin Franklin and U of T Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr take part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Local city councillor and U of T alumnus Mike Layton said the renaming of the street marked “a process of turning the past into a new interpretation of the people that made this city great, made this university great and made our country and the world a better and more special place.

“This means a lot not only to Professor Franklin’s family, but also to the wider university family, and is just a small way to recognize her contributions to the University of Toronto.”

University Professor Emerita Ursula Franklin was a distinguished physicist and metallurgist who taught at U of T for more than 40 years (photo courtesy of University of Toronto Archives)

Franklin's daughter, Monica Franklin, a U of T alumna, said her family was proud to see the street named in her mother's honour.

“I know my mother would be pleased by having a street named after her, as well as its location, a stone’s throw – although she would object to the analogy – from Engineering and the Wallberg Building where she spent most of her U of T Engineering life,” she said in her prepared remarks.

“It is also not far from Massey College, where she spent much of her last 20 to 25 years. As well, it is the address for other U of T departments – astrophysics, anthropology and Earth sciences – appropriate given her life’s work making connections between disciplines.”

Members of Ursula Franklin's family pose for a photo underneath the sign marking Ursula Franklin Street (photo by Johnny Guatto)

The naming of Ursula Franklin Street was set in motion following a request to Councillor Layton from Michael Valpy of the Munk School of Public Policy & Global Affairs and Massey College. The street was previously named for Peter Russell, the first administrator of Upper Canada and an opponent of efforts to abolish slavery in the colony.

The decision to rename the street was approved by a unanimous vote of the Toronto and East York Community Council in March.

Franklin’s daughter said her mother’s life and activism held within it a message that's timely to the ongoing reckoning with racism and intolerance in society.

“I knew she would abhor the tribalism and how easy it is to fear the ‘other’ – those who are not like us, who look and act differently, who come from different backgrounds,” she said. “She would urge us to find what we have in common – that we are all seeking a better, more just and equitable society for ourselves and our children.”

U of T joins other Canadian universities in moment of silence for plane crash victims

geoff.vendeville — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 18:12:56 +0000

U of T joins other Canadian universities in moment of silence for plane crash victims

geoff.vendeville Wed, 01/15/2020 - 13:12

Cutline

U of T students observed a nationwide moment of silence at Canadian universities Wednesday in honour of the estimated 46 students, faculty and researchers killed aboard Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 last week (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Feeling distressed? Find someone to talk to right now – and if there is an immediate risk, call 911.

The University of Toronto and other universities across Canada observed a moment of silence on Wednesday in honour of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 victims – many of whom belonged to the country’s higher education community.

An estimated 46 students, faculty and researchers from at least 19 Canadian universities were aboard the flight, which was headed for Kyiv when it was shot down by the Iranian military minutes after takeoff.

The names of the members of the U of T community lost when Flight 752 was shot down were displayed on a screen in U of T’s Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Paul Davidson, president of Universities Canada, which co-ordinated the moment of silence at 1 p.m. (EST), said the gesture “provide[s] those within and outside the community a galvanizing national moment to recognize the unprecedented and far-reaching effects of this tragedy on universities.”

U of T is mourning the loss of eight members of its community, including six students:

Students at U of T Scarborough observed the 1 p.m. moment of silence in classrooms and elsewhere on campus (photo by Dylan Toombs)

In the days since the tragedy, U of T has lowered its flags to half-mast and held vigils across its three campuses where people have come together in remembrance and mourning.

Nearly 4,000 people, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Toronto Mayor John Tory, participated in a memorial event at U of T on Jan. 12 that was organized by Tirgan, the Iranian-Canadian cultural organization. Vigils at U of T Scarborough and the Multi-Faith Centre on the St. George campus took place last week.

Students at U of T’s Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship take a moment to remember the eight members of the U of T community lost aboard Flight 752 (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

U of T Mississauga, where Zeynab Asad Lari was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in science, will host a vigil tomorrow at 5 p.m. in the Maanjiwe nendamowinan building.

On Wednesday, the university announced a new endowed fund, the Iranian Student Memorial Scholarship Fund, in honour of those who died in the crash.

Round-the-clock support:

Students can speak to a trained crisis worker at any hour of the day.

U of T My SSP for students: call 1-844-451-9700 or download the app at the Apple App Store or Google Play. Immediate counselling support is available in 35 languages and ongoing support in 146 languages.

Other 24-7 supports available to students include:

Good 2 Talk Student Helpline 1-866-925-5454. Professional counselling, information and referrals for mental health, addictions and well-being.
Gerstein Crisis Centre 416-929-5200
Distress Centres of Greater Toronto 416-408-HELP (4357)
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at 250 College Street
Anishnawbe Health Toronto Mental Health Crisis Line 416-360-0486

The following services are available to students on all three campuses:

St. George campus: Health and Wellness Centre (416-978-8030), located at Koffler Student Services
U of T Scarborough: Health & Wellness Centre 416-287-7065
U of T Mississauga: Health & Counselling Centre 905-828-5255

Faculty and staff have access to 24-7 support through:

The Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP), offered through Homewood Health, online and by phone at 1-800-663-1142

Seven transformational things that happened at U of T over the past decade

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 21:19:44 +0000

Seven transformational things that happened at U of T over the past decade

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 12/20/2019 - 16:19

Cutline

(photo by Wei Fang via Getty Images)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

City & Culture

Indigenous Initiatives

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Black Grad

School of Cities

Artificial Intelligence

Boundless

Creative Destruction Lab

Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

Health Innovation Hub

Impact Centre

Indigenous

Landmark

Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship

Meric Gertler

ONRamp

Rotman School of Management

Research and Innovation

Sustainability

Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre

Truth and Reconciliation

As we prepare to usher in a new decade, U of T News is looking back at some of the defining and impactful things that happened at the University of Toronto over the past 10 years.

The U of T community has left an indelible mark on the 2010s by making groundbreaking achievements in artificial intelligence, taking strides toward Indigenous reconciliation and promoting sustainability throughout its operations – to name just a few. Many of these initiatives have set in motion ideas and actions that will pave the way for the university’s success for decades to come.

Here’s a list – admittedly a non-exhaustive one – of transformational things that happened at U of T over the past 10 years:

Campus Transformation

The Myhal Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship on the St. George campus (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

The past decade has seen U of T complete numerous construction and renovation projects as it continues to grow its campuses, expand the facilities available to students, faculty and staff, and lay the groundwork for more ambitious campus-building projects to come.

To take one, high profile example: The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering last year opened the Myhal Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a building designed to foster multi-disciplinary partnerships, experiential learning and entrepreneurship opportunities. Named after alumnus George Myhal and his wife Rayla, the building features technology-enhanced active learning rooms, dedicated space for student clubs and state-of-the-art fabrication facilities for design projects.

U of T also laid the groundwork for the Landmark Project, a major initiative to revitalize the historic core of the St. George campus and enhance sustainability and accessibility. The project will feature the expansion of pedestrian-friendly areas around King’s College Circle, Hart House Circle and Tower Road, and will replace parking spots for cars with green spaces, granite paths and an underground parking garage.

The Landmark Project will make the historic centre of St. George campus more pedestrian-friendly and add new green space (rendering courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.)

The St. George campus is also the proposed site of a 14-storey building constructed from engineered wood, which is prized as an innovative building material due its low carbon footprint, structural integrity, fire-resistant properties and aesthetic appeal. Another landmark building is proposed for 90 Queen's Park Crescent, providing a home to U of T's School of Cities as well as numerous departments from the Faculty of Arts & Science.

At U of T Mississauga, it’s been a similarly eventful decade for campus-building. In 2011, the campus unveiled the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex. In August, U of T Mississauga acknowledged the Indigenous history of the land, the future of the campus and the university’s commitment to reconciliation by revealing the name of its newest building: Maanjiwe nendamowinan. Sitting on the site the former North Building, Maanjiwe nendamowinan is home to humanities and social sciences and features a six-storey atrium and event space, as well as 40,000 square feet of new classroom space that’s outfitted with cutting-edge technology and hundreds of new study spaces.

Maanjiwe nendamowinan at U of T Mississauga boasts 40,000 square feet of new classroom space that’s outfitted with cutting-edge technology (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

At U of T Scarborough, national-level athletes, Varsity competitors and intramural sports participants alike can all take advantage of the state-of-the-art facilities on offer at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. After opening to the public in 2014, the facility hosted several competitions during the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. It is now home to numerous national sport organizations and high-performance centres, while also offering U of T Scarborough students top-notch fitness and wellness facilities.

Wheelchair basketball players practise inside the Toronto PanAm Sports Centre (photo by Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

U of T Scarborough also opened the new Highland Hall building, creating a striking new gateway to the campus in addition to doubling the amount of space dedicated to students and adding faculty and administration space. And it unveiled the 500-metre Valley Land Trail, which was designed to offer accessibility and year-long enjoyment of the ravine abutting the campus.

Finally, the university recently completed comprehensive renovations of research labs across its three campuses. Driven by nearly $190 million in funding from the university, province and federal government, the upgrades increased the amount of space available for research activities, improved electrical and internet connectivity and will create utility savings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustainability and climate action

The rooftop garden at U of T Scarborough (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Sustainability has been a central theme of U of T’s efforts to revitalize and expand its three campuses.

One of the most ambitious initiatives is the planned installation of a massive geo-exchange field beneath Front Campus. The project, part of U of T’s Low Carbon Action Plan, will see boreholes drilled deep into the ground to allow for storage of surplus heat. It is projected to yield annual greenhouse gas reductions of 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2024.

Sustainable design is also a hallmark of U of T Mississauga’s Maanjiwe nendamowinan, which has a 20,000-gallon rainwater re-use system, energy-efficient mechanical systems, green roof spaces and a green-cleaning initiative, and U of T Scarborough’s Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, which boasts eco-friendly features including 1,854 rooftop solar panels and underground cisterns to collect rainwater.

Physical projects aside, the university has also taken steps to incorporate sustainability into all levels of academia including working on developing curriculum pathways for sustainability-minded undergraduate students across the university.

At an institutional level, U of T has played a leadership role by engaging with the challenges posed by climate change on the world stage. In 2018, U of T joined 12 other leading research universities in North America to form the University Climate Change Coalition, which aims to mobilize resources, expand research partnerships and leverage expertise to help businesses, cities and regions implement research-driven climate solutions.

This year, President Meric Gertler attended the inaugural U7+ Alliance in Paris, where he briefed French President Emmanuel Macron on the alliance's commitment to sustainability. U of T has also hosted numerous speeches, conferences and symposia to further dialogue on climate change.

Artificial intelligence

U of T University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton has been described as the “godfather of deep learning” (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Many predict that artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize everything from transportation to medicine – and some of the most exciting work is taking place at U of T thanks to pioneers like University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, a Turing Award-winner who is known as the “godfather of deep learning.”

In bid to build upon its early lead in the field, U of T partnered with government and industry to launch the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2017 and is now attracting several of the most promising AI researchers from around world. Toronto, in turn, is benefiting from the arrival of global tech companies keen to establish an AI footprint in the city. For example, Google, Uber, Samsung and NVIDIA have all established or expanded AI labs in Toronto that are headed by U of T researchers.

U of T is also addressing AI through a multi-disciplinary lens following the launch of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Set to be housed in the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, the institute leverages U of T's unique strengths across a wide range of fields to explore the role of humanities, social sciences, public policy and law in a rapidly changing technology landscape.

A global, inclusive student experience

Students at U of T were the first in Canada to organize a Black Grad event in 2017 (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

By embracing diversity and expanding its international presence, U of T over the past decade has continued to further its reputation as an inclusive institution with a truly global outlook.

U of T’s student body has played a proactive role in this regard. For example, in 2017, U of T students organized Black Grad, Canada’s first ever graduation celebration for Black students. Black Grad has since gone on to become one of the most highly anticipated convocation-related events on the calendar. After two years of being held at Hart House on the St. George campus, Black Grad 2019 was hosted at U of T Mississauga in June and organizers say the first Black Grad of the new decade could be held at U of T Scarborough.

The year 2017 also saw the launch of the Lester B. Pearson International Student Scholarship, which brings some of the most talented and driven students from around the world to U of T. The 2019 cohort comprised 36 students drawn from 27 countries.

U of T has also continued to expand its international footprint by way of research agreements with academic and industry partners around the world. Meanwhile, the university’s commitment to equity and diversity has also been formalized in the Institutional Strategic Research Plan, which aims to ensure an inclusive environment and increase the presence of marginalized groups such as Indigenous Peoples, racialized persons, LGBTQ individuals and persons with disabilities.

Truth and Reconciliation

Skahendowaneh Swamp, a chair of Indigenous knowledge at the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies at Trent University, is flanked by U of T President Meric Gertler (right) and Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice-president of human resources and equity (photo by Lisa Lightbourn)

In early 2016, U of T President Gertler and Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr established U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee in response to the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call to Canadians to engage in ongoing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

The report produced 34 calls to action focusing on the following areas: Indigenous spaces; curriculum; students and co-curricular education; faculty and staff; research ethics and community relationships; and institutional leadership and implementation.

Since then, U of T has moved forward with a range of initiatives including the creation of the Master in Social Work, Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency program at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work; organizing an Indigenous Mentoring Day to match Indigenous job-seekers with employers at the university; and the appointment of academic advisers for Indigenous research and Indigenous curriculum and education.

The university is also launching an Indigenous Landscape project, to be installed on 4,500 square metres of Hart House Green, in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee's call for a “prominent, visible space at the very centre of the St. George campus be dedicated as an Indigenous space.”

“Indigenous students will be able to walk through campus and see an outdoor space and know it was created for them, with them and with their needs in mind,” said Shannon Simpson, U of T’s new director of Indigenous initiatives and co-chair of the Indigenous Landscape project.

The project is being planned on the basis of in-depth consultations with Indigenous groups at U of T and First Nations communities with historic ties to the area.

Innovation and entrepreneurship

U of T’s ONRamp co-working and collaboration space opened to entrepreneurs in 2017 (photo by Kenneth Cheung)

Over the past decade, U of T entrepreneurs have created more than 500 startup companies that have secured over $1.5 billion in investment and helped establish the university as an engine of Toronto’s thriving innovation scene.

U of T alone is home to more than 10 campus-linked accelerators that cater to startups at various stages of development. They include the Creative Destruction Lab, which was founded at the Rotman School of Management and has since expanded to seven other locations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.; the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, which serves entrepreneurs in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; ICUBE, based in the Institute for Management and Innovation at U of T Mississauga; and U of T Scarborough’s The Hub. Others include: UTEST, DCSIL (Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab), H2i (Health Innovation Hub), Impact Centre and InnovED.

Many entrepreneurs from U of T and partner universities work out of U of T’s ONRamp, a 15,000-square-foot space that opened in 2017 and offers co-working and collaboration spaces – not to mention ready access to downtown Toronto’s vibrant business community.

Unprecedented community support

The soon-to-be-built Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre will accelerate innovation in Toronto and Canada by creating the country’s largest university-based innovation node (rendering by WEISS/MANFREDI)

In March, U of T received $100 million from Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman – the largest single donation in its history. The funds are being used to support construction of the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre that will anchor U of T's growing cluster of AI scientists, biomedical experts and entrepreneurs.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to supporting the university over the past decade.

Spanning a period of seven years, U of T’s Boundless campaign raised $2.6-billion from more than 104,000 donors in nearly 100 countries. The generous contributions from individuals, families, corporations and charitable organizations will go towards an array of initiatives aimed at accelerating research and educational opportunities, enriching the student experience and transforming the university’s three campuses to leave a lasting legacy for generations to come.

What's more, the campaign saw endowments for student aid and student support cross the $1-billion mark for the first time in the university's history.

In an interview with U of T News this past summer, David Palmer, U of T's vice-president, advancement, said the Boundless campaign’s success suggests the best is yet to come.

"People ask me all the time: 'Have we exhausted the capacity of our donors and the time and efforts of our volunteers?' And I have to say we all feel we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of what we are capable of together, and what our donors and volunteers are so generously willing to do for us," Palmer said.

"We think there’s a very, very exciting future ahead of us right now."

A 'teaching research lab': How U of T's Faculty of Information built a classroom for the digital age

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 22:03:04 +0000

A 'teaching research lab': How U of T's Faculty of Information built a classroom for the digital age

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 11/22/2019 - 17:03

Cutline

Room 224 of the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building boasts bright colours, full wireless connectivity and endless teaching possibilities (photo courtesy of Faculty of Information)

Ann Brocklehurst

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Student Experience

Faculty of Information

Teaching

Wireless connectivity is increasingly a part of daily life, but completely wireless classrooms remain a rarity in academia. Many instructors still have to juggle special cables, assorted adaptors and various dongles to bring their lectures to life.

Not so in Room 224 of the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building.

Olivier St-Cyr, the classroom’s designer, describes the space as “one of the most technologically sophisticated classrooms on campus.”

Equipped with eight giant, interactive touch screen TVs and a selection of whiteboards, Room 224 is what’s known as a technologically enhanced active learning (TEAL) classroom. The completely wireless environment accommodates 72 students with connections available for 250 students including remote participants.

St-Cyr, an assistant professor, teaching stream, in the Faculty of Information’s user experience (UX) design concentration with a cross appointment in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, wanted a studio-style classroom designed for UX coursework and active learning techniques. In the summer of 2018, he oversaw the construction of a UX design studio in the Bissell Building’s basement. It served as a prototype or “baby room,” as St-Cyr calls it, for Room 224.

From that experience, he and other professors learned a number of practical lessons. They needed bright lighting and easily accessible power outlets. Whiteboards were important, too – even in a digital age. Tables needed to be easily reconfigured to accommodate different class sizes. And there had to be enough space for the instructor to easily move between tables.

Olivier St-Cyr calls room 224 in the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building “one of the most technologically sophisticated classrooms on campus” (photo courtesy of Faculty of Information)

Speaking at the launch of Room 224 last month, U of T’s Vice-President & Provost Cheryl Regehr said the faculty and its researchers have been “leaders in classroom design, teaching innovation and the creation of space.”

“At a time when we’re seeing the emergence of entirely new industries, our faculty are working hard to create interactive, hands-on innovative programs,” said Regehr. “Classrooms like this one and those in the Myhal Centre create new and exciting ways for students to collaborate with one another.”

The Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which opened in 2018, doesn’t have any traditional classrooms. Its learning spaces were conceived to use technology to re-imagine the relationship between speaker and audience. They were designed to make every class, guest lecture or special event a forum for two-way engagement and spontaneous interaction.

In Room 224 of the Bissell Building, meanwhile, the tables have adjustable heights and can be wheeled around into different configurations. The brightly coloured chairs aren’t just for looks either. Form follows function, explains St-Cyr, noting that an exercise might involve grouping students in green chairs together or asking occupants of the orange chairs to lead a discussion.

While there is a traditional podium for professors who want it, there isn’t really a “front” to the room. The teacher can stand in the middle of the class or walk around among the tables.

As for students, they will eventually be able to attend class remotely, although according to St-Cyr, the classroom is currently operating at about 10 per cent of its technological capacity as professors familiarize themselves with its capabilities.

As he swipes the TV screen for a demonstration at the launch, St-Cyr explains, “Whatever I can do with my mouse on my computer, I can do here with my fingers.” He then allows a colleague to share a second screen so they can compare their work – a common classroom activity. He explains that all students in the class use a special secure app designed by the supplier of the smart TVs that hang on the walls.

St-Cyr sees Room 224 as his “teaching research lab” for the next few years, adding that other faculty are welcome take the classroom for a test drive on Thursday afternoons.

“It's a huge exploratory sandbox where faculty members are invited to come and learn about new TEAL pedagogies,” he says.

From aircraft brakes to brain disorder diagnoses: Meet the winners of U of T's Demo Day startup competition

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 15:46:34 +0000

From aircraft brakes to brain disorder diagnoses: Meet the winners of U of T's Demo Day startup competition

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 09/09/2019 - 11:46

Cutline

The team from Aeroflux took home first prize for their wear-free aircraft braking system at the Entrepreneurship Hatchery's 2019 Demo Day competition (photo Ben Ouyang)

Liz Do

Tyler Irving

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Science

Entrepreneneurship

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Faculty of Arts & Science

Graduate Students

Startups

U of T Mississauga

Undergraduate Students

University College

When it comes time to launch their careers, some University of Toronto students may be stepping into jobs they created themselves.

Four promising startups shared a total of $42,500 in seed funding at the seventh annual Demo Day, hosted by the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery – one of several startup hubs on campus. The student-generated innovations range from contactless aircraft braking technology to tools that will help nurture the next generation of e-sports superstars.

Held at the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery invited 14 finalists to pitch their startups to a panel of entrepreneurs, prospective investors and U of T Engineering faculty.

“We started this journey early this year with more than 100 teams applying to the Hatchery,” Joseph Orozco, the Hatchery’s executive director, said at the outset of the event. “Now we present to you our 14 finalists, who we see as being the next big startups of tomorrow.”

Demo Day is the culmination of the Hatchery Nest program, a four-month accelerator that connects entrepreneurs with experienced mentors and industry leaders to develop their businesses. Teams receive detailed feedback on their business plans, explore potential markets, learn about patents and marketing, as well as build prototypes using 3D printers and other fabrication resources available at the Myhal Centre.

“The Entrepreneurship Hatchery is a startup that creates startups,” said Christopher Yip, the dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, in his opening remarks. “But it’s also one of the ways that we future-proof our graduates.

“When they learn the skills of entrepreneurship, they learn how to anticipate a world that doesn’t yet exist, and how to find their place within it.”

This year, the top four startups took home one $20,000 grand prize and two $10,000 runner-up prizes.

As well, a $2,500 “Orozco prize” is furnished through funds raised by the students themselves. The prize was awarded through live audience voting via Pheedloop, an event technology platform first developed at the Hatchery by U of T Engineering alumnus Rahul Goel.

Here are this year’s winners:

Aeroflux: Wear-free aircraft brakes poised to change the aviation industry ($20,000 Hatchery Prize)

Roshan Varghese of Aeroflux speaks to attendees at the Entrepreneurship Hatchery’s 2019 Demo Day competition (photo by Liz Do)

Aeroflux has developed a non-contact magnetic braking technology that eliminates the wear-and-tear on commercial aircraft braking systems, which can result in up to 25 brake replacements per aircraft and cost airlines worldwide billions.

“We’ve created a new type of magnetic-field generator that produces an entirely different magnetic distribution across the braking plate, feasibly improving the aircraft’s braking performance,” said co-founder Nikola Kostic.

After winning first place at Demo Day (and also recently the Clarke Prize), the Aeroflux team sees a clear path to their first flight. The team has filed a patent, and is looking to industry to further develop their technology. Aeroflux hopes to develop a full-scale prototype in 2020 and commence U.S. Federal Aviation Administration certification in 2022.

“It feels amazing to have the support of the U of T entrepreneurship community,” said Kostic, adding that the team plans to stay within the U of T entrepreneurship ecosystem to further grow their startup.

“Our team is so grateful to the Hatchery and the university for helping us succeed.”

Sparrow: An AI-enabled e-sports coach ($10,000 Hatchery Prize)

From left: Yukuan Wu, Akshit Goyal, Arnav Verma, Bo Sun and Tong Yu (photo by Liz Do)

Becoming a top League of Legends player may have just gotten easier.

The team behind Sparrow have developed an analytical tool that delivers personalized, interactive feedback to help competitive gamers improve their performance.

The software leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to help coach players by showing them where they’ve made mistakes in their game, and offering suggestions on how to improve their strategy.

“This is what makes us unique,” said co-founder Tong Yu, who is working on his master’s degree in management innovation. “We are the only gaming software that melds analytics and that human ‘touch’ in an affordable package.”

The team hopes to release a beta version in November and partner with gaming lounge Invictus Game Station in Toronto.

“After this win, it’s back to business,” said co-founder Yukuan Wu, a third-year computer science student who is ranked in the top 0.01 per cent among League of Legends players.

“We’re excited to keep going with this and scale up our program and market our company to [the] gaming lounge.”

eXamify: Taking the pain out of tests ($10,000 Hatchery Prize)

eXamify team members (third and fourth from left) Kia Shakiba and Mohammadmehdi Ataei (photo by Ben Ouyang)

Professors and TAs spend about a third of their time creating and marking assessments such as quizzes and exams. While there are various tools available to assist with this work – LaTeX for constructing diagrams, Crowdmark for evaluation – so far nobody is offering an end-to end-solution.

“A lot of educational technology companies only focus on one aspect of the problem,” said Kia Shakiba, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering who co-founded eXamify with mechanical and industrial engineering PhD candidate Mehdi Ataei.

“We want to make the whole process better for everybody involved: students, TAs, professors and even the institution itself.”

With simple drag-and-drop tools and cloud-based storage, eXamify’s software makes it easy to create, share, evaluate and archive assessments. Users can create a single test for all students or customized ones with subtle differences for each individual student to combat academic dishonesty.

Marking is semi-automated, saving time and money for educators.

The team will use their prize money to complete a beta version of the software, which they are planning to roll out at U of T by the end of the year.

Brainloop: Leveraging AI to diagnose brain disorders ($2,500 Orozco Prize)

Esteban Arellano (right) and Juan Egas of Brainloop deliver a presentation at the 2019 Hatchery Demo Day (photo by Liz Do)

Brainloop started because of an unfortunate medical error.

After experiencing a seizure, a close friend of founders Esteban Arellano, a second-year computer science student, and Juan Egas, a third-year materials science and engineering student, was misdiagnosed with epilepsy. The drugs she was prescribed were ineffective and had negative side effects, but it was several years before the misdiagnosis was discovered.

Upon further research, the team behind Brainloop was surprised to discover that this sort of thing happens often – up to 20 per cent of brain disorders are initially misdiagnosed.

“Artificial intelligence is a powerful emerging tool in clinical diagnosis,” said Arellano. “It’s estimated that 90 per cent of hospitals will adopt it in the next few decades. We wanted to be the first to do it for brain disorders.”

Arellano and Egas are developing an AI algorithm that can analyse data from tests such as electroencephalograms (EEGs). By detecting anomalies in these tests and correlating them with diagnoses from experts, they aim to create a tool that can provide faster, earlier and more accurate detection of brain disorders, including epilepsy and non-epileptic seizure disorders.

The team is currently working on data collection and analysis with two neurologists from the University Health Network, and hopes to launch the first iteration of its tool in April of next year.

'We have really ambitious plans': Robotics research gears up at U of T Mississauga

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 14:31:22 +0000

'We have really ambitious plans': Robotics research gears up at U of T Mississauga

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 08/16/2019 - 10:31

Cutline

A growing robotics research cluster at U of T Mississauga is connected to the recently launched U of T Robotics Institute, which aims to strengthen robotics research across the university (photo courtesy of Animesh Garg)

Elaine Smith

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Computer Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Robotics

U of T Mississauga

The University of Toronto Mississauga is forging a robotics research and teaching cluster that – as part of U of T’s new university-wide Robotics Institute initiative – will help “take robotics to the next level.”

That’s how Jessica Burgner-Kahrs describes what's in store for robotics innovation at U of T Mississauga in the years ahead.

“With the great resources and the support we have, great research can flow from here,” says Burgner-Kahrs, an associate professor at U of T Mississauga’s department of mathematical and computational sciences and an expert in continuum robotics who has emerged as the de facto leader of the U of T Mississauga robotics cluster.

“We’re building a research program and creating a whole academic program from scratch.”

The “we” to which Burgner-Kahrs refers includes her two colleagues, both assistant professors: Florian Shkurti, who joined U of T Mississauga last December after earning his PhD at McGill University, and Animesh Garg, who arrives this summer from Stanford University via a job in the robotics industry.

From left to right: U of T Mississauga robotics researchers Animesh Garg, Jessica Burgner-Kahrs and Florian Shkurti

The three faculty members are simply the start of the cluster: U of T Mississauga plans to add between two and four additional faculty to the group. The cluster is part of the recently launched U of T Robotics Institute, which aims to strengthen robotics research and innovation across the university and boasts researchers from engineering, computer science, aerospace and other disciplines. The Institute is housed at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

“The institute links us so that we have a unified presence on campus and beyond,” says Shkurti. “We are the largest robotics institute in Canada and we have really ambitious plans.

“We now have a broad network of collaborators, which will allow us to create joint funding proposals. The gears are turning.”

Burgner-Kahrs relocated her lab to U of T Mississauga from Germany to continue her work in continuum robotics. The robots she builds from scratch are flexible, with no joints, and they can be as small as one millimetre in diameter. Her personal interest is in medical applications – microsurgery, for example – but she envisions people also using the tiny robots to inspect the guts of a machine or to snake through rubble after an earthquake to find survivors.

Such tasks require communication between the humans in charge and the robots, as well as a thorough understanding of the movements required to execute tasks and the ability to craft the appropriate algorithms.

“For all of these tasks, we are busy answering the fundamental questions that will make them possible,” Burgner-Kahrs says. “We are at the frontier of something new.”

Her colleagues, too, are breaking new ground. Shkurti works with imitation learning, a subset of machine learning that explores how robots can learn effectively from humans. His research involves robots that can replicate movements without repeated demonstrations as well as understand what to do in specific situations as they arise.

“I’m developing fundamental algorithms for learning, control and computer vision to allow easy collaboration between humans and robots,” Shkurti says.

“How do robots understand why humans are showing them certain actions and how can they replicate these actions? I want to make it easier for humans to specify what they want by demonstrating it, not by writing code. This makes robotics accessible to a wider audience.”

For example, robots can be trained to work with divers at coral reefs, searching for a specific type of coral underwater and recording the necessary scientific data.

Garg is also interested in imitation-guided reinforcement learning, teaching robots to “watch” a how-to video and learn how to understand a task and execute it in a potentially new context.

“My work mixes computer vision with reinforcement learning and traditional control,” he says.

(Image courtesy of Animesh Garg)

Garg has identified several important applications for his research. They include: material handling, where corporations with huge warehouse operations need to fetch, pick, pack and ship products; assembly, where pieces of a product made overseas are shipped to Canada and put together locally to avoid duties; and conventional surgery, “where there is a very fixed checklist of tasks that are repetitive and monotonous.”

“These applications all have a key thread: how robot hands manipulate objects the same way we do,” Garg says. “I’m not interested in replacing humans. I think of robots as the new tools; the technology embeds itself in these devices. I want to simplify complicated processes.”

The three founding members of U of T Mississauga’s robotics cluster see a lot of commonalities and opportunities for collaboration in their work.

“All of us work at both the fundamental level of algorithm design and the application level with robots in action, both indoors and outdoors,” Shkurti says. “There are research threads connecting all of us and I envision us collaborating on fundamental research in robot control.”

They are also excited about the possibilities at hand.

“The administration has been proactive about making UTM into a powerhouse in robotics,” Garg says.

“The faculty is positioned for creating a critical mass of researchers. For me, it felt like a no-brainer to come here.”

'One of our most successful deans ever': U of T celebrates Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering's Cristina Amon

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 02 Jul 2019 15:56:30 +0000

'One of our most successful deans ever': U of T celebrates Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering's Cristina Amon

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 07/02/2019 - 11:56

Cutline

Cristina Amon oversaw significant growth and change at U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, where she was the faculty's longest-serving dean in the last half-century (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

Marit Mitchell

Topic

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Diversity and Inclusion

Artificial Intelligence

Entrepreneneurship

Graduate Students