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CREATE grants boost U of T Engineering research into optical technology and lab-grown human tissues

krisha — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 20:24:16 +0000

CREATE grants boost U of T Engineering research into optical technology and lab-grown human tissues krisha Thu, 04/14/2016 - 16:24

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Professors Peter Herman and Milica Radisic have both received prestigious Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). (Credit: Michael T (left) and Neil Ta (right))

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Two international collaborative research programs led by University of Toronto Engineering professors have received major grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The funding will help train a new generation of experts in leading edge technologies, from more efficient data transfers for cloud computing to new treatments for disease based on lab-grown human tissues.

The two projects are led by Professor Peter Herman and Professor Milica Radisic.

Through Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grants, each worth $1.65 million over six years, the research programs are designed to help train teams of highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and abroad. With the latest announcement, there are now eight CREATE grants active across U of T Engineering.

“Professors Herman and Radisic are leading innovative programs that address key challenges in communications technology and human health,” said Professor Ted Sargent, vice-dean of research in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “This support will help us nurture a new generation of engineering leaders who can bring solutions from the laboratory into the marketplace.”

Learn more about the projects below:

Professor Peter Herman — Guiding light for communications, sensing and more

Herman’s research focuses on materials and techniques to control the flow of light. This includes fibre optics, which revolutionized telecommunications in the 1980s by replacing metal wires with faster, more efficient light-conducting fibres.

“Today, that same story is being played out in the data centres that power cloud computing,” said Herman. “Electronic cabling is becoming a bottleneck, and the wires can only be packed so closely before signals are interfering. If you can switch it over to optical, it will reduce the cost and allow more information to flow.”

Optics have many other applications as well: optical sensors are used to monitor bridges, pipelines and even airplane wings, providing feedback on when they need to be repaired or replaced. Optics also enable ever-smaller medical probes that can image the inside of the body and reduce the need for invasive surgery. In this way, guided light underpins the connectivity that will support the Internet of Things, a connected network of everyday devices, from clothing to appliances to vehicles, that can send and receive data.

Herman is leading a team that includes Professors Stewart Aitchison, Joyce Poon and Li Qian, as well as collaborators at Université Laval, and Quebec’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS). The team also includes several crucial researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, a German research university.

“Jena is a world-leading place for optics research and manufacturing — they call it the City of Light,” said Herman. “We want to introduce our students, early on in their graduate studies, to the successful model they use to build links between academia and photonics companies. We will then follow up in Canada with links to Canadian optics industry.” The experience will help the students learn how to translate their discoveries into new products, either for existing companies or commercial ventures that they themselves will create.

Professor Milica Radisic — Lab-grown human tissues for drug testing and organ repair

Radisic and her team focus on growing human tissues outside the body. They recently unveiled the AngioChip, a system for growing realistic vascularized heart and liver tissues in the lab. These engineered tissues offer an effective way to test potential drug molecules and determine their effect on these organs, an application that is already being commercialized through the spin-off company TARA Biosystems. Eventually, they could be implanted into the body to repair or replace damaged organs.

The new funding will leverage the success of AngioChip’s commercialization. “In contrast to other CREATE programs that provide training through industrial internships, our training here will focus on developing a company,” said Radisic. “Our students will learn how to apply for patents, develop a business plan, make an effective fundraising pitch and more.”

Radisic doesn’t expect every student to create a startup, and she knows that not every new business succeeds. Nevertheless, she feels that entrepreneurship training for engineering graduate students is a critical part of building strong Canadian industries.

“The knowledge they gain will be transferable beyond their field,” she said. “In time, I expect to see them in roles like chief executive officer, chief scientific officer, senior scientist, consultants and IP specialists.”

The project includes 11 primary investigators from U of T: Professors Craig Simmons, Axel Guenther, Paul Santerre, Alison McGuigan, Arun Ramchandran, Penney Gilbert, Edmond Young, Aaron Wheeler, Sara Vasconcelos and Eugenia Kumacheva, as well as collaborators as the Université Laval, the University of Ottawa, McMaster University, Queen’s University, Ryerson University and the University of Victoria. It also includes support from the Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Joe Pennachetti on cities and the role of the University of Toronto

sgupta — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 08:38:26 +0000

Joe Pennachetti on cities and the role of the University of Toronto sgupta Thu, 04/14/2016 - 04:38

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Joe Pennachetti, at the Global Cities Summit hosted by U of T's Global Cities Institute in May 2014, where the creation of the World Council on City Data (WCCD) to globally implement ISO 37120 was announced (photo courtesy the WCCD)

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Former City Manager will be in conversation today with CBC Radio's Matt Galloway at the Munk School of Global Affairs

Joe Pennachetti, Toronto’s former top civil servant, says universities are the “ideal forum,” for sharing information and innovative practices among cities across Canada and around the world.

Pennachetti joined the University of Toronto in 2015 as a senior adviser at the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance (IMFG) and the School of Public Policy & Governance (SPPG) and as a senior adviser at the Global Cities Institute and executive adviser to the World Council on City Data.

Both are places he turned to, he says, for expertise and research to guide policy as city manager of Canada’s largest city. In his new role at U of T, he is encouraging others to do the same.

Pennachatti will discuss his views on policy making in civic government with CBC radio host Matt Galloway today at a sold-out forum at U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs. The event is co-sponsored by the IMFG and the School of Public Policy and Governance (SPPG) at the University of Toronto.

In advance of that event, he spoke to U of T News about the role he sees for U of T in supporting cities and the increasing importance of civic government.

Tell us about your new role at U of T.
I’ve had a relationship with the both the Global Cities Institute and the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance for more than a decade. To me, the partnership was invaluable to get the best possible information and data that’s out there – in Ontario, Canada, the globe. Any city with limited staff could never do the global research that they are doing. I am hoping to make that tie between municipalities and the university.

From your experience, what role do you see for U of T to help cities?
How we can learn from one another as cities, that’s where a university is the ideal forum for pulling it all together. At the end of the day, it is this type of research that is going to be invaluable to cities. You start looking at the data and you solve problems that exist today and you are able to adapt to the challenges of the future, as well.

The federal government is about to make major investments in infrastructure. You were City Manager in Toronto during the last wave of federal infrastructure spending. What’s your take on this latest investment?
I’ve never been so optimistic about the true collaboration of funding from the federal level to cities in Canada. And don’t forget the province, as well. I think they have acknowledged that the property tax in cities can’t fund the tens of billions of dollars in projects that are needed to meet new growth, especially transit. I think it is finally going to happen over the next 10 to 20 years.

Can we take the politics out of infrastructure funding?
I think you can take much of the politics out by coming up with a good sound allocation formula and ensuring that municipalities have input on what they deem to be priority projects. It should be: Here is a 10 year plan on funding. Give us your projects. Match them up. It is not rocket science.

What is your advice to cities, given your experience?
There is a huge window of opportunity. Don’t blow it. Because there is a strong political will aligned with a process, I think it is going to happen. All governments have to be seen working together. We have to be viewed by the public, the average businesses and resident as one government. Cities deliver the lion’s share of services. The only thing that is hindering that is the proper mix of funding sources.

What about revenue tools such as tolls and high occupancy lanes? Will people ever be ready to have a discussion about new sources of funding?
It really has to be provincial governments sitting down with cities. Call it a funding summit. You need an intergovernmental summit where cities are equal and you work out the money that is coming from the provincial and the federal government. If it means an extra 5 cents fuel tax or some toll money then so be it instead of dancing around studies every year. We need to come up with a mechanism, at least in Ontario if not across the country, of how we are going to fund these mega projects over the next 30 years.

Is this a time when the municipal level of government is coming into its own?
No ifs ands or buts. Thirty-nine years ago when I started in Edmonton and up until about 10 years ago we were referred to as “the third level of government.” That used to really upset me, but that’s the way it was. We were treated that way.

I feel strongly in the 39 years that I have been in this weird municipal world it has almost turned on its head. I believe we are treated equally now. For the average resident we deliver the core services – water, sewers, transportation, emergency services. The balance of the 21th century is going to be about urbanization. It already is.

Cities are the future. That term is used a lot and it is real. That’s why I believe strongly that the partnership among the three levels of government has to happen now. It has to be real. It has to lay out long- term plans that will avoid the infighting and bickering that has happened in the past. We have made huge strides with the collaboration of three levels of government. We have to continue it so we are really true partners and it is not just words.

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U of T student Dinuk Wijeratne wins Juno Award

sgupta — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 11:57:17 +0000

U of T student Dinuk Wijeratne wins Juno Award sgupta Tue, 04/05/2016 - 07:57

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Dinuk Wijeratne (photo by Michelle Doucette)

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Dinuk Wijeratne, a current Doctor of Musical Arts candidate at the Faculty of Music, has won the Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year with his piece “Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems,” which was featured on the Afiara Quartet’s nominated instrumental album, Spin Cycle.

“It was an honour to receive a Juno Award, and to be nominated amongst such esteemed composers in my category,” said Wijeratne said, following the ceremony this past weekend.

“The piece is very much about the collision of 'old and new,' and of very diverse influences. I felt very stimulated working on this music under the guidance of my dear mentor Professor Christos Hatzis, and I am so glad that at U of T I could feel free to explore the fusion of such disparate influences.”

Hatzis was equally excited for Wijeratne’s win.

“I am so proud of Dinuk’s Juno Award. He is a fabulous composer writing music full of energy, expressivity, rhythmic complexity and non-stop excitement,” he said. “As a composer, conductor, pianist, improviser and experimenter across various musical genres, Dinuk redefines what a classical musician is and does.

“To have one of our current DMA students be honoured by this top professional distinction is exceptional but, in Dinuk’s case, not surprising. It is also a testament about our composition program and the caliber of students it currently attracts.”

Wijeratne joins other winners from the Faculty – alumnus John Maharaj (BMusPerf 2003) contributed to two winning albums: Vocal Jazz Album of the Year (Emilie Claire Barlow’s Clear Day) and Jazz Album of the Year: Group (Forest Grove by the Allison Au Quartet). Alumnus Chris Donnelly (MMus 2007, BMusPerf 2005) and faculty members Kelly Jefferson, Jason Logue, Kevin Turcotte, Terry Promane and Kelsey Grant also appear on the Vocal Jazz Album of the Year.

“It’s inspiring to see the continued presence of U of T Music’s faculty, students and alumni in the Juno nominations,” said Dean Don McLean. “The Faculty continues to be an engine for the creative arts culture in Canada. It’s a testimony to the excellence of teaching and training for professional musicians that the Faculty is known for.”

Read about all the U of T nominees for this year's Juno awards

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Zika virus shows desperate need for global health equity, says U of T professor

sgupta — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 10:53:38 +0000

Zika virus shows desperate need for global health equity, says U of T professor sgupta Tue, 04/05/2016 - 06:53

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The Zika virus is spread by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito (photo by Marcos Freitas via flickr)

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Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Global

Two days following an announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that Ebola is no longer an international public health emergency, two U of T public health leaders spoke to alumni about the latest global infectious disease epidemic, the Zika virus.

Among the subjects discussed by Dr. Ross Upshur and Dr. Vanessa Allen were Zika's link to microcephaly and whether the 2016 Summer Olympics should be cancelled.

“It’s not a coincidence that Ebola and Zika outbreaks happened in poor countries and poorer areas of developing counties," said Upshur, a professor of clinical public health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. "This underlines the desperate need for global investment in health equity.”

Close to 100 alumni, students and faculty attended In the Loop – the first of a new event series hosted by the Public Health Alumni Association where alumni, students and friends will learn about cutting-edge public health issues – on March 30 at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“The biggest lesson learned from Ebola is that we need to create health systems on the basis of strong primary care with close links to public health,” Upshur continued, noting that WHO officials declared Zika a public health emergency much sooner than they did in the context of Ebola, which accelerated the response.

“Brazilian health authorities are handling this outbreak reasonably well by linking surveillance with public health action, which generates good data on which authorities can make informed policy decisions,” he said. "And we’re seeing better forward planning from neighbouring countries like Colombia, which is very promising.”

Allen, who is Public Heath Ontario’s chief microbiologist, explained that although many believed Zika arrived in South America during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, a study published on March 24 in Science suggests the virus likely arrived in Brazil through increased travel patterns from the South Pacific region between May and December 2013, more than a year before the outbreak was detected.

The study – the first genomic analysis of Zika – was conducted by a large international team of researchers, including Dalla Lana associate professor Kamran Khan and assistant professor Marisa Creatore. Read more about the study in the Toronto Star.

Between 2013 and 2015, there have been more than 190,000 suspected and confirmed cases globally, with the vast majority occurring in rural areas of Brazil. Scientists believe that up to 80 per cent of people infected with Zika never experience symptoms, which means its link to microcephaly – a birth defect associated with underdeveloped brains – is particularly challenging to understand.

“Microcephaly has many potential causes and its connection to the Zika virus is an association,” said Allen, an assistant professor in U of T’s department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology. “It’s not a proven fact that mothers infected with the virus will have babies with microcephaly.”

Before Zika, there were 100-150 microcephaly cases each year in Brazil. In 2015, there were more than 5,000 cases, Allen said.

Allen also touched on the sexual transmission of the virus. Scientists have found that the virus can be transmitted through sexual contact and it remains active in semen up to 62 days after symptom onset. She noted a handful of cases where females whose husbands had travelled to South America tested positive for the virus even thought they had not travelled anywhere affected.

This emerging sexual transmission link has important considerations for those of reproductive age attending the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I don’t think the Olympics should be cancelled, but all athletes and visitors should consult public health organization websites for the latest information on how to reduce risks,” said Upshur, noting that it’s a dynamic situation and organizations such as the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention will have the most up-to-date information.

Regardless of the imminent influx of global Olympic travellers, health professionals and policy-makers consistently face challenges when making evidence-based decisions during epidemics because of the emerging nature of research. One student asked the speakers how public health professionals can overcome this challenge.

“During an infectious disease outbreak, strong relationships between government and public health agencies, like Public Health Ontario and the Ministry of Health, is particularly crucial,” said Upshur. Ontario has done a good job at creating systems with a two-way flow of knowledge and policy.”

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used at top)

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My hybrid is greener than yours: how ‛conspicuous conservation’ affects product innovation

sgupta — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:52:50 +0000

My hybrid is greener than yours: how ‛conspicuous conservation’ affects product innovation sgupta Mon, 04/04/2016 - 06:52

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Being seen in public as the driver of a car that's considered socially responsible, such as a Prius, can convey status, researchers say (photo by King Huang via flickr)

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Study by U of T, UC Berkeley examines importance of social comparison

Companies may have a bigger incentive to invest in developing socially responsible products – if those who buy those products feel they can stand a little taller than those who don't, new research says.

Consumers don't just listen to their own conscience when making decisions around buying environmentally friendlier cars or sweat-shop-free clothing, says the study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. They also consider how those choices will make them stack up against other people.

Previous research categorically suggests that more socially responsible products are more valuable. In contrast, this study uses a theoretical model to show that value – and the incentive to spend money on developing those products – is dynamic.

“We're trying to capture this whole issue of social comparison,” says David Soberman, a professor of marketing at the Rotman School who holds the Canadian National Chair of Strategic Marketing.

Soberman said this is especially important for products that are consumed “publicly” – for example, beverages and clothing known as badge products. He co-wrote the paper with Professor Ganesh Iyer of the University of California, Berkeley.

Among their many findings, the researchers found that companies have the greatest incentive to develop a more socially responsible product when the vast majority of potential users are already category users (true of many mature categories). Here, there is heightened interest in the category's social impact. In addition, greater media focus on the impact of palm oil production on deforestation may create an even bigger incentive to develop a palm oil-free soap.

In contrast, development incentives are lower when there is less consumer participation and less social concern attached to a category – think powerboats or single malt whiskey. However there may still be an incentive to innovate even in categories with low consumer participation, so long as the innovation offers a potential status bump for those who do buy it.

Gaining status through purchases of socially responsible products, such as hybrid cars, has been dubbed “conspicuous conservation.” Previous research has put the social status value of buying a Toyota Prius – a distinctively hybrid car – as high as US$7000 U.S., even leading to tangible social advancement in regions where green consciousness is high.

"The fruits of a firm’s labour to develop socially responsible products are going to pay off the most when you are in a market that is fully covered and when the social comparison effects are strong," says Soberman.

The paper is forthcoming in Marketing Science.

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used at top of article)

Ken McGuffin is a writer with the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto

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Study shows that older adults may benefit from giving advice

sgupta — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 11:33:13 +0000

Study shows that older adults may benefit from giving advice sgupta Tue, 03/29/2016 - 07:33

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Scholars have argued that mattering supports the idea that it is important to feel that one is meaningful, consequential and can have influence on other people in various ways, including by providing advice. ©iStock.com | PeopleImages.

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New U of T study shows that individuals in their 60s who give advice to a broad range of people tend to see their lives as especially meaningful

Research by sociologists at the University of Toronto suggests that feeling useful is a key part of a life well-lived and this is especially so for seniors who are living longer than ever before.

Their study shows that individuals in their 60s who give advice to a broad range of people – including family members, friends, and neighbours – tend to see their lives as especially meaningful, compared to those with fewer advice-giving opportunities. The research, which compared adults in their 20s through 70s, appears in the March issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

“This association between giving advice and finding meaning in life is not evident in other age groups,” said Markus Schafer, an assistant professor in the department of sociology and lead author of the study.

Unfortunately, the later years – when people would most benefit from being a sage – is also a time when they have fewer opportunities to dispense advice, and to less-diverse types of people.

“The findings suggest that the developmental demands of late midlife, particularly the desire to contribute to the welfare of others and the fear of feeling ‘stagnant’, are not well aligned with the social and demographic realities of this stage of many people’s lives,” he said. “Just when giving advice seems to be most important, opportunities for doing so seem to wane.”

The study, titled “The Age-Graded Nature of Advice: Distributional Patterns and Implications for Life Meaning,” relies on a representative sample of 2,583 U.S. adults.

Schafer and U of T PhD student Laura Upenieks, co-author of the study, found that 21 per cent of people in their 60s and 27 per cent of people 70 or older reported giving advice to no one in the previous year. By comparison, only about 10 per cent of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s said they gave no advice in the past year.

“We tend to think that the ideal mentor or advice-giver is someone who has a lot of life experience,” Schafer said. “However, compared to their younger counterparts, older adults occupy fewer social roles, are less socially active, and interact with a more restricted range of people.

“So, while the average 65-year-old may well have more wisdom than the average 30-year-old, the latter typically has more opportunity for actually dispensing advice.”

Put another way, the study suggests that it matters to matter. Some scholars have argued that mattering supports the idea that it is important to feel that one is meaningful, consequential and can have influence on other people in various ways, including by providing advice. It is this feeling of mattering that seems to be most under threat during late-middle age when many people retire and enter the “empty nest” phase of life, according to Schafer.

Such research is particularly relevant given demographics: in 2015, for the first time, more Canadians were 65 years of age and older than were younger than 15 years of age, and the trend is only set to increase.

A number of researchers across the Faculty of Arts & Science are engaged in researching issues relevant to an aging population. Alison Chasteen in the department of psychology, for example, recently uncovered a correlation between the abilities of older adults to hear and remember with how they feel about getting older, as well as the social factors that influence those perceptions about aging. Also, the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab (TAGlab) led by Ronald Baecker in the department of computer science, designs devices, systems and experiences that help foster a sense of community, identity and autonomy for seniors.

“Older adults are underserved in the domain of personal computing,” said Baecker. “The TAG team believes that carefully designed technology can help to close this gap and address common social and psychological issues faced by older adults.”

Schafer hopes his study prompts reflection on how people of different ages fit into the social fabric of society.

“Our findings underscore the importance of giving older adults occasions to share their wisdom and life experiences,” he said. “Schools, churches, civic organizations, and other community groups could consider how to facilitate intergenerational mentorship experiences and to creatively enable older adults to be advice-givers.”

U of T's Nick Eyles: unravelling a geological mystery using lasers from space

sgupta — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:55:50 +0000

U of T's Nick Eyles: unravelling a geological mystery using lasers from space sgupta Mon, 03/28/2016 - 07:55

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PhD candidate Shane Sookhan, Professor Nick Eyles and undergraduate student Lina Arbelaez-Moreno (photo by Ken Jones)

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A “quintessentially Canadian” formation, the drumlin belongs to a family of landforms formed by erosion

It’s a mystery that has stumped geologists for more than a century.

Now, thanks to new technology – including satellite laser imagery – researchers may be one step closer to understanding the origins of an archetypal landform: the drumlin hill.

“Drumlin hills are the most studied and yet the most enigmatic ice age landform,” says Professor Nick Eyles of geology at the University of Toronto Scarborough “Thanks to high resolution satellite imagery and new technology like LiDAR, we’re literally seeing the surface of the planet for the first time and finding major surprises in the process.”

Shaped like an upturned boat, drumlin hills are found clustered together in their hundreds and thousands in distinct fields called swarms. They are the most common landform across large areas of northern North America and Europe, marking the footprint of great sheets that formed during past ice ages.

The question that’s stumped geologists since drumlins were first studied more than 150 years ago is whether they were built up progressively or sculpted out of older sediment. Eyles and his team including PhD candidate Shane Sookhan and undergraduate student Lina Arbelaez-Moreno were able to determine that drumlins are simply streamlined “islands” of sediment that are often bisected to form kilometre-long skinny megaridges.

Their research, published in the journal Sedimentary Geology, suggests that drumlins and megaridges are all part of a single family of landforms formed by erosion.

“The new data we were able to obtain shows that these landforms occur on hard rock, which stresses the importance of sculpting below the base of the ice sheet,” says Arbelaez-Moreno.

To illustrate the importance of megaridges Eyles points to research being done on the modern Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets. These are slow moving ice sheets but contain faster flowing corridors called ‘ice streams’ that are up to tens of kilometres wide, hundreds of kilometres in length and can move as fast as 1 km annually.

“They’re essentially arteries moving huge volumes of ice toward the margin of the ice sheet,” explains Eyles. The thinning and retreating of modern ice streams in a warming world has exposed their underlying beds which are seen to be megaridged, and that appears to allow the ice to flow faster across its bed by creating a slippery low-friction surface, he adds.

The last Canadian ice sheet (Laurentide) was as much as 3 km thick and behaved in exactly the same way, says Eyles. “The transition from drumlins to megaridges may record the final gasp of the ice sheet as it warmed up and began to stream over its bed.”

Debris that is being dragged under these streams is highly erosive – “think of sandpaper’’ says Sookhan – and the process sculpts the underlying surface, allowing drumlins to be progressively whittled down into longer and longer megaridges.

The data used by the researchers relied on high resolution satellite imagery and new technologies including LiDAR, which uses hundreds of laser beams fired from planes onto the land below. The result is the creation of highly accurate topographic maps even where landscapes are covered by trees or water.

“We still have a lot to learn about how drumlins are formed, but this imaging technique has changed the science by providing a new way of looking at glacial landscapes,” says Sookhan.

The megaridges identified by Eyles and his team are particularly common around Peterborough, Ontario at the site of one of the most easily accessible drumlin fields in Canada.

“You could say drumlins are quintessentially Canadian,” says Eyles. “They do occur in Europe, but are far more common here because almost the entire country was covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last ice age.”

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Global collaboration led by U of T Engineering designs world’s most efficient catalyst for storing energy

sgupta — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:17:31 +0000

Global collaboration led by U of T Engineering designs world’s most efficient catalyst for storing energy sgupta Thu, 03/24/2016 - 10:17

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Discovering a better way of storing energy from solar and wind farms is “one of the grand challenges in this field,” Ted Sargent says (photo above by Megan Rosenbloom via flickr/ all other photos and video by Marit Mitchell)

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Saving sunshine for a rainy day by splitting water molecules

We can’t control when the wind blows and when the sun shines, so finding efficient ways to store energy from alternative sources remains an urgent research problem.

Now, a group of researchers led by Professor Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering may have a solution inspired by nature.

The team has designed the most efficient catalyst for storing energy in chemical form, by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, just like plants do during photosynthesis. Oxygen is released harmlessly into the atmosphere, and hydrogen, as H2, can be converted back into energy using hydrogen fuel cells.

“Today on a solar farm or a wind farm, storage is typically provided with batteries. But batteries are expensive, and can typically only store a fixed amount of energy,” says Sargent. “That’s why discovering a more efficient and highly scalable means of storing energy generated by renewables is one of the grand challenges in this field.”

You may have seen the popular high-school science demonstration where the teacher splits water into its component elements, hydrogen and oxygen, by running electricity through it. Today this requires so much electrical input that it’s impractical to store energy this way — too great proportion of the energy generated is lost in the process of storing it.

This new catalyst facilitates the oxygen-evolution portion of the chemical reaction, making the conversion from H2O into O2 and H2 more energy-efficient than ever before. The intrinsic efficiency of the new catalyst material is over three times more efficient than the best state-of-the-art catalyst.

The new catalyst is made of abundant and low-cost metals tungsten, iron and cobalt, which are much less expensive than state-of-the-art catalysts based on precious metals. It showed no signs of degradation over more than 500 hours of continuous activity, unlike other efficient but short-lived catalysts. Their work was published on March 24 in the leading journal Science.

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“With the aid of theoretical predictions, we became convinced that including tungsten could lead to a better oxygen-evolving catalyst. Unfortunately, prior work did not show how to mix tungsten homogeneously with the active metals such as iron and cobalt,” says one of the study's lead authors, Dr. Bo Zhang (pictured below with Xueli Zheng and the electrolysing device that splits water into its component elements, oxygen and hydrogen, allowing efficient storage of alternative energy in chemical form).

“We invented a new way to distribute the catalyst homogenously in a gel, and as a result built a device that works incredibly efficiently and robustly.”

This research united engineers, chemists, materials scientists, mathematicians, physicists, and computer scientists across three countries. A chief partner in this joint theoretical-experimental studies was a leading team of theorists at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory under the leadership of Dr. Aleksandra Vojvodic. The international collaboration included researchers at East China University of Science & Technology, Tianjin University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Canadian Light Source and the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

“The team developed a new materials synthesis strategy to mix multiple metals homogeneously — thereby overcoming the propensity of multi-metal mixtures to separate into distinct phases,” said Jeffrey C. Grossman, the Morton and Claire Goulder and Family Professor in Environmental Systems at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “This work impressively highlights the power of tightly coupled computational materials science with advanced experimental techniques, and sets a high bar for such a combined approach. It opens new avenues to speed progress in efficient materials for energy conversion and storage.”

“This work demonstrates the utility of using theory to guide the development of improved water-oxidation catalysts for further advances in the field of solar fuels," said Gary Brudvig, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Yale University and director of the Yale Energy Sciences Institute.

"The intensive research by the Sargent group in the University of Toronto led to the discovery of oxy-hydroxide materials that exhibit electrochemically induced oxygen evolution at the lowest overpotential and show no degradation,” said University Professor Gabor A. Somorjai of the University of California, Berkeley, a leader in this field. “The authors should be complimented on the combined experimental and theoretical studies that led to this very important finding.”

Professor Sargent is the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology. The group’s work was supported in large part by the Ontario Research Fund—Research Excellence Program, NSERC, the CIFAR Bio-Inspired Solar Energy Program and the U.S. Department of Energy.

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used above)

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U of T urban experts on federal budget: a key moment to reinvest in this next-generation infrastructure

sgupta — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 09:37:00 +0000

U of T urban experts on federal budget: a key moment to reinvest in this next-generation infrastructure sgupta Thu, 03/24/2016 - 05:37

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Photo by Sean_Marshall via Flickr

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

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Investment marks a pivotal shift toward preparing Canada for a future that will see an increased urban population, says Matthew Siemiatycki

With the federal budget released this week, many urban experts are happy that long-needed infrastructure projects – from transit upgrades to repairs at public housing facilities – will finally get the attention they deserve.

But with new money coming in to municipalities, Associate Professor Matthew Siemiatycki of geography warns now is the time to plan and use evidence to choose the right projects, not allow politics to drive that selection.

U of T’s Global Cities Institute and its sister organization the World Council on City Data, both led by Professor Patricia McCarney, have been actively collecting data which can be used to compare Toronto to urban centres around the world.

McCarney spoke to U of T News writer Noreen Ahmed-Ullah about how standardized data gathered and analyzed by her and other experts at WCCD can actually help city officials better plan what infrastructure projects deserve the most dollars.

You’ve talked often about the neglected infrastructure needs of the city. Are you happy the federal government has allocated money for these projects?
MS: The announcement in the budget of $11.9 billion of new money for infrastructure over 5 years represents an initial down payment on the vast need for spending on urban infrastructure across the country.

The role of municipalities in providing infrastructure has risen over the years while they collect the smallest share of all tax dollars. So they are really facing a crunch. In the meantime, our infrastructure has become rundown. A lot of it was built in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s and so now it’s getting old. It needs to be updated, upgraded and just properly maintained. We’ve missed a generation of investments, both in the capital stock we have now and in expanding to meet the needs of the 21st century economy. This is a key moment to start reinvesting in this next-generation infrastructure.

The federal government is identifying high level goals that they want to target for investment, including public transit, affordable housing and in green infrastructure. So those are the key three categories, and then infrastructure in Indigenous communities is also an area where we will see a high level of investment because there’s need in those areas as well. The federal government has tried to set broad parameters in terms of the target areas for spending. What the municipalities are looking for is more discretion in terms of how they use the money.

Can you point to projects that need immediate attention?
MS: There’s a critical need for maintenance. These are the unsexy projects, the infrastructure that is not necessarily seen but has been in place and supporting our society and economy for 50 years and now that needs to be upgraded.

The first place we’re going to see investment is in these critical projects, upgrades to things like sewers, water mains, public transit and social housing facilities. For transit in Toronto, for example, the TTC needs a whole new subway signalling system than the one that’s been in place for a number of decades.

It’s showing its age in terms of how frequently and reliably the trains can be run. For affordable housing, right across the country, public housing has fallen into disrepair. School infrastructure is also in pretty rough shape. And there is an urgent need for investment in water, housing, education and social infrastructure in Indigenous communities.

These are all the types of investments that are critically important, but we’ve been deferring for years. The backlogs on all of these infrastructure sectors are in the tens of billions of dollars. The budget announcement of $11.9 billion of new money to be spent on infrastructure over the next 5 years represents an initial funding envelope to make a quick start on the most immediate priorities.

It is not nearly enough to meet the vast infrastructure needs of a country the size of Canada, but it’s a start. Ideally you’re going to start to see funding for the bigger, new infrastructure projects start to roll out in the coming years.

What is your advice to cities like Toronto?
MS: For operation and maintenance, aim to fill the most pressing needs first. But for bigger newer projects, selection needs to be done based on careful evidence based decision-making. What we find is that when it comes to infrastructure, some of the time decision makers use great evidence to make decisions.

And other times, decisions are much more ad hoc, much more politically motivated. Governments need to be consistent in using quality evidence to make sure that they’re picking the right projects because if they don’t, the risk is that the money is not well spent, it doesn’t deliver the desired economic, environmental or social benefits, and then the project costs add to the overall debt burden that has to be repaid. Worst of all, governments still have to operate and maintain the infrastructure that’s being built, even if it hasn’t delivered much public benefit. That can be a long time drag on government budgets and the economy.

How should cities determine the best projects? Look at data? Hold public hearings?
MS: It’s both. It’s about engaging with stakeholders and the broader community, which is now a common feature of the decision-making process. This budget was broadly consultative. That’s a positive step. You have to engage communities.

Then, you have to be mixing community input with very careful studies of what the benefits of proposed projects are actually going to be. Infrastructure is a long-term investment. And if you get it wrong, the costs really multiply over time. You have the missed opportunity. You have the debt that you’ve now taken on, and you have the long-term operating and maintenance costs that start to crowd out money for other opportunities.

I agree with the sectors that have been targeted for investment – transit, affordable housing, green infrastructure, infrastructure in Indigenous communities. Now what I’ll be looking to see is whether the actual specific projects being delivered are selected based on rigorous evidence. We need to make sure we’re picking the right projects and delivering them well. We need to become much more systematic in how we make decisions to ensure we’re making the right choices and picking projects that are going to deliver the best long-term benefits.

How can data like that generated by U of T-affiliated World Council on City Data (WCCD) help municipalities make decision on which projects to fund?
PM: We see our data as driving more evidence-based decision-making by leaders, and building transparency in these decisions. The data also informs citizens on performance in service delivery, together with outcomes from that investment.

High caliber city data facilitates meaningful dialogue between all levels of government – a dialogue that is essential following this unprecedented investment in infrastructure. So for example, Toronto is largely considered by many of its inhabitants to be an inefficient city when it comes to transportation. But through WCCD’s data, we learn that 54 per cent of commuters are using other means to travel to work besides a personal vehicle. We trail Boston at 62 per cent and London at 74 per cent, but we’re not as bad as Los Angeles, where only 27 per cent of commuters are using alternative means of travel besides their cars.

So how can Toronto get to the level of London, for example? Our data, which comes from the first international standard for sustainable cities, which we began developing at U of T in 2008—can help city officials and interested citizens easily compare cities to understand what exactly was implemented in London to get to that number. Moreover, the data will allow decision makers at all levels of government to speak to each other about targeting infrastructure investment in areas that need it most.

Does this budget signal that Canada has become an urban nation?
PM: Undeniably, Canada is already an urban nation – with approximately 83 per cent of our population living in cities – but this budget does signal a strong and clear investment in the future of our cities, not only the inhabitants, but the brick and mortar infrastructure that underpins a functioning city. With aging infrastructure across the country, this investment marks a pivotal shift by the Trudeau government toward preparing this country for a future that will see an increased urban population, ideally supported by smart, sustainable and resilient infrastructure.

Photo above by Sean_Marshall via Flickr

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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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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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