Rotman

The latest issue of Toronto Life magazine dubbed Canada’s largest city “the new Silicon Valley” – and the University of Toronto is playing a key role.

The magazine highlights several U of T researchers who have helped fuel Toronto's tech revolution. They include:

● U of T Associate Professor Raquel Urtasun, an expert in computer vision and machine learning who heads up Uber’s new self-driving vehicle lab in Toronto.

● U of T University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, an engineering fellow at Google and the chief scientific adviser at the Vector Institute who is often dubbed the “godfather” of deep learning.

● Jimoh Ovbiagele, one of three former U of T students who launched artificial intelligence-powered legal research firm ROSS Intelligence, which recently opened a new R&D lab in Toronto.

The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at U of T’s Rotman School of Management is also cited for its novel quantum machine learning program, which aims to supercharge AI applications by marrying them with the nascent field of quantum computing.

“We’re thrilled to see a major Canadian publication recognize the significant innovation and entrepreneurship infrastructure we’ve helped build in Toronto and at U of T, over a period of many years,” said Derek Newton, U of T’s assistant vice-president of innovation, partnerships and entrepreneurship.

“It’s also gratifying to see how our researchers’ work – in fields that range from artificial intelligence to regenerative medicine – is attracting some of the world’s biggest companies to Toronto, while also laying the groundwork for the next generation of Canadian ones.”

Toronto Life’s cover comes the same week that U of T, RBC and two partner universities – McMaster and Western – launched a new co-working space for startups called ONRamp in the heart of Toronto’s Discovery District. The 15,000-square-foot facility spans three floors and consists of a mix of flexible shared workspaces, meeting rooms, boardrooms and event spaces.

It also comes as U of T announced a partnership with Fujitsu to launch a new R&D lab in Toronto that’s focused on quantum-inspired computing.

The magazine mentions several other U of T entrepreneurs and their startups: U of T alumna Chakameh Shafii’s startup TranQool offers video counselling from licensed therapists; Huda Idrees’s startup Dot Health seeks to make digital health records available to clients.

Meantime, Jorge Silva, who did his PhD at U of T, is singled out for his work developing a portable device called Tecla-E that helps people with disabilities control smart devices. U of T Associate Professor Parham Aarabi, of the department of electrical and computer engineering, also gets a mention for ModiFace, which allows customers to apply makeup to real-time images of their faces.

Toronto Life recently partnered with the organizers of a three-day technology festival called Elevate Toronto. The event sought to showcase Canada’s innovation prowess in fields ranging from AI and fintech to virtual reality and health care, and featured more than a dozen U of T entrepreneurs and experts.

One of the conference’s recurring themes was identifying the city’s unique advantages when it comes to innovation and figuring out ways to further capitalize on it.

“I really believe that having world-class universities in the core of the city is a critical factor,” Kristjan Sigurdson, a PhD candidate at Rotman and an associate director at the Creative Destruction Lab, told one of the event’s panel discussions.

Another panelist – Jordan Jacobs, who co-founded Layer6 with U of T alumnus Tomi Poutanen – said he’s witnessed a noticeable shift when it comes to recruiting overseas employees to work at the company, which uses AI to improve recommendation engines.

“It’s the first time in my lifetime,” he said, “where Canada is a first choice.”

Three minutes or 300 words: six U of T researchers are finalists for SSHRC contest

ullahnor — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 17:05:50 +0000

Three minutes or 300 words: six U of T researchers are finalists for SSHRC contest

ullahnor Fri, 04/07/2017 - 13:05

Cutline

Tammara Soma, a PhD student who researches food waste, is one of 25 finalists in the SSHRC storytelling contest. She believes academics must find different means of disseminating research to the public (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Topic

Global Lens

OISE

Faculty of Arts & Science

Six young researchers from the University of Toronto will go toe-to-toe against colleagues from 14 universities across Canada in the annual SSHRC Storytellers Contest this spring.

The six are among 25 finalists in the annual contest that challenges post-secondary students to tell a story – in three minutes or 300 words – on how SSHRC-funded research is making a difference in the lives of Canadians.

Their entries cover a range of subjects from harnessing game design to promote learning, to looking at how self-compassion can protect against negative emotions in sport. The range reflects U of T's strength across a broad set of research subjects.

The U of T contestants are:

Marie-Emilie (Mimi) Masson, a PhD student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Tammara Soma, an Arts & Science PhD student in the department of geography & planning
Ali Sharifkhani, a PhD student at the Rotman School of Management
Jennifer (Jenna) Gilchrist, a PhD student in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education
Andrea Gauthier, a PhD student in the Institute of Medical Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine
Denise DuBois, a PhD student in the department of rehabilitation sciences institute in the Faculty of Medicine

“Our finalists have done a masterful job, through the stories they’ve told, of enlightening and informing us on key issues, and have demonstrated communication skills that will serve them throughout their careers,” said Ted Hewitt, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

The finalists were selected from among nearly 200 entries by 24 expert judges from Canada and abroad.

“We’re pleased to see some of our youngest emerging scholars being recognized for their research as part of this innovative competition. We applaud SSHRC for encouraging them to find new ways and new audiences to explain and engage in their important work,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

Soma is excited to take part in the competition because she believes academics who want to have an impact on policy must find a means of disseminating their research to legislators and the general public.

“Statistics show that 82 per cent of peer review articles aren’t even cited once, so we need to find diverse methods to communicate our research,” Soma said. “That’s why this competition is important. It’s really, really important for the academic community to learn to use visual media, social media and other means if they really want to make a difference.”

Check out other videos from the finalists

So you want to build a startup? Canada’s top entrepreneurs offer U of T 10 tips

ullahnor — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 13:22:06 +0000

So you want to build a startup? Canada’s top entrepreneurs offer U of T 10 tips

ullahnor Tue, 03/28/2017 - 09:22

Cutline

Among U of T’s better known startups are Nanoleaf, Nymi, Arda Power, Whirlscape and Northern Biologics. Nanoleaf's Gimmy Chu co-founded the company, which develops the world's most energy efficient light bulb (photo by Johnny Guatto).

Author legacy

Marcia Kaye, John Lorinc and Scott Anderson

Topic

Creative Destruction Lab

Rotman

Impact Centre

Only half of new Canadian companies survive past five years, and only a tiny percentage become global success stories. Tiff Macklem, the dean of U of T's Rotman School of Management, has been thinking and writing a lot about how to improve these odds. He doesn’t believe Canadians are lacking in education or innovative ideas. But he does think we have a problem converting ideas into products and services that people – lots of people – want. Where is Canada’s answer to Spotify (first heard in Sweden) or Skype (founded in Estonia)?

“The crux of our problem is commercialization and scale,” Macklem says.

In his view, what Canadian startups are missing is great business judgment, which, as he points out, is not easy to acquire: “A new venture cannot simply go downtown and purchase a unit of business judgment,” he says.

To address this, the U of T Entrepreneurship network of incubators, accelerators and programs, including at Rotman, are connecting fledgling companies with expert mentors to provide the kind of hands-on advice they’ll need to get through those perilous first few years – and, with any luck, eventually compete on a global scale.

Here are facts about U of T startups:

Between 2013 and 2015, researchers at U of T and its partner hospitals created an average of one new invention every 21 hours and filed a new patent application an average of about once every five days
About three quarters of U of T inventions are co-developed by students or post-docs
U of T offers 68 courses covering various aspects of entrepreneurship.

For Entrepreneurship @ U of T Week, some of Canada’s top entrepreneurs share lessons they learned on the path to success.

Learn more about Entrepreneurship@UofT Week

No. 1: “As an entrepreneur, the best product you can build is yourself”

Allen Lau is the CEO and co-founder of Wattpad, an online story-sharing community with 45 million monthly users.

In the early days of Wattpad, U of T alumnus Lau had everything under control. He and co-founder Ivan Yuen had come up with the idea, developed the technology and written the code. They now waited for readers and writers to flock to it and advertising revenue to pour in. It took a while.

That first year, 2006, Wattpad had barely a thousand users. Over the next couple of years, however, interest grew and so did the company. But Lau discovered that while he was proficient on the technology side, in other skills – marketing and publicity, raising capital – he was less competent.

Or as he puts it: “I was horrible! I realized that if I wanted to scale the company, I had to scale myself,” in other words, quickly acquire new skills with each phase of the company’s growth. When Wattpad needed more employees, Lau suddenly had to learn through trial and error how to hire people, then how to delegate. When the company required more than one engineer or marketer, he needed to hire team leaders, which meant he had to become a leader himself.

“And that’s a very different skill set.”

Approaching investors required different expertise again. “When I approached 40 potential investors, 39 said no,” Lau says. “It wasn’t because the idea wasn’t good but because I failed to communicate it.” With practice, his pitch kept improving. As Wattpad grew, Lau’s job shifted to communications and strategy. Now with a staff of 130 and with 45 million monthly users (even CanLit star Margaret Atwood has published new work on the site), Wattpad has moved toward becoming a global entertainment company, partnering to co-produce original Wattpad stories for movies and TV.

“It’s almost like every year I’m getting a new job, which can be very daunting if you’re not good at self-learning,” Lau says.

No. 2: “Find a business idea you feel passionate about”

Cynthia Goh is the academic director of University of Toronto Entrepreneurship and the founding director of U of T’s Impact Centre, a business incubator.

A serial entrepreneur herself, she has assisted at the births of 136 startups. From her perspective as an entrepreneur and a mentor, Goh looks for a certain special enthusiasm as a major predictor of success.

“The most important thing is passion. Not for making money, but for the idea.”

No matter how awesome your business concept, she says, if you don’t believe in it strongly enough, you’ll give up at the first obstacle.

“Being an entrepreneur can be a tough road so you’ve got to be fuelled by passion.”

She cites a recent U of T success story. Adrenalease sells performance clothing that realigns posture, and Goh credits the infectious enthusiasm of founder and president Noureddin Chahrour, a kinesiology grad, for the company’s early achievements.

“He is obsessed with muscles, and how they function,” Goh says.

In 2015, that passion helped persuade four of the five venture capitalists on CBC-TV’s Dragons’ Den to offer him deals.

No. 3: “Get an advanced degree, and set audacious goals”

Kristjan Sigurdson is the associate director of the Creative Destruction Lab and a PhD candidate at the Rotman School of Management. Launched in 2012, the Creative Destruction Lab’s nine-month program pairs startup founders with experienced technology entrepreneurs and investors. The program, based at Rotman, is designed for early-stage, science-based technology companies.

Having an advanced degree and setting audacious goals for your startup gives you three important advantages, says Sigurdson. First, your deep expertise gives you the credibility to go into a meeting with investors, teach them something about the future of science or technology and convince them that you can meet your goals.

“If you do that successfully, they’re probably going to want to take another meeting with you.”

Second, it enables you to hire others with deep expertise in your field. If you have an MBA but no experience in quantum physics, it’s difficult to recruit someone with a PhD in quantum physics, Sigurdson observes.

“It’s easier to learn how to run a company than it is to become a leading expert in a field.”

Third, when your company trajectory invariably changes – because of an obstacle you couldn’t anticipate – it’s easier to adapt if you have a deep well of knowledge to draw from and a network
of like-minded experts to help you. Sigurdson offers the example of a founder working with the Creative Destruction Lab whose audacious goal is to build a next-generation quantum computer that uses off-the-shelf components and works at room temperature (most quantum computing research is conducted at low temperatures). The founder has a PhD in quantum information theory and a large network of collaborators in multiple countries.

“If he just had an undergraduate degree in physics and a faculty adviser – or an MBA and a business plan – he wouldn’t have lasted long in a room with investors,” says Sigurdson. “And the audacious goal will help him to attract the top-notch talent he’ll need to succeed.”

No. 4: “Accept that sometimes you’ll be unlucky, and move on”

Daniel Debow is a serial entrepreneur and an adjunct professor of law at U of T. A member of the teams that founded Workbrain and Rypple, Debow and his partners sold Rypple to Salesforce in 2012, but Debow stayed on for three years to oversee emerging technologies. He is currently building a new startup, Helpful.com.

“One of the most important lessons I learned,” says Debow, “was from David Ossip (the founder of Workbrain and a U of T Scarborough alumnus).

It was the power of the word ‘unlucky.’”

Early in his career, Debow collaborated with Ossip on Workbrain – a workforce-management software system for companies with a large number of hourly staff.

After 18 months of development, they’d finally landed British Airways as a customer and Ossip was planning to attend an airline conference in order to pitch new clients. But the day he was scheduled to travel was Sept. 11, 2001. He never got to the conference, and the terrorist attacks sent the aviation industry into a years-long tailspin. No one was buying new systems.

“David just said, ‘unlucky,’ and we went off and built another plan.” The point, Debow says, is that entrepreneurs like Ossip don’t dwell on unforeseen disasters, nor do they spend time obsessing
over what went wrong.

“I learned you have to take the world as it is, not as you wish it to be,” reflects Debow. “Stuff happens. You have to respond.”

No. 5: “Spend at least one day a week cultivating relationships with investors”

Anthony Lacavera is the founder and chairman of the Globalive Group. He also founded Wind Mobile, which was sold in 2015 to Shaw Communications for $1.6 billion.

“It doesn’t matter how good your technology or your team is,” says Lacavera, a U of T alumnus who in the past 20 years has founded a dozen startups – mostly in telecommunications and software.

“If you have no capital, someone with technology or a team that’s not as good but who has capital will beat you 10 times out of 10.”

Lacavera advises entrepreneurs to continually build relationships with investors by talking to their existing ones, asking for referrals to new ones and cold-calling potential ones. He’s done that for years, and that’s why he was able to raise $700 million to start Wind Mobile in 2008.

“Wind succeeded not because I’m a great salesperson or had an unbelievable business. It’s because I was able to raise the capital,” he says.

No. 6: “Test out your ideas in the real world. Don’t get caught in analysis paralysis”

Toni Allen is the founding partner of R3VE Business Design Inc., which specializes in user experience and business innovation.

For entrepreneurs pushing themselves to create a unique product, there’s always a powerful temptation to devote too much time to perfecting a solution, and not enough to getting it out the door.

The lesson, according to Allen, a U of T Mississauga alumna: “You lose opportunities. You have to get out there and test your ideas.”

Allen’s five-year-old firm, R3VE, provides user experience, service design and business model innovation to large corporate clients, including banks. Early on, Allen recounts, she was developing a product geared at a specific retailer. Allen had identified the right person to pitch and had created a proposal but waited too long before making her approach, and the ship sailed.

This habit of mind – overplanning – came from her days working in a large bank where she’d sought to convince her colleagues that they needed to focus on the way design and technology overlap in the delivery of financial services. In that setting, she recalls, “I didn’t know how to pitch ideas and make a business case.”

Those early instincts about the opportunity for leveraging design thinking and user experience principles in the financial services market proved to be correct and provided the impetus for R3VE. But her insights only became a viable business when she got herself in front of customers: “When you have an idea, you need to try it and test it. Don’t get caught in analysis paralysis.”

No. 7: “Choose your business partners carefully and communicate openly and honestly with each other”

Sonya Amin is the director, client services, of AXS Studio, which she co-founded in 2004 with fellow U of T alumni Eddy Xuan and Jason Sharpe. With 15 employees at its downtown Toronto office, the company creates visuals for teaching science and life sciences, including illustrations, animations and interactive applications.

In hindsight, says Amin, she was lucky. She and her two business partners share the same goals for AXS Studio and their individual strengths complement each other. But they didn’t spend much time planning it that way, she admits.

“We went into it as a dream that three classmates shared when they were in school.”

What they did have was trust in each other – crucial for a relationship that, like a marriage, will be sorely tested at times, says Amin.

“If you don’t trust your partner with your life then you shouldn’t be getting into business together.”

Amin says the ability to speak openly and honestly with each other is paramount – a lesson the AXS Studio founders learned when it became apparent that they were not aligned on how they
defined growth for their company.

“We had to have a candid conversation and managed to get to the heart of the matter: AXS’s goals needed to be aligned with our rarely discussed personal goals.”

This realization prompted the partners to emphasize open and clear communication with their employees as well.

“When we hear of anyone talking vaguely, or if we suspect that people might be working at cross-purposes, we stop and look at it more closely,” she says. “This has helped in lots of different
areas from human resources to day-today production.”

Amin credits the U of T biomedical communications program with enabling students like her with an aptitude for both art and science, to make a career out of their dual loves. The program is
also very practical, she says, adding that staff recommended clients when she and her co-founders launched AXS Studio.

“They’re amazingly supportive of their students.”

No. 8: “Don’t mistake expressions of interest from potential customers as evidence that you’ve tapped into a viable market”

Karl Martin is the co-founder and chief technology officer for Nymi, a tech company that allows users to gain access to their devices by wearing a wristband that detects their unique heart pattern.

Throughout 2015, executives for Nymi, a Toronto firm that’s developed a wristband security device, were doing the rounds, talking up their technology to potential customers. At meeting after meeting, recalls Martin, they’d hear the same thing: we love your technology, which allows wearers to log onto a range of computer devices by detecting unique heartbeat patterns, but we need more features and capabilities.

As the U of T alumnus recounts, he and his team were energized by all that interest, but they had big challenges taking the next step, which was to really figure out how to hone the positioning of their device to fit the needs of specific users.

Indeed, says Martin, it was only after Nymi started getting orders from pharmaceutical manufacturers that he realized what the stumbling block had been. In ordinary office settings, there was no way to compel employees to wear the wristbands. But in the controlled environment of a manufacturing facility, where workers are required to wear sterile and protective gear, that problem evaporated. And so did the sales roadblock.

The lesson, Martin observes, is that many entrepreneurs whose startups are transitioning from research and development to marketing glom onto the slightest spark of interest from potential customers as evidence that the firm is ready to lift off.

“Recognize that you usually think you have a product-market fit before you actually do.”

No. 9: “Be prepared to act quickly when faced with a big challenge”

Kim Shannon is the founder, president and co-chief investment officer of Sionna Investment Managers, which has assets of $5 billion.

As Sionna Investment Managers has grown over the past 15 years, says Shannon, so has her need to be adaptable.

“You have to keep nimble as issues emerge because you never know what’s around the corner.”

One of the most significant challenges happened when her biggest client – a fund company representing 90 per cent of her business – asked her to lower her rates for them.

“We fired them,” Shannon says. A risky move indeed, but she knew that working with a difficult or controlling client didn’t fit with her long-term goals for the company.

It was a tense time but a brief one. Soon other interested companies began approaching Sionna.

“Before, those companies hadn’t wanted to be secondary clients,” she explains. “But once the big one was gone, we had people coming to us. They actually admired us for what we’d done.”

Sionna quickly diversified its client base and expanded the business. Ultimately, Shannon mended relations with the big client, and she now includes the company’s stock in Sionna’s portfolios.

While she was a student at U of T, Shannon served on student council, launched a women’s newspaper and started a peer-counselling program. She credits her volunteer activities for building
her skills in organization, leadership and collaboration.

“If you have volunteer experience, your career progress will be much faster,” she says. “Many successful people I see in business were once student leaders.”

No. 10: “Skate to where the puck is going”

Michael Serbinis is the the founder and CEO of League, a digital health insurance platform. Previously, he co-founded Kobo, the e-reader service.

When Serbinis thinks about the long-term goals for his company, he envisions a trillion-dollar global market.

“Our goal,” he says “is to disrupt an age-old insurance industry with a new philosophy focused on empowering people to be healthy every day.”

As the head of a startup, though, Serbinis needs to balance his long-term ambitions with the smaller challenges he and his team face every day. As with all startups, League staff are building product, hiring and firing staff, landing the next customer, making payroll, meeting investors and more.

“It never stops, and it is pretty easy to get caught up in the short term,” says Serbinis.

“But you have to keep your eye on the prize. I do that by having very clear long-term objectives that I repeat over and over to myself and the team. We regularly review our plans and brainstorm: What’s it going to take to meet our long-term goals? What are the risks, and what are the opportunities?”

Serbinis says it’s important to make bets on the future.

“As CEO, you cannot be consumed by today. You need to be putting in place the infrastructure that is going to help you scale. You need to be setting up enablers that will help your team three, six, nine and 12 months out.”

Reflecting on his time as a grad student at U of T, Serbinis says his supervisor was Joseph Paradi, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who built Dataline, one of the first digital stock-quote platforms in Canada.

“He was my mentor at a time when I had no money, and I didn’t know what being an entrepreneur meant or how to lead or manage teams,” says Serbinis. “He inspired me, and we still keep in touch to this day.”

Watch for this story and others about entrepreneurship in the Spring 2017 issue of U of T Magazine.

(Daniel Debow's photo was taken by Jordana Huber, Kim Shannon's photo was taken by Gordon Hawkins and Michael Serbinis photo courtesy of the League)

U of T interdisciplinary projects receive funding from relaunched Connaught Global Challenge Award

ullahnor — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 15:41:02 +0000

U of T interdisciplinary projects receive funding from relaunched Connaught Global Challenge Award

ullahnor Mon, 02/13/2017 - 10:41

Cutline

U of T research teams led by David Lie, Brent Sleep and Mark Fox are winners of this year's Connaught Global Challenge Award (photo composite by Geoff Agnew)

Topic

Our Community

Connaught Fund

Connaught Global Challenge

Urban Genome

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Rotman

Faculty of Arts & Science

Three teams at the University of Toronto that are trying to resolve globally pressing issues are sharing $750,000 in funding from the recently retooled Connaught Global Challenge Award.

The relaunched internal award, funded by the Connaught Fund, is designed to support new collaborations involving leading U of T researchers and students from multiple disciplines, along with innovators and thought leaders from other sectors.

This funding boost will help these programs get off the ground and help them find major new external funding to further develop solutions to the global challenge, forge important new partnerships with other internationally renowned universities and government agencies, as well as possibly create new research-oriented academic programs.

“I’d like to congratulate all of the recipients of this year’s Connaught Global Challenge Award,” said Professor Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

“These projects all tackle immensely important and complicated global problems. The Connaught Fund understands that to find solutions, it needs to provide funding to support interdisciplinary collaboration at U of T. Each of our teams is committed to expanding connections with faculty in relevant divisions across all three campuses.”

The recipients of this year’s Connaught Global Challenge Award are:

“The Information Technology, Transparency, and Transformation (IT3) Lab” led by David Lie, professor of electrical & computer engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The team includes fellow U of T researchers from the Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management, as well as collaborators from Princeton University, Harvard University, Tel Aviv University, Google, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and more.
“Network for Engineering Education for Sustainable African Cities (NEESAC)” led by Brent Sleep, professor of civil engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The team includes U of T researchers from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), Faculty of Arts & Science, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, as well as collaborators from the University of Victoria, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, a number of African institutions and more.
“The Urban Genome Project” led by Mark Fox, U of T’s distinguished professor of urban systems engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The team includes U of T researchers with expertise in history, big data and transportation from the Rotman School of Management, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, Faculty of Arts & Science and the University of Toronto Scarborough.

U of T teams to tackle the refugee crisis for the 2017 Hult Prize

ullahnor — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 18:03:06 +0000

U of T teams to tackle the refugee crisis for the 2017 Hult Prize

ullahnor Mon, 10/17/2016 - 14:03

Cutline

Nouman Ashraf of the Rotman School of Management speaks at a 2017 Hult Prize kickoff event (photos by Budianto Tandjono)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Research & Innovation

Subheadline

Previous U of T teams have done well in the competition

University of Toronto students who want to change the world are being invited to compete for the Clinton Global Initiative's 2017 Hult Prize.

"The Hult Prize has students from around the world seeking the holy grail: solutions to the world's biggest social and environmental challenges using sustainable business models,” said Rod Lohin, executive director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship, located at U of T’s Rotman School of Management.

“University of Toronto students – from a variety of disciplines – have proven they can compete. Two years ago Rotman's Team Attollo made it to the finals, and last year four U of T teams made it to the regional finals. With the benefit of those teams’ experience and even more supports for our new teams, surely more University of Toronto students will take up the quest and win."

The Hult Prize is considered the world’s largest and most prestigious student competition for social good. At stake is US$1 million in start-up funds and invaluable mentorship from international business leaders.

Last week, U of T launched the 2017 Challenge with an information session, hoping to attract students from multiple disciplines.

This year’s Hult Prize challenge is addressing the refugee crisis, which has touched many Canadians personally. Between November 2015 and February 2016, the Canadian government resettled more than 25,000 Syrian refugees. Many more Syrian refugee families were relocated here – and continue to arrive – under Canada's private sponsorship program.

Aisha Bukhari (at right with microphone), a member of the 2015 U of T Hult Prize team, speaks on a panel at this year's Hult kickoff

The Hult Prize Foundation, which runs the international competition, believes the world’s refugee population today far outnumbers the United Nation’s figure of 60 million: the foundation estimates the number is closer to 1 billion.

Students are being challenged to come up with social ventures that address a range of social service categories for the refugees on a large scale.

“Rather than focus on aid and charitable approaches to refugee migration, we focus this challenge on the reawakening of human potential,” says the foundation’s website. “We want to restore pride, dignity and self-worth back to those that have been impacted by social injustices, war and economic depression.”

Tina-Marie Assi, the campus director for the Hult Prize at U of T, is a second-year MBA student at Rotman with a PhD in global health epidemiology. She believes Canadian students bring a unique perspective to the challenge this year because of the country’s refugee resettlement program.

“It’s a real issue around the world, but I think Canadians are uniquely positioned to not only tap into that population but also understand the needs and to get a different perspective on the topic first-hand,” Assi said. “There’s a great opportunity.”

At the information session at Rotman Oct. 11, organizers brought in speakers including alum Aisha Bukhari, who was a member of the runners-up Team Attollo, in 2015.

Her team’s idea of “Talking Stickers,” a literacy tool with QR codes for objects and story books to help children in impoverished countries learn how to read, has generated much buzz including from UNICEF and the World Health Organization.

Time warp: why uncertainty affects how we perceive time

ullahnor — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 16:28:12 +0000

Time warp: why uncertainty affects how we perceive time

ullahnor Thu, 10/06/2016 - 12:28

Don Campbell

Author legacy

Don Campbell

Topic

Subheadline

New U of T Scarborough study shows uncertainty causes time to feel longer

Have you ever wondered why the outbound trip to a new destination feels longer than the return trip home?

New U of T research suggests a big reason could be uncertainty over future events.

“When people are anticipating uncertain future events, time tends to feel longer than when they are anticipating more certain future events,” says Sam Maglio, an assistant professor at U of T Scarborough’s department of management and the Rotman School of Management.

Maglio, along with Cherrie Kwok, a psychology undergraduate at U of T Scarborough, looked at how uncertainty affects time perception using something called the return-trip phenomenon.

The return-trip phenomenon reveals that outbound journeys tend to feel longer than similar inbound journeys. A big reason for the effect, notes Maglio, comes down to the uncertainty involved in an outbound trip.

“People tend to go to places that are more uncertain," he says. "You start off at home, a place you’re familiar with, then you go out where any number of things can happen.”

According to past research, uncertainty for a future event might make time feel longer because the uncertainty of what may happen increases the intensity of the emotion being felt, regardless of whether you're anticipating something negative or positive.

“Uncertainty makes an emotional experience more intense, and the more intense the experience, the longer time tends to feel,” says Maglio, whose past research has focused on dynamic movement. “So if we want time to feel longer, we should build in uncertainty. If we want to make time feel shorter, then we should remove uncertainty from the equation.”

Research also shows sound can be associated with distance

So what about the routine trips we take all the time, is there something we can do to make the time go by quicker?

Maglio says an important thing to keep in mind is that when you’re not thinking about the passage of time, it seems to go by a lot faster.

“Instead of focusing on the future and going over the countless iterations of what could happen when you get there, if you listen to an engaging podcast or talk about a different topic with your travel companion, it will feel that time is going by quickly,” he says.

The research is available online and will be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Paper or plastic? U of T study finds how we pay for things may affect how we feel about them

krisha — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 16:29:21 +0000

Paper or plastic? U of T study finds how we pay for things may affect how we feel about them krisha Wed, 06/29/2016 - 12:29

Cutline

(All photos by Ken Jones)

Don Campbell

Author legacy

Don Campbell

Topic

When it feels easy to pay for something, it might just make us feel less connected to what we’re buying, a new U of T Scarborough study says.

“Debit and credit cards rule the marketplace, and while going cashless is convenient, that convenience may come at a price,” says Avni Shah, an assistant professor of marketing at U of T Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

Across two experiments Shah and her colleagues at Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill looked at the potential consequences of paying with cards over cash by focusing on how connected consumers felt towards what they bought.

The first experiment asked participants to buy a coffee mug normally priced at $6.95 for the discounted price of $2 with either cash or credit. Two hours after the purchase they were then asked to sell back their mugs at a price of their choosing. Despite the fact it was the same mug owned for the same amount of time, those who paid cash wanted nearly $3 more than those who paid with a card.

“Those who paid with cash also reported feeling more emotionally attached to their mug,” says Shah.

In the other experiment the researchers wanted to eliminate possible reasons for the cash-payers charging more for their mugs because of the effort tied to finding an ATM and paying bank fees, or the added bonus for card-payers earning rewards points for their purchase. Here participants were given $5 in either cash or voucher to give to one of three charities and a ribbon lapel pin corresponding to the charity they chose.

“We found that people who donated by cash felt more connected to their chosen charity than those who donated by voucher. Cash donors also reported feeling less connected to the charities they didn’t chose,” says Shah.

“In other words, paying by cash made people feel more attached to what they bought and less connected to what they didn’t buy.”

So why is it that paying with cash makes you value something more than paying with a card? Shah says it comes down to something called pain of payment.

“You feel something when you physically part with your money, and there are different levels of pain depending on the type of payment,” says Shah, whose research focuses on the costs associated with payment and how it affects consumer preference and choice.

“Something tangible like cash will feel more painful to part with than paying by cheque, which will feel more painful than paying by card and so on.”

The effect extends beyond just cash and credit to include other mobile forms of payment including cell phones, smart watches and new products like Apple Pay, notes Shah. As North America continues to transition towards an ever increasing paperless economy, she says it’s important to understand what the implications of these new payment systems will be for consumers.

“There are shorter product life cycles and if consumers are feeling less connected to the products they’re already buying, just add easier access to credit and higher consumer debt levels and it’s a toxic combination,” says Shah.

There’s been some positive systems in the marketplace that Shah points to as helpful to consumers including the recent Interac commercials extolling the virtue of cash over credit, and even mobile apps that remind consumers of when a purchase has been made on their account.

“These should be encouraged because they can help consumers more careful, deliberate and meaningful purchases,” she says.

The study is available online and published in the current edition of the Journal of Consumer Research.

Joseph Rotman leaves $30 million legacy gift to Rotman School of Management

sgupta — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 09:37:56 +0000

Joseph Rotman leaves $30 million legacy gift to Rotman School of Management sgupta Wed, 04/06/2016 - 05:37

Ken McGuffin

Author legacy

Ken McGuffin

Boundless

Business

Rotman

Rotman School of Management

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

Cutline

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)

Ken McGuffin

Author legacy

Ken McGuffin

Topic

Subheadline

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

picpath

sites/default/files/2016-04-04-prius.jpg

U of T launches leadership excellence programme for United Arab Emirate female executives

sgupta — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 10:00:07 +0000

U of T launches leadership excellence programme for United Arab Emirate female executives sgupta Mon, 02/01/2016 - 05:00

Cutline

Professor Beatrix Dart heads up the Initiative for Women in Business at U of T's Rotman School of Management

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

More News

Rotman School of Management

Rotman

leadership

International

Subheadline

From emotional intelligence to leading in changing times

While two Ontario community colleges are under fire for operating male-only campuses in Saudi Arabia, the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management is about to offer a leadership excellence programme for female executives from one of Saudi Arabia’s next-door neighbours, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The week-long course starts May 30 at U of T and is offered jointly with the American University in Dubai (AUD).

The course aims to “empower senior level women executives with the skills and self-development to take their careers further.” U of T News talked to Professor Beatrix Dart, Rotman’s executive director, Initiative for Women in Business, about the programme.

How did the leadership excellence programme for UAE female executives come about?

We have long-standing relationships with the American University in Dubai, as the Provost, Jihad Nader, received his PhD in finance from the University of Toronto, and I have been personally in touch with him for many years. AUD has been the host for our global executive MBA program module in the Middle East for the last couple of years, and that has allowed us to have regular conversations and discussions. Dr. Nader has followed the development of the Rotman initiative for women in business professional development program closely over the last eight years. We felt it was the right time to create a joint program to allow UAE female executive access to developing their own leadership qualities.

The programme is a collaboration between AUD and Rotman School. What does each institution contribute?
We both bring in our expertise: from Rotman’s side the many years of experience of developing women-specific programs, and from AUD, the cultural context, understanding the UAE societal norms and business environment, and jointly a commitment to offer programs that meet the professional development needs of executive women in the UAE.

What will the participants learn in the programme?
The focus is on leadership development and strategic decision-making as a leader. Topics range from emotional intelligence to negotiations for women to leading in changing times. It will be rounded out by site visits, networking opportunities, and various guest speakers.

How will participants be chosen?
Interested women need to submit an application, and will be chosen based on work experience, previous education and their motivation for attending the program.

Are there many female executives in the UAE?
The UAE government has made considerable efforts to support the advancement of Emirati women and some of them hold prominent positions in key government agencies, diplomatic corps and business. from my visits I can tell you that I have met women in all roles, from CEO to entrepreneur, and that Dubai seems to be promoting women quite well.

Are there any particular country-specific considerations that you will have to take into account?
The joint program will have to be culturally sensitive, which is why we work with a local partner school that helps us understand the differences and ensure we are not making stereotypical assumptions. As this will be our first offering, we are going up the learning curve ourselves.

Why are programmes like this important?
There is plenty of research evidence available that gender diversity is good for the bottom line. However, women still show as a small percentage in senior roles in many companies, and when you look at it by country, there are still many places where gender equality is far from given. Empowering women to pro-actively to seek leadership roles are an important step of overcoming biases and stereotypes, as is of course educating men on how to support women to achieve this goal.

picpath

sites/default/files/2016-02-01-beatrix-dart.jpg

Rotman

U of T plays prominent role in what magazine dubs Toronto 'tech revolution'

Three minutes or 300 words: six U of T researchers are finalists for SSHRC contest

Read more about Soma

Check out other videos from the finalists

So you want to build a startup? Canada’s top entrepreneurs offer U of T 10 tips

Learn more about Entrepreneurship@UofT Week

U of T interdisciplinary projects receive funding from relaunched Connaught Global Challenge Award

Read more about the Urban Genome Project

U of T teams to tackle the refugee crisis for the 2017 Hult Prize

Read more about Team Attollo in 2015

Read more about the 2016 Hult Prize competition

Time warp: why uncertainty affects how we perceive time

Read more of Assistant Professor Sam Maglio's probability research

Research also shows sound can be associated with distance

Paper or plastic? U of T study finds how we pay for things may affect how we feel about them

Joseph Rotman leaves $30 million legacy gift to Rotman School of Management

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

U of T launches leadership excellence programme for United Arab Emirate female executives