The Connaught Fund, U of T’s premier internal funding program, has announced the results of its Innovation and Summer Institute competitions, investing more than $1 million in U of T projects.

Eight U of T Engineering researchers are among the 12 recognized by the Connaught Fund for research excellence, receiving between $20,000 and $100,000 each to help with their technology development, commercialization and knowledge transfer. The Faculty’s recipients are:

• Professor Constantin Christopoulos (CivE) for the Development of viscoelastic coupling damper for enhanced dynamic performance of high-rise buildings;
• Professor Axel Guenther (MIE,IBBME) for Skin printer for wound dressings;
• Professor Zheng-Hong Lu (MSE) for White organic light emitting diodes for lighting applications;
• Professor Ridha Ben Mrad (MIE) for An ultra-thin MEMS electrostatic actuated and variable stiffness platform for autofocus and lens stabilization in cell phone cameras;
• Professor Pierre Sullivan (MIE) for Advanced miniature ion mobility spectrometry for biomarker identification with integrated sample processing stage;
• Professor Yu Sun (MIE, ECE) for the Development of an automated cell counting system for clinical Kleihauer-Betke test;
• Professor Shahrokh Valaee (ECE) for Crowdsourcing for indoor location estimation; and,
• Assistant Professor Paul Yoo (IBBME, ECE) for Novel electrical neuromodulation therapy for the treatment of overactive bladder symptoms.

“Congratulations to all the winners,” said Professor Paul Young (CivE), U of T’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Chair of the Connaught Committee. “All the Connaught programs are meant to reward the most promising, visionary research on campus. These projects have the potential to make enormous impact on the lives of Canadians.”