Three teams of Engineering staff members have received 2011/12 Excellence Through Innovation Awards from the University of Toronto for their ‘above and beyond’ contributions to the University and its mandate.
These awards recognize the contributions of administrative staff in advancing the University’s strategic objectives, encouraging administrative innovation and providing a platform for sharing best practices.
Khuong Doan, Adam Fox, Linda Marsh, Sergei Metropolitansky and Dan Pettigrew, of the Office of the Registrar, received a team award for developing the Online Petition Administration System. This new system centralizes petitions information into a dashboard layout so that staff and faculty can view the entirety of students’ concerns and requests at once. It also features a communications module that allows staff to choose appropriate text to create a rapidly-built letter that provides students with detailed feedback about their request. As a result of this new system, the number of separate processes has been reduced, work-flow times has been cut in half, and the Office of the Registrar has saved an estimated 10,000 sheets of paper per year.
Manfred Aulich, Mehrdad (Mike) Mehramiz and Bruno Korst of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) were recognized as a team for their development of tutorials to teach ECE students electronic lab skills. The staff members, who support the undergraduate electronic teaching labs, noticed that ECE students were experiencing technical challenges in using electronic equipment when preparing their projects. In response, they developed a set of tutorials on practical skills such as PCB layout, soldering and microcontroller based design, using the latest available tools and encouraging hands-on participation. These tutorials are completely subscribed and students have reported that they have vastly improved their ability to create their design projects.
Matthew Chow, Eugenia Distefano, Yong Lee, Jay Li, Jim Prall and Jaro Pristupa, also of ECE, garnered a team award for their streamlining the department’s research computing infrastructure. Consisting of more than 1,000 computers, this infrastructure was segmented into approximately 50 separate IT systems, resulting in duplication of services and making system-wide improvements very difficult. The team replaced the sprawling network of servers with less than 10 consolidated servers. They also centralized support services, introduced a ticketing and tracking service for user requests and created a wiki for users and administrators. The new infrastructure, which was implemented without interruption of IT services, now provides efficient, seamless support and allows for a smooth department-wide expansion and updates process.
“These outstanding colleagues exemplify the contributions made by our administrative and technical staff to the University’s educational and research missions,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I offer heartfelt congratulations to the awardees and thank all our staff members for their dedication and commitment to excellence.”
Excellence Through Innovation Award recipients were recognized at a reception at the President’s Residence on October 3.
