Department news

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE) news

In March 2026, Sushant Singh (MSE MEng 1T9, MIE PhD 2T6) won the top overall prize at  U of T’s Desjardins Startup Prize competition. (photo by Tim Fraser, KITE Studio)

The future of wound healing: Desjardins Prize supports U of T bioprinting startup

“We’re not just building technology — we’re working to solve a deeply consequential problem for humanity.”

Professor Pakpong Chirarattananon (MIE) draws inspiration from nature to design robots that fly, hop, crawl or seamlessly combine multiple modes of locomotion. (photo courtesy of Pakpong Chirarattananon)

‘Simplicity wins when designing bio-inspired robots’: Meet MIE Professor Pakpong Chirarattananon

Chirarattananon’s research leverages the power of nature to create tiny robotic systems, micro aerial vehicles and hybrid locomotion

Four people stand together with their pinky fingers raised.

Ask Alan: Capstone team creates AI tool to help students study

Student-designed chatbot pulls directly from course material and can be set up by a professor within an hour

Meagan Flus managing data collection at a hackathon in 2024. (photo submitted by Meagan Flus)

How hackathons can serve as a ‘living laboratory’ for studying engineering design team dynamics

Graduate student Meagan Flus (MIE PhD 2T6) used 24-hour observation to analyze conflict on design teams — and how to navigate it

A person sits on a bench with greenery behind them.

U of T Engineering student integrates Indigenous perspectives into the operation of small, modular nuclear reactors

MIE graduate student James Ropotar is exploring ways to improve communication, workforce development and community engagement in emerging energy projects

Jash Rana (MIE MASc 2T6) says that the willingness to learn and work on projects outside of his area of expertise helped him grow faster and open up new opportunities. (photo courtesy of Jash Rana)

An internship at Tesla led to a full-time job in robotics for this new MASc grad

Jash Rana (MIE MASc 2T6) applies his knowledge of computational and mathematical simulations to accelerate the adoption of sustainable manufacturing methods such as cold spray deposition

Alex Kurk (MechE 2T6), left, is the 2026 winner of the Troost ILead Difference Maker Award. Sanjay Malaviya, right, is the donor for this award. Malaviya holds one of the 3D-printed interfaces designed by Kurk to help people with low vision navigate software user interfaces. (photo by Tyler Irving)

Solutions for people with low vision helped Alex Kurk earn the 2026 Troost ILead Difference Maker Award

Kurk used design courses, research placements and a startup company to advance his vision for tactile, 3D representations of user interfaces for software programs

liquid injection pattern

Inspired by nature, temperature-responsive building facades could help reduce energy use from heating and cooling

Microfluidic system uses both active and passive liquid flow behaviors to regulate temperature within buildings

Large Language Models (LLMs) have high electricity and water consumption due to the resource requirements of serving them to millions of users. This footprint can be reduced using methods developed by Professor Samin Aref (MIE) and his team, which produce smaller LLMs through quantizing their parameters. (image generated by ChatGPT)

How ‘slimmed-down’ large language models can reduce AI’s environmental and energy footprint

U of T Engineering researchers examine ways to make the use of language models more resource efficient by replacing their high-precision parameters with low-precision ones