The Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE) hosted its fourth annual research symposium on June 10 at U of T’s Bahen Centre.
Organized by a committee of the Association of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Graduate Students (AMIGAS), the day was an opportunity to “meet the minds” and celebrate the breadth of research being conducted by more than 250 MASc and PhD students.
This year’s symposium featured two keynote lectures. Professor Andrew Schaefer, W. K. Whiteford Professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, addressed one of the most rapidly growing areas of operations research, medical decision-making. Examples include one-time decisions, such as optimal cancer treatment planning, and on-going dynamic decisions, such as organ acceptance policies.
The other keynote was given by Paul Held (IndE 8T7), Managing Partner of Deloitte’s Consulting business in Canada, the first time, the symposium invited a speaker from industry. Having served in a number of leadership roles within the firm, Held is now a member of Deloitte’s Global Consulting Executive team. He shared how his experience from U of T Engineering linked into successful consulting career.
Representatives from CANDU Inc., Siemens Industry Software Ltd., Hatch Ltd. and Bombardier Aerospace Inc. were among the judges of this year’s symposium entries. Siemens donated an iPad Mini and Hatch contributed a $300 gift card towards this year’s symposium prizes.
“Including alumni and industry has been a highlight of this year’s symposium,” said Professor Jean Zu, Chair of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. “This day is an opportunity to step away from our own research and share in the discoveries of our colleagues. Congratulations to the symposium’s organizing committee for a very successful event.”
Eight awards were presented, in the categories of best oral and best poster presentations. And the winning minds were:
Best Oral Presentations
Biomedical Engineering: Lise Eamer (supervisor: Professor David Sinton)
Solid Mechanics: Hang Chen (supervisor: Professor Tobin Filleter)
Fluid Mechanics: Terence Shiau (supervisor: Professor David James) and Yang Zhu (supervisor: Professor Jean Zu)
Industrial Engineering: Yifang Liu (supervisor: Professor Chi-Guhn Lee) and Kevin Ferreira (supervisor: Professor Chi-Guhn Lee)
Best Poster Presentation
Biomedical Engineering: Lian Leng (supervisor: Professor Axel Guenther)
Solid Mechanics: Alaeddin Bani Milhim (supervisor: Professor Ridha Ben Mrad)
Fluid Mechanics: Wen Song (supervisor: Professor David Sinton)
Industrial Engineering: Shefali Kulkarni-Thaker (supervisor: Professor Dionne M. Aleman) and Mahsa Rouzbahman (supervisor: Professor Mark H. Chignell)
Photos of the symposium can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mech_indi_engineering/sets/72157634173718323/
