Three U of T Engineering professors have been recognized by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for their distinguished contributions to engineering. Professors Markus Bussmann (MIE) and Krishna Mahadevan (ChemE) have been elected EIC fellows for “excellence in engineering and services to the profession and to society,” while Professor Konstantinos Plataniotis (ECE) has been awarded the CPR Engineering Medal for “leadership and distinguished service to a society within the Institute at the regional/local level.”

Bussmann is chair of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. A leader in engineering education and academic administration, he has served as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in MIE (2009-2013) and Vice-Dean, Graduate at U of T Engineering (2013-2017). Now in his second term as chair of MIE, he has promoted a culture of teaching excellence and student engagement. An award-winning educator, he has taught courses in computer programming, engineering mathematics, fluid mechanics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Through his research, Bussmann has made important contributions to both algorithms and applications for various materials processes, such as coatings, pulp and paper manufacturing, and materials and chemical processing. He has also made exceptional contributions to his field through his leadership roles in engineering organizations.

Bussmann played a key role in the creation of the Canadian Graduate Engineering Consortium. He served as director of the CFD Society of Canada from 2008-2013 and hosted their annual conference in 2014. He also recently chaired the 2024 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) Conference. Bussmann is a fellow of CSME and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He received the CSME Robert Angus Medal, the society’s highest honour, in 2019.

Mahadevan is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and the Canada Research Chair in Metabolic Systems Engineering. He was a research scientist at Genomatica Inc., San Diego from 2002–2006 and held appointments as a visiting scholar in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego, and the Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Mahadevan is a pioneer in the modeling and design of metabolism for industrial and environmental biotechnology and medicine. His group has developed a new approachknown as dynamic metabolic engineering for increasing bioprocess productivity, and developed new methods for enzyme discovery and strain engineering for sustainable production of valuable biochemicals for consumer materials and industrial processes. He has published more than 185 articles on these topics.

Mahadevan has received several awards for his research, including the Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology’s Young Investigator Award in 2012, the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in 2014, the Syncrude Innovation Award in 2014, the Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award in 2017, and the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering D.G. Fisher Award in 2021.

Plataniotis is a professor in The Edward S. Rogers Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, where he directs the Multimedia Laboratory. His research focuses on image and signal processing, machine learning, adaptive learning systems, visual data analysis, multimedia and affective computing. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. Plataniotis has made significant contributions to IEEE, serving as chair of the IEEE Toronto Section (2004-2005), during which time he expanded membership and enhanced educational offerings.

As chair of the IEEE Educational Activities Board’s Continuing Professional Education Committee (2008), he broadened academic programs for industry practitioners. He is also recognized for his leadership in the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), having served as editor-in-chief of IEEE Signal Processing Letters (2009-2011) and as general co-chair for several key conferences. He now serves as president of SPS, leading more than 23,000 volunteers. In addition to his research and leadership, Plataniotis is a dedicated educator and mentor, receiving the 2005 IEEE Outstanding Engineering Educator Award for his significant impact on engineering education in Canada.

“On behalf of the faculty, congratulations to Professors Bussmann, Mahadevan and Plataniotis on these well-deserved accolades,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip.

“This recognition by the Engineering Institute of Canada reflects the impact of our faculty members as researchers, educators and leaders in the profession, within U of T and beyond.” 

Molly Shoichet (ChemE, BME) always wanted to be a doctor — until she made her first polymer.

“I thought that was the coolest thing,” says Shoichet of her first encounter with polymers — large molecules made of smaller repeating units found in materials ranging from proteins to plastics — during an undergraduate chemistry lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Inspired to advance medicine from the lab bench instead of the bedside, Shoichet deferred medical school to test out graduate studies — and never looked back. She earned a PhD in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and then worked at a Boston biotech firm. In 1995, she landed a faculty position the University of Toronto, where she believed she could expand her scope and impact.

She was right. Thirty years later, Shoichet — a University Professor and Pamela and Paul Austin Chair in Precision and Regenerative Medicine in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering — has founded multiple startups, won dozens of awards, held several prestigious leadership roles and made numerous breakthroughs. She works on everything from spinal cord injuries, blindness and post-operative pain to stroke and cancer.

A cell and tissue engineer, Shoichet is still fascinated with polymers — these days her focus is on hydrogels, which are polymer chains that can absorb relatively large amounts of water. These squishy, soft substances resemble the tissues of the body and can be formulated to slowly release medications, impact stem cells and access hard-to-reach locations such as the retina and brain.

“Like FedEx, we work on the packaging to get the therapeutics where they need to be and when they need to be there,” she says from her office in U of T’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research.

For example, she has a longstanding stroke collaboration with Cindi Morshead, professor and co-chair of the division of anatomy in the department of surgery at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. They work together to solve a key problem: more than 85 per cent of stroke patients don’t get to the hospital on time to get emergency, clot-busting treatment, leaving them with few options beyond rehabilitation to recover. So, Shoichet and her team designed an enzyme that can pass through the stroke injury scar and into the brain to promote repair. The approach underpins Chase Biotherapeutics, which aims to further this promising new treatment approach.

She’s also been researching the retina and blindness for the last 16 years via collaborations with Toronto Western Hospital’s Valerie Wallace, a professor in the department of ophthalmology and vision sciences at Temerty Medicine, and with Derek van der Kooy, professor in the department of molecular genetics. Some of their resulting discoveries are now behind Synakis, a spin-off company that is fine-tuning treatments for retinal detachment, glaucoma and macular degeneration using a hyaluronic-based hydrogel.

With yet another spinoff company, Shoichet’s hydrogel-based drug delivery system allows surgeons to inject pain medications directly at the incision site, with the gel releasing the drugs locally over a two-week period. The technology being commercialized by AmacaThera would potentially eliminate the need to prescribe powerful — and potentially addictive — opioids to post-op patients.

Never content with just one mode of research, Shoichet also uses hydrogels to study how cancer cells invade — a huge question unto itself.

“I’m attracted to these big problems,” says Shoichet, adding that she’s endlessly curious and enjoys working with collaborators to learn the nuances of thorny health problems — a process that spans years. “I think I have a certain amount of comfort with discomfort.”

The scientific community has taken note of Shoichet’s omnipresence. She has been inducted into all three of Canada’s national academies: the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. An Officer of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, she is also a fellow of the Royal Society in the U.K. and the National Academy of Engineering in the U.S. She has been recognized with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal – the highest award in Canada for science and engineering – and the National Research Council’s Killam Prize in Engineering, among many other awards.

Her leadership work is similarly high profile. She briefly served as Ontario’s chief scientist, the only person to ever hold the role, and co-launched knowledge translation web site Research2Reality. At U of T, she is scientific director of both PRiME Next-Generation Precision Medicine, a U of T institutional strategic initiative, and Biomanufacturing Hub Network (BioHubNet), which develops training programs for the biomanufacturing industry.

Shoichet’s commitment to supporting the next generation of researchers is evidenced by the lab coats emblazoned with the names of PhD graduates that hang from the pillars of her lab — a tradition reminiscent of a hockey team that hangs its star players’ jerseys from the rafters.

Daniela Isaacs-Bernal (ChemE PhD 2T5), a recent PhD grad who immediately got a job as a research engineer at ophthalmic drug-delivery startup Ripple Therapeutics, says Shoichet encourages her students to mine the literature so they understand what’s already been done. That way they build on past knowledge instead of repeating avoidable mistakes in their research.

She says Shoichet also emphasizes communication and collaboration, asking students to give regular updates on their work during lab meetings — a process Isaacs-Bernal initially found stressful. “Now, working in industry, one of the things I value most is the way she taught us to synthesize complex ideas into something other people can understand,” she says.

As Shoichet heads into her fourth decade at U of T, she makes time for life, too — going to the ballet, dog walking, hiking and trying open-water swimming. But not surprisingly, she has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

“If we in academia don’t go after the hardest challenges, nobody else will.”

Professor Nicolas Papernot (ECE) has been named the 2025 recipient of the Steacie Prize, one of Canada’s most prestigious early career research awards, for his groundbreaking work advancing the security, privacy and trustworthiness of machine learning algorithms. The Steacie Prize is given annually to one engineer or scientist, 40 years of age or younger, who has made notable contributions to research in Canada.  

Papernot is a pioneer in the development of adversarial examples in machine learning (ML). These are specially crafted inputs that force an ML model to make an incorrect prediction, also known as an “attack.” His research made clear that attacks against ML models were not just a hypothetical threat.Papernot also introduced several techniques that are now widely used to evaluate defences against attacks. This work has been so influential that the resulting research area now has a dedicated conference — the IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning — which Papernot helped create and establish. 

Papernot was recruited to join U of T Engineering and the Vector Institute in 2019 as part of Canada’s Pan-Canadian AI Strategy. Soon after, his group released a paper on “machine unlearning,” which was a milestone in defining how ML models could be made to forget some of their training data. Papernotbuilt on this research to develop a set of techniques for accounting and auditing in ML, allowing companies and institutions to provide verifiable privacy guarantees to their end users. For example, his group proposed a way for institutions to prove to a user that their ML models have “unlearned” the user’s data.  

Papernot is a key contributor to the global discussion around the ethics and societal impact of ML. In 2020, he was invited to meet with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to discuss the implications of ML on the privacy of individuals whose data is analyzed by governments and private companies. In 2024, he appeared before the House of Commons to comment on Bill C-27, which sought to regulate AI and data privacy. That same year, he chaired the Royal Society of Canada’s Task Force on Data Security and was named co-director of the Canadian AI Safety Institute Research Program at CIFAR. 

In 2022, Papernot was named a Sloan Research Fellow and in 2023, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. His many other recognitions include the AI2050 Early Career Fellowship from Schmidt Sciences, and the Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Security, Audit and Control. 

“While still early in his career, Professor Nicolas Papernot has already made an extraordinary impact through his leadership in addressing the security and privacy challenges around machine learning and AI,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip.  

“On behalf of the faculty, I congratulate him on being recognized as one of Canada’s most promising science and engineering scholars.”

New ice detection technology developed at U of T Engineering could speed up the de-icing process for planes and other aerospace vehicles.  

In a paper published in Advanced Materials, researchers from the Durable Repellent Engineered Advanced Materials (DREAM) Laboratory, led by Professor Kevin Golovin (MIE), describe their new triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) sensor device. 

They demonstrate the TENG’s ability to detect ice forming, melting and detaching on surfaces, and to provide information in real time using little energy.  

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first triboelectric ice-sensing system of its kind to be described in scientific literature,” says postdoctoral fellow Kamran Alasvand Zarasvand (MIE), lead researcher and author on the paper. 

“The TENG sensor consists of two layers: a metal electrode and a thin dielectric plastic coating,” he says.  

“When another material makes contact with this coating and then separates, they exchange a charge, producing a sharp electrical signal. The signal changes depending on what event occurs — so ice forming generates one signal pattern, while ice melting and detachment create a different one.” 

Currently, most ice-sensing systems can only detect ice at a localized level — meaning if ice forms a few centimetres away from the sensor, the system misses it. Alasvand Zarasvand says that since their triboelectric sensor forms a continuous layer over the surface, it makes ice detection more reliable.  

“It’s extremely lightweight, just two thin layers, simple to fabricate and can be applied to any surface, even complex geometries, such as aircraft wings or wind turbine blades.” 

The sensor can also detect ice cracking or detaching from the surface among other features. 

“Based on the signal and temperature, we can also distinguish between types of precipitation, such as rime ice — a type that forms as planes fly through fog or clouds — or freezing rain, which is the most dangerous for aircrafts,” he says.  

“Ice can damage vehicles like planes in a number of ways, leading to them being grounded or needing maintenance, and to increased costs and delays for travellers.” 

The versatility and light weight of the coating means that it can go on multiple surfaces, including small drones where Alasvand Zarasvand sees the technology as particularly helpful. 

“Drone crashes in cold weather are common. Drones used for commercial inspections of power lines or delivering aid to remote regions need reliable ice detection,” he says. 

“Our system responds in less than a millisecond, so drones can land before icing causes a crash.” 

Because researching the impact of ice on drones is a newer concept than on planes or helicopters, many studies haven’t yet accounted for real-world weather conditions.  

Alasvand Zarasvand says that most drone blade testing for icing is done under simulated conditions. The blades are attached to a rotary hub in an icing wind tunnel where they accrue ice on the entire surface of the blade, but that doesn’t match real flight conditions.  

“A drone is highly sensitive to icing and will crash long before that much ice builds up.” 

To more accurately test the impact of ice on a drone and the effectiveness of the sensors, Alasvand Zarasvand flew the drone in front of a nozzle system that sprayed water at known temperatures while the environment was kept below freezing. Once ice began to form, it didn’t take long for the drone to crash. 

“One of the surprises in our research was just how vulnerable the drones were under cold weather conditions. Even a very thin line of ice on a drone blade caused crashes.” 

Another element that sets the new sensor apart is it’s heating potential. He hopes that the electrode layer can also act as an electrothermal de-icing system to melt ice when it’s detected. 

“Once the system detects ice forming, a heating function could be switched on until the sensor detects that the ice has melted,” he says. 

“It’s an energy saver, not having to constantly have heating on.” 

Currently, de-icing planes with fluid is both costly and time consuming. Wintertime travellers often find their flights delayed while the aircraft is coated in de-icing solution, which is toxic to wildlife.  

Alasvand Zarasvand hopes that his system can save airlines and passengers time and money, all while providing an environmentally-friendly and safe way to detect and remove ice.  

“If we can avoid the need for emergency landings for aircraft vehicles and the need for de-icing fluid, then it’s a real impact,” he says. 

More research is planned for this coating, including testing it on drones in outdoor conditions, integrating heating and sensing, and adapting the system for different applications. 

“With something like a drone, you really have to focus on making the sensors lightweight, whereas if you’re creating the coating for a wind turbine, that isn’t as big of a concern,” he says. 

“What we have is the first step, and now that we know this system works, it will be exciting to take it further.”  

The excitement at NordSpace is ramping up, as the Canadian space company prepares to launch the first suborbital flight of its Taiga rocket. If successful, it will mark the first Canadian commercial rocket launch from a private Canadian spaceport.  

An earlier attempt in September was delayed due to a technical challenge with the rocket’s cryogenic propellants.  

“Building the most complex commercial rocket developed in Canadian history, in less than a year, on a fully self-funded budget and a small team has been an incredible experience,” says Rahul Goel (EngSci 1T6, UTIAS PhD candidate), CEO and founder of NordSpace. 

“We can’t wait to get back to our spaceport in Newfoundland and launch Taiga to close this chapter.”  

Goel founded NordSpace in 2022 with a goal to build and launch rockets from Canada, part of his vision for a sovereign Canadian space program.  The company is also developing larger rockets — the Tundra and the Titan — and is working on the launch of its first satellite next year.  

“We have so many other missions running at the same time. Taiga is just one of several projects that we’re excited to be working on,” says Goel. 

“Our first launch attempt gave our team the information and experience to move on to our orbital launch vehicle, Tundra.” 

During his time at U of T, Goel has been able to nurture his passions for both aerospace and entrepreneurship.  

After graduating from Engineering Science with a major in Aerospace Engineering, Goel is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, studying under Professor Jonathan Kelly (UTIAS).  

Goel also credits U of T for support in launching his first established company, PheedLoop, which provides end-to-end solutions for event management. The company has been operating for more than a decade and has a long list of clients in academia, government and the private sector.  

Early in PheedLoop’s development, Goel connected with The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, U of T Engineering’s startup incubator that helps students turn ideas into ventures. He says that the organization played a key role in helping him build the initial business case.  

“U of T Engineering and the Hatchery gave me discipline and structure in my life, and mentorship. I think those things really helped make me into who I am today,” says Goel.   

“The Hatchery has developed a unique methodology that encourages student founders to think big and act big,” says Joseph Orozco, mentor and the executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery.  

“Rahul’s entrepreneurial journey truly embodies that spirit — understanding value creation and executing a vision. We are proud of his accomplishments so far, and excited for those still to come. The Hatchery continues to support current student entrepreneurs inspired by his journey.”  

Goel’s long-held passion for space took a business turn when he noticed how Canada’s lack of sovereign launch capability pushes many engineers to work overseas.  

“I started noticing that Canadian talent was leaving, and commercial space companies in other countries were racing ahead and pushing their nations further, whereas Canada was not paying attention to this,” says Goel.   

“My anchor was always space because it was cool and unexplored, and there was adventure and risk in it, but now I’m very focused on it from the perspective of jobs, economic development, national security and Canada’s reputation in the world.”  

Goel says he has always had a knack for trying to solve problems nobody else seemed to care about.   

“I’ve always been in these positions where I’ve had to start initiatives because no one else was doing it,” he says.  

“I’m the type of person that really struggles when I see something that should be done, not being done. I just have to do something about it and that sort of gave me that entrepreneurial spirit.”   

Goel has a detailed plan to build NordSpace into a sustainable commercial business.  

In June 2026, NordSpace aims to launch Terra-Nova, its first satellite. This mission will also test the company’s Athena bus, its Zephyr-EP propulsion system and its Chronos edge-AI camera in orbit.  

“Our goal is to be an end-to-end space missions’ company,” says Goel.  

“We’re building our own spaceport for the first time ever in Canada, we’re building our launch vehicles here and we’re building the stuff that’s going to go in the rockets as well. All so we have this full-cycle company.”  

Another aim for the company is to help solve problems on earth from space.   

“We’re launching satellites next year that help monitor Canadian forests and wildlife because that’s important,” says Goel.  

“That’s why we do what we do. We want to focus on things that help life on earth.”  

Goel says that one of the critical skills required in building viable businesses is to be comfortable with failure. As an example, he says that he originally tried to start NordSpace right after completing his undergrad in 2016.  

“Investors weren’t lined up to give millions of dollars to a recent graduate to build rockets,” he says.  

By waiting to launch NordSpace after the success of PheedLoop, Goel was able to create a company that is over 90% self financed, with recent support from the Canadian Space Agency and others contributing to technology development. 

“In the Hatchery, we thought failure was a good thing. It teaches you how to figure out how to do something better. Rahul understands that idea,” says Professor Jonathan Rose (ECE) who mentored Rahul while he was a student in the Hatchery.  

“He gets that when you’re going to start a company: it’s got to have value to someone who’s willing to pay money for it. It’s inspirational that he’s pursued his passion for space, but in a commercial way.”  

In between running NordSpace and working on his PhD, Goel is still finding ways to give back to his U of T community. This past September, he spoke to a crowd of future entrepreneurs at the Desjardins Speaker Series as part of U of T’s Acceleratorfest.  

“Make your idea exist first, then make it better,” says Goel.    

“Just start.”   

Professor Amy Bilton (MIE) is launching a new initiative to empower the next generation of engineers in tackling complex international development challenges. 

The new project, entitled Sensing, Data, and Analytics for Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDA-for-SDGs), has secured $1.65 million in funding through an NSERC CREATE grant over six years. 

The Sustainable Development Goals, created by the United Nations (UN), are a set of 17 interconnected objectives aimed at addressing global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change and access to clean water and education. Adopted by all 191 UN member states, the SDGs are intended to be achieved by 2030. 

The SDA-for-SDGs project offers engineering graduate students and post-doctoral fellows an opportunity to navigate the entire innovation lifecycle of transformative technologies  — from design and development to deployment. The program is specifically designed to enable participants to reach beyond the traditional research silos, which can otherwise hinder innovation. 

Participants will benefit from joint training modules, research mobility programs and internships supported by a global network of 19 collaborators from organizations such as Engineering for Change, the UN Institute for Water and Environment and Health. The list of collaborators includes government laboratories and universities across Canada, India, Mexico and South Africa. 

Earlier this year, Bilton was named a 2025 Fellow of the SDGs@UofT Scholars Academy. SDGs@Uof T is an Institutional Strategic Initiative (ISI) that aims to catalyze research on sustainable development at the university. 

A novel feature of the program is its focus on technology commercialization. Drawing on Bilton’s experience in launching research-based ventures, trainees will receive guidance, from partners such as U of T’s Creative Destruction Lab and Engineering for Change, on identifying customers, crafting value propositions and building relationships with funders. 

“Right now, most new technologies are created for developed world markets,” says Bilton. 

“But you can’t achieve the SDGs by simply making those technologies available to everyone, because they don’t work in every context. Sustainable development requires us to think about how people in different regions actually use products — as opposed to how the designer intended them to be used — and to consider things like how they will be repaired or maintained. 

“Increasingly, that also means embedding sensors and using data and analytics to understand real-world usage patterns, environmental conditions and maintenance needs over time. Also, to make technologies accessible, that often requires thinking about the implications of policy. Those are the skills that participants in this new program will learn.” 

The SDA-for-SDGs project arrives at a critical moment.  

Meeting the SDGs by 2030 is increasingly uncertain — the most recent United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report found that progress has been significantly hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical instability and worsening climate change.  

SDA-for-SDGs directly addresses the need for accelerated cross-disciplinary efforts to bring SDGs back on track. 

“Engineering is a more global discipline than it has ever been before,” says Bilton. 

“By using the SDGs to focus our efforts, we can give the next generation of engineering leaders a truly global perspective that will pervade and inform all their work. That will have positive knock-on effects for decades to come.”