Professors Craig Simmons (MIE, BME) and Julie Audet (BME), in collaboration with boutIQ solutions Inc., a University of Toronto spinout company specializing in AI-driven media optimization, has been awarded a $421,000 research grant through the Stem Cell Network’s 2025 Research Funding Competition. The award will support a collaborative initiative with the Acceleration Consortium and University Health Network to enhance stem cell-derived therapies for heart repair, with boutIQ contributing its proprietary AI-powered platform to improve the maturation and function of therapeutic cells.

Founded by professors Simmons and Audet, with clinician-scientist Neal Callaghan (BME PhD 2T1) and researchers Heta Lad (BME PhD 2T4), Doris Adao (BME PhD student), and Alice Feng (BME MASc student), boutIQ solutions aims to transform the way cell culture media is developed. The company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to design complex, chemically-defined media that accelerates cell growth and boosts physiological performance. This is an essential step for making cell-based therapies more effective and clinically viable.

“We wanted to start this company because our platform can dramatically reduce the time and cost associated with the development of cell manufacturing processes,” says Audet.

“This is often a critical bottleneck not only for cardiac cell therapy but for many other cell-based biotechnologies as they are often struggling to address stringent and extremely complex cell culture requirements.”

With support from the Stem Cell Network, boutIQ will partner with Professors Milica Radisic (BME), Michael Laflamme of the University Health Network, and Yimu Zhao (BME PhD 1T6) at the Acceleration Consortium, to apply its technology to cardiac regenerative medicine. The goal is to develop optimized media that improves the function and maturity of heart cells derived from stem cells, helping them integrate more effectively into damaged heart tissue.

The company’s recent success builds on its growing reputation in Canada’s biotechnology sector. Earlier this year, boutIQ solutions was named the 2025 BBTV Grand Prize Winner at the Building a Biotech Venture Pitch Competition, for its AI/ML-powered approach to media development for regenerative medicine, biotechnology and cellular agriculture. The award included $25,000 in research funding from PRiME and Medicine by Design, a $5,000 BioHubNet VentureConnect Travel Award, a prize package from STEMCELL Technologies, including product support and training, and a one-on-one mentorship session with the Creative Destruction Lab.

“The U of T partnership allows us to apply our media optimization tools to cutting-edge stem cell research,” says Lad.

“It’s an important milestone for boutIQ as we grow our portfolio and continue refining our platform to support more predictive, scalable cell manufacturing.”

Professor Caitlin Maikawa of the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME) has been awarded the 2024 John Charles Polanyi Prize in Chemistry, recognizing her innovative research into biomaterials that could transform the way chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are monitored and managed.

Maikawa is one of five early-career researchers across Ontario to receive the award, which honours outstanding researchers who are building on the work of Nobel laureate John C. Polanyi. The recipients were recognized during a ceremony held at Queen’s Park on June 10, 2025.

An alumna of U of T’s Chemical Engineering program, Maikawa earned her PhD at Stanford University under Professor Eric Appel, where she developed advanced insulin formulations aimed at achieving autonomous insulin delivery. Her work sought to improve global access to insulin therapies, particularly in resource-limited regions. She later completed postdoctoral training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where she collaborated with Professors Jeffrey Karp and Yuhan Lee on biologically derived materials for inflammation tracking technologies.

Since joining BME in July 2023, Maikawa has launched an independent research program focused on developing next-generation biomaterials for personalized, at-home health monitoring. Her team is exploring ways to use responsive polymers that interact with inflammation-related molecules to signal changes in disease activity.

Current IBD monitoring often relies on stool-based tests, which are inconvenient and lead to low patient compliance. Maikawa’s research proposes an alternative: swallowable or orally administered devices containing polymer materials that dissolve in the presence of inflammation biomarkers, releasing a visible signal such as a colour change. These systems could offer a user-friendly and non-invasive way for patients and clinicians to catch flare-ups early and adjust treatment accordingly.

Her work has been published in leading scientific journals, including Science Translational Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering and Advanced Science. In addition to the Polanyi Prize, Maikawa has received a string of competitive research grants over the past year, including an NSERC Discovery Grant, the Connaught New Researcher Fund, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund, and the 2024–2026 XSeed Grant.

The John Charles Polanyi Prizes are awarded annually by the Government of Ontario to support outstanding researchers in the early stages of their careers in the fields of chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine, literature and economic science.

From multilingual models for edge AI to new prognostics models for cancer patients, an international collaboration at U of T Engineering is developing innovative solutions to complex problems. 

Two of the initiative’s key partners are U of T’s Centre for Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Engineering (CARTE) and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP), South Korea. 

For the last six months, 34 graduate students from across South Korea, sponsored by IITP, have been in Toronto, working with mentors at CARTE and U of T’s Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE) on challenges brought forward by partners from several different sectors.  

All teams used AI and machine learning (ML) in their projects and presented their findings at The Hall at the Engineering Partnership Office on June 18. In the audience were U of T Engineering faculty members and representatives from all project partners — including Lorex Technology Inc., Kijiji Canada Ltd. and Guhuza, among many others. 

“Our team developed an AI model for predicting mortality in prostate cancer patients. We took a multi-modal approach to integrate time-series data and textual records from patient visits, while accounting for the irregular visit intervals,” says Eunseon Seong, one of the students who worked on a project with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. 

“The project provided us with invaluable insights into building AI systems in real-world clinical settings”. 

Dr. Kevin Ferreira, Senior Director of Artificial Intelligence and Head of LG Electronics Toronto AI Lab, was at the ceremony. 

“This is the second year that we have partnered with this program, and we continue to be impressed by the caliber and creativity of the participating students,” says Ferreira. 

“This year’s projects tackled some of the most exciting frontiers in AI research — from building efficient multilingual language models for edge deployment, to advancing knowledge distillation techniques that make large models faster, more efficient and environmentally sustainable, to designing robust evaluation frameworks for agentic AI systems.” 

“Each project reflects our commitment to developing AI that is not only powerful, but practical and scalable. The student teams, mentored by our Toronto AI Lab researchers, brought fresh perspectives and technical excellence, delivering contributions that aid in advancing our research initiatives.” 

In addition to working on the projects, all students took three graduate-level courses offered by MIE, and had access to customized AI drop-in clinics provided by CARTE. 

They also attended a number of applied AI seminars offered at U of T, and used a dedicated workspace to facilitate collaborative opportunities and apply their knowledge and skills in the booming AI ecosystem in Toronto. 

 “Since 2024, MIE has hosted more than 30 grad students annually from South Korea through this program to take advantage of the variety of AI/ML courses that we offer,” says Professor Markus Bussmann, Chair of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, who was also at the event.  

“Through this engagement and other partnerships with South Korea, including hosting an international doctoral cluster with Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and a new Global Industrial Technology Cooperation Center between South Korea and Canada on AI and Manufacturing, led by MIE Professor Chi-Guhn Lee, we are building an international community of researchers able to make real-world impact with AI.” 

“This partnership between CARTE and IITP is a perfect example of how international collaboration can accelerate innovation and train the next generation of AI leaders,” says Professor Alex Mihailidis (BME), Associate Vice-President for International Partnerships at U of T. 

“By bringing together talented students, world-class mentors and real-world challenges, we’re creating solutions that are not only technically advanced, but also socially meaningful. This is exactly the kind of initiative we need more of.” 

The full list of projects and partner organizations in the latest round includes:  

• Optimizing Real-Time Candidate Matching for Staffing Efficiency — Guhuza 

• Comprehensive Quality Scoring for Marketplace Listings — Kijiji Canada Ltd. 

• Efficient Multi-Lingual Language Models for Edge AI — LG Electronics Toronto AI Lab 

• Knowledge Distillation for Edge AI Deployment — LG Electronics Toronto AI Lab 

• Evaluation Frameworks for Agentic AI Systems — LG Electronics Toronto AI Lab 

• Anomaly Detection for Security Camera Footage — Lorex Technology Inc. 

• Realistic Hair Removal and Reconstruction in Images — ModiFace Inc. 

• Enhancing Robustness and Transparency in Conversational AI Scoring — Nexxt Intelligence Inc. 

• Prognostics for Musculoskeletal Health in Prostate Cancer Patients — Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 

To learn more about partnership opportunities with CARTE on applied research or training programs in AI, please connect online. 

For Allana Nakashook-Zettler (ChemE 2T4 + PEY), studying at the University of Toronto wasn’t just an investment in her future — it was an opportunity to make an impact today.

An urban Inuk who is passionate about science and engineering, Nakashook-Zettler worked with one of U of T’s leading researchers to investigate the health impacts of industrial chemicals on people in northern Ontario. Later, during a co-op program placement at Environment and Climate Change Canada, she helped refine criteria for an emissions grant program to improve benefits for Indigenous communities.

In her spare time, she fostered community among her peers as an intramural volleyball captain, campus tour guide and Indigenous peer mentor.

“I’ve gotten so many amazing opportunities … and to see that I can have really impactful and meaningful change is really encouraging,” says Nakashook-Zettler, who will graduate on June 17 with a bachelor of applied science degree in chemical engineering from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, where she will begin graduate studies in the fall.

“U of T has really created a path for me in my life and allowed me to see where I can make a difference.”

Born in Iqaluit, Nakashook-Zettler has lived in British Columbia, Newfoundland, Ontario and the Northwest Territories. She studied at U of T with the support of an Engineering Entrance Scholarship for Indigenous Students.

A former Girl Guide, she credits the organization’s strong female role models with inspiring her passion for STEM subjects. “A lot of them were engineers… they were able to bring that out of me and encourage me to pursue engineering.”

At U of T, Nakashook-Zettler sought out opportunities that combined her interests in sustainability, engineering and Indigenous empowerment. In her second year, for example, she joined a research project, led by University Professor Cristina Amon (MIE), a former dean of the engineering faculty, exploring links between benzene exposure and development of acute myeloid leukemia in children.

“This is important because communities in northern Ontario have seen an increase of acute myeloid leukemia in children under five … so they’re investigating the link to it and surrounding factories and processing plants,” Nakashook-Zettler says.

For Nakashook-Zettler, the project was a chance to elevate Indigenous knowledge systems, which have often been overlooked in Western science.

“From my perspective, knowing and understanding Western perspectives on research has helped me convey the importance of Indigenous Knowledge and its integration into all research, particularly engineering.”

After her third year, she completed a Professional Experience Year Co-Op Program placement at Environment and Climate Change Canada’s climate change branch. While reviewing funding criteria for emissions reduction projects, she noticed that the department’s “Indigenous co-benefits” requirement allowed companies with only superficial ties to Indigenous communities to qualify for federal grants.

“As an Inuk, I didn’t really appreciate how it was written and could see there was vast room for improvement,” she says, adding that she shared her concern with her manager who sought her input on revising the requirement.

“It was phenomenal for my confidence,” she says. “It really pushed me to see the contributions I can make, especially as I’m still only a student.”

Back on campus, Nakashook-Zettler continued to build community through co-curricular activities.

As captain of two intramural volleyball teams, she prioritized connection as much as competition. “A lot of the time, you show up, play volleyball, don’t talk to each other and leave — but I intentionally fostered a sense of community and caring,” she says. “It not only made everyone happier — I feel like I created friendships that will last a lifetime — but it also helped us play better.”

She also became involved with First Nations House, mentoring first-year engineering students through the Indigenous Peer Group Mentorship initiative.

As a St. George campus tour guide, she emphasized the importance of community to incoming students.

“One thing I always tell them is that you have to be really intentional … my advice is to put yourself out there, talk to your professors and classmates, say ‘Yes,’ to go hang out or get lunch. Those are the important moments,” she says.

“Nobody’s going to remember what you got in your quiz on Oct. 12 in your second year, but you’re going to remember the fun times and moments. Making room for that and creating a balance for yourself will ultimately make you happier, but also open you up to more opportunities.”

Nakashook-Zettler is set to continue her studies at U of T, where she has been accepted into the master of engineering program in chemical engineering. Long-term, she hopes to find a job where she can grow and continue making an impact.

For now, she’s focused on celebrating her achievement and sharing the moment with loved ones.

“My family’s so proud of me,” she says. “On my mom’s side, I’m the first to graduate university with a bachelor’s degree. There’s such a sense of pride — it’s hard to describe in words.”

When Madhi Ramesh (MSE MEng 2T5) moved to Toronto from India in 2023, she had no previous connections to the city. It wasn’t her first time starting over from scratch. 

“My dad worked in construction; his company designed and built power plants, blast furnaces, mining installations and things like that,” she says. 

“So I was always around engineers, but it also meant that we moved around India constantly, following wherever my dad’s work took him. By the time I graduated from grade 12, I had been to ten different schools. I would just have time to meet people and warm up, and then boom, on to the next place.” 

Ramesh says that the constant moves were hard, but they also taught her creativity. 

“I realized that I could become different versions of myself in each different place,” she says. 

“If I were to stay in the same place, I would have had to be the same person throughout, fearing judgment if I changed something. But the constant movement let me absorb interesting character traits, make little upgrades to my personality, and explore who I could become. 

“So, when the opportunity came to come to Canada, it felt like a natural continuation of that journey where I could continue to push my boundaries ” 

Ramesh completed her undergraduate degree at Anna University’s College of Engineering, Guindy, in Chennai, and says she initially considered becoming a doctor before enrolling in materials science and engineering. 

“I was good at biology, and good at memorizing stuff, but then I realized I’m not great with anything related to blood,” she says. 

“Materials science for me is a bit like biology for non-living things. I saw through my dad’s work the role that material properties play in large-scale infrastructure projects, but at the same time, how often they get overlooked. It felt like a place I could make a difference.” 

At U of T Engineering, Ramesh’s MEng project focused on additive manufacturing, a technology similar to 3D printing, but for metals. Working with Professor Yu Zou (MSE), she developed high-throughput methods to test large numbers of different metal alloys for their applicability to aerospace applications. 

“The technology I used is called directed energy deposition (DED), and it uses lasers to melt together powders made of different materials,” says Ramesh. 

“If we were doing this the conventional way mixing powders by hand, sintering, polishing, it would easily take months just to get through a single round of samples. There’s even a study that estimates it would take about 20 years to test 1000 alloys using traditional methods. 

“But with the high-throughput approach we combine machine learning with the DED system and were able to print over 160 single-track samples and narrow those down to 27 bulk samples. With proper access to equipment, which can sometimes be tightly booked, testing all of those can be done in just a couple of days.” 

In addition to her studies, Ramesh held down several part-time jobs during her time at U of T. One of them was with Tech2U, which offers real-time, personalized technical support for U of T instructors by a trained team of students and experienced technicians.  

“The community there was just so great; we would hang out after the shifts were done, and talk about events and resources around campus and our experiences both at school and as students from different backgrounds,” says Ramesh. 

“I also made a lot of connections by becoming the vice-president of the MSE graduate student association. We ran the most events in an academic year of any department. 

“It was all about giving grad students a reason good enough to leave the lab, and to offer each other support. Being part of that group made me feel less like a scared international student and more like I belonged.” 

Another way that Ramesh built community was to leverage her skills as a photographer, taking pictures at events for Tech2U, the MSE graduate student association and even collaborating with fellow photographers for  Grad Ball, organized by the Graduate Engineering Council of Students (GECos). 

“I got my first camera when I was still in undergrad, which at the time was the most expensive thing that I owned,” says Ramesh 

“I quickly learned that when you have a camera in your hand, people open up more easily. And it’s a bit like meditation: you fade into the background and the story becomes about the person in front of the lens.” 

As she approaches graduation, Ramesh is still not sure what will come next. She has made some connections in the nuclear industry, but she remains interested in aerospace and manufacturing as well. She says that one of the biggest lessons from her time at U of T Engineering is resilience. 

“I did not know I could push so hard,” she says. 

“Even on the days that I did not want to push, I was motivated by this strong desire to get better at doing things that I knew would lead to better outcomes for my project. 

“I also got better at managing my time, at making a schedule and blocking time out intentionally. That way, when something derails, I know I have space to recover — and still get back on track. I think that’s a very important lesson that I learned.”

A startup powered by technology developed at U of T Engineering aims to offer compact and sustainable power solutions for grid resilience and more, using a new fuel cell design.  

Serenity Power was founded in 2023 by a team of U of T Engineering graduates, including Chief Operating Officer Yvonne Liu (ChemE 2T0 + PEY, MIE MEng 2T3) and Chief Executive Officer Aleisha Cerny (MIE MASc 2T3). 

Liu says she first got excited about sustainable energy during her PEY Co-op internship at Toronto Hydro, which she completed after her third year of her undergraduate program. 

“I realized just how much work it takes for the power grid to stand up to challenges such as growing demand and extreme weather,” she says. 

“When I heard about fuel cells, I thought it was a really cool way to provide sustainable, distributed power. This can improve grid resilience and also help remote communities that aren’t connected to the grid.”

U of T Engineering is home leading-edge research in this area. As head of the Fuel Cell Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory, Professor Olivera Kesler (MIE) is one of Canada’s top fuel cell experts.

For many years, Kesler and her team have been working on a particular type of fuel cell known as solid oxide fuel cells, or SOFCs. Among their goals are to lower the cost and improve the durability of SOFCs via new materials and processing techniques, making them more easily scaleable and amenable to mass production.

After completing her undergraduate degree, Liu switched to MIE for her MEng so she could work with Kesler. In fact, it was in a course taught by Kesler that Liu first met Cerny, who at the time was completing her MASc under the supervision of Professor Hani Naguib (MSE, MIE).

Together with Kesler and Yifei Yan (ChemE 1T9, MIE PhD 2T4), who today serves as the company’s chief technology officer, they began to consider how to bring the SOFCs to commercial application.

“There was a lot of interest in fuel cells in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but a lot of that hype was coming from the media, not the scientists,” says Cerny. 

“The technology needed time to catch up to the promises that were being made. Over the past two decades, a lot of advances have been made, including many from people who are looking to use fuel cells to generate clean hydrogen.” 

Like batteries, fuel cells use chemical reactions to produce electricity. But unlike batteries, they are not sealed containers: instead, new fuels are added and waste products removed continuously as they run. 

One potential fuel is hydrogen, which reacts with oxygen inside a fuel cell to produce electricity, with only water as a waste product. Unfortunately, most hydrogen used today is produced from fossil fuels such as natural gas. 

But fuel cells can also be run in reverse, using electricity to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen. In this mode, they can act as a way of storing excess electricity — including from sustainable but intermittent sources such as solar and wind power — in the form of hydrogen. 

One of the advantages of SOFCs over other types of fuel cells is that in addition to hydrogen, SOFCs can run directly on other fuels, such as natural gas. 

“The fuel flexibility is a big advantage, because we don’t yet have a robust hydrogen infrastructure,” says Liu. 

“But there is a lot of natural gas infrastructure, so we can offer SOFCs as a drop-in replacement for natural gas power plants. We can ​seamlessly​ switch to hydrogen​, without any changes, ​when it becomes ​more ​available.” 

Since SOFCs produce electricity directly from chemical reactions, rather than burning the gas to run a turbine, they can also be more efficient than natural gas power plants. Liu says that SOFCs can be up to 60% efficient, compared with only about 45% for a natural gas power plant. 

But this technology still has drawbacks. One is that SOFCs operate at high temperatures, between 600 to 1000 Celsius, which means they take a long time to start up and shut down. They are also larger and bulkier than other types of fuel cells, making them impractical for ​portable, remote or vehicle​​ ​power. 

Finally, the natural gas feed must ​be processed or reformed with steam before it is fed to the fuel cell​; ​hydrocarbons cause​ carbon build-up and block catalyst reaction sites, damaging electrode integrity and hindering performance. 

Using innovations developed by Kesler and her research group, Serenity Power believes they can overcome these limitations.

“Today’s SOFCs use bulky electrodes made of ceramic materials, causing systems to take hours to start up,” says Cerny. 

“Our team created a much thinner electrode with a metal support​, enabling a much faster start-up time​. We also created a carbon-resistant ​composite material​ that protects the electrode from ​carbon fouling​​ ​in the gas feed.” 

By eliminating the need for external fuel processing systems and a water supply, the new SOFC design has the potential to be much more compact than previous versions. 

At present, the team has created a working fuel cell that measures 5 cm x 5 cm; the next step is to ​scale the cell size and ​stack ​35​​ of them ​together to create a complete prototype system that can ​​generate up to 1 kW of power. 

This is about the same amount of power that is produced by small gasoline or diesel generators commonly used to power equipment such as those found in food trucks. In fact, when it is complete, the team plans to work with the Food Truck Association of Canada to demonstrate their new unit at street, music and film festivals. 

Both Cerny and Liu say that their journey from students to entrepreneurs was strongly supported by The Hatchery, a business accelerator based at U of T Engineering. Serenity Power joined the Hatchery’s Nest program in the summer of 2023. 

“It was an intensive four months of pitching and honing our business plan,” says Cerny. “We got great advice from the mentors that they brought on for us, and we started making customer calls. It really showed us that we were onto something real.”

Afterward, the company was invited to join the Hatchery’s Go-To-Market stage. The following April, the Hatchery provided them with $175,500 in non-dilutive funding, enabling the students to transition to employment with their own company after completing their academic duties.

At this stage, the team also had access to the Hatchery First Employee Program, which enables U of T students to work at a startup, leveraging the U of T Work-Study Program. In the summer of 2024, the Hatchery successfully endorsed the team for a Mitacs Entrepreneur Matching Grant.

The company recently completed the Phase-0 Program with HAX by SOSV, a program focused on ​supporting ​hard tech startups​.​​

The team envisions their first product as a replacement for diesel fuel generators, which are commonly used to provide power at oil and gas or mining facilities, or in communities that are not connected to grid power. Eventually, they hope to use their compact SOFC design to power large vehicles such as 16-wheeler transport trucks.  

“Our U of T Engineering experiences, both undergraduate and graduate, helped us get to where we are,” says Liu. 

“PEY Co-op helped us understand the needs of industry, while The Hatchery gave us tremendous support with filing IP and building an advisory board. In general, it was just a really solid foundation that helped us learn how to solve problems and communicate with people. We really appreciate all that now.”