This month, 20 top researchers from across Canada get the opportunity to polish their communication and leadership skills at the University of Toronto’s 2015 Science Leadership Program (SLP)—an intensive two-day experience that equips participants with the tools to promote the importance of their research to the public, the media and government decision-makers.

Directed by University Professor Molly Shoichet (ChemE, IBBME), Senior Advisor to the President on Science & Engineering Engagement, the program welcomes invited scientists from research-intensive institutions—including the universities of Calgary, Waterloo, McGill, Ottawa, Manitoba, York, as well as U of T—to take part in a series of hands-on training sessions, discussion panels and interactive opportunities. Now in its third year, the program is sponsored by Science & Engineering Engagement at U of T and the Connaught Fund.

“The program is designed to give professors, in a diversity of science and engineering fields, the opportunity to hone their leadership and communication skills,” says Shoichet, a recipient of this year’s prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award. “We are bringing in experts from around the world to lead several interactive workshops, while at the same time we’re giving professors the chance to test their skills on expert communicators.”

The program, from April 22-24, is intense. Participants will take part in practical training sessions on outreach, leadership and communications. Nancy Houfek, formerly from the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University, will teach participants how to best use their voice and body. A session by The Barefoot Company will teach them how to articulate ideas most effectively and how to lead a research team of different personalities.

Ivan Semeniuk, a veteran science reporter at the Globe and Mail, will deliver a highly engaging “Science Communications Primer” that examines what makes scientists and journalists the same, yet different, in their quest for truth. His talk will be followed by a panel discussion with leading communicators on effective story-telling and how to keep the message on point when speaking to the public, media and government.

Beginning in 2013, the Science Leadership Program began is part of U of T’s Science and Engineering Engagement program, an initiative that aims to raise awareness of U of T’s teaching and research strength in science and engineering.

The SLP is the only one of its kind in Canada and among a handful throughout North America. Each year, U of T selects 20 applicants to take part in the program who are typically professors in the early- or mid-stage of their careers in science, engineering, social science or medicine.

An impressive roster of participants in the 2015 program

One of this year’s participants, Professor Naomi Matsuura from the U of T Faculty of Medicine, is widely recognized as an expert in cancer nanotechnology. Also cross-appointed to the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, her research explores how medical imaging radiation and new materials can interact and be used to detect and treat cancer.

As a scientist, Matsuura confesses that she has had challenges in trying to explain her complex research to lay people while staying true to its scientific authenticity. But a key motivation for applying to the SLP is her realization that scientists need to help the public understand why research matters, especially in light of recent government cuts to the funding of basic research.

“I applied to this program to learn how to better communicate the expected advances that will arise from publicly-funded research such as my own, so that the general public, who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of our research, will come to appreciate and, hopefully lobby for, continued high-level basic research initiatives in Canada,” she says.

Professor David Cramb, head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Calgary, is a much sought-after lecturer on the study of nanoscience. His research involves using fluorescence and molecular-scale imaging technology to assess the therapeutic potential of nanoparticles and track toxicological risk factors in avian and aquatic species.

Cramb says he applied to the SLP to gain more experience in talking about science policy with the media, politicians and the general public. He is most excited about “meeting like-minded people who are passionate about telling the great stories of canadian science.”

Professor Edmond Young (MIE), who joined U of T’s Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering in January 2013, had heard great things about the program from his colleagues who had taken part in previous years, and he wanted to experience it himself.

“I’m hoping to broaden my horizons beyond the scientific work, and become better at seeing the bigger picture,” says Young, whose award-winning research focuses on creating engineered models that mimic the cell and tissue microenvironments of the body. “It’s very important to engage the public and keep them informed about all the exciting research work that’s being done, and how it can impact their daily lives.”

Shoichet is encouraging all of the invitees to come with “an open mind and soak up as much of the program” as they can.

“This program is designed to enhance our skills, develop our thinking and ultimately give us the tools to be more effective in research and its communication,” she says. “There is a fantastic group coming this year—I’m looking forward to getting to know them all.”

Participants in the 2015 Science Leadership Program include:

• Morgan Barense, Associate Professor, Psychology & Baycrest RRI; CRC, University of Toronto
• Xudong Cao, Professor; Assistant Director, Chemical & Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa
• David Cramb, Professor; Head of Chemistry, University of Calgary
• Annemieke Farenhorst, Professor, Soil Science; Prairie NSERC Chair for Women in Science & Engineering, University of Manitoba
• Guy Faulkner, Professor, Kinesiology & Physical Education, University of Toronto
• Michel Fich, Professor, Physics & Astronomy, University of Waterloo
• Tara Gomes, Scientist; Assistant Professor, Pharmacy, St. Michaels’ Hospital; University of Toronto
• Jane Heffernan, Associate Professor, Mathematics & Statistics; York Research Chair, York University
• Naomi Matsuura, Assistant Professor, Medical Imaging/Materials Science & Engineering, University of Toronto
• Mandy Meriano, Senior Lecturer, Environmental Science, University of Toronto Scarborough
• Joshua Milstein, Assistant Professor, Chemical & Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga
• Stella Ng, Director, Research & Scientist, Centre for Faculty Development, Medicine, University of Toronto
• Navindra Persaud, Lecturer, Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto
• Mary Pugh, Associate Professor, Mathematics, University of Toronto
• Nathaniel Quitoriano, Assistant Professor, Materials Engineering , McGill University
• Tom Schweizer, Director, Neuroscience Research Program; Assistant Professor, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery, St. Michaels’ Hospital; University of Toronto
• Adam Steinberg, Assistant Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto
• Franco Taverna, Senior Lecturer, Human Biology Program, University of Toronto
• Derek Wilson, Associate Professor, Chemistry, York University
• Edmond Young, Associate Professor, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto

Imagine having your MRI results sent directly to your phone, with no concern over the security of your private health data. Or knowing your financial information was safe on a server halfway around the world. Or sending highly sensitive business correspondence, without worrying that it would fall into the wrong hands.

Thanks to new research from a team of University of Toronto engineers, these types of perfectly secure information exchanges are one step closer to reality. Published this week in Nature Communications, researchers have designed the first all-photonic quantum repeaters—protocols that ensure data can be carried reliably and securely across longer distances when using quantum cryptography.

Communication that uses quantum cryptography exploits the laws of quantum mechanics to relay information from one user to another. Coded in the quantum states of photons, this exchange is so secure that breaking it is nearly impossible. But sending photons long distances over fibres is easier said than done—more than 90 per cent of photons are lost over distances greater than 50 kilometres, severely limiting the range of quantum communication.

To extend the range, much research has focused on developing ‘quantum repeaters’ to give photons a “boost” and reduce loss. These repeaters acted like mini quantum computers, storing the entangled photons and relaying their signals down the fibres—they needed to be kept at cool temperatures and had low repeat rates, making them inconvenient and slow.

These new all-photonic quantum repeaters from engineers at U of T relay photons over long distances using photons only, without the demanding requirements of matter quantum memories or an interface between matter and light at all.

Professor Hoi-Kwong Lo (ECE) of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto collaborated with Dr. Koji Azuma and Dr. Kiyoshi Tamaki of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation in Japan on the project.

“There’s a lot of interest in the community around designing a quantum Internet that will be more information-rich and more powerful, but these quantum states can also be fragile,” says Professor Lo. “Our motivation was to design a means for communicating securely and reliably over long distances.”

The team’s proposed all-photonic repeaters boast higher quantum-communication rates, use optical elements whose proof-of-principle demonstrations have already been made, and function at room temperature. The proposed all photonic quantum repeaters make essential use of highly entangled quantum states (called ‘cluster states’) and their useful property of fault-tolerance to losses.

All-photonic repeaters could be used to network individual quantum computers, which remain unrealized and the domain of intense research around the globe.

“Imagine in the future we have various quantum computers around the world, run by different users,” says Professor Lo. “We would want to convey information between them, but current modes of communication are not safe against attacks or losses.”

Quantum computers are on the way, but this technology has implications for another area that sounds like science fiction: quantum teleportation.

“The original question was whether we could transmit polarization over long distances, but that’s boring—then researchers asked, can we do something fancier?” says Professor Lo. “And it turns out we can do quantum teleportation.”

You won’t be beaming from home to work any time soon, but researchers have already completed experimental demonstrations of beaming states of photons and even atoms from one location to another.

This work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT).

Eighty-nine engines revved in Motor City this weekend, but they weren’t racing for gold—they were racing for green.

The University of Toronto Supermileage team won this year’s Shell Eco-Marathon Americas in Detroit, Michigan, with an efficiency of 3,421 miles per gallon—the equivalent of 6.82 millilitres of gasoline per 10 kilometres. That’s less than five tablespoons of gas to drive from the foot of Yonge Street in Toronto to Barrie, Ontario.

U of T squeaked out a win in the very last run of the event to upset the dominant Al Erion team from Université Laval. A perennial favourite, Laval took home the title at the past two events, and five out of six previous years in the highly competitive Prototype Gasoline category.

“Even on that last run I don’t think most of us believed we would come in first, we just thought we might improve,” says Mengqi Wang (ElecE 1T3, MASc 1T6), co-president and electrical lead of the Supermileage team. “It was literally the last possible moment—we were the final car on the track—and we just sneaked past them.”

The surprise win couldn’t have been more dramatic: the team thought they’d had their last run around the 1.4-kilometre track, and were in the fuelling tent having their gas consumption measured and logged with only five minutes left before the track was slated to close.

“We’d already done media interviews about coming in second, and being happy about improving on last year’s performance,” says Prashanth Murali (MechE 1T3+PEY, UTIAS MASc 1T6), the team’s mechanical lead credited with designing and fabricating a much lighter aerobody for this year’s 34-kilogram vehicle. “We were resigned to our fate.”

Then they realized there were only two cars in line at the start. “The official at the start line told us if we lined up right now we could get another run in,” remembers Wang. “We sprinted back to the tent and dragged the car over.”

They finished the run and went back in the fuel tent to measure the vehicle’s temperature and consumption, but because they were the very last car, they had to wait for the official rankings. “We could tell our consumption was low, but we didn’t know where we’d placed,” says Wang. “Half the team was screaming, half the team was trying to get us to calm down.”

This is the third year the Supermileage team has competed in the Shell Eco-marathon, each time in the Prototype Gasoline class, the biggest category at the two-day event. In 2014 they came second after jockeying for the lead with Laval all weekend. “We were neck and neck with them the entire competition,” says Wang. “We knew exactly what we needed to do to get the extra mileage, but we just couldn’t get the last run in.”

That year the team also won a technical innovation prize for their custom-built engine, the only custom engine in the entire competition. They hope to continue to improve on their engine, as well as perfecting a reliable clutch and making improvements to the vehicle’s aerodynamics, including wind-tunnel testing. Wang says the team also has plans to break into the Battery Electric category.

Founded in 2013, the Supermileage team is composed of 25 undergraduate and graduate students from U of T Engineering, and is supervised by Professor Kamran Behdinan (MIE) of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. Wang and Murali both say they can’t wait to realize the many improvements they have in store for next year’s Eco-marathon—the competition returns to Detroit in 2016, where they hope to defend their title on the same track.

“The Supermileage Team is comprised of dedicated, multidisciplinary students, committed to the success of the team,” says Professor Behdinan. “As the faculty advisor, I had the privilege of knowing the team’s realistic objectives to go beyond  last year’s great success, and achieve first rank in the competition.”

“Our actual goal is to beat the North American record and see how far we can push the record,” says Wang. “All of us were a little disappointed by how close we were with Laval—just like last year, either team could have won. So the goal for us is to really set the bar for the field.”

The international event, which celebrated its 30^th anniversary this year, drew 113 teams from more than 1,000 universities and high schools across the Americas, including participants from Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and the United States. In addition to gasoline, teams entered futuristic vehicles running on diesel, ethanol, electricity, compressed natural gas, gas-to-liquid fuel and hydrogen power. Teams competed for awards in best fuel economy, safety, design and team spirit.

“In Detroit, I was amazed by our team’s excellent engineering execution under the extreme pressure of a tough competition,” says Behdinan. “I would like to congratulate all of them for their remarkable achievement.”

 

Professor Chul Park (MIE) has been named a University of Toronto Distinguished Professor, an honour that recognizes individuals with outstanding career achievements and promise.

Awarded by the U of T Office of the Vice-President and Provost, Park will hold the title of Distinguished Professor of Microcellular Engineered Plastics for a five-year term, beginning July 1, 2015. He will be one of only 20 U of T faculty members, and four Engineering professors, that will actively hold this distinction.

Park is founder and director of the Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory (MPML), one of the world’s leading research centres in the refining of plastics foaming technology. Foamed plastics allow manufacturers to create products that can be lighter, more durable and better insulated, but with less raw materials. They’re increasingly used in packaging, upholstery, thermal insulation, building panels, toys and more.

Founded in 2013, the MPML is a commercialization centre for Park’s innovative microcellular technology. He and his team collaborate extensively with partners from the public and private sectors, focusing on  advancing scientific discovery, accelerating technology transfer and training younger engineers.

Park also leads both the Consortium for Cellular and Microcellular Plastics, which currently has about 20 member companies, as well as the NSERC Network for Innovative Plastic Materials and Manufacturing Processes, which involves 20 professors from 11 universities.

“On behalf of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, I would like to congratulate Professor Chul Park on this prestigious recognition,” said Jean Zu, chair of MIE. “This honour—one of the highest distinctions U of T can convey —is yet another example of the high level of excellence at MIE.”

Park has an international reputation as a leader in the development of innovative and industrially viable technologies for the manufacture of microcellular foamed plastics that have superior mechanical and insulation properties. He is the author or co-author of over 900 publications, including two books, 240 journal papers and 560 conference papers, and holds 30+ patents.

Technology he developed has been licensed by hundreds of companies, and his research has had a major impact on industry. Most notably, it has allowed various metallic components to be replaced by plastic ones, reducing production and operational costs and allowing for lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

His research also played a major role in replacing environmentally hazardous HCFC-based blowing agents with inert-gas based blowing agents.

Park has received approximately 30 major awards and honours over the course of his career. He is a fellow of three national academies—the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology—as well as the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Society of Plastics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering.

Professor Timothy Chan (MIE) has been named the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Novel Optimization and Analytics in Health.

Ed Holder, Canada’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, shared the news at University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus today, announcing $139 million in nation-wide funding for the CRC program. Chan is among 19 researchers from U of T who received a total of $17.6 million in this round of CRC funding.

Chan is director of the Centre for Healthcare Engineering, where he brings an interdisciplinary, systems engineering approach to improving how health care works both in Canada and abroad. Also an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE), Chan focuses on developing optimization models to help inform better decision-making in the health-care field.

In one area of his research, Chan focuses on how doctors can fine-tune radiation therapies to improve cancer outcomes. Using complex mathematical modeling, he and his team propose treatment strategies that better account for the various uncertainties that present during therapy—such as when the patient breathes during a blast of radiation to a lung or breast tumour.

Chan also develops optimization models for both emergency and pre-hospital medicine. Using  data on historical cardiac arrests, building layouts and current automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) locations, he’s built a computer simulation that recommends the ideal places to put life-saving AEDs.

“I’m really humbled by the CRC appointment and incredibly thankful to the students and postdocs I’ve work with over the years who have contributed to the success of my lab,” said Chan. “The CRC funding will enable me to continue attracting top students to my research group and pushing forward the boundaries of optimization and analytics in health care.”

Internationally, Chan is involved in a collaboration to improve emergency medical care in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Supported by a grant from Grand Challenges Canada, his team is developing models that use GPS data from cell phones to depict how traffic is moving in real time—recommending the best routes for ambulances to an emergency scene.

“We are grateful to the government of Canada for this investment,” said Professor Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation. “The CRC program has enabled universities across Canada, U of T among them, to attract and retain the best researchers from around the world. As such, the program is critical to the long-term prosperity of our nation.”

Chan has received an Early Researcher Award from the Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation of Ontario (2012), Early Career Teaching Awards from both MIE (2012) and U of T Engineering (2013), second place in the INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Service and Needs best paper competition (2012) and first place in the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference research paper competition (2013).

Before coming to U of T Engineering, he was an associate in the Chicago office of McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm. During that time, he advised leading companies in the fields of medical device technology, travel and hospitality, telecommunications, and energy on issues of strategy, organization, technology and operations.

Read more about Chan and the Centre for Healthcare Engineering.

This month, over 260 of the brightest up-and-coming minds in electrical and computer engineering gathered for the annual ECE Design Fair.

After eight months of intense team collaboration, 84 groups showcased their innovative solutions to real-world challenges—with the 18 strongest projects advancing to a finale Showcase.

The students’ ideas and demonstrations attracted hundreds of faculty, students and media. Even a class of Grades 2 and 3 students from the nearby Lord Lansdowne Public School attended to learn more about fun applications of science, technology and engineering.

Here’s a snapshot of three projects that were included in the final Showcase:

1. A powered exoskeletal leg

Students Lakmini Perera, Kayatri Rangarajan, Shakthi Seerala and Elizabeth Sumitro (all ElecE 1T4+PEY) designed an exoskeletal leg that helps those with cerebral palsy extend their lower leg when walking. They collaborated closely with their client, Tom Garside, for months before demonstrating their powered leg brace at the Fair, and then the final Showcase.

“The brace uses electrical outputs from Tom’s body, so we had to meet a few times a week towards the end for final testing and calibration,” said Perera.

“This is not a theoretical application—this is right here,” said Garside. “This is something I’m actually going to take possession of after the Fair.”

2. Instant do-it-yourself game creation

Visitors of all ages were riveted by a new app that lets you build your own side-scrolling gaming world instantly on a mobile device, complete with enemies, challenges and architecture, and then play in it.

“I had a blast doing the game design,” said student Rick Buczynski, who created the app with partner Deepkanwal Plaha (both CompE 1T4+PEY).

“We’re hoping to launch it this summer and would like to see it in the App Store ASAP,” said Plaha. “We think getting it in the hands of users will really help the design process.”

3. A smart micro-grid electricity system

A functioning micro-grid with smart control illustrates how power infrastructure of the future could respond to crises such as ice storms, floods or downed lines.

Yoley Li, Mia Ma, Tony Liu and Allen Gou (all ElecE 1T4+PEY) designed smart algorithms to find and react to faults in the system, shutting down power to low-piority areas such as neighbourhoods first, and keeping high-priority facilities such as hospitals and police stations online.

“This year’s projects really show what our students are capable of,” said Professor Khoman Phang (ECE), the course coordinator. “There’s always terrific energy around this final showcase as it’s a great chance to share our students’ work with the wider engineering community and the public.”

Morgan Hoffman, host of the show InnerSpace on Space Channel, and producers filmed segments on several projects for the show—the pieces will air Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 6 and 11 p.m. Eastern Time on Space Channel.