Electrical and computer engineering professor David Johns (ECE) is taking a one-year leave of absence from teaching—but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped inspiring young people to become future engineers.
Johns just launched Icewire Makerspace, a midtown-Toronto facility that provides workshops and courses for youth ages 12 and older interested in electronics, robotics, 3D printing and microcontrollers.
“I wanted to help out the community,” said Johns, who hopes the initiative inspires young people to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at a post-secondary level.
Depending on the focus, by the end of a six-week course, members can create their own microcontroller that senses light and temperature, or a 3D-printed model, or even their own robot.
“You can give a student a computer and start teaching them programming, but I don’t think it’s as engaging as when you give them a robot,” he said. “If you put a kid on a computer to teach them programming, their first question is usually, ‘How do I make a game?’ Whereas, if you give them a robot, the question is, ‘How do I make it do something?’ It’s a whole different dynamic.”
Opened this past fall, the Icewire Makerspace is a passion project for Johns and his two sons (one of whom graduated from U of T’s computer science program). It’s part of a growing global trend of ‘makerspaces’—facilities that allow the local community to come together to learn and create, whether their interest be in STEM, entrepreneurship or sewing.
The makerspace movement began in the mid-2000s in Europe with just one or two maker facilities, said Johns, but today, “there are probably 2,000 to 3,000 makerspaces worldwide. It has exploded.” The movement has even caught the attention of the White House, which held its first Maker Faire in June.
“The reason why you didn’t see this 10 or 15 years ago is because the cost of something like a microcontroller board would cost you more than $150,” said Johns. “Now, it’s like $10. The cost of electronics has come down so much now that it’s accessible to everybody.”
With the price drop, Johns hopes this will bring change to Ontario’s science curriculum as well.
“Technology has really changed but I don’t think the school topics have really changed. It would have been expensive before, but now it’s not the case. You can put robotics and Arduinos (an open-source electronics platform to create interactive devices) into the classroom—all sorts of electronics—at a very low cost. How they’ll do that, and when, is the challenge.”
Johns is currently collaborating with the Engineering Outreach Office to offer the Faculty’s first community-based DEEP Summer Academy program at Icewire Makerspace, and he is also working with the Toronto District School Board to help provide professional development opportunities for its teachers.
“You don’t have to go out and buy a specific product, you can make one yourself,” he said. “It’s a whole new thing—as opposed to being a consumer, you can now be a creator.”
Whether we move from scrolls to eBooks, or from telegrams to text messages, we are always evolving how we share information. Technology is integral to engineering education, yet limited research focuses on this specific field of study.
“Every time a new technology is introduced in the classroom—printing press, videos, etc.—it forces us to reevaluate what we’re doing as professors and how we’re spending time with students,” said Vivek Goel, former vice president and provost of U of T and chief academic strategist at Coursera, a leading online learning platform.
Goel delivered the keynote address at the October 14 launch of a new collaborative program that will develop the next generation of experts in engineering education. The EngEd, offered by U of T Engineering and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, is Canada’s first collaborative program in engineering education for master’s and PhD students.
“We can’t use the educational methods of yesterday to build the engineers of tomorrow,” said Professor Greg Evans (ChemE), EngEd director and chair of the Dean’s task force that proposed the initiative. “We hope the EngEd will become one of the many wonderful features that distinguishes our university.”
The program allows students to enrich their learning through a weekly seminar series, a course in instructional design, elective courses, and advanced thesis research that will expand the intersection of engineering and education.
“Through EngEd, we hope to cultivate engineers that are more holistic, global thinkers,” said PhD student Patricia Sheridan (MechE 0T9, MASc 1T1, PhD candidate in Engineering Leadership Education). “This program provides that breadth without sacrificing the technical competencies that engineers are known for.”
The EngEd aims to improve engineering education through research and course work from an engineering perspective. Teamwork, knowledge communities, career readiness, and engineering culture are among the many topics that EngEd students will explore. They will also examine new ways to use the Internet as a teaching tool through on-line education and inverted classrooms.
“UofT Engineering has the expertise, therefore the responsibility, to lead innovations in engineering education,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “The EngEd research findings will contribute the knowledge we need to develop pedagogical innovations and to inspire the next generation of engineering educators.”
Dean Amon emphasized that the launch aligns with our Faculty’s growing emphasis on education innovation, highlighting a number of initiatives such as the Engineering Instructional Innovation Program (EIIP), the Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) pilot classroom and the many advanced learning spaces that will be included in the forthcoming Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CEIE).
“Application is what makes educating engineers unique,” said Sheridan. “As critical and practical thinkers, we ask two questions of our teachers: why do I care? And what can I do with [this information]? It is not enough to present theory to an engineering student in a vacuum—we have to see how we can use that theory to make an impact.”
Through startups and partnerships, leading researchers from U of T Engineering’s labs, centres and affiliated hospitals are commercializing cutting-edge technology and revolutionizing the current state of health care. Click on the icons below to explore six of these promising technologies, originally shared in the 2014 issue of Skulematters.
Technology that kick-starts your heart
Like a scene lifted from Frankenstein, Professor Milica Radisic’s (IBBME, ChemE) “biowire” platform treats immature human cardiac cells, derived from stem cells, to cycles of electric pulses—a process that encourages growth at the same rate as a developing fetus. The result: mature heart tissue that meets a major need in the pharma industry, which, until now, has been unable to test medications on live human heart tissue. Grown along sutures, the heart tissue may also eventually be developed as cardiac patches that, derived from a patient’s own cells, won’t cause rejection issues. Radisic is currently developing the commercial possibilities of this remarkable technology.
Timing is everything: rethinking hospital schedules
When you’re running a medical facility designed to keep people out of the hospital, flawless scheduling is vital. Last year, when Women’s College Hospital was in the process of moving its outpatient operations to a new building in Toronto, the Centre for Healthcare Engineering (CHE), housed within the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE), helped them to re-think their schedule to see how they could improve their operations. “We developed a new mathematical model that would generate optimized schedules,” said Professor Timothy Chan (MIE), newly appointed director of the CHE. The resulting software, which improved the effective use of treatment space within the hospital leading to better utilization and fewer cancellations, has the potential to revolutionize hospital operations everywhere.
A little zap goes a long way: electrical stimulation therapy
Imagine an electrical stimulation therapy for the treatment of arm and hand paralysis after a stroke or spinal cord injury, evidenced to have massive long-term gains over traditional therapies. You’ve just imagined MyndMove: the premiere product of Professor Milos Popovic’s (IBBME) startup MyndTec, founded with Professor Aleksandar Prodic (ECE), Armen Baronijan (ECE MASc 9T4, PhD 9T8) and U of T alumna Diana Pliura. In trials, patients consistently reached and sustained the top range of two of the most common motor function and activity of daily living independence tests. MyndTec won a Health Canada medical device license in the spring of 2014, giving the company the green light to advance its product to the market. Next steps: training medical personnel on the device and fine-tuning the product for market readiness before changing the outcomes of millions of patients.
Recipe for regeneration: injectable hydrogel
It’s derived from ingredients found in wrinkle creams and eye droplets, but University Professor Molly Shoichet (ChemE, IBBME) is cooking up a different recipe: an injectable hydrogel—a water-containing material that is biocompatible—for stem cell transplantations. Studies show that the hydrogel at least doubles the survival rate of stem cells injected with it, and early results show promise of tissue repair. Shoichet aims to commercialize the hydrogel and is testing it in key applications with clinical collaborators.
Tremors? There’s an app for that
A common sign of alcohol withdrawal is tremor of the hands and arms—a symptom that can be underestimated, leading to further health problems, or faked to gain access to prescription medication. But a new mobile app, developed by Professor Parham Aarabi (ECE), PhD candidate Narges Norouzi (ECE MASc 1T4) and Professor Bjug Borgundvaag of the Faculty of Medicine, aims to provide front- line health-care workers with the objective data they require to guide diagnosis and treatment decisions. To use, patients simply hold an iPod equipped with the app with both hands for 20 seconds while the device’s built-in accelerometer measures the frequency and severity of the tremor. While still a pilot project, the app has immense potential on a global scale.
Let it flow: dialysis biomaterial
Endexo is a little polymer making a big splash for Professor Paul Santerre’s (IBBME) startup, Interface Biologics, Inc. Blended into medical materials, the biomaterial proves extremely effective at preventing blood clots in catheter applications— from drug delivery to dialysis. Since receiving FDA regulatory approval in 2012, Endexo has been licensed by AngioDynamics for the BioFlo PICC catheter. Used in kidney dialysis catheters, the special biomaterial does away with the need for blood-thinning agents. The product has netted over 30 per cent of AngioDynamic’s new revenues in recent quarterly reports, and accounts for a growing margin of U.S. catheter sales. A central venous catheter containing Endexo, for use in long-term medication or fluid delivery, is also now available from AngioDynamics.
What do you get when you combine an engineer’s creative, critical thinking with entrepreneurial acumen?
“Technopreneurs”—a new breed of startup-savvy scientists coming out of Techno, the four-week summer incubator program offered by U of T’s Impact Centre.
The latest Techno cohort recently presented their startup concepts at the close of the fifth annual workshop, and the event included four innovative startups from U of T Engineering alumni and students.
“Each participant comes with their own academic and technical expertise,” said Cynthia Goh, director of the Impact Centre. “Over the course of Techno, we work with everyone to ensure that the market they have chosen is one where they can have an impact.”
One of several incubator programs offered by the University of Toronto, the Techno program gives technology-minded entrepreneurs the tools to continue building, developing and launching a dynamic startup grounded in their research or thesis work. They’ve helped more than 50 companies translate innovative research into commercially viable startups since its formation in 2010.
Take a look at four engineering startups that participated in this year’s Techno:
Hacking dusty, dirty solar panel problems – CleanMePV
Solar panels are a great energy option for homes and businesses in and around Saudi Arabia. But when a dust storm sweeps in and covers the panels with sand, there’s up to a 50 per cent reduction in efficiency. CleanMePV is developing a mechanical device to effectively clean these solar panels. Their product requires no water (a precious resource in the desert), does not scratch the panel surface and can be cleaned panel-by-panel rather than in only set shapes of panel-arrays. Ahmed Balawi (MSE MASc 1T4), the entrepreneur behind it, is also thinking ahead as to whether this device could also work for snow.
New tools for teaching young engineers – Illuster Tech
The University of Toronto lined up as the first customer for this educational platform that, according to Richard Medal (ECE 1T2 + PEY), Mehrad Mashayehi (ECE 1T2 + PEY) and Miad Fard (MASc ECE 1T5, ECE 1T2 + PEY)—the alumni founders behind it—transforms the way students learn electronics. Their package of printed circuit boards, combined with software and a PDF instruction manual, is now being used by more than 400 students as their introduction to electronics, updating their hands-on learning from decades-old and obsolete ‘bread boards’ to industry-standard circuit boards. (Read more about Illuster Tech)
Simulating human tissue in a petri dish – RHEO Biotech
During Oleg Chebotarev’s (MechE MASc 1T2) master’s research, he developed a tool that simulates human tissue and blood. He now wants to take his technology beyond the lab and help pharmaceutical companies reduce the development costs for new drugs by reducing the need for costly animal and human testing. In recognition of the commercial potential of his work, Chebotarev was recently awarded a $32,000 U of T Heffernan Commercialization Fellowship, which supports researchers turning technologies developed in university labs into businesses.
A new way to look at welding – Enceladus Imaging
You know that bright halo of light and sparks that explode when a piece of metal is being welded? PhD student Jason Huang (ECE PhD 1T4, ECE MASc 1T3, ECE BASc 0T9) and the team at Enceladus Imaging have developed a camera that allows users to see both this welding arc as well as the seam of the weld they are working on. Enceladus’ camera combines dynamic range imaging with high speed photography to help users make clean, precise welds and reduces the need to expose inspectors to the dangerous working space in automated welding facilities. (Read more about Enceladus Imaging)
Learn more about the Impact Centre.
Don’t miss the public TechnoShowcase at the MaRS Discovery District on November 5.
Next time you see a robot helping the elderly, a fuel cell powering a remote town or microbes cleaning contaminated water, you may be witnessing the innovative research of U of T Engineering’s newest Canada Research Chairs in action.
Last week, professors Aimy Bazylak (MIE), Elizabeth Edwards (ChemE) and Goldie Nejat (MIE) were named Canada Research Chairs along with ten other University of Toronto faculty.
Ed Holder, Canada’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, visited U of T campus to share the news, announcing $118 million in nation-wide funding for the CRC Program, with nearly $30 million of that dedicated to U of T researchers.
“Our main application is to design robots to help people,” said Professor Nejat, the holder of the new CRC in Robots for Society. Nejat opened her lab for tours at the event and introduced visitors to Brian, her robot prototype designed to assist elderly people with dementia.
“The idea is to use these robots to provide cognitive and social interventions,” she explained, “and to help people with the activities of daily living that some of us may take for granted, such as brushing our teeth or making a meal.”
Also from U of T Engineering, Professor Bazylak was named a new CRC in Thermofluidics for Clean Energy. An expert in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells, Bazylak is developing clean energy solutions for use in remote regions, liked those in northern Canada.
Professor Edwards is the holder of a new CRC in Anaerobic Biotechnology. She is the director of BioZone— a Faculty-wide, multidisciplinary centre for collaborative bioengineering research—where she leads a pioneering exploration of various technologies at the interface of biology and engineering. Her own research focuses on the use the micro-organisms to clean up chemical contaminants in ground water.
“We are grateful to the government of Canada for this investment,” said Professor Peter Lewis, U of T’s interim vice-president, research and innovation. “The program has been critical to the university’s ability to attract and retain the best researchers from around the world—and to Canada’s as a nation.”
Read more about U of T’s newest Canada Research Chairs.
With files from Jenny Hall.
With the election just a week away, voter decisions are coming down to the wire: when it comes time to actually cast their ballot, will the choice they make help build a better Toronto?
The latest in U of T News’ mini-series of podcasts tackles the question of sustainability to offers voters—and anyone interested in the future of urban issues—an idea of what global cities like Toronto could look like just a few years from now.
Previous episodes dug into the U of T research and business startups pushing boundaries on the future of traffic and transit.
The third in this four-part series expands focus to tackle the future of Toronto’s economy, environment and transportation on a larger scale.
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(Click the down-pointing arrow button in the player to download episode and transfer to your listening device. Transcript available here.)
Part One: What do green roofs have to do with emergency management?
Assistant Professor Liat Margolis’ research is all about optimizing “green roofs”—the vegetation on tops of large city buildings that became mandatory in Toronto a few years ago.
It might seem like these patches of grass and greenery could do little more than offer condo-dwellers a scenic spot to view the CN Tower. But in this interview, Margolis describes their power to affect flood relief, energy consumption and the very ecology of the city.
Margolis shares a few early findings from research she and her colleagues are doing with their own test versions of green roofs on the roof of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
Part Two: Transit as a ‘revelation’ for citizens
Richard Sommer is dean of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Last episode, he shared a vision of richly-designed transit hubs in the outer areas of the GTA that would integrate shopping, learning and possibly even gardening into train platform design. (Find the transit episode here)
In this episode, Sommer explains the greater implications for a city recognizing transit as something more than just a way of getting citizens from one point to another.
He offers a few thoughts on how a more wholistic transit philosophy could contribute to an enlightened lifestyle for its users.
Part Three: Leaving Toronto’s old economy behind
Professor David Wolfe thinks a lot about Toronto’s future: the jobs, companies, costs and revenues that will drive the city’s success—or lack of it—in a continually changing world.
The political science professor, who teaches at U of T’s Mississauga campus as well as at the Munk School of Global Affairs, recently received a $2.9 million grant to study Canada’s growing digital economy.
Wolfe also discusses the importance of entrepreneurship supports and startup accelerators like the ones offered at the University of Toronto.
One sustainability-focused company developed through U of T’s Creative Destruction Lab accelerator is OTI Lumionics. Engineering alumnus and co-founder Michael Helander (EngSci 0T7, MSE PhD 1T2) developed a new – and considerably more affordable – way to manufacture organic LED lighting alongside then-PhD student Zhibin Wang (MSE PhD 1T2) and their supervisor Professor Zheng-Hong Lu (MSE). The technology offers great potential for applications in archtecture, interior design and more. (Read more about OTI Lumionics)
The company recently launched the world’s first consumer-ready OLED lamp, the aerelight, to demonstrate just one of the many ways this sustainable material may soon be lighting our cities. (Read more about aerelight)
Read more about building successful cities at U of T.
This podcast features music made available on the Free Music Archive from Daytripper13, Tha Custodian of Records, Jazzafari and Cosmic Analog Ensemble.