Imagine never having to remember another password or PIN number again. And now imagine that freedom coming in the form of a tiny watch-like gadget that listens to your heart.
Using our unique heartbeats to eliminate the jumble of complicated word-and-number combinations in these tech-heavy times was the goal of Karl Martin (EngSci BASc 0T1 Masc 0T3 PhD 1T0) and Foteini Agrafioti (ElecE Masc 0T7 PhD 1T1), founders of Bionym.
The U of T Engineering researchers and entrepreneurs came to the Creative Destruction Lab with ideas for biometric recognition systems. Its mentors, workshops and services – including direct access to investors – then helped Bionym develop its concept, goals and products. The Nymi launched only a year later, in early September, 2013.
In a video for U of T News, Bionym CEO, Karl Martin, explains how he went from academic to entrepreneur at U of T.
To read the full article on Bionym, visit U of T News.
What can we learn from plants about making the best use of the sun’s abundant energy?
That’s the question underlying an ambitious new research project that has won $1 million in the 2012–13 Connaught Global Challenge funding competition.
The project team director, Professor Ted Sargent of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, says the funding will help him and co-investigators merge previously disparate fields of study — and potentially open up a new avenue for creating inexpensive, efficient, clean energy capture technologies.
On one side of the project are the fields of photobiology and quantum biology. Photobiology is about studying the interaction of light with living organisms like plants. Quantum biology investigates the nanoscale physics of the natural world.
“Scientists, including leaders at U of T, have been advancing our understanding of how biology works, in particular how solar energy is harvested by plants and algae,” says Sargent. “It’s been a breakthrough area, and U of T has played a leadership role.”
The other side of the project is the development of technologies — like solar cells — to harvest the sun’s energy. U of T has also been a leader in this field. Sargent himself is known for his innovative work in creating colloidal semiconductors — solar cells that can be painted onto a surface.
The Connaught Global Challenge will bring together these two broad areas of inquiry. Sargent hopes that learning more about how plants capture light and transfer energy at the molecular level, and about and how quantum effects at these scales account for nature’s effectiveness and robustness in energy capture, will inspire the group as it seeks to create the next generation of low-cost, high-efficiency solar cells and lighting technology.
“The amount of solar energy reaching the earth in an hour is enough to meet the world’s energy needs for a year. It’s an incredibly abundant source, and nature has figured out how to harvest it efficiently, cost-effectively and robustly,” he says.
Humans, so far, lag behind nature. “We can make low-cost solar cells, but they’re not very efficient. We can make them more efficient, but then they get expensive. Breaking this compromise is the crux of next-generation solar research.”
In addition to solar cells, the group is focusing on low-cost lighting technology, because in the developed world, lighting accounts for 20 per cent of electrical demand.
“There are a few things that are just amazing about plants,” says Sargent. “One is the antenna effect.” Plants, he says, have a lot of light-absorbing molecules, mainly chlorophyll. Yet the reaction that turns this light into stored chemical energy only happens in a few places in the plant.
“How does the energy get from these many light absorbers to a few reaction centres? It’s through a finely tuned and regulated energy funnelling process. Nature has figured out, through the course of evolution, how to build incredibly efficient funnels. This is an idea that we could apply to making better solar cells.”
Sargent is working with six other U of T faculty members as co-investigators: Professor Nazir Kherani of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Professors Eugenia Kumacheva, Greg Scholes and Dwight Seferos of the Department of Chemistry, Professor Zheng-Hong Lu of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and Professor David Sinton of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering.
The Connaught Global Challenge funding will allow the investigators to come together with students and post-doctoral fellows who are emerging leaders in different subfields of the project. A distinguished visitor component of the program will bring Sir Richard Friend of the University of Cambridge to campus. Friend is world-renowned for his work on the physics and engineering of carbon-based semiconductors. A symposium component will bring together leaders from the clean-tech community and serve as a catalyst for partnerships between academics and research-oriented companies in Canada.
The project, says Sargent, involves both basic and applied research. The group is constantly thinking about “how to translate insights from basic research into practical technologies that can be commercialized.”
The Global Challenge is the marquee program of U of T’s Connaught Fund. Created from the 1972 sale of Connaught Laboratories, which first mass-produced U of T’s Nobel award-winning discovery of insulin, the fund invests close to $4 million annually in emerging and established scholars at U of T.
“The idea behind the Connaught Global Challenge,” says Professor Paul Young (CivE), U of T’s vice-president (research and innovation) and chair of the Connaught Committee, “is to allow our researchers to focus intensively on a major challenge of the 21st century. This project has truly transformative potential. The co-investigators are thinking creatively about how to approach the problem of sustainable energy, and I look forward to seeing what emerges from their collaboration.”
The inaugural Connaught Global Challenge award, given in 2010-11, led to the establishment of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development. Today the institute is conducting groundbreaking interdisciplinary research on how fetal and early life experiences influence lifelong health and learning.
Sargent hopes the 2013 project will jumpstart the creation of a “U of T school.”
“We have a chance to lead globally. We have all the ingredients. It’s a question of bringing them together, which is what the Connaught Global Challenge will enable us to do.”
The ultimate goal: better solar cells and lighting technology, which means cleaner, renewable energy.
“This is a huge societal opportunity,” says Sargent. “Sustainable energy solutions are one of the most critical environmental and economical needs facing our society today. We need to solve this problem.”
Eleven Engineering staff members received one individual and four team Excellence Through Innovation Awards from U of T for their “above and beyond” contributions to the University and its mandate. These awards recognize the contributions of administrative staff in advancing the University’s strategic objectives; encouraging administrative innovation and providing a platform for sharing best practices.
Tomas Bernreiter, of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE), garnered an individual award for establishing the Multidisciplinary Energy Laboratory, to increase collaboration between departments. This space was created by renovating and overhauling the outdated MIE Heat Engines Lab. Currently shared by MIE, Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and the Division of Engineering Science, the lab allows students to access equipment not available through their departments in a safe environment.
Helen Bright, Janice Haugan and Sergei Metropolitansky, of the Office of the Registrar, were recognized for their development of the Academic Offence Tracking Tool (AOTT), designed to better manage and track alleged academic offences within the Faculty. Offence cases were previously managed via a Microsoft Access database, a system that was inefficient and time consuming. The AOOT database allows instructors to report suspected instances of academic offences online, and allows all parties to easily monitor the status of a case.
Linda Espeut, Karen Irving, Jayne Leake, Jaro Pristupa and Joe Wong, of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) were honoured for creating Magellan, a web-based graphical user interface with underlying database. Magellan was developed to combine information from ROSI/NGSIS, ECE’s database of instructors, and faculty teaching loads. The program helps audit each student’s progress, track faculty’s professional certification and assist with undergraduate teaching assignments. It also generates offer letters and teaching assignment letters to faculty.
Tom Nault, of the Office of the Registrar, was part of a team of registrarial staff from across the University who were recognized for developing the Registrarial Professional Development (PD) Day. This was designed as an opportunity for registrarial staff across all three campuses to come together to share best practices in various registrarial fields. The day also allowed individuals to network with colleagues from across the University. The inaugural PD day was a great success, with over 300 registrants from several Faculties.
Dan Pettigrew, of the Office of the Registrar, received an award as part of the team responsible for enhancing the usability and effectiveness of the Degree Explorer system. Currently used by four Faculties, Degree Explorer is a web tool using real-time ROSI data to manage students’ progress toward program and degree completion. It allows administrators to catalogue, manage and deploy their respective course, program and degree rules and allows students to plan and monitor their progress towards their degrees.
“These awards acknowledge the essential role played by our staff in providing innovative excellence to advance the University’s research and teaching mandates, as well as the Faculty’s mandate to remain Canada’s leading engineering school,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I congratulate the winners and thank all our staff for their tremendous contributions.”
Excellence Through Innovation Award recipients will be recognized at a reception at the President’s Residence on October 23.
Back row: Professor Stewart Aitchison (ECE), Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; James Fraser, ChipCare Corp. chief executive officer; James Dou, ChipCare Corp. chief technology officer.
A University of Toronto spinoff company poised to radically improve HIV treatment in the developing world has landed one of the largest angel investments in Canadian health care.
ChipCare Corporation, co-founded by University of Toronto PhD candidate in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, James Dou, is slated to receive $2.05 million. The funding, from government and private investors, will allow ChipCare Corp. to refine its handheld tester for monitoring infection-fighting white blood cells.
“The impact on in-the-field HIV diagnostics alone could be revolutionary; this financing is critical to our commercialization roadmap,” says Dou, ChipCare’s chief technology officer.
Dou developed the device with his PhD supervisor, Professor Stewart Aitchison (ECE) of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.
About the size of a grocery store scanner, it gives blood test results on the spot and within minutes.
It allows healthcare providers to monitor levels of a collection of white blood cells called CD4 cells. HIV destroys CD4 cells, leaving patients vulnerable to infection. If the device indicates low numbers of these cells, healthcare workers can administer antiretroviral drugs.
Bringing the device to the patient means those affected by HIV don’t have to travel long distances for assessment.
With joint funding from the federal government and Toronto-based private investment group Maple Leaf Angels, ChipCare Corp. will spend the next three years refining the device to reduce its cost and increase its durability.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is at least the second largest healthcare angel investment in Canada’s history – and it might well be the largest by the time the project reaches full maturity,” says Adrian Schauer (ECE 0T3) of Maple Leaf Angels. “The diagnostic potential of this device can hardly be overstated. We are investing heavily in its commercialization because we see the potential to revolutionize bedside testing for many conditions, from HIV and malaria in the developing world, to sepsis, heart disease and cancers here at home.”
The federal government funding – announced Sept. 16 – is being channeled through Grand Challenges Canada, which funds innovators in low- and middle-income countries and Canada, and through MaRS Innovation.
“It’s been very rewarding to see a project move from the lab to a real world application,” says Aitchison.
With the help of U of T’s Innovations and Partnerships Office (IPO), MaRS Innovation and Rotman School of Management, Dou, Aitchison and biological testing expert Rakesh Nayyar created the start-up company, ChipCare Corp.
Creating a light, affordable camera lighting system to replace the heavy bulk of typical photographic equipment earned Anastasiya Martyts (EngSci 1T6) and Tiange Li (Life Sciences 1T6) The Entrepreneurship Hatchery’s first $20,000 Lacavera Prize.
Martyts and Li presented Modly – their modular, customizable lighting system – at the Hatchery’s Demo Day on September 12, competing with eight other teams to win the top prize sponsored by entrepreneur and telecommunications executive Anthony Lacavera (CompE 9T7). Their product grew out of Li’s desire as an amateur photographer for an easy-to-use, portable system capable of creating versatile lighting effects. Martyts describes it as “a system for hobbyists developed by hobbyists.”
The multidisciplinary duo will continue to develop the lighting system with the help of Hatchery mentor Anil Bhole, an intellectual property lawyer, and co-mentor Amy Chong, a Rotman School of Management MBA candidate.
Three other teams at Demo Day won the Orozco Prize, named after the Hatchery’s executive director, Joseph Orozco and sponsored by Professors Jonathan Rose and Vaughn Betz, both of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering:
AirExposure
Denis Loboda (MechE 1T3), Neil Sharma (MechE 1T3) and Peter Izraelski (geography and communication culture & information technology) use drones mounted with professional camera equipment to create a cost-effective method of aerial cinematography;
Sonar
Jane Guo (EngSci 1T2) and Benjamin Slater (EngSci 1T3) harness web-based video conferencing to connect mental health therapists with patients; and,
DealsHype
Michael Zhang (ECE 1T5) and Satyam Merja (Pharmacy 1T4) provide small businesses with web-based customer rewards programs that give consumers mobile access to coupons and specials.
The business ideas pitched at Demo Day reflect the Hatchery’s goal of fostering entrepreneurship by creating a collegial environment where students can turn brilliant ideas into viable businesses. The featured teams also illustrate the cross-disciplinary nature of the Hatchery, which is based within U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering but encourages collaboration with other disciplines.
“Ten to 15 years from now, we’ll be able to point to a number of successful entrepreneurs and say they developed their formative experience at the Hatchery,” says Professor Jonathan Rose, who also serves on The Entrepreneurship Hatchery’s Advisory Committee.
Professional baseball pitcher, U of T PhD candidate and now filmmaker, Drew Taylor (IBBME 1T4) is unveiling a unique piece of Canada’s history at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Our Man in Tehran, a feature film he co-directed with Larry Weinstein, will air as part of the festival’s Mavericks series, and will introduce film audiences to the story behind the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, when Canada, and Ambassador Ken Taylor in particular, played a key role in helping six Americans escape Tehran during an intense political crisis.
The idea for the film sprang from a conversation between Ken Taylor and Elena Semikina, a partner at Film House Inc., the production company founded by Drew Taylor (no relation to Ken) and his brother Matthew.
During the discussion, Semikina realized that Canadian involvement in the historical events – popularized by Ben Affleck’s 2012 Academy Award-winning film Argo – went “beyond Canadians harbouring fugitive Americans, but being active partners in pursuing a solution to the greater hostage situation,” said Semikina.
Drew Taylor, who is researching cartilage tissue engineering, stresses that Our Man in Tehran is not competing with Argo.
“Argo focused on one person and one perspective: [CIA agent] Tony Mendez’s. It was never our idea to refute the main themes in Argo, but to provide people with a documentary perspective. It’s not the Canadians trying to take the story back, but trying to tell the whole story,” he said, alluding to controversy over Argo’s downplaying of the Canadian role in the Tehran events.
Although Affleck volunteered to narrate the documentary, the filmmakers chose to let the documentary subjects speak for themselves. As well as key interviews with Ken Taylor, the directors spoke to people who were on the ground during the crisis, including the rescued hostages, reporters, Canadian politicians who worked behind the scenes, and Iranians who were watching history unfold on their television screens.
The film, which makes its world debut on September 12, has generated a lot of buzz. “I wanted to purchase tickets to bring my friends to the TIFF premier but the film was already sold out,” said Taylor.
This won’t be Taylor’s first time in the spotlight. From 2006 to 2008 he was a professional baseball player, pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays organization. After an arm injury from which he didn’t fully recover, Taylor went on to play in the Frontier League as well as for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League.
Taylor follows in the footsteps of his father, who also combined a U of T degree with a career in baseball. Ron Wesley Taylor (ElecE 6T1) enjoyed an 11-year stint in the major leagues, including World Series-winning seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964 and the New York Mets in 1969. He also attained a medical degree and is currently the team doctor for the Blue Jays.
Our Man in Tehran represents Taylor’s first foray into directing, and he says it will not be his last. For now, though, he is busy readying the film for its release and finishing his dissertation, which he expects to complete this semester.
Taylor is excited about the film’s premiere. “Parts of the film are revolutionary. Things have been uncovered and people are thirsty for that information. For over 30 years, this story has captivated people.”
Our Man in Tehran premieres at TIFF on September 12, and will make its theatrical debut at the Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto on September 20.