Faculty, staff, students and alumni arriving on the St. George campus on November 9 were greeted by a newly constructed, full-sized cenotaph dedicated to the men and women of Canada’s Armed Forces.

Installed on King’s College Circle, in front of Convocation Hall, the monument is part of an engineering tradition that began in 2005. Since then, students from U of T Engineering have been designing and building respectful and innovative memorials to commemorate Remembrance Day.

Exactly who these students are is a mystery.

The monument’s creators do not want to detract from the cenotaph’s purpose, which is to support Remembrance Day, said Rishi Maharaj (EngSci 1T2 + PEY), President of U of T’s Engineering Society.

“It’s a deliberately anonymous group of students.”

For the first time this year, the students presided over their own Remembrance Day service. Immediately following the Soldier’s Tower service students began to gather around the cenotaph.

“I had the great pleasure of being by King’s College Circle today, and saw something truly remarkable,” said Linda Phillips-Smith, an alumna of Victoria College and the Faculty of Law. “Young people all commemorating Remembrance Day, thoughtfully… and with great reverence.”

Maharaj, who presided over the brief service, said they wanted to catch students making their way to classes, but did not want to detract from the Soldier’s Tower service. He also said his goal for this service was to make Remembrance Day a bit more relatable to people his own age.

“We should not forget that even today there are people deployed abroad with the Canadian Forces and that all the tragedy of war is not necessarily [in] the past for everyone in this country,” said Maharaj.

“The burden of protecting this country falls as much on our generation as it has on any previous generation.”

This story was originally posted on U of T News .

Whether it be designing process maps to standardize business procedures, or modelling the costs of flight delays and cancellations, students had the opportunity to explore these topics during the inaugural year of the University of Toronto Institute for Multidisciplinary Design & Innovation (UT-IMDI).

October 30 marked the official launch of the Institute, which was established earlier this year in collaboration with Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney Canada and UTC Aerospace Systems. At the launch event, Professor Ted Sargent (ECE), Vice-Dean, Research, congratulated the institute on behalf of the Faculty.

During UT-IMDI’s first year, nine undergraduate students landed exclusive aerospace projects with industry partners, completing their design projects over the summer under the supervision of a senior engineer and a faculty member.

Once such student was Harry Zengjin Chen (MechE 1T4), who worked on maintenance programs and planning databases at Bombardier Aerospace’s area site in Toronto, Ont. “This internship was a wonderful opportunity,” said Chen. “Not only was I able to learn technical skills, but I also gained tremendous project management experience. UT-IMDI is one of the best initiatives at U of T Engineering.”

“The institute provides remarkable opportunities to expose students to a real-life project, with industry-level deliverables,” said Professor Kamran Behdinan (MIE), the Institute’s founding Director. “All projects are determined collaboratively, based on the needs of industry and building on the strengths of our curriculum, bringing design and innovation into practice.”

Echoing the enthusiasm of students and industry is Todd Young, Vice President, Customer Services and Support, Commercial Aircraft, Bombardier Aerospace, and Chair of the UT-IMDI advisory board. “We have a fantastic opportunity to establish a world-class program, which will produce the most highly-trained multidisciplinary graduates, ready to launch into exciting and rewarding careers in engineering,” said Young.

“We look forward to collaborating with U of T Engineering as the institute grows,” he added.

The institute is partnering with additional companies, and over the next five years will expand to more than 70 summer projects annually. Students in all engineering disciplines will have the opportunity to select and apply, based on the project needs, through a competitive interview process.

How do you create a hydraulic arm with just water, a syringe and some cardboard?

Just ask the young students who took part in Go ENG Girl at U of T Engineering last month.

More than 100 girls from grades 7 to 10 visited the Engineering Complex with their parents to learn what it takes to pursue engineering at the post-secondary level.

Go ENG Girl events were held across the province at 15 universities. The Engineering Student Outreach office hosted the U of T Engineering session.

Each year, Go ENG Girl  –  organized in partnership with the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) – aims to inspire girls, through hands-on activities, to explore engineering; a profession that is so much more than just technology or machinery, as the girls and their parents learned that day.

“Engineering is about making a difference in the world, such as designing safer buildings as a civil engineer,” said Teresa Nguyen (CivE 1T4), answering questions from parents during a panel discussion.

As the all-female panel of current students and alumni offered parents guidance, the girls were off working in groups to create an hydraulic arm using just a few pieces of simple equipment.

With mentoring from U of T Engineering students, the girls presented their innovative designs, which even impressed their instructors.

“I was impressed by their creativity during the hands-on activity,” said Go ENG Girl instructor Yi Li (ElecE 1T4). “Some girls even asked me about how to apply to U of T Engineering. Someone mentioned genetic engineering which took me by surprise, but in a good way.”

Engineering students Muhammad Kazim Ali (CompE 1T3) and Alison Ma (ElecE 1T5) are among 45 of this year’s Electro-Federation Canada (EFC) Scholarship recipients.

The EFC Scholarship Program – which awards more than $100,000 in scholarships nationally each year – aims to encourage post-secondary students to pursue a career in electrical, electronics and telecommunications industries. Scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic achievement, areas of study, leadership and career interests.

For Ali and Ma, the honour has certainly inspired them to continue to shine in their studies at U of T Engineering. “Not only has the award provided me with the encouragement to persevere here, but it gives me the affirmation that success and gratification lies in the effort,” said Ma, who received EFC’s I-Gard Corporation Student Merit Award.

“This scholarship greatly motivates me to excel, and to take part in opportunities that will develop me as a professional,” added Ali, a recipient of the EFC University Scholarship.

Ali will be graduating this summer, with plans to either pursue graduate studies or a career as a software developer.

“On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to congratulate Alison and Muhammad on their tremendous achievements,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “We take great pride in their national recognition and look forward to what they will accomplish in the future.”

Professor Eric Miller (CivE) was recently honoured with the inaugural University of British Columbia (UBC) Margolese National Design for Living Prize.

The award recognizes a Canadian who has made outstanding contributions to the development and improvement of living environments for Canadians of all economic classes.

Professor Miller has dedicated the past 30 years of his career to researching interactions between humans, urban land use, transportation and the environment, and to educating the next generation of responsible transportation engineers.

His work in the modelling of vehicle emissions, pollutant dispersion and their exposure to human populations has helped to develop a more comprehensive understanding of fundamental urban planning issues. What’s more, his Integrated Land Use, Transportation and Environment model (ILUTE), considered a world-leading contribution to the science of urban simulation, has influenced cities both internationally and in Canada.

“I have always been fascinated by how transportation helps to shape cities and thereby shapes our lives,” said Professor Miller. “I am, of course, absolutely thrilled to have received the Margolese Prize. In addition to the personal honour, I believe that it represents a recognition of the importance of ‘city engineering and science’ to the improvement of our urban design, decision-making and the quality of our lives.”

At U of T, Professor Miller served as the Director of Cities Centre, where researchers focus on crucial urban living environmental issues. Under his leadership, the Centre fostered partnerships between academics and government, involved the community, as well as invoked improved urban policies.

“Professor Eric Miller’s lifelong commitment to urban engineering issues is truly remarkable and influential to the field,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to congratulate him on this richly-deserved honour.”

U of T Engineering students Tarek El Fedawy (IndE 1T3 + PEY), Kazem Kutob (IndE 1T3 + PEY), Layan Kutob (IndE 1T2 + PEY) and Huda Idrees (IndE 1T2 + PEY) recently took second place at the Wharton Undergraduate Consulting Club’s Case Competition.

This is the second consecutive year that they’ve beaten out teams from top universities including Yale, University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers.

The competition took place at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the top business schools in North America and the world. Participants were judged by major sponsoring firms including Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Accenture and Mars & Co.

Teams were required to formulate a strategic blueprint for a post-merger of two wealth-management firms. Their strategy would have to overcome significant operational complexities, and would allow the firm to regain its position as a leader in the wealth-management industry.

The U of T Engineering team proposed strategies that involved IT restructuring, re-aligning business and technology assets and operations, as well as organizational change management.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to compete against some of the world’s most respected universities and to be judged by top-tier consultants,” said team member Kazem Kutob. “We take great pride in repeating our second-place finish. And we greatly appreciate the education, support and exposure we receive here at U of T Engineering, which plays an important role in making this win possible.”

“On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to congratulate the team for their continued success in this competition,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “Strong business acumen is quickly becoming a highly sought after and essential skill for today’s engineers. The team’s second-place win is a testament to the quality of our industrial engineering program and the Professional Experience Year (PEY) program, which gives our students a chance to apply their engineering skills to the world’s most complex problems.”