On September 6 at Convocation Hall, first-year engineering students kickstarted their academic career with a plenary lecture filled with inspiring words from Faculty leaders, and one of U of T Engineering’s successful graduates, Canadian entrepreneur and telecommunications executive Anthony Lacavera (CompE 9T7).
Before Lacavera became the Chairman and CEO of Globalive Communications Inc. and WIND Mobile, he was a computer engineering student hoping to make an impact on Canada and the world. The 1,400 first-year students, listening intently to the business leader’s words, have joined U of T Engineering hoping to leave a similar, positive impact on the world around them.
“Like you here today, Anthony is the best among the best,” said Dean Cristina Amon. This year’s incoming U of T Engineering students make up the strongest class in the Faculty’s history, with a collective entering average of 91.3 per cent.
Dean Amon, along with Professor Kim Pressnail (CivE), First Year Chair, began the inaugural lecture by reminding students that they are starting out at the very best engineering school in Canada, “… and I believe soon to be, the best in the world,” said Dean Amon.
“Students, today you begin a journey – a journey not without its challenges, but you didn’t decide to study Engineering because you thought it might be easy. You came here seeking a challenge,” she added.
Overcoming challenges was one of the messages of Lacavera’s lecture. As head of two of the leading, fastest-growing companies in Canada, he’d seen his share of setbacks before turning WIND Mobile into Canada’s first independent wireless carrier in over a decade, and a powerful industry competitor.
Humility, persistence and hard work got him there, said Lacavera. At the lecture, he also urged students to value their time at U of T Engineering, build relationships – even asking students to introduce themselves to the person beside them – and nurture their entrepreneurial spirit.
“You need an entrepreneurial spirit to turn an idea that will change the world, into reality,” he said.
Lacavera was able to turn his vision, of a more globally competitive telecommunications market, into reality in 1998. A year after graduating, he launched Globalive Communications. Then, he initiated a groundbreaking public engagement campaign that asked Canadians what they wanted in wireless service. Built on feedback from thousands of Canadians, Lacavera launched WIND Mobile in 2009, a wireless provider used by more than half a million Canadians.
He’s been named CEO of the Year for 2010 by Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine and one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40, to name a few achievements. Lacavera is also the founder of the Shamba Foundation, a charity that provides event space and staff at no-cost for charitable fundraisers.
He hopes to hear the same stories of triumph and philanthropy from the students sitting before him. “When I look out, I see future leaders of our country,” he said. “You have a wonderful journey ahead.”
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2012 – 2013 academic year at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. As we start this academic year, we look forward to the next few months with a renewed and energized vision that is focused on the boundless opportunities ahead.
The Faculty, the engineering profession and the world are at a pivotal time. You could not be better situated to make a difference in the world with the choice of profession you have made.
We welcome all 1,405 undergraduate and 619 graduate students who are joining U of T Engineering. Only one out of thirteen undergraduate applicants got a place in our Faculty. Together, this first-year cohort has an Ontario Secondary School (OSS) System grade average of 91.3% – the highest in U of T Engineering’s history.
You come from 52 countries, representing all continents and from eight Canadian provinces, and 26% of you join us from countries around the world. This diversity of our students – within Canada, and from nations around the world – contributes to our remarkable multiculturalism and global outlook.
Diversity is also reflected through our new female students, who make up 25.7% of our incoming undergraduate class – a result of our ongoing effort to improve gender balance.
It is evident through the calibre of our incoming students that we have attracted the best to be among us and that we continue to offer the finest engineering education in Canada and among the best in the world.
We live in a world that is looking to engineers to overcome challenges of sustainability, energy, health and the environment. And, we can meet those challenges through the innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration that has become a signature of Engineering at the University of Toronto.
As members of our thriving community, new and returning students, faculty and staff will work together in this new academic year to enhance our reputation by pushing our education, research and innovation to new heights. As we step into this new term, let us move boldly towards our boundless future and achieve our potential as one of the finest engineering schools in the world.
Best wishes and welcome
Cristina Amon, Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Chunks of concrete tumble from the Gardiner Expressway, the Algo Centre Mall collapses in Elliot Lake, shards of glass fall from Toronto condos, and a Radiohead stage gives way at Downsview Park.
Just how safe are the structures that we build?
“Nature always looks for ways to use energy in a favourable state – gravity always pushing things downwards is an example,” said Professor Doug Perovic (MSE).
“Any built structure naturally goes against nature. Therefore, all structures will eventually be broken or destroyed – given the right amount of time, they will break down or fail.”
In mid-July, pieces of concrete fell off the Gardiner Expressway onto Bathurst Street in Toronto. And in late June, a car was struck by a falling piece of concrete.
The Gardiner was designed in the 1950s and built in the 60s; at the time road salt was not used to prevent sliding and crashes during winters, said Professor Doug Hooton(CivE).
“They didn’t design [the Gardiner] to resist salt – they didn’t realize it would be exposed to salt,” said Professor Hooton, an NSERC/Cement Association of Canada Industrial Research Chair in Concrete Durability & Sustainability. “And so, they only put a small amount of concrete over the steel structure.”
As the road salt seeps into the concrete over the years it will eventually rust the steel structure of the elevated expressway.
“The rust causes the steel to become larger and puts the surrounding concrete in tension,” explains Hooton. “Then the outer layer of concrete gets cracked and pushed off.”
He believes Toronto’s recently unveiled 10-year plan to replace the concrete on the Gardiner is the best approach to the situation. The plan calls for the installation of concrete that is an appropriate thickness and a waterproofing membrane to prevent rust.
Hooton and Perovic point to parallels between the troubles of the expressway and the collapsed mall in Elliot Lake. Because the mall’s roof had acted as a parking garage, road salt had the opportunity to seep into the concrete, causing the steel to deteriorate.
“Again, it’s basically rusty steel – salt gone through the roof because they didn’t waterproof it,” explained Professor Hooton. “However, what collapsed was the actual steel frame, not just the concrete like on the Gardiner.”
“The scene has been completely sealed off by the police,” said Professor Perovic, who was part of a team that travelled to Elliot Lake to investigate the collapse, only to have the work called off by authorities after the structure was deemed too unstable.
Falling condominium glass has been another concern in the minds of Torontonians. However, Perovic believes pedestrians need not walk in fear.
The type of glass which has been shattering is tempered glass, which is about five times sturdier than regular glass and has been efficiently used for 50 years, he said.
“The reason we’re seeing all these failures at one time basically comes down to bad batches of glass with too much impurity,” said Professor Perovic. “A number of those buildings built last summer were from the same developer, so they’re probably getting the glass from the same manufacturer.”
Professor Perovic, who has analyzed pieces of the shattered glass, believes nickel sulphide particles in the glass (emanating from raw material of low quality) are to blame for the incidents. Nickel sulphide particles expand rapidly with heat, as the particles expand they shatter the glass from within.
“It only takes a small amount of nickel sulphide to ruin a lot of glass,” he said.
The incidents aren’t attributed to how the windows were installed or how they may have been damaged – it’s a built-in stress in the glass.
Both professors agree that Toronto remains a structurally sound and safe city. However, the collapse of the Downsview Park stage remains an unsolved mystery.
Perovic has spent a lot of time analyzing the Radiohead stage, which collapsed in mid-June. He is currently working with teams examining the material to determine the quality of the structure.
To read the full article, visit U of T News.
By Ahil Ganesh (EngSci 1T3), Co-Chair of UnERD 2012
On August 15, undergraduates gathered to showcase their diverse summer research at the 7th annual Undergraduate Engineering Research Day (UnERD).
Engineering students across all departments enthusiastically prepared podium and poster presentations to display their hard work. This year, we saw 48 podium presenters and 50 poster presenters.
There was a great diversity in the research being presented, ranging from hydrogels for studying cancer cell fate, to advances in atmospheric telescopy, to online game development for learning teamwork skills. It was also wonderful to see students interested in presentations from not only their own research field, but others as well.
This year’s event featured a keynote address from Professor Bryan Karney (CivE), Associate Dean of Cross-Disciplinary Programs. His address emphasized that being successful in research has a lot to do with responsibility and integrity. I know that everyone took away some valuable points.
The event continues to be greatly supported by U of T Engineering; we received valuable support from Professor Susan McCahan, Vice-Dean Undergraduate, as well as Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT). Our professors played a key role in the day’s events, with 38 faculty members acting as judges for the presentations, giving appreciated feedback to the presenters. The students really enjoyed presenting to them and were certainly challenged.
UnERD provides numerous opportunities for aspiring researchers. The poster session is based on conference sessions, so the event is a very important opportunity for engineering undergraduates to present in a very similar kind of setting. Another key aspect of UnERD is presenting to your peers – and once again, we saw students actively questioning each other about their work. As Co-Chair of this year’s UnERD, I have to say it was really inspiring to see future researchers already talking about collaborations.
Technology Review magazine has named Professor Joyce Poon one of this year’s ‘TR35,’ a group of the world’s top 35 innovators under the age of 35. Selected by a panel of expert judges and magazine editorial staff , the TR35 recognizes young researchers who are tackling important problems in transformative ways and opening up new possibilities in technology.
Professor Poon (along with PhD student Wesley Sacher) conceived and demonstrated the first optical-electronic device that bypasses the trade-off between speed and power efficiency when imparting data onto a light wave using resonant modulation. Breaking the speed/efficiency trade-off, a first step in curbing the energy consumption of communications, is critical for the sustainability of the IT sector. Currently, data centres (the hubs of cloud computing) rack up more than $20 billion in energy costs annually.
“I am honoured by the recognition, which is as much for me as it is for the excellent students in my research group,” said Professor Poon. “The MIT TR35 is just a first step as we strive to be the best in the world at what we do. We have a lot of research ahead of us!”
Professor Poon and her team are developing microphotonic devices which will enable inefficient electrical communication networks to one day be replaced by optical links. A key component of such systems is an optical modulator that converts electrical data into light signals. Resonant optical modulators are promising because they are smaller and more efficient than traditional modulators. However, it was long thought that they suffer from a speed/efficiency trade-off. Professor Poon’s team proved that previous resonant optical modulators failed to recognize the opportunity to modulate not the energy stored in the resonator, but, instead, the extraction rate of that stored energy. Their research shows how ultra-low-loss resonators can be used for high-speed ultra-low-power optical modulators; something previously thought impossible.
“Joyce Poon’s achievements would be remarkable for any researcher, but for someone in the first few years of her career, they are absolutely extraordinary,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “Like many of our young faculty members, she is already on her way to becoming a pioneer in her field. We are extremely proud of Joyce’s accomplishments and congratulate her on this richly deserved recognition.”
Professor Poon is profiled in the September/October issue of Technology Review. She will also be honoured at the EmTech MIT conference, taking place October 24-26 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Read more about Professor Poon’s achievement in The Globe and Mail and Toronto Star .
The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s place in the world took a step forward according to the 2012 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences, which is prepared by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
In the ranking, which for the sixth consecutive year identified U of T Engineering as the premier engineering school in Canada, the Faculty was named 13th in the world. That is a jump of eight spots over last year’s ranking. U of T Engineering’s position put it ahead of institutions like the University of Cambridge, the California Institute of Technology and Cornell University.
“It is a source of pride for all members of the U of T Engineering community to be recognized as among the best engineering schools in the world,” said U of T Engineering Dean Cristina Amon. “This ranking reflects the genuine commitment of our Faculty to world-class education and research that has global impact.”
The other Canadian universities included in the list of top 200 universities were the University of Waterloo (ranked 43rd), McGill University (51-75), University of Alberta (76-100), University of British Columbia (101-150), University of Montreal (101-150), McMaster University (151-200), Simon Fraser University (151-200) and University of Saskatchewan (151-200). Universities ranked below 50 are listed in groupings of approximately 25 instead of being accorded a specific rank.
The ARWU ranking of research universities around the world is based on internationally comparable third-party quantitative data. The highest scoring institution is assigned a total score of 100 and other institutions are calculated as a percentage of the top total score. The scores are then placed in descending order.
The Engineering/Technology ranking is based on institutional scores in the following four indicators, each with a 25% weighting: highly cited research (HiCi); published articles in the field (PUB); percentage of articles published in the top 20 per cent of journals in the field (TOP); and Engineering research expenditure (FUND). When research expenditure data cannot be obtained, the Fund indicator is not considered and its weight is relocated to other indicators.
The full ARWU ranking is available on their website.