The Faculty is pleased to announce that three members of the U of T Engineering community will be serving on the University’s Governing Council in 2012-2013.
The incumbents are:
Full-time Undergraduate Students (Professional Faculties): James Bateman(EngSci 1T3),
Graduate Students, Constituency II: Chirag Variawa (MSE 0T9, MIE PhD candidate), re-elected
Teaching Staff, Constituency IV: Professor Steven Thorpe (MSE)
The Governing Council oversees the academic, business and student affairs of the University. It is composed of 50 members, with 25 members comprised of U of T administrative staff, teaching staff and students.
Dr. Todd Reichert, who was the first person to successfully fly a human-powered ornithopter and recently completed his PhD at the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies, has debunked claims by a Dutch man that he created a “semi-human-powered” flying machine.
In a series of videos posted on YouTube, Jarno Smeets constructed and appears to fly in a suit featuring fabric wings attached to a small motor to amplify his arm movements. Though the results look impressive, it’s nothing more than a hoax, something Smeets now admits.
Speaking to Popular Mechanics , Dr. Reichert explained that while the wings appeared too short and the power unit too small, what made it evident that the video was a fake was the takeoff. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Dr. Reichert said that Smeets just wasn’t moving fast enough. “Unless this guy can blow by Usain Bolt in a sprint, he’s not going to reach takeoff speed by running,” he explained.
You can read more about the controversy by following the links above.
Rehabilitation is crucial after a stroke. Yet patients don’t always do their exercises because they’re boring or difficult to do at home.
But what if you could make them easy and fun?
Enter Associate Professor Alex Mihailidis (IBBME) and his intelligent, table-top robot.
“This new robot will help to advance the use of robotics in stroke rehab,” said Mihailidis, “as it will provide an affordable and accessible technology that can be used in hospitals, clinics and in the home.”
Associate Professor Mihailidis knows the speed and intensity by which stroke patients begin rehabilitation exercises greatly increases patients’ neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganize itself around damaged areas by forming new neural connections – and mobility. But rehab exercises are often neglected in a home environment, either because those exercises are repetitive and boring, or because attendants and rehab machines are needed to oversee exercises.
With his team of researchers, Mihailidis, the Barbara G. Stymiest Research Chair in Rehabilitation Technology at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, used interviews with focus groups and therapists, along with questionnaires from more 200 respondents to design a new, more cost-effective rehabilitation robot. Working with industrial partner Quanser Consulting Inc., they developed a lightweight, portable robot. Approximately one-tenth the cost of rehab robots currently available, the robot is designed to go home with patients.
And it’s intelligent.
“The fact that it can automatically learn about a user and adapt its exercises accordingly makes this robot unique,” Mihailidis said.
Patients interact with games and other visual stimuli displayed on a computer screen as part of their exercises, making these repetitive movements fun and interactive. Meanwhile, the robot’s artificial intelligence, an integral part of its design, allows the robot to operate independently, tracking a patient’s progress and recalling how the patient did during previous sessions. It adjusts the difficulty of the exercises according to the user’s needs and fatigue-level, while a camera system – also a unique characteristic – records patients’ posture and movements.
IBBME post-doctoral researcher Rajibul Huq, designer of the robotic intelligence, explained that “the system can record video or any other data” that attendants can then access remotely.
The rehab robot technology may also help patients suffering from spinal cord and brain injuries, osteoarthritis, or address other types of upper body rehabilitation needs. A second round of clinical trials of the robot is scheduled to begin next month, with the goal of distributing the technology by early autumn.
Read the story at U of T News .
Materials Science & Engineering alumnus Andrew N. Forde (MSE 1T1) has been named the recipient of the 2012 Harry Jerome Young Entrepreneur Award by the Black Business & Professional Association. The Young Entrepreneur category recognizes a distinguished professional between the ages of 18 to 35 who embodies entrepreneurial spirit and success, the proven ability to turn business vision into reality and possesses personal integrity as well as the ability to influence others to action.
Forde is a budding, young entrepreneur with an eye for innovative solutions. His first start-up, Sommerfeld Solutions, operates in three broad areas: mining, information technology and health care. One of Sommerfeld Solutions’ top accomplishments is The Electronic Chat (TEC), a product designed to streamline charting, logistics and patient care in the healthcare industry. Currently, TEC is being prototyped with support of more than $750,000 from the Canadian government to further expand this technology. Forde has also established The Forde Institute, a non-profit global centre for research, focusing on technological innovations and their resulting impact on humanity to promote responsible innovation, research and entrepreneurship.
“The leadership taken by Mr. Forde shows that he excels at outreach to the community, provides a catalyst for development of new product/technology initiatives while maintaining a humanitarian approach centered very much on the assistance and success of others,” says Professor Steven J. Thorpe, Associate Chair of Graduate Studies for the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and one of Forde’s principal award nominators. “Mr. Forde is just the type of role model that our Faculty strives to create in our graduates and is a most deserving recipient of this recognition.”
Forde will be honoured with his award at this year’s BBPA gala to be held on April 28, 2012. This year’s gala marks the 30th Anniversary of the establishment of this award, named after Harry Jerome, a Canadian premier track and field athlete from the 1960s.
U of T Engineering student design club Spark was featured March 12 on the Discovery Channel’s daily science information program, Daily Planet.
The team was given a big challenge, which was appropriate as the show was celebrating “Gigantic Week.” They were asked to build a giant tower of playing cards in the program’s studio using a new construction toy called Skallops, which are laser cut clips. The result: a tribute to the Eiffel Tower that was more than eight-feet high.
“The main reason we chose the Eiffel Tower was because it was such a world icon and we figured the audience would be able to recognize it, so we had to make sure all the modules we built were proportional to each other. There was a lot of background planning that went into place,” said Anmol Kaur (ECE 1T3), who leads the Spark design team.
The club was established to allow students to explore their design interests beyond the classroom. Through a combination of workshops and challenges, students blend their creativity, engineering knowledge and design acumen into interesting projects. Among their recent projects were LED tiles displayed in the lobby of the Galbraith building and a giant walk-on piano in the Bahen building.
What’s next for the Spark team? “There are so many neat and fun projects for us to choose from. Some ideas we’ve been tossing around are a big Pinball machine or some Domino Clocks,” said Kaur.
The innovation enabled by U of T Engineering was evident on March 1 in The Toronto Star. In a special supplement to celebrate the start of National Engineering Month that was entitled Engineering Innovation, the work of six U of T Engineering researchers were featured. They included:
- Professor David Zingg (UTIAS), who is working to reduce the greenhouse emissions from aircraft by optimizing their design (the story is available only in the PDF version)