An industrial researcher with more than 35 years of experience conducting research and development toward reducing the environmental impact of aviation has been named the inaugural NSERC/P&WC Industrial Research Chair in Aviation Gas Turbine Combustion/Emissions Research and Design System Optimization. Dr. Sam Sampath was named to the position at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) on January 24.
In his new role, Dr. Sampath, along with UTIAS Professors Ömer Gülder, Clinton Groth, and Adam Steinberg, will help to create the preeminent group in Canada, and one of the top groups in the world, working on combustion research in aviation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that aviation is currently responsible for approximately 3% of man-made carbon dioxide emissions, and the aviation industry is seeking to cut those emissions in half by 2050.
Dr. Sampath worked as a senior combustion researcher at Pratt & Whitney Canada, a global leader in the design and manufacture of aircraft engines. He holds 14 U.S. patents and has published more than 35 research papers. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and has been a member of numerous government and industry organizations, including the IPCC, the International Business Aviation Association, the Canada/India Environmental Committee, the Canadian Aviation Environmental Working Group, and the Green Aviation Research and Development Network. Dr. Sampath’s environmental impact studies for the IPCC contributed to its receiving the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
The addition of Dr. Sampath further strengthens the research undertaken at UTIAS that seeks to reduce the impact of aviation on the environment. That focus is a strategic direction for the Institute, which is the premier aerospace engineering department in Canada and among the best in the world.
“Our objective is to establish UTIAS as the world’s top research centre focused on reducing the environmental impact of aviation. This Executive Industrial Research Chair program substantially strengthens UTIAS’s research efforts toward this end and reflects its commitment to collaborating with Canadian industry to improve the competitiveness of the Canadian aerospace sector,” states Professor David Zingg, Director of UTIAS and Canada Research Chair in Computational Aerodynamics and Environmentally Friendly Aircraft Design.
The new chair was made possible thanks to the generous financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC).
“At NSERC, we are proud to be making investments in people who are pursuing some of the most ambitious and creative ideas in the world,” said Dr. Suzanne Fortier, President of NSERC. “Dr. Sampath is a highly respected leader in the field of combustion for aviation gas turbine engines. His novel research program will bring critical advancements for the development of green aircraft engines.”
“I’m not going to try to tell you how to do business in the Middle Kingdom (China),” retired businessman Paul Ip told a crowd of budding entrepreneurs during a recent Engineering Entrepreneurship Series lecture at U of T. The series is hosted by The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
“I started up and ran two different businesses in China. I’ll tell you my story and let you draw your own conclusions.”
Ip’s words were music to the ears of Professor Jonathan Rose (ECE), who launched the entrepreneurship lecture series for business-minded students looking to some day establish their very own start-ups.
“I’m trying to help inspire a culture of entrepreneurship here,” he said. “My goal is to have students hear stories of entrepreneurship. If they hear enough of those stories and learn about how the entrepreneurs navigated the issues, they’ll come to believe they can do it, too.”
Ip, a native of Hong Kong, had interesting stories to share. He never attended university; instead, he learned on the job. While working for Bayer, a conglomerate based in Germany, and AVEBE, a Dutch Farmers’ Co-op, he was twice given the task of opening a factory in China. He succeeded in both projects, but it was the obstacles along the way that made the process interesting.
“Building a factory in China is not something you do overnight,” he said.
As fast as the obstacles popped up, Ip found a way to knock them down. “I’m of the belief that if you’re afraid, don’t build in a foreign country,” he said.
“His views about working with people being not so black and white were very interesting,” said Kenny Ho (ElecE 0T6, MASc 0T8), a U of T Engineering graduate who is working on starting his own business.
The Engineering Entrepreneurship Series is open to everyone across the university.
Read the full U of T News article .
The noise level at U of T’s McCaul Street Exam Centre last week was in sharp contrast to the usual quiet that reigns during testing periods.
As soon as people walked through the doors, they were met by a wave of sound: the mingled voices of students and recruiters all talking earnestly. The You’re Next! Career Fair was underway.
You’re Next!, organized by students, for students, is now in its third year. Representatives from 45 companies, the most to date, filled the hall. Yi-Wei Ang (IndE 1T3), who led the organizing committee, said 1,100 students attended the fair during its first three hours – he was hoping to have 1,500 attendees by the fair’s end.
“It took a lot of work to put the fair together,” he said. “It was all student-organized with the help of faculty and their industry connections, and it was funded by the Engineering Society. The fair is a huge area of growth.”
“I’m here because I have to specialize next year,” said Daniel Olshansky (EngSci 1T4). “I’m looking for a four-month internship. Once I get through it, I hope I’ll know what I want to specialize in.”
Olshansky was excited about the opportunity to talk with company representatives in person.
“You’re not just a number, not just sending a resume out to some place on the web,” he said. “Here, you actually get to come and talk to people. I even had a technical interview today and solved some problems.”
The face-to-face opportunities also tempted Gavilasan Gengatharen (ElecE 1T2). “I’m graduating and I badly need a job,” he said. “I came here earlier, because I wanted to see what opportunities were out there for me. I went back and said, ‘Let’s print some resumes,’ because I talked to some people and they told me about some positions I’m interested in.
“This fair is a great idea. I can’t believe I have this opportunity to come get a job – otherwise, you have to apply online. It’s straightforward; you can actually see people’s faces.”
Recruiters were also pleased with the chance to talk with potential employees in person.
Terry Borer staffed a booth for Altera, a Silicon Valley company with a small research and development office in Toronto. His company, which bought out a start-up created by U of T professors, has been recruiting at U of T for 11 years.
“We’re mostly looking for full-time employees, but we also take summer students and professional engineering year (PEY) students,” he said.
Lionheart Xiong (EngSci 1T4) said that although companies weren’t necessarily keen to hire second-year students, the fair gave him an understanding of the industry and what employers were seeking.
One of the many students who dressed in something other than their usual jeans to meet employers, Xiong also enjoyed the chance to put on a suit and tie.
“I feel more confident,” he said. “People tell me I look stylish, and I feel like a boss.”
Read the full article at U of T News
What do you get when you combine 250 competing engineering students and a tight deadline?
Pressure. And lots of it.
On January 21, U of T Engineering students participated at the 10th annual U of T Engineering Kompetitions (UTEK). Every year, U of T undergraduates participate in six different categories of competition. Winners qualify for a spot on the Ontario Engineering Competitions (OEC) and potentially the Canadian Engineering Competitions (CEC).
“We had a wait list this year,” said Layan Kutob (IndE 1T2 + PEY), Director of the 2012 UTEK event. “Volunteers wanted to get involved even if they could not participate due to high registration numbers.”
The event continues to enhance the student experience at Skule™, providing undergraduates a chance to network with their professors, staff and alumni. In addition, they develop and practise critical teamwork, design and communication skills that are essential to a professional engineer, while working together with their peers in a competitive atmosphere.
With time against them, senior teams (third- and fourth-year students) in one category were asked to build an autonomous rescue robot that used sound, touch and light sensors to collect items and return them to their starting point. Junior teams (first- and second-year students) in another category created devices that sort a mixed stream of recyclables into different piles without human help. Sketching designs on note pads and blackboards, students brainstormed different outcomes for their team challenge.
Once completed, students were expected to present and market their prototypes to a panel of judges made up of alumni, professors and industry representatives.
Mike Del Balso (ElecE 1T2) of the winning senior design team thanked his team’s ‘secret sauce’ for the win. “We used cellphones to operate the robot in the rescue mission versus developing a computer program for the operation.”
Taking notes in the Debates room, Stephen Tam (CivE 1T4) and Terry Xia (EngSci 1T4) waited anxiously for their turn to present. “The UTEK debates component gives you a chance to develop your public speaking skills,” said Stephen. “For me, every opportunity counts.”
Former Director of the 2009 UTEK event, Patricia Sheridan (MechE 0T9) participated this year as a Debates judge.
“For students, this is an out-of-classroom experience where they get to develop interpersonal skills,” said Sheridan. “As a graduate, you have the opportunity to network with similar-minded individuals and develop partnerships in an informal manner.”
To volunteer as a judge at similar events in the future, contact Sonia De Buglio, Associate Director Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, at: sonia@ecf.utoronto.ca
Saudi Arabia receives an abundant amount of freely available solar energy every day.
And researchers such as Professor Ted Sargent (ECE) are harnessing that energy to create groundbreaking and sustainable technologies for Saudi Arabia, and the world.
The focal point of Saudi Arabia’s investment in solar energy is the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).
Recently, KAUST and the University of Toronto signed a first-of-its-kind licensing agreement for the rights to quantum dot solar cell technology, which has been developed by Professor Sargent, Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology.
The exclusive license conveys the rights to the University of Toronto and Professor Sargent’s research across 38 countries in the Middle East, western Asia, Russia and India.
The collaboration with U of T, as well as Penn State researchers, has produced the most efficient colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cell ever, with an energy conversion efficiency as high as 6%. Reported in the journal Nature Materials, the nanoscale semiconductors can be sprayed on to almost any surface, including plastics.
To read the full article, visit CleanTechnica.com.
The Society for Biomaterials, a professional society that promotes advances in biomedical materials research and development, has named Professor Molly Shoichet (ChemE, IBBME) the recipient of this year’s Clemson Award for Contributions to Literature.
This award recognizes significant contributions to the literature on the science or technology of biomaterials. Professor Shoichet has published more than 400 papers, patents and abstracts and has given more than 250 lectures worldwide.
Her research currently focuses regenerative medicine, drug delivery and tissue engineering strategies to overcome diseases in the brain and after breast cancer. Her work brings together polymer science with neuroscience and with cancer biology. Shoichet and her team are designing innovative strategies to overcome devastating diseases such as stroke, spinal cord injury, blindness and breast cancer.
Professor Shoichet’s research has attracted international attention and collaboration with industry and academia. She has won numerous awards and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008, and in 2011 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and appointed to the Order of Ontario.
“In addition to her outstanding research contributions, Molly is an effective lecturer and has an ability to communicate complex ideas in an inspiring, valuable and refreshing manner,” said University Professor Michael Sefton (ChemE, IBBME), who nominated Shoichet for the award. “Molly is recognized as a leader in neural tissue engineering, and I was pleased to nominate her for a Clemson Award.”
Professor Shoichet acts as co-Lead for IBBME’s research theme of Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and was recently appointed the Institute’s Associate Director, Research.