Federal Minister of State (Transport) Stephen Fletcher and Member of Parliament Mark Adler (York Centre) were on hand to celebrate the University of Toronto researchers and students who will benefit from more than $42-million provided through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
The celebration was held on July 27 in the atrium of the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.
The funding is part of a $411-million committed by the federal government to support research through grants and scholarships. This announcement comprises the 2011 competition results for NSERC’s Discovery Grants, Discovery Accelerator Supplements, Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships, Postgraduate Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships programs.
Among those benefiting from the grants is Professor Milos Popovic of the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, whose research focuses on spinal cord injuries.
Professor Popovic develops neuroprosthetics, which interfaces the brain, the nervous system and muscles, to allow individuals suffering from paralysis to regain use in their extremities. “We are trying to help individuals who are paralyzed regain functions such as standing, grasping, walking and reaching out,” explained Professor Popovic, who will receive $420,000 under NSERC’s Discovery Grants and Discovery Accelerator Supplements programs.
“The funding from NSERC will allow Dr. Popovic to take his studies in spinal research to the next level. To push the boundaries. You can see that he is already at the edge, but this funding will take it further and have positive impacts,” said Professor Peter Lewis, Associate Vice President of Research for the University of Toronto.
Minister Fletcher, who himself was left a quadriplegic after hitting a moose while driving in northern Manitoba, said that Professor Popovic’s research is of substantial importance to the 36,000 people in Canada who have spinal cord injuries.
“By allowing people with spinal cord injuries to utilize the muscles they have to do functions that may not have been possible before, that certainly will improve the lives of many people,” said Fletcher.
Professor Popovic explained this funding from NSERC is important for two reasons. First, it provides support for students, which are critically important to supporting his research. Second, these grants allow Professor Popovic to redirect funds to permit exploration in new directions. He explained that unlike targeted grants that support specific experiments, the NSERC Discovery Grants allow Professor Popovic and his students to identify new priorities based on their discoveries. “You can experiment within the experiment,” he explained.
Professor Popovic is one of 158 professors at U of T who will benefit from this announcement, including 47 principal investigators from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. A complete list of recipients from U of T is available online . Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will benefit from additional scholarships.
Fletcher concluded by challenging U of T researchers and students to continue to find new solutions to pressing challenges. “Regardless of whether you are in politics, in research or a student, we all want to make the lives of our fellow citizens better,” he said.
Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Professor Olivera Kesler wants to bring synergy to sustainable energy. Professor Kesler is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE). Her job is to weave together all the separate strands of energy research and innovation on campus at the University of Toronto into a strong, collaborative fabric. Her goal is to unite the dozens of teams of researchers, educators, students and partners scattered in the faculties, buildings and labs in downtown Toronto.
The end game? To make sure that conversation, community and collaboration happen among the fine minds working on supplying the demanding world with earth-sensitive energy.
Kesler’s admirably suited to the task. She’s a passionate sustainable energy proponent, an avid cyclist and the Canada Research Chair in Fuel Cell Material and Manufacturing. Her specific research focuses on sustainable solid oxide fuel cells, including ones using coal gas as a fuel while producing efficient energy with zero pollutants.
But the Centre’s mandate goes much wider, embracing not only engineering expertise and research, but also the political, sociological and culture implications and impacts of energy shortage and inequity.
“Clean energy has been my primary interest since the beginning of my career. I’m biased, but I think it’s the number one most crucial issue that we face for our species and for the other species with which we share the planet,” she says. “The goal of the Centre is to bring all these people together to work on the same vital issue,” Kesler adds. “We need to be as inclusive as possible. The Centre is fully interdisciplinary. The only barrier for participation is people’s individual time constraints.”
The first task was the creation of a growing website that attempts to pull together all the clean energy activities and research on campus.
“Someone coming to the site may just want information on what U of T is doing about wind energy, regardless of department. They might not know that Aerospace is doing research in that area, or that a place where airplanes are studied also study wind turbines, but they can find it on the site,” she said.
“Our role is really to facilitate the connection between different groups and hopefully engender new research as a result of those relationships. The research was already going on here. We’re just giving it more visibility for people who may not have known what was going on here, its scope and where the research was taking place,” she says.
Since the Centre has launched in March 2010, it has hosted seminars on energy-related topics and has helped promote events held by other groups on campus or elsewhere in Toronto – if they’ve been energy related.
And, Kesler says in the future she’d like to see the Centre take on an increasing advocacy role, offering public seminars. This includes an Energy Showcase that took place in May 2011, at which officials involved in energy policy presented public lectures that stressed the political and societal issues associated with sustainable energy.
“We’ve also got folks involved in life cycle research trying to assess the full life cycle costs of different technologies. We intend to provide the public with as much information as possible about these issues. Often public and political choice is economic.”
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering Dean Cristina Amon says the young Centre is actively seeking funding for its endeavours. “[The Canadian engineering firm] HATCH provided a $1 million endowment for fellowships for graduate students studying sustainability and sustainable energy. That endowment was matched one-to-one by the federal government,” she said.
Electrical & Computer Engineering Professor Stewart Aitchison, the U of T Engineering’s Vice-Dean of Research, believes the Centre is perfectly aligned with the Faculty’s future vision. “Sustainable energy is one of our key research areas in our strategic plan moving forward. The Centre will become a nucleus for that activity.”
A $1.65 million, six-year CREATE (Collaborative Research and Training Experience) grant for the Centre’s work has already been awarded by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada). The funding, led by Dean Amon and Assistant Professor Aimy Bazylak, will provide graduate students with additional specialized training.
He said additional funding for Centre research could come from provincial and federal government, as well as from industry.
“We have engineers working on all facets of the renewable energy issue: solar, wind, even tidal, but we can also tie into researchers in arts and science, as well as medicine that look at other aspects of renewable energy. We can work with folks in social science to look at the impact of harvesting crops for bio-diesel or for food. That’s where our uniqueness lies — in our amazing diversity of expertise,” Aitchison explains.
A fellowship program at the University of Toronto founded by graduate Gerald Heffernan (MMS 4T3) is helping graduate students transfer their research into businesses.
The Heffernan/Co-Steel Innovation Commercialization Fellowship provides $20,000 annually for up to three years to postgraduate fellows wanting to further develop and implement their research. Among those who have benefited from this support is Carlos de Oliveira (CivE MASc 0T6), who transferred his graduate work on structural dynamics into Cast ConneX Corporation, which produces seismic-resistant joint for buildings in earthquake-prone regions.
Heffernan and de Oliveira were featured in a Globe and Mail article that highlights the efforts by Canadian universities to encourage innovation.
The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering mourns the passing of Professor J. Douglas Lavers of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Professor Lavers died on July 11, 2011 in an accident while on a 16-day canoe trip in the Yukon.
Professor Lavers’ research focused on applications involving magnetic fields. His work was used to design magnetic components for telecommunications and computer power supplies as well as MRI systems.
“Professor Lavers was a valued colleague, an accomplished researcher and a respected educator,” said Professor Farid Najm, Chair of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. “He has served the department in many ways, including as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, especially his wife Barb and his children Monica and Eric.”
Planning has begun on a memorial service that will be held on campus in September. Details will be forthcoming.
Engineers at U of T’s Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) are working on a revolutionary project that could change millions of lives all over the world.
Led by Professor Yu-Ling Cheng (ChemE), Director of CGEN, a team of Faculty engineers hope to reinvent the toilet to provide people in developing worlds with affordable, alternative, sanitation that does the impossible: works for only five cents per user, per day and doesn’t rely on running water, sewerage systems or supplied electricity.
The Reinvent the Toilet Challenge project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded almost $400,000 to U of T Engineering. The Faculty is the only Canadian recipient among eight leading universities worldwide being asked to think outside the box about water closets.
The grant was announced by the Foundation at the AfricaSan conference in Rwanda as part of more than $40 million in new investments launching its Water, Sanitation & Hygiene strategy.
Watch Professor Yu-Ling Cheng describe the project in her own words:
“This is a vital problem and is just the sort of global issue engineers, especially engineers from U of T, are so well suited to tackle,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “I am confident that we will contribute to solve this major sanitation challenge and health issue for the developing world. We are deeply grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for selecting us as the sole Canadian recipient of this funding.”
“It is a fascinating problem,” said Professor Cheng. “Those of us in the West don’t give toilets much thought. But there are 2.6 billion people in the world who don’t have access to safe and affordable sanitation.” The result is the prevalence and spread of water-borne diseases like dysentery and cholera. “Lack of clean drinking water is important,” said Cheng. “But the lack of a way to safely deal with human waste is even more pressing.”
The Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN) at the University of Toronto promotes scholarly, interdivisional research and other educational activities related to Engineering in a global environment. “U of T was in the right place at the right time,” said Cheng. “Not only are we a world-leading Engineering school, but we’re focused on just these kinds of global challenges and opportunities.”
Over the next year, in Phase One of the Challenge, Cheng and her team will develop the technical ideas to create a prototype and conduct field testing of the concept in Bangladesh to make sure the ideas are culturally appropriate. Then they’ll vie for additional funding for Phase Two.
“It is a developing world problem,” said Cheng, “but, really, if we could make a toilet that didn’t require water, sewerage and power, and we add a splash of First World stylishness, who wouldn’t want to use it in Toronto.”
Read more about the Toilet Challenge in the following selection of stories:
CBC
CityNews
CNN
CP24
CTV
Design News
Digital Journal
Globe & Mail
Maclean’s
MSN Canada
Radio Canada International
Sympatico Canada
Study Magazine
TheSpec
Time Magazine
Torontoist
Toronto Star
TopNews (US)
Additional links from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
Reinvent the Toilet Challenge Fact Sheet
Toilet Challenge strategy overview
Press release: Reinvent the Toilet Challenge announcement
It’s difficult to dispose of traditionally produced plastics in a sustainable manner. However, thanks to the work of researchers like U of T Engineering’s Professor Emma Master (ChemE), new options are now available.
Professor Master is utilizing enzymes to create plant-based polymers. The enzymes are biodegradable and are being used to make the plant polymers water resistant. The results could replace plastics used everyday, including cups, disposable plates and packaging.
Professor Master’s research is profiled in Science News for Kids.