University of Toronto Engineering alumnus and current Harvard Medical School Professor Ali Khademhosseini (ChemE 9T9, MASc 0T1) is one of the recipients of the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by American President Barack Obama. The award, which is the highest honour bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers in the early stages of their research careers, was announced September 26, 2011.

Professor Khademhosseini’s research focused on developing micro- and nanoscale technologies to control cellular behavior. He is particularly focused on developing microscale biomaterials and engineering systems for tissue engineering. His work in tissue engineering began under the supervision of University Professor Michael Sefton, under whose supervision Professor Khademhosseini completed his Master’s degree. He continued his work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a doctorate in bioengineering in 2005.

In addition to his appointment at Harvard, Professor Khademhosseini is an Associate Professor at Harvard-MIT’s Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as an Associate Faculty at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

This is far from Professor Khademhosseini’s first honour. In 2007, he was named one of the Top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT’s Technology Review. In the past year alone, he was recognized with the Pioneers of Miniaturization Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Lab on a Chip and Corning Inc, the IEEE Early Career Award in Nanotechnology, the Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) Young Investigator Award and the Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

“We congratulate Dr. Khademhosseini on the substantial recognition he has received at this early stage in his career for his contributions to the field of tissue engineering,” said Professor D. Grant Allen, Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry. “We are proud of Dr. Khademhosseini’s accomplishments and his association with our Department.”

With the 22nd anniversary of the École Polytechnique tragedy in December, the CBC’s The National takes a closer look at what has changed for women in engineering, as well as the legacy of the massacre.

Wendy Mesley sat down with 10 U of T Engineering students to talk about their experiences as a female engineering student, as well as how the tragic events 22 years ago have affected and inspired them.

The University of Toronto tops Re$earch Infosource Inc.’s 2011 list of Canada’s leading research universities.

Re$earch Infosource Inc. is a division of The Impact Group, one of Canada’s leading consulting firms specializing in strategic planning, research and evaluation, and more, for organizations concerned with science, technology and innovation.

In ranking the universities, the firm took into consideration a university’s sponsored-research income, the number of full-time faculty, as well as research intensity. U of T is the only Ontario university in the top five, and has been ranked first since 2001.

“U of T Engineering is doing its part in keeping the university at the forefront of innovation by focusing on our strategic research themes,” said Professor Stewart Aitchison (ECE), Vice-Dean, Research. “As a result, our research funding has increased by 30% over the last three years.”

For more information on this year’s rankings, visit Re$earch Infosource Inc .

Nancy Ho (MechE 1T4), Engineering Society’s Community Outreach Director, wanted to find a creative way for engineering students to give back.

“So that’s when I found out about CANstruction,” said Ho. CANstruction, which was held at Simcoe Place on November 5, is a design competition that challenges the Toronto community to build structures out of canned goods. The structures are on display for a week, before being donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank.

As if the challenge at hand wasn’t already difficult enough, Ho and her team of engineering students decided to build a structure inspired by Angry Birds. With the help of a $1,000 donation from one of CANstruction’s sponsors, the team was able to purchase more than 1,000 cans.

“But that wasn’t enough to build it,” said Ho, “So we ran a food drive at U of T with the help of the Engineering Society and Professor Susan McCahan (MIE, Vice-Dean, Undergraduate).” The team managed to collect 1,700 cans in total, and successfully built their ode to Angry Birds, which stood alongside three other structures created by Ryerson University teams.

“I’m so proud of the work we did,” said Ho. “It was a big project, a cool idea, and we managed to pull it off for a good cause. It’s community outreach at its finest.”

Professor Shaker Meguid (MIE), Director of the Mechanics and Aerospace Design Lab at U of T, and his team are looking to improve the ability to monitor an aircraft’s primary sources of failure.

The team are converting polymeric thermoset adhesive resins into multifunctional materials that perform multiple “structural” and “non-structural” functions simultaneously. The development of such smart adhesives will provide early warning of impending catastrophic failures in next-generation aircrafts.

The group is currently investigating the effect of carbon nanotubes on the electrical conductivity of multifunctional nanocomposites.

Their work is currently published in this month’s Nanotechnology  journal. And for an overview of their research, visit Nanotechweb.

On November 16, the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute unveiled 13 new state-of-the-art labs, where researchers will mimic environmental challenges faced by seniors and people with disabling injury or illness.

The iDAPT Centre is a $36-million collaboration with U of T and is largely funded by the federal and provincial governments.

“Everywhere you look there are problems that need solving,” said Professor Geoff Fernie (IBBME, MIE), Vice-President of Research at Toronto Rehab.

iDAPT will focus on three areas: preventing injury or illness; restoring independence and quality of life after injury or illness; and, supporting people in their homes so they don’t need to enter hospitals or nursing homes.

Researchers are tackling various challenges that come with age, disability and disease: how to fight hospital-acquired infections, diagnose sleep apnea and regain movement in paralyzed limbs.

iDAPT’s centrepiece is the Challenging Environment Assessment Lab (CEAL). There, scientists are researching falls, one of the most debilitating and costly causes of personal injury.

“If you fall and break your hip [on ice], around 50% do not recover from it and will pass away within a year,” said Jennifer Hsu (MechE PhD Candidate), a researcher at WinterLab, which is one of the 13 new labs.

“We’re already doing a lot of this [research] but iDAPT will help us do it much better and much faster,” said Professor Fernie.

Fernie is a Professor in the Department of Surgery with cross-appointments in the Institute for Biomedical & Biomaterial Engineering and the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering.

To learn more about the iDAPT labs, visit the Toronto Star  and the Globe and Mail .