April 6, 2011
A new Clinical Engineering concentration within the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering‘s PhD program has been approved for launch in September 2011.
The new concentration, for doctoral candidates with an undergraduate engineering degree, will emphasize enhancing patient safety, quality of care and quality of life, and to be prepared to meet the increasing demand for clinical engineers as leaders in research and innovation.
In addition to completing the normal requirements of the existing PhD program, students in the concentration will require co-supervision by engineering and health science faculty, and must conduct research within a clinical health care environment.
Graduate students without a formal degree in clinical engineering are normally required to complete a specified half-course in Clinical Engineering. The new concentration includes an option to allow Clinical Engineering graduate students currently in the MHSc program to transfer into the PhD program’s concentration.
“This is a significant milestone for the field of Clinical Engineering in Canada and abroad,” said Professor Paul Santerre, Director, IBBME. “The Faculty has taken the lead in expanding what was traditionally a professional master’s program by enhancing the depth of its curriculum, and focusing on the translation of innovative technologies and tools into the health care sector, which generates approximately 11% of Canada’s gross domestic product in the form of services and products.
“The PhD concentration in Clinical Engineering aligns quite well with the University of Toronto’s deep roots as a leading research-intensive institution, and was developed in response to the strong interest of our graduate students.”
The University of Toronto has the top engineering program in Canada and now ranks first in all its disciplines, according to the first-ever QS World University Rankings by Subject. The rankings were released on Tuesday, as U of T Engineering saw a record number of prospective undergraduate students vying for fall 2011 admission, with nearly half of them selecting U of T Engineering as their first choice.
“These numbers demonstrate the strong reputation of our engineering programs, including among student applicants,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.
Last year, U of T Engineering was one of four Canadian institutions to be included in UK-based Quacquarelli Symonds’ World University Rankings top 50 in Engineering & Technology, placing 14th among world universities. McGill University placed 29th, the University of British Columbia ranked 30th, and the University of Waterloo tied with another school in 39th place.
In the new rankings by subject, U of T Engineering again led all Canadian universities, placing 10th in Computer Science & Information Systems, 13th in Electrical Engineering, 14th in Chemical Engineering, 20th in Civil & Structural Engineering, and 31st in Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing among global universities.
U of T Engineering saw a record number of prospective students apply for undergraduate admission for the 2011-2012 academic year, up 12.5% from the previous year and up 17% for first choice in Ontario. In fact, nearly half of all applicants this year made U of T Engineering their first choice, with international applicants making up 27.2% of the pool – an increase of 23.0% over last year – and applications from women surging by 17.2%.
“Our record number of applicants speaks to the growing importance of engineering in providing education for the new knowledge-based economy in Canada and around the world,” said Dean Amon. “With U of T graduates making up about 10% of engineers in Canada, we are gratified that U of T Engineering remains the flag-bearer in international rankings.”
The 2011 QS World University Rankings by Subject – Engineering & Technology is the first in a series of unique world university rankings by subject. The company – which has produced the QS World University Rankings since 2004, rating the world’s top 500 universities – said it would publish league tables in a further 30 subjects in the coming weeks “along with a personalized ranking tool to help students make the right choice.” QS World University Rankings are based on academic and employer reputation surveys, and research quality using a citations-per-paper indicator.
Professor Peter Zandstra (IBBME, ChemE) will be a keynote speaker at the 241st national meeting and exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), which takes place from March 27-31 in Anaheim, California. The event will host nearly 9,500 presentations on new discoveries that span science’s horizons, from astronomy to zoology.
Professor Zandstra will be speaking on the subject of stem cells and regenerative medicine. New technologies will be required to harness the vast potential of stem cells and regenerative medicine strategies, and Zandstra’s lecture topic will be “Synthetic stem cell niche engineering in vitro and in vivo.”
Read more about the 241st ACS meeting and exposition here.
Engineering Alumni Chirag Variawa (MSE 0T9, MIE PhD candidate) and Keith Thomas (MechE 8T7) have been elected to the 2011-2012 U of T Governing Council.
Variawa is the first graduate student governor from Engineering. As of July 1, Variawa will represent graduate students from across the University’s Constituency II, which includes Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering (School of Graduate Studies Divisions III & IV).
Variawa credits the Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow program as his platform and motivation to pursue a role in university governance. “As the current co-chair of the graduate constituency of this program, I’ve experienced first-hand how leadership affects team dynamics, communication and growth,” he said.
Now a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Variawa believes that his current research in artificial intelligence for engineering education will benefit from his involvement with Governing Council.
“Chirag has been highly engaged in LOT both as an undergraduate and graduate student,” said Professor Greg Evans (ChemE), Co-Leader with Professor Doug Reeve (ChemE) of Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow. “It’s therefore gratifying to see him take some of what he has learned and put it into practice. His enthusiasm for leadership and commitment to making a positive difference is inspiring.”
Thomas, who is the CEO of Vive Nano, a company based on technology developed in U of T’s Department of Chemistry, was elected to the Alumnus Constituency. Prior to launching Vive Nano, he built and managed Vector Innovations, a healthcare software firm. Thomas has also led a number of large-scale projects – restructuring companies in 3 countries, managing strategy and operations projects and completing corporate finance transactions at Citibank in the U.S. and Europe.
Dow Kokam, a leading large-format battery system producer, announced today that it will supply eCAMION Inc., a Canadian green-energy solutions provider, with advanced lithium-ion technology to provide stationary energy storage solutions for a Canadian utility project supported by Sustainable Development Technology of Canada.
The project will integrate Dow Kokam’s proven lithium-ion battery cells with eCAMION’s battery pack design to provide three light-weight, high-energy density, 250-kilowatt hour energy storage systems that will be embedded at the community level. The lithium-ion battery storage system will be tested with Toronto Hydro Electric System.
The integration of the Dow Kokam and eCAMION lithium-ion battery energy storage system will improve power availability and reliability within the smart grid network, while supporting renewable electricity installations. The utility project combines Dow Kokam’s lithium-ion cell technology with eCAMION’s packaging design, along with a power management system from the University of Toronto Centre for Applied Power Electronics (ECE) that provides real-time control for power transfer between energy storage units and the smart grid.
Three U of T researchers, including two engineering professors, received more than $5 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for projects on regenerative medicine and nanomedicine.
Representatives from the Government of Canada, CIHR and CSA were on campus March 16 to make the announcement.
“CIHR is delighted to partner with the Canadian Space Agency to support research aimed at developing technologies and approaches to improve patient outcome,” said Professor Jane Aubin of molecular genetics and medical biophysics, scientific director of CIHR’s Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis.
“By working together, CIHR and the CSA are supporting scientific research and innovations that have applications for health care on earth and in space and provide real benefits for Canadians,” said Gilles Leclerc, director general of Space Exploration at CSA.
Nanomedicine delivers medical technologies that function at the molecular level to diagnose and treat disease while regenerative medicine stimulates the renewal of bodily tissues and organs.
The following U of T researchers received a total of $5,487,662 in funding:
• Professor Shana Kelley of biochemistry and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and her team are using nanotextured microstructures to develop a diagnostic device that detects low levels of prostate cancer cells circulating in blood. This could lead to routine screening for prostate cancer, helping to diagnose the disease earlier and to distinguish aggressive forms of the disease from non-aggressive.
• University Professor Michael Sefton (ChemE, IBBME) is leading a team working on providing blood supply to regenerated organs and tissues — so far, the lack of an adequate blood supply has been a barrier in the survival of replacement tissues and organs created using regenerative medicine.
• Professor Gang Zheng (IBBME) is leading a group working on bridging the gap between the fabrication of nanoparticles for pre-clinical research and creating agents suitable for human trials. They are focusing on nanotechnology-enabled image-guided interventions for lung cancer and vascular lesion diseases.
“We congratulate the talented researchers who are leading these projects and believe their work on integrating new technologies into health research holds the potential to dramatically change the way we treat and diagnose disease,” said Professor Peter Lewis, U of T’s Associate Vice-President, Research.