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.
Read the full article at U of T’s website.
Steve Mann (ECE) is attaching electronic devices to his body in his youth. The purpose? To experience a reality that has been technologically mediated. Steve Mann is a cyborg. That is, he’s a human with both biological and artificial parts. Others know him as a professor of engineering at the University of Toronto, and a devoted techno-futurist. Mann’s signature invention is the WearComp, a series of wearable computer devices. One example is the EyeTap, a set of computerized glasses that enhance or diminish objects entering the wearer’s field of view. Using computer technology, he can control what he wishes to see and not see.
Precisely ten years ago, Mann released a book detailing his life as a cyborg. CyborgL Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer is Mann’s manifesto. He’s an inventor with purpose — one deeply rooted in a personal ideology that has shaped his life. Although Mann’s understanding of technology ten years ago was considered radical, his writings forecasted what we have now lived over the past decade of our digital revolution. Vicarious soliloquy
Over the years, Mann has delivered talks at universities and conferences about wearable computers and technologies. He does so in the comfort of his own home. Wearing the WearCam, a camera attached to his head that projects onto a screen in the conference auditorium, Mann presents his talks using pictures he draws at his desk. He also occasionally looks at himself in the mirror to assure the audience that it is in fact he who is speaking.
The point is to let the audience connect with him on a different level. Instead of simply watching him speak, the audience can “become” him by seeing exactly what he sees. Mann describes this as a deeper identification with another person.
The implications are compelling. How will our perspective on human rights change when we can experience, at least visually, exactly how repressed and mistreated individuals live in their societies? How will aid to a country following a natural disaster change when we can experience the disaster for ourselves?
Humanistic Intelligence (HI)
Artificial intelligence aims to create intelligent machines that can fulfill roles previously played by humans. Mann argues against this goal. Instead, he advocates the advancement of humanistic intelligence.
HI is about using technology to enhance human capacity. Under the HI model, users of a given device can take control any time they wish. The technology is responsive to the users: we shape the computer’s behaviour, rather than having computers shape our activities according to pre-programmed assumptions.
Do we want to wake up in a world where only a computer knows how to drive the bus? Mann hopes for a world where a human bus driver is equipped with a brain-implanted microchip that enhances his attention to make him a safer and more efficient driver.