Cancer, heart disease and stroke are leading causes of death among Canadians. These are also the deadly diseases that the research team of Victor Yang (EngSci 9T7, MASc ECE 9T8) aims to alleviate.

Yang is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Ryerson University, and a Canada Research Chair in bioengineering and biophotonics. He’s also a medical doctor with surgical training and works with neurosurgeons in several teaching hospitals. So Yang understands how the smallest, most precise tools can bring about huge changes in a patient’s treatment and health.

To that end, Yang has two research interests: developing new techniques to image the human body, and devising novel tools for minimally invasive procedures. Both areas rely on Yang’s expertise in an emerging type of medical imaging technology – Doppler optical coherence tomography (DOCT).

Read the full story on PhysOrg.com.

The University of Toronto and two other North American universities are competing to provide research support for a campus expansion at New York University (NYU).

A joint letter expressing interest in the development was submitted by the University of Toronto, Carnegie Mellon University, City University of New York and NYU, as well as IBM.

It was among 18 expressions of interest by academic institutions from around the world following an invitation from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to “develop and operate a new applied science and engineering research campus in New York City.”

The work would involve research related to development of smart technologies for cities.

A total of 27 institutions, some in partnership with others, submitted “expressions of interest,” Bloomberg’s office said. Other elite U.S. universities which expressed interest include Stanford University, Columbia University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Chicago, among others, according to the mayor’s office.

The submissions will be reviewed and a request for proposals will be issued this summer. New York City wants to make a choice by year’s end.

The Bloomberg administration has said it wants to diversify the city’s economy and accelerate growth in its technology sector. The mayor called the idea a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to attract interest from top-tier universities around the globe, which in turn would benefit the schools.

Read the stories and briefs in The New York Times, (and a more recent NYT piece) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, New York Post, TheWall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Crain’s New York Business, NYULocal , Times Higher Education and Carnegie Mellon University’s The Tartan.

For all the troubles facing the earthquake-stricken people of Japan, a nuclear meltdown may be among the least of their worries, a Canadian radiation expert says.

The danger of serious radiation leaks from the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant have likely been overblown, despite a series of explosions and evidence that three fuel cores are actively melting down at the crippled facility.

“In the long scheme of things I don’t believe, in terms of health effects, that this is actually going to be a big part of the outcome of this earthquake,” said Greg Evans, a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto.

Read the full article on the Toronto Star website.

It’s March break. The kids are out of school for five days. That’s 120 hours to fill. This list of 54 things to do is a good place to start.

29. Just because school’s out, doesn’t mean they don’t have to (or want to) study. The University of Toronto is offering three-day, math-intensive programs for students in Grade 7 through 12. Lectures and fun activities are led by passionate undergraduate and graduate students studying math and engineering. Runs Wednesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Go to www.outreach.engineering.utoronto.ca for more information.

Read the full list at the Toronto Star.

The prototype sustainable power plant that University of Toronto Professor Olivier Trescases (ECE) is demonstrating doesn’t look like much. A simple black-box battery connected by clips to red and yellow wires that go to a decades-old electricity meter, then by more exposed wiring into something that looks like an exposed computer motherboard, which is itself attached to a low-fi, normal looking stationary bike. It looks like the kind of exercise equipment someone would have in the corner of a wood-panelled basement, attached to the kind of rig your hobbyist uncle might solder together in the garage.

But according to Professor Trescases, this is an independent, freestanding power plant, the unpolished but working model for a fleet of machines that will simultaneously encourage exercise, reduce carbon fuel usage and toxic emissions and educate people, all while saving money at the same time. “I wouldn’t call this high experimental research,” Trescases says. “The aim is more education. The greatest benefit of this is awareness. Essentially we want to equate sweat with electrical energy.”

That equation was enough to win the project a grant of $10,000 at last year’s inaugural Green Innovation Awards presented by the City of Toronto and the Toronto Community Foundation. Electrical Engineering Professor Trescases, Hart House Gym Facilities Manager Chris Lea and Hart House Sustainability Coordinator David Berliner shared the award for their idea to harness the energy people waste using exercise equipment and use it to generate electricity.

“Each bike is an independent power plant,” Trescases says; “each one is individually connected to the grid.” Each bike is also able to connect wirelessly to a laptop computer or wireless mobile device to display real-time information about how much energy it is generating, how much it has generated recently and how much money that translates into.

Read the full article at Yonge Street Media.

Vincent Cheung (ECE) is the owner and founder of Shape Collage, a software program that allows users to create picture collages with just a few clicks of the mouse. When he’s not running a successful business, he’s completing his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto. Over the past year, Mr. Cheung has won a number of entrepreneur contests across North America.

See a selection of photos of Cheung and Shape Collage on The Globe and Mail’s website.