Professor Tom Chau (EngSci 9T2) of the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering has been chosen as one of 25 Transformational Canadians.
The Globe and Mail’s Transformational Canadians program celebrates 25 living citizens who have made a difference by immeasurably improving the lives of others. Over several weeks this past autumn, a panel of six judges selected 25 Transformational Canadians from among the nominees.
In the late 1990s, Professor Chau , a biomedical engineer, was making a good living as a technical consultant for IBM. He had recently graduated from the University of Waterloo with a PhD in systems design engineering, and found the job financially and intellectually rewarding.
But the Toronto native kept thinking about his childhood, when he and his four siblings would volunteer with their mother at a local palliative care hospital. “It was always part of our life, and it was something that I was starting to miss,” Professor Chau remembers.
So he quit IBM and called up Toronto’s Bloorview Research Institute. While completing his master’s degree in engineering Professor Chau had collaborated with a scientist at Bloorview, a division of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital that develops assistive technologies and other solutions for disabled children.
Now senior scientist and Canada Research Chair in Paediatric Rehabilitation Engineering at Bloorview, Professor Chau leads a 30-member team that brings together scientists with clinicians such as occupational and musical therapists. Over the past decade, the group has invented several life-changing devices.
One early success was the Virtual Music Instrument (VMI). Designed for children who can’t hold an instrument, this software allows them to play music by sitting in front of a TV screen that translates their movements and gestures into notes. Bloorview has also developed a low-cost prosthetic knee joint and a lightweight, waterproof prosthetic hand for paediatric use.
Read the full article on The Globe and Mail website.
U of T Engineering alumni Jeffrey Skoll (ElecE 8T7) and Thomas Jenkins (MASc ElecE 8T5) have been appointed Officers of the Order of Canada.
The Order of Canada is the country’s highest honour and recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, and dedication to community and service.
Of the 66 appointed on December 30, Skoll and Jenkins are among nine U of T alumni celebrated, including former Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Skoll is being honoured for his generous commitment to social causes and for his innovative practice of philanthropy. He was the first President of eBay, and is currently Chair of Participant Media and the Skoll Foundation. Skoll’s gift of $7.5 million to the University of Toronto led to the establishment of the Jeffrey Skoll BASc/MBA Program in 2000, a joint program between the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Rotman School of Management.
Jenkins is the Executive Chair and Chief Strategy Officer for OpenText Corporation, an enterprise software company and leader in enterprise content management. He was recognized for his innovative contributions to the development of the high technology industry in Canada.
“On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to congratulate Jeffrey Skoll and Thomas Jenkins for this tremendous accolade,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “They have made influential and innovative contributions to Canada and the world. We proudly count them as one of our 50,000 outstanding engineering alumni.”
The new Order of Canada appointees will be formally invested by the Governor General in Ottawa at a future date.
To learn more about U of T faculty members and alumni honoured, visit the U of T website .
In January, Engineering students eager to learn machining skills have the opportunity to receive hands-on training in George Brown College’s extensive and up-to-date machining facilities.
This collaboration between U of T Engineering and George Brown was initially offered to MIE students when it launched five years ago, but was expanded across the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering this fall – with great success. About 230 students enrolled in the machining courses in September, and an additional 65 are partaking in the three machining courses available in January.
“The fundamental idea is that, Engineers need to know, when they are designing, how difficult it is to create their design, and how to make the process easier. If you have a command of these machining skills, it will make you an incredibly powerful Engineer,” said the program’s coordinator, Professor Tony Sinclair (MIE).
There are three short courses available in January:
1) Basic Machining (lathe, mill, drill press)
2) Advanced Machining (prerequisite: the Basic Machining course)*
3) Introduction to Welding
“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from students and George Brown instructors. Our students are really eager and enjoy it because everyone is doing work that they value,” he added.
Canada has the technological ability to build its own rocket to launch small satellites, which is a top priority for future research at the Defence Department and a capability being studied at the Canadian Space Agency.
Canada now relies on other countries—such as the United States, India and Russia—to launch its spacecraft into orbit, but both the Defence Department and the space agency are considering building a Canadian-made launcher.
DND’s science organization, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) is examining what might be needed for a small rocket as well as different possible mission scenarios that could be undertaken.
The Canadian Space Agency’s domestic launch capability would consist of satellites of about 150-kilograms in weight. Professor Robert Zee (UTIAS), who heads the University of Toronto’s Space Flight Laboratory, has said that Canada is more than capable of building a rocket to put small spacecraft into orbit.
“As to whether it would have sufficient political backing to see it all the way through to completion, that’s another thing,” he explained. “There are some strong voices at CSA and also at Defence R and D Canada that are really interested in seeing it happen.”
CSA officials have said that a full-scale project to design and build a launcher could take between 10 and 12 years.
Engineering’s biggest story of 2010 may well have been that of the “Snowbird” human-powered ornithopter, piloted by EngSci alumnus and UTIAS doctoral candidate Todd Reichert, with Professor Emeritus James DeLaurier acting as faculty advisor. The aircraft with flapping wings, a project of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, flew for 19.3 seconds during its record-breaking flight on August 2nd, and with its spectacular photos and video clips the story went viral around the world as an engineering first.
BlogTO.com cited a Snowbird video as one of “the top 10 Toronto viral videos of 2010.” The length of flight “may not seem like much until you realize that the contraption has basically turned its creator into one giant bird,” blogger Derek Flack noted.
And Torontoist.com named the Snowbird’s team a “2010 hero.” “For now, Snowbird is just the latest in a long line of Toronto-based ornithopteral breakthroughs,” the Toronto blog noted. “From U of T professor James DeLaurier’s pioneering research in the ’80s and ’90s, to 2006’s “The Great Flapper,” Toronto is fast becoming a centre for man-powered wing-flappy doodads. And if that doesn’t make your civic pride swell like a weather balloon at high altitude, well, maybe you need to get your servo guidance mechanism checked.”
Shawn Qu (MSE PhD 9T5) runs one of the ten largest solar panel makers in the world, Kitchener, Ont.-based Canadian Solar Inc., with annual revenue of about $1.2-billion (U.S.). Yet he is almost unknown in Canadian business circles, mainly because the bulk of the company’s manufacturing operations are in China and its customers are in more than 30 countries.
That’s about to change, however, as Canadian Solar gears up to open a large solar-panel manufacturing plant in Guelph, Ont., that will employ 500 workers by mid-2011. The new plant was partly spurred by Ontario’s new Green Energy Act, which pays high prices for solar-generated power if some of the equipment is made in the province.
Follow the link to read the full article in The Globe and Mail.