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.
The Next 36, a new program that helps launch the business careers of 36 promising and innovative Canadian undergraduates, have chosen five U of T Engineering students.
In summer 2011, EngSci students Shahed Al-Haque (1T1), Shane Gu (1T3), Saksham Uppal (1T1 + PEY) and ECE students Michael Del Baso (1T2) and Tulika Gupta (1T2) will join other aspiring entrepreneurs from around the country, as they compete in teams of four to develop a mobile application company.
The program will provide each team with the capital, resources and mentorship (from celebrated entrepreneurs) over a course of five months leading up to the summer competition.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and a dream come true for me. The array of industry and people put together would give me tremendous exposure and experience. I am very excited about the upcoming months,” said Gupta.
“We are delighted to hear of Michael and Tulika’s recent accomplishment. They are among the many talented, business-conscious students in our Department. We know they will do exceptionally well in this program,” said Professor Farid N. Najm, Chair, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering.
And with the inclusion of three EngSci students, Professor Will Cluett, Chair, Division of Engineering Science, is thrilled to hear of their recognition.
“The Division is very pleased that The Next 36 has selected three Engineering Science students for this new and exciting initiative. Many of our students have developed their own companies during their time as students in Engineering Science or after graduation. It is terrific that Shahed, Shane and Saksham have been recognized as being among a very strong group of up-and-coming entrepreneurs in Canada,” he said.
Developing products that will enable treatments for devastating health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and spinal cord injuries is the focus of a major University of Toronto-hosted research and commercialization initiative that has been awarded $15 million by the Government of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE).
The Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) was one of five projects approved by the NCE on Dec. 6 as part of its Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) competition.
The CECR program’s mandate is to create internationally recognized centres of commercialization and research expertise in four priority areas in order to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits to Canadians. As established in the Government of Canada’s science and technology strategy, the priority areas include: environmental science and technologies, natural resources and energy, health and related life sciences and technologies, information and communications technologies.
“Our government understands that an innovative society and economy depend on creative thinkers whose potential is encouraged and supported,” said Minister of Industry Tony Clement. “That’s why we are investing in the ideas, products and technologies generated by these Centres of Excellence to create jobs and businesses, help develop highly skilled people, strengthen our economy and position Canada for long-term prosperity.”
“The partnership aspect of the CCRM is our real strength,” said Zandstra, who is also Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering and a scientist at the University Health Network’s McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine.
The CCRM’s chief scientific officer will be Professor Peter Zandstra (IBBME), a leading specialist in regenerative medicine. In addition to U of T, the centre includes six institutions as research partners – The Hospital for Sick Children, McMaster University, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University Health Network, as well as 16 inaugural private sector enterprises engaged in regenerative medicine.
“All our partner organizations, in academia and in the private sector, are conducting leading edge work in regenerative medicine that has the potential to become important products and technologies that will benefit the health and welfare of global society. Unifying this talent around core platforms to enable new technologies may lead to truly transformative advances.”
Regenerative medicine is an emerging field that encompasses innovative methods – such as stem cell therapy, regenerative biomolecules, tissue engineering and the use of biomaterials – of treating disease and injury. Scientists working in RM are making important progress that holds the possibility, for example, of people with diabetes being freed from having to use daily injections of insulin or enabling those paralyzed by spinal cord injuries to walk again.
Zandstra adds that while the scientific innovation is vital, the commercialization component, which will be driven by the CCRM, is key to bringing innovations to people around the globe.
“The problem is that many new and potentially life-changing RM-based treatments never reach patients because they are not successfully moved from the laboratory to a stage where they can be used in medicine. Our plan is twofold – to leverage our advanced biomedical research and engineering and to create an RM commercialization pipeline to get our innovations into the marketplace and to people suffering from these difficult health conditions. This is why our initiative combines the talents of academic scientists and commercialization experts. The investment and foundations we put in place over the next several years are crucial to achieving success and in ensuring that Canada is a global leader in what is becoming an important industry.”
“We are delighted with this dynamic partnership, as it is a unique initiative that will not only generate solutions to Canada’s most pressing healthcare issues, but will also generate commercialized products,” said Professor Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “As CCRM’s chief scientific officer, Professor Peter Zandstra brings extraordinary leadership in regenerative medicine expertise, engineering know-how, and leading-edge innovation into industry.”
To pursue this program, the CCRM has identified three thrusts to fuel a sustainable, global RM industry based in Canada:
• CCRM will unite the significant investments from the Canadian and Ontario governments, its institutional members and its industry partners around product development platforms dedicated to enabling stem cell- and biomaterials-based technologies. These development platforms will underpin the long-term sustainability of the centre.
• CCRM will coordinate and build upon Canada’s strength in stem cell and biomaterials sciences with knowledgeable and dynamic business leadership. By
creating a strong business development arm, CCRM will be able to focus on playing an active role in capturing, managing and adding value to Canadian RM intellectual property.
• CCRM will engage industry partners, making CCRM a global hub of RM commercialization and attracting investment to Ontario, leading to new jobs and economic growth.
“Partnership is so important to conducting great research, and the CCRM is about to prove the value of bringing universities, hospitals and private sector enterprises together,” said Professor Paul Young, vice-president (research) at U of T. “We are sincerely thankful to the Networks of Centres of Excellence for its investment in this venture. The CCRM will have an important future impact in improving the health of people worldwide, in addition to contributing to the Canadian economy.”
Also important in the development of CCRM was MaRS Innovation (MI), established in 2008 to manage research commercialization ventures for 16 universities and hospitals in Toronto.
“MaRS Innovation worked closely with the teams at U of T and the affiliated teaching hospitals to coalesce everyone’s interests, create the proposal, and manage the process,” said Dr. Rafi Hofstein, MI’s president and CEO and a member of CCRM’s board of directors. “Indeed, we’re thrilled that our strategic approach to commercialization has won such a significant boost in such a short time. This is an extraordinary initiative in bundling of intellectual property. But what it really shows is the power of accretion, the fact that one plus one can equal three.”
In addition to the NCE’s $15 million, partner organizations in the CCRM will contribute $13.7 million, bringing the total funding for the project $28,795,000. U of T’s investment will come from the IBBME, the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and central administrative sources.
The NCE was established by the federal government in 1994 with the aim of mobilizing Canada’s best research and development talent to build a more advanced, healthy, competitive and prosperous Canada. The NCE manages four national programs: Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE); Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR); Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence (BL-NCE), and Industrial Research and Development Internships (IRDI).
In the early hours of Dec. 6, a group of 30 U of T Engineers, who go by the name of the Brute Force Committee, erected their own version of Mayor Rob Ford’s “gravy train” at Nathan Phillips Square. In an effort to raise a public food drive this holiday season, the “U of T Gravy Train,” left parts of the train empty for donations. Their plot was foiled, however, when a security guard spotted the train soon after its set-up. The train is now reassembled and safely parked on the lawn of King’s College Circle at U of T, where the students hope to collect more food donations. Though the train may not have been as welcomed at Nathan Phillips Square, Dean Cristina Amon was proud to see it make a stop at U of T. “On behalf of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, I congratulate you and your “train engineers” who installed the donation train on front campus. Not only an appropriate use of our students’ creative energies, the train draws support of our community members’ need for food – at a time when it is most keenly felt – and draws attention to how engineers respond to global issues such as hunger.” Read more about the Gravy Train in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Torontoistand 680 News .