The number of women getting into engineering in Canada has been on the decline, despite a decade of efforts to encourage more girls to think of technical careers. Even though women currently make up more than half of the undergraduate populations across Canada, the number of women enrolled in engineering programs dropped from a high of 21 per cent in 2001 to 17 per cent in 2009. The portion of licensed engineers in Canada who are women has grown from 7 per cent in 2000, but the figure still sits at only 10 per cent, according to Ottawa-based Engineers Canada.

“It’s still a difficult place for women to be,” says Kerry Black (CivE, 0T7), who is currently finishing her thesis for her master’s degree in civil engineering at UBC. Black, who completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, said she learned that lesson even before she began studying engineering. It wasn’t until she was connected with a female engineering professor, who became her mentor, that she really felt on track. Without that support, Black said she likely would not have stayed in the field.

Some schools are increasing the number of female faculty to provide more role models that will in turn help attract more young women to the profession. Meanwhile, much of the emphasis of both universities and industry associations is getting out the message that engineering is a helping profession.

University of Toronto and Queen’s University each report modest increases in the number of female engineering students this year. And the number of women registered in Engineer in Training programs across Canada (a mandatory prelicensing phase), is now equal to the number of female engineering graduates.

Follow the link to read the full article, including statistics, on The Globe and Mail website.

After thousands of Ontario riders petitioned GO Transit for better service more than two years ago, the regional transportation service set to work on a passenger charter to deliver customer satisfaction for its thousands of daily riders. A five-point plan was introduced.

“We start a better way to deliver what our customers want, and that is better service,” said Metrolinx president Bruce McCuaig in a news conference at Toronto’s Union Station yesterday.

Point 2 was: “We will always take your safety seriously”
“I think this is to just help people feel more at ease,” says Professor Richard Soberman, a board member for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and the former chair of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto. “It’s rare for a transit system to be less safe than driving a car.”

Point 5 was: “We will help you quickly and courteously”
“Transit systems are becoming bigger and customer orientation is a priority for transit companies,” says Professor Soberman.

Follow the link to read the full article on the National Post website.

If young Harry and friends had not cruised around Hogwarts unseen, hidden by an “invisibility cloak,” much of the hype surrounding metamaterials might itself never have seen the light of day.

But when, half a decade ago, researchers made tentative steps toward what had been considered a theoretical possibility — using an artificially structured “meta” material to manipulate light or other electromagnetic waves in ways not achievable in nature — it did not take more than a clever headline or two to make the connection to the stuff of J. K. Rowling’s wildly popular novels.

Scientists cautioned then that optical invisibility was hardly just around the corner. And that caution is repeated today. But researchers in the field point out that great strides have been made in the field of metamaterials, and there are some applications of the concept that may come into use in the next few years.

Metamaterials may help improve magnetic resonance imaging, said Professor George V. Eleftheriades (ECE), by being used in the coils that generate and detect electromagnetic fields. A metamaterial coil could improve the signal-to-noise ratio in these machines, and improve the contrast of images.

It may even be possible to use a metamaterial lens to shift the electromagnetic fields generated by the MRI machine in a difficult-to-access part of the body to a different spot where they would be more readily detected by the coil, Professor Eleftheriades said.

Follow the link to read the full article on The New York Times website.

In fictional television shows such as Dexter and CSI, patterns in blood splatters at the scene of the crime can be counted on to lead investigators to the killer. In real life, they’re a useful tool, but an imperfect one.

Scientists who have spent their careers studying the behaviours of liquids are putting forensic techniques to the test. They’re working to test the rigor of modern forensic science by improving our understanding of the secrets hidden in blood.

“There’s been a huge amount of basic research done on droplets and sprays,” said Professor Sanjeev Chandra (MIE), an engineer at the University of Toronto who helps General Motors develop better ways to spray paint its cars. “A lot of the physics is exactly the same for blood.”

In soon to be published research, Professor Chandra and his team have revisited the techniques and software packages that forensic experts have developed over the years to reconstruct the origin of blood splatters. By testing this software scientifically on splatters of pig blood in the lab, they’ve shown that there is significant room for improvement in the models, which typically use straight lines to trace the path of blood droplets a surface back to their point of origin.

“They aren’t very accurate,” said Professor Chandra. “They don’t consider the effects of gravity on blood droplets. They ignore air drag, which can be very significant.”

Follow the link to read the full article on the Fox News website.

A University of Toronto alkali-silica reaction research project led by Professor R. Doug Hooton (CivE), who holds the Industrial Research Chair in Concrete Durability and Sustainability at U of T, correlated short-term laboratory tests with long-term performance to predict concrete behaviour, which improved understanding of detrimental chemical processes in concrete. This new information was subsequently incorporated into Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) specifications to improve the quality and extend the life of concrete.

With a research investment of $29,000, MTO calculates implementation of the changed concrete standards that can add one extra year of bridge life before rehabilitation or replacement occurs–at a savings of $40,000 per structure–for an overall savings of $72 million over the life of the ministry’s 1,800 concrete bridges.

MTO included this research news in the Fall 2010 issue of its transportation technology digest, RoadTalk.

Taryn Davis (ChemE, 1T0), the Chair of the 2010 Skule™ Arts Festival, has been honoured with a University of Toronto Arts Council Award for Student Engagement. The award recognizes Davis’s contribution to the arts community within the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, where she helped establish the one-week festival for Engineering students and displayed several of her own works of art. Davis also served as a prop coordinator for Skule™ Nite 2009, an annual musical comedy review, and helped create a mural in the atrium of the Sandford Fleming Building.

“I’m delighted that Taryn has won this well-deserved award,” said Professor Grant Allen (ChemE) Vice-Dean, Undergraduate. “Her award also helps recognize the connection between engineering and the arts, both of which are creative processes. In particular, the Skule™ Arts Festival allows students to display their artwork and inspires others to also take up the arts as well, thereby fostering creativity.”

Follow the link to read the full announcement of the award recipients for 2009-2010.