University of Toronto spinoff company Interface Biologics Inc. has announced the signing of an evaluation and exclusive license option agreement with Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s largest integrated provider of dialysis products and services. Under the agreement, Fresenius Medical Care will evaluate the use and efficacy of IBI’s EndexoTM technology to various components of Fresenius Medical Cares’ dialysis circuits for treating end-stage renal disease, including dialyzers and blood lines. Following the completion of this evaluation, Fresenius Medical Care can exercise an option to obtain an exclusive, worldwide license to incorporate IBI’s EndexoTM technology in dialysis circuits used for treatment of chronic kidney disease patients in all patient care settings.

Interface Biologics was founded by Professor Paul Santerre, Director of the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), based on his groundbreaking work on improving the biocompatibility of medical implants. The company has hired several U of T graduates, and has Faculty of Medicine professors on its advisory teams, along with Prof. Santerre as Chief Scientific Officer. In July 2005, Interface Biologics moved into Toronto’s MaRS Innovation Centre.

This is Interface Biologics’s third agreement finalized over the past six months; the company’s first products were PICC catheter lines which are now undergoing Food and Drug Administration regulatory procedures and are anticipated to be on the market in early 2011.

Follow the link to read the announcement on Interface Biologics Inc.’s website.

The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH) has presented its 2010 Maurice Wilkes Award to Professor Andreas Moshovos (ECE) for his contributions to the development of memory-dependence prediction. This technique, used by high-performance microprocessors that execute memory-access operations, provides many applications in boosting memory-system performance and reducing processor-design complexity. The award, which carries a prize of $2,500, was presented at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) in St. Malo, France, in June.

Professor Moshovos leads the University of Toronto’s AENAO research group, which is developing performance- and power-related technologies for single- and multi-core processors. His contributions to memory-dependence prediction represent a novel solution to the decades-old problem of memory aliasing in which a data location in memory can be accessed through different symbolic names in the program. As a result, aliasing makes it particularly difficult to understand, analyze and optimize programs.

“We are extremely proud that the Association for Computing Machinery has recognized Professor Moshovos’s outstanding contributions to memory-dependence prediction,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “This honour confirms the global impact of the research being conducted at the Faculty and the outstanding reputation our professors have earned.”

As a professor at Northwestern University in Illinois, Professor Moshovos received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation in 2000. He also won the IBM Faculty Partnership awards in 2008 and 2009, and was selected by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for Micro Top Pick paper awards in 2005 and 2010. With colleagues from the University of Toronto, he was granted a Semiconductor Research Corporation Inventor Recognition Award. Professor Moshovos graduated from the University of Heraklion, Greece with an undergraduate degree and an M.S., and was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Maurice Wilkes Award, the only mid-career award offered by ACM SIGARCH, is given annually for an outstanding contribution to computer architecture made by an individual in a computer-related profession for 20 years or less.  It is named in honor of Maurice Wilkes, a recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award in 1967, who is best known as the builder and designer of the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), the first computer with an internally stored program.

Follow the link to read the article on Dr. Dobb’s, and to read the press release on InfoTech News.

Flight-testing is scheduled to begin in 2011 on a morphed wing prototype for unmanned air vehicles using in-built shape memory alloy actuators that deform the shape of the wing when heated.

The prototype is being developed by MIE on behalf of Singaporean defence research and development institution DSO National Laboratories.

“The major difference to the traditional discrete morphed wing design that uses flaps and ailerons with excessive complexity and weight penalty is that we’re using smart materials such as shape memory alloys,” says Professor Shaker Meguid (MIE), who is heading the research program.

“We … instruct the wing to sweep backwards and achieve very high rates of deformation and change in area, even though the actuators undergo very small deformations. Furthermore, the actuators constitute part of the wing spar structure – this is the ingenuity of our new design.”

Evelyn Mukwedeya (EngSci 1T0+PEY) has taken another award, this time the William Peyton Hubbard Memorial Award. Mukwedeya, who took the CEMF women in engineering award in April, accepted her new award at a luncheon in Toronto on July 15th, hosted by Laura Formusa, President and CEO of Hydro One.

In 1992, Ontario Hydro established educational awards for black university and college students in recognition of William Peyton Hubbard (1842-1935), the son of a freed slave from Virginia who was first elected to Toronto City Council in 1894. During a career that spanned 20 years, he served as the city’s first black Alderman, Controller and Acting Mayor. Among his many achievements was his unwavering support for the development and public ownership of hydroelectric power, amidst strong opposition by Toronto’s powerful business community.

Hubbard’s leadership and commitment led Sir Adam Beck, regarded as the “father” of Ontario Hydro, to consider him as his strongest ally of the public power movement. Together they made a formidable team. Beck fought for public ownership province-wide, while Hubbard took the lead on the municipal level. In 1907, Hubbard’s efforts were realized when the Toronto City Council approved the development and public control of hydroelectric power.

Since May 2000, Ontario Hydro’s successor company, Hydro One, has continued to support black students through scholarships honouring the achievements of William Peyton Hubbard. The academic awards have been granted annually to two black students (where possible, one male and one female) studying power industry-related disciplines at a recognized Ontario university or community college. The recipients are also offered a work term or summer employment at Hydro One.

Automatic Identification System Satellite 1 (AISSat-1) was successfully launched on Monday, July 12 from Sriharikota, India. AISSat-1 is a ship detection satellite built by the UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) for the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. The satellite houses an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver developed by Kongsberg Seatex of Norway. The satellite is intended to demonstrate the detection and monitoring of ships in Norwegian territorial waters.

AISSat-1 was launched with a Swiss nanosatellite, TIsat-1, under the cluster name “Nanosatellite Launch Service 6 (NLS-6).” Both satellites were ejected successfully from their launch vehicle using XPOD separation systems developed by SFL. Contact was made with AISSat-1 a few hours after launch confirming that the satellite power and thermal status was good, and that the satellite was healthy.

AISSat-1 is based on SFL’s Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB), a versatile, multipurpose bus with three-axis pointing capability. GNB satellites weigh seven kilograms and are 20x20x20cm in size. The GNB represents state-of-the-art Canadian nanosatellite technology, and is one generation in advance of the technology flying on CanX-2, another SFL nanosatellite currently in its third year of operations. The GNB will also support upcoming missions including BRITE Constellation and the CanX-4&5 formation flying mission. GNB technology is also the basis for third-generation NEMO (Nanosatellite for Earth Monitoring and Observation) class missions, involving 15 kilogram, 20x20x40cm satellite platforms such as NEMO-AM, an aerosol-monitoring mission for the Government of India.

Follow the links to read the news release from the Indian Space Research Organization, and articles on the Spaceflight Now.

U of T Engineering professors have been awarded four out of 31 new research grants offered through Canada’s Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) program, an initiative of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research  (CIHR). Faculty recipients are:

• Professor Moshe Eizenman (IBBME), awarded $353,597 over three years for research on objective assessment of visual acuity in pre-verbal subjects;
• Professor Andrew Avi Goldenberg (MIE), awarded $375,000 over three years for research on MRI-guided focal ablation of prostate cancerous tissue;
• Professor Milica Radisic (IBBME, ChemE), awarded $444,765 over three years for research on tissue-engineered patches for the repair of cardiovascular congenital malformations; and,
• Professor Craig A. Simmons (MIE), awarded $465,255 over three years for research on microfluidic drug screening in complex vascular microenvironments.

Twelve universities across Canada will benefit from the CHRP grants, valued at $13 million, which the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology) announced  on July 8, 2010 in Vancouver. Three other U of T professors will also receive the grants.

Follow the links to read the government press release announcing the grants, and the story on the University of Toronto home page, as well as on the Laboratory Product News website.