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ChemE Professor Levente Diosady has received the Babcock-Hart Award from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). This honour is awarded annually to a member of the IFT whose contributions to food technology have resulted in improved public health through nutrition or more nutritious food. The award is named after agricultural chemists Stephen Babcock and Edwin Hart who together devised the “single-grain experiment,” which was the start of modern nutritional science.

Professor Diosady is one of Canada’s leading food engineers. His research has improved vegetable oil processing, edible-oil refining, micronutrient fortification and meat curing. Over the past 15 years, Professor Diosady has worked to develop techniques for fortifying staple foods such as salt, sugar and rice with micronutrients to combat vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which adversely affect some two billion people worldwide. His research has led to cost-effective and easy-to-maintain solutions to micronutrient deficiencies, such as anaemia, in developing nations.

A triple alumnus of U of T, Professor Diosady was inducted into our Hall of Distinction in 2004. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Chemical Institute of Canada and the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Order of Ontario.

“Professor Diosady exemplifies our Faculty’s mission to apply innovative engineering solutions to global problems,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “I am delighted that he continues to be recognized for his outstanding achievements in food engineering.”

Professor Diosady will be recognized at the IFT’s Annual Meeting and Food Expo in Chicago on July 17, 2010.

Professor Yu Sun (MIE) has been awarded the 2010 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society’s (IEEE RAS) Early Career Award, for contributions in enabling microrobotic and MEMS technologies for automated cell manipulation and characterization in cell biology and clinical applications. This award is bestowed on individuals in the early stage of their career, who have made an identifiable contribution or contributions which have had a major impact on the robotics and/or automation fields. Professor Sun is the first Canadian researcher to win this award since its establishment in 1999.

Yu Sun holds the Canada Research Chair in Micro and Nano Engineering Systems. His research focuses on the manipulation and characterization of single cells, biomolecules and nanomaterials using microelectrical mechanical systems (MEMS). While he only received his PhD in 2003, he has already published over 50 articles in refereed journals and 69 refereed conference publications. His research has also resulted in ten patents and two spin-off companies. Professor Sun is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Fellow of CSME. In 2009, he received the McLean Award for early career research from the University of Toronto.

“I am delighted that Professor Sun has been honoured by IEEE RAS for his contributions to cell characterization using MEMS technologies,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “Recognition by this prestigious international society demonstrates the global impact that he and many of our other early career researchers are already making.”

PhD candidates Lana Olague of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and Michelle Ye-Chen Xu (ECE) from The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received international recognition from two organizations for their contributions to the field of engineering.

Zonta International awarded Lana Olague with the prestigious Amelia Earhart Fellowship. Lana conducts research in the area of aerodynamic shape optimization under the supervision of UTIAS Director and Professor David Zingg. Amelia Earhart Fellowships have been awarded to hundreds of women from 59 countries and total over $7 million. Previous Fellows have gone on to defy stereotypes, working on innovative research as scientists and engineers. Zonta International, a global organization of executives and professionals, advances the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.

Michelle Ye-Chen Xu received an Educational Scholarship in Optical Science and Engineering from the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Under the supervision of Vice-Dean of Research and Professor Stewart Aitchison and Professor Gilbert Walker, Michelle is engineering cancer-diagnostic hand-held devices, using nano-grating surface plasmon (SP) sensors and nano-pillar photonics crystal (PC) sensors to improve early detection of cancer. In 2010, SPIE will award $323,000 in scholarships to 137 outstanding students around the world based on their potential for long-range contribution to optics and photonics, or a related discipline.

Olivier Trescases from The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with Chris Lea, director of facilities at Hart House and David Berliner, Hart House’s sustainability coordinator, took home one of three Green Innovation Awards at the Green Toronto Awards ceremony on April 23.

Their idea, Green Gym: Harvesting Energy from Exercise Equipment, looked at the energy people wasted while using exercise equipment and how that energy could be harvested as a green power source.

The award comes with $10,000 in grant money to fund development of an energy-harvesting exercise bicycle, funded by the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Foundation.

Please follow the link(s) below to read more about this innovative project:

The winning team (from left): Huda Idrees (MIE), Hubert Ka (ECE), Layan Kutob (MIE) and Kazem Kutob (TrackOne).

A team comprised of four U of T Engineering students took first prize in the first-ever Google Case Challenge at the Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference 2010 held in April. Huda Idrees (MIE, 1T2), Hubert Ka (ECE, 1T2), Kazem Kutob (TrackOne, 1T3) and Layan Kutob (MIE, 1T2), beat out 23 other Canadian engineering teams with their “Google Voice to Voice” proposal, a real-time language translator application for the Android smart-phone that allows users to speak to one another in different languages.

The Google Case Challenge asked teams to create an innovative product proposal with monetization potential for one of Google’s many software platforms. The selection of the Android operating system was not disclosed until April 29, the first day of the competition. At that time, students were given two hours to brainstorm a proposal and create a product pitch. Judges shortlisted the teams based on the quality of their three-minute product pitch. During the last day of competition, judges scored each team’s final 10-minute presentation on the merits of product definition, engineering, strategy and marketing.

The U of T team credits the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering for “setting such high standards that allow students to excel in their field of interest.” The team also thanked their professors for encouraging them to “explore many different fields of knowledge, allowing [them] to dream big and work hard to achieve [their] dreams, vision and goals.”

What’s next for this winning team of future engineers? Layan Kutob sums it up as “a dream come true.” Not only did they win technological gear from Google, the real prize is the opportunity to interview for positions, at Google, within their chosen area of expertise.

Brendan Frey from The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Benjamin Blencowe from the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto unveiled a groundbreaking “Enigma machine” program that can decode genetic messages.

In a paper published on May 6 in the journal Nature entitled, “Deciphering the Splicing Code,” Frey and Blencowe describe how a hidden code within DNA explains one of the central mysteries of genetic research – namely how a limited number of human genes can produce a vastly greater number of genetic messages. The discovery bridges a decade-old gap between our understanding of the genome and the activity of complex processes within cells and could one day help predict or prevent diseases such as cancers and neurodegenerative disorders.

Please follow the links below to read full articles on this groundbreaking research: