A new numerical modelling tool could help improve the design and operation of intermittent water distribution systems, which supply more than a billion people around the world.
“Water distribution networks are critical infrastructure, but they are also big, expensive and buried underground,” says Omar Abdelazeem (CivMin PhD student), lead author on a new study published in Water Resources Research.
“If you want to make a change to a system like that, you can’t just try it out and see what happens. You need a computer model that can accurately predict how your changes might affect the system. That way, you can test out many different possible improvements before you start the difficult and expensive process of implementing them.”
While there are plenty of commercial models designed for water distribution networks, they all make one important assumption: once the system is turned on, it stays on 24/7. But for about 20% of customers worldwide, that’s just not the case.
“In many places around the world, due to water scarcity or other factors, water is supplied for only a few hours per day,” says Professor David Meyer (CivMin), senior author of the new paper.
“Over a billion people get their water this way. And yet these systems are almost universally designed and updated using hydraulic models that assume continuous water supply. That means they don’t account for the pipes draining and refilling, and they don’t account for the fact that customers store water in large tanks in their homes so they can have it for later use.”
Meyer and his team have done many previous studies on intermittent water systems. This includes a comprehensive review of previous attempts to build models for them, which earned them the 2025 Medal for Reproduceable Research from the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management.
Many of the examples they found in that work ultimately derived from a single source: the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM), an open-source model which was originally created by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) more than 50 years ago.
“That model was meant for stormwater, but with a little bit of work, you can adapt it for an intermittent water system that fills up and drains regularly,” says Abdelazeem.
“The problem is that different people disagreed about which parts of the model to use for what purposes. And these differences matter — we found that sometimes, values predicted by one model were thousands of times bigger or smaller than those from another.
“On top of that, many of the models were not reproduceable, meaning that even after reading the paper, you couldn’t glean enough information to build your own version.”
Building on this previous work, Abdelazeem and Meyer decided to create a new, ready-to-use model, with a Python package that enables users to implement it automatically. Dubbed SWMM for Intermittent Networks, or SWMMIN, the open-source model is available for free on GitHub.
“Our paper describes in detail how to use the model for various types of intermittent systems, and how to set up the numerical parameters to improve model performance,” says Abdelazeem.
“In addition to synthesizing the best practices from all the previous models, we also found an ideal ratio of spatial and temporal resolutions that minimizes model error.”
The team hopes that it will be used by researchers and water system operators alike to test out potential improvements to intermittent water systems all over the world.
“Ultimately, this is an attempt to model these water systems as they actually exist, rather than how we wish they existed,” says Meyer.
“We hope that people will use it to find new design principles, and that those in turn improve service for all the people who depend on these intermittent systems every day.”
Professor Bertrand Neyhouse joined the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry (ChemE) at the University of Toronto in June 2025.
His research group applies fundamental chemical and electrochemical engineering principles to design and scale up electrosynthetic processes — with the goal of deploying electrochemistry to discover innovative, sustainable methods for converting a wide range of feedstocks into valuable chemical products.
Originally from Ohio, Neyhouse earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at Ohio University, not to be confused with Ohio State. Drawn by his love of math and chemistry, he chose chemical engineering without fully knowing what it entailed — but quickly discovered its complexity and breadth. His growing curiosity led him to pursue a PhD at MIT, where he specialized in electrochemical engineering, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan to deepen and diversify his expertise.
We spoke with Neyhouse about his path to U of T, the challenges he hopes to tackle, and his approach to teaching and life beyond the lab.
What initially sparked your interest in electrochemical engineering?
I actually tripped and fell into electrochemical engineering as a first-year undergraduate. Research sounded interesting, so on a whim, I reached out to the Center for Electrochemical Engineering Research and ended up interviewing the next day.
From there, I had the chance to conduct undergraduate research spanning wastewater treatment, microbial sensors and carbon dioxide conversion. My mentors, Gerri Botte and Travis White, really inspired me — they showed me just how versatile, applied and fascinating this field can be.
How have your past experiences shaped your career path?
Growing up, I always thought I’d want to be a teacher. But when I started applying to universities, I leaned toward engineering to apply my love for math and chemistry to real-world technical challenges. You can imagine my excitement when I got to Ohio University and realized professors get to do both: teach and lead research.
I was fortunate to have instructors who were deeply passionate about chemical engineering education, setting examples I’ve aspired to follow ever since. That inspiration has guided me in pursuing this path and in my commitment to guiding the next generation of chemical engineers.
What drew you to U of T?
Beyond U of T’s reputation for high-impact research, I was especially drawn to the department’s strong commitment to sustainability. Even more compelling is how we tackle complex global challenges from a truly diverse range of perspectives — from microbiology and biochemical engineering to electrochemistry, catalysis and environmental science.
The collaborative research culture really stood out to me as well: it provides a strong foundation for combining expertise across disciplines to develop practical solutions to big sustainability problems.
Are there specific challenges in your field that you’re eager to address?
Absolutely! Right now, there’s an explosion of interest in electrochemistry, and researchers are exploring a wide range of new chemical transformations. But many of these leading-edge developments are only tested at small batch scales, so we don’t know enough about how viable they’d be for industry.
My work aims to bridge these gaps by applying fundamental electrochemical engineering principles to design scalable chemical manufacturing pathways — ultimately leading to generalizable knowledge that supports process innovation.
How do you see your research contributing to the department’s broader goals?
My research is closely tied to sustainability and will help expand the department’s focus on cleaner chemical manufacturing, waste valorization and energy storage.
Ultimately, I hope my work contributes to building a more sustainable future by reducing environmental impact, conserving natural resources and slowing the progression of climate change.
How do you approach teaching, and what strategies do you use to engage students?
I want students to see the potential application behind every problem they approach. Chemical engineering fundamentals can sometimes feel abstract or aimless, but grounding them in real-world contexts helps give students focus and purpose.
I also like to give students space to discuss new ideas and example problems together before we work through them as a class. That reflection helps them identify what they understand — and where they might need to dig deeper — rather than just listening passively to a flow of information.
In terms of bringing research into the classroom, electrochemical technologies are really just specialized applications of chemical engineering; meaning there are rich examples that can be readily applied throughout the traditional chemical engineering curriculum.
What do you enjoy outside of work?
I’m typically up for anything — which means I have found myself with a lot of hobbies! I like to spend my free time hanging out with family and friends, hiking, camping, cycling, cooking, playing video and board games, watching and playing sports, exploring Toronto and traveling.
How do you balance your professional life with your personal interests?
I recognize and value the importance of balance in maintaining both a strong professional drive and a fulfilling personal life, so I’m intentional about setting aside time for family, friends and hobbies. It also helps that chemical engineering itself is a personal passion — when you love what you do, it often doesn’t feel like work!
Do any of your hobbies inspire your work?
Definitely. My passion for sustainability is closely tied to my love of nature — hiking, camping, cycling and traveling all remind me of what’s at stake. To protect the beautiful world (and country) we call home, we must find innovative ways to leverage resources and preserve our environment. This motivates me to keep pushing for cleaner, more sustainable technologies.
An international partnership between U of T Engineering and several South Korean institutions will leverage AI to enhance manufacturing across the value chain — from material synthesis to quality control.
On July 28, officials from the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) and the Korea Automotive Technology Institute (KATECH) visited U of T Engineering to celebrate the opening of a new research centre and discuss future collaboration.
The new centre, named AI in Manufacturing (AIM), is one of eight Global Industrial Technology Cooperation Centers (GITCC) around the world, and the only one in Canada.
The AIM GITCC at U of T will be led by Professor Chi-Guhn Lee (MIE), with a scientific committee of three co-directors: Professors Chul Park (MIE), Yu Sun (MIE) and Seungjae Lee (CivMin).
“The research teams involved in this new centre have expertise in everything from material synthesis and manufacturing to data analytics and AI,” says Chi-Guhn Lee.
“This enables us to cover all stages of the manufacturing value chain — from raw materials all the way through to quality control.”
Lee and his team apply machine learning and optimization methods to improve manufacturing processes and supply chain systems more broadly.
He gives the example of an automotive assembly line designed to produce one new car every 37 seconds.
“What that means in practice is that every step in the manufacturing process has to happen in that time, which they call the ‘tick time,’” says Lee.
“But if you have, let’s say, 200 welding points in the car, you can’t do all of them in that time, so you have to split it up among different welding stations. How many you use depends on lots of different factors: your budget, the amount of available welding equipment, the cost of fuel, your floor space, worker schedules, etc. It gets complicated very quickly, but finding the optimal mathematical solution is what we do in my lab.”
Lee says that the rise of AI is enabling mathematical optimization research to take on even more challenges than ever before.
“We can now process images and video clips from monitoring cameras to get data that feeds into our optimization models. We can also convert our findings back into natural language using large language models such as ChatGPT,” says Lee.
“These new tools enable us to cover the entire process of manufacturing from end to end: material synthesis, processing, automation, robotics, system monitoring and control. It will also make it much easier for operators and practitioners to put our findings to use.”
Over the next few months, Lee and his team plan to work with manufacturers in South Korea to put together proposals for individual research projects that will be funded through the new AIM initiative.
The results could improve efficiency and lower costs across several manufacturing-intensive sectors, from the automotive industry to consumer electronics.
“Working with U of T on the AIM initiative is not only a natural extension of our long-standing R&D partnerships with Canada, but also a strategic opportunity to co-develop technologies that will define the future of key industries,” says Sungjin Baik, Director General for International Cooperation, KIAT.
“Their deep technical expertise, combined with a strong understanding of industry needs, makes them exceptional collaborators. Under their guidance, the GITCC at the University of Toronto will become a critical hub for connecting Korean industries with cutting-edge research in Canada.”
Markus Bussmann, chair of MIE, says that the AIM GITCC builds on the success of previous collaborations with South Korea in AI-related initiatives.
“We’re very pleased to further strengthen our mutually beneficial collaborations in this fast-growing sector,” says Bussmann.
“Through these partnerships, we are enhancing our research impact, providing students with valuable global perspective and creating value for the economies of both Canada and South Korea.”
A new material developed by researchers from U of T Engineering could offer a safer alternative to the non-stick chemicals commonly used in cookware and other applications.
The new substance repels both water and grease about as well as standard non-stick coatings — but it contains much lower amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a family of chemicals that have raised environmental and health concerns.
“The research community has been trying to develop safer alternatives to PFAS for a long time,” says Professor Kevin Golovin (MIE), who heads the Durable Repellent Engineered Advanced Materials (DREAM) Laboratory at U of T Engineering.
“The challenge is that while it’s easy to create a substance that will repel water, it’s hard to make one that will also repel oil and grease to the same degree. Scientists had hit an upper limit to the performance of these alternative materials.”
Since its invention in the late 1930s, Teflon — also known as polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE — has become famous for its ability to repel water, oil and grease alike. Teflon is part of a larger family of substances known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
PFAS molecules are made of chains of carbon atoms, each of which is bonded to several fluorine atoms. The inertness of carbon-fluorine bonds is responsible for the non-stick properties of PFAS.
However, this chemical inertness also causes PFAS to resist the normal processes that would break down other organic molecules over time. For this reason, they are sometimes called ‘forever chemicals.’
In addition to their persistence, PFAS are known to accumulate in biological tissues, and their concentrations can become amplified as they travel up the food chain.
Various studies have linked exposure to high levels of PFAS to certain types of cancer, birth defects and other health problems, with the longer chain PFAS generally considered more harmful than the shorter ones.
Despite the risks, the lack of alternatives means that PFAS remain ubiquitous in consumer products: they are widely used not only in cookware, but also in rain-resistant fabrics, food packaging and even in makeup.
“The material we’ve been working with as an alternative to PFAS is called polydimethylsiloxane or PDMS,” says Golovin.
“PDMS is often sold under the name silicone, and depending on how it’s formulated, it can be very biocompatible — in fact it’s often used in devices that are meant to be implanted into the body. But until now, we couldn’t get PDMS to perform quite as well as PFAS.”
To overcome this problem, MIE PhD student Samuel Au developed a new chemistry technique that the team is calling nanoscale fletching. The technique is described in a paper published in Nature Communications.
“Unlike typical silicone, we bond short chains of PDMS to a base material — you can think of them like bristles on a brush,” says Au.
“To improve their ability to repel oil, we have now added in the shortest possible PFAS molecule, consisting of a single carbon with three fluorines on it. We were able to bond about seven of those to the end of each PDMS bristle.
“If you were able to shrink down to the nanometre scale, it would look a bit like the feathers that you see around the back end of an arrow, where it notches to the bow. That’s called fletching, so this is nanoscale fletching.”
Au and the team coated their new material on a piece of fabric, then placed drops of various oils on it to see how well it could repel them. On a scale developed by the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, the new coating achieved a grade of 6, placing it on par with many standard PFAS-based coatings.
“While we did use a PFAS molecule in this process, it is the shortest possible one and therefore does not bioaccumulate,” says Golovin.
“What we’ve seen in the literature, and even in the regulations, is that it’s the longest-chain PFAS that are getting banned first, with the shorter ones considered much less harmful. Our hybrid material provides the same performance as what had been achieved with long-chain PFAS, but with greatly reduced risk.”
Golovin says that the team is open to collaborating with manufacturers of non-stick coatings who might wish to scale up and commercialize the process. In the meantime, they will continue working on even more alternatives.
“The holy grail of this field would be a substance that outperforms Teflon, but with no PFAS at all,” says Golovin.
“We’re not quite there yet, but this is an important step in the right direction.”
Professor Alex Mihailidis (BME) has been named a Chevalier (knight) of the Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French Republic, recognizing his distinguished contributions to education, science, and international academic collaboration.
The Ordre des Palmes académiques is one of the oldest civil honours bestowed by the French government, originally established by Napoleon in 1808 to recognize eminent members of the University of Paris. Reformed into its current structure in 1955, the order now honours individuals worldwide for their service to the advancement of education and scholarship. With this award, Mihailidis joins a global community of more than 4,500 knights.
Mihailidis is the associate vice-president for international partnerships at the University of Toronto and the Scientific Director of AGE-WELL, Canada’s technology and aging network. He holds academic appointments in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, with a cross-appointment to the Department of Computer Science.
For more than 24 years, Mihailidis has led interdisciplinary research at the intersection of aging, artificial intelligence and assistive technology. His work focuses on developing smart systems to support older adults, including tools for dementia care, fall detection and independent living. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications and helped build strategic research partnerships between academia and industry. Recently, AGE-WELL has partnered with IKEA and the University of Toronto to launch the Innovation Studio, dedicated to aging-in-place technologies.
In addition to his research, Mihailidis is active in professional and policy circles. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, where he also served as President. In 2022, the United Nations recognized him among the Healthy Ageing 50, a group of global leaders working to improve the lives of seniors.
“Alex’s work exemplifies the impact biomedical engineering can have on society,” says Professor Milos Popovic, Director of BME.
“This recognition from the French government is well-deserved, and we are proud to see his global leadership acknowledged at the highest levels.”
Several members of the University of Toronto community have been recognized with the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honour, in the latest round of appointments and promotions announced June 30, 2025.
Among the 83 individuals, recognized for their sustained and extraordinary contributions to Canada, are BME professor Tom Chau, ECE Professor Emeritus Adel Sedra, and alumnus Nathan Leipciger (ECE 5T5, Hon LLD 2019).
“The work of U of T Engineering professors Tom Chau and Adel Sedra, as well as alumnus Nathan Leipciger, has enriched our communities and our country, by breaking down barriers for children and youth, and inspiring future generations,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip.
“On behalf of the faculty, heartfelt congratulations on receiving one of the nation’s most distinguished honours.”
Chau has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honours. Appointment as an Officer recognizes achievement and merit of a high degree, especially service to Canada or to humanity at large.
Chau is a senior scientist at Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, and a professor in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. His lab discovers, designs and evaluates novel pathways through which people can communicate and interact with their environment in the absence of speech and gestures.
Chau’s work has creatively leveraged emerging methods at the intersection of electrical engineering, machine learning and neuroscience to directly tackle the physical inability to communicate. He is a lead inventor of more than a dozen patents on medical and assistive devices, which have given children and youth with disabilities the ability to communicate independently for the first time.
For example, Chau developed the Hummingbird, a device which detects intentional vibration of the vocal cords and converts these vibrations into digital signals to allow those who are non-verbal to communicate through technology. In addition, his award-winning Virtual Music Instrument has provided unprecedented bedside access to music and music therapy.
For individuals entirely without motor control, Chau’s team developed near-infrared spectroscopic brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which can decode preferences, emotional state, mental arithmetic, music imagery and language tasks, simply by monitoring brain activity.
His lab proposed the first ever ultrasonic BCI, facilitating typing with mental activity alone. He also published the first auditory-tactile BCI, affording communication to children with severe impairments who have no functional vision, a challenge that eluded clinicians and scientists for decades.
In 2018, Chau received a Governor General’s Innovation Award and was appointed to the Order of Ontario. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2023.
Sedra, former U of T vice-president and provost and chair of what is now the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, was appointed an Officer for his academic leadership and influential work on microelectronics and circuits.
He received a BSc degree from Cairo University, Egypt, in 1964, and his MASc and PhD degrees from the University of Toronto in 1968 and 1969 respectively. He joined the faculty of the University of Toronto in 1969, rising to the rank of Professor in 1978.
With the late Professor Emeritus K.C. Smith (ECE), Sedra co-authored Microelectronic Circuits, the best-selling engineering textbook first published in 1982. It is a classic of its genre, receiving widespread praise for the richness of its problems and the expressiveness of its prose. To date, the book has gone through eight editions, sold more than a million copies and been translated into nearly a dozen different languages.
A permanent exhibition at U of T’s Myhal Centre holds several editions and translations of Microelectronic Circuits, along with other memorabilia celebrating the legacy of the textbook.
He joined University of Waterloo in 2003 as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Leipciger, who earned a degree in electrical engineering from U of T in 1955 and received an honorary degree in 2019, was named a Member of the Order of Canada for his decades of Holocaust education efforts.
A dedicated educator with the March of the Living for more than 30 years, he has mentored thousands of students on the dangers of bigotry and intolerance, and has inspired thousands more with his personal story of resilience, love and forgiveness.
Born in Poland in 1928, Leipciger endured three months in the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp as a teenager — losing his mother and sister. He and his father Jack were also sent to numerous other concentration camps before the war ended in 1945.
The pair immigrated to Toronto in 1948, where the younger Leipciger attended high school before going on to earn his degree from U of T. He soon forged a successful career, founding a consulting engineering firm in 1962, until it was sold to Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin in 2007.
He also served on the board of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland for many years, guiding scores of people – from high school students to world leaders like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – through the museum and former concentration camp site.
In recent years, he has also collaborated with Indigenous leaders and survivors of Canadian residential schools to highlight the common threads that run through systemic oppression and genocide, and to urge audiences to practice acceptance and respect.