Research news

Learn more about the latest discoveries and innovations from the U of T Engineering community. Our researchers are developing new ways of capturing and storing clean energy, medical devices that can save and extend lives, smarter ways to design and build cities and much more.

Professors Lisa Austin (Faculty of Law) and David Lie (ECE) — photographed before the COVID-19 pandemic — are part of a multidisciplinary team behind a new global study that explores the privacy expectations and behaviour of smartphone users. (Photo: Jessica MacInnis)

Privacy study sheds light on why we grant or deny app requests

July 27, 2021

U of T Engineering professor led a multidisciplinary team behind a new global study that explores the privacy expectations and behaviour of smartphone users

In many areas of Delhi, India, households use water pumps like these to pull water out of the pipes faster than it would otherwise flow from their local utility. A new study suggests that contrary to what is commonly believed, these pumps don’t always have a strong effect on average water quality. (Photo: David Meyer)

Consumer pumps not the worst of Delhi’s water woes

July 19, 2021

Household water pumps are a quirky feature of many urban water systems around the world. Utility operators hate them, and in many places they have been made illegal, yet their use remains widespread. A new study authored by Professor David Meyer (CivMin, ISTEP) looks at how these pumps affect water quality — and it contains some […]

Zeus is Chevolet Bolt retrofitted to become a self-driving vehicle by a team of U of T Engineering students and researchers. Professor Steven Waslander (UTIAS) and his collaborators are leading a new project that will transform Toronto into a global hub for research and development related to autonomous driving in winter. (Photo: aUToronto)

WinTOR: New partnership will train self-driving cars to handle tough winter conditions

July 6, 2021

U of T Engineering joins with four leading companies to develop new technologies to make autonomous vehicles more resilient in the face of snow, ice and other challenges

Professor Parham Aarabi (ECE) is one of a group of AI experts behind HALT AI, a U of T service that tests for bias in AI systems across a variety of diversity dimensions, such as gender, age and race. (Photo: Johnny Guatto)

New U of T initiative to assess bias in AI systems

June 25, 2021

U of T service measures the performance of AI algorithms across diverse inputs, such as gender, age and race.

SmartSpouts — low-cost sensors embedded in these water filters — can track when and for how long the spigot is open. More than 200 of them have been successfully deployed in a radomized controlled trial in South Africa's Limpopo Province. (Photo: David Meyer)

This low-cost smart sensor can help optimize interventions to improve water quality and public health

June 17, 2021

Data gathered from large-scale field trials can indicate which technologies or social interventions provide maximum benefit

Professors Elodie Passeport (CivMin, ChemE) and Ya-Huei (Cathy) Chin (ChemE) have both received renewed Canada Research Chairs.

Renewed Canada Research Chairs will power research into green chemistry and environmental remediation

June 15, 2021

Professors Elodie Passeport (CivMin, ChemE) and Ya-Huei (Cathy) Chin (ChemE) have both received renewed Canada Research Chairs

Zeus, a self-driving electric car created by a team of students from U of T Engineering, parked outside the MarsDome at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. The team has placed first in the intercollegiate Autodrive Challenge the last four years in a row. (Photo: Chude Qian)

AutoDrive Challenge™: U of T Engineering places first for the fourth straight year

June 15, 2021

A team of more than 70 undergraduate and graduate students has designed and built an award-winning autonomous electric vehicle

A device developed at U of T's Institute of Biomedical Engineering makes use of an ordinary smartphone camera to rapidly detect COVID-19. (Image courtesy Johnny Zhang and Ayden Malekjahani)

Researchers develop a quantum dot smartphone device to diagnose and track COVID-19

June 14, 2021

Researchers at the University of Toronto (Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research) in collaboration with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Public Health Ontario, and Mt. Sinai Hospital have engineered a diagnostic test that makes use of a smartphone camera to surveil and track COVID-19 patients. This finding could […]

Professor Paul Santerre (pictured) is the University of Toronto’s corresponding author for this new study, and the first author, Dr. Kyle Battiston, is a recent graduate of Dr. Santerre’s lab and BME alumni. The co-industry lead author is a University of Toronto alumni, Dr. Wendy Naimark (Chief Technology officer for Ripple Therapeutics).

New method can improve drug delivery in implants

May 27, 2021

A biomaterial discovery yields better control over drug release profiles in implants.

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