Protecting our water: Q & A with CivE professor Jennifer Drake
The University of Toronto is home to many experts who study how cities can be improved. One aspect of cities that may be taken for granted is one of the most important: water supply. At U of T, water conservation efforts have been underway since the 1970s. For example, underground cisterns on the downtown campus […]
Students design innovative, low-cost solution for tricky tracheal intubation
A piece of string, a $1 spring and some 3D-printed plastic – it doesn’t sound like much. Yet, when brilliantly combined, these items can make a new tracheal intubation guide system for hard-to-intubate patients costing under $20. It’s an innovative design that has netted its designers, then-fourth-year engineering students Qian (Linda) Liu (EngSci 1T3 + […]
Engineering safer drugs and skin grafts with Grand Challenges Canada grants
In Canada, the pharmaceutical drugs we find at the pharmacy are rarely cause for concern. We don’t worry about what has been added or if they’ve turned toxic because of improper storage. But according to researchers at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), other areas of the world aren’t so fortunate – and […]
Engineering energy-efficient lighting
Doing more with less is the future of lighting. As smart novel lighting technologies use less energy to shine brighter, it’s also a trend that flipping the switch in homes and businesses around the world. It’s known as smart sustainable lighting, and researchers from the University of Toronto are leading the charge in design and […]
Six ways sustainable lighting transforms cities, health, business and the environment
Walk into a hardware store these days and you’ll find more varieties of light bulbs than ever before. Some look strange and cost more than traditional incandescent bulbs, but these energy-efficient, “green” lighting solutions – and others still in development – are helping to drastically change our homes, our cities and our world. Light emitting […]
The world’s most energy efficient light bulb now dims without a dimmer
What if you could dim the lights across your entire house without having to buy dimming switches – and save the environment too? Thanks to the latest invention from Nanoleaf, a startup from U of T Engineering alumni, you soon can. Nanoleaf, creators of the world’s most efficient light bulb, has released a new dimmable […]
Three big ideas from the opening of U of T’s new advanced materials lab
When three-time Indy 500 winner Hélio Castroneves speeds around the track at this month’s Indy races, he’ll be driving a racecar propelled by decades of materials research that makes him faster, safer and more efficient. But with the opening of a new $20-million materials lab at the University of Toronto, the technology in Castroneves’ car […]
Using tiny technology to aid in the fight against cancer
This year’s McLean Award winner Aaron Wheeler (IBBME) believes the solution to the colossal challenge of personalizing medicine for cancer patients may be a tiny one. Funded jointly by U of T alumnus William McLean and U of T’s Connaught Fund, the $100,000 McLean Award is given annually to support outstanding basic scientific research at […]
Understanding how wounds heal
Whether you fall off your bike and scrape your knee, or knick your finger cutting onions, you know it’s only a matter of time before your injury has scabbed and healed. But what really just happened – how did your wound actually mend? Using a student-designed software program called MEDUSA, as well as a special […]
