Boundless Creativity - The Campaign for University of Toronto Engineering

The Campaign for University of Toronto Engineering

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Contents

A New Century of Challenge & Opportunity

The Campaign for Engineering

A Dynamic New Space: The Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Developing Global Engineering Leaders

Nurturing Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Advancing Information & Communications Technology

Revolutionizing Biomedical & Health Care Engineering

Reshaping the Future of Energy, Environment & Sustainability

Boundless Opportunity

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A New Century of Challenge & Opportunity

Throughout history, the world has turned to the creativity and innovation of engineers to develop the technologies and design the systems that shape our world. Engineers not only provide solutions to the world’s most complex problems, they create what didn’t exist before. From airplane turbines to automobile engines, from cellphones to the Internet, engineering is a wellspring of boundless innovation.

This is a golden age for our field—one in which engineering and applied science are driving economic development, biomedical innovation and environmental technologies. Educating tomorrow’s engineer therefore demands a strategy that combines rigorous foundational learning in engineering principles with opportunities to develop students into creators and leaders on a global scale.

The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is in a strong position to build on our teaching and research capacity. Over our 139-year history, the Faculty has earned a reputation as Canada’s leading school for engineering research, teaching and innovation. Our faculty members are among the world’s best, pushing the frontiers of engineering research in all its disciplines.

Each year, these scholars consistently garner the single largest portion of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) engineering funding and receive more than a third of all awards given to Canadian engineering schools. Our students are a diverse and talented group whose average entering marks is more than 92 per cent—the highest in Canada. These students come from every part of Canada and increasingly, from every part of the world.

Our challenge today is to build on our reputation for excellence, and firmly establish U of T Engineering as one of the world’s leading institutions for engineering education, research and innovation. We will foster excellence across all areas by empowering faculty to generate world-changing research, while educating students to lead in an increasingly interconnected world.

To do this, the Faculty is launching a fundraising effort as a cornerstone of Boundless: The Campaign for the University of Toronto. Our efforts will generate new knowledge and advance research and teaching in all engineering disciplines. It will allow us to invest in human capital by attracting the finest faculty, staff and students at both the undergraduate

and graduate level. It will also enable us to provide an environment that our scholars and students need to excel.

The campaign will focus on six key areas: developing top global engineering leaders; nurturing engineering innovation and entrepreneurship; revolutionizing biomedical engineering and human health; advancing information communications technology; and reshaping the future of energy, environment and sustainability. At the core of this campaign is the Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which will allow engineering education and research to take a significant leap forward.

Our Faculty is at a crucial point in its development, where strategic, targeted support will build on our excellence, making us one of the world’s very best engineering Faculties.

I invite you to read more about how our Faculty is working towards our goals and how, with support, we will enable our community of today’s scholars and tomorrow’s engineering leaders to build a global society of boundless innovation, creativity and economic development. We hope you will join us in our efforts.

Cristina Amon, Dean

“Educating tomorrow’s engineer demands a strategy that combines rigorous foundational learning in engineering principles with opportunities to develop students into creators and leaders on a global scale.”Dean Cristina Amon is also the Alumni Chair Professor in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. She is internationally recognized as a pioneer in fluid mechanics and heat transfer, as well as for her leadership in engineering education.

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The Campaign for Engineering

The Faculty’s campaign will focus on six key areas:


Attracting and empowering the finest faculty, staff and students depends on the Faculty’s ability to provide an environment that fosters creativity and inspires 21st-century learning and innovation. The Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a state-of-the-art facility on the St. George campus, is destined to become a landmark that will set a new standard for engineering education in Canada.


The campaign will develop unprecedented opportunities to prepare future engineering leaders to work in the new global context

The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is a cornerstone of Boundless, the University of Toronto’s $2-billion fundraising campaign. Our efforts will nurture a new generation of engineers—technically deep, globally adept and business savvy—to address some of the most pressing and complex issues of our time.

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of business. We will globalize the curriculum by embedding international issues into the Faculty’s core courses, giving students opportunities to work on major international design projects, pursue international internships and study abroad. Included in these efforts are plans to develop a more robust platform for leadership education.


Canada’s competitive advantage and our ability to address large societal issues will depend on our capacity to continue to invent, innovate and transform new ideas into practical solutions and to produce engineers whose horizons extend far beyond our national borders. Our campaign seeks support to develop innovative programs that will help bring students’ ideas to fruition and their inventions to the market place.


The world is hurtling toward a new era in information technology defined by an unprecedented volume of data communications and processing. Meaningful advances can only be made with the kind of depth and strength U of T has across all disciplines in computing and information technology, resulting in synergy and boundless innovation.


Engineering intersects the field of medicine in many ways, from engineers who are inventing methods to repair and regenerate organs to those who build economic models and mathematical predictions that are used to influence health policy. Global competition for talented students and

faculty in biomedical and health care engineering is intense; leadership in such an environment will require a strong platform of permanent funding to attract the best talent and provide them with the resources they need to flourish.


Some of the world’s leading research in sustainability takes place at U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering —research that sets us apart from others in Canada and puts us among the top faculties in the world. Our campaign will strengthen the Faculty’s research in sustainable energy, clean water, bioremediation, power systems, sustainable mining practices and urban infrastructure, helping to preserve our planet for the benefit of generations to come.

Wallberg Building

Lassonde Mining Building

Mechanical Engineering Building

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Sandford Fleming Building

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the u of t engineering Complex

Where innoVation thriVes

Bahen Centre for Information Technology

Galbraith Building

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Artist rendering


The Faculty’s new building will be a showpiece. Located next to iconic Simcoe Hall and facing onto St. George Street—a main thoroughfare—the centre is destined to become a landmark for the University of Toronto.

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The vital need for new instructional and research space is driven by two revolutionary trends. The first is a wholesale shift in our understanding of the best ways to learn and to teach. State-of-the-art educators now emphasize instruction combined with hands-on, collaborative work as the key to enhanced understanding as opposed to passive note-taking, which can result in poor information retention.

The second trend is the expansion of engineering into many different disciplines such as health care, business systems and information technology. This expansion requires engineers to be highly adept not only at working with other kinds of engineers but also with people from entirely different backgrounds. In fact, it is in these areas of overlap where

innovation is most frequently found— with specialists bringing diverse skills to the table to work on common projects.

The Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship is a much-needed response to the sweeping changes taking place in engineering. Dynamic, flexible environments will break down artificial barriers between people, foster collaboration, encourage active learning and accelerate innovation.

As befits its ambitious mandate, the Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship will be a showpiece. Located next to iconic Simcoe Hall and facing onto St. George Street— a main thoroughfare—the centre is destined to become a landmark for the University of Toronto.

The new building will include carefully planned spaces for learning, group work and research. Each of these components will help set a new standard for engineering education in Canada and position the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering among the elite in the world. These areas include:

Auditorium

A 500-seat auditorium on the ground floor of the centre will be a marquee facility, designed to optimize audience engagement. Features to promote enhanced learning include wireless communications systems that allow students to engage in a dialogue with the professor and with one another; a large stadium-style projection wall that allow a clear view of even the smallest objects

Attracting and empowering the finest faculty, staff and students depends on the Faculty’s ability to provide an environment that fosters creativity and inspires 21st-century learning and innovation.

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or experiments; theatre-quality lighting; curved tables for six people that allow for group work; and many other innovations that encourage active learning and nimble transitions between lecturing and discussion.

Learning Areas

These proposed areas go beyond the traditional lecture hall or classroom to allow for dynamic group work in addition to formal teacher-student presentation. These spaces will be critical to supporting mandatory design work in many of the courses. Select spaces will be open 24 hours a day to ensure that a group’s momentum is never lost to logistical considerations.

Design Workshops & Light Fabrication Facility

These are the spaces where ideas take shape. Tables for planning and execution of group projects surround a light fabrication facility that allows students to move easily from light machinery back to their work tables.

The Entrepreneurship Hatchery

This incubator space will be dedicated to undergraduates working on co-curricular design projects with commercialization potential. The Hatchery also supplies

an excellent venue for mentorship opportunities with business owners, venture capitalists and other relevant professionals who can help students navigate the process of taking their great ideas from concept and out into the marketplace.

An Interdisciplinary Research Cluster

The centre will house some of the Faculty’s most accomplished research centres and institutes. This multidisciplinary research cluster will help promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the building and provide exceptional opportunities for student placements and teaching.

Planned research tenants include:

Centre for Global Engineering: Educates global engineers, instilling them with global competencies; looks at creative solutions for global challenges such as sanitation, alternative energy, health costs and clean water; and focuses on adapting nimble engineering solutions from the developing world back to the developed world.

Centre for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure: Builds on U of T’s world-class reputation in structural resilience and addresses critical

infrastructure challenges facing rapidly urbanizing societies.

Centre for Sustainable Energy: Brings researchers, students and teachers from across the University together with partners from industry and government, with the goal of increasing energy efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of energy use and conversion.

Centre for Water Innovation: Develops new approaches to better stewardship of water resources from conservation to recycling of industrial water.

Engineering Entrepreneurship: Provides a nexus for U of T’s many initiatives to combine business acumen with engineering and foster an entrepreneurial mindset among tomorrow’s engineers.

Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering: Looks to build greater leadership capacity within the engineering professions by advancing leadership pedagogy within engineering streams.

Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics: Builds from innovative and rapidly developing sensing, actuation and computational capabilities to enable the development of next generation mechatronic and robotic systems that will affect almost all sectors of the economy.

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Greater economic integration and interdependence among nations and the growth of emerging economies will require us to embrace the tremendous potential of our students in two ways: first, by developing their ability to create innovative strategies that are appropriate to both local and international challenges; and second, by teaching them how to communicate their knowledge effectively so that they are positioned for global leadership.

Employers from every sector are increasingly seeking engineers with these qualities—technically adept as well as proactive, entrepreneurial and curious about the world. Individuals with these traits will be the next leaders of our global institutions.

To address this need, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is developing unprecedented opportunities for engineering leadership and education.

We are globalizing the curriculum by embedding international issues into the Faculty’s core courses, giving students opportunities to work on major international design projects, pursue international internships and study abroad. We are also developing a more robust platform for leadership education to provide students with the skills to make decisions at the highest level within organizations, to understand issues of the day and to make more significant contributions than ever before.

Our goal is to equip the engineer of tomorrow with a new range of skills to address the challenges of our emerging global society. These graduates will possess not only a strong grounding in the traditional fields of engineering, but also a broad, international perspective, enabling them to lead seamlessly across industries and institutions, cultures and continents.

The next generation of engineers are entering a world with increasingly complex challenges.

“We need to think globally, big and outside the box. Often that means looking at the concerns of developing nations.”Yu-Ling Cheng is Professor of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Global Engineering. She led a team selected to address a pressing global issue: the need to create a sustainable, safe and affordable sanitation technology for the developing world. The challenge came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which awarded the team a grant to help develop their submission. Cheng’s team went on to win third prize in the competition.

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Over the next decade, our aim is to establish the University of Toronto as one of the world’s leading centres for global engineering research, education and innovation. With the Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN), launched in 2009, we have taken great steps towards this goal. CGEN uses engineering technology and methodology to address global challenges through interdisciplinary research, education and innovation. With a mission to inspire faculty and students to think creatively about pressing global problems such as sanitation, alternative

Paul Cadario (CivE 1973) is an engineer whose integrity and organizational skills have shaped a successful career with the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he is dedicated to fighting poverty and improving the living standards of people in the developing world. Paul is a dedicated alumni volunteer who has shaped policy for the Faculty and University at large. He was recently named Distinguished Senior Fellow in Global Innovation at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Munk School for Global Affairs where he will share his experience and expertise in international development by delivering public lectures and mentoring students in the Master of Global Affairs program and at the Centre for Global Engineering.

Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN)

energy, health care and clean water, we aim to find solutions that not only work in resource-constrained areas of the world, but also have broad application in developed countries like Canada. Over the next three years, CGEN will expand its offerings, encouraging faculty members throughout engineering and across the University to engage in global issues through research and teaching. Philanthropic support is critical to CGEN’s long-term success and impact and will help position Canada as a leader in global engineering and affairs.

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U of T is home to some of the world’s finest engineering programs and our students are among the best in Canada, with outstanding technical competencies. The Faculty recognizes a need to increase our students’ ability to influence the world by applying their technical knowledge. The Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead), created in 2011, is a cornerstone of these efforts.

ILead builds on the highly successful Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow program which, since its inception

The ILead team

Back row from left: Professor Greg Evans (ChemE 1982, MASc 1984, PhD 1988), Adam Wray, Dr. David Colcleugh (ChemE 1959, MASc 1960, PhD 1962), Professor Doug Reeve (ChemE MASc 1969, PhD 1971).

Front row from left: Brian Tran, Estelle Oliva-Fisher, Patricia Sheridan (MechE 2009, MASc 2011), Dr. Robin Sacks, Annie Simpson.

in 2002, has prepared engineers for leadership roles through course work, workshops, interactive lectures and community activities. ILead takes these efforts further by expanding research in leadership pedagogy and reaching out to industry leaders to build a community of practice in engineering leadership education.

Support for ILead will accelerate our ability to offer innovative programs and initiatives, allowing U of T Engineering to be recognized nationally and

internationally as a leading educational and scholarly entity in the field of engineering leadership education. It will also allow us to enhance opportunities for student leadership development experiences, and attract faculty and industry partners.

Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead)

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Canada’s competitive advantage and our ability to address large societal issues will depend on our capacity to invent, innovate and transform new ideas into solutions and to produce engineers whose horizons extend far beyond our national borders.

In this endeavour, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering plays a critical role.

The Faculty has a long history of nurturing exceptional researchers, students and alumni entrepreneurs who have had proven success in moving their research inventions and discoveries into the marketplace. The Faculty has seen 107 companies spin off from its research between 1970 and 2011, and 361 invention disclosures made between 2007 and 2011.

Toronto is the third largest financial centre, fourth largest health sciences community and third largest bio-technology cluster in North America. More than a third of Canada’s top 100

start-up companies are headquartered in the city. This gives our students and researchers enormous capacity to move their research into marketable products and services.

Our campaign will nurture the entrepreneurial spirit of our researchers and students. We will build the tools and resources they need to bring their ideas to fruition and bring their inventions to the marketplace. We will expand opportunities for students to link with established entrepreneurs—many of them engineering alumni—who will provide exposure to the key concepts and skills they need to move across the technology-business border.

“Take risks. Anything is possible when you have the will. We are already proof of that.”Michael Serbinis (MIE MASc 2001) serves as CEO of Kobo. It was his vision for an open, global eReading service that inspired the company’s creation.

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Launched in February 2012, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery provides the tools and resources to stimulate entrepreneurship in undergraduate engineering students, encouraging innovation and creativity. By matching student teams with mentors, the Hatchery is creating a conceptual ecosystem of support where students, faculty and entrepreneurs come together in a spirit of unbridled creativity that gives students the confidence and experience they need to succeed as entrepreneurs.

Som Seif (IndE 1999) founded Claymore Investments, Inc. in 2005, leading the implementation of the company’s business development and corporate strategies until its sale to BlackRock in 2012. Som was recognized in 2011 for his vision and leadership by Caldwell Partners International with the Top 40 Under 40 award. He was the inaugural speaker at the Engineering Entrepreneur Series. “Being an entrepreneur requires a systematic and analytical approach to yourself, but it also requires a creative approach.”

Currently housed in a temporary meeting space, the Hatchery will have a permanent home in the planned Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Funding will allow the Faculty to obtain the necessary space and support for students looking to start an entrepreneurial venture, taking a product from concept to prototype. The Hatchery will provide mentoring services and support at each stage of the entrepreneurial venture, exposing students to technology, commercialization, wealth creation and business management along the way.

The Entrepreneurship Hatchery

“My goal is to have students hear stories about how the entrepreneurs navigated the issues so that they’ll believe they can do it, too.”Professor Jonathan Rose (EngSci 1980, MASc 1982, PhD 1986) co-founded Right Track CAD Corporation with then graduate student Vaughn Betz. It was purchased by Altera, and became part of the Altera Toronto Technology Centre. He also serves on the Hatchery’s Advisory Board and as Director of the Engineering Business Minor.

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Robotics and mechatronics comprise a hybrid of mechanical, electrical and computer engineering disciplines that come together to create robot-like devices that are helping us to further our understanding of the earth and beyond. Robotic devices may someday soon be an integral part of our daily lives, assisting with tasks and in the care of the elderly, disabled and chronically ill.

U of T’s Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics (IRM) will take advantage of rapidly developing sensing, actuation and computational capabilities to enable the development of next generation mechatronic and robotic systems that will affect almost all sectors of the economy.

IRM researchers believe that we are at the same point in time with robotics and mechatronics research as we were three and a half decades ago with personal computers—at the verge of moving beyond industrial settings to a ubiquitous personal consumer item. The vision is to build IRM into a Centre of Excellence in robotics and mechatronics, where our scholars will work synergistically across disciplines.

Institute for Robotics & Mechatronics

Professor Goldie Nejat (MechE 2001, PhD 2005) of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, designs and develops intelligent robots in different shapes and sizes for a number of everyday applications including health care/medical, search and rescue, security, recreation and manufacturing.

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Profiles in Innovation

Cast Connex

Carlos de Oliveira (CivE MASc 2006) was a graduate student in Civil Engineering when he came up with an idea to develop a seismic-resistant joint for buildings constructed in earthquake-prone regions. Today, he is the CEO of Cast ConneX Corporation, the North American industry leader in standardized and customized cast steel structural components for building and bridge structures. Cast ConneX offers structural engineering design and design-build services for a variety of projects across North America, including construction of New York’s new

Carlos de Oliveira (CivE MASc 2006) (right), is the CEO of Cast ConneX Corporation, the North American industry leader in standardized and customized cast steel structural components for buildings and bridge structures. Together with Michael Gray (CivE 2005, PhD 2012) (left) he developed the idea for Cast ConneX while studying at U of T.

World Trade Center 3. Cast ConneX is also part of an industry-wide coalition to prepare Haiti in the event of another major earthquake like it experienced in 2010.

At U of T, Carlos was awarded the Heffernan/Co-Steel Innovation Postgraduate Fellowship by U of T graduate Gerald Heffernan and worked under the direction of Civil Engineering professors Constantin Christopoulos and Jeff Packer. Professor Christopoulos developed the Wind-Earthquake Coupling

Damper—multiple layers of steel plates and viscoelastic polymer anchored firmly to the structural walls of skyscrapers to allow buildings to absorb the vibrational energy from the wind and even powerful jolts from earthquakes, with minimal movement and no damage. This game-changing technology has caught the attention of a prominent builder and could first be installed in a new Toronto tower by the end of 2013, allowing high-rises to be slimmer, taller and safer, while offering more leasable space.

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Breakthrough OLED Technology

A nano-material enabling technology developed by Professor Zheng-Hong Lu of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering is poised to revolutionize the multi-billion dollar flat panel display market and may even revamp the everyday light bulb.

Lu is a recognized pioneer in the field of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), light-generating devices made on thin films of transparent plastic or metal foil. They are created by sandwiching

for bendable television, computer and cellphone screens in the future.

OLEDs have not yet replaced LCDs, but a recent nanotechnology innovation by Lu will accelerate this process by dramatically improving OLED performance.

Discoveries by Professor Zheng-Hong Lu (centre), a pioneer in the field of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), have the potential to revolutionize the flat panel display and lighting industries. Together with Michael Helander (EngSci 2007)(left), Zhibin Wang (MSE MASc 2008) (right) and Jacky Qiu (MSE MASc 2011) (not pictured), Lu launched OTI Lumionics Inc., a start-up that will take the next steps toward commercializing the technology.

layers of molecules between metallic electrodes, then applying voltage to convert electrical energy into visible light. OLEDs have many advantages over conventional liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which are currently used in high-resolution, portable technologies such as cellphones and laptop computers. OLEDs are thinner, lighter and less expensive to produce. Lu’s research team was the first in Canada to construct flexible OLEDs on a variety of lightweight materials, paving the way

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Impacting Industry

Along with spinoff companies that have attracted investment and enjoyed success, many U of T faculty, students and alumni have seen their research and inventions evolve into major products from leading companies. Some examples include:

Professor Aleksandar Prodic’s research in power electronics has applications ranging from on-chip power supplies for portable devices to power management systems in hybrid and electric vehicles

to the use of power electronics in biomedical applications. His applications have been licensed and/or sold to companies such as Toshiba, Maxim, NXP and Exar.

Professor Murray Thomson’s High Temperature Combustion Gas Monitoring System has been licensed to Tenova Corporation.

Professor Sorin Voinigescu (PhD 1994)is co-founder of Peraso Technologies

Research and inventions from our Faculty members have made their way from the lab into industry through the creation of products and the development of new technology.

Inc., which is focused on developing technology to address what has become one of the biggest challenges in cellphone networks: allowing faster and higher resolution data transmission. The company has developed a chip for cellphone manufacturing companies designed to transmit data up to 50 times faster than the best systems available today. Voinigescu partnered with CMC Microsystems to develop the new chip.

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Over the last decade, computing activity has grown exponentially. By 2015, the number of devices connected to the Internet will exceed the world’s population, and internet traffic will double from today to more than a zettabyte (1 trillion gigabytes) per year. This data explosion is driven by the proliferation of mobile devices, such as cellphones and tablets.

A consequence of this new era is cloud computing, in which the data processing requirements of billions of consumer electronic devices and instruments are consolidated and shared in large-scale computer installations, so-called data centres or server farms. Cloud computing is revolutionizing how people interact, how societies function and how economic wealth will be generated.

This new era of computing is leading to a huge demand for and unsustainable

usage of electric power, thus creating the need for research in the field of Green Information Technology. Green ICT is driven by the fact that we cannot allow our computing needs to expend more and more energy. Electricity used in data centres in the United States in 2010 likely accounted for approximately two per cent of total electricity use. Data center facilities are estimated to consume up to 100 to 200 times more energy than standard office buildings. We have to make the Internet green and rethink it with sustainability in mind.

Research in information technology also includes exascale computing— a field that seeks the major improvements in software and computer technology that are required to enable the level of computer power needed to handle problems like weather forecasting and brain imaging.

With world-leading scholars that intersect communications, computer hardware and software, electronics, photonics and electromagnetics, U of T Engineering is poised to carry out great research in information and communications technology that will advance the field in new ways, while creating synergies between departments and across the University. ICT encompasses many areas of expertise from computer chips to communications algorithms to software systems to network architecture and applications. Meaningful advances can be made only with the kind of depth and strength U of T has across all disciplines in computing.

The world is hurtling toward a new era in information and communications technology (ICT) defined by an unprecedented volume of data and processing.

“I believe that we have an unprecedented opportunity to apply technology to improve the lot of humankind.”Professor Al Leon-Garcia, Canada Research Chair and distinguished professor in Application Platforms and Smart Infrastructure leads a group that is designing energy efficient, green ICT networks that respond to demand and energy availability at any given time—activity that will reduce the ICT carbon footprint by limiting dependence on carbon-intensive, conventional electricity sources.

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The Greening of Communications Technology

Cloud computing requires enormous power consumption to run the data centres where information from electronic devices such as computers, tablets and phones is stored. In the United States alone, the cost of this energy is about $10 billion a year and growing. The challenge is therefore to find ways to make computing more energy efficient. Professor Joyce Poon (EngSci 2002) (centre) of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering is looking for solutions.

As Canada Research Chair in Integrated Photonic Devices, Poon explores how data connections could be made with light instead of metal wires, a much more efficient way of transferring information. The challenge is to develop devices that are ultra-compact, high-speed and consume very little energy. Poon leads a team developing these devices, many of which are on a nano scale—hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair. In 2012, Poon was named a Top Innovator Under 35 by MIT’s Technology Review.

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Mobile internet technologies, policies and practices present some of the most pressing challenges for today’s rapidly expanding digital society. Corporations, governments and individuals alike are increasingly using digital formats, resulting in greater risk of security breaches that can lead to costly and embarrassing data loss. Digital security and privacy are therefore central to advances in mobile internet technologies and have serious implications for government policy, business practices and private citizens.

The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is a leader in addressing concerns arising from the convergence of key advances in mobile internet and digital technologies. Philanthropic investment will ensure that the department continues to attract world-leading scholars and students to explore the complex issues surrounding internet privacy.

Digital Privacy & Security in Mobile Internet Technologies

The Faculty’s Identity, Privacy and Security Initiative (IPSI) carries out pioneering interdisciplinary research, education, outreach, industry collaboration and technology transfer with emphasis on technology, policy and science. IPSI is led by Professor Dimitrios Hatzinakos.

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To address the issues in security and privacy arising from the mobile Internet and related digital technologies, policies and practices, the Faculty draws on the knowledge and perspectives of a broad spectrum of researchers.

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From tissue engineers who are discovering ways to regenerate and create organs to industrial engineers who apply mathematical models to forecast surgical wait times to mechanical and electrical engineers who design the instruments to diagnose and treat disease, engineering intersects with medicine in endless ways.

Research linking engineering and medicine opens a new vista for humanity. It has the potential to change how we think about disease, disability and old age by creating the materials of regenerative medicine and the next-generation tools and technologies that address long-standing challenges in human health.

At the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, scholars are working across the engineering disciplines and in partnership with colleagues in medicine and dentistry and U of T’s affiliated teaching hospitals to develop groundbreaking medical technologies and devices that will enable revolu-tionary ways to detect, visualize and treat disease.

We are also working in research areas that advance patient care by creating tools that help inform policy on how to operate, sustain and, ultimately, improve Canada’s health care infrastructure.

In these efforts, U of T Engineering harnesses the full power of Toronto’s health sciences network—one of the largest, most productive academic health centres in North America, consisting of nine major research hospitals, dozens of institutes and 20 community-affiliated hospitals and where annual research activity totals more than $1 billion annually. This remarkable environment allows students and faculty to plug into Canada’s preeminent health care facilities where they can further refine and apply their research in real-life settings.

“Science continues to amaze me. These discoveries are reachable in our lifetime.”Professor Milica Radisic of IBBME and the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry is an international leader in cardiovascular tissue engineering—using cells and biomaterials to build living tissue.

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For a half-century, U of T’s IBBME has been at the cutting edge of innovative collaborations between engineering and medicine. At IBBME, graduate students work with researchers to pursue high-impact research in four areas: biomaterials, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; sensory systems and rehabilitation engineering; molecular imaging and biomedical nanotechnology; and medical devices and clinical technologies. The institute is competitive with the best bioengineering programs in the world. It is home to more than 280 graduate students and is second only to

The Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering provides U of T and its clinical partner institutions with programs that deliver a comprehensive education. At the same time, IBBME performs internationally ranked research that combines clinical and innovation. IBBME Professor Molly Shoichet is recognized as a leader in neural tissue engineering.

Harvard University in number of annual publications (more than 200), and first among all publicly-funded biomedical engineering institutes. To date, 16 active start-up companies have been spun off of IBBME. We have achieved such standing with comparatively limited resources by fostering an extensive collaborative network between the departments within engineering and the health sciences network.

IBBME’s vision is to be the world’s leading biomedical engineering institute and to be recognized as having the most

Institute for Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME)

innovative combinations of teaching and research of its kind. As bioengineering programs proliferate in Canada and around the world and wealthy universities make major financial commitments to this type of research, the global competition for talented students and faculty will only intensify. Leading this field in such an environment will require a strong platform of permanent funding to attract the best talent and provide these enterprising minds with the infrastructure and resources needed for them to thrive.

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How will the health care system handle aging baby boomers? How many surgeons will Canada need in the next 20 years? How can our hospitals operate more efficiently? How can we best store and retrieve medical information? These are the kinds of questions the Centre for Research in Health Care Engineering (CRHE) is trying to answer. CRHE was launched in 2008 as a response to the immediate and compelling desire for efficiency and quality improvements in the Canadian health care system. It provides both theoretical and practical advice and support for many of today’s

Professor Michael Carter of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and founder and academic director of the Centre for Research in Health Care Engineering (centre) with PhD candidate Ali Esensoy (IndE 2005, MASc 2008), Sonia Vanderby (IndE 2003, PhD MIE 2009), PhD candidate Daphne Sniekers (MIE MASc 2005), and Professor Dionne Aleman.

most pressing problems. Focusing on the application of Industrial/Systems Engineering techniques in relation to demand and capacity modelling and resource allocation issues in the health care industry, CRHE aims to create quantitative decision support tools to help policy makers and health care leaders make better informed decisions.

The centre conducts multi disciplinary applied research in all areas related to health care engineering, including operational management, information systems engineering, and ergonomics/

Centre for Research in Health Care Engineering

human factors engineering. While our research questions are often motivated by challenges faced in member organizations, the findings advance the whole field of health care engineering and are beneficial to the academic society, as well as various health care institutions and policy making authorities.

Investment in the centre will allow researchers to have a significant impact on decisions surrounding health care resourcing and delivery across Canada.

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Sustainability touches all of our lives and engineers, especially those at U of T, are working on innovative solutions and inventions that make industry, cities and technologies more sustainable.

Some of the world’s leading research in sustainability takes place at U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

U of T engineers are at the forefront of research in sustainable and renewable energy, clean water, bioremediation, power systems, sustainable mining practices and urban infrastructure. Sustainability is about creating efficiencies, applying creativity to challenging problems, providing new opportunities and protecting our scarce and non-renewable resources. It is about invention, not rejection. And it is about embracing innovation in a way that boosts the global knowledge economy and provides economic benefits and

opportunities. Our research can also influence policy makers, institutions and the public to make informed decisions and bring about change.

Support of the Faculty’s exceptional research in such areas as the resilience of urban infrastructure, sustainable materials processing, mining innovation, energy storage, energy generation through anaerobic digestion and underground water remediation will allow us to re-imagine our built environments, preserve our planet and protect our world’s diverse species for the benefit of generations to come.

“We’re building the technologies that will power the world cleanly in the future.”Professor Ted Sargent (ECE PhD 1998) is seeking solutions one nanoparticle at a time, from diagnostic devices to paintable solar cells which could turn any surface into a sustainable energy generator.

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The complex problems of energy sustainability require interdisciplinary solutions. Researchers in U of T’s Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) are therefore working to unite the dozens of teams of researchers, educators, students and partners across the campus into one interdisciplinary research hub that can examine how Canada can improve energy efficiency and manage our carbon emissions.

Philanthropic support and partnerships with industry will unite our best researchers to devise and develop energy sources and innovative green technologies that are large in scale and international in profile. It will help researchers connect with industry partners to take on large initiatives across the spectrum of sustainability: solar, wind, photochemistry, biofuel processing and reactor engineering.

Led by Professor David Sinton (MIE 1998, PhD 2003), of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, CSE will facilitate a cross-pollination of researchers and students who can tackle some of the most complex problems in sustainability research.

Today’s airplanes are safe and reliable, carrying out their essential purpose to move people and goods to far off destinations. But environmental and fuel costs are growing. It is estimated that while demand for air travel is projected to increase five to six per cent per year, carbon dioxide emissions per passenger kilometre in aircraft have historically decreased at only one to two per cent per year.

David Zingg (EngSci 1979, AeroE MASc 1981, PhD 1988) is Director of U of T’s Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and Director of the Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation, established in 2012. He explores how to make more efficient use of the fossil fuels that are being depleted by airplanes and how to lessen the negative impact aircraft emissions have on the environment. Through examining aircraft design and ways to reduce airplane drag, Zingg hopes to find ways to make airplanes as clean as hybrid automobiles.

Centre for Sustainable Energy

Sustainable Aviation

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Engineers at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering are playing a vital role in developing innovative solutions to protect our environment. Biozone provides a nexus where the best minds from relevant engineering disciplines work together using state-of-the-art equipment to develop innovative biotechnology to protect our environment and our health.

The possibilities are endless:

• everything we throw into our compost bins is converted efficiently into energy

• algae are farmed to produce clean, renewable food and energy

Professor Elizabeth Edwards leads a research group that focuses on biological processes that affect the fate of pollutants in the environment.

• natural enzymes are harnessed to convert crop residues into useful materials

• computers are used to design living cells that make green consumer products and cheap and effective pharmaceuticals

• bacteria are trained to clean up chemical pollutants in contaminated groundwater

• damaged tissue in sick or injured people can be repaired using engineered cells

• foods are enhanced with micronutrients to alleviate malnutrition around the world

Biozone

The scale and complexity of many of these issues require the collaboration of researchers from multiple disciplines, each contributing unique expertise to bring the initial kernel of an idea to final implementation. Engineers are critical to this task—they design the systems that shape our world—but they cannot meet this challenge alone. Support is required to develop the centre so that it has the resources to allow the kind of multidisciplinary research contemporary problems demand.

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The world is undergoing rapid urbanization. Growing populations are stressing urban systems and infrastructure, leaving engineers with the daunting challenge of modernizing the structures that support civilization. Solutions to these problems are complex, and must be designed within the context of sustainability, environmental protection and reduced energy use.

U of T Engineering has been home to leading-edge research that consistently offers some of the most successful and timely solutions to the problems facing

structural engineering and will be key to devising solutions to these next great challenges.

Investment in the Centre for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure (RCI), launched in 2011, will build upon the University’s world-class reputation in structural resilience. Opportunities exist to bring together expertise in research and practice from around the world, across government, academia and industry. Our vision is for the RCI to become the world’s foremost centre of learning on critical infrastructure

Centre for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure

resilience, attracting the finest academic and practising minds in the field to progress both the art and science of the profession through research, education and professional development.

Civil engineering professor Constantin Christopoulos (left) led the development of a new system that significantly improves the response of high-rise buildings to wind and movement. This system is expected to result in more cost-effective designs and mitigate the vibrations caused by severe winds, enhancing the comfort of occupants of tall buildings while increasing safety.

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A 2006 United Nations report warns that overcoming the crisis in water and sanitation is one of the greatest human development challenges of the early 21st century. With about seven per cent of the world’s renewable freshwater, Canada has a responsibility to manage the growing levels of pollutants from urban and industrial sources in its lakes and rivers.

Most Canadian water-related research centres focus primarily on water ecology, management and municipal drinking and wastewater treatment. Little attention has been dedicated to industry water and

treatment at source, despite the fact that industry is the largest consumer of water in Canada.

The University of Toronto is poised to tackle critical problems associated with this precious resource through the creation of a new Centre for Water Innovation (CWI) within the Faculty. Dedicated to the development of the next generation of technologies and expertise in water innovations, CWI will focus on the minimization of water usage, recycling practices and processes, industrial water purification for reuse or irrigation, as well

At the Centre for Water Innovation (CWI), graduate student Jine Jine Li is exploring ways to dechlorinate contaminated water through bio-remediation. CWI focuses on the minimization of water usage, improving recycling practices and processes, industrial water purification for reuse or irrigation, as well as other advanced technologies and processes. CWI is also positioned to provide solutions to industry and government in their quest to balance economically feasible and environmentally sustainable industrial practices.

Centre for Water Innovation

as other advanced technologies and processes.

The Centre will be composed of students and researchers in Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, and Mining. Collectively, they will provide deep expertise in municipal water and water treatment, mining and minerals processing, and the pulp and paper, petrochemicals, food, environmental, energy, materials and nuclear industries.

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Boundless flight

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Ever since Leonardo da Vinci sketched the first human-powered ornithopter in 1485, engineers have attempted to build an aircraft that flies by flapping its wings. In 2010, U of T Engineering students made aviation history when they developed and piloted the first human-powered ornithopter ever to achieve sustained flight.

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Boundless Opportunity

The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is a centre of immense inspiration, remarkable innovation and boundless possibilities.

Our 5,100 undergraduate and 1,850 graduate students, together with our professors, staff and alumni, comprise the pre-eminent engineering school in Canada—a school with a history of great scholars who have developed and shared innovation, ideas and knowledge.

As part of Boundless: The Campaign for the University of Toronto, the Faculty will play a major role in fulfilling the University’s ambitions. By providing strategic support to our faculty, our students and centres of excellence, the Boundless campaign will help ensure the Faculty is at the frontier of the global engineering revolution. We invite you to support us at this extraordinary moment for the University and for Engineering. Our efforts will have meaning today and truly have the ability to change the world. We hope you will join us.

Opportunities for Support

Endowed Chairs & Professorships $50 million

Graduate Fellowships $35 million

Undergraduate Student Aid $20 million

Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship Building $55 million

Other Capital Projects $5 million

Research Support $25 million

Annual Giving $10 million

Total $200 million

George Myhal (IndE 1978) is the Chair of the Faculty’s campaign and a member of the University of Toronto’s Campaign Executive Committee. A member of the Faculty’s Hall of Distinction, George has also served on the Dean’s Council for Strategic Development.

The Lassonde Mining Building features the Goldcorp Mining Innovation Suite, where students and faculty from across the Faculty focus on a spectrum of mining activities, including mineral resource identification, mine planning, excavation, as well as extraction and processing.

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Funding Opportunities

The Campaign offers many opportunities to make a lasting contribution to the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. The following provides an overview of the Faculty’s campaign priorities and provides information on the various ways you may direct a gift.

Our People

At the heart of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is the roster of world-class scholars—students and professors who come together to share knowledge and benefit from a progressive environment where great ideas and innovations are born. There are many ways to give in support of our outstanding faculty and students.

Endowed Chairs & Professorships: Competition for the best faculty talent is intense and endowed chairs are the most effective tool with which to attract and retain an influential and high-performing professor. Endowed chairs are reserved for the University’s most distinguished scholars and teachers. A $3-million gift will create an endowed Chair in perpetuity, supporting salary, benefits and research expenses for a chair holder in a particular discipline.

Graduate Fellowships: Graduate students play a key role in advancing the Faculty’s mission of excellence in teaching and research. Competition is intense and the Faculty accepts only those with superior

academic achievement and potential to contribute to the academic and professional community of scholars. Once admitted, graduate students are offered financial support in the form of grants and teaching and research assistantships. We seek funding for graduate fellowships across all departments.

Undergraduate Student Aid & Scholarships: Philanthropic support is essential to nurturing the promise of our most talented students. As Canada’s leading public university, the University of Toronto has pledged that no qualified undergraduate will have to decline admission or withdraw from studies due to financial circumstances. Our donors have made this remarkable commitment possible. However, with increases in enrolment and demand for needs-based financial support at an all-time high, investment in student aid and scholarships is critical. Merit-based awards and scholarships are also vital to nurturing our students and can be awarded for academic achievement or achievement in other areas such as leadership, upon admission based on secondary school performance, or in-course, on the basis of university performance.

Our Building

The Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship: The $88-million Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship will build on the latest research and best practices to create one of the finest engineering teaching

and research environments. The Faculty seeks to raise $55 million for the building. Funding and naming opportunities are available for the building and for its component elements.

Ways of Giving

Endowed Funds: An endowed fund (such as a chair, professorship or fellowship as mentioned above), establishes a permanent fund that recognizes the donor or someone the donor wishes to honour in perpetuity and provides the Faculty with a continuing source of support.

Expendable Funds: Gifts designated as expendable can be made toward specific programs, research or people at the donor’s choosing.

Planned Gifts: Planned Giving donors may be able to make a contribution by designating the Faculty as the beneficiary of a will, life insurance policy or other means. These gifts can provide donors with immediate tax savings and an income for life.

Annual Gifts: Annual giving and the Skule Society provide a vital source of momentum for the Faculty and are the primary means for alumni, parents and friends to help shape the student experience. The success of Annual Giving and its spirit of shared experience and mutual encouragement are essential to the excellence of U of T Engineering.

OFFICE OF ADVANCEMENT FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

35 ST. GEORGE STREET, ROOM 116, TORONTO, ON M5S 1A4TEL: 416-978-0380, FAX: 416-946-3450

Boundless.utoronto.Ca/engineering

Documents

Boundless Creativity - The Campaign for University of Toronto Engineering