ENGINEERING RESEARCH DAYS:

Empowering Innovation 2021

June 24 & 25, 2021

Overview

On June 24 and 25, 2021, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is launching Engineering Research Days, a new virtual event that will bring together our research community and create opportunities for collaboration. U of T Engineering continues to be Canada’s top-ranked engineering school and consistently ranks in the global top 20. Our faculty are international leaders in their fields, innovative educators and dedicated mentors. U of T Engineering’s research strengths draw students and faculty from all over the world.

This year’s theme of ‘Empowering Innovation’ highlights U of T Engineering’s research accomplishments and spotlight opportunities for collaboration across faculty, external partners, industry representatives and the broader U of T community. Both the program and platform, Spatial Chat, are designed to foster and encourage interaction in an engaging and collaborative environment.

The program will feature:

Interactive fireside chats with keynote speakers
Panels on emerging research trends and themes
Poster sessions
Networking opportunities

This year’s research themes include:

Robotics & Autonomy
Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Urban Engineering & Innovative Mobility
Engineering for Sustainability
Enabling Engineering through Artificial Intelligence
Health & Bioengineering
Electrification in Society
Computation, Communications & Connectivity

Video Gallery

Engineering Research Days session videos are now available online!

Keynotes

Panels

“I am really excited for this opportunity for us to showcase our world-leading researchers and their projects, programs, platforms and initiatives underway in Engineering. Learning about the innovative, interdisciplinary and collaborative research led by our departments, institutes and centres will certainly be catalytic and inspiring. I know that we’ll all come away from this event armed with new ideas, approaches and perspectives that will help answer truly global challenges and questions across all domains.”

— Chris Yip, Dean, U of T Engineering

Schedule & Program

Day 1 – June 24

Time	Activity
9:00 – 9:15	Welcome & Opening remarks by Dean Chris Yip - available for viewing in the welcome lobby
9:15 – 9:45	1A - Keynote Speaker Ajay Kochhar President & CEO, Li-Cycle (BASc ChemE)
9:45 – 10:45	1B - Panel Session:  Engineering for Sustainability   Panelists: Lesley Warren, Tim Bender, Claire Kennedy, Ian Pearce & Mpumi Zikalala
10:45 – 11:45	1C - Panel Session: Electrification in Society Panelists: Cristina Amon, Olivier Trescases, Carmine Pizzurro & Martin Lord
11:45 – 12:45	1D - Poster Session: Engineering for Sustainability, Electrification in Society and Engineering Education
12:45 – 1:45	1E - Panel Session:  Enabling Engineering through Artificial Intelligence Panelists: Hai-Ling Margaret Cheng, Tim Chan, Matthew Zeiler, Yohan Lee, Elias B. Khalil & Shurui Zhou
1:45 – 2:45	1F - Panel Session:  Robotics: Why Now? Why U of T? Panelists: Steven Waslander, Eric Diller, Animesh Garg & Angela Schoellig
2:45 – 3:45	1G - Poster Session: Enabling Engineering through Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Autonomy and Engineering Education
3:45 – 4:15	1H - Keynote Speaker Matthew Zeiler Founder and CEO, Clarifai (BASc EngSci)
4:15 – 5:00	Open networking/draws

Day 2 – June 25

Time	Activity
9:00 – 9:15	Welcome & Opening remarks by Dean Chris Yip - available for viewing in the welcome lobby
9:15 – 9:45	2A - Keynote Speaker Irene Sterian, PEng Founder, President & CEO, REMAP Director, Technology & Innovation, Celestica (BASc IndE)
9:45 – 10:45	2B - Panel Session: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Panelists: Part 1: Glenn Hibbard, Michael Helander, Keryn Lian & Harry Ruda Part 2: Hani Naguib, Goldie Nejat, Milad Alizadeh Meghrazi & Jon McCrea
10:45 – 11:45	2C - Panel Session: Health & Bioengineering Panelists: Part 1: Ervin Sejdić, José Zariffa, Krishna Mahadevan, Emma R. Master Part 2: Elizabeth Edwards, Azadeh Yadollahi
11:45– 12:45	2D - Poster Session: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing, Health & Bioengineering and Engineering Education
12:45 – 1:45	2E - Panel Session: Urban Engineering & Innovative Mobility: Equity, Environment, Engagement Panelists: Eric Miller, Tamer El-Diraby, Shoshanna Saxe, Marianne Hatzopoulou, Judy Farvolden
1:45 - 2:45	2F - Panel Session: Lighting Up the World of Computing, Communication, and Connectivity Panelists: Ali Sheikholeslami, Jason Anderson, Joyce Poon, Tony Chan Carusone, Li Qian, Vaughn Betz, Christian Weedbrook
2:45 - 3:45	2G - Poster Session: Urban Engineering & Innovative Mobility, Computation, Communications & Connectivity and Engineering Education
3:45 – 4:15	2H - Keynote Speaker Kristina Menton Director of Operations, Opener (BASc MechE)
4:15 – 5:00	Open networking/draws
	Closing remarks available for viewing upon exit

Distinguished Guest Speakers

Ajay Kochhar

President and CEO, Co-Founder, and Executive Director of Li-Cycle

Read bio

June 24, 2021, 9:15 – 9:45 am

Responsible for strategic oversight of Li-Cycle’s various functional business units, which includes Commercial, Technical (Health, Safety, Environment and Quality/HSEQ, Operations, Commercialization, Research and Development) and Shared Services. Additionally, Ajay supports the development of international growth initiatives for the company in collaboration with Li-Cycle’s Corporate Development team. Before founding Li-Cycle, Ajay gained extensive technology and project development experience through progressive roles with Hatch’s industrial cleantech and advisory practices. While working in that space, he garnered in-depth engineering and project management experience through clean technology development in the lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, gold, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and rare earth metals industries. His technical expertise spans the entire project lifecycle, from conceptual and pre-feasibility studies to construction and commissioning.

Born and raised in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, Ajay comes from entrepreneurial roots, having gained experience from a young age via a family business. An ardent music enthusiast, he is a classical guitarist who maintains the hobby even now for enjoyment.

Ajay is a graduate of the University of Toronto and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Chemical Engineering.

Irene Sterian, P.Eng

Founder, President & CEO, REMAP Director, Technology & Innovation, Celestica

Read bio

June 25, 2021, 9:15 - 9:45 am

Irene Sterian (IndE 8T5) is a strategic technology leader with over 30 years of experience in electronics manufacturing. A U of T Engineering alumna, Irene has an entrepreneurial spirit and is a driving force in the future of manufacturing in Canada. Irene pioneered environmentally safe, sustainable manufacturing technologies and has a patent in high density, high-performance memory circuit packaging.

Irene has demonstrated incredible creative vision with the ability to forge successful large-scale, cross-sector partnerships. Her work has resulted in unprecedented investments in Canadian commercial R&D in electronics manufacturing. These investments support start-ups and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the healthcare, energy, ICT and aerospace sectors.

Irene continues to give back to the engineering community as a regular contributor to global manufacturing standards at international associations through several board membership and steering committee appointments. Irene regularly contributes to the World Manufacturing Forum Report and many other industry publications.

Kristina Menton

Director of Operations, Opener LLC

Read bio

June 25, 2021, 3:45 - 4:15pm

Engineer, test pilot, operations lead, and startup director, Kristina Menton (MechE 1T4 + PEY) is also a 2021 Globe and Mail Changemaker. Kristina is driven to bring electric personal transportation to the world with the BlackFly vehicle. As the Director of Operations at Opener LLC, Kristina is part of a strong-willed team designing, building and flying the fully electric, personal eVTOL aircraft, BlackFly. Whether it is leading the Flight Testing Program over three test sites in Canada and the US, designing next-generation propulsion systems, or building a team of like minded innovators, Kristina has a drive to take on hard challenges and the technical leadership to make them happen.

Matthew Zeiler

Founder and CEO, Clarifai

Read bio

June 24, 2021, 3:45 – 4:15 pm

Matthew Zeiler, Founder and CEO of Clarifai, is a machine learning Ph.D. and thought leader pioneering the field of applied artificial intelligence (AI). Matt's groundbreaking research in computer vision alongside renowned machine learning experts Geoff Hinton and Yann LeCun has propelled the image recognition industry from theory to real-world application. Since starting Clarifai in 2013, Matt has evolved his award-winning research into developer-friendly products that allow enterprises to quickly and seamlessly integrate AI into their workflows and customer experiences. Today, Clarifai is the leading independent AI company and "widely seen as one of the most promising [startups] in the crowded, buzzy field of machine learning" (Forbes).

Panel Sessions

Engineering for Sustainability (June 24, 9:45-10:45 am)

The clean energy transition and low carbon economy driven by climate change mitigation requires increased critical materials to build these emerging green technologies. The mining industry provides raw materials effectively for every industry and aspect of the global economy. As a result, the mining sector is arguably one of the most important enablers to drive cross-sector and planetary sustainability success. However, for mining to be a catalyst for a future sustainable world, the industry itself must undergo a transformational change in their practices and operations embedding environment, social and governance (ESG) principles throughout the entire lifecycle.

Lesley Warren

Director of Lassonde Institute of Mining
Professor, Dept of Civil & Mineral Engineering

Timothy P. Bender

Professor, Dept of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry

Claire Kennedy

Partner at Bennett Jones LLP, Director at Alamos Gold, and Chair of University of Toronto’s Governing Council

Michael Cooper Photographic
Office- 416-466-4474
Mobile- 416-938-7558

66 Coleridge Ave.
Toronto, ON
M4C 4H5

Ian Pearce

Chair and Director at Newgold Inc. and past CEO Xstrata Nickel

Mpumi Zikalala

Managing Director, De Beers Group Managed Operations, South Africa and Canada

Electrification in Society (June 24, 10:45-11:45 am)

Innovations in electrification are transforming society at an accelerating rate. Lithium and post-lithium ion batteries, e-mobility, charging infrastructure and stationary energy storage technologies are the subject of vibrant research at the University of Toronto's Electrification Hub. These developments have the potential to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, address climate change, create new systems of sustainable energy management and distribution, usher in a future of widely adopted electric vehicles, and bring efficient energy storage to remote communities.

Cristina H. Amon

Dean Emerita and Scientific Director, U of T Electrification Hub

Olivier Trescases

Director, U of T Electric Vehicle (UTEV) Research Centre

Carmine Pizzurro

President, eCAMION

Martin Lord

Senior Sector Manager, Automotive and Mobility Innovation, AVIN at Ontario Centre of Innovation

Enabling Engineering through AI (June 24 12:45-1:45 pm)

Artificial intelligence is rapidly impacting many aspects of our lives. This panel session explores advances, trends, and new developments in AI that are currently happening in various fields, and characteristics that make such advances generalizable to other fields. Consisting of experts from UofT and industry, the panel will also discuss how industry and academia can best work together to overcome challenges in successful adoption of AI and improve Canada’s overall standing with regards to AI research and applications.

Timothy C.Y. Chan

Director, Centre for Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Engineering
Professor, Dept of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Hai-Ling Margaret Cheng

Associate Professor, Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Matthew Zeiler

Founder and CEO, Clarifai

Yohan Lee

Chief Strategy Officer, Riiid! Labs

Elias B. Khalil

Assistant Professor, Dept of Industrial Engineering

Shurui Zhou

Assistant Professor, Depart of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Robotics: Why Now? Why U of T? (June 24 1:45-2:45 pm)

Robotics R&D is often a multiyear, multidisciplinary effort that spans multiple lab groups. This panel session explores the advances in robotics that are being seen across various application areas, and how this current development is different from past eras of promised robotics innovation. A cross-disciplinary panel of faculty, united in the U of T Robotics Institute, will discuss the present state of robotics R&D and current challenges, and how our institute is solving these problems through collaboration, shared resources, and a common vision.

Steven Waslander

Associate Professor, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

Eric Diller

Associate Professor, Dept of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Animesh Garg

Assistant Professor, Dept of Computer Science
Faculty Member, Vector Institute; Sr. Research Scientist, NVIDIA

Angela Schoellig

Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

Advanced Materials & Manufacturing (June 25 9:45 – 10:45 am)

Accomplished by ongoing breakthroughs in enabling technologies, advanced materials and manufacturing offers a critical path to continued employment and affluence growth in nations such as Canada. The "Advanced Materials and Manufacturing" panel is to present the research and development of advanced technologies through U of T researchers and collaborators across different departments and institutes. The topics include Nanostructures for Quantum Computers, Industry 4.0, Factory of the Future, Smart Textile and Wearables, and Nonmaterial Technologies Development. The objective is focused on sharing multi-disciplinary knowledge, ideas and resources and translating lab-based technologies for advanced materials and manufacturing to commercial, scaled-up processes.

Part 1: Advanced Materials

Glenn Hibbard

Professor, Dept of Materials Science & Engineering

Michael Helander

President & CEO, OTI Lumionics

Keryn Lian

Professor, Dept of Materials Science & Engineering

Harry Ruda

Professor, Dept of Materials Science & Engineering

Part 2: Advanced Manufacturing

Hani Naguib

Professor, Dept of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Director, Toronto Institute of Advanced Manufacturing (TIAM)

Goldie Nejat

Professor, Dept of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Milad Alizadeh Meghrazi

Vice-President of Research, Development and Partner Integration, Myant

Jon McCrea

Research and Development Manager, Integran Technologies

Health & Bioengineering (June 25 10:45 – 11:45 am)

Bioengineering is a broad discipline that has grown tremendously in recent years. Breakthroughs in our understanding of biological systems and our ability to control their processes have led to technologies that span functional recovery of human tissues to development of microbial communities that create value from waste. Bioengineering drives the production of vaccines, therapies, renewable fuels, and sustainable chemicals, and enables a multitude of industrial processes. As its impact on society grows, we must ensure equitable access to bioengineering innovations.

Part 1: Technical Breakthroughs in Bioengineering Research for Human and Environmental Health

Ervin Sejdić

Associate Professor, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research Chair for AI in Health Outcomes, North York General Hospital

José Zariffa

Associate Professor, Institute of Biomedical Engineering; Senior Scientist, KITE

Krishna Mahadevan

Professor, Dept of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry

Emma R. Master

Professor, Dept of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry

Part 2: Ensuring Equitable Access to Bioengineering Innovations:

Elizabeth Edwards

University Professor, Dept of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry

Azadeh Yadollahi

Scientist at KITE
Assistant Professor, Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Urban Engineering & Innovative Mobility: Equity, Environment, Engagement (June 25 12:45-1:45 pm)

The transportation system contributes to the growth and evolution of urban regions and enables personal mobility, which is fundamental to every aspect of modern society. It also results in significant energy and resource consumption, pollution, social, and economic inequities, and climate-changing carbon emissions. A panel of expert faculty from the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering will discuss the profound importance and impact of transportation systems and how they must evolve to accommodate equitable and sustainable growth.

Eric J. Miller

Director, University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute

Tamer El-Diraby

Professor, Dept of Civil & Mineral Engineering

Shoshanna Saxe

Assistant Professor, Dept of Civil & Mineral Engineering

Marianne Hatzopoulou

Canada Research Chair in Transportation and Air Quality, University of Toronto

Judy Farvolden

Executive Director, University of Toronto Transportation Research Institute

Lighting Up the World of Computing, Communication, and Connectivity (June 25, 1:45-2:45 pm)

“Light" has an ever-broadening set of uses and applications within Electrical and Computer Engineering. This session focuses on the theme of Computing, Communication and Connectivity through the lens of light. In this lively panel, leading researchers will overview their state-of-the-art and cross-disciplinary research in the areas of silicon photonics, quantum computing using light, light-based communication, as well as how light can be applied in a biomedical context for cancer treatment.

Ali Sheikholeslami 

Professor, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Head, Fujitsu Co-Creation Laboratory at University of Toronto

Jason Anderson

Professor and Associate Chair of Research, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Joyce Poon

Professor, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering; Director, Max Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics

Tony Chan Carusone

Professor, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Li Qian

Professor, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Vaughn Betz

Professor, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Christian Weedbrook

Founder and CEO, Xanadu

Poster Session Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in submitting a poster to Engineering Research Days. U of T Engineering is a dynamic, diverse collection of researchers and students at the forefront of discovery and innovation. Given the breadth and depth of research across the faculty, and the intent to engage prospective industry and ecosystem partners at the event, we suggest that a submitted poster capture your lab’s high-level research program(s) with an emphasis on innovative approaches, technologies and outcomes as well as interdisciplinary linkages and opportunities for internal and external collaboration.

The Engineering Partnerships Team has created a template which can be used to create this poster.

The academic programming of Engineering Research Days is categorized by theme, designed to bring together like-minded stakeholders and attract potential collaborators to the same virtual environment. We invite you to self-identify into one or more themes – you are welcome to present your poster in more than one themed session to benefit from multiple interactions.

Submitted posters will be pinned to a virtual poster board in SpatialChat and accessible to all attendees for the entirety of the event on June 24-25. Posters will also be available for viewing online in advance of the event so that attendees can use their time to interact and connect with individuals directly during the event.

Presenters will be expected to be live at their posters to present or discuss with attendees, in real time, during the allotted time for that particular theme. Please review the program and times for specific poster sessions.

Presenters will have two opportunities to present research and communicate with attendees:

Provide a one-slide Poster PNG and short abstract.
Participate in real-time discussion and networking with attendees on SpatialChat

Poster submission specifications

Please create a one-slide poster that provides an overview of your lab or research program (see sample SOCAAR poster above). We invite you to refer to the poster template to align your design with the overall mission of the event.

Poster recommendations:

Create in landscape orientation
File type: Save as PNG
File size: Under 3 MB (larger files can cause rendering issues in Spatial Chat)

Abstract submission specifications

Please submit an abstract that describes your poster/lab/research program in maximum 250 words. This will be used to promote your content in advance of the event.

Poster submission deadline: Friday, June 11, 2021.

Submit poster & abstract

Poster FAQ

Who can submit a poster?

Poster submission is open to all U of T Engineering PIs and trainees (research associates, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students). Submission is also open to inter-departmental Centres & Institutes, EDUs, core facilities, Dean’s Strategic Fund initiatives and other U of T Engineering bodies. If you have specific questions about poster submission, please contact adriano.vissa@utoronto.ca or joanne.chou@utoronto.ca.

How many posters can be submitted from one lab?

We encourage posters that provide a comprehensive overview of a lab’s research program. Some larger labs may have several distinct research programs or pillars that warrant their own poster – if you would like to submit multiple posters to cover these areas in more detail, you are welcome to. Trainees are welcome to present these posters at the event as representatives of their labs.

Do I have to use the template?

Can graduate students and post-doctoral fellows present posters?

What do I need to submit?

How do I decide what theme/session to join?

Can I submit a poster to more than one theme/session?

Yes, you can submit a poster to more than one themed poster session. Note that each day, themed sessions will be running concurrently (e.g. Robotics & Autonomy and Enabling Engineering through Artificial Intelligence). Therefore if you are presenting live in one of these sessions, you will automatically be live in the concurrent session as well, as attendees will be able to seamlessly navigate between rooms in the virtual environment. If you wish to present in two non-concurrent sessions, you are welcome to do so.

What are my responsibilities as a poster presenter?

What is the poster submission deadline?

How do I interact with others at my poster in SpatialChat?

Users navigate the virtual Spatial Chat environment by clicking-and-dragging a circular icon that contains the video and audio feed of each attendee. When two or more circular icons are brought into proximity, the video and audio feeds become visible/audible to all attendees in that local area. During the live poster session, we recommend that you place your icon next to your poster so that attendees may identify you as the presenter and approach you. You may then present the poster or engage in conversation/networking as others approach (must like at an in-person conference). There is also a “room chat” feature that enables anyone to send a message to all occupants of a room (right side panel) and a “local chat” feature for more direct communication (bottom taskbar). Please note these features as some users may choose to leave notes or send messages via these channels.

SpatialChat information

Explore the SpatialChat demo site

Use a computer or laptop, not a mobile device
Use the latest version of Google Chrome

Basic Mouse Control inside the Space

Click and drag your photo to move around the room.
Click and drag on an empty spot to move the area.
Use the mouse wheel or touchpad to zoom in and out.
When you join any room in SpatialChat, the rooms may be zoomed in at 100% by default and crop out some parts of the space. Please make sure to zoom out to see the entire space. You can also zoom in and out by clicking on the percentage shown at the bottom right of the space.

Recommended system requirements for the best experience:

Google Chrome – Explorer is not supported.
5 GHz WiFi or LAN-connected internet
30 MBit/s internet speed
A client device (computer or laptop) not older than 3 years

Tutorials

Introduction of SpatialChat (3:24 mins)
Virtual poster session tutorial (3 mins)
Online poster session best practices in SpatialChat
An example of how SpatialChat event can look (6:52 mins)

(please note that not all the functions of SpatialChat were introduced in the video).

Innovation Clusters

Partner with U of T Engineering

ENGINEERING RESEARCH DAYS:

Empowering Innovation 2021

The program will feature:

This year’s research themes include:

Video Gallery

Keynotes

Panels

Schedule & Program

Day 1 – June 24

Day 2 – June 25

Ajay Kochhar

Irene Sterian, P.Eng

Kristina Menton

Matthew Zeiler

Panel Sessions

Olivier Trescases

Carmine Pizzurro

Martin Lord

Michael Helander

Milad Alizadeh Meghrazi

Jon McCrea

Christian Weedbrook

Poster submission specifications

Abstract submission specifications

Poster submission deadline: Friday, June 11, 2021.

Poster FAQ

SpatialChat information