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
“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 |
Ajay Kochhar
President and CEO, Co-Founder, and Executive Director of Li-Cycle
Irene Sterian, P.Eng
Founder, President & CEO, REMAP Director, Technology & Innovation, Celestica
Kristina Menton
Matthew Zeiler
Founder and CEO, Clarifai
Panel sessions
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
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.
Poster FAQ
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).