With U of T Engineering’s convocation ceremonies on June 18, 2024, our students mark the end of one journey and the beginning of another.

Having enriched the U of T Engineering community as undergraduate and graduate students, they will join our vibrant, global network of Skule™ alumni, where they will continue to address pressing challenges around the world and inspire the next generation.

Among this year’s 14 Engineering Grads to Watch, MIE graduands Peter Serles and Selena Lombardi embody the spirit of U of T Engineering. Their stories illustrate the creativity, innovation and global impact that define our community. Watch their next steps!

 

Professor Amy Bilton (MIE) and her research team have advanced to the final stage of Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Oil Spill Challenge. The team has been awarded $1.3M from the challenge so far to develop and test their prototype. The research team that wins the final stage will receive an additional $2M in funding to commercialize their technology.  

More than 4 million barrels of oil are transported through Canada daily. With a coastline surpassing 240,000 km and more than 890,000 km of freshwater systems across the country, effective oil spill response is critical in protecting diverse ecosystems and communities. Through the Oil Spill Response Challenge, the Government of Canada is investing $10M in the development of innovative and rapidly deployable solutions to oil spill detection, response, and recovery in Canada’s aquatic environments.   

Currently, when a spill occurs, response vessels gather the oil with large, floating barriers called booms and suck oil and water into the hold of the ship using a skimmer. Once collected, typically around 25% of the mixture is oil and the remaining 75% is water with small trace amounts of oil. The ships offload the entire load of water and oil to a land-based facility for treatment, creating a bottleneck in operations since 75% of water is not yet safe to be released back into the environment.   

Bilton’s proposed solution is FRODO, a foam-based reclamation of the decanted oily water system. This system allows for in-situ — on-the-ship — treatment of the contaminated water stored in response vessels through an engineered polymer foam filter. The polymer foam filter can be compared to a specialized kitchen sponge that allows water to pass through and siphons off the small oil particles present. This filter and treatment system would clean the contaminated water on the ship so that water is safe to release back into the environment, allowing these vessels to collect significantly more oil in a more time-efficient manner, minimizing environmental impacts.  

“We’re both engineering the foam material and developing the treatment process to fill in a gap in current oil spill operations,” says Bilton. “We aim to increase the amount of oil these vessels can collect by a factor of four.”  

Assessing the environmental impact is another key part of this research. Canada has a zero-discharge policy, meaning no oil can be present in water when discharging it back into our water systems. These regulations vary by country. Norway, for example, requires the amount of oil in the discharge to be less than 15 parts per million. Bilton and her team are running a parallel project funded through NRCan’s Multi-partner Research Initiative to understand the environmental impact and considerations of implementing this in-situ treatment process.   

Bilton’s team is one of the five finalists moving on to Stage 3 of the competition with the winner set to be announced in winter of 2025. At this stage, the team has one year to accelerate, scale and test their prototype in preparation for commercialization.   

“We are in the testing phase now and are planning large-scale simulations at our Ohmset partner facility in New Jersey,” says Bilton.   

Additionally, the team is partnering with the West and East Coast Marine Response Corporation, VPC Group, and Urethane Sciences to ensure their system is scalable and can be manufactured. The current prototype is significantly smaller — around one metre in size — than what the final system will be. Ensuring the engineered polymer foam and other materials can be manufactured and meet strict requirements are top of mind at this stage of the challenge.   

“Our goal is that this system can be deployed quickly and effectively to improve oil spill response across Canada, and potentially in other parts of the world,” says Bilton. 

 

Vishakha Pujari (IndE 2T3 + PEY) is profoundly committed to paying it forward.

The first student at the University of Toronto to be supported by a Karta Catalyst Scholarship, Pujari arrived at U of T in 2019 from the small Indian village of Walandi — about a five-hour drive from Hyderabad — to study industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

In addition to her schoolwork, she found time to host workshops for students from her high school and even donated some of her scholarship money back to the Karta Initiative — an organization dedicated to providing equitable access to higher education to India’s low-income rural youth.

“If I am getting something, I should make sure I am giving back,” Pujari says.

On June 18, Pujari is set to cross the stage in Convocation Hall — and then head back to her new job as a software design analyst in Montreal. While her parents are unable to attend due to the cost of flying to Toronto, they hope to watch the convocation livestream. Pujari, meanwhile, says she plans to meet up with her mentors at U of T and possibly have dinner with friends.

Reflecting on her time at U of T, which included a one-year Professional Experience Year Co-op (PEY Co-op), she recalls the initial culture shock of moving from Walandi to Toronto — a city that she had never visited before.

“It was the second time I was on a flight,” she says. “I’m from a village, so we don’t see many tall buildings there. My residence had 28 floors, so it was all a new experience.”

Pujari grew up the youngest of three siblings on her family’s sugarcane and soybean farm. She learned the value of hard work from her parents, who woke up at 5 a.m. each day to tend to their land before going to neighboring farms to earn extra money.

When she was 12, she attended a government-run school, located about 80 kilometers from Walandi, and spent nine months of the year living on the campus — a long period of separation from her parents.

Pujari first learned about the Karta Initiative when she was 16, and she says the program’s emphasis on integrity, perseverance, and community service resonated deeply.

She became a member after undergoing a rigorous selection process and, over the course of two years, received mentorship, academic support, and opportunities for personal development.

Receiving her acceptance to U of T and the Karta Catalyst Scholarship was a life-changing moment — one that meant all her hard work and sacrifices paid off.

“It was really exciting and scary,” she says. “My parents were really happy because no one from our village has gone to study at a foreign university.”

Karta Scholars receive funding for tuition and living expenses, personal and professional development, internship placements and career transition support. In addition to working with their academic advisers, scholars are also connected with a faculty mentor and participate in numerous enrichment activities with other scholarship students at U of T.

Although she was accustomed to living apart from her family, being in Toronto brought new challenges.

“The classes I was used to had no more than 40 students,” she says. “When I came here, I was like, ‘Oh my God, there are so many people.’ For a moment, I was like, ‘Am I an introvert?’”

She worried that her English-speaking skills weren’t up to par.

“It was exciting to meet students from different countries, but at the same time overwhelming,” she says.

She also had to overcome challenges related to COVID-19 restrictions, which left her unable to travel back to India to see her parents and siblings for three years.

Pujari found guidance and reassurance in the form of mentors. In her first year, she met Joseph Wong, U of T’s vice-president, international, and a professor in the department of political science and the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts & Science, and the two kept in touch throughout Pujari’s time at U of T.

The two would discuss everything from challenges Pujari was facing to her future plans — which she says may include pursuing a master’s in business administration and starting her own business.

“Her resilience is so impressive,” Wong says, noting the many obstacles Pujari overcame to become a U of T student. “It’s pretty incredible what she’s done, and to hear now that she’s graduating and has a job lined up is really gratifying.”

Pujari also received mentorship from Chirag Variawa (ISTEP), director, first-year curriculum and a teaching stream professor at U of T Engineering. He says her “unbridled curiosity, determination and intelligence” is nothing short of inspirational.

“Over the years, I’ve seen her grow into a professional who moves mountains not just with the strength of her character, but the goodness of her heart as well — and that’s exactly what the world needs,” he says.

Through it all, Pujari says her family has been among her biggest supporters.

“My father used to come with me to workshops in Mumbai, which is 12 hours away from our village,” she says. “My sister was also really supportive and helped me with my English.”

“They’re really excited and happy I’m graduating.”

 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 13, 2024, by Mariam Matti.

The Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and the University of Toronto hosted the annual CSME/CFD conference from May 26-29, 2024.  Guests from across Canada came to participate in the three-day conference, which saw 400 presentations, five plenary, and six keynote talks take place in Myhal and Bahan centers.  Members of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) and the CFD Society of Canada came together to exchange current research results and strengthen ties among their colleagues, collaborators, and mentors.

 “We had overwhelming interest and engagement with guests wishing to take part in CSME/CFD 2024”, says Markus Bussmann, Professor and Chair of MIE, Professor Fae Azhari, and Professor Clinton Groth, the Co-Chairs of the conference. “Over 500 attendees actively participated in the three days, resulting in strong connections and advancements throughout the numerous research areas.”

A highlight of the conference was a banquet held on Tuesday night, May 28th, which included an award ceremony. MIE’s very own Professor Ali Dolatabadi received the CSME C.N. Downing Award in recognition of his sustained and impactful contributions and Professor Patrick Lee was made a CSME Fellow.

Thank you to all who participated in the CSME/CFD 2024 conference and we look forward to the 2025 conference, happening in Montreal, QC.

To view the photos taken at the banquet, please visit our Flickr.

 

-Published on June 7th, 2024 by Kendra Hunter.

Rob (Hongbo) Chen, a PhD student with MIE, is the recipient of a prestigious Data Sciences Institute (DSI) Doctoral Student Fellowship. Chen receives this award to support his interdisciplinary training and collaborative research in data sciences to address and drive positive social change.

The DSI Fellowship will allow Chen to focus on his research where the primary objective is to optimize patient safety event report classification systems and provide improved patient-centered care. The Fellowship amount of $25,000 per year minimizes financial constraints and offers a wealth of academic and professional development opportunities within data science communities.

“Adverse events attributed to patient safety challenges are the third leading cause of death in the world, resulting in 251,454 deaths annually in the United States alone”, says Chen, whose research aims to synthesize human-centered design principles with artificial intelligence (AI) to improve patient safety.

“The possibility of using AI to create more reliable and user-friendly incident reporting systems is a very real solution to the current challenges healthcare professionals face with complex classification taxonomy and the consequences of misclassified incident reports.”

The interest in the intersection of human-centered design and AI has inspired Chen to explore ways to make a tangible impact on patient safety in healthcare. Guided by his supervisors Dr. Myrtede Alfred and Dr. Eldan Cohen, Chen drove this initial curiosity into his current research focus. Enhancing the classification of patient safety event reports through AI could lead to substantial improvements in clinical outcomes, and the DSI Fellowship further fuels Chen’s commitment to engage in this area of research.

Chen learned of the Fellowship opportunity from Professor Alfred and Professor Cohen who recognized the synergy between his research and the DSI’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research in data sciences. DSI’s commitment to fostering innovation at the confluence of diverse fields inspired Chen to apply, and receiving this award fits strategically with his goals and provides an environment where his work on integrating human-centered design with AI can flourish.

Ultimately, Chen aims to contribute to the Institute’s mission of tackling complex data-driven issues within healthcare and beyond through his research.

 

-Published on June 4, 2024, by Kendra Hunter

 

In the NEWSTALK1010 Podcast published on May 21st, U of T engineering student Aigne McGeady-Bruce discussed the innovative project of his team aimed at reducing cyclist collisions. For their 2024 Capstone program, McGeady-Bruce and his team have developed a car door design to prevent cyclists from being struck by doors opening from parked vehicles, a frequent and dangerous occurrence known as “dooring.”

Dooring incidents pose a significant threat to cyclists, especially with the rise of rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, which frequently stop to let passengers out. McGeady-Bruce’s team tackled this issue by creating a vision system that can detect approaching cyclists and prevent doors from opening if a cyclist is in the vicinity.

The core of the device is a sensor system with a field of view covering 10 meters in length and 1.8 meters in width, the standard width of a bike lane in Ontario. This sensor is strategically mounted on the bottom corner of the vehicle’s side mirror, providing optimal coverage to detect oncoming cyclists from both sides of the vehicle. The vision system employs the Faster Objects More Objects (FOMO) vision model, horizontal distance detection, and consecutive detection filtering to accurately identify cyclists and prevent accidents.

The team’s final prototype managed to prevent the door from opening when a cyclist is detected and could reliably reduce dooring incidents, offering a promising solution to enhance urban cycling safety in the future.

 

-Published by Sherry Wang on May 21, 2024.

The end of term saw fourth-year Mechanical and Industrial Engineering students culminate their year-long Capstone Design projects at the annual MIE Capstone Design Showcase. A total of 80 teams, comprising over 330 students, presented their prototypes, posters, and final recommendations to faculty and industry clients at Hart House. The caliber of projects was outstanding and offered innovative solutions to all of the clients involved with some of those projects receiving awards. The MIE490 and MIE491 award winners are listed below.

1st Place Capstone Design Project Award (Mechanical) and John H. Weber Scholarship

Project Title: Adaptive Landing Gear for Helicopters / Project Supervisor: Professor Matthew Mackay

SAFRAN Landing Systems wanted to design a safer way for rescue helicopters to land on steep terrain and team members Samantha Butt, Lydia Callender, Jeremy Mainella, and Ana Vukojevic delivered. The result is “AeroFlex” – an innovative flexure-based landing gear prototype that is lightweight and adapts to a 20-degree sloped terrain. Rescue helicopters can perform safer and more efficient maneuvers in mountainous terrain in response to the thousands of calls the Canada National Search & Rescue program receives each year.

1st Place Capstone Design Project Award (Industrial) and Peri Family Industrial Engineering Design Award

Project Title: InfraPOV: Infrastructure Public Opinion Visualizer / Project Supervisor: Professor Scott Sanner

Numerous stakeholders participate in the development of large-scale infrastructure projects. Mott MacDonald wanted to move away from the industry standard of manually evaluating comments and concerns to provide their clients with more accurate data to reflect constituent voices. Enter “InfraPOV: Infrastructure Public Opinion Visualizer” a design by Capstone team Varun Kamboj, Mika Sustar, Marzuk Khan, and Matin Sarahi, which leverages Large Language Model technology to sum up and categorize huge swaths of data from unstructured comments. Time spent analyzing stakeholder data was reduced by 95%, offering Mott MacDonald a more efficient way to extract insights from public opinion and provide clients with meaningful solutions.

Team ATOMS (Daniel Lee, John Abellanoza, Noah D’Emilio, and Mitchell Chong) won 2nd Place Capstone Design Project Award in Mechanical Engineering

Team Grandview Kids (Max Beggs, Claire Shaw, and Jose Pablo Siliézar) won 2nd Place Capstone Design Project Award in Industrial Engineering

 

2nd Place Capstone Design Project Award (Mechanical & Industrial)

Project Title: Thermal Characterization and Simulation Framework of Large-Format Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries / Project Supervisor: Professor Cristina Amon

Lithium-ion battery performance and safety can be negatively affected by the heat generated during charging and discharging. The ATOMS Laboratory team produced an innovative experimental approach to characterize and enhance the thermal performances of novel battery systems. Team members Daniel Lee, John Abellanoza, Noah D’Emilio, and Mitchell Chong, designed and prototyped several cell test rigs and accurately incorporated realistic operating conditions of battery cells in commercial electric vehicles (EVs) and stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS). The team added I-shaped cooling fins to the battery module design to create more equal temperature distribution across the cell and lowering overall temperature by 10% to enable faster charging.

Project Title: Modelling and Evaluation of a Tier-Based System for Grandview Kids Children’s Treatment Centres / Project Supervisor: Professor Vahid Sarhangian

Reducing rehabilitation wait times is a priority for Grandview Kids (GVK), a Children’s Treatment Centre. Using simulation modeling, the Capstone team of Max Beggs, Claire Shaw, and Jose Pablo Siliézar analyzed the effects of a tiered intervention system to improve patient flow. Moving away from the current non-tiered system of assessments and 1-on-1 appointments, the team constructed a simulation model in Python to include Tier 1 Workshops and Tier 2 Group Therapy interventions to provide temporary treatment options to patients. This tiered system was found to decrease queue sizes and wait times by up to 20% and provided evidence-based recommendations to enhance patient flow management and provide equitable access to care for children with developmental delays.

Team ARL-MLS1 (Tiffany Costas, Daniel Roberts, Adli Hijab, Peter James Mason, and Nicholas Bajaikine) won 3rd Place Capstone Design Project Award in Mechanical Engineering

Team Humber River Health (Andrew Barton, Emma Beaumount, Maia Kanceljak and Alexandra Hon) won 3rd Place Capstone Design Project Award in Industrial Engineering

3rd Place Capstone Design Project Award (Mechanical & Industrial)

Project Title: Experimental Methodology For Measuring Propeller Noise / Project Supervisor: Professor Kamran Behdinan

Drones in aviation are noisy and as they are used more frequently, the increase in noise levels is cause for concern. Tiffany Costas, Daniel Roberts, Adli Hijab, Peter James Mason, and Nicholas Bajaikine worked with their ARL-MLS Laboratory client to find a solution. An optimal propeller design is a promising way to mitigate noise pollution and collecting noise data to determine efficacy was the team’s objective. The result was a testing apparatus prototype that measured detailed and flexible propeller noise characterization from many different propeller geometries. This final product offers the flexibility of rapid testing within the lab at a lower cost than the current market alternatives.

Project Title: Emergency Department Resource & Scheduling Allocation to Optimise Efficiency / Project Supervisor: Professor Michael Carter

Project client Humber River Health (HRH) has the busiest Emergency Department (ED) in Ontario and wants to find ways to optimize patient flow and reduce wait times. Team members Andrew Barton, Emma Beaumount, Maia Kanceljak, and Alexandra Hon used simulation technology and data analytics to find solutions. Following an ambulatory patient’s journey until seen by a physician, the team determined that reallocating nurse staffing numbers at different shift stages would reduce time-to-physician initial assessments (PIA), and minimize overall wait times.

 

-Published by Kendra Hunter on May 16, 2024

 

In the latest episode of “Tell Me More: Coffee with Chris Yip”, the official podcast of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto. Dean Chris Yip sits down with Eva Lau (IndeE 9T2), MIE alumna and co-founder of Two Small Fish Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on the next evolution of computing and its applications.

Eva earned her Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering at MIE. Having transformed from an engineering student to a successful investor and mentor in the technology industry, Eva now leverages her experience to help early-stage transformative tech companies achieve internet scale. She was a founding team member of Wattpad as head of community and content for the storytelling platform, she helped the company scale from hundreds to tens of millions of users.

In this episode, Eva talked about how learning human factors in industrial engineering has influenced her career path, the evolution of computer technology, the importance of mentorship, and what makes U of T Engineering unique.

Listen and subscribe to the episode and hear more about the stories and thoughts from Eva!

-Published on May 15, 2024, by Sherry Wang

 

U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip and Professor Natalie Enright Jerger (ECE) have been elected fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). Alumni Benoit Boulet (ElecE PhD 9T6), Susan Doniz (IndE 9T3), and Alfred Yu (BME MASc 0T4, PhD 0T7) are also among the CAE’s 54 new fellows. The CAE is a national institution through which individuals who have made outstanding contributions to engineering in Canada provide strategic advice on matters of critical importance to Canada and to Canadians.   

“I am honored to be joining this extraordinary group of engineers, which includes more than 50 U of T faculty members providing national leadership in engineering and engineering education,” says Yip. “On behalf of the faculty, congratulations to all the newly elected fellows from the U of T Engineering community.”  

Yip has served as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering since 2019. He previously served as director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and associate vice-president, of international partnerships for U of T.  

As Dean, Yip has facilitated unique new programs to help students excel in the university environment and led efforts to enhance diversity and inclusivity throughout the faculty. Yip has also made extensive leadership contributions to CIHR and NSERC and was instrumental in helping to restructure the NSERC-CIHR Collaborative Health Research Projects program.  

A leading scholar in the field of single-molecule biophysics, he is developing innovative new tools and techniques for characterizing molecular dynamics and structures. He held a Canada Research Chair in Molecular Imaging from 2000-2010. Yip has received a Premier’s Research Excellence Award as well as a number of teaching awards. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. 

 

As the Canada Research Chair in Computer Architecture, Enright Jerger designs new ways of arranging the components of computer processors to optimize performance. Her work helps manufacturers such as Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm build faster devices while keeping power usage, device size and cost low, resulting in smarter smartphones and more powerful computers.  

Enright Jerger has also led efforts to improve diversity and advance women in the computer architecture field; she chaired the Women in Computer Architecture networking group and was co-chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Council on Diversity and Inclusion. Enright Jerger serves as Director of U of T’s Division of Engineering Science. She has developed several new courses and is co-author of the popular textbook On-Chip Networks, used in graduate courses at many leading universities. Enright Jerger is a Distinguished Member of ACM as well as a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Engineering Institute of Canada.  

 

Boulet is a research and innovation leader at McGill University, where he is associate vice-president, of innovation and partnerships, and founding director of the McGill Engine, a technological innovation centre. His work to develop an artificial pancreas promises to revolutionize diabetes care and enhance the lives of thousands. In the realm of engineering for sustainability, his research on electric vehicles has helped shape the industry and nurture a skilled workforce. Boulet’s work has garnered international recognition. As a collaborative academic leader, innovator and entrepreneur, he successfully bridges academia and industry to enhance engineering training, research and innovation. 

 

 

Doniz is the chief information and data analytics officer at The Boeing Company. She leads all aspects of information technology, enterprise security, data and analytics, and has been instrumental in digitally enabling the company. Before joining Boeing in 2020, she was group CIO of Qantas Airways, where she expanded their digital ecosystem, and spent 17 years at Procter & Gamble leading IT and analytics programs as well as an initiative to digitize the company. Doniz is a champion of several networks for women in STEM and for Hispanics in business leadership. In 2022, she was named to Forbes’ CIO Next List and as one of the most influential women in aerospace by Business Insider.  

 

 

Yu is assistant vice-president (research and international) at the University of Waterloo, and is internationally renowned as an outstanding innovator and leader in next-generation ultrasonics. He is a leader in high-frame-rate ultrasound imaging technology that has transformed clinical ultrasound scanners and cardiovascular diagnostics. His seminal discoveries in therapeutic ultrasound have established the mechanistic basis of ultrasound-mediated drug delivery. Yu’s achievements and impact have been recognized by many prestigious prizes, including the NSERC Steacie Memorial Fellowship, IEEE Ultrasonics Early Career Investigator Award, Frederic Lizzi Award and Ontario Early Researcher Award.  

 

 

– This story was a part of the article originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on May 13, 2024, by Carolyn Farrell.

Six members of the U of T Engineering community have been honored by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and Professional Engineers Ontario with the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards.  These awards recognize engineers in Ontario who have made exceptional contributions to the profession and to society.   

Among them, Paul Acchione (MechE 7T1, MIE MEng 7T6) garnered the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing the engineering profession through long-standing service to OSPE.  Inga Hipsz (MechE 9T4, MIE MASc 9T6) and David Poirier (IndE 8T1) were both awarded the Management Medal for innovative management practices contributing significantly to an engineering achievement.  

“These outstanding engineers demonstrate the range of contributions that our faculty and alumni are making across multiple fields, from founding new companies and managing significant Canadian organizations to serving in leadership roles in the profession and in the community,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip.  

“On behalf of the faculty, my heartfelt congratulations on these well-deserved recognitions.” 

Acchione has more than 50 years of engineering and management experience in the nuclear and fossil power generation industry. He worked with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and its predecessor companies in their fossil and nuclear engineering divisions from 1971-2002 and is now a consultant with Market Intelligence & Data Analysis Corporation.  

During his career at OPG, Acchione held several positions, including design engineer, design engineer specialist, supervising design engineer, project manager and department manager. He received two new technology awards and a product champion award. 

 Acchione’s experience includes the design of automatic control systems and simulation studies of the performance of nuclear and fossil generation plants and their integration with the electrical grid. He has published a dozen technical papers related to his design, simulation and project management experience.  

Acchione has a longstanding interest in energy supply options that can provide Ontario with reliable, safe and sustainable electricity at a competitive price. Recently, he has been focused on the design of retail electricity rates that can make clean surplus electricity available at prices lower than fossil fuels on an energy equivalent basis. Such price plans can accelerate the transition to low-emission electricity. Acchione was the President and Chair of OSPE from 2013-2014 and has served as a member of the OSPE Energy Task Force for a decade. He was elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2014 and received the OSPE President’s Volunteer Award in 2018. 

In her more than 25-year career, Hipsz has consistently advanced the organizations she leads by building high-performing teams and driving process improvements. After obtaining her undergraduate degree and master of applied science in mechanical engineering from U of T, Hipsz joined Kodak Canada, where she spent nearly a decade leading process improvement initiatives. She was recognized for developing corporate best-in-class practices that were adopted company-wide and for helping shape the lean manufacturing culture within Kodak’s Canadian manufacturing organization.  

In 2005, she joined CSA Group as a project manager developing nuclear standards, leading a series of process improvement initiatives that resulted in a significant increase in industry funding and which became a model for other groups within the organization. This eventually led to the creation of a lean team under her leadership. In 2017, Hipsz was promoted to CSA Group’s global leadership team. In 2018, she was appointed to manage their largest global division as regional vice-president (Americas operations) of testing and certification. By developing a culture of continuous improvement, she significantly elevated the performance of this operation. Most recently, Hipsz was named VP, standards, strategic development.  

Hipsz advocates for the importance of standards to government and industry. She serves as a member of the diversity, equity and inclusion, and environment, social and governance steering committees at CSA Group and acts as a mentor and role model for woman engineers. In addition, she has served the community as an alumni ambassador for U of T and a committee member for girls’ softball associations. 

Poirier is the founder and CEO of The Poirier Group, a boutique management consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations implement and integrate significant change. The firm has worked with major companies across North America to transform their corporate culture and processes. Before starting The Poirier Group in 2005, he had a very successful management career spanning the retail, food distribution, health and life sciences and manufacturing industries. He held senior leadership roles in Loblaw Companies Ltd. and the Hudson’s Bay Company.  

Despite his demanding career, Poirier has always prioritized giving back his time. He has made exceptional contributions to training and mentoring the next generation of industrial and systems engineers and has enabled leading-edge research in these fields by building strong academic-industry partnerships. As an active volunteer with U of T for 25 years, Poirier has chaired both the Dean’s Advisory Board and the Industry Advisory Board for the mechanical and industrial engineering department. He has been a volunteer for Camp One for the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer since the 1990s and served as chair of their executive committee.  

Poirier is a longstanding member of the Council on Industrial & Systems Engineering; he has been its chair since 2014. Poirier was president of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) from 2020-2021 and served on their Board from 2019-2022. He is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, and he has received many of IISE’s most prestigious awards, including the Medallion Award and the Outstanding Management Award.  

 

– This story was a part of the article originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on May 10, 2024, by Carolyn Farrell.