Eleven members of the U of T Engineering community have been elected as 2023 fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). Professors Ali Dolatabadi (MIE), George Eleftheriades (ECE), Baochun Li (ECE), Xinyu Liu (MIE) and Ning Yan (ChemE), along with alumni Janet Elliott (EngSci 9T0, MechE MASc 9T2, PhD 9T7), Mina Hoorfar (MechE MASc 0T1, PhD 0T5), Steve Hranilovic (ElecE MASc 9T9, PhD 0T3), Mark Martinez (ElecE 8T7, MASc 9T0), Carolyn Ren (MechE PhD 0T4) and David Tennenhouse (ElecE 7T7, MASc 8T1), are among the CAE’s 55 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.  

“The election of these exceptional faculty and alumni to the Academy is an important recognition of their impact as engineering innovators, educators and leaders, both nationally and globally,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip. “On behalf of the Faculty, congratulations to all our new CAE fellows.” 

 

Ali Dolatabadi is working to design, build and promote environmentally responsible coating processes which can meet the technical and economic needs of industry. Prior to joining U of T, he was a Research Chair in Multiphase Flow and Thermal Spray at Concordia University. His research has advanced the fundamental understanding of thermal spray processes, as well as droplet dynamics, heat transfer and phase change, for the development and characterization of novel functional coatings and surface engineering solutions. Dolatabadi is associate director of the Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies and was instrumental in the formation of Green-SEAM, the first surface engineering research network in Canada. He served as president of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering from 2014 to 2016 and as president of the Engineering Institute of Canada from 2020 to 2022. He has received several awards for his research and teaching. 

 

George Eleftheriades is a pioneer in the field of metamaterials, which are artificial electromagnetic materials that can bend waves and process light in unnatural ways. The applications for these materials are immense and include sub-wavelength imaging in advanced medical diagnostics, very small and efficient antennas, wireless power transfer, efficient solar light harvesting, and even cloaking, where waves are bent around an object in a way that renders them transparent. Eleftheriades has become a world leader in this area by marrying fundamental physics and engineering to demonstrate the potential of this technology and then using it to invent novel devices for wireless communications, radar, super-resolution imaging and in the defence sector. Eleftheriades is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Royal Society of Canada, and has received many of the most prestigious national and international awards in his field. 

 

Baochun Li is a pioneering researcher and innovator in multimedia systems, networking, cloud computing and distributed systems. A Bell Canada Endowed Chair since 2005, he has worked closely with industry partners such as Bell Canada and Microsoft and has published many influential papers, garnering more than 24,000 citations and an h-index of 86. Li led the creation of R2, the world’s first large-scale peer-to-peer video streaming system using network coding; R2’s technology was the first deployment of network coding in commercial video broadcasting. Li is also a leader in application-layer network protocols, which are technologies used to speed up the delivery of large volumes of data across cloud datacentres and the Internet. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he recently launched one of the first dedicated online conferencing platforms. Li is a fellow of IEEE and has received several prestigious awards for his contributions. 

 

Xinyu Liu is a world-renowned innovator who has tackled challenging interdisciplinary problems in microrobotics and microfluidics. His seminal contributions in microrobotic biomanipulation and diagnostic biosensors have significantly advanced the state-of-the-art and provided practical solutions to in vitro fertilization treatment and point-of-care diagnostics. Liu has developed a series of paper-based microfluidic biosensors for rapid diagnosis of conditions such as HIV, hepatitis, prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease and COVID-19. His research has led to 13 patents, with six licensed to industry, and technologies stemming from his work are sold in more than 20 countries. Prior to joining U of T Engineering, Liu was the Canada Research Chair in Microfluidics and BioMEMS at McGill University. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering and the Engineering Institute of Canada.  

 

The Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Bioproducts, Ning Yan is an internationally renowned expert in converting renewable biomass into bio-based chemicals and functional materials. She is a global leader in developing bio-based adhesives, polyols, foams and resins using renewable biological building blocks. Yan led a large industry consortium to create a bark biorefinery for obtaining bio-polyphenolic compounds from waste bark residues. Her research team was the first to successfully synthesize bio-based epoxies using biophenolic extractives instead of toxic bisphenol A (BPA). Companies around the world are pursuing commercial applications of similar bark biorefinery processes. Yan’s research has resulted in 200 journal publications, eight patents/patent applications, and collaborations with academic, government and industry researchers around the world. She is a fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and the International Academy of Wood Science.   

 

Janet A. W. Elliott is a University of Alberta Distinguished Professor, recognized as being among the world’s leading engineering scientists, known for her profound insight into fundamental and applied thermodynamics. Her creative and elegant integration of mathematics and experimental data has addressed many long-standing problems across a wide array of disciplines in science, engineering and medicine, particularly in surface science and cryobiology. Elliott’s work has expanded thermodynamics to new complexity, new length scales and new disciplines, has provided some of the most cited works on the osmotic virial equation and statistical rate theory, and has provided leading cryopreservation protocols. 

 

 

 

Mina Hoorfar is an accomplished academic leader and engineer known for her inspired teaching, award-winning research, innovative administrative leadership and championing of equity, diversity and inclusion. Her research in microfluidics and nanotechnology is applied to energy, health and the environment. An outstanding teacher, she has received the EGBC Teaching Excellence Award and has been recognized by Engineers Canada as an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Leader. Hoorfar has served in senior academic leadership roles including Director, School of Engineering at UBC Okanagan and Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Victoria.   

 

 

 

 

Steve Hranilovic is a research pioneer in optical wireless communications, an academic innovator and a technology leader developing Canadian-made solutions to bring equitable internet access to Canada’s northern, remote and rural communities. He ranks in the top 2% of researchers worldwide, his research has been applied widely in academia and industry and he is a Fellow of the IEEE and Optica. Hranilovic led the transformation of engineering education for 6,000 undergraduates, championing experiential project-based curricula. As Vice-Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies at McMaster, he is responsible for fostering innovation and maintaining a rich learning environment for graduate students across campus. 

 

 

 

Mark Martinez has made outstanding contributions to the pulp and paper industry, one of Canada’s largest manufacturing industries. He has developed new knowledge for improved operations in papermaking and co-invented several new products and processes. Martinez has trained a large number of engineers at the post-graduate level and disseminated knowledge through university teaching and industry courses. He has also played a significant leadership role as director of several university-industry initiatives for the traditional industry as well as the newly emerging bio-products sector. His accomplishments have contributed to the strengthening of a vital pulp and paper industry in Canada. 

 

 

 

 

Carolyn Ren is renowned for her leading-edge contributions to droplet and air microfluidics innovation. Her physical and theoretical models, as well as her design and optimization tools, have enabled new, integrated Lab-on-a-Chip devices for life sciences, environmental monitoring and material synthesis applications. Ren is forging a new frontier in soft, wearable assistive robotics technologies development, enabled by air microfluidics techniques. These lightweight, tetherless innovations are transforming prosthesis design and treatment of lymphedema, edema and arthritis. She has co-founded four start-up companies to commercialize her team’s inventions, is a Fellow of the CSME and a Member of the RSC College. 

 

 

 

David Tennenhouse is passionate about innovation and has led advanced research enabling software-defined networking and software radio. He has worked in academia, as a faculty member at MIT; in government, at DARPA; in industry at Intel, Amazon/A9.com, Microsoft and VMware; and as a partner at New Venture Partners and co-founder of Vericom Systems Ltd. Tennenhouse has championed a wide range of technologies, including networking, distributed computing, blockchain/digital assets, computer architecture, storage, machine learning, robotics and nano/bio-technology. He holds a BASc and MASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge. 

 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 6, 2023 by Carolyn Farrell.

A tiny robotic hand designed to enhance neurosurgery is one step closer to clinical practice.  

The microrobotic tool, created by a team of U of T Engineering researchers led by Professor Eric Diller (MIE), is operated by an electromagnetic system. It enables surgeons to access hard-to-reach areas of the brain with a minimal level of invasiveness, leading to faster treatment and recovery for patients.  

“We are designing the mechanism that drives this robotic hand, which is basically going to act as a surgeon’s hand,” says Diller.  

“We are also using magnetic fields to make this tiny hand move, which is our unique approach to doing this.”  

The team will be presenting their latest findings at the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) later this spring. Their new conference paper examines the feasibility of the newly developed tools to ensure they are ready for preclinical trials.  

“No one else has developed these wirelessly driven magnetic tools before,” says Diller. “So, we needed to categorize the different types of basic operation elements that a surgeon would do, such as pulling on tissue, retracting and applying force to cut into the tissue.  

“We determined that for brain surgery — including procedures targeting epilepsy or removing tumours — we can get enough force to perform the necessary neurosurgery tasks.” 

The designs presented in the new study are an extension of two previous papers published in 2021 in collaboration with Dr. James Drake, a paediatric neurosurgeon in the Department of Surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). 

Since then, the team has developed a clinical-scale electromagnetic coil system, which was designed and built by Adam Schonewille (MIE MASc 2T2), a former student in Diller’s lab.  

The system has a working volume that is approximately the size of an adult human head, with all the electromagnets located underneath a flat surface — a major design requirement for Drake’s team at SickKids, since surgeons require unimpeded access to the patient. 

“Existing surgical robots already take up a lot of space in the operating room, so we wanted our system to be as unobtrusive as possible while still giving the magnetic field the strength needed to accomplish the work,” says Dr. Cameron Forbrigger (MIE PhD 2T2), lead author of the new paper. 

“This electromagnetic system is a major step forward for the feasibility of our surgical approach, and we’ve seen a lot of interest in it from international researchers in our field.” 

A significant contribution of Forbrigger’s PhD dissertation involved modelling how the magnetic design of a tool shapes its response to the magnetic field. Using that model, he was able to rank tool designs based on their predicted performance.  

“This accelerates our design process because, we don’t need to build a tool and test it to know how it will behave,” he says. “This model also enabled us to develop a control strategy that automatically calculates the optimal magnetic field needed to move the tool through a desired motion.”  

The team is also working to overcome a significant challenge that many surgical robots face — acquiring real-time information about the tool’s location and orientation.  

Surgeons using the tool will need to insert it down a channel into the brain and know where it is. To simulate this, the research team makes use of ‘phantom’ brains made of rubber, inserting the long, thin tool into the model that is the same size and shape as a real brain.  

A camera on the tip of the tool provides some location information, but Diller says that this feedback method isn’t very accurate due to its poor viewpoint. 

To overcome this visual challenge, Erik Fredin (MIE PhD candidate), the second author on the conference paper, is developing a computer vision algorithm using machine learning, which is crucial for the utility of the tool. The computer vision results show that it can detect the angles of the tool simultaneously as the operator controls the tool.  

As the team continues to work towards clinical use and commercialization of their dexterous microrobot, the next step will be moving the electromagnetic system and tools to SickKids hospital for live animal trials.   

“Surgeons can be skeptical about the effectiveness of a new surgical tool until they see it tested in a realistic scenario — and rightfully so,” says Forbrigger, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zürich. 

“We’ve put a lot of effort into demonstrating the performance of the tools quantitatively, but we’ve now reached the point where animal models are the next critical step toward further development.” 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on May 24, 2023 by Safa Jinje .

We know we are supposed to switch the lights off when we leave a room, but what about the furnace, or the air-conditioning? According to Professor Seungjae Lee (CivMin), unnecessary heating and cooling of buildings wastes a lot of energy — but artificial intelligence (AI) could offer a better way forward.

Lee’s latest research project, Grid-Interactive Smart Campus Buildings, is a three-year pilot project that aims to reduce U of T’s climate footprint by leveraging AI to optimize the heating and cooling systems in existing buildings. The project is carried out in partnership with Professor Chi-Guhn Lee (MIE) and is jointly funded by the Climate Positive Energy and Climate Positive Campus initiatives at U of T.

“Buildings account for around 25-30% of total energy consumption and energy sector greenhouse gas emissions in Canada and worldwide,” says Lee.

“Given that people spend an average of 90% of their lives indoors, ensuring comfortable and healthy indoor environments is a critical function of building systems. But we could be a lot smarter about using the resources we have.”

Lee’s research applies AI solutions to building science to tackle this issue. In the first year of the project the team is focused on creating a digital twin, a.k.a., a virtual representation, of the Exam Centre at 255 McCaul Street.

In the next stage, the researchers will develop a novel deep reinforcement learning algorithm for the optimal control of the heating and cooling systems. This algorithm will be pre-trained with the digital twin to avoid putting excessive stress on the actual building.

After the pre-training with the digital twin, the algorithm will be implemented in the real Exam Centre and further fine-tuned through interactions with the building. If successful, Lee hopes to use the same approach to convert more campus buildings to smart buildings, contributing to U of T’s Low-Carbon Action Plan.

“60% of campus energy consumption on the St. George campus comes from heating and cooling buildings,” he says.

Lee’s research group is also investigating how humans interact with their buildings in an NSERC Discovery-funded project titled Scalable Cyber-Physical-Human Systems for Intelligent and Interactive Buildings. This is an emerging research area with relatively little published research, something Lee hopes to change.

Where previous methods relied on correlations in data such as the correlation between thermostat setpoint temperature and other parameters, such as the time of the day, Lee and his team are instead using causal relations — for example, the factors affecting occupants’ decision-making on thermostat setpoint temperature — to develop reliable human-centric smart solutions.

“Once we understand how humans interact with their buildings in the light of causation, we can realize more intelligent and human-interactive buildings,” says Lee.

While Lee is not the only researcher interested in using machine learning and AI techniques in buildings, the sector has lagged behind others, such as the automotive or health-care industries, because of how different the energy consumption profiles and needs of individual buildings can be.

“A solution customized for one building is not necessarily fully transferable to another,” he says. “This is a major roadblock in the path of making our buildings smarter.”

“If we can seamlessly combine existing building science domain knowledge and AI, we can build scalable and reliable solutions to create sustainable buildings.”

To tackle this issue, the team is partnering with PLC Group, along with funding from the Ontario Centre of Innovation, to develop a scalable digital twinning tool for building energy systems. If this tool is effective, it will equip the building industry with a solution to create intelligent, interactive and more sustainable buildings around the world.

“The use of AI in building management systems not only has the potential to significantly improve the sustainability of our built environment, but also the way in which we interact with our built environment,” says Lee.

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on May 23, 2023 by Selah Katona.

Recognizing an early career educator who has demonstrated exceptional classroom instruction and teaching methods.

Professor Alison Olechowski joined the Faculty in 2017 and is jointly appointed to MIE and ISTEP. She has taught six different courses, covering both the Mechanical and Industrial engineering programs as well as Troost ILead, and completely redesigned MIE459: Organization Design.

Beyond her classroom teaching, Olechowski is an emerging leader in engineering education research. She has regularly presented at the annual conferences of the Canadian Engineering Education Association and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and has twice won best paper awards from ASEE for her work exploring traits such as confidence, leadership and risk orientation in different groups of engineering students. Olechowski serves on the committee that launched a Canada Design Workshop and is working with computer-aided design (CAD) education researchers nationwide on an initiative to make CAD labs more accessible for students.

She is an active supervisor of the Spark Design Club and the U of T Aerospace Team and is currently mentoring two high school students through the Girls SySTEM Mentorship program. In 2018 Olechowski received a Dean’s Spark Professorship and a Technology Enhanced Active Learning Fellowship. She garnered the MIE Early Career Teaching Award in 2021.

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on April 26, 2023 by Carolyn Farrell.

Recognizing a TA who demonstrates excellence in classroom teaching, working with students, and the development of course materials.

Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Maryam Ebrahimiazar has been a TA for several core mechanical engineering courses over the past four years and has served as head TA for MIE312: Fluid Mechanics since 2020.

Ebrahimiazar has been highly sought after by instructors and regularly received offers to collaborate on their courses. She is also very popular with students — her tutorials are always packed, both with her own students and those from other sections, and she consistently receives excellent student evaluations. Students appreciate her accessibility and approachability, and her ability to adjust her teaching in response to feedback. Ebrahimiazar has also made many contributions to the University’s teaching mission beyond her department.

In 2021, she designed and delivered a course on engineering and human health for high-school students as part of the Engineering Outreach Office’s Blueprint program. She also served as a graduate educational developer at U of T’s Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation, creating pedagogical workshops and other initiatives to improve TA performance across the University. Ebrahimiazar was recognized by MIE for her outstanding teaching with the group TA award in 2021 and the individual TA award in 2022.

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on April 26, 2023 by Carolyn Farrell.

On Saturday, April 1, more than 1,300 members of the U of T Engineering community gathered at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in downtown Toronto to celebrate the Faculty’s 150^th anniversary — and officially kick off its new Defy Gravity fundraising campaign.

The evening featured a keynote address from Canadian astronaut and engineering graduate Col. Chris Hadfield, who spoke about the power and potential of engineering as a force for good in the world.

The audience included more than 700 current students and 500 alumni, as well as faculty, staff and other supporters. Guests were treated to performances from the Skule™ Orchestra, the Skule™ Stage Band and the Lady Godiva Memorial Bnad [sic], among many others.

There  were also exhibitions from many U of T Engineering clubs and teams, from Robotics for Space Exploration to the University of Toronto Concrete Toboggan team.

“Each and every one of you has stories to tell about your time here: the challenges you faced, the lessons you learned, the paths you have embarked on and the places they led you,” said U of T Engineering Dean Chris Yip at the event.

“We are here to celebrate the contributions that U of T Engineering graduates have made to building the brighter world we enjoy today, and to imagine the ones yet to come.”

To learn more about U of T Engineering’s history of innovation and the events planned for the rest of the year, visit our Engineering 150 microsite.

The next 150 years

The event also marked the beginning of the Faculty’s new fundraising campaign, a part of the University of Toronto-wide Defy Gravity campaign.

The U of T campaign is helping to address some of the most critical issues of our time. It has twin goals of inspiring 225,000 alumni to get involved, while encouraging them to contribute their time and talent to the University one million times collectively, as well as raising $4 billion in support for the University’s highest priorities.

Over the past century and a half, many new technologies with roots at U of T Engineering have made their mark across Canada and around the world. These include the dry cell battery, the electric wheelchair and the foundation of Toronto’s iconic CN Tower.

“U of T Engineers don’t just accept the world as it is: we fix what’s broken, improve what works and explore entirely new ways of doing things,” said Claire Kennedy (ChemE 8T9) U of T’s Defy Gravity campaign co-chair.

“This is the spirit that has defined the Faculty for 150 years, and it is the sprit that will ensure we can tackle the biggest and most complex problems.”

The new campaign is described by four key pillars that reflect the depth and breadth of the Faculty’s research and educational initiatives. These are:

• Creating sustainable & thriving global communities through technologies that meet the climate crisis head-on, such as new ways of harvesting solar power or bio-inspired solutions that reduce energy use in buildings;
• Promoting healthy societies by finding new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease;
• Designing intelligent machines for good, using expertise in analytics and AI to improve everything from self-driving robots to water distribution systems; and
• Enhancing the development of the 21st century engineer by promoting a more inclusive profession and enhancing the skills of U of T Engineering graduates.

“One hundred and fifty years of leadership and innovation is an occasion worth celebrating,” said David Palmer, Vice-President Advancement and Interim Vice-President Communications.

“Engineering alumni have made an impact in areas all across the globe. And the anniversary gala event was a small window into the limitless innovation and creativity that takes place every day at U of T Engineering.”

A year of celebration

The gala is the first in a series of initiatives set to take place throughout 2023 that will celebrate the progress of the past 150 years and set the tone for the future.

Upcoming events include Alumni Reunion (May 31 – June 4) and a Faculty open house set for September 30. Details for these events, as well as a series of features and interactive content highlighting U of T Engineering’s past and future impact can be found on the 150^th anniversary website.

“I want to thank all of you for all your support, both in the past and the years to come,” said Dean Yip. “The future is bright, and I know that we’re just getting started.”

Learn more about 150 years of impact at U of T Engineering

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on April 3, 2023 by Tyler Irving

 

Last month, a delegation of U of T Engineering graduate students travelled to Detroit, Mich. for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) WE Local conference. From the moment they walked into the room, they could feel that something had changed.

“I was amazed when I first entered the conference hall with around 800 women engineers, the largest gathering of its kind that I have ever witnessed,” says Anjula Antonis (ECE MASc candidate). “It felt empowering to be surrounded by so many like-minded individuals.”

The students spent the next two days making connections with their fellow women engineers and gaining practical tools to help them thrive in their chosen profession.

“In one session, we broke out into small groups and shared stories of challenges we’ve encountered, and how we overcame them using resilience,” says Sharon Ferguson (MIE PhD candidate). “This really made it clear that we are not alone, and we can overcome anything.”

Their trip was partially funded by U of T Engineering’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Professionalism. Over the course of this academic year, the office is supporting several student groups as they attend conferences in Canada and beyond.

These experiences aim to empower students from groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in engineering — including women, Black students and members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community — to bring their authentic selves to their chosen field, and to drive change across the profession.

“Students with identities that have been marginalized in engineering can feel isolated and self-select out of the field. Finding community is really important,” says Marisa Sterling, Assistant Dean, Diversity, Inclusion and Professionalism at U of T Engineering.

“We are investing in conference access as one way to help advance safe and welcoming spaces for women, 2SLGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous and students of many other identities. Students gain skills in leadership, communications, and technical knowledge that they then share back with the U of T Engineering community through presentations to the grassroots Engineering EDI Action Group, talks with lab and peer groups and/or participation in student clubs like GradSWE, QueerSphere and NSBE.”

In January, Toronto hosted the inaugural EngiQueers Canada conference. Jennifer (Jay) Gordon (CivMin PhD candidate), a member of QueerSphere Grad, was among the U of T Engineering students who attended.

“There is a huge amount of value in creating these safe, supportive spaces where students who are in the minority get the chance to experience what it is like to be the majority, fully accepted for who they are, and relating to others in a way which allows us to make sense and live as our authentic selves,” says Gordon.

“I really appreciate the Faculty’s ongoing efforts to counter historic inequity on this and several other axes of privilege. On top of that, this first-ever EngiQueers national conference was a great opportunity to network, meet new friends and attend a couple of awesome parties!”

Another student, a trans woman PhD candidate who preferred to remain anonymous, spoke about what EngiQueers Canada meant to them.

“In November of 2022, I began receiving emails about this conference, and I thought about how great it would be to meet people like myself — engineering queers in similar fields of study and perhaps with similar experiences,” she says.

“I received little to no support from relatives and friends during my whole life.  What the Diversity, Inclusion & Professionalism office did showed me that there is a sense of acknowledgement about the lack of support for our community.”

From March 22 to 26, a delegation from the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) U of T Student Chapter will be in Kansas City, Mo. to attend the 2023 NSBE Annual Convention. The group also sent a delegation to last year’s NSBE Annual Convention, held in Anaheim, Cali.

“As a young Black person in STEM, there comes a time in both my academic and professional journeys where I feel ‘other’ simply due to a lack of representation and visibility in professional spaces,” says Shatho Hubona (Physics), who serves as NSBE U of T’s Conference Chair.

“For me, attending the NSBE convention is an opportunity to form meaningful personal and professional connections with individuals who share my lived experiences.”

Hubona is also looking forward to applying what he learns at the convention.

“Attending this event will be a transformative experience that would help me and the NSBE body advance in our respective careers and contribute to the broader goal of creating a more equitable and representative industry.”

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on March 24, 2023 by Tyler Irving

Professor Amy Bilton (MIE) has received the University of Toronto Global Educator Award for 2023. 

Bilton is an associate professor with the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, and also serves as director of the Centre for Global Engineering (CGEN).  

The Global Educator Award recognizes faculty members who embody U of T’s global mission and whose approach to teaching demonstrates intercultural or global fluency – the ability to successfully operate and communicate within different cultural contexts. 

“Professor Bilton has provided students with innovative curricular and co-curricular opportunities that have developed their engineering skills in a global context,” says Alexie Tcheuyap, Associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost, International Student Experience, and chair of this year’s selection committee. 

“I would like to personally thank Amy for empowering U of T students with experiences to work confidently across cultures and be a positive influence in the world.” 

At CGEN, Bilton has greatly expanded the number of opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to gain practical experience in applying their engineering skills to challenges brought forward by communities around the world. 

Working with local partners, including many NGOs, these teams develop a range of solutions that are adapted to local needs and conditions. Examples include technologies that provide irrigation to crops without the use of electricity and harvest fog to provide water in dry areas. Some projects include opportunities to travel abroad and meet in person with project partners.  

“Professor Bilton has built an impressive range of partnerships and collaborations that stretch all the way around the world,” says Christopher Yip, Dean of U of T Engineering. 

“These projects are incredibly valuable for both the students and the communities they work with, and form an important part of our vibrant global network. On behalf of the Faculty, my warmest congratulations to her on this well-deserved honour.” 

Bilton will be honoured at the University’s annual Excellence in Teaching Reception in the fall. 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on March 24, 2023 by Tom Parker and Tyler Irving