Recipients recognized for excellence in classroom instruction, innovative teaching methods and distinction in research
Six U of T Engineering faculty and teaching assistants have been recognized for their leadership and innovation in teaching and research. The recipients of the faculty’s four teaching awards, plus the McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction, were recognized at the April 14 meeting of Faculty Council.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with such talented and inspiring educators and scholars,” says U of T Engineering Dean Christopher Yip.
“Congratulations to the awardees, and thanks to all our faculty members for their outstanding contributions to our teaching and research missions.”
The recipients are:
Adriana Diaz Lozano Patino (EngSci 2T3, MIE PhD student)
Teaching Assistant Award
Recognizing a TA who demonstrates excellence in classroom teaching, working with students and the development of course materials.
A PhD candidate in MIE, Diaz Lozano Patino has been a TA for ESC203: Engineering and Society and ESC204: Praxis III since 2023. Across both courses, she has demonstrated a teaching philosophy grounded in community, care and student-centred learning. Her contributions have not only enriched the academic development of EngSci students but have also shaped the learning culture within the program.
Diaz Lozano Patino creates spaces where every learner can participate authentically and grow both academically and personally. She has demonstrated an ability to guide students in discussing complex ethical, sociotechnical and justice-oriented content — subjects many students initially find intimidating. From the first seminar, she establishes norms of respect and mutual care, ensuring that even students who arrive anxious about public speaking gradually find their voices.
Diaz Lozano Patino’s seminars and design studios blend structure and rigor with flexibility, and course concepts with real-world context. Her impact extends beyond the classroom; she is a leader across outreach programs, EDI initiatives, academic panels, STEM mentorship programs and community-engaged learning. She received an EngSci TA Award for her contributions in 2024.
Dimpho Radebe (IndE 1T5, ChemE PhD student)
Teaching Assistant Award
Recognizing a TA who demonstrates excellence in classroom teaching, working with students and the development of course materials.
A PhD candidate in Engineering Education, Radebe has made outstanding contributions as a TA in three ISTEP courses: TEP448: System Mapping; TEP440: To Engineer is Human; and TEP445: Power of Story. For TEP448, she designed and facilitated weekly tutorials and refined the marking rubrics for the first iteration of the course. In year two she incorporated a sharing circle activity she developed for students to share their experiences working in teams and navigating discomfort and ambiguity.
In TEP440, Radebe co-developed and managed back-end processes, and attended as a guest lecturer to share her own doctoral research. She also created a transfer document for future TAs outlining key processes and resources.
In TEP445, she supported students in connecting social science concepts to their lived experiences and took the lead in teaching two classes — one on psychological safety in teams and the other on counter-narratives in engineering — again, applying her research to the classroom.
In her teaching, Radebe encourages students to connect course content to their own values and roles in society. She brings her lived experience into the classroom and fosters bi-directional inquiry and discovery with students, creating a safe and reflective learning environment.
Sinisa Colic (MIE)
Early Career Teaching Award
Recognizing an early career educator who has demonstrated exceptional classroom instruction and teaching methods.
Colic joined MIE in 2020 as an assistant professor in the teaching stream. Soon after joining the faculty, he contributed to the development of MIE1517: Introduction to Deep Learning and APS1070: Foundations of Data Analytics and Machine Learning, a faculty-wide “bootcamp” course for MEng students in the emphasis in Data Analytics & Machine Learning.
Colic is also the instructor for MIE444: Mechatronics Principles, a highly popular fourth-year mechatronics design course, which many students describe as the highlight of their time at U of T. Colic redesigned this course to have a large competitive project, which involves working in teams to build a rover which must then autonomously complete a series of tasks.
In all his courses, Colic aims to create fun student experiences, to build community, to demonstrate the purpose and value of what is being taught, and to provide students with hands-on experience and industry-relevant skills.
He has published and presented his teaching innovations at the annual conferences of the Canadian Engineering Education Association and the American Society of Engineering Education. In 2025, he received the MIE Early Career Teaching Award in recognition of his exceptional contributions.
Matthew Mackay (MIE)
Faculty Teaching Award
Recognizing a faculty member who demonstrates outstanding classroom instruction and develops innovative teaching methods.
Mackay joined MIE as a lecturer in 2011, was appointed to the teaching stream as associate professor in 2015, and was promoted to professor in 2024. His exceptional teaching is demonstrated by the popularity of his courses and his consistently outstanding student evaluations.
Mackay puts a strong emphasis on the real-world applications of what he teaches; his teaching offers real insight into how engineering operates outside of academia. As an example, Mackay created the course MIE243: Mechanical Design, which covers both mechanical/engineering design and professional development. Students fulfil a design project, learn CAD, and can even complete professionally recognized external certification.
Mackay served as the MIE Associate Chair, Undergraduate from 2014-2023. During that time, he led a curriculum overhaul that introduced both a design spine and a communication spine into the MechE curriculum. Mackay received Early Career Teaching Awards from MIE in 2014 and from the faculty in 2017.
In 2020 he won the Wighton Fellowship, a national award for outstanding teaching in lab-based courses. He garnered U of T’s Joan E. Foley Quality of Student Experience Award in 2022and was named the Chalmers Chair in Engineering Design in 2023.
Evan Bentz (CivMin)
Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award
Recognizing a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching over the course of at least 15 years.
Since joining CivMin in 2000, Bentz has taught a wide array of courses, including core courses and technical electives as well as the flagship CAMP course, Civil and Mineral Practicals. Bentz taught CAMP from 2000 to 2024 and was deeply involved in developing the content and style of teaching for this unique off-campus field lab course.
Bentz’s contributions to the faculty go well beyond classroom teaching. He served as associate chair, undergraduate for CivMin and played a crucial role in CivMin’s CEAB accreditation in 2018.
He was also instrumental in the 2018 CivMin self-study and the development of the resulting strategic plan. He chaired the faculty’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, leading it through the pandemic, and has served as vice-dean, undergraduate since 2024.
Bentz has also contributed to education beyond U of T through his development of the Response computer program, which has been used in courses at universities worldwide and downloaded by 110,000 engineers and researchers in 157 countries. Bentz garnered the faculty’s Early Career Teaching Award in 2005 and the Faculty Teaching Award in 2013. He has received the CivMin Chair’s Bronze Award for Excellence in Teaching as well as an EngSci Teaching Award, and won CivMin’s Professor of the Year Award twice.
Leo Chou (BME)
McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction
Recognizing exceptional performance and distinction in research by a pre-tenure faculty member.
Since establishing his independent lab in 2019, Chou has rapidly built a leading academic program in structural DNA nanotechnology for biomedical applications. His research addresses a central challenge in biomedical engineering: how to design materials that communicate with living systems at molecular precision.
Chou’s work is grounded in the insight that biological responses — from receptor signaling to immune activation and tissue-level behavior — are governed not just by biochemical identity, but by spatial context, valency, mechanics and temporal presentation. By engineering materials that precisely control these parameters, his lab has created new ways to both interrogate and manipulate biological function.
At the core of his program is the use of sequence-programmable polymers as building blocks for biomaterials; his group creates nanoscale and microscale systems whose structure, function and biological interactions can be rationally designed. This allows them to uncover fundamental biological mechanisms while advancing technologies with clear biomedical relevance. Chou’s research has been recognized with the Connaught New Researcher Award, the Biomedical Engineering Society Rising Star Faculty Award and the Government of Ontario Early Researcher Award.
– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on April 17, 2026 by Carolyn Farrell.