Dominic Ali

U of T launches Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 16:06:11 +0000

U of T launches Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 12/08/2020 - 11:06

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Top row: Anna Goldenberg, Muhammad Mamdani, Vinyas Harish. Centre row: Mjaye Mazwi, Laura Rosella, Alistair Johnson. Bottom row: Sean Hill, Felipe Morgado, Zoryana Salo.

Dominic Ali

Topic

Our Community

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation

Artificial Intelligence

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Computer Science

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty of Arts & Science

Graduate Students

Hospital for Sick Children

St. Michael's Hospital

Our daily interactions with technology create vast amounts of data and analytics giving rise to what has been dubbed the “artificial intelligence revolution.” Now, a new research centre at the University of Toronto's Temerty Faculty of Medicine aims to harness the incredible promise of AI in the realms of medicine and health care.

The Temerty Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM) launched this week at U of T, solidifying Toronto’s place at the nexus of AI, data science and the health sciences.

“Toronto is uniquely positioned to lead globally in artificial intelligence in healthcare,” says Professor Muhammad Mamdani, who was recently appointed the inaugural director of T-CAIREM for a five-year term. “Our expertise in medicine and allied health sciences, computer science, statistics, mathematics and engineering is among the best in the world.”

The goal of T-CAIREM is to create a forum that brings together this multidisciplinary expertise so members can share their experiences and collaborate through common interests – and a cutting-edge data and computing environment – that will transform health care in innovative and exciting ways.

Mamdani is well placed to bring together the worlds of AI and medicine. He is a professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the department of medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He’s also the vice-president of data science and advanced analytics at Unity Health Toronto, where his research team develops advanced analytics solutions and deploys them into clinical practice, to improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency.

Based in U of T’s department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, T-CAIREM’s work will focus on three pillars: research, education and data infrastructure. The centre brings together some of North America’s brightest researchers, including:

• Research co-leads Anna Goldenberg (computer science/SickKids) and Mjaye Mazwi (pediatrics/SickKids)

• Education lead Laura Rosella (Dalla Lana School of Public Health) and learner co-leads Vinyas Harish (MD/PhD student) and Felipe Morgado (MD/PhD student)

• Infrastructure co-leads Sean Hill (psychiatry/CAMH) and Alistair Johnson (SickKids).

To ensure T-CAIREM’s programs fulfill their education mandate, two students are crucial members of the centre’s leadership team. Morgado, an MD/PhD program learner, is one of them. “The world has adjusted to AI so quickly,” says Morgado. “And this rate of adoption will continue to increase as the tools and data become more available. Today’s students will need to know how to use these tools effectively if we’re going to use them to improve patient care.”

The T-CAIREM team is launching several initiatives this month for students in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. The Trainee Rounds, aimed at graduate students across faculties as well as MD students, will give selected students the opportunity to showcase their work to leaders in the AI and health-care research communities. In addition, a Summer Research Studentship Program will pair undergraduate and medical students with a U of T faculty supervisor to explore AI in medicine.

There are also opportunities for experienced researchers. Two $200,000 Temerty Innovation Grants for AI in Medicine are available for up to two years for multidisciplinary teams working on projects with the potential to transform health care using AI over the coming decades.

T-CAIREM’s future plans include a data platform where members can share data sets and online interest groups, which will allow members to discuss their research interests with others.

There’s already evidence T-CAIREM is filling an important gap in Toronto’s burgeoning AI-in-medicine community. This past summer, an initial call for researchers to join the centre resulted in nearly 400 new members and the team is looking forward to adding even more to its growing community from students and researchers who are members of U of T and affiliated institutions.

“Our first priority is to build a strong community in the Toronto area and then collaborate extensively globally,” says Mamdani. “By bringing together brilliant clinicians and researchers and making it easier for them to collaborate and access data, we hope to enable advances in AI in healthcare that will radically change how we interact with the health-care system, the care we receive and the outcomes we achieve for future generations to come.”

Nia Technologies brings 3D prosthetic printing to developing countries

lavende4 — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 17:48:38 +0000

Nia Technologies brings 3D prosthetic printing to developing countries lavende4 Mon, 04/18/2016 - 13:48

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Matt Ratto (left) with orthopedic staff at CoRSU Hospital, Uganda

Dominic Ali

Author legacy

Dominic Ali

Topic

Social Entrepreneurship

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 30 million people in low-income countries require prosthetic limbs, braces or other assistive devices. To make things even tougher, the vast majority who require these devices don’t have access to rehabilitation services.

Until now, that is.

Thanks to a Canadian non-profit social enterprise called Nia Technologies – supported by University of Toronto research – children with disabilities in developing countries may soon have better access to high-quality and better-fitting prosthetics.

Nia is currently testing its innovative 3D printing technology to help improve the lives of the disabled in developing countries. Nia’s flagship technology, called 3D PrintAbility, was developed in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Associate Professor Matt Ratto, who also serves as director of the Semaphore Research Cluster and as Nia’s chief science officer.

“It has been incredibly validating to see how quickly clinical practitioners are able to adopt and even extend the cutting edge technologies we have provided to produce patient outcomes that potentially leapfrog our capacity in the developed world,” says Ratto.

Perhaps the best testament to Nia’s work was its very first patient, a spirited four-year-old Ugandan girl named Roseline who was born without a right foot. Roseline was outfitted with a 3D-printed prosthetic socket that was manufactured using Nia’s 3D PrintAbility. “With her 3D PrintAbility socket in place, Roseline was able to walk and run alongside other children for the first time in her life,” says Jerry Evans, CEO of Nia.

3D PrintAbility is a set of software tools that combines 3D scanning, modelling, and printing to produce customized prosthetics and orthotics for individuals with disabilities. Nia tested its devices in Uganda last year and will revisit the country in Spring 2016 and expand its trials into other developing countries in the coming year.

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Nia’s prosthetics are made from high strength nylon, using consumer grade 3D printers that are available off-the-shelf in North America. The developers are pleased with the early results.

“Preliminary research shows that by using 3D PrintAbility, technologists in developing countries can produce well-fitting devices in 1.5 days instead of the usual 5 days,” says Evans.

As a social enterprise, Nia works towards establishing local expertise in developing countries. By training technologists to use 3D PrintAbility, Nia is transferring knowledge and skills that will help them help more people in their communities. During the initial clinical trial in 2015, the team in Uganda produced prosthetic sockets for about 40 children and youth with lower limb disabilities who ranged in age from 4 to 25.

Currently, 3D PrintAbility produces transtibial (below-the-knee) prosthetic sockets and ankle-foot orthoses (braces). But Nia hopes to add other orthopaedic devices in the future that will help more children like Roseline.

When Roseline tried walking with her new 3D PrintAbility prosthetic for the first time, she confirmed the value of Nia’s mission to its CEO. “It is in those magical moments that all the messy and hard work of innovation comes together and makes sense,” says Evans. “Seeing Roseline walk gave me a glimpse of how 3D PrintAbility could be of great value to other children and society at large.”

Rap dreams in South Central: U of T's Jooyoung Lee explores Project Blowed

sgupta — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 10:34:49 +0000

Rap dreams in South Central: U of T's Jooyoung Lee explores Project Blowed sgupta Wed, 03/23/2016 - 06:34

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U of T sociologist Jooyoung Lee (right) with his mentor Tick-a-Lott (photo supplied by Jooyoung Lee)

Dominic Ali

Author legacy

Dominic Ali

Features

Urban Studies

Music

Faculty of Arts & Science

Subheadline

Urban sociologist examines Hip Hop culture through the legendary open mic workshop

Jooyoung Lee is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, a senior fellow with the Yale University Urban Ethnography Project – and the author of: Blowin’ Up: Rap Dreams in South Central.

The just-published book details his research into a South Central Hip Hop workshop called Project Blowed. Lee examines how aspiring rappers and b-boys in the heart of Los Angeles’s South Central neighbourhood learn the basics of the craft and hone their skills in search of Hip Hop glory.

U of T News writer Dominic Ali spoke with Lee about his research and about how his insights into South Central’s Project Blowed could be applied to other cities with a vibrant music scene.

What was the genesis of “Blowin’ Up”?

I was walking around UCLA’s campus during my first year of graduate school and bumped into an old friend from Berkeley. He was an MC/graduate student and told me about Project Blowed, a legendary Hip Hop open mic workshop in South Central LA. He made it sound like a mystical training ground for underground MCs, so I went to check it out the following week and was immediately hooked! I had never seen or heard about this side of South Central LA, which was so different from everything that I had ever seen or heard about the area. Tucked into gangland LA, there was this incredible open mic workshop where rappers came each week to sharpen their craft.

This project is also an outgrowth of my personal journey into Hip Hop culture. I grew up in Southern California listening to N.W.A. and other gangsta rappers from South Central and Compton. Even though I didn’t have any personal experiences growing up around gang violence or police brutality, the music still resonated. It helped me make sense of my own experiences with racism and got me thinking about many of the core issues – poverty, structural violence, racism – that animate my research.

What makes the music scene you document in your book so unique?

Project Blowed sets an incredibly high bar for MCs who are trying to elevate the art of rhyming. The rappers would freestyle together for hours, refining their ability to string together words on the fly and create new styles of rhyming. It wasn’t enough to just freestyle or write clever rhymes. MCs evaluated each other based on their abilities to create new and interesting ways to deliver their rhymes. It was a scene that placed a lot of emphasis on creativity.

Also, my book challenges a longstanding notion that Hip Hop encourages young people toward oppositional values and violence. I saw the opposite process unfolding in the lives of young Black men from South Central. Many of the men who I write about grew up in the shadows of the Crips and Bloods and gang injunctions. Hip Hop provided them with a creative alternative to gang life.

What have you learned about Hip Hop and South Central that might be applicable to other cities with unique music scenes?

I think music scenes provide a window into the worldviews of young people in different cities. The young men that I write about were making music shaped by their experiences around gangs and police violence. Music is very ethnographic in this way. And we can see the same types of representations appearing in Seattle grunge, punk rock from London, reggae music coming out of Kingston, and so forth. Most popular music is youth-driven, so it provides the world with a historical lens into young people’s lived experiences.

What conditions are needed for a city to successfully tap into its musical legacy?

I think cities gain widespread musical recognition when a local artist blows up. Sometimes it can look like this happens overnight. But, as I learned, there is always a long backstory. Artists are typically working tirelessly behind-the-scenes and receiving support from lots of different people. Cities can help support this process by investing in music programs in public schools. They can also support the creative aspirations of musicians by providing funds for local artists and aspiring musicians.

What do you think readers will take away from reading your book?

I hope readers will realize that there’s a lot more to places like South Central than just gangs and violence. Although gangs and violence are definitely part of South Central, they only represent part of the youth experience. Inner city communities are often unfairly stigmatized as dangerous, even lawless, places. These images are really caricatures that gloss over the range of experiences that people have in these communities. So, I hope that people will read my book and think critically about the taken-for-granted ideas they might have about “ghettoes” across the U.S. and Canada.

What did your research reveal about North American culture?

Hip Hop is still widely stigmatized, as evidenced by recent efforts by the criminal justice system to use Hip Hop lyrics as evidence in violent crime cases. People still assume that it’s an art form that socializes young people toward violence. But the stories in Blowin’ Up challenge that. The men that I write about were doing exactly what society celebrates in stories of young, industrious and entrepreneurial people. They were using their talents and resources to pursue their passions in the hopes that they would realize their rap dreams. We often celebrate young people (think Bill Gates for instance) for doing this in other businesses and personal pursuits, but it takes on a very different tone when young Black men from stigmatized areas take an unconventional path and invest their energies into it.

What do you hope this book will lead to?

I hope that the book will shine a light on why it’s important to support the arts, especially in underserved communities. Hopefully, policymakers will realize that music and creative activities provide another way of responding to the “youth problem”. Instead of only thinking about ramping up police efforts and punishing youth, it makes sense to invest in an infrastructure that will deter young people from going down those paths in the first place.

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Rob Ford: U of T political experts on the life and times of Toronto's former mayor

sgupta — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 10:12:42 +0000

Rob Ford: U of T political experts on the life and times of Toronto's former mayor sgupta Tue, 03/22/2016 - 06:12

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Former mayor Rob Ford at the dedication of David Pecaut Square on April 8, 2011 (photo by West Annex News via flickr)

Dominic Ali

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Peter Loewen and Nelson Wiseman discuss the legacy of one of Canada's most controversial contemporary politicans

Toronto’s former mayor Rob Ford garnered headlines around the world during his life for his colorful personal life and drug abuse – and his death this week from cancer brought more media coverage.

As Toronto City Hall prepares to host a public viewing of Ford's body, U of T News writer Dominic Ali spoke with two University of Toronto political scientists about the legacy of the politician who once admitted to having smoked crack cocaine “probably during one of my drunken stupors”.

Peter Loewen is the director of the Centre for the Study of the United States with U of T’s Munk School of Global Affairs. Nelson Wiseman is the director of the Canadian studies program with the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

What are Rob Ford’s biggest contributions to Toronto?

Loewen: It is difficult to say, because his political accomplishments are so greatly overshadowed by his personal problems and their impinging on work. I think it is easy to forget what a juggernaut he was in his first 18 months in office. But he threw all of that away. And the gridlock and distraction that followed marked four wasted years. As a consequence, there is little to say about his political legacy. But he leaves a great record of constituency service. And he leaves some Torontonians with the sense that they had a champion.

Wiseman: Rob Ford was a destructive force on city council. He did lower the cost of garbage collection by $10 million, but not a great feat in a budget of about $1 billion. His Scarborough subway plan, I think, was the wrong plan and, unfortunately, we are stuck with it because he cowed his council and his successor bought into it.

How did he shape Toronto in the public imagination and on the world stage?

Loewen: To be frank, he was an embarrassment for the city. But beneath the substance abuse and likely criminality there was a kindness, humility, and joviality that was, I think, very fitting for Toronto.

Wiseman: Many Torontonians who voted for Rob Ford regretted it later. He drew a lot of attention to the city through his infamous behaviour but the image he conveyed did not square with the image that many outside of Toronto and Canada had of the city.

Did he influence Donald Trump’s run for office in the U.S.?

Loewen: The more I reflect on this, the more I think he has. Ford demonstrated just how far a popular and authentic politician can go in denial and obfuscation and still hold on to voters. Donald Trump is now exploring this, and he won’t be the last.

Wiseman: Not at all.

Did Rob Ford change the rules of politics in Toronto?

Loewen: I think he changed our politics on two levels. The first was that he showed just how far a politician can go without losing support. The second is that he showed that it was possible to win the mayoralty by relying on a coalition of working-class Torontonians, suburban commuters, and disaffected property owners. He was, we must remember, elected with as impressive and wide a coalition as any other mayor of the mega city.

Wiseman: He didn’t in any fundamental way.

How do will he be remembered by future Torontonians?

Wiseman: Some will remember him as a colourful clown. Others will miss his style and his penny-pinching, small-minded approach to governing one of the continent’s most livable and culturally attractive large cities.

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used above.)

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U of T dentistry alumnae restore smiles for domestic abuse survivors

sgupta — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 08:56:58 +0000

U of T dentistry alumnae restore smiles for domestic abuse survivors sgupta Tue, 03/08/2016 - 03:56

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Maureen Fenn, Tina Meisami, Renu Varshney, Shiva Shadmand)

Dominic Ali

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Dominic Ali

Subheadline

"Restore a smile. Empower a woman. Reclaim her life."

Women who escape violent domestic situations for the safety of shelters have few reasons to smile. But one non-profit started by alumnae of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry is offering abused women across southern Ontario the prospect of renewed confidence and well-being.

The Restoring Smiles Project is a charitable network of dentists and physicians who provide free treatment to survivors of domestic violence. Patients are usually referred by shelters and are handled by the Dr. Borna Meisami Commemorative Foundation on a case-by-case basis. (The Foundation is named in honour of the deceased brother of founder Dr. Tina Meisami. Her brother was an orthopaedic surgeon and graduate of the U of T who died suddenly just months after turning 40.)

“As a woman, I felt as though I needed to stand up for their rights,” says Dr. Meisami. “As a human being, I felt their pain. As a surgeon, I wanted to fix their oral and facial pain,” she says.

Launched five years ago on International Women’s Day, the project has provided over $200,000 worth of restorative treatment to more than 45 patients, most of whom live in shelters in the GTA. The project's motto – “Restore a smile. Empower a woman. Reclaim her life.” – speaks to the founders' desire not only to improve oral function, but to restore self-confidence in women who have survived abuse.

“It is truly an honor to treat this group of patients,” says Meisami.

In addition to her charitable work as founder and chairwoman of the foundation’s board, Meisami is also the director of Dental Sleep Medicine at the U of T’s Faculty of Dentistry, and operates a private practice in Toronto.

In fact, it was Meisami’s U of T connections that helped get the project started. In its formative stages, she invited four friends from the Faculty of Dentistry to launch the project: Shiva Shadmand, Maureen Fenn, Renu Varshney and Yasmin Mawji.

When the project began, there were just five volunteer treatment providers in Toronto. The operation has since grown to include 18 providers in private clinics in Toronto, Ottawa and St. Catharines.

Patients receive a full scope of dental treatments such as cleanings, fillings, crown and bridge, dental implants, orthodontics, root canals, extractions and surgical facial reconstruction, as well as medical treatments, such as scar revisions. Volunteers focus on eliminating pain and disease and reconstructing the patients’ function in an attempt to improve their health. True to their name, volunteers also focus on rebuilding the patients’ smiles by providing state of the art implant, orthodontic and cosmetic dentistry.

The project has not only brought smiles back to its patients, but to its founder as well. “I am deeply touched by their kindness, their gratitude, their grace, and the connections we make with them,” Meisami says. Her patients might say that those same qualities describe the volunteers of Restoring Smiles.

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Should they stay or should they go?

sgupta — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 09:29:04 +0000

Should they stay or should they go? sgupta Tue, 03/01/2016 - 04:29

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(photo by D. Smith via Flickr)

Dominic Ali

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Dominic Ali

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Global Lens

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Politics

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Global

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U of T’s Randall Hansen on the Brexit referendum

On June 23, citizens of the United Kingdom will vote on whether their country will remain a part of the European Union.

The so-called “Brexit” (British Exit) is big news throughout the EU, and has important ramifications for Europe and North America. Leaving the EU is quite a decision, since no other country has done it before. To get some insight into what this referendum means, U of T News caught up with Professor Randall Hansen, director of the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Canada Research Chair in Immigration & Governance in the department of political science at the University of Toronto.

Why does Britain want to leave the European Union?

The UK doesn’t. Rather, a hardline group of Conservative MPs wants to leave the European Union because they believe that Britain would regain sovereignty and prosper alone. It’s worth noting, though, that this referendum was called for reasons that had little to do with the EU and everything to do with Conservative Party politics. At the time, PM David Cameron was terrified of the rise of the UK Independence Party.

More broadly, anti-European sentiment in the UK reflects a different understanding of World War II – for the UK it was the triumph of nationalism, for Europe it showed its awful extremism – and the problems of joining late. By the time the UK joined, the economic boom had ended, so the EU is not – as it is in Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal and even France – associated with the country’s postwar salvation. Finally, one cannot discount post-imperial nostalgia, a yearning for the days when Britain did not need Europe; when great, grey ships ruled the seas, and when Britain could unilaterally determine the rules of the game.

What problems does it solve?

It all depends on what the UK will do after a vote to exit. If they remained part of the single market, they would have to accept all the rules governing the EU, including free movement (this is the Norwegian model). If the UK leaves the single market, it could control EU migration, but would face the difficult choice of deporting EU migrants currently in the UK (which is unlikely) or making an exception (which would leave a large migrant population). At the same time, the country would lose access to the world’s largest market. Economically, the claim that Britain needs to leave the EU to expand trade with fast-growing India and China is nonsense: Germany trades much more with China and has a larger presence in India than Britain does or will. The UK has a chronic balance of payments crisis. It is a global consumer, not a powerhouse exporter. Simply put, leaving the EU would create many more problems than it solves, if indeed it solves any.

How might a British exit affect the rest of Europe?

It would hurt the UK more than it hurts the EU, as capital, jobs, and headquarters would move to Paris, Frankfurt or other EU cities. But the EU would lose a liberal economic voice, something it sorely needs. And it would suffer a profound psychological shock, given the UK’s size and economic importance. Germany would be stronger, but also more economically isolated as the UK and Germany often see eye-to-eye on matters such as free trade and regulation. The EU countries and regions affected most would be Scotland (which would leave the United Kingdom to remain in the EU) and Ireland (which would have the invidious choice between the British and the European markets).

How might Britain’s decision affect North America, especially Canada?

Both the United States and Canada, but above all Canada, would see the exit of a country with which they have close institutional, linguistic, and cultural ties. The UK founded this country, spared the French language in Quebec, and bequeathed Canada its institutions. Relations between the two countries are extremely good, and ambitious Canadians aspire to study at Oxford or Cambridge. If the UK leaves the EU, we will no longer have a partner, indeed a friend, to articulate and defend our interests in the EU. Canada has a full and unqualified interest in the UK remaining in the EU.

Do you think it will inspire other countries to leave the EU?

I doubt it. Britain has always been the exception. Most countries in Europe were desperate to enter the EU and think of themselves as European. The British entered reluctantly, when they ran out of other options. What’s more, the EU would have every incentive in making the UK’s exit unappealing to other EU states interested in the benefits of the EU but not the costs.

(Visit Flickr to see the original of the photo at top of story)

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Forging an image of the 3D-printing future

sgupta — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 13:05:45 +0000

Forging an image of the 3D-printing future sgupta Mon, 02/22/2016 - 08:05

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Matt Ratto of U of T's iSchool with orthopaedic technologist Joyce Nakibirango at the CoRSU hospital in Uganda. (Photo by ginger coons/Critical Making.)

Dominic Ali

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Dominic Ali

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Printed prosthetics are here, and complex bioprinting is coming, Matt Ratto says

Once confined to the realm of science fiction, 3D printers have become part of the mainstream. These machines fabricate physical objects by melting and layering plastic through a nozzle. Users can create or download professionally designed plans and produce custom objects ranging from tree ornaments to prosthetic limbs.

No one understands the process better than U of T’s Matt Ratto. This associate professor at the iSchool and director of the Semaphore Research Cluster researches the intersection of digital technologies and the physical world.

U of T News talked to Ratto about how 3D printing will evolve, especially when combined with other contemporary technologies.

Is there one use for 3D printing that will revolutionize the world?

A lot of claims have been made about what will be the “killer app” of 3D printing, from just-in-time production of Tupperware lids to the printing of food. The first idea misses the energy costs of 3D printing. It’s a terrible replacement for mass producing forms that can easily and cheaply made through injection molding.

The second idea seems to imply that most people like processed foods. 3D printing a food basically means grinding up the base form into a slurry and then printing it into a new shape or arrangement. We actually have a lot of foods like this in the marketplace. The Pringle is probably the best example. I think that the revolutionary qualities of 3D printing have to do with the ability to produce novel things: smart objects, unique biological forms, hybrid materials and topologies that could not be made before.

3D printers have evolved from large, expensive machines to smaller, cheaper units for home use. Where do you think the technology is heading?

I think 3D printing is moving away from general-purpose hardware and software towards more specific functions and uses. Such a move allows a better fit between user, use context and the design of the 3D tools and technologies. For instance, we are now seeing bioprinters that make use of the same general printer technology as plastic-based hobbyist printers. But they add heated environmental areas for the printing material (cells) and purified compressed air drivers that maintain a sterile printing area, functions specific to the printing of complex biological forms. There are even inexpensive versions of these printers, such as the Biobot, which is a 3D printer for living cells.

Which industries will be most affected as 3D printers become more pervasive?

Medical industries and specifically patient care are really set to be disrupted by 3D printing. Bioprinting of complex cellular assemblies is probably the furthest out, but this will really change how patients are treated. Closer to the market are custom medicines – pills that contain the specific active ingredients for an individual, rather than mass-produced units made for a general profile. And the 3D printing of custom braces, prosthetics and orthotics is right around the corner. We have a research project and non-profit spin-off called Nia Technologies that is already doing this in developing countries.

Zika virus: U of T experts on what you need to know

sgupta — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 10:24:06 +0000

Zika virus: U of T experts on what you need to know sgupta Wed, 01/27/2016 - 05:24

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A firefighter in Brazil inspects a pool for mosquito larvae (photo courtesy Agência Brasília via flickr)

Dominic Ali

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Listen to the complete interview on CBC

(Visit flickr to see the original of the photo used above)

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Gun violence, murder and music: U of T sociologist explores wide range of subjects

sgupta — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 16:48:54 +0000

Gun violence, murder and music: U of T sociologist explores wide range of subjects sgupta Fri, 01/16/2015 - 11:48

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(photo courtesy Jooyoung Lee)

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Gun violence is an ugly reality of life in North America. But how does it affect our cities or the social fabric of our neighbourhoods?

University of Toronto assistant professor Jooyoung Lee is delving into this issue.

Lee, an urban sociologist and lifelong hip hop music fan, is originally from Southern California. He has taught courses such as the “Sociology of Hip Hop” and ethnography at the downtown campus. This semester, he’ll be teaching a class called “The Sociology of Murder,” which explores theories of evil and the aftermath of murder.

Writer Dominic Ali spoke with Lee about his research.

What inspired you to start researching hip hop?
I grew up in Southern California during the 1992 Rodney King riots. I lived a couple of hours east of Los Angeles and was immediately drawn to gangsta rap, which provided a soundtrack to the many events happening around that time. For instance, I remember being a kid and listening to Ice Cube’s “Black Korea”, which sort of encouraged me to think about the ways that racial and ethnic minorities were pit against one another in LA and other urban locales. This and many other kinds of hip hop got me thinking about racial inequality, which is at the heart of my research.

Later, when I was at UC Berkeley, I got into deejaying and popping, two of the main creative expressions in hip hop culture. I was never good at deejaying, but my main focus was on dancing. After graduating from Berkeley, I pursued a PhD in sociology at UCLA and was drawn to a local underground hip hop open mic called “Project Blowed”. This became my dissertation, which I’m now turning into a book with University of Chicago Press.

How did your other research interest develop?
My interests in gun violence emerged while researching my dissertation. The young men that I was writing about were from South Central LA and had grown up around various Crip and Blood gangs, police brutality and other traumas. One of the main guys I was writing about also got shot. His story really inspired me to focus my research on the health trajectories of gunshot victims, who are mostly uninsured in the U.S.

After UCLA, I moved to Philly and started doing research in the outpatient trauma clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. I began interviewing gunshot victims and learned about the ways that being wounded had changed their lives. Afterwards, I followed up with these victims to better understand how they coped with such traumatic injuries.

Most readers might be surprised to know that most gunshot victims don’t die. In the U.S., only about 20 per cent of assault-related shootings end in death. This means that there is a huge population of people who are newly disabled, living with chronic pain and other mental health concerns. My goal as a researcher is to shed light on this population and really show how different institutions could better serve this vulnerable population.

Can you compare the U.S. and Canada?
Gun violence rates are much lower overall in Canada than in the U.S. The firearm homicide rate in Canada is about 0.5 per 100,000, which is a fraction of the U.S. rate (3 per 100,000).

The disparities are even more pronounced in big cities. I previously lived in Philadelphia, which is the most violent big city in America, with a homicide rate at 15 per 100,000. Toronto’s homicide rate is a shade under 2 per 100,000. So, there are big differences between the Canadian and U.S. context.

Many people immediately think that these rates are the result of gun laws; in the U.S. it’s relatively easier to own a gun than in Canada. But I think this is too simplistic. Gun violence is a much larger, systemic issue that reveals structural vulnerabilities in at-risk populations. I am deeply interested in examining the interconnections between Canadian social welfare policies, affordable housing, education and other larger safety nets that can also be seen as interventions into gun violence.

Is this just a big city thing?
Gun violence and murder are much lower in rural and small town settings. But, when they do occur in these places, they have a much more pronounced effect on people’s everyday lives. In my teaching, I often use the old TV show Twin Peaks to illustrate this idea. It’s easy to get lost in the flood of crime news in big cities. One murder or shooting can capture people’s attention, but this focus dissipates once another hot item hits the news. This isn’t the same for rural or small town settings, where murders and violent crimes have longer lasting social and emotional effects on people. A single murder in a small village can transform trust and alter relationships for an entire generation.

Why did you pursue your research at U of T?
I came to U of T because it is an exciting intellectual environment. The sociology department at U of T has a huge and diverse faculty. I love walking down the hall and having conversations with people who study prisons, political sociology, health and various other topics that are and are not related to my work. I think that’s something that really sets U of T apart from many sociology departments in North America.

So what’s your favourite Toronto hip hop album?
I’ve really grown to appreciate Drake. My students always laugh whenever I bring him up in class. I think they are more critical of him because they grew up with him on Degrassi and know a bit about his backstory. But his album “Take Care” really showcases his songwriting and singing.

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Urban geographer explores the changing face of suburbs

sgupta — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 10:09:50 +0000

Urban geographer explores the changing face of suburbs sgupta Wed, 01/14/2015 - 05:09

Cutline

Cities expert Deb Cowen (photo by Dominic Ali)

Dominic Ali

Author legacy

Dominic Ali

Topic

Faculty of Arts & Science

Research

Subheadline

Expert Deborah Cowen on the racial and economic polarization of our cities

Cities change over time and so do the residents who comprise them. Curious about how Toronto is growing, the role of inner suburbs, and the importance of social infrastructure, malls and public spaces?

Meet U of T's Deborah Cowen.

“My research asks why our cities are becoming so deeply polarized along racial and class lines, and what this means for our collective future,” says Cowen, an associate professor with U of T’s geography department. She’s especially interested in the way policing and securing areas are becoming the main approaches cities use to manage social and spatial divisions.

Writer Dominic Ali spoke with Cowen about her work and why it’s important for leaders to consider the roles of race and social class in city-building.

How did you first become interested in researching suburbs?
I became interested about 15 years ago as I began to see the dramatic economic and racial polarization of our city. The inner suburbs, built in the period after the Second World War, were becoming increasingly racialized and poor, even as popular conceptions of these places still imagined them as middle-class bedroom communities.

If gentrification has become a dominant force shaping urban life in cities around the world, this thread of my work has been concerned with the other side of this process; the peoples and spaces displaced by gentrification and the strategies emerging to govern these populations and territories. My interest in these issues began very locally, but I have since seen these same dynamics underway in many cities around the world.

How will your work contribute to the field and to cities like Toronto?
My work argues that we need a frank discussion about race, economic well-being and urban space. Ryerson University's Grace-Edward Galabuzi characterizes the situation as one of economic apartheid. Without serious change in political will and priorities, this will only get worse. The inner suburbs are radically underserviced in almost every regard – in terms of rapid public transit, public space, accessible food, medical and social services. The exception to this rule is policing. Inner suburbs – and especially people of colour who live in these areas – are often subject to aggressive, ‘targeted’ policing.

I contribute to public debates about the future of cities in a variety of ways. One of the most important is through my partnership with the National Film Board’s HIGHRISE project, which explores vertical suburbanization globally. This year, we are completing work on a partnership development grant funded through the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada that examines the ways that digital technologies implicate everyday life in global suburbs.

How are suburbs changing in the 21st century?
Over the last three decades, the social and economic geography of many North American cities has been dramatically recast. Older suburbs, built largely in the 1950s and 1960s for middle-income nuclear families are today seeing wholesale changes.

Initially planned and built with a minimum of public spaces and services because of the assumption that residents would rely on themselves and their cars, these areas are today intensely urbanized but without adequate urban infrastructure. They have high density, diversity and a large population that relies on public infrastructure. The obvious issue is transit, but the other is the lack of space in the inner suburbs.

This is especially ironic because we think there’s lots of space in the suburbs, but there aren’t a lot of spaces where people can meet or where community services can be delivered.

Despite these challenges, the suburbs are also becoming really exciting places as they are transformed. While the downtown still holds appeal for some people, the diversity of peoples, foods, stores, cultures and spaces that once attracted people to live there has largely been displaced to the suburbs.

Can you tell us something from your research that readers might not know?
Our inner cities are becoming very high-priced and homogenous. It is increasingly difficult for most people – and especially racialized people – to live downtown.

People are often stigmatized based on where they live and yet, in a circular fashion, those same places are often stigmatized based on who lives there. Racism and class bias are powerful forces in shaping our perceptions of urban space.

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Urban geographer explores the changing face of suburbs