NSERC

Computer & Electrical Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Sustainability

Subheadline

The Sustainable Data Systems for Data Science initiative aims to align Canada’s tech investments with its vision for a carbon-neutral future

The growing global adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, including machine learning, has created a new sustainability challenge: AI systems are energy-intensive – and the more sophisticated they become, the more resources they require.

To help address the issue, a team of experts including the University of Toronto’s Hans-Arno Jacobsen and Natalie Enright Jerger – both professors in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – are launching an initiative that aims to align Canada’s tech investments with its vision for a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.

The Sustainable Data Systems for Data Science (SDSDS) project aims to train a new generation of computer and data scientists who can combine comprehensive technical skills with sustainability awareness. The project recently received a $1.6-million Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

“A majority of students are unaware of how sustainability informs responsible development of platforms and systems because, frankly, there just aren’t many courses or learning paths available to them in this area,” says Enright Jerger, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Computer Architecture and is director of the division of engineering science.

“Another crucial component of this project is to equip our students with knowledge transfer strategies so they can seed these ideas in the workforce. Today’s trainees becoming tomorrow’s trainers.”

The SDSDS team propose training future computer systems designers to adopt a green approach when developing data analytics platforms and systems. The approach would apply to all aspects of the life cycle of development and deployment – such as hardware infrastructure, software systems and application domains.

To advance knowledge and dialogue on the issue, SDSDS will look to hold cross-university seminars on sustainability challenges and will offer courses on sustainable data science, along with summer school programs focused on energy-efficient software and hardware platforms.

The researchers also aim to connect students with industry via internships and applied research projects, enabling them to gain exposure to current challenges and facilitate cross-pollination of knowledge between industry and academia.

“The awareness about AI’s environmental impact is growing, but there is an expertise gap on how to address this very real problem – not just after the fact, but at inception. SDSDS aims to bridge this gap and prepare for the future resource demands of AI-driven industries,” says Bettina Kemme, professor of computer science at McGill University and team lead at SDSDS, which also includes Semih Salihoğlu of the University of Waterloo, Oana Balmau of McGill University and Essam Mansour of Concordia University.

“The potential of AI and machine learning systems are seemingly limitless,” says Jacobsen, who is the Jeffrey Skoll Chair in Computer Networks and Innovation. “Yet the true genius lies in building machine learning systems founded on sustainability principles. That’s real innovation.”

Infants prefer live music over recorded version, study finds

lanthierj — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 19:22:00 +0000

Infants prefer live music over recorded version, study finds

lanthierj Mon, 07/17/2023 - 15:22

Cutline

Research found that babies' heart rates synchronized and they were more engaged when watching live music, compared to a recording of the same performance (photo by Envato Elements)

Topic

University of Toronto Scarborough

Subheadline

New research from U of T's TEMPO Lab suggests that even babies feel the impact of being at a live show, through both musicians’ interactions with an audience and the social experience of being in a crowd

You don't have to be an adult to feel the power of live opera – even babies prefer to attend in person, a new study suggests.

When infants watched a live performance of a baby opera, their heart rates synchronized and they were significantly more engaged than babies who watched an identical recording of the show, researchers say.

Laura Cirelli (supplied image)

“Their heart rates were speeding up and slowing down in a similar fashion to other babies watching the show,” says Laura Cirelli, assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough and co-author of a new study published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts.

“Those babies were dealing with all these distractions in the concert hall, but still had these uninterrupted bursts of attention.”

The findings suggest that even babies feel the impact of being at a live show, through both musicians’ interactions with an audience and the social experience of being in a crowd. Cirelli recalls moments during the performance when a calm would sweep over the babies, and other times when a change in pitch or vocal riff would excite them all.

She says this may offer insights into why humans are hardwired to consume music and attend live shows.

“If there’s something happening that we collectively are engaging with, we’re also connecting with each other. It speaks to the shared experience,” says Cirelli, director of the TEMPO Lab, which studies how infants and children respond to music.

“The implication is that this is not necessarily specific to this one performance. If there’s these moments that capture us, then we are being captured together.”

It’s well established that socialization is crucial during early childhood development – an infant’s brain is laying the groundwork for future life skills and abilities as it grows. Cirelli says music can play a powerful part in making those important bonds. She points to research finding infants are more likely to socialize with someone after hearing them sing a familiar song or dancing to music with them, and that infants have strong emotional reactions to music and song even before their first birthday.

“We consistently find that music can be a highly social and emotional context within which infants can foster connections to their caregivers, other family members and even new acquaintances,” she says. “This audience study shows that even in a community context, infants are engaging with the music and connecting to their fellow audience members.”

Babies watched a selection of songs from The Music Box, an operatic performance designed for infants
(submitted photo)

For the study, researchers examined 120 babies ages six to 14 months as they watched a children’s opera performed at a concert hall that doubles as a research facility at McMaster University (61 babies watched in person, while the other 59 watched a recorded version).

Researchers meticulously broadcast the recording so that the performers were at the same size, distance and volume as the live version. The babies’ responses were tracked through heart monitors and tablets mounted on the backs of concert seats. Later, student research assistants combed through the footage to note when babies looked at the stage and when they looked away.

The live performance captured the babies' attention for 72 per cent of the 12-minute show while the recording held their attention for 54 per cent of the time. The live show also had infants continuously watching for longer bouts of time.

“Even little babies who may or may not have experienced music in a community context before are already engaging more when it’s delivered this way,” Cirelli says.

“That’s one question we have as music cognition researchers: What is it about the live experience that's worth it? Why would people go if there’s not something fundamental about that live music experience that's above and beyond listening to music by yourself?”

That’s not to say babies find virtual performances boring. After the onset of the pandemic, the researchers virtually studied one group of babies as they watched the same recording in their homes over Zoom. Those babies paid about as much attention as the ones who attended the live show – watching about 64 per cent on average – but they were more likely to become distracted and have shorter bursts of attention.

“The babies watching at home didn’t have the distraction of being in a new place – they were in their comfort zone,” Cirelli says. "But even without distractions, the quality of their attention was still not nearly as strong as the audience in the live condition.”

The study – which was co-authored by former TEMPO Lab postdoctoral researcher Haley Kragness, now an assistant professor at Bucknell University – will also feed into some of Cirelli’s other work.

In a different study, she and a team of researchers are exploring whether a live performance over Zoom has the same impact on engagement as a live performance in person, and whether musicians’ interactions with an audience can play a similarly powerful role in capturing attention.

Yet another study will investigate whether live performances affect their memory of the event and how watching a live performance versus a recorded version affects how they feel about the performer.

“If a baby is frequently brought to these kinds of events, will that shape their foundation for engaging in music and the community later in childhood?” Cirelli asks.

“It speaks to why we even engage with music at all.”

The study was funded by the U of T Connaught New Researcher Award and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

U of T's Sajeev John receives Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for work on harnessing flow of photons

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 15:36:54 +0000

U of T's Sajeev John receives Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for work on harnessing flow of photons

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 11/17/2021 - 10:36

Cutline

Physicist Sajeev John received the award for his groundbreaking research and fundamental advancements in confining and harnessing the flow of photons of light in a manner analogous to harnessing the flow of electrons (photo by Sylvie Li/Shoot Studio)

Chris Sasaki

Topic

Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal

Awards

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Physics

Rersearch & Innovation

Theoretical physicist Sajeev John has received Canada’s highest science and engineering honour, the prestigious Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal.

John is receiving the award for his groundbreaking research and fundamental advancements in confining and harnessing the flow of photons of light in a manner analogous to harnessing the flow of electrons.

The medal also recognizes John for his leadership in efforts to transform this research into groundbreaking applications in optical micro-chips, optical communications and information processing, laser technologies, solar-energy harvesting and clinical medicine – including life-saving surgical tools and techniques.

“I am profoundly honoured and feel singularly energized to bring to broader fruition the work I began on light-trapping crystals,” says John, a University Professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science's department of physics.

“The Herzberg Gold Medal offers a unique opportunity for creativity and unfettered pursuit of essential applications such as the world’s most efficient, lightweight silicon solar cells; light-trapping to enhance artificial photosynthesis for solar fuel production; development of the most compact lab-in-a-photonic-crystal sensors for early-stage disease detection and diagnosis; and much more.”

Named after the Canadian physicist and Nobel laureate in chemistry, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal recognizes the excellence and impact of a recipient’s research. It is awarded annually by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

“Professor John is truly deserving of the country’s highest scientific honour,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Not only has his work been foundational, it has also had an impact in physics, chemistry, engineering and medicine, and is leading to advancements that are benefiting people’s lives.”

John's research provides a solution to the problem that photons do not tend to flow along confined pathways like electrons but instead disperse or are absorbed.

According to Kim Strong, chair of the department of physics, “Professor John’s research laid out the theoretical foundation for special materials – called Photonic Band Gap (PBG) materials – that allow confinement, or localization, of photons to a microscopic region with the size of the wavelength of light.”

“Once you know how to confine photons to a single location,” she says, “you can confine their motion along prescribed microscopic circuit paths, analogous to the way the motion of electrons is controlled on the nanometer scale in semiconductors.”

Following up on his theoretical work, John and his collaborators built the first large-scale silicon PBG material out of a synthetic opal and have created PBG materials that are even easier and cheaper to manufacture.

The groundbreaking work has sparked the development of novel micro-structured materials known as photonic crystals, now referred to as “semiconductors of light.” Ultimately, the breakthrough will enable computer chips to operate with photons instead of electrons.

Among many impacts beyond the lab, research into PBG materials has already produced life-saving advancements in clinical medicine. In 2004, laser surgery was performed on a patient to remove a previously treated tumour that was recurring and remained life-threatening. A final, successful surgery was carried out using a hollow-core photonic band gap fibre. Thousands of similar procedures have been performed using PBG fibres and several major medical centres are now testing PBG-fibre-based laser surgery tools.

"The University of Toronto congratulates Sajeev John on this important recognition,” says Professor Leah Cowen, U of T’s associate vice-president of research. “From his groundbreaking work on confining and harnessing the flow of photons to his leadership in exploring applications for his research in optical micro-chips, optical communications and information processing, laser technologies, solar energy-harvesting and clinical medicine – his impact has been remarkable.”

In 1984, John received his PhD in physics from Harvard University, where he published the original paper on light localization. He was an assistant professor at Princeton University, where he pioneered the concept of photonic band gap materials. He joined U of T in 1989.

John’s research and scientific leadership earned him the 2001 King Faisal International Prize in Science (with Nobel laureate C.N. Yang). In 2007, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) awarded him with the International Quantum Electronics Award for “the invention of and development of light-trapping crystals and the elucidation of their properties and applications.”

He is holder of a Canada Research Chair in optical sciences and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2017.

'New voices and new insights': NSERC awards over $51 million to support research at U of T

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:59:51 +0000

'New voices and new insights': NSERC awards over $51 million to support research at U of T

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 08/30/2019 - 13:59

Cutline

Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland announces on Friday that more than 180 U of T researchers will receive NSERC Discovery Grants (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Topic

Physics

Vivek Goel

From theoretical work in the sciences to applied work in engineering and health fields, over 180 University of Toronto researchers will share more than $51 million through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery Grants program.

The grants, which support experts at all career stages, but are especially important for early-career researchers, were announced Friday by Minister of Foreign Affairs and MP for University-Rosedale Chrystia Freeland at an event held at U of T’s Medical Sciences Building.

“Universities occupy an essential space in our society by promoting research, innovation and debate – and the University of Toronto is an internationally recognized, premier institution of higher learning that connects Canada to the world,” Freeland told the event’s attendees.

“The support we are announcing today will help our high-calibre researchers bring new voices and new insights to their fields, leading game-changing discoveries.”

The announcement of the grants secured by researchers at U of T, which leads the country in obtaining Discovery Grants funding, followed an earlier federal government announcement in May about its plan to invest more than $558 million Canada-wide through the program.

“NSERC Discovery Grants, Scholarships and Fellowships recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “Many of these awards have gone to U of T researchers in 2019, and we are grateful for the federal government’s support.

“Our researchers our pushing the boundaries of fundamental science and discovery and applying knowledge in fields from advanced manufacturing to health to help answer some of society’s most pressing questions, boost the Canadian economy, and contribute to improving lives around the world.

“For early-career researchers, these awards also provide the foundation for important work that will continue well into the future.”

Professor Kimberly Strong speaks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland and Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. Associate Professor Khandker Nurul Habib is second from right (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Prior to Friday’s announcement, Professor Kimberly Strong, chair of U of T’s department of physics and a Discovery Grant recipient, took Freeland on a tour of her lab.

Strong, an expert in atmospheric remote sounding using ground-based, balloon-borne and satellite instruments for the study of ozone chemistry, climate and air quality, hailed the Discovery Grants as the “backbone of the Canadian scientific research ecosystem,” and noted that NSERC has supported her work since she joined U of T’s physics department in 1996.

She said the grant supports research that will help improve understanding of the physical and chemical processes that drive atmospheric change.

“To achieve this goal, my group will be measuring atmospheric trace gas concentrations in urban, rural and remote Arctic sites,” Strong said, adding that the grant will support undergraduates, graduates and post-doctoral researchers exploring topics ranging from the origin of urban pollution in Toronto to the impact of agricultural practices on air quality.

Similarly, Khandker Nurul Habib, an associate professor in the department of civil and mineral engineering, said the NSERC grants have supported his research and helped recruit and prepare students for the workforce.

Habib’s research focuses on developing decision-support systems for transportation planning in an era of ride-hailing services and connected automotive technologies.

“The framework I’ve been developing through this program will hopefully be able to quantify the impacts of unforeseen situations and help prepare our cities to tackle them,” said Habib.

“I truly appreciate the government’s support in boosting the funding for NSERC Discovery Grants. This is fundamental and pivotal for continuing fundamental research at the university level.”

Habib and Strong are part of a university-wide success story when it comes to the NSERC Discovery Grants, with U of T seeing a higher success rate of grant applications than any other Canadian university. U of T researchers secure more funding on average compared to the national average.

On Friday, U of T also took the opportunity to signal its longstanding commitment to fostering an environment of diversity, equity and inclusion by signing onto the Dimensions Charter. The charter, unveiled by Minister of Science and Sport Kirsty Duncan earlier this year, comprises eight principles that aim to transform research culture by addressing obstacles faced by groups including women, LGBTQ communities, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, racialized groups and members of visible minorities.

Goel, who signed the charter on behalf of the university, noted in his remarks that the incorporation of diverse experiences, backgrounds and perspectives into the research environment boosts the quality and impact of research, strengthening the research community now and in the future.

Goel, on behalf of U of T, and Freeland sign the Dimensions Charter (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Two U of T chemistry researchers recognized with prestigious NSERC honours

perry.king — Mon, 06 May 2019 04:00:00 +0000

Two U of T chemistry researchers recognized with prestigious NSERC honours

perry.king Mon, 05/06/2019 - 00:00

Cutline

University Professor Douglas Stephan has been awarded NSERC's John C. Polanyi Award (photo by Martin Lipman/NSERC)

Topic

Vivek Goel

Two faculty members in the University of Toronto's department of chemistry have been awarded national prizes by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

University Professor Douglas Stephan, who is internationally recognized for his work in inorganic chemistry, has been awarded the John C. Polanyi Award. Named after U of T University Professor and Nobel Prize laureate John Polanyi, the award honours an individual or team whose Canadian-based research has led to a recent, outstanding advance in the natural sciences or engineering.

In Stephan's case, that advance is his work in frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs). NSERC, in announcing Stephan’s award, said he “took a 100-year-old chemistry process and redesigned it into something cheaper, more efficient and more environmentally friendly.” The discovery brought him international acclaim and has led to advancements in drug development, chemical production and more environmentally friendly materials science.

Professor Dwight Seferos, the Canada Research Chair in Polymer Nanomaterials, has been awarded an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship, one of six for 2019 that recognize the career development of outstanding scientists and engineers who are faculty members of Canadian universities. Seferos is being honoured for his recent advances in synthetic chemistry, specifically the development of power-storing plastics.

The prize is named after Edgar William Richard Steacie, a chemist who made major contributions to the development of science in Canada during, and immediately following, the Second World War.

U of T’s Barbara Sherwood Lollar wins Herzberg gold medal from NSERC

“Receiving the Polanyi Award and the Steacie Fellowship are signals that one’s research has had impact,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. “U of T is thankful for NSERC’s recognition and support of Douglas Stephan and Dwight Seferos and congratulates them both on their outstanding achievements.

“These two researchers have exhibited leadership that will change their fields, and these honours will strengthen their research and innovation activities going forward,” Goel said

As part of the Polanyi Award win, Stephan and his team will receive a research grant of up to $250,000. Seferos’s fellowship includes a research grant of $250,000 over two years.

Stephan, who has won a number of national and international honours, told U of T News that winning the Polanyi Award feels different because he has come to know Polanyi as a colleague and admires him greatly.

“It’s kind of weird [to win this award] – he’s in the stratosphere and I’m here on the Earth,” said Stephan, who joined U of T in 2008 from the University of Windsor. Stephan was named a U of T University Professor in 2018.

Stephan’s work in FLP chemistry has been vastly influential, but it is only one of many contributions he’s made throughout his career. In the 1990s, his discovery of a new class of catalysts led to changes in the production of plastic. The finding led NOVA Chemicals to change how it produces plastics – making Stephan one of a very few scientists worldwide to have a discovery rapidly lead to large-scale commercialization.

Stephan said, in his experience, the road from fundamental discovery to real world can take up to 20 years, but Nova’s commercialization of his method took only six.

“NOVA was motivated to acquire the technology and we found the right one,” he said.

“The work was industrially useful but the work we have done [over the last 15 years] has been much more fundamentally innovative.”

Stephan’s findings have helped other chemists create biodegradable plastics, new health care treatments and alternative fuels. Other schools, including MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, have also asked to integrate his findings into their foundational chemistry courses.

“It’s gratifying to know that our research is having this kind of impact. The conceptual basis of FLPs is simple – indeed one that I have easily incorporated into my first-year undergraduate curricula,” said Stephan, who is concurrently an Einstein Visiting Fellow at Technische Universität Berlin.

“I am particularly excited when I see innovations emerge that take the idea of FLPs to new areas of application.”

Stephan says one of the joys of curiosity-driven research is watching the progress of students.

“It’s exciting to see students evolve from undergrads into mature, creative and effective scientists,” said Stephan, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Inorganic Materials and Catalysis.

He is excited to put the award money to use to build on the work he has established with his research team. “Being able to use the tools we have, our collective knowledge of chemistry, to try to do things that people haven’t done before – that’s motivating,” he added.

“It was exciting when I was an undergraduate, and it’s exciting today.”

“We take a very molecular view of batteries and think about how we can design systems that will make it better and safer for the user, and make it adoptable for everyone,” says Dwight Seferos (photo by Martin Lipman/NSERC)

A faculty member at U of T for about ten years, Seferos said he is pleased to be named a Steacie Fellow because it will give him time to think about the next decade.

“It’s a phenomenal award,” he said. “It allows you to have two-year teaching relief, which is unheard of in our profession, so you can really take risks and do new things, design new projects and think about what you want to do.”

And what we wants to do begins with batteries.

The McLean Award-winning researcher and his team have been at the forefront of using modified natural compounds like a vitamin found in leaves to make high-tech items like batteries for transportation and even eco-friendly clothing.

His fellowship winnings will help the Seferos research team explore automation and artificial intelligence in data collection and analysis. The NSERC grant will also support Seferos’s work with Pliant Power Devices, a startup he co-founded with his former student Tyler Schon.

“We’ll definitely try to pursue battery ideas in a more pragmatic way,” said Seferos. Over the next few years, he plans to get involved in more projects with the National Research Council, which has advanced manufacturing facilities in Ottawa and Mississauga. “They have the resources and PhD-level scientists who can work with our students.”

Speaking from his lab office, the Seattle native has always wanted to work beyond the boundaries of traditional chemistry.

“We’re a chemistry group, we’re not an electronic engineering group,” said Seferos. “We take a very molecular view of batteries and think about how we can design systems that will make it better and safer for the user, and make it adoptable for everyone.”

For Seferos, lines between science, engineering and the social sciences are blurring and researchers recognize that problems could be better solved with collaboration. “We all have the same human issues that we’re trying to solve,” said Seferos.

He loves the thrill of coming to the lab and working with different researchers on these issues. “If you can make these connections between different things and put them together that’s really where the value is,” he said.

U of T researchers receive nearly $30 million in discovery research funding from NSERC

noreen.rasbach — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 21:37:21 +0000

U of T researchers receive nearly $30 million in discovery research funding from NSERC

noreen.rasbach Fri, 10/12/2018 - 17:37

Cutline

Renée Hložek, an assistant professor at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, is receiving a $100,000 Discovery Grant from NSERC (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Chris Sorensen

Topic

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

The University of Toronto’s Renée Hložek seeks to find answers where most of us only see questions: the night sky.

An assistant professor at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Hložek uses information gathered by telescopes to better understand the cosmos and test models of the universe.

In a few years, her work will include carefully analyzing the ocean of new data that’s expected to be generated by the Large Synaptic Survey Telescope, or LSST, which is currently being built on a mountaintop in Chile. The 8.4-metre telescope is touted as the world’s largest digital camera, with 3,200 megapixels, and is designed to take wide-field views of the night sky and everything in it.

“One of the big challenges is this telescope is going to scan the sky so often that we’re going to be drowning in data,” said Hložek, who arrived at U of T two years ago after completing a PhD at Oxford University and conducting postdoctoral research at Princeton University.

“We’re going to go from a time of being data-starved to a time that we’re talking about a data deluge.”

Hložek’s work will be supported by a $100,000 Discovery Grant, paid out in instalments over five years, by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). She is one of 161 U of T researchers who received NSERC funding this week for investigations that range from improving the sustainability of transportation infrastructure to studying the diversity of dinosaurs.

In total, NSERC said it was providing $558 million in discovery research funding to Canadian researchers, including more than $5 million in additional supplements for those who, like Hložek, are in the early stages of their careers. Of that, U of T researchers will receive nearly $30 million.

“We are grateful for the federal government’s support of fundamental research and all of the new knowledge and innovation it makes possible,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation.

“These awards will also help early-career researchers lay the foundation for important work that will continue well into the future.”

The NSERC funding, which includes $70 million announced in this year's federal budget, can be used toward discovery programs, graduate and post-graduate scholarships, postdoctoral researchers and research tools and instruments.

Anne Wheeler, an assistant professor in the department of physiology in the Faculty of Medicine, is another early-career researcher at U of T who is benefiting from NSERC’s Discovery Grant funding. A scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children, Wheeler will receive a total of $170,000 to support work that looks at how changes in brain connectivity affect memory.

In particular, Wheeler’s lab is looking at the role of myelin, a fatty substance that insulates axons in the brain and therefore affects the timing of electrical impulses. But since myelin production is dynamic – babies, for example, are born with very little myelin – and can be affected by disease or injury, Wheeler suspects changes in myelin levels may impact our ability to recall certain memories.

“If there’s a lot of changes happening in the brain between the time you learn something and when you need to remember it, then the brain might not be able to reactivate that circuit and the memory would be forgotten,” she said.

“It’s really about understanding how the brain optimizes memory.”

Wheeler, who joined SickKids three years ago after doing her PhD in neuroscience at U of T and postdoctoral work at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said that while most research tends to focus on how specific regions of the brain function, her research suggests the connections within and between those regions are equally important to understanding how the brain works.

She added the NSERC money will be used to support a student who will be assisting her research, which “wouldn’t be possible without the funding.”

The same goes for Hložek. She, too, said the funding will support students who help her develop code and other analytical tools needed to perform her research. That includes measuring Type 1a supernovae stars and how their brightness changes over time – information that can yield clues about the expansion of the universe. Other projects focus on fast radio bursts, which are intense bursts of radio waves scientists have yet to explain.

“Whether you’re looking at the expansion of the universe or dark energy, which I will measure with the LSST, or you’re looking at fast radio bursts – these are really problems and questions that are so new that we don’t have textbooks written on them yet,” said Hložek.

“I get to answer these really big questions with data.”

Hložek, who has worked in a number of countries, stressed that national research funding was key to enabling cutting-edge research in Canada.

“Without it, it’s impossible to attract, employ and retain good students and good scientists to make breakthroughs.”

U of T Engineering spin-off Appulse Power acquired by Silanna Semiconductor

Romi Levine — Wed, 21 Mar 2018 18:36:27 +0000

U of T Engineering spin-off Appulse Power acquired by Silanna Semiconductor

Romi Levine Wed, 03/21/2018 - 14:36

Cutline

Mark Drucker, President of Silanna Semiconductor, with Professor Aleksandar Prodić, Ahsan, Mete Erturk, CEO of Appulse Power, Aleksandar Radić and Behzad Mahdavikhah (photo by Marit Mitchell)

Marit Mitchell

Topic

Global Lens

Alumni

Global

Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Startup

UTEST

Appulse Power Inc., a startup company founded by U of T Engineering alumni Ahsan Zaman, Behzad Mahdavikhah, and Aleksandar Radić and Professor Aleksandar Prodić, has been acquired by the multinational Silanna Semiconductor for an undisclosed amount.

“The success of Appulse is credit to the incredible talent and dedication of my co-founders,” says Prodić. “This team has brought us into one of the biggest sales for an early-stage Canadian startup in the power electronics semiconductor industry, and I’m extremely proud of their accomplishments.”

Appulse designs application-specific integrated circuits to allow devices, including smartphones and tablets, to charge faster and consume less power. Its innovations enable more efficient charging and smaller components both inside and external to devices – this means shrinking the footprint required for power management inside mobile devices, and downsizing clunky chargers and adapters.

“Silanna’s vision is to grow this into a very large business and ultimately change the way power electronics is done,” says Silanna President Mark Drucker. “Leading electronic device manufacturers are keenly interested in improving power efficiency and increasing power density – with the acquisition of Appulse Power we have the ability to power mobile devices more quickly and efficiently, and that’s something that’s enormously appealing to our customers.”

Appulse has 13 employees across two offices in Toronto and San Diego, Calif., all of whom are staying with Silanna and will operate as an independent business unit within the company. The Toronto office will become Silanna’s first Canadian location, in addition to hubs in San Diego; Raleigh, North Carolina; Brisbane and Sydney, Australia; and Singapore.

The company’s roots extend back to Zaman’s second year as an undergraduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), when he distinguished himself in Prodić’s class and joined his group as a summer researcher in 2007.

“I’ve always felt driven to work on addressing real-world problems, and I became passionate about power management while working with Professor Prodić,” says Zaman. “Spinning this research into a startup is something I know my co-founders and I were extremely motivated to do – now we’re excited to take it to the next level with Silanna.”

“When we speak to industry about our technology, the most common response is ‘How quickly can we engage,’” says Mete Erturk, the CEO of Appulse who will now become vice-president of AC:DC products for Silanna. “We don’t have to do a lot of convincing – it’s clear that what we’re offering addresses a lot of existing pain points.”

Appulse received critical grants from NSERC’s idea2innovation (i2i) program and the Ontario Centres of Excellence SmartStart Seed Fund. The team also received early support from the University of Toronto’s Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) incubator as part of its 2014 cohort, and went on to join EvoNexus, the premier technology incubator and hub for Southern California’s startup community. There Drucker, a board member and EvoNexus alumnus himself, was introduced to the company’s innovative technology.

Drucker says the deep talent pool in Prodić’s group and at U of T Engineering was a major draw for him. “Ask any venture capitalist, and they’ll almost universally tell you they don’t invest in technology — they invest in people,” he says. “We’re very excited about continuing to collaborate with U of T. We’ve been extremely impressed with every researcher we’ve engaged with, and that speaks very highly to the quality of student at the University of Toronto.”

“Every year in the lab we create a few ideas that could turn into startups, but finding this complementary skill set in Ahsan, Behzad and Aleks – that’s something special,” says Prodić. “The most exciting thing has been seeing their success. For me as a teacher, that’s the best part.”

Bolstering Canadian research: U of T welcomes federal science review

ullahnor — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 19:58:21 +0000

Bolstering Canadian research: U of T welcomes federal science review

ullahnor Mon, 04/10/2017 - 15:58

Cutline

Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a professor of earth sciences, won the prestigious NSERC award in 2016 for research into billion-year-old water. NSERC is one of the federal research agencies discussed in the Fundamental Science Review (photo courtesy of NSERC)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Author legacy

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Breaking Research

Canada Research Chairs

The University of Toronto welcomed the release on April 10 of the long-anticipated review of the federal government’s support for fundamental science.

Chaired by U of T President Emeritus Dr. David Naylor, the Fundamental Science Review panel, which also included former U of T president Robert Birgeneau, was asked last year to look for overall program gaps in Canada’s research funding ecosystem. The panel explored a breadth of disciplines including the social sciences and humanities.

The panel’s report offered 35 recommendations on issues of governance and enhanced support for early-career researchers, as well as calling for a boost of $1.3 billion in federal funding. It’s been four decades since a comprehensive review of this scale has occurred at the federal level.

“We welcome the dedicated work of the panel,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. “The panel identified the significance of the full range of scholarship – a broad definition of research beyond just fundamental science – and they’ve proposed a way of better coordinating the funding ecosystem.”

The panel’s key recommendations include:

The formation of a formal coordinating board for the four federal research agencies − Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) − chaired by the Chief Science Advisor.
The creation of a new National Advisory Council on Research and Innovation (NACRI) to provide broad oversight of the federal research and innovation ecosystems.
The government of Canada should provide CFI with a stable annual budget.
The government of Canada should mandate and fund CFI to increase its share of the matching ratio for national-scale major research facilities from 40 to 60 per cent.
The government should renew the Canada Research Chairs program, including restoring funding to 2012 levels and adjusting it to account for inflation since 2000.
The government should gradually increase funding to the Research Support Fund until the reimbursement rate is 40 per cent for all institutions.

Andrew Thomson, chief of government relations at U of T, said the review was timely.

“We believe it will provide a basis for improved coordination across the granting councils for all research endeavours,” Thomson said. “This is about strengthening the Canadian research ecosystem, which drives the economic, social and cultural growth of the country.”

Read the Globe and Mail story

The review was done by a panel of experts chaired by Dr. Naylor. It warned that years of dwindling research- and development- investment in Canada have left the country’s federal research ecosystem “weakly coordinated and inconsistently evaluated” and lacking “consistent oversight.”

Read the Maclean's story

U of T’s submission to the panel was one of 1,275 written submissions the panel reviewed from associations, organizations and individuals. The review also convened roundtables in five Canadian cities, talking to 230 researchers.

Read the CBC story

Goel said U of T was pleased to see the call for a public conversation about the value of investments in discovery-based research, as well as recommendations on improving communication and coordination among all of the major funding bodies.

“The panel has chosen an approach of creating a coordinating body and oversight group, this National Advisory Council on Research and Innovation (NACRI), that’s a very efficient way of dealing with this very complex issue,” he said.

Read the Toronto Star story

The university hopes to take a closer look at the implications of the recommendations, including calls for increased investment in the direct costs for research and the indirect costs, which are covered by the Research Support Fund.

“We are particularly pleased that the report also recommends greater investment in the Research Support Fund to better align the level of funding with the full costs of research borne by the university,” Thomson said. “This multi-year roadmap helps support top talent at U of T and our next generation of researchers.”

Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan launched the panel in June 2016. In a statement, Duncan said the government will be taking a close look at the panel’s recommendations.

“I look forward to reviewing the panel's recommendations and will continue listening to and engaging in an open and thoughtful way with Canada's research community as we collectively work toward the goal of ensuring that federal support for fundamental research is strategic and effective, and meets the needs of all Canadians,” she said.

NSERC recognizes U of T research into self-driving cars and microbial ticking time bombs in our bodies

ullahnor — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 16:12:46 +0000

NSERC recognizes U of T research into self-driving cars and microbial ticking time bombs in our bodies

ullahnor Tue, 02/07/2017 - 11:12

Cutline

U of T researcher Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher is one of two U of T scientists awarded an NSERC today (photo by Martin Lipman/NSERC)

Sean Bettam

Author legacy

Sean Bettam

Topic

Breaking Research

Subheadline

Biophysicist Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher and computer scientist Raquel Urtasun among national award recipients

We go to the gym, count calories and take our vitamins – all in an effort to stay fit and avoid getting sick. But are we actually healthy?

Enter PhD candidate Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher in the Faculty of Arts & Science's department of physics, one of two U of T scientists given a boost today by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). A member of Professor Sidhartha Goyal’s research group, she studies our bodies' microscopic communities, called the “microbiome” to learn what it means to be healthy and was awarded an NSERC Gilles Brassard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.

The other U of T scientist awarded an NSERC today has helped fuel the development of self-driving cars.

Raquel Urtasun of the Faculty of Arts & Science's department of computer science received an E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship to advance her work in the field of machine perception, particularly its use in the development of autonomous vehicles. Urtasun has developed a benchmark series of challenges for autonomous vehicles to test their performance.

Associate professor Raquel Urtasun is being recognized for her research on self-driving cars (photo by Martin Lipman/NSERC)

“My congratulations to our NSERC award winners,” said Vivek Goel, U of T’s vice-president of research and innovation. “They are both conducting research that is pushing the boundaries of human knowledge in areas that have remarkable potential for societal impact. We are grateful to NSERC for this recognition of and investment in U of T researchers.”

Bonsma-Fisher studies a recently discovered immunity mechanism found in about half of all bacteria. Our bodies are filled with bacteria and viruses that attack them, known as phages. Some of these tiny organisms float harmlessly along while others are ticking time bombs that could cause infections, diseases and even obesity.

The microbiome is unique to each person, and diversity and adaptation among bacteria and phages make it difficult to say for certain what a healthy microbiome looks like. The newly found immunity mechanism allows bacteria to keep a record of each attack it encounters with a phage. Bonsma-Fisher hopes to use this record, along with large amounts of publicly available human microbiome data, to understand the interactions between bacteria and phages. Locating common features across many individuals will help determine the characteristics of a healthy microbiome.

“At this early stage of my career, it’s valuable to meet and learn from other scientists, and this award is giving me that opportunity to an overwhelming extent,” said Bonsma-Fisher. “The connections it makes possible will – at the very least – leave me knowing more than I did, and at most they can lead to exciting new ideas and collaborations.

“I’m a physicist working at the interface of disciplines and am learning most of the biology as I go. There’s nothing better than learning it from others at the forefront of the field.”

Her research will provide a more detailed account of the foundations of human well-being and how microscopic organisms affect our bodies. It will also help other researchers develop new treatments for common conditions to keep us healthy from the inside out.

Urtasun, on the other hand, is a pioneer in the area of machine perception.

During an era in which robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are beginning to play a very important – and very personal – role in our lives, Urtasun has developed algorithms that allow vehicles to perceive and understand the environment in three dimensions and in real time.

Her work is enabling autonomous vehicles to navigate the streets safely and swiftly while detecting other vehicles and obstacles on the road and accounting for factors such as motion, speed and traffic flow.

She developed the KITTI (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago) benchmark, a series of challenges for developers of autonomous vehicles that are used to test their creations and assess the performance of their systems. KITTI has helped to significantly push forward the field of self-driving cars and has been heavily used by more than 500 groups both in academia and industry, including Daimler, NVIDIA, Baidu, Samsung and Toyota.

“I am honoured and humbled to receive this award” said Urtasun, an associate professor of computer science and Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning and Computer Vision. “This award is recognizing the work of my research group of students, postdocs and collaborators who are not only tremendous researchers but also amazing individuals. Their hard work, perseverance and willingness to go outside of the box have been the key to our success.

“This award will enable us to focus on new exciting directions in the development of new AI algorithms and applications.”

A key goal of Urtasun’s work is doing more with less – using fewer cameras and sensors to capture greater amounts of information and detail about a dynamic environment. Her research is advancing the state of the art for industry and helping to make personal robotics more accessible and affordable for everyone. Her current goal is to adapt her technology to make cities smarter and better to live in.

Urtasun and Bonsma-Fisher will be honoured along with other recipients from across Canada at a ceremony in Ottawa this evening hosted by the Governor General.

U of T researchers awarded $46.4 million by NSERC

lanthierj — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 17:57:25 +0000

U of T researchers awarded $46.4 million by NSERC lanthierj Fri, 06/24/2016 - 13:57

Jennifer Robinson

Author legacy

Jennifer Robinson

Topic

Awards