Tell Me More: Coffee with Chris Yip

Nika Shakiba completed her PhD in our Institute of Biomedical Engineering in 2017 and is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on stem cells — using systems biology to understand how they work, and synthetic biology to engineer new therapies for regenerative medicine.

Jenna Usprech completed her PhD at U of T's Institute of Biomedical Engineering in 2018, specializing in tissue engineering. Today, she is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. She spoke to Dean Yip about student wellness, science communication, and classroom strategies that promote critical thought.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of our Faculty, Dean Yip is joined by two guests who can offer some perspective on the past, present and future of Skule.

Marta Ecsedi (CivMin 7T6) was the first woman president of the U of T Engineering Society, also known as EngSoc. She has gone on to champion a more inclusive engineering profession through a series of leadership roles, including here at the Faculty and at Professional Engineers Ontario.

Aidan Grenville is a fourth-year Engineering Science student majoring in Aerospace Engineering, and is currently the president of EngSoc.

Herman Colquhoun completed his master’s degree in Human Factors at U of T Engineering, and eventually went on to spend more than a decade at IBM, where he is a design principal leading the design of the IBM Quantum Premium Partner Experience. He is also a member of the leadership team for the Racial Equity in Design initiative at the company, the co-chair of the IBM Canada Black Experience, and co-founder of the IBM Inclusive Design Guild.

Alumnus Marissa Wu's fascinating career lies at the intersection between healthcare, technology and entrepreneurship. She is the founder of two startups, Onyx Motion and Rhythm, and she has acted as mentor to other founders through our Entrepreneurship Hatchery. She joined us from London, UK, where she serves as Manager, Essential Medicines for the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

Over the past few decades, EngSci alumnus Don Scott has made a name for himself in the field of marine technology, designing systems for all kinds of ocean-going vessels. Most recently, he’s been exploring the application of artificial intelligence to unpiloted underwater vehicles, creating marine analogues of the more familiar airborne drones we are starting to see in a variety of applications.

Materials Science & Engineering graduate Joelle Javier is an Elevating and Amusement Devices Safety Engineer at Technical Standards and Safety Authority. This means she is in charge of making sure that roller coasters deliver a memorable thrill without compromising the safety of their riders. Through this and other activities, she aims to inspire the next generation of engineers.

After graduating from the Engineering Science program and the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies, Eric Khoury made a career pivot, taking his analytics prowess to the Toronto Raptors organization, where he eventually joined the coaching team.

Earlier this year, he was named the head coach of Raptors 905, the Toronto Raptors' NBA G League affiliate, the youngest head coach in the team's history. Eric spoke with Dean Yip about the rising field of sports analytics.

Aerospace engineer and award-winning science fiction author Eric Choi is a graduate of both our Engineering Science program and our University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies.

He uses his expertise to advance space technology, such as the Canadarm 2, but also to tell compelling stories about alternative histories and potential futures.

His first published collection of short stories is called Just Like Being There.

Dean Yip sits down with Professor Dionne Aleman from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering for a wide-ranging conversation.

They discuss her work in applying operations research and machine learning to improve medical and healthcare decision-making, including the development of pandemic models.

They also discuss the importance of giving engineering students a broad background, the Engineering Positive Space committee, and Professor Aleman's love of classic American muscle cars.

Professor Elham Marzi is a member of our Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice, or ISTEP. She brings a unique perspective to our Faculty: for one thing, her expertise is not in engineering, but rather in organizational behaviour, human resources management, strategy and negotiations.

Combine that with the fact that she’s lived and studied in Europe, North America and the Middle East, and you can see how she is well-positioned to prepare our students for a workplace that is increasingly global, connected and multidisciplinary. She discusses some of her latest innovations, as well as what the future may hold in terms of preparing the next generation of engineering leaders.

U of T Engineering alumnus Ajay Kochhar is President and CEO of Li-Cycle. The company, which he co-founded a little more than five years ago, is already the largest recycler of lithium-ion batteries in North America, and has even more ambitious plans for the future.

Ajay’s story is a great example of how an engineering education provides a strong foundation for technical entrepreneurship in a rapidly changing world.

U of T Engineering alumnus and cleantech innovator Phil De Luna is the Director of the $57M Materials for Clean Fuels program at Canada’s National Research Council, making him the youngest person ever to serve as a director at NRC. He is also the Chair of the Board for CMC Research Institutes, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada and Forbes Top 30 Under 30. He was recently invited back to U of T Engineering as an Adjunct Professor.

De Luna spoke with Dean Yip about his research into carbon capture and upcycling, the commercialization of cleantech innovations, and the intersection between engineering and policy.

In this episode, Dean Yip talked with some of the people behind Blueprint, an academic enrichment program for highly motivated Black secondary school students interested in careers in Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM). Engineering Outreach Coordinator Cassandra Abraham designed and oversees the program, while Ngozi Isiuwe is a second-year electrical engineering student who served as a mentor in Blueprint. Isiuwe is also an executive member of our National Society of Black Engineers student chapter. Together, they and other members of the Blueprint team have helped launch the careers dozens of future STEM leaders, including several who are now undergraduate students here at U of T Engineering.

Second-year electrical engineering student Diana Virgovicova came to U of T Engineering from Pezinok, Slovakia on a Lester B. Pearson International Student Scholarship. Dean Chris Yip sat down with her to talk about her travels across Canada and around the world, how she found her way to Toronto, what she hopes to accomplish in the future — and how to make bryndzové halušky, Slovakia's national dish.

Professor Shoshanna Saxe is an expert in the social and environmental impacts of large infrastructure projects, such as new transit lines or highways. Using data-driven tools such as life cycle analysis, her research helps us learn from our past mistakes and points us toward optimal solutions for safer, cleaner and more liveable cities.

In this episode, Saxe provides her perspectives on why a $400 billion brand-new city in the desert might not be such a good idea, what "building back better" could actually look like, and what those who advocate for "smart cities" sometimes miss about the way our urban centres actually work.

Professors Angela Schoellig and Tim Barfoot are pushing the limits of what autonomous robots can do. From drones to self-driving cars, their research will help power a new generation of vehicles that can go places that humans can't.

Both Schoellig and Barfoot belong to the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, as well as the Robotics Institute, which boasts the highest concentration of robotics researchers in Canada. They are also both advisors to aUToronto, U of T Engineering's entry into the AutoDrive Challenge™. This student team took the top spot in this international competition for the last four years in a row with Zeus, a self-driving electric vehicle built from scratch in only seven months.

Professors Marianne Hatzopoulou and Jeffrey Siegel both study air quality, but from different perspectives. Hatzopoulou and her team are use mobile sensors to build real-time maps and simulations of outdoor air pollution, while Siegel’s research group focuses on modelling the indoor environment. Together, they explain the best way to get a breath of fresh air.

Professor Hai-Ling Margaret Cheng and her team are designing the next generation of MRI scans. In the future, they could be used to catch cancer in its earliest stages, or to track stem cell treatments as they repair damaged tissues. A better window into what’s happening inside the body could save lives around the world.