University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering Calendar 2000 - 2001 10. Centres and Institutes
In addition to the departments and divisions described
in Section 6, the other main elements of the Faculty of Applied Science
and Engineering are the centres, which play an important role in education
and research. These are described below.
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical
Engineering
Through its faculty, staff and students, and through close collaboration with the faculty of related departments, hospitals and other institutions, the Institute serves as the centre for the Collaborative Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. It educates undergraduate-level engineering science students in the biomedical engineering option and graduate-level engineering, dentistry, and medical sciences personnel to meet societal needs. It also participates in the education of undergraduate students with interests in biomedical engineering through other departments. The Institute’s faculty comprises researchers with backgrounds in engineering, dentistry, medical and biological sciences. Augmenting this faculty are part-time members, many of whom act as supervisors of students at the Institute. Students at the Institute are registered in the Institute or in collaborating graduate departments and proceed towards M.Eng., M.A.Sc., M.Sc., M.H.Sc., or Ph.D. degrees in dentistry or the physical or life sciences. Since 1984, the Faculty has offered a two-year professional degree program for specialized training in Clinical Engineering. The graduates from this program normally find employment in health-care institutions or in the medical devices industry. Since 1993, the Faculty has offered an undergraduate biomedical engineering option in the Engineering Science Division. This option consists of two streams, electrical and chemical. The graduates from this program can find employment in industry as engineers, or they can proceed to graduate studies. An active summer student program offers both employment and a structured educational experience for some twenty students each year. The Institute’s laboratories are principally located in
the Rosebrugh Building, the Mining Building, the Wallberg Building, and
the Medical Sciences Building on the St. George Campus. These laboratories
serve as centres for development of experimental and clinical techniques
and instrumentation; real-time and interactive computer applications; innovative
biomaterials; functional replacements for biological tissues; and simulations
for electrochemical and physiological models. Since many members of the
Institute hold appointments in the nearby teaching hospitals and medical
research centres, a significant amount of research is carried out in these
hospitals and centres.
Centre for Chemical Process Metallurgy
(C-CPM)
Metals are vital to sustaining a modern economy. Without them, our lifestyle would be quite different. Transportation would move at a snail’s pace, and rapid communication would be non-existent. It would be impossible to feed and house the world’s population. The recovery of metals from their ores is energy intensive and has the potential of causing environmental problems. Canada is a major producer of metals. To be able to meet modern day requirements, existing processes have to be modified and new process developed that are energy efficient and environmentally friendly. To achieve this, highly trained engineers and scientists are needed by industry and academia. To assist the universities in meeting this challenge, the Centre for Chemical Process Metallurgy was founded in 1988. It assists the universities in attracting, training and developing the required supply of well qualified engineers and scientists. It also strengthen the links between industry and universities. The C-CPM sponsors and co-ordinates research activities
relating to chemical process metallurgy.
The Centre has co-funded more than 35 research projects in support of Canada’s mineral industry. Matching funds for these projects have been obtained from NSERC, URIF, and DSS with support from CANMET. The industrial members are INCO Ltd., Falconbridge Ltd., Hatch Associates Ltd., Western Mining and Ontario Hydro Technologies and Narco. Universities participating in the Centre are: University of Toronto (Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry); McMaster University (Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering); Queen’s University (Department of Mining); Waterloo University (Department of Chemical Engineering); Laurentian University (School of Engineering); Brock University and the University of Guelph. Affiliated laboratories are CANMET and ORTECH.
Energenius Centre for Advanced Nanotechnology
The Energenius Centre for Advanced Nanotechnology (ECAN) is based on a multidisciplinary team of faculty and researchers from various departments including both applied science and engineering, arts and sciences, and mathematics and applied mathematics. ECAN is Canada’s first centre for nanotechnology research and is closely tied to industry and other key research institutions in nanotechnology throughout the world. The main objectives of the centre, which was established in 1997, include (i) advances in research on both theoretical and experimental methods for a new generation of nanoelectronic and nanophotonic materials, structures and devices, (ii) education and training of a new generation of highly qualified personnel for both industry and academia, (iii) collaboration with other members of the academic and industrial community, and (iv) establishing specialized resources and expertise for the scientific community and government in this expanding field of the science and technology. The main offices of ECAN are currently located in the Haultain building.
Major efforts in the centre are directed at both theoretical and experimental
aspects of nanotechnology, related to applications in nanoelectronics,
nanophotonics, and NEMS research. The centre houses a unique nanofabrication
cluster system featuring an ultra-high vacuum Scanning Tunnelling Microscope
combined with a molecular beam epitaxy system, with processing and analysis
systems integrated in this ultrahigh vacuum integrated facility. These
fabrication techniques are augmented with a variety of various state of
the art characterization techniques. The establishment of ECAN enhances
both the important collaborative efforts between the University of Toronto
and industry and Canada’s participation in one of today’s most pivotal
emerging technologies.
Joint Program in Transportation
The Joint Program's objectives have remained since its beginning:
The research group dedicated to this initiative, called the Data Management Group, is assisted by a steering committee and a technical committee made up of members of funding agencies. The program has introduced the concept of sharing transportation planning procedures among the public and private agencies. This has been made possible by the development of an independent computer system at the University with modem access by outside agencies. Every major transportation planning agency in the area participates in this shared resource. Major activities of the Data Management Group include designing and conducting comprehensive household travel surveys (in 1986, 1991 and 1996, with the next survey currently being planned for 2001), maintaining the survey datasets within a relational database management system, providing transportation network computer modelling capabilities to regional planners and researchers, and providing technical support for travel demand modelling activities of the supporting agencies. These applied research activities help to provide more effective management of increasingly limited resources devoted to transportation in all urban areas, including the Greater Toronto area. Advances made through the Joint Program's efforts will undoubtedly have impact reaching beyond the local community. The Centre for Management of Technology
and Entrepreneurship
Technological Change is the greatest challenge faced by management today. The most glaring effects of this change is felt everywhere in the manufacturing industries. Less visible, but just as effective, has been the change in the “Tradable Services” sector’s business practices. It is fair to say that there are no “safe” areas of business, government or institutions from the effects of technological change. Hence, management, especially technical management (engineers, scientists, information technology people) must learn quickly how to make use of, rather than being used by, technology. The Centre’s focus is on the Financial Services Industry. This robust services sector is one of the fundamental strengths of the Canadian economic fabric. Members of this industry rely almost completely on the effective use of Information Technology, including a wide variety of computer and communications systems. Among the latter is e-Commerce a growing and ever challenging field. FSI firms are undergoing tremendous change at the present and this trend will continue well into the next millennium. To meet global competition, this industry needs to conduct research into what technology they will require to differentiate themselves from their competition in their customers’ eyes and to ensure that continuous improvements in productivity are realised. Funding comes from the FSI community which has now recognised the need and the potential benefits of research activity in this area. But, just as important, these major firms provide their operations as “laboratories” for the work carried out by the Centre. The Centre is multidisciplinary in nature and we collaborate with other units in the University of Toronto and similar institutions in Canada and abroad. For instance, the Faculty of Management and the Centre for International Studies are partners in our work. In this way, we have access to all pertinent information and can collaborate with Principal Investigators in each of these disciplines. The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering has pioneered the institution of a teaching and research program in Management of Technology, Innovation, and Intra/Entrepreneurship. As the 1990s arrived, the time was appropriate to initiate a formal research program and course curriculum development in this discipline. The initiative was started in 1991 and has already resulted in research projects in the following areas:
Nortel Institute for Telecommunications
Strategy
Goals
The Institute is developing a large, open, integrated laboratory facility to support information technology and telecommunications research and training. It will be first of its kind and the largest in Canadian universities. This facility, with its specialized advanced equipment, will:
The Nortel Institute is ideally positioned to serve as a national and international focal point for strategic analysis of technology trends. Drawing on the intellectual resources of academia, industry and government, the Institute will facilitate and promote creative collaborations to identify and assess developments, anticipate their direction and impact, and produce independent, multi-perspective resources for advising planners and policy-makers. Pulp and Paper Centre
Canada is one of the largest suppliers of pulp and newsprint and has a long tradition of scientific and technological leadership. These make it a major force in the pulp and paper world. The Pulp & Paper Centre is an opportunity for the creation of new science and technology to benefit the Canadian economy and for winning the hearts and minds of students and faculty to do the job in collaboration with industry and government. Since it was founded in 1987, the Pulp & Paper Centre
has experienced exceptional expansion in student and faculty involvement
and research support. In 1999, there were 50 students, 65 faculty and 12
associated staff from several departments within and outside U of T, and
five operating industrial research consortia. Thirty-five companies from
six countries provided financial support to research projects in pulp and
paper processing, energy recovery systems and environmental research. The
Centre has extensive student involvement at the graduate and undergraduate
levels and continues to actively enrich the student’s educational experience
through interesting and relevant research projects, seminar programs, professional
development programs, and international exchanges and tours.
Centre for Technology and Social
Development
Many engineering graduates will encounter these and other issues related to modern technologies since studies show that they rapidly move into supervisory, administrative and managerial positions, requiring a wider perspective. At the same time, engineering practice for dealing with the social and environmental implications of technology is changing. Rather than being dealt with in an “end-of-pipe” manner, the consideration of such implications is incorporated into engineering design and decision-making from the beginning in order to prevent harm as much as possible. Examples include: pollution prevention, industrial ecology, design for the entire life-cycle, design for environment, design for disassembly, green product design, total environmental management, energy end-use planning strategies, integrated resource planning, healthy work organization and workplace design, and healthy/sustainable city concepts. The principal thrust of the research at the Centre is to establish a theoretical foundation and framework to support the further development and application of these preventive approaches. The economy of technology , preoccupied with gaining the maximum possible outputs from the inputs of materials, energy, labour and capital must be complemented by the ecology of technology, which ensures that such gains are not made at the expense of the human, societal and environmental contexts. The objectives of the Centre are:
The Centre is located in the Rosebrugh Building, Room 210C. Office hours are 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
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