Jamie Hunter

U of T student team selected to compete in microgravity experiment challenge

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 29 May 2018 18:08:27 +0000

U of T student team selected to compete in microgravity experiment challenge

noreen.rasbach Tue, 05/29/2018 - 14:08

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Team FAM includes engineering science students (from left): Twesh Upadhyaya, Tyler Gamvrelis, Jacob Weber and Hanzhen Lin. (photo courtesy of Team FAM)

Jamie Hunter

Topic

Our Community

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Innovation

Undergraduate Students

Subheadline

A team of students from the �ؿ�ζSM’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering is set to launch an experiment aboard the National Research Council of Canada’s Falcon 20 jet, part of the Canadian Reduced Gravity Experiment Design Challenge (CAN-RGX).

Team FAM (Fluids Affected by Magnetism) is one of just four post-secondary teams selected for this year’s challenge, joining a team from the University of Calgary and two teams from Queen’s University. The teams will fly various experiments in microgravity during the flight campaign, which will take place over three days in Ottawa at the end of July.

“What really struck me was the opportunity to not only fly in microgravity but to conduct an experiment in microgravity and really see the progress from start to finish – from the proposal to conducting the experiment on a very unique testbed,” said Twesh Upadhyaya, a third-year engineering student who is one of two primary mission specialists for Team FAM who will fly onboard the Falcon 20.

“This year’s CAN-RGX is a unique opportunity for us to put into practice all of the engineering design knowledge we’ve gained so far.”

The competition challenges post-secondary student teams from across the country to design and build an experiment to be flown on board the NRC’s Falcon 20 – an aircraft modified for parabolic flight to simulate microgravity – in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency. This is the second year a team from U of T Engineering was selected for the competition.

Team FAM’s experiment will examine heat transfer in paramagnetic fluids and their behaviour under external magnetic fields. To carry out the experiment, the team developed a compact optical setup that enables them to “see” the temperature of the fluid. A fluid cell holds the paramagnetic fluid, and a set of two electromagnetic coils is positioned around it.

Team FAM’s prototype, which will be used to investigate the effectiveness of heat transfer mechanisms of a paramagnetic fluid in microgravity (photo courtesy of Team FAM)

The team’s literature review suggests nobody has ever visualized the heat distribution in a paramagnetic fluid under microgravity conditions before.

“We have a system that will – at the peak of the flight when we hit zero gravity – automatically trigger the experiment to start,” says Upadhyaya. “We’ll do one parabola, gather the data, and repeat the experiment with different parameters. The plan is to do eight to 10 parabolas.”

The team’s goal is to gain a better understanding of how paramagnetic fluids behave in zero gravity, which could lead to improved heat management in spacecraft, space stations and satellites. They also hope to gain a better understanding of the fundamental behaviour of magnetic fluids in microgravity.

Holiday gift guide: 12 ideas for presents created by U of T alumni (and a student)

rasbachn — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 18:15:14 +0000

Holiday gift guide: 12 ideas for presents created by U of T alumni (and a student)

rasbachn Fri, 12/01/2017 - 13:15

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The aerelight A1 OLED Lamp is the first product by OTI Lumionics, founded by U of T alumnus Michael Helander (photo by Roberta Baker)

Jamie Hunter

Topic

City & Culture

Alumni

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Undergraduate Students

A build-it-yourself robot kit, a revolutionary pressure cooker and the first universal hex key for bikes: They are just a few of the products designed by alumni and students of the �ؿ�ζSM's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering in our holiday shopping guide.

Looking for gift ideas? Here are 12 options for everyone on your list.

aerelight A1 OLED Lamp

Alumnus Michael Helander gave up a career in academic research to start a technology company called OTI Lumionics. Their first product, the aerelight A1 OLED Lamp, is a sleek aluminum-and-walnut desk lamp powered by cutting-edge organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology. Hand-crafted in Canada, the aerelight A1’s soft, warm light is emitted from an ultra-thin, 10-centimetre-square wafer.

Cargo Cosmetics

Cargo Cosmetics, a makeup line founded by alumna Hana Zalzal in 1995, is known as one of the most innovative and sought-after brands among professional makeup artists, celebrities and consumers worldwide. Cargo has all the high-quality makeup essentials – including an out-of-this-world Star Wars-themed line just in time for the new film.

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too

Alumnus Jonny Sun is a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet Society at Harvard, and a creative researcher at the Harvard metaLAB, where he studies social media and online community.

He also found time to write and illustrate everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too (Harper Perennial), which, according to celebrated actor and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, you should read “only if you want to feel more alive.”

Alkaline batteries

A pack of alkaline batteries is an essential stocking stuffer – but did you know that the technology behind them was developed by alumnus Lewis Urry? While working for Eveready Battery Company in 1957, Urry and two of his colleagues invented a long-lasting alkaline battery using a zinc/manganese dioxide chemistry. We know it today as the Energizer battery, the source of power for toys and electronics around the world.

How We Can Win

Best known as the founder and CEO of Wind Mobile, alumnus Anthony Lacavera knows a thing or two about founding and building a successful brand in Canada. He ended up selling Wind for $1.6 billion after it grew to become Canada's fourth-largest wireless carrier. In his inspiring new book, How We Can Win (Random House Canada), Lacavera outlines how the Canadian entrepreneurs of tomorrow can build big, powerful companies – and keep them here.

Instant Pot

Co-created by alumnus Dongjun Wang, the Instant Pot has earned cult-like devotion from users since it debuted in 2009. The New York Times has professed its love for the device, and The Wirecutter selected it as the best pressure cooker you can buy. There’s even an Instant Pot Community Facebook group with more than 800,000 fans.

Kamigami Robots

Shortly after alumnus Andrew Gillies graduated with a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, he co-founded Dash Robotics, Inc. with the mission of creating affordable, educational robots designed to inspire students to get involved in robotics and engineering. The company’s six-legged Kamigami Robots are easy to fold and snap together from flat sheets into insect-like creations – no tools required. The free companion smartphone app enables users to remotely control their robot, battle with friends, play interactive games and more. They’re perfect for the budding maker (or future engineer) on your list.

Kitty Hawk Flyer

Alumni Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson are veteran world-record smashers: They achieved the first flight of a human-powered ornithopter, the first sustained flight of a human-powered helicopter, and the world’s fastest bicycle – twice. It only makes sense that they have teamed up with Google co-founder Larry Page and Google X founder Sebastian Thrun to design the Kitty Hawk Flyer personal air vehicle. It’s possibly the closest humanity has yet come yet to a true flying car, and according to Engadget, the company is currently accepting $100 down payments, which gives you for a $2,000 discount on the finished product.

Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm Light Panels

Founded by alumni Gimmy Chu, Tom Rodinger and Christian Yan, Nanoleaf first made a splash on the lighting and design world with its premier product, the Nanoleaf One bulb, in 2014. It's their deconstruction of the lightbulb that really caught our eye. The Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm is a fixtureless, customizable, integrative light source that brings the beauty of the Aurora Borealis into any room. Users can create custom lighting animations in the free Nanoleaf Smarter Series App and watch them come to life right before their eyes. The Rhythm add-on module converts music into light through the panels, transforming any wall into an avant-garde audio-visual art installation.

Nymi Band

Nymi, the Toronto-based wearable tech company co-founded in 2011 (as Bionym) by alumni Foteini Agrafioti and Karl Martin, has generated serious buzz with its Nymi Band, the world’s first wearable authentication system. Worn around the wrist, Nymi Band is embedded with an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor that uses your heartbeat as a unique ID to seamlessly unlock mobile devices, remember passwords and even make retail payments – an all-in-one solution to the security measures we all navigate on a daily basis. It's currently on back order, but the Nymi Band is a gift worth waiting for.

TeleHex

Peter Wen, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, has been a serious cyclist for many years and his company, TeleHex, aims to make bike repair easier – not just for pros like himself, but for newbies as well. Wen has designed a unique telescoping tool that automatically adjusts to fit the metric bolt sockets on most bikes. The device is half the weight and volume of products currently on the market. And it’s not just for bikes – rumour has it that the TeleHex hex key also comes in handy when putting together Ikea furniture.

2XL Snocross

After conquering Hollywood in the late ’90s with his flight simulation software, alumnus Rick Baltman set his sights on making video games, eventually founding 2XL Games. When Apple debuted the iPad in 2010, they used the company’s 2XL Snocross title to demonstrate the iPad’s graphic capabilities. An updated version of the iOS game is available in the App Store for a toonie – the perfect gift for the mobile gamer in your life. 2XL also has games available for Android devices, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Visit the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering web site to read more about U of T Engineering students, faculty and alumni

U of T Engineering’s Claire Kennedy elected chair of Governing Council

krisha — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 15:16:35 +0000

U of T Engineering’s Claire Kennedy elected chair of Governing Council

krisha Tue, 07/11/2017 - 11:16

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Chemical Engineering alumna Claire Kennedy began her term as chair in July (photo by Roberta Baker)

Jamie Hunter

Author legacy

Jamie Hunter

Topic

Our Community

Governing Council

Alumni

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

U of T Engineering alumna Claire Kennedy has been elected chair of the �ؿ�ζSM’s Governing Council, which oversees the academic, business and student affairs of the University.

Kennedy's term as chair began July 1, 2017. She succeeded former city manager of Toronto Shirley Hoy.

Kennedy has served on the Governing Council since 2012 as a Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council appointed member, and has been active on its Business Board, Pension Committee and Executive Committee.

“I’m honoured and humbled by the trust and confidence shown by the members of Governing Council and the greater U of T community,” Kennedy said. “I’ve had the privilege to play a number of roles at U of T over the years – as a student, volunteer and donor – which have given me a rich perspective of the University. But that’s only one perspective. There are 50 members of Governing Council and a tremendous number of senior volunteer alumni, faculty, staff and students who are very important in the work that we do. As chair, it will be equally essential for me to listen to the U of T community, as it will be to take action.”

Kennedy has a rich history of engagement in governance and the engineering community at U of T. She has served as a member of the Dean's Strategic Development Council and Campaign Cabinet Executive, member and past chair of the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry’s advisory board, member and past president of the Engineering Alumni Network, and is the founder of BizSkule, one of the Faculty’s most successful alumni outreach programs. Kennedy also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Rotman School of Management.

“On behalf of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, I extend our warm congratulations to Claire on her election to this prestigious position,” said Professor Cristina Amon, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “We are grateful for her tireless dedication and commitment to the University. I know she will bring the same vision, passion and leadership to this important role as she has always demonstrated as member of our Skule™ community.”

Kennedy's volunteer service to U of T was recognized with an Arbor Award in 2007 and a Malcolm F. McGrath Alumni Achievement Award in 2013.

“I really do believe that a publicly funded, academically elite university – and one that fulfills the Ontario Student Access Guarantee the way that U of T does – is a powerful vector of social mobility in the country,” Kennedy said. “It’s a really important tool to support the vision that we have as Canadians to create opportunity and prosperity for everyone.”

Kennedy’s contributions to the engineering profession extend beyond U of T. She served as a Camp One warden for the Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer (Iron Ring Ceremony) in 2011, and received an Ontario Professional Engineers Award in 2015, recognizing her significant contributions to society.

Kennedy is a partner at Bennett Jones LLP and is recognized as one of Canada’s leading tax lawyers and transfer pricing advisors. She also is a director of the Bank of Canada, the country's central bank, and of Alamos Gold Inc., a publicly traded mining company.

In 2016, she climbed Mount Vinson – one of the world’s Seven Summits – with a combined soldier-civilian team for True Patriot Love, a national charity that supports the wellbeing of military veterans and their families.

Gaming champs apply here: U of T alumnus funds scholarship for engineering undergrads who excel at eSports

lanthierj — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 15:59:21 +0000

Gaming champs apply here: U of T alumnus funds scholarship for engineering undergrads who excel at eSports

lanthierj Wed, 01/18/2017 - 10:59

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“We need to reward the mavericks amongst us who may not fit into the mold of a traditional leader,” says Victor Xin (photo by Jamie Hunter)

Jamie Hunter

Author legacy

Jamie Hunter

Topic

City & Culture

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

For the first time in the �ؿ�ζSM’s history, a scholarship has been established with video gaming as part of the eligibility criteria.

U of T alumnus Victor Xin will fund a new scholarship to support a student with high academic achievement and a passion for eSports. Short for electronic sports, eSports is the growing world of competitive video gaming.

“We should reward leadership attributes no matter how they manifest themselves,” said Xin, managing partner at Athena Capital Partners, a Toronto-based investment firm. “I want to help students who pursue leadership and personal development but go about it a different way.”

The Victor Xin Scholarship in eSports will be awarded to a full-time undergraduate student in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who has achieved a minimum 3.5 GPA. The recipient will demonstrate a passion for eSports or gaming through engagement in a leadership role or participation in extra-curricular clubs or activities. Course selection, design projects or research may also be considered. The first scholarship will be awarded in fall 2018.

Xin, who graduated from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering in 2008, also volunteers as the chair of U of T Engineering’s alumni mentorship program. He said that when he was an undergraduate student, he didn’t relate to the traditional clubs and sports the university offered.

Instead, he gravitated towards video games – initially StarCraft, now Dota 2 when he has the time – and put a lot of energy and effort into building a community for other U of T Engineering students who were also passionate about eSports. Xin started the �ؿ�ζSM eSports Club and organized the �ؿ�ζSM Cyber Games in 2008, the first student-run eSports tournament held on a campus in North America.

“There are trailblazers on campus who are rallying a different set of students to build campus organizations focused on an alternative way of learning to lead and succeed in life,” he said. “Society may not recognize them yet – but we shouldn’t let them fall through the cracks.”

Today, eSports is a lucrative global business: the popular League of Legends game drew an audience of 36 million for its World Championship in 2015. Players earn millions in prize money at tournaments that are broadcasted by major networks such as ESPN. Global eSports revenues are estimated to exceed $1 billion by 2019.

U of T is among a growing list of North American institutions to reward eSports players with academic scholarships.

“I hope eSports becomes even more mainstream and draws more attention,” Xin said.

“Then students who are passionate about eSports can get the recognition they deserve and the support they need to succeed.”

Global Day of the Engineer: five U of T engineers transforming Google, Twitter, and more

sgupta — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 09:49:27 +0000

Global Day of the Engineer: five U of T engineers transforming Google, Twitter, and more sgupta Wed, 02/24/2016 - 04:49

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Hana Zalzal, Jonny Sun, Catherine Lacavera, Brian Mech and Ann Sado (scroll to bottom of article to see photo credits for images used in this composite)

Tyler Irving

Jamie Hunter

Author legacy

Tyler Irving and Jamie Hunter

Topic

Global Lens

Features

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Engineering

Alumni

Global

Subheadline

Meet the alumni who are changing everything from the Internet to the cosmetics industry

Next time you powder your nose, thank an engineer.

�ؿ�ζSM civil engineering alumna Hana Zalzal, co-founder of Cargo Cosmetics, might be the brains behind your compact.

In fields from beauty to health to education, today's engineers are making inroads and solving problems in areas that might surprise you.

Feb. 24 is the first Global Day of the Engineer. Meet five U of T engineers who are #EngineeringtheUnexpected.

Hana Zalzal: Professional makeup maven

What do Hollywood stars Courtney Cox, Camryn Manheim, Lindsay Lohan and Debra Messing have in common? They have all designed custom lipstick shades for Cargo Cosmetics, a professional makeup line founded by alumna Hana Zalzal.

Zalzal, who graduated in 1988, worked as an engineer, marketer and financial analyst before founding Cargo Cosmetics in 1995 from her home in North York. Over the past 20 years, Cargo has grown to become one of the most innovative and sought-after brands among professional makeup artists, celebrities and consumers worldwide.

Cargo's products have been featured in Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal and a multitude of fashion and beauty publications. Hit television shows American Horror Story, Girls, The Mindy Project and Modern Family as well as the films Insidious, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Iron Man 2 have used Cargo Cosmetics. They have also been included in official gift bags for prestigious events such as the Academy Awards, Emmy Awards and Golden Globes.

True to its engineering roots, Cargo has even made an impact on the international design community: the company’s foundation pouch won a 2006 DuPont Award for Innovation in Packaging and a 2007 Red Dot Award for Product Design.

Zalzal attributes the key to Cargo’s success to never being satisfied with the status quo.

“For me, it was all about continually asking myself, ‘How can this be better?’” she said. “It was about the innovation, and the innovation that drove [Cargo] to continually seek new ways of presenting product. Sometimes it was in application, sometimes it was in formulation and sometimes it was in packaging.”

Zalzal was included on The Caldwell Partners list of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 in 2004 and received an Arbor Award for her outstanding personal service to the �ؿ�ζSM.

Jonathan Sun: Engineer, architect, social media sensation

City builder? Cultural commentator? Hip-hop aficionado? It’s impossible to label Jonathan Sun, a 2011 grad. He’s trained as an engineer, interdisciplinary architect, visual artist, writer, performer and comedian. He may be best known by his Twitter alias “jomny sun, aliebn confuesed abot humamn lamgauge.”

His tweets, which the The Yale Herald has described as “sometimes funny and sometimes moving, but usually both,” have earned him more than 130,000 followers and a steady stream of media coverage.

Read about Sun on Buzzfeed

Read about Sun on Vice

Read about Sun on NPR

Read about Sun on Motherboard

As a high school student, Sun considered studying drama, but changed his mind after meeting students in U of T’s Engineering Science program. “They were captains of sports teams, directors of Skule Nite, conductors of orchestras, and so on,” he says. “It really shattered my expectations, to find out that you could apply that engineering thought process to whatever you want to do.”

He enrolled in Engineering Science, majoring in infrastructure engineering. In 2012, Sun not only directed Skule Nite – the annual musical-comedy revue produced by U of T’s Engineering Society – but also served as its head writer and oversaw the creation of electroluminescent lightsuits that lit up the performers’ bodies.

After graduating from U of T, Sun completed a Master of Architecture at Yale University. There he studied the emergence of graffiti culture in New York and designed a city block in a master-planned project near Brasilia. He also found time to write and workshop a one-act play called Fried Mussels at the Yale School of Drama, and create an installation entitled The Light Column for the New Haven ArtSpace gallery. On graduation from Yale, he was awarded the William Edward Parsons Memorial Medal for his distinctive work in city planning.

Sun is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I just started my thesis, but at this point my idea is to examine the use of Twitter as a way to understand how the public experiences cities,” he says.

As for the future, Sun is still undecided. He recently published in the humour site McSweeney’s, was voted the fifth funniest Twitter account of 2015 by Playboy magazine, and is recording a hip-hop album. “I’ve realized that I function best when I have a hand in many different things, so I mostly just want to keep doing that,” he says. “I’m very happy being undefinable.”

Listen to Sun on NPR:

Catherine Lacavera: Google’s patent litigation all-star

Catherine Lacavera, a 1997 grad, never wanted to become an engineer. From day one, her intent was to become a patent lawyer. But acquiring an engineering education was an important part of her career plan.

“First and foremost, an engineering degree gives you instantaneous credibility among other engineers and attorneys,” said Lacavera, director of intellectual property law and litigation at Google. “People know that engineering gives you a baseline education in math and science. A lot of what I do at Google requires a technical understanding of software and hardware, and the Internet.My underlying technical knowledge helps me understand my work.”

Her U of T Engineering degree provided her with more than just technical knowledge. Lacavera designed a workflow for the way her office at Google handles patent litigation cases.

“You can bring innovation into whatever job you are doing,” she said. “My team is designed around what I call the ‘Model T Ford of patent litigation.' We create processes for how every case is handled, from soup to nuts, every aspect of litigation. That’s engineering. We’re handing fully one per cent of all patent litigation in the United States, and we wouldn’t be able to scale at that rate or to that level with such a small team without that type of process in place.”

Lacavera joined Google in 2005. Since then she has advised on a number of high-profile and complex licenses and acquisitions, including the acquisitions of Motorola Mobility and Nest, the sale of Motorola Home and the $490-million multi-party license with Tivo. In 2013, Fortune magazine named her one of its “40 Under 40” and called her “Google’s secret weapon in the smartphone wars.”

Lacavera is also an engaged volunteer and donor at U of T Engineering. She sits on The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Alumni Advisory Board and is involved with the Entrepreneurship Hatchery.

Brian Mech: Artificial vision pioneer

Brian Mech’s career path was inspired in part by the fictional civil engineer Cyrus Smith in Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island. “He basically develops a whole civilization on this island,” says Mech, who read the book as a teenager and earned his PhD in 1997. “I just thought it was remarkable how much engineers knew and how much they could do.”

While he knew he wanted to build things that had never been built before, Mech still wasn’t sure what form that would take. During his graduate studies at U of T Engineering, he focused on improving the materials used to build nuclear reactors.

Things took a sharp turn one day in 1999 when he got a call from a fledgling company called Second Sight. They wanted his expertise in materials science to help develop an artificial retina that could restore vision to the blind.

“For the most part, the engineering and scientific community held that it was impossible to build a device that would work,” says Mech. Over the next 16 years, Mech and his team proved them wrong. They designed and built an ultra-thin, self-contained implant capable of receiving external signals sent from a special pair of glasses worn by the user and turn them into electrical signals that stimulate cells at the back of the eye. Today, the device is restoring vision loss in hundreds of patients with a condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

Over time, Mech found himself drawn toward the business side of the company, and eventually returned to school part-time to complete an MBA. Recently, he left Second Sight to become the CEO of eSight, a Toronto-based company that builds wearable devices which restore nearly normal vision to people with a wide range of sight-damaging conditions.

Given the twists and turns in his career, Mech says that engineering was the ideal background to have. “I just think it’s excellent training for almost anything you want to do.”

Anne Sado: Engineering an approach to one of Canada’s most creative colleges

Anne Sado had already led one full and successful career when she decided to launch a new one.

The industrial engineer joined Bell Canada immediately following her graduation from U of T Engineering in 1977. After spending 25 years working her way up the corporate ranks, she decided she needed a change.

“I had the good fortune of being eligible for an early retirement,” Sado said. “I decided it would be great to think about a different future.”

She engineered that future around her love of learning: in 2004 Sado was named president of Toronto’s George Brown College.

“What I realized was that there was an amazing synergy between what I had been doing in my career – my background, the skills I built – and my interests in the city and applied education,” she said. “I was selected for the role. Here I am in my 13th year and I haven’t looked back.”

Under Sado’s leadership, George Brown College has doubled in size and established itself as part of Toronto’s social, economic and cultural fabric. She credits her engineering background for her success as an academic leader.

“My engineering education really made me think about things as a system and how everything fits together,” she said. “When I think of my leadership style and I look at the institution that I’m managing, I take a look at the big picture, how things fit together and what element or areas of expertise I require to make the entire system work.

Sado has served as a director of several professional organizations, including the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers and the Association of Canadian Community Colleges. She has been a member of the President’s Council of the �ؿ�ζSM Engineering Alumnae Association, Dean’s Advisory Board and Engineering Campaign Cabinet. In 2013, she was appointed Member of the Order of Canada.

(photo credits for composite image used at top of article: Hana Zalzal, Christopher Sun, Google, Brian Mech, George Brown College)

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sites/default/files/EngineeringtheUnexpected.jpg

Improving kids’ literacy with singing stickers: U of T social startup goes global

sgupta — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 08:58:42 +0000

Improving kids’ literacy with singing stickers: U of T social startup goes global sgupta Tue, 06/23/2015 - 04:58

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Attollo Social Enterprise team members Jamie Austin, Peter Cinat, Aisha Bukhari and Lak Chinta (photo by Roberta Baker)

Jamie Hunter

Author legacy

Jamie Hunter

Topic

Global Lens

These brothers invented a device to slash vampire power

sgupta — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 10:06:30 +0000

These brothers invented a device to slash vampire power sgupta Wed, 04/23/2014 - 06:06

Cutline

Student Deep Prasad with Professor Joseph Orozco, director of U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery (Photo by Jacklyn Atlas)

Jamie Hunter

Author legacy

Jamie Hunter

Subheadline

Now they're working with U of T's Entrepreneurship Hatchery to bring it to market

First-year Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) student Deep Prasad (ElecE 1T7) could have studied anywhere. The Surrey, B.C., native received scholarship offers from universities across the country, but U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery sealed the deal.

An inventor at heart, Prasad spent two weeks last year with his brother at his parents’ kitchen table developing a technology to reduce vampire power (also known as standby power) consumed by electrical appliances – from concept to working prototype. He knew he was behind something special and The Hatchery promised the tools and the mentorship to take the prototype from pipe dream to marketable product.

(Read more about entrepreneurship at U of T in the Spotlight on Startups series. Visit U of T's entrepreneurship site to learn more about the enterprise-fostering courses, labs, programs and more.)

“Deep’s curiosity and eagerness to explore is very inspiring,” says Joseph Orozco, director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery. “We are proud that The Hatchery factored into his decision to study at U of T.”

U of T Engineering’s Jamie Hunter sat down with the budding entrepreneur to learn more about Prasad’s Hatchery project, first-year experiences and how he convinced his brother to join him at U of T.

Why did you decide to pursue a career in engineering?

I did have the typical childhood dream of becoming an astronaut or a doctor – then I became really interested in neuroscience and the way that the brain works, and until Grade 11, wanted to become a neurosurgeon. I had everything planned out. But then I realized that what I always wanted to be was an inventor.

One of the things about inventing is that you need the knowledge and skill to bring your ideas to life, and engineering was the perfect program for that.

Why did you choose U of T Engineering?

I looked at the [U of T Engineering] booklet and I realized there were two things setting U of T apart: the fact that [Engineering] has a co-op program [Professional Experience Year (PEY)] and The Hatchery. That was amazing. I realized that this is actually a place where I can foster my needs for innovation. This university understands that if I want to make something, I can, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now.

How has your first year been? Did it meet your expectations?

For sure. The first months were really difficult … but there was actually a lot of help: facilitated study group sessions that the university organizes and then other study sessions that I organized myself because I’m the ECE rep. I had the power to email everybody and say, ‘Hey, if you’re struggling with this or if you’re good at that, let’s meet up because our skills complement each other.’ I used that to my advantage and I was able to figure it out.

Can you share some details about your involvement with The Hatchery?

One of the things we completely overlook in the average household is something called vampire power [the electric power consumed by electronic and electrical appliances while they are switched off]. Every single electronic appliance creates vampire power, even when you aren’t using it.

But who has the time to go around in the morning, before they leave for work or for school, to unplug all of those things? I decided with my younger brother to create something to battle this vampire power … so over spring break last year we did some research and got to work.

After two weeks we were really happy with the prototype [specific details about the project cannot be disclosed at this stage.] We had never worked so hard. I remember the first time we got it to work, when I pressed that off button on my phone and three of my lamps turned off in my room at once, it was probably the coolest experience ever. We’ve actually been able to reduce our electricity bill by 25 per cent just by getting rid of all the vampire power.

We really hope that through The Hatchery, we can get this product out to as many people as we can. Maybe on just a one-house scale, we save, like, $5-$10 – big deal – but when you have millions of households, that’s tens of millions of dollars saved, literally, on wasted energy.

I understand your brother, Amrit, is joining you at U of T Engineering in the fall. How did that come about?

He’s in grade 12 right now, and he had the same problem about deciding what university to go to, because we had scholarships everywhere. So it was just a matter of where we were going to fit in best; what we were going to like the most. When he saw all of the opportunities I’d been given, he realized that he wants to do a lot of things that I want to do because we have very similar goals.

Before I got into The Hatchery it was really like a pipe dream, in a way. We didn’t have the money or the resources to realistically give [the prototype] out to an entire country, a city or a neighbourhood. But when we heard that there are things like The Hatchery that are ready to help, and the fact that we had a chance at it, I think that was enough for him. That was the tipping point.

What sort of legacy do you want to leave behind at U of T Engineering? What do you want to be remembered for?

Definitely innovation. I have hundreds of really crazy ideas and I want to be known as the guy who actually made those possible. A dream that both my brother and I share is that by the time we graduate we want to be able to completely control everything in our house with our thoughts. I know that’s very much like an X-Men kind of thing, but there are these things called EEGs [electroencephalography] that basically read your brainwaves. You can use those brainwaves and convert them to a digital and analogue input, and use those inputs to program something. At some point, I want to be able to walk inside my home and think: close blinds. And the blinds will shut.

Prasad is already on his way to realizing the dream of automating his entire house. He plans to work on developing a video game this summer that is controlled completely by thought. He’s already organized a team interested in working on the project.

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