ONRamp

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus

Entrepreneurship Week

Subheadline

“With students back on campus, this is an opportunity to expose the internal entrepreneurial ecosystem to all the different accelerator programs we have at the university”

The new school year is typically associated with lectures, textbooks and study groups – but at the ��߲ݴ�ý, students are also encouraged to think about how all that knowledge can be wielded to start game-changing companies that address important challenges, create jobs and foster innovation.

That’s one of the goals behind the inaugural AcceleratorFest, which takes place Sept. 18 at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus.

Organized by U of T Entrepreneurship – which is ranked among the top five university business incubators in the world – AcceleratorFest offers a handy introduction to U of T’s thriving entrepreneurship scene.

“With students back on campus, this is an opportunity to expose the internal entrepreneurial ecosystem to all the different accelerator programs we have at the university,” says Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship.

There are 12 campus-linked accelerators across the tri-campus, and the number of startups emerging from them continues to balloon – in 2019, U of T supported 380 entrepreneurial teams; last year, that number rose to nearly 1,000.

“This is one of the rare opportunities where we can bring staff, alumni, accelerator leads and companies to talk to the next generation of up-and-coming entrepreneurs about resources and tools and the different accelerators in a classic ��߲ݴ�ý way,” French says.

AcceleratorFest features three key elements.

In classic trade show fashion, booths will be set up for attendees to chat informally with entrepreneurs about their startups.

Later in the afternoon, attendees can hear from Zain Zaidi, CEO of document verification and management startup Transcrypts, and Catherine Chan, founding CEO of clinical trials startup Honeybee (which was recently acquired by global clinical trials firm Leapcure), at the Desjardins Speaker Series.

Finally, an open house on the seventh floor of the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus will invite visitors to check out ONRamp, a co-working and collaboration space for U of T’s entrepreneurship community.

(photo by David Lee)

Registration to AcceleratorFest includes a raffle ticket, with potential to win some unique swag (think a MOTUS U of T hoodie or Nanoleaf smart bulb) and a ticket to one of the tech industry’s premier events, Elevate Festival.

French says he encourages everyone in the U of T community to check out the event, noting U of T Entrepreneurship has a “no-wrong-door philosophy” – no matter what you’re studying or where you are in your entrepreneurial journey, “there's a door that you can open in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and there are people and alumni and resources that can support you.”

AcceleratorFest is the first of several exciting entrepreneurship events on the calendar for the upcoming academic year. A key date to watch out for: Oct. 15, which is when applications for the Desjardins Startup Prize will open for companies vying to win $100,000 in non-dilutive funding.

The prize is one of the highlights of the annual U of T Entrepreneurship Week, which will take place March 3-7.

Add new author/reporter

Adam Elliott Segal

U of T startup Honeybee acquired by global clinical trials firm Leapcure

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 14:55:48 +0000

U of T startup Honeybee acquired by global clinical trials firm Leapcure

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 08/16/2024 - 10:55

Cutline

(photo courtesy of Leapcure)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Impact Centre

Subheadline

Co-founded by Catherine Chan and Weiwei Li, Honeybee Trials' platform helps clinical trial recruiters find, screen and manage patients for their research

Honeybee Trials, a ��߲ݴ�ý startup that connects research teams with patients and study participants, has been acquired by global clinical trials company Leapcure in a deal that is poised to drive more inclusive and affordable trials that’s ultimately applicable to a broader population.

Co-founded by U of T alumni Catherine Chan and Weiwei Li, Honeybee built a web and mobile platform to help clinical trial teams attract, screen, recruit and manage study participants. Since its founding in 2019, the startup has connected over 30,000 patients and participants to more than 1,000 clinical trials across North America.

Leapcure, headquartered in California, offers an array of solutions that combines people-backed services with data-driven technologies to fill clinical trials for global sponsors and CROs, but can now expand affordable patient recruitment to institutional sites, private sites and biotech firms. Moreover, their work alongside patients and advocacy groups has significantly helped to reach underrepresented communities – a focus that will receive a boost following the purchase of Honeybee.

Chan, who earned a master’s degree in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s department of nutritional sciences, says the deal grew out of a desire to partner strategically with a larger company that could provide access to broader sectors within the clinical research world.

Catherine Chan (L) and Weiwei Li (supplied image)

“At Honeybee, we offered competitive pricing for academic and hospital sites, local CROs [contract research organizations] and biotech firms,” Chan says. “With this partnership, we’re able to provide services across all of the different types of trial scopes and sizes.”

She adds that both Honeybee and Leapcure have placed a strong focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility by helping researchers attract study participants of different ethnicities, ages, genders and sexual orientations – helping make clinical trials more equitable and reflective of the wider population.

“It’s important to us that there's a mission and vision alignment between the companies... it couldn’t be a better fit,” Chan said.

The asset purchase deal for an undisclosed amount, which was announced in an Aug. 13 press release, will see Chan transition from CEO of Honeybee to senior director of product at Leapcure.

“We’re excited to join forces with Catherine and Honeybee. They’ve been really focused on the newest recruitment technologies that are most impactful for both patients and research,” said Leapcure CEO Zachary Gobst. “A big reason that things came together was our alignment on impact first. It’s a credit to how they’ve been approaching their business the right way from the beginning."

Honeybee evolved out of the frustrations that Chan faced in recruiting study participants for her master’s thesis. Motivated to explore solutions, Chan created a prototype that would help match participants with trials; she then enrolled in a one-week accelerator program in the Impact Centre (now the Centre for Entrepreneurship) in the Faculty of Arts & Science.

She soon teamed up with Li, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s of applied science degrees from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, to co-found Honeybee. The startup later joined the Health Innovation Hub (H2i) accelerator and operated out of office space in U of T Entrepreneurship’s ONRamp facility prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With COVID-19 measures encouraging the adoption of digital tools by clinical research teams, Honeybee found itself well-placed to play an important role. “The pandemic provided an opportunity for many tech companies to scale as the market became more open-minded and ready to adopt technologies to help connect them day-to-day," Chan says. "We saw a rapid adoption of Honeybee’s technology during this time where people moved away from traditional recruitment and patient communications to the current age.

“Although digital adoption across other industries has grown quite rapidly, healthcare has lagged behind, rightfully so and for many reasons, but we’re glad the transformation is happening. Just five years ago, clinical trial coordinators were still using paper handouts to recruit on the street and paper calendars to schedule patients.

“The pandemic expedited researchers being able to meet people where they are.”

Chan says the acquisition by Leapcure will enable the rollout of tiered services ranging from low-cost, self-serve tiers – targeting research teams with more modest budgets – to higher levels of service that include dedicated management.

“I’m really excited about the solutions we now have to offer together as well as the next steps in how we’re going to disrupt clinical trials.”

Professor Paul Santerre, co-founder and director of H2i, hailed Chan as "a model outcome" of the accelerator's mission to empower innovators in translating their ideas into products and companies that tackle important problems.

“Catherine and her team’s achievements are transformative in terms of democratizing the recruitment of patients for clinical study cohorts," said Santerre, the Baxter Chair for Health Technology and Commercialization at the University Health Network and professor in the Faculty of Dentistry and Institute of Biomedical Engineering who is cross-appointed to the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

"She has much to still teach us about the power of digital tools and their ethical use to achieve impact in clinical research trials – and this acquisition will accelerate that outcome."

ONRamp

laurie.bulchak — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 01:42:22 +0000

ONRamp laurie.bulchak Thu, 07/25/2024 - 21:42

URL

https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/for-entrepreneurs/onramp-membership/

U of T Entrepreneurship's Jon French on the new RBC Innovation Challenge – and what students need to know

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 13:25:37 +0000

U of T Entrepreneurship's Jon French on the new RBC Innovation Challenge – and what students need to know

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 09/27/2022 - 09:25

Cutline

With “Tech for a Greener Future” as its inaugural theme, the RBC Innovation Challenge asks students to develop new ways to use data and technology to help Canada reach its 2050 net-zero targets (photo by ��߲ݴ�ý)

Alyson Bruce

Topic

Entrepreneurship

Graduate Students

Sustainability

Undergraduate Students

The ��߲ݴ�ý and RBC have partnered to launch the RBC Innovation Challenge, the latest joint initiative to bolster innovation and entrepreneurship efforts on campus and beyond.

The annual, university-wide competition is open to all U of T students and invites multi-disciplinary teams to focus on technology projects with the potential for global impact.

For its inaugural year, the theme is “Tech for a Greener Future” and asks students how technology and data can be used to help Canada reach its 2050 net-zero targets. The challenge, to be officially launched with an event on Oct. 11, will run until Jan. 26 and consists of three phases: “Discover,” which gives students an opportunity to get inspired, form teams and register them by the Nov. 13 deadline; “Develop,” when they will create an initial version of their product or service; and “Deliver,” when the teams will present to a panel of expert judges.

Writer Alyson Bruce recently sat down with Jon French, director, U of T Entrepreneurship (UTE), to learn more about the challenge and the opportunity it presents for student entrepreneurs.

How did the idea for the challenge come about?

We can start with the obvious – the science is clear. Human activity is having a devastating impact on our planet and many experts say the climate crisis is the single-most important threat facing our society. Plus, U of T has always been a leader when it comes to creating innovative solutions to global problems, going back to the discovery of insulin in 1921. This is just another opportunity to use our technology and expertise to help generate positive societal and economic impact.

At the same time, U of T is proud to be one of Canada’s leading public institutions committed to the goal of reaching net zero by 2050. We have robust, collaborative initiatives across our innovation ecosystem, including the School of Cities, BioZone, the Mass Timber Institute, the Munk School of Global Studies and Public Policy’s Environmental Governance Lab, the Adams Sustainability Celebration and one of the university’s most ambitious strategic initiatives, the Climate Positive Energy strategic initiative, which is a delivery partner for this year’s challenge.

U of T Entrepreneurship makes an ideal launching pad for the challenge because we see enormous potential for some of the projects created over the next few months to have commercial application. Our vibrant startup ecosystem has produced 107 ventures in cleantech alone and they have raised $496 million in research funding and are advancing research in converting CO2 into renewable fuels and materials, decarbonization technologies, hydrogen, and renewable energy such as solar.

What is RBC’s role?

An initiative like this needs a committed partner and we are lucky to be working with RBC who have been a long-time supporter of U of T’s innovation ecosystem. This is the latest in a series of RBC-supported activities, ranging from startup pitch competitions, research fellowships, and ONRamp our co-working and collaboration space on the St. George campus. As one of the world’s largest banks by market capitalization, RBC has an important role to play in the journey to net-zero and have demonstrated a commitment to action through the RBC Climate Blueprint. With more than 10,000 employees working across different technical roles, they are also keenly interested in how tech can be used for positive societal and economic impact.

Ultimately, this is about learning, networking and developing entrepreneurial / intrapreneurial skills while having fun in a way that could make a big difference.

How will the challenge work?

Any current U of T student at any level, in any academic discipline, is eligible to participate. The projects created during the challenge will either be brand new or less than six months old – meaning this is not for startups that are already well established. Teams of three to six students can be formed in myriad ways – through curricular or co-curricular initiatives (including course work, capstones, etc.), via the U of T Entrepreneurship accelerator network and also out of facilitated meetups and ideation clinics. Once established, teams will have roughly two months to develop their projects, with support along the way from RBC domain experts, faculty advisers, targeted workshops – all culminating in a pitch competition for prizes on Jan. 26.

The strongest teams will likely be multi-disciplinary and representative of our diverse student body because multiple perspectives lead to more effective and inclusive solutions to the world’s greatest problems. Teams are encouraged to focus on tech-enabled projects that are relevant to individual Canadians, small and medium businesses or large companies and government. We are hoping to see a broad range of projects in areas such as: measuring, reporting and lowering carbon emissions; clean and renewable energy; food security; responsible investment; transportation; clean water, sustainable manufacturing materials and planetary health, to name a few.

Why should students participate?

It’s a great opportunity for students to work on an impactful project over an extended period of time and not only learn from some of the top innovators, researchers and climate experts in the world, but also build a network of peers who are passionate about similar pursuits.

There is also $100,000 in prizes for the top teams, including a $35,000 first-place prize and a $10,000 People’s Choice Award. The top team will also get to present their project – and represent U of T – at an upcoming global climate conference or summit, with consideration given to carbon offsets.

We anticipate that some of these projects will also be turned into startups that are supported by the U of T Entrepreneurship community, which consists of more than 10 accelerators across the three campuses. For finalist project teams that incorporate and pursue venture creation, there is another $10,000 available in the form of startup service vouchers to offset the cost of professional services such as legal and intellectual property protection, marketing, financial/accounting and more.

The university’s Innovations & Partnerships Office (IPO) is also committed to working with eligible teams hoping to commercialize their project output, while RBC is also exploring ways to support U of T talent and the team members and projects that emerge from the challenge.

U of T startups turn heads at virtual events around the world

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 18:38:32 +0000

U of T startups turn heads at virtual events around the world

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 09/09/2020 - 14:38

Cutline

Clockwise, from top left: Daniel Szulc of Integral Health; the team from Genecis; Qoherent founder Ashkan Beigi; Mark Elias and Emile Maamary of Steadiwear; Livia Guo, Keith Pardee and Seray Cicek of LSK Technologies (photos supplied)

Peter Boisseau

Topic

Global Lens

The Hub

Alumni

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Global

Hatchery

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Impact Centre

U of T Scarborough

UTEST

Startup companies from the ��߲ݴ�ý are racking up impressive performances at international pitch competitions – even as the pandemic forced the high-stakes events online.

“Two of the largest global pitch competitions that have happened in the last few months were both won by ��߲ݴ�ý startups,” says Jon French, director of U of T Entrepreneurship, the umbrella organization for U of T’s 11 entrepreneurship hubs.

“It’s a testament to the caliber of entrepreneurial talent at U of T and the fact that programming for student founders has not slowed down – it has ramped up virtually in response to COVID-19.”

U of T cleantech startup Genecis is one of the big winners. The company harnesses bacteria to turn food waste into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), otherwise known as biodegradable plastics that can used for everything from sustainable packaging to 3D printing.

Founded four years ago by U of T alumna Luna Yu, the startup was selected a Global Winner at this year’s Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) in July – an event featured more than 2,400 competitors from nearly 90 countries.

“Winning at XTC over more than 2000 other startups really speaks to what we've been working on and the ability of our team to execute,” says Abdul Khogali, the company’s chief operating officer.

He added that the prestigious competition helped connect Genecis with potential investors, including Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang.

Genecis, founded four years ago by U of T alumna Luna Yu (far left), harnesses bacteria to turn food waste into biodegradable plastics (photo courtesy of Genecis)

U of T quantum computing tech startup Qoherent also notched a big win this summer – at Startupfest in Montreal, where it competed with over 500 startups from around the world and took home a $100,000 top prize.

Meanwhile, LSK Technologies, another U of T startup, won the $25,000 RBC Entrepreneur Award, the top prize at Toronto-based TiEQuest 2020 in June. Also at TiEQuest, medical device startup Steadiwear – which produces a tremor reducing glove designed for people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease – walked away with the $2,500 Baylis Medical People's Choice Award.

Steadiwear also captured the Montreal Startup Festival’s highly sought Grandmother’s Choice Award, which is judged by a panel of seniors who serve as a kind of focus group for emerging products aimed at their demographic. At the same festival, U of T startup Integral Health, which is developing a smart digital assistant for surgeons, won the Next 36 Young Entrepreneur Award, joining an elite cohort of emerging company founders.

Daniel Szulc of U of T startup Integral Health, which is developing a smart digital assistant for surgeons (photo courtesy of Daniel Szulc)

While going virtual created enormous logistical challenges for pitch competition organizers, it also seemed to encourage a record numbers of competitors, making wins by U of T startups that much more impressive, according to French. He says entrepreneurship, innovation and research commercialization are more important than ever as Canada looks to bounce back from COVID-19 by rebuilding its battered economy.

“I'm looking at these virtual pitch competition victories as a proof that our companies are heading in the right direction,” he says.

The Genecis team says being nimble and adaptable have been key to its success this year – not only at XTC, but at the Novo Nordisk Innovation Challenge, where it captured the top prize of nearly $40,000, and at the 2020 Mondi Lead2030 competition, where it was also among the winners.

Khogali says the company – which earlier this year completed a program at Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator, one of the world’s premier startup accelerators – has shifted its initial focus away from manufacturing to the less capital-intensive business of licensing its process to industry partners.

He credits mentorship the team received from U of T professors and alumni, well as U of T incubators and accelerators such as The Hub at U of T Scarborough, the Entrepreneurship Hatchery and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), for helping the Genecis team transform its ideas into a potentially disruptive business.

From left to right: Livia Guo, Assistant Professor Keith Pardee and Seray Cicek of LSK Technologies, which is developing a portable, “lab-in-a-box” technology to diagnose COVID-19 and other diseases (photo courtesy of LSK Technologies)

Qoherent founder Ashkan Beigi also says U of T played a key role in helping him grow his company, which aims to help scientists and engineers create wireless technologies and harness the power of machine learning.

Beigi says CDL, based at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, provided him with intensive entrepreneurial training, networking opportunities and a “road map” for the company. He also says the startup co-working space at U of T’s ONramp, shared with partner universities, provided him with an ideal working environment, albeit one he has had to abandon in recent months because of the pandemic.

“I’d love to go back to ONramp when we can because it’s a good space to be in, one of the best I’ve ever seen – and a great community to be part of,” he says.

Winning the Montreal festival suggests Qoherent is on the right track and underscores the value of the guidance he received from CDL and others, Beigi says.

Ashkan Beigi of Qoherent, which aims to help scientists and engineers create wireless technologies and harness the power of machine learning, says the Creative Destruction Lab played a key role in helping him develop the company (photo courtesy of Ashkan Beigi)

LSK Technologies, co-founded by U of T alumna Seray Cicek and Keith Pardee, an assistant professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, also credits U of T support as a key factor in the startup’s success. The company, which has also just been accepted into Y Combinator, received support from two of U of T’s campus-linked accelerators: H2i (Health Innovation Hub) and UTEST.

The portable, “lab-in-a-box” technology developed by the researchers was originally focused on other diseases, but the pair pivoted quickly to make COVID-19 a priority when the pandemic hit, Cicek says.

She is hopeful about getting their disease screening device to market early next year.

“We are looking forward to a world where we won’t be looking at a pandemic situation again,” Cicek says. “If we had been able to screen people better earlier this year, then perhaps we could be all meeting in person right now.”

Mark Elias and Emile Maamary are co-founders of Steadiwear, which makes a tremor reducing glove to help people with conditions such as Parkinson’s disease (photo courtesy of Steadiwear)

For their part, Steadiwear co-founders Emile Maamary and Mark Elias say U of T’s expansive entrepreneurial ecosystem helped prepare them for high-pressure pitch and marketing competitions.

After spending early days working at the Impact Centre at the Faculty of Arts & Science, the pair are excited about getting a new, miniaturized version of their glove to customers.

“The original version essentially is like a sleeve that goes halfway up the forearm,” Elias says. “The miniature device doesn’t have any forearm elements and will be available for pre-order before the end of the year.

“It's a big difference when you’re competing in the market.”

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship

Collision from Home: U of T Entrepreneurship's new director Jon French on startups in the age of COVID-19

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 18:05:26 +0000

Collision from Home: U of T Entrepreneurship's new director Jon French on startups in the age of COVID-19

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 06/19/2020 - 14:05

Cutline

Jon French, who took over as director of U of T Entrepreneurship in May, says more than 25 U of T startups will conduct virtual demos at this year's Collision conference, which is being held online due to COVID-19 (photo by Brian de Rivera Simon)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

City & Culture

Coronavirus

ICUBE

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

Creative Destruction Lab

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre

Just over a year ago, Toronto played host to Collision, one of the world’s fastest-growing and most influential technology conferences – drawing speakers, entrepreneurs, startups, inventors, investors and business leaders from around the world.

This year, the event is being held virtually from June 23 to 25 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But ��߲ݴ�ý entrepreneurs, researchers and students will still have a major presence, with more than two dozen U of T startups scheduled to participate.

Collision from Home, as its been dubbed, will also be Jon French’s first time at the event as director of U of T Entrepreneurship – the umbrella organization for the incubators, accelerators and entrepreneurship programs spread across U of T’s three campuses — a role he took over on May 19.

Prior to joining U of T, French spent nine years at Toronto-based startup accelerator and entrepreneurship network NEXT Canada, holding a variety of senior positions including, most recently, senior director of global recruitment, community and alumni.

U of T News writer Rahul Kalvapalle recently spoke with French about U of T’s participation in Collision from Home, how startups are adjusting to COVID-19 and his plans to grow and evolve U of T’s entrepreneurship ecosystem during the pandemic and beyond.

What’s was your sense of how U of T’s entrepreneurship network is perceived by investors, investors and other business leaders across Canada?

There were more ��߲ݴ�ý entrepreneurs involved in NEXT Canada programs than any other university in the world, and so both for quantity and quality, U of T has always punched above its weight. The ��߲ݴ�ý is perceived globally as a top research university, very strong academically, and I think even more of a light could be shone on what a good job ��߲ݴ�ý grads and faculty do in commercializing research and building companies based on what comes out of the university.

The first big event you have to look forward to is the virtual Collision conference. What do you anticipate will be some of the highlights of this year’s event?

First of all, it’s unfortunate that we won’t have an opportunity this year to showcase the city of Toronto, and Canada, to the world. I know that last year, we were able to connect with thousands of people in person, provide tours of the ONRamp space in the Banting building and give people a real flavour of not only the city, but what the university has to offer.

With Collision held virtually this year, a part of U of T Entrepreneurship’s role is to replicate all of this in a virtual environment. This is a massive, virtual coming-together of some of the top business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and academics from around the world.

There are so many highlights that I’m excited about. For one, we have approximately 300 students and staff from across our three campuses who will get an opportunity to hear from a truly incredible roster of speakers – it’s kind of like TED Talks on steroids given the calibre of people who will be speaking, from sports and entertainment to health care and politics.

I think there are going to be really insightful, challenging and difficult conversations around economic recovery post-COVID. Joshua Gans, from the Rotman School of Management, who is also chief economist at the Creative Destruction Lab, is going to be speaking at 4:35 p.m. Wednesday on a panel about small business during a pandemic. We’re also going to hear about the workplace of the future. We’re going to hear about how we can build a more diverse and inclusive world with regards to technology and startups. You’re going to hear a lot about smart cities, health care and AI.

There will be over 25 startups from the ��߲ݴ�ý that will be doing demos virtually. I’m excited for them to get a chance to interact with potential customers and investors and connect globally with people – even if they might not have travelled to Toronto for the event. There’s going to be a pitch competition and I’d love to see a U of T venture win.

My team and a number of others are going to get into the Collision from Home app and have an opportunity to talk to people who want to learn more about investing in U of T startups, mentoring entrepreneurs, commercializing research, creating corporate alignments with the university – it’s going to be a neat way for the university to have the spotlight on it from a diverse set of stakeholders.

Which U of T startups at Collision are addressing issues around COVID-19?

MedStack is a company that’s involved in AI, in health care and providing infrastructure around privacy compliance and data – and these things are going to be critical in a post-COVID world. Figuring out ways to secure data but allow decisions to be made quicker and in a secure way is a huge opportunity. It’s a startup that combines U of T’s strengths in the health-care space, technology and AI, and it’s a great story from the Health Innovation Hub (H2i).

Another example is out of UTEST and that’s BioBox Labs. They’re a subscription service for parents to teach their kids about science in all kinds of different ways. At a time when kids are at home, parents are working from home and trying to figure out how to keep them busy, but not necessarily playing Fortnite for hours – so I love the idea of being able to get them excited about all things science.

You mentioned AI. What’s your assessment of U of T’s AI-startup scene and where it’s headed?

I don’t think you could oversell how central the ��߲ݴ�ý has been in artificial intelligence and deep learning going back to [University Professor Emeritus] Geoffrey Hinton – that story’s pretty well-known. Canada now produces the most AI patents per million people in the G7. In the past five years, AI startups at U of T have raised over $183 million in seed funding.

One of the reasons U of T is such a major AI hub is the work that’s happened over the years with support from CIFAR and NSERC – but what U of T is able to do is allow talented AI scientists to connect with people who are solving problems in particular fields and create companies out of it. The AI is only as good as the problem it’s being applied to and the data that is being used. So, when you have a university that’s really well-known for how it deals with health care and biomedical or agriculture or fintech, you can take the algorithms and the machine learning and AI science and apply them to real-world problems.

Our relationship with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence is huge – there’s a lot of great work being done by U of T with Vector. U of T is also able to pull in big corporate partners. One example I’m very familiar with is Borealis, RBC’s AI research lab. You’ve got one of Canada’s top banks that’s on the ground level supporting AI, applying AI research and hiring ��߲ݴ�ý grads. Foteini Agrafioti, the head and co-founder of Borealis AI who did her master's and PhD at the ��߲ݴ�ý, is speaking at 10 a.m. on the first day of Collision about the untapped potential of AI, which is a great opportunity.

How is U of T Entrepreneurship supporting startups that are trying to launch a new business during a pandemic?

The first thing we’re doing is continuing with communication – I personally reached out to everybody who’s a member of the ONRamp space and offered to grab a virtual coffee to connect to hear how they’re doing. We won’t always have the answers, but just knowing that there’s someone there who can listen to what you’re dealing with and maybe triage or support you as required is really helpful.

The U of T entrepreneurship ecosystem has continued delivering products, services, support, competition, opportunities and education to the startups through this pandemic.

For example, iCUBE is doing a university-wide pitch competition as part of Pride Month. The UTEST application deadline was a couple of weeks ago, and there was a record number of applications, so there are many entrepreneurs who are hungry for the kind of support that they provide. H2i is offering virtual market-readiness sessions to entrepreneurs. CDL-Recovery has pivoted their model to address businesses that are going to focus on the economic recovery coming out of COVID. The Bridge out of U of T Scarborough has a project connecting students in computer science and management to local restaurants to support them.

So, there’s so much going on and I commend the university ecosystem as a whole because they haven’t stopped working. If anything, things have gotten busier because we realize we need to do more to support our startups and entrepreneurs when they’re dispersed.

What are some of your goals for U of T Entrepreneurship?

I’d like to evolve how we deliver some of the products, services and support. Having all the ��߲ݴ�ý entrepreneurship programming under the U of T Entrepreneurship umbrella, I think there’s a way for us to identify products, services and in-kind resources – that could be cloud computing, cloud credits, banking services or payment processing – and have anyone at the university who’s building a company and wants to tap into those perks to have access to them if they want.

Another thing I’m working on, and that I am excited about, relates to intellectual property. U of T Entrepreneurship is working on an IP training course that will be delivered through Quercus and available for any student, researcher and faculty member at the ��߲ݴ�ý. That’s a really exciting opportunity that allows anyone who recognizes the need to protect their IP to complete this training course. The goal is to launch this in the fall.

What’s your message to U of T students who are interested in entrepreneurship?

The first thing I would say is that there’s no right or wrong way, or a single path to plug into the U of T Entrepreneurship ecosystem. Regardless of what you’re studying or want to build, whether you have an idea or a physical product, there are so many ways for you to engage.

There are over 300 entrepreneurship-related courses at the university. Whether you’re someone in first year who has an idea and wants to figure out how to turn it into a business, or you’re a PhD student who has been working in the lab for a number of years and wants to launch something, or you’ve already got a product in the market and you’re trying to raise funding for it, there are programs, services and resources available to you.

There really is no better time than now, when you’re a student, to start a company. That’s because, in many cases, you don’t have some of the responsibilities that you might have later on in life – whether that’s a mortgage or family. The opportunity cost is often lower when you’re a student and it’s less expensive – regardless of which sector or industry you’re building a company in – to prototype, test or try an idea than it was 20 years ago.

The skills of being an entrepreneur – looking for opportunity, making decisions in an environment of uncertainty – are all very relevant in a time of COVID. But even if you don’t start a company, the toolbox you’re filling with entrepreneurial skills will help you no matter what your career path is.

Take the step and get involved. Through the U of T Entrepreneurship website and newsletter, you can connect with my team and identify opportunities. Our primary goal is to make it easy for you to explore those entrepreneurial dreams that you have. So don’t hesitate – reach out to us. We’d love to support you.

Learn more about U of T Entrepreneurship

Seven transformational things that happened at U of T over the past decade

rahul.kalvapalle — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 21:19:44 +0000

Seven transformational things that happened at U of T over the past decade

rahul.kalvapalle Fri, 12/20/2019 - 16:19

Cutline

(photo by Wei Fang via Getty Images)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

City & Culture

Indigenous Initiatives

Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society

Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Black Grad

School of Cities

Artificial Intelligence

Boundless

Creative Destruction Lab

Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Lester B. Pearson International Scholarship

Impact Centre

Indigenous

Landmark

Meric Gertler

Research & Innovation

Research and Innovation

Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre

Sustainability

Truth and Reconciliation

As we prepare to usher in a new decade, U of T News is looking back at some of the defining and impactful things that happened at the ��߲ݴ�ý over the past 10 years.

The U of T community has left an indelible mark on the 2010s by making groundbreaking achievements in artificial intelligence, taking strides toward Indigenous reconciliation and promoting sustainability throughout its operations – to name just a few. Many of these initiatives have set in motion ideas and actions that will pave the way for the university’s success for decades to come.

Here’s a list – admittedly a non-exhaustive one – of transformational things that happened at U of T over the past 10 years:

Campus Transformation

The Myhal Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship on the St. George campus (photo by Lisa Sakulensky)

The past decade has seen U of T complete numerous construction and renovation projects as it continues to grow its campuses, expand the facilities available to students, faculty and staff, and lay the groundwork for more ambitious campus-building projects to come.

To take one, high profile example: The Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering last year opened the Myhal Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, a building designed to foster multi-disciplinary partnerships, experiential learning and entrepreneurship opportunities. Named after alumnus George Myhal and his wife Rayla, the building features technology-enhanced active learning rooms, dedicated space for student clubs and state-of-the-art fabrication facilities for design projects.

U of T also laid the groundwork for the Landmark Project, a major initiative to revitalize the historic core of the St. George campus and enhance sustainability and accessibility. The project will feature the expansion of pedestrian-friendly areas around King’s College Circle, Hart House Circle and Tower Road, and will replace parking spots for cars with green spaces, granite paths and an underground parking garage.

The Landmark Project will make the historic centre of St. George campus more pedestrian-friendly and add new green space (rendering courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.)

The St. George campus is also the proposed site of a 14-storey building constructed from engineered wood, which is prized as an innovative building material due its low carbon footprint, structural integrity, fire-resistant properties and aesthetic appeal. Another landmark building is proposed for 90 Queen's Park Crescent, providing a home to U of T's School of Cities as well as numerous departments from the Faculty of Arts & Science.

At U of T Mississauga, it’s been a similarly eventful decade for campus-building. In 2011, the campus unveiled the Terrence Donnelly Health Sciences Complex. In August, U of T Mississauga acknowledged the Indigenous history of the land, the future of the campus and the university’s commitment to reconciliation by revealing the name of its newest building: Maanjiwe nendamowinan. Sitting on the site the former North Building, Maanjiwe nendamowinan is home to humanities and social sciences and features a six-storey atrium and event space, as well as 40,000 square feet of new classroom space that’s outfitted with cutting-edge technology and hundreds of new study spaces.

Maanjiwe nendamowinan at U of T Mississauga boasts 40,000 square feet of new classroom space that’s outfitted with cutting-edge technology (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

At U of T Scarborough, national-level athletes, Varsity competitors and intramural sports participants alike can all take advantage of the state-of-the-art facilities on offer at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. After opening to the public in 2014, the facility hosted several competitions during the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games. It is now home to numerous national sport organizations and high-performance centres, while also offering U of T Scarborough students top-notch fitness and wellness facilities.

Wheelchair basketball players practise inside the Toronto PanAm Sports Centre (photo by Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

U of T Scarborough also opened the new Highland Hall building, creating a striking new gateway to the campus in addition to doubling the amount of space dedicated to students and adding faculty and administration space. And it unveiled the 500-metre Valley Land Trail, which was designed to offer accessibility and year-long enjoyment of the ravine abutting the campus.

Finally, the university recently completed comprehensive renovations of research labs across its three campuses. Driven by nearly $190 million in funding from the university, province and federal government, the upgrades increased the amount of space available for research activities, improved electrical and internet connectivity and will create utility savings and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sustainability and climate action

The rooftop garden at U of T Scarborough (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Sustainability has been a central theme of U of T’s efforts to revitalize and expand its three campuses.

One of the most ambitious initiatives is the planned installation of a massive geo-exchange field beneath Front Campus. The project, part of U of T’s Low Carbon Action Plan, will see boreholes drilled deep into the ground to allow for storage of surplus heat. It is projected to yield annual greenhouse gas reductions of 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2024.

Sustainable design is also a hallmark of U of T Mississauga’s Maanjiwe nendamowinan, which has a 20,000-gallon rainwater re-use system, energy-efficient mechanical systems, green roof spaces and a green-cleaning initiative, and U of T Scarborough’s Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, which boasts eco-friendly features including 1,854 rooftop solar panels and underground cisterns to collect rainwater.

Physical projects aside, the university has also taken steps to incorporate sustainability into all levels of academia including working on developing curriculum pathways for sustainability-minded undergraduate students across the university.

At an institutional level, U of T has played a leadership role by engaging with the challenges posed by climate change on the world stage. In 2018, U of T joined 12 other leading research universities in North America to form the University Climate Change Coalition, which aims to mobilize resources, expand research partnerships and leverage expertise to help businesses, cities and regions implement research-driven climate solutions.

This year, President Meric Gertler attended the inaugural U7+ Alliance in Paris, where he briefed French President Emmanuel Macron on the alliance's commitment to sustainability. U of T has also hosted numerous speeches, conferences and symposia to further dialogue on climate change.

Artificial intelligence

U of T University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton has been described as the “godfather of deep learning” (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Many predict that artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionize everything from transportation to medicine – and some of the most exciting work is taking place at U of T thanks to pioneers like University Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton, a Turing Award-winner who is known as the “godfather of deep learning.”

In bid to build upon its early lead in the field, U of T partnered with government and industry to launch the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2017 and is now attracting several of the most promising AI researchers from around world. Toronto, in turn, is benefiting from the arrival of global tech companies keen to establish an AI footprint in the city. For example, Google, Uber, Samsung and NVIDIA have all established or expanded AI labs in Toronto that are headed by U of T researchers.

U of T is also addressing AI through a multi-disciplinary lens following the launch of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Set to be housed in the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, the institute leverages U of T's unique strengths across a wide range of fields to explore the role of humanities, social sciences, public policy and law in a rapidly changing technology landscape.

A global, inclusive student experience

Students at U of T were the first in Canada to organize a Black Grad event in 2017 (photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

By embracing diversity and expanding its international presence, U of T over the past decade has continued to further its reputation as an inclusive institution with a truly global outlook.

U of T’s student body has played a proactive role in this regard. For example, in 2017, U of T students organized Black Grad, Canada’s first ever graduation celebration for Black students. Black Grad has since gone on to become one of the most highly anticipated convocation-related events on the calendar. After two years of being held at Hart House on the St. George campus, Black Grad 2019 was hosted at U of T Mississauga in June and organizers say the first Black Grad of the new decade could be held at U of T Scarborough.

The year 2017 also saw the launch of the Lester B. Pearson International Student Scholarship, which brings some of the most talented and driven students from around the world to U of T. The 2019 cohort comprised 36 students drawn from 27 countries.

U of T has also continued to expand its international footprint by way of research agreements with academic and industry partners around the world. Meanwhile, the university’s commitment to equity and diversity has also been formalized in the Institutional Strategic Research Plan, which aims to ensure an inclusive environment and increase the presence of marginalized groups such as Indigenous Peoples, racialized persons, LGBTQ individuals and persons with disabilities.

Truth and Reconciliation

Skahendowaneh Swamp, a chair of Indigenous knowledge at the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies at Trent University, is flanked by U of T President Meric Gertler (right) and Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice-president of human resources and equity (photo by Lisa Lightbourn)

In early 2016, U of T President Gertler and Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr established U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee in response to the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call to Canadians to engage in ongoing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

The report produced 34 calls to action focusing on the following areas: Indigenous spaces; curriculum; students and co-curricular education; faculty and staff; research ethics and community relationships; and institutional leadership and implementation.

Since then, U of T has moved forward with a range of initiatives including the creation of the Master in Social Work, Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency program at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work; organizing an Indigenous Mentoring Day to match Indigenous job-seekers with employers at the university; and the appointment of academic advisers for Indigenous research and Indigenous curriculum and education.

The university is also launching an Indigenous Landscape project, to be installed on 4,500 square metres of Hart House Green, in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee's call for a “prominent, visible space at the very centre of the St. George campus be dedicated as an Indigenous space.”

“Indigenous students will be able to walk through campus and see an outdoor space and know it was created for them, with them and with their needs in mind,” said Shannon Simpson, U of T’s new director of Indigenous initiatives and co-chair of the Indigenous Landscape project.

The project is being planned on the basis of in-depth consultations with Indigenous groups at U of T and First Nations communities with historic ties to the area.

Innovation and entrepreneurship

U of T’s ONRamp co-working and collaboration space opened to entrepreneurs in 2017 (photo by Kenneth Cheung)

Over the past decade, U of T entrepreneurs have created more than 500 startup companies that have secured over $1.5 billion in investment and helped establish the university as an engine of Toronto’s thriving innovation scene.

U of T alone is home to more than 10 campus-linked accelerators that cater to startups at various stages of development. They include the Creative Destruction Lab, which was founded at the Rotman School of Management and has since expanded to seven other locations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.; the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, which serves entrepreneurs in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering; ICUBE, based in the Institute for Management and Innovation at U of T Mississauga; and U of T Scarborough’s The Hub. Others include: UTEST, DCSIL (Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab), H2i (Health Innovation Hub), Impact Centre and InnovED.

Many entrepreneurs from U of T and partner universities work out of U of T’s ONRamp, a 15,000-square-foot space that opened in 2017 and offers co-working and collaboration spaces – not to mention ready access to downtown Toronto’s vibrant business community.

Unprecedented community support

The soon-to-be-built Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre will accelerate innovation in Toronto and Canada by creating the country’s largest university-based innovation node (rendering by WEISS/MANFREDI)

In March, U of T received $100 million from Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman – the largest single donation in its history. The funds are being used to support construction of the new Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre that will anchor U of T's growing cluster of AI scientists, biomedical experts and entrepreneurs.

But that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to supporting the university over the past decade.

Spanning a period of seven years, U of T’s Boundless campaign raised $2.6-billion from more than 104,000 donors in nearly 100 countries. The generous contributions from individuals, families, corporations and charitable organizations will go towards an array of initiatives aimed at accelerating research and educational opportunities, enriching the student experience and transforming the university’s three campuses to leave a lasting legacy for generations to come.

What's more, the campaign saw endowments for student aid and student support cross the $1-billion mark for the first time in the university's history.

In an interview with U of T News this past summer, David Palmer, U of T's vice-president, advancement, said the Boundless campaign’s success suggests the best is yet to come.

"People ask me all the time: 'Have we exhausted the capacity of our donors and the time and efforts of our volunteers?' And I have to say we all feel we’ve barely begun to scratch the surface of what we are capable of together, and what our donors and volunteers are so generously willing to do for us," Palmer said.

"We think there’s a very, very exciting future ahead of us right now."

U of T entrepreneur headed to international pitch competition, focused on empowering women in Afghanistan

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 04:00:00 +0000

U of T entrepreneur headed to international pitch competition, focused on empowering women in Afghanistan

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 09/30/2019 - 00:00

Cutline

“Love, humility and compassion – from that you can build anything,” says Diva Turial, a social entrepreneur and founder of Lead With Dignity (photo courtesy of Diva Turial)

Sean McNeely

Topic

Global Lens

Alumni

Global

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

St. Michael's College

Think about some of the things that take three minutes in an average day – boiling a kettle, brushing your teeth, listening to a song. Three minutes can pass in the blink of an eye.

Yet, in just three minutes, ��߲ݴ�ý alumna Diva Turial presented a detailed plan to a panel of judges to help young women in Afghanistan overcome hunger and unemployment. It was so convincing that she won the Falling Walls Toronto Pitch Competition and will be taking part in a larger competition in Berlin in November.

“I believe it’s my responsibility to serve women in Afghanistan who have abundant potential, but lack of resources and opportunities, because I was once in their shoes,” she says. “Now, I have the privilege of living in a country like Canada that’s very resourceful, so I’m trying to do my part.”

Falling Walls is an international competition where students, entrepreneurs, early-career researchers and academics pitch an innovative idea in three minutes, showcasing a breakthrough that can impact science or society.

Turial’s proposal outlined a microlending program to provide women in rural Afghanistan with raw materials to create handwoven carpets. The carpets would then be sold in international markets, offering the women a way of earning much-needed income.

“Diva put forward a very strong, innovative pitch through which her social entrepreneurial spirit shone brightly,” says Akshita Vincent, a technology analyst with U of T’s Innovations & Partnerships Office and one of the competition’s judges. “She presented very clear goals and objectives, and a very well thought-out and achievable plan to meet them.”

Turial, a member of St. Michael’s College who graduated from the Faculty of Arts & Science in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in science, has taken advantage of every minute since starting at U of T to become an entrepreneur and humanitarian.

Her pitch was the result of hard work paired with motivation from her own life. Born and raised in a small village in Afghanistan, “there was no education for girls whatsoever and my biggest dream was one day having a chance to go to school,” she says.

She remembers feeling frustrated and powerless. “You have the potential, you have the drive, you have the ability, but you have no resources or opportunities,” she says.

Turial’s family immigrated to Canada in 2011. “I started university the next year and in the beginning it was difficult in terms of culture shock,” she says.

Once the shock subsided, some of her psychology and philosophy classes – as well as supportive professors – had a profound impact on her outlook, teaching her “to be humble, to be compassionate, always ready to help others and seek out opportunities to do so,” she says.

She initially thought about going into medicine, following in the footsteps of her siblings. “My brother is a physician and three of my sisters are nurses, and another one is in biomedical physics,” she says. “But that’s not where my potential lies. My drive is more towards social entrepreneurship.”

That drive is what led to her winning pitch, and her founding of the Toronto-based non-profit social impact startup Lead with Dignity in 2017.

Lead with Dignity aims to support and empower marginalized and vulnerable youth – with a specific focus on women – between the ages of 14 and 30 who are at risk of hunger, homelessness, chronic unemployment, mental health and other related issues. The organization offers employment assistance and microlending as a way to start a small business and generate a sustainable source of income.

“I want to support people who have potential but don’t have access to opportunities or resources, or they lack the confidence to do something they want to do,” she says. “Self-confidence can have an amazing impact on someone’s life.”

“I believe it’s my responsibility to serve women in Afghanistan who have abundant potential, but lack of resources and opportunities, because I was once in their shoes,” says Daiva Turial (photo of female weavers in Kabul by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)

Lead with Dignity began slowly and relatively quietly as a Facebook group. The startup’s first two years were filled with coaching sessions, workshops, training programs, networking, grant-writing and applying for funding – all while securing space in U of T’s ONRamp co-working space.

Along the way, she’s helped other U of T students, providing internship, volunteer and academic credit opportunities to students like Eugenia Wong, who just graduated from the architecture and visual studies program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. She completed her degree with a six-month internship at Lead with Dignity that wrapped up in May.

“I had a great time,” says Wong. “Diva delegates responsibilities to every member of the team and respects our efforts. I’m most fond of representing Lead with Dignity at U of T’s annual startup expo. I was able to connect with like-minded people and learn more about other startups.”

Now more established, Lead with Dignity is poised to take some big steps forward. “This is my first startup, so it’s been a learning opportunity,” says Turial. “But now, I know how to do more.”

“More” includes conducting a research project in Toronto “to find out the challenges that youth face in terms of finding employment,” says Turial. “Once we analyze the data and better understand the challenges, we’ll design a workshop inviting employers, youth workers, and people that work with homeless or at-risk youth to see the different ways we can design a suitable program.”

She is also working on a digital platform – a website and mobile app – where interest-free loans can be disbursed to at-risk youth who need funding to start small businesses. Funds will be a combination of grant money, donations and crowd-funding by investors who want to support youth-led initiatives.

Turial also envisions creating an app to act as a single source for at-risk youth to easily find the resources they need – anything from education and employment counselling, to locations around the city for shelter or a meal. Think Trivago for at-risk support services.

“I’m feeling good, but I feel like I need to do more,” says Turial, reflecting on Lead with Dignity’s progress. “I wouldn’t call it much of an accomplishment unless you see real impact.”

She intends to boost that impact by completing an MBA at the Hult International Business School in Boston this fall.

“Once I do my MBA, I’ll be making connections, applying to grants and the main focus will be to build up a proper curriculum or support system of different resources for at-risk youth in Toronto,” she says.

“Love, humility and compassion – from that you can build anything.”

Three teams awarded U of T's first-ever sustainability innovation prize

perry.king — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 22:26:58 +0000

Three teams awarded U of T's first-ever sustainability innovation prize

perry.king Tue, 06/18/2019 - 18:26

Cutline

The winners of U of T's sustainability innovation prize, part of a larger effort to make sustainability innovation a key component of the university’s identity, pose for a photo following a pitch competition on June 12 at ONRamp (photo by Perry King)

Perry King

Topic

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Geography and Planning

Graduate Students

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

MaRS

School of the Environment

Sustainability

U of T Mississauga

Undergraduate Students

In front of a packed room of their peers, 10 groups of students recently had three minutes each to pitch a new sustainability-focused product or startup with the potential to make a signficant impact.

In the end, three were named winners of the first-ever ��߲ݴ�ý Sustainability Innovation Prize, a $5,000 award created to recognize, reward and accelerate U of T’s most innovative sustainability ideas. The winners included: SoluSave, a startup that seeks to recycle solvents used in undergraduate laboratories; STP Sports, which aims to reduce the environmental footprint of professional sporting events; and Circular Toys, a company that asks families, schools and individuals to subscribe to eco-friendly toy packages.

The competition, held on June 12 at U of T’s ONRamp co-working space for startups, is an initiative of the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability, which laid out a plan last year to incorporate sustainable ideas and practices into U of T’s operations.

"The committee was tasked with finding ways to advance U of T’s contribution to meet the challenges of climate change and sustainability – with a particular focus on research and innovation, on teaching and on operations,” said John Robinson, the committee’s chair and the president’s adviser on environment, climate change and sustainability, in remarks before the competition began.

Robinson, who is also a professor in the department of geography and planning with cross appointments at the Munk School of Global Affairs, the School of the Environment and the John H. Daniels Faculty of Landscape, Architecture, and Design, added that the committee wants to make sustainability innovation a key component of the university’s identity, to achieve international leadership in this field and promote more sustainability activities on campus.

“This prize competition is an important part of that overall strategy,” he said. “It’s aimed at supporting, engaging and rewarding U of T students – you – who have sustainability ideas and are interested in finding a way of bringing them to the world.”

The finalists were judged by Kenneth Corts, the vice-dean of faculty and research at the Rotman School of Management, Tyler Hamilton, a senior manager of partnerships at MaRS Cleantech, Ron Saporta, U of T’s chief operations officer of facilities and services and Joerg Wittenbrinck, a senior policy advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Energy.

John Robinson is chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (photo courtesy of U of T Entrepreneurship)

Laboratory recyling startup SoluSave, led by third-year undergraduates John Russell and Leanna Smid, took part in their first-ever pitch competition and were nervous throughout their presentation.

They were even more surprised to hear that they won.

“We saw the competition – a lot of graduate and PhD students – so it was very intense but it was really rewarding to get this,” said Russell. After developing the idea several months ago, the duo “wanted to get a feel” for how pitch competitions work, Russell said.

SoluSave seeks to build a waste disposal device that could be marketed to undergraduate labs as a cost-effective alternative to conventional waste disposal. The recycler device would be optimized for easy use and scaled for use for different kinds of washing solvents.

John Russell and Leanna Smid of SoluSave took part in their first-ever pitch competition (photo by Perry King)

With the prize money, the team plans to develop a prototype using acetone this summer. “We want to run our test trials in the labs at U of T and broaden our range from here to see what universities are interested in sustainable chemistry,” Russell said.

“Chemistry is being done all over the place," he added, "and one thing that some universities don’t take note of is the sustainable aspect of the work.

“That’s something that definitely we should move towards.”

STP Sports, led by U of T Mississauga graduate students Tom Chen, Samantha DiIorio and Paulina Szlachta, is primarily focused on helping sports teams and leagues create easy waste management processes, procurement policies – including assessing stadium vendors and suppliers – and undertaking employee training and education.

The idea for this startup came primarily from Chen, who wanted to blend his interests with his graduate work in sustainability management. “I said ‘You know what? Am I going to spend that much time on something I don’t really enjoy?’” said Chen, who grew up in “sports crazy” Boston. “How can I combine those two aspects – sports and sustainability?”

Working on their sustainability capstone project, the team found that the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA produced about 165 million pounds of waste, but only a 25 per cent waste diversion rate.

They reached out to all the leagues and teams on creating better waste diversion solutions and developed a working relationship with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. In their first case study, they found that Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta had a 45 per cent waste diversion rate, solar power installation and a stormwater management strategy. They built STP Sports around that case study.

Paulina Szlachta and Tom Chen of STP Sports, which is focused on making sports teams and leagues more environmentally sustainable (photo by Perry King)

Chen sees STP as being at “ground zero” of an environmental movement in pro sports. Their prize win will give them more resources to help major sports franchises become more environmentally sustainable – something that they are interested in pursuing, according to Chen.

Szlachta is excited about the potential benefits of the project. “There’s just so much we can do and so much waste we can optimize in these kinds of facilities – and not just stadiums, but concert halls, and all kinds of venues. There’s so much to be done there and so little being done right now.”

Circular Toys, led by Daniel McKee and Lisa Pooley, provides subscribers with eco-friendly toy packages every three months. But, they will also have a chance to send used toys back, reducing waste and the amount of plastic products in the environment.

“There’s such a short lifespan of toys that aren’t environmentally friendly and recyclable, and it isn’t reasonable to refurbish them,” said McKee, a nursing student who says the toys will be targeted to children aged one to seven.

The average family has 71 toys per household and about 90 per cent of them are plastic – nearly 10 per cent of which can’t be recycled, according to McKee. Circular Toys, by contrast, proposes to create an avenue for families looking to reduce waste and provide safer toy options for their children.

“It’s better for the parents because there isn’t clutter, it’s better for the students because it’s safer for them and it’s better for the planet,” says McKee, who added the toys themselves are meant to stimulate the child’s mind and encourage teamwork.

Daniel McKee of Circular Toys, provides subscribers with eco-friendly toy packages every three months, but also allows them to be returned (photo by Perry King)

Circular Toys plans to boost its marketing resources as the startup launches in August. The goal is to amass 100 subscribers in the near term – the equivalent to 3.5 tons of plastic that would otherwise reach oceans and landfills.

It was a nervous pitch competition for McKee, but the win is the next step in an ongoing journey. “In the three minutes, you’ve said all the necessary pieces, but I would have liked to answer more questions and explained a little bit more in detail,” he said.

“Hopefully there will be other pitches for that.”

Entrepreneurship Week 2019: Ten U of T startups to watch

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 17:10:48 +0000

Entrepreneurship Week 2019: Ten U of T startups to watch

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 03/18/2019 - 13:10

Cutline

Leila Keshavjee of Happy Pops, which makes all-natural ice pops (photo by Chris Sorensen)

Topic

Artificial Intelligence

Breast Cancer

Computer Science

Health