Social Entrepreneurship

�鶹��Ƶ Entrepreneurship Week: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 21:45:09 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ Entrepreneurship Week: 10 startups to watch

rahul.kalvapalle Tue, 03/10/2020 - 17:45

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Catherine Chan of �鶹��Ƶ startup Honeybee Hub, which connects researchers with study participants, speaks with attendees at the True Blue Expo in 2019 (photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Coronavirus

True Blue Expo

The Hub

Computer Science

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Dentistry

Faculty of Medicine

Global

Health Innovation Hub

IBBME

Impact Centre

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy

Nutritional Sciences

Rotman Commerce

Social Entrepreneurship

From speeding the discovery of life-saving drugs to reducing the amount of plastic clogging the oceans, University of Toronto entrepreneurs and their startups are engaged in tackling some of the most pressing challenges of the day.

Over the past decade, �鶹��Ƶ has nurtured 500 startups that have secured some $1.5 billion in investment. Many of the companies were founded by students who sought to provide innovative solutions to problems. Others were launched by professors who were looking to implement their research in the real world.

What they all have in common is that they emerged from a university entrepreneurship ecosystem that’s ranked first in Canada and among the top 10 in the world.

With Entrepreneurship Week underway, here’s a look at 10 exciting �鶹��Ƶ startups to keep an eye on in 2020:

Structura Biotechnology

(photo by Chris Sorensen)

When researchers in the United States worked to create the first 3D, atomic-scale map of the part of the novel coronavirus that infects human cells, a key step toward creating a vaccine, they relied on software created by �鶹��Ƶ startup Structura Biotechnology.

Structura’s cryoSPARC program, which uses artificial intelligence to create 3D visualizations of protein, was spun out of Ali Punjani’s PhD research in computer science at �鶹��Ƶ and was designed by alumnus Suhail Dawood. The startup received support from �鶹��Ƶ’s UTEST accelerator.

The software enables scientists to visualize images captured using cryogenic electron microscopy, a Nobel Prize-winning technique that enables the capture of high-resolution photos of proteins by shooting electrons at frozen samples.

The technique has already garnered the attention of several big drug companies, but Punjani’s sister, Saara Punjani, the company’s chief operating officer, said the use of cryoSPARC in efforts to battle the coronavirus is an exciting development.

“Part of the reason we got into it is, at the end of the day, because we are looking to make a difference,” she told �鶹��Ƶ News.

Roll Technologies

(photo couretsy of Roll Technologies)

Founded by �鶹��Ƶ Scarborough alumnus Richard Cao, e-scooter startup Roll Technologies recently deployed 200 e-scooters and 50 electronic bikes (e-bikes) in Kelowna, B.C. after securing a deal with the city.

Cao’s father works in the e-bike and e-scooter manufacturing sector in China. That helped Cao formulate the idea behind Roll Technologies and develop some of the necessary connections. He then went to The Hub, �鶹��Ƶ Scarborough’s startup accelerator, and worked with Director Gray Graffam, who set about differentiating Cao’s company from others in the burgeoning e-mobility space.

Originally from Shanghai, Cao described e-scooters as “a popular and effective form of shared mobility – and one that provides a green solution to a common urban transportation problem.”

BenchSci

(photo courtesy of BenchSci)

BenchSci, which uses machine learning to help scientists find the appropriate antibodies for their experiments, is backed by investors including Google’s Gradient Ventures, and counts some of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies among its clients.

The company grew out of frustrations experienced by Tom Leung, who, while working on his PhD in epigenetics, had experiments fail because his antibodies weren’t detecting target proteins. In search of a better solution, Leung reached out to David Chen, who was doing doctoral research in neuroscience, and Elvis Wianda, who was doing his PhD in medical biophysics.

The trio initially worked with �鶹��Ƶ’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Health Innovation Hub (H2i) to get BenchSci up and running. They were later recruited to the Creative Destruction Lab by then-MBA candidate Liran Belenzon, who eventually joined the company as CEO.

Going forward, Belenzon says he envisions BenchSci “playing a crucial role in transforming scientists into ‘super-scientists’ and helping them get cures to patients faster.”

Ecopackers

(photo courtesy of Ecopackers)

Conceived by CEO Nuha Siddiqui during her time as president of the �鶹��Ƶ chapter of the social entrepreneurship club Enactus, Ecopackers is on a mission to reduce the world’s reliance on single-use plastics.

The company, developed with support from the Creative Destruction Lab, got its start manufacturing biodegradable packing peanuts made from agricultural byproducts. It has since expanded into producing eco-resins that can be used by manufacturers in place of plastic.

Unlike many existing bioplastics, Ecopackers’ resin is designed to be compatible with existing manufacturing technologies and processes.

“We were one of the only eco-focused companies out there that wasn’t going against the plastic manufacturers – we were actually trying to work with them to develop products that worked with their technology,” Siddiqui, a Rotman Commerce graduate, told �鶹��Ƶ News.

The all-woman leadership team behind Ecopackers – which also includes chief technology officer Chang Dong and chief operating officer Kritika Tyagi – is now working on pilot products with manufacturers around the world.

Cohesys

(photo by Erin Vollick)

Spun out of research by Professor Paul Santerre at the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), Cohesys is a biomedical startup that has developed a better alternative to the rigid metal plates and screws used to repair facial fractures.

The company’s BoneTape is a flexible, adhesive and degradable material that holds promise in improving surgery times, reducing complications and boosting outcomes for patients who undergo facial surgery.

Supported by UTEST and the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), Cohesys raised a total of $1.4 million in funding as it looks to pursue preclinical animal studies, biotechnology industry magazine BioWorld reported.

“This is the only adhesive that sticks to wet bone,” Michael Floros, CEO of Cohesys and a recent IBBME post-doctoral researcher, told �鶹��Ƶ News last year. “There is no other tape for bones or anything similar out there.”

Reeddi

(photo courtesy of Olugbenga Olubanjo)

As an international graduate student at �鶹��Ƶ, Olugbenga Olubanjo regularly spoke with family and friends in his native Nigeria over the phone, only to have the calls cut short due to power outages back home. He decided to do something about it – and Reeddi was born.

The company, which was nurtured by the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, provides portable energy via capsules that can be charged at solar-powered stations. Customers rent the capsules at affordable prices and earn credits when they return them on time.

Reeddi wants to bring clean and affordable energy to communities in Nigeria and beyond, with Olubanjo saying the startup has attracted interest from organizations and communities in countries like South Africa, Indonesia, India and the United States.

“Anywhere where there’s an energy or electricity issue is where we come into play. We want to be in as many countries as possible,” Olubanjo told �鶹��Ƶ News.

AmacaThera

(photo by Roberta Baker)

A gel-based drug delivery system developed by �鶹��Ƶ startup AmacaThera could eliminate the need to prescribe powerful painkillers after surgery – and reduce the risk of developing opioid addiction.

Developed in the lab of University Professor Molly Shoichet, in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry and IBBME, the gel is capable of significantly increasing the duration of anesthetics injected at the site of surgical incisions.

Whereas drugs delivered through conventional injections disperse in a matter of hours, AmacaThera’s solution is capable of keeping the anesthetic at the surgical site for up to three days.

“If this could obviate the need for people to take opioids in the first place, it would have a real societal benefit,” Shoichet told �鶹��Ƶ News early last year.

AmacaThera is the third startup built on research from Shoichet’s lab. It received support from UTEST and the Creative Destruction Lab.

Honeybee Hub

Finding suitable participants for research studies can be an arduous and time-consuming process – something Honeybee Hub is looking to change.

Co-founded by CEO Catherine Chan (left) while she was pursuing her master’s degree in nutritional sciences, Honeybee Hub’s solution is an online platform that helps researchers find subjects for their studies and makes it easier for the public to find studies to participate in.

Chan got the idea while working on her master’s thesis and was encouraged to pursue it by her supervisor, Harvey Anderson, a professor in the departments of physiology and nutritional sciences in the Faculty of Medicine.

She then partnered with co-founder Weiwei Li, who earned a master’s degree in applied science, with the company receiving mentorship and support from the Impact Centre.

“Researchers are spending too much time on advertising and administrative tasks rather than their expertise, and we want to change that,” Chan told �鶹��Ƶ News.

Nanology Labs

(photo by Steve Southon)

Nanology Labs is a pharmaceutical startup that has developed a low-toxicity MRI contrast agent that can improve cancer detection.

Launched by Mohammad Ali Amini while he completed his PhD, Nanology Labs leverages over two decades of research in the lab of Amini's supervisor, Professor Xiao Yu (Shirley) Wu in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.

The company’s innovative MRI contrast agent, called Manganescan, uses the element manganese, which naturally exists in the human body and is safer and less toxic than contrast agents made from gadolinium.

Built with support from numerous �鶹��Ƶ accelerators including the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), UTEST and the Impact Centre, Nanology Labs has won several awards including the $25,000 top prize at the 2019 RBC Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the True Blue Expo.

“If you want to be successful, create your own path,” Amini told �鶹��Ƶ News last year. “This is what I’ve learned.”

Niu Body

(photo by Roberta Baker)

Co-founded by chemical engineering alumna Laura Burget, Niu Body creates skin-care products that are all-natural yet affordable.

Burget was inspired to start the company after taking a course on entrepreneurship and small business in her fourth year. She teamed up with Connie Lo, who has a background in business and accounting, and launched the company with an initial budget of only $4,000.

In just two years, the number of retailers carrying Niu Body’s products swelled from one to over 300.

“Consumers are demanding better quality, more natural ingredients and at an affordable price,” Burget told �鶹��Ƶ News in September. “Our company’s mission is to create natural skin-care products that won’t break the bank.”

Burget credited her �鶹��Ƶ engineering degree with her credibility in the business world.

“When I tell manufacturers and investors I have a chemical engineering degree, it tells them I know what I’m talking about and what I’m capable of.”

�鶹��Ƶ undergrad tests out solar-powered irrigation system in his native South Sudan

ullahnor — Mon, 01 May 2017 16:11:10 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ undergrad tests out solar-powered irrigation system in his native South Sudan

ullahnor Mon, 05/01/2017 - 12:11

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James Thuch Madhier, a third-year peace, conflict and justice student at the Munk School of Global Affairs, has launched Rainmaker Enterprise with �鶹��Ƶ colleagues (photo by Bibi Veth)

Elaine Smith

Author legacy

Elaine Smith

Topic

Global Lens

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Social Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate Students

Subheadline

James Thuch Madhier came to �鶹��Ƶ through the Student Refugee Program

James Thuch Madhier fled South Sudan as a teenager, escaping the ravages of civil war and famine.

Next fall, the �鶹��Ƶ undergrad and his social entrepreneurship team will be testing out their solar-powered crop irrigation system on 20 acres of land they've acquired in South Sudan.

“I see it as a model that we can scale up across the country and region,” Madhier said. “I believe in a ground-up approach. It’s a way for local farmers to increase production and efficiency so that they are not simply doing subsistence farming.”

Madhier came from South Sudan via Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya through �鶹��Ƶ's Student Refugee Program (SRP), which sponsors refugees in collaboration with the World University Service of Canada.

Now a third-year peace, conflict and justice student at �鶹��Ƶ's Munk School of Global Affairs, Madhier has worked with his classmates, Mike Hongryul Park, a math and physics student with a passion for sustainable development, and Katie Fettes, a fellow peace, conflict and justice student at Munk, to create a basic, solar-powered crop irrigation system that provides clean drinking water to countries in the developing world.

The team's system, which includes a pump, a holding tank for the seasonal flood waters, solar panels to generate power and drip irrigation, is easy to install and use in South Sudan, where 80 per cent of residents are farmers or raise cattle, only 30 per cent have access to clean drinking water and 5.1 per cent of the population has electricity.

“We’ve adapted the system in a way that will not only irrigate food crops and provide grazing grass for cattle, but will also offer employment to women and youth and address issues of food insecurity,” Madhier said.

In 2016, Madhier, who has long been active with social development programs, was invited by the One Young World organization to attend a global summit for young social changemakers. The summit included a social venture competition, and Madhier and Park decided this was the perfect opportunity to seek assistance with the irrigation project.

Madhier pitched the idea at the summit and won a fellowship award as well as some seed capital and access to professionals who can mentor him.

This past March, the team formally launched Rainmaker Enterprise in partnership with Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier-turned-musician from South Sudan, and they purchased land in South Sudan to test out the irrigation system during the November dry season.

For the project, the land will be divided so that cows can graze in one area while crops can be grown in another area. It will allow for crop rotation so the land remains productive for both food and grazing. Madhier has a local field manager who will hire a local team to assist him, creating a self-sustaining enterprise.

Madhier says that as a teenager he saw some horrific things during the famine.

“Thiet, my hometown, attracted people from all over the countryside who were suffering,” he said. “In the mornings, you’d see the collection of people who had died of hunger overnight. Sights like these are toxic to the brain.”

After a trip to the Ivory Coast last year to research issues surrounding cocoa farming, Madhier realized that the problems of drought and food insecurity were much more widespread in Africa than he’d realized and decided to do something about it – not a quick fix solution, but something that would effect systemic change.

“Today, I know there has been technological advancement that could be used to lift people out of extreme hunger and food insecurity,” he said.

St. Mike's Angel Lab hosts tech leaders Anthony Lacavera and Mark Palma at �鶹��Ƶ

lanthierj — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 17:30:24 +0000

St. Mike's Angel Lab hosts tech leaders Anthony Lacavera and Mark Palma at �鶹��Ƶ

lanthierj Tue, 01/10/2017 - 12:30

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From left to right, Canadian tech entrepreneur Mark Palma, students Enyi Anudu, Hao Chen, Andrew Dyck and Luke Kyne, and Palma's business partner Anthony Lacavera. The students are part of Angel Lab, St. Mike's initiative for social entrepreneurs

Martyn Wendell Jones

Author legacy

Martyn Wendell Jones

Topic

City & Culture

Startup

�鶹��Ƶ

St. Michael's College

Social Entrepreneurship

Dealing with “spectacular failures” and the politeness of Canadians – those were just some of the challenges faced by Canadian tech entrepreneurs and �鶹��Ƶ alumni Anthony Lacavera and Mark Palma.

The alumni and business partners shared their experiences recently with students interested in developing social justice startups at �鶹��Ƶ’s St. Michael’s College.

“I’ve had some spectacular failures,” Lacavera said, recalling that in the early 2000s, “I wanted to make payphones free, and sell ads…I would not let it go.”

It took three years and millions of dollars before he finally admitted defeat, he added.

The fireside chat was attended by St. Michael's College President and Vice-Chancellor David Mulroney and Principal and Vice President Randy Boyagoda.

It was organized and hosted by students from Angel Lab, an initiative St. Mike’s launched last year to help undergrads start enterprises with a social impact. The startup effort is just one of the many ways St. Mike’s has been helping students connect faith with academics – the college's recent initiatives have been featured in the Globe and Mail.

Read the Globe and Mail story

WIND Mobile founder Anthony Lacavera answering students' questions during the fireside chat

Lacavera, who founded WIND Mobile and Globalive, and Palma, who manages Globalive, have known each other since their days in St. Mike’s residence.

Though Toronto is now home to incubators, accelerators, and a tech-friendly venture capital network, the city and academic institutions were not always so hospitable to business projects, said Lacavera.

“It’s great to see senior leadership [at St. Michael’s] supporting startup initiatives,” Lacavera said. “The world was so much more difficult to navigate in the mid ‘90s, pre-Internet.”

Nia Technologies brings 3D prosthetic printing to developing countries

lavende4 — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 17:48:38 +0000

Nia Technologies brings 3D prosthetic printing to developing countries lavende4 Mon, 04/18/2016 - 13:48

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Matt Ratto (left) with orthopedic staff at CoRSU Hospital, Uganda

Dominic Ali

Author legacy

Dominic Ali

Topic

Social Entrepreneurship

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 30 million people in low-income countries require prosthetic limbs, braces or other assistive devices. To make things even tougher, the vast majority who require these devices don’t have access to rehabilitation services.

Until now, that is.

Thanks to a Canadian non-profit social enterprise called Nia Technologies – supported by University of Toronto research – children with disabilities in developing countries may soon have better access to high-quality and better-fitting prosthetics.

Nia is currently testing its innovative 3D printing technology to help improve the lives of the disabled in developing countries. Nia’s flagship technology, called 3D PrintAbility, was developed in collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information Associate Professor Matt Ratto, who also serves as director of the Semaphore Research Cluster and as Nia’s chief science officer.

“It has been incredibly validating to see how quickly clinical practitioners are able to adopt and even extend the cutting edge technologies we have provided to produce patient outcomes that potentially leapfrog our capacity in the developed world,” says Ratto.

Perhaps the best testament to Nia’s work was its very first patient, a spirited four-year-old Ugandan girl named Roseline who was born without a right foot. Roseline was outfitted with a 3D-printed prosthetic socket that was manufactured using Nia’s 3D PrintAbility. “With her 3D PrintAbility socket in place, Roseline was able to walk and run alongside other children for the first time in her life,” says Jerry Evans, CEO of Nia.

3D PrintAbility is a set of software tools that combines 3D scanning, modelling, and printing to produce customized prosthetics and orthotics for individuals with disabilities. Nia tested its devices in Uganda last year and will revisit the country in Spring 2016 and expand its trials into other developing countries in the coming year.

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Nia’s prosthetics are made from high strength nylon, using consumer grade 3D printers that are available off-the-shelf in North America. The developers are pleased with the early results.

“Preliminary research shows that by using 3D PrintAbility, technologists in developing countries can produce well-fitting devices in 1.5 days instead of the usual 5 days,” says Evans.

As a social enterprise, Nia works towards establishing local expertise in developing countries. By training technologists to use 3D PrintAbility, Nia is transferring knowledge and skills that will help them help more people in their communities. During the initial clinical trial in 2015, the team in Uganda produced prosthetic sockets for about 40 children and youth with lower limb disabilities who ranged in age from 4 to 25.

Currently, 3D PrintAbility produces transtibial (below-the-knee) prosthetic sockets and ankle-foot orthoses (braces). But Nia hopes to add other orthopaedic devices in the future that will help more children like Roseline.

When Roseline tried walking with her new 3D PrintAbility prosthetic for the first time, she confirmed the value of Nia’s mission to its CEO. “It is in those magical moments that all the messy and hard work of innovation comes together and makes sense,” says Evans. “Seeing Roseline walk gave me a glimpse of how 3D PrintAbility could be of great value to other children and society at large.”

�鶹��Ƶ's Team Vicis heads to Hult Prize regionals with e-commerce for street vendors

sgupta — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 12:48:00 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ's Team Vicis heads to Hult Prize regionals with e-commerce for street vendors sgupta Thu, 12/10/2015 - 07:48

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Christopher Villegas-Cho, Adam Day, Tricia Jose, David St. Bernard

Terry Lavender

Author legacy

Terry Lavender

More News

Social Entrepreneurship

Rotman School of Management

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

IBBME

Entrepreneurship

Subheadline

Tricia Jose: “We are capable of making a change in the world today, right here and right now”

Team Attollo, meet Team Vicis.

Team Attollo, winner of the first �鶹��Ƶ Hult regional prize competition in December 2014, went on to the world finals of the highly competitive global social entrepreneurship event.

Read about Team Attollo’s path to the finals

Team Vicis, which won the second �鶹��Ƶ Hult competition last weekend, is hoping to follow in Attollo's footsteps after beating 14 other �鶹��Ƶ teams to earn a spot in the Hult regional rounds in March 2016.

In the Hult Prize competition, teams of students from around the world develop ideas for social enterprises to solve global challenges.

Learn more about social entrepreneurship at �鶹��Ƶ

The theme of the 2016 challenge, co-sponsored by Hult International Business School and the Clinton Global Initiative, is Crowded Urban Spaces and will focus on economic inclusion, more specifically, doubling the incomes of the residents who live in some of the toughest conditions in the world through improved mobility and increased connectivity to people, products, services and capital by 2022.

More than 20,000 university students participate in the challenge each year with only 300 teams making it to the regional rounds in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. The winners of the regionals compete for the top prize of US$1 million in start-up funding, as well as mentorship and advice from the international business community.

Learn more about the Hult competition at �鶹��Ƶ's Rotman School of Management

Team Vicis is composed of graduate students from across the university: Tricia Jose (MASc, Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), Adam Day (MBA, Rotman School of Management), David St. Bernard (JD/MBA - Rotman School of Management/Faculty of Law), and Chris Villegas-Cho (MGA - Munk School of Global Affairs).

�鶹��Ƶ News spoke to Jose, the team leader, after the Vicis victory.

What does the name of your team, Vicis, signify?
Vicis is Latin for change. We chose this name to represent our team because we felt that to really promote effective change, we needed to dig deep into our roots (what's deeper than Latin?) and really understand how and where change comes about. Interestingly, nobody knows how to pronounce our team name. The old school Latin pronunciation is "wee-kis". Our team name is pronounced "vee-chee," hoping to breath a bit of new life to old concepts!

What’s your project about?
At the heart of our project is connecting under-utilized people, goods, and capital while overcoming and reducing congested city roadways. In crowded urban spaces, there is large market inefficiency in connecting people to the opportunities they desire and need. Team Vicis aims to increase and connect demand for under-utilized/underemployed entrepreneurial individuals in order to avoid economic exclusion. Our solution offers street vendors, who are otherwise limited to face-to-face sales to passers-by, the opportunity to access an increased market through an e-commerce platform that can be coordinated from their end without Internet, simply by the use of the mobile phone they already have.

What motivated you to try for the Hult Prize?
All four of us are interested in pursuing entrepreneurship, international development, or some combination of the two following the completion of our respective programs. What drew us to Hult Prize is that it stood as a reminder of what we as students often lose sight of: that we are capable of making a change in the world today, right here and right now. Being in school should be a catalyst for that, not a barrier. The Hult Prize is an amazing opportunity to pursue what we love, and make a lasting difference while doing so.

How did it feel to win the �鶹��Ƶ event?
Honestly, there were so many great teams and ideas pitched that we just feel fortunate to have been part of such an amazing, inspiring event. We are really excited about being able to move onto the next round of the competition. We know that we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Interested in entrepreneurship? Visit �鶹��Ƶ's Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

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World Toilet Day: an update on �鶹��Ƶ's response to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation challenge

sgupta — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 14:04:40 +0000

World Toilet Day: an update on �鶹��Ƶ's response to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation challenge sgupta Thu, 11/19/2015 - 09:04

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From left, Professors Yu-Ling Cheng and Mark Kortschot with Nathan Myhrvold, Prince of Orange and Bill Gates in 2012 (photo courtesy of Professor Yu-Ling Cheng)

Tyler Irving

Author legacy

Tyler Irving

Topic

Breaking Research

Social Entrepreneurship

International

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Subheadline

Field trials in a developing country expected by next August

November 19 is World Toilet Day, but if you were able to celebrate it, you should consider yourself lucky. Worldwide, about 2.5 billion people – a third of the global population – have no access to safe sanitation.

This lack of hygiene is linked to the spread of many preventable diseases, such as diarrheal diseases that kill more than 500,000 children under the age of five every year.

Since 2011, a team of �鶹��Ƶ engineers under the direction of Professor Yu-Ling Cheng, director of the Centre for Global Engineering, has been developing a solution. They took up a challenge issued by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to design a toilet that could disinfect human waste without connections to water, sewer or grid power. Its total cost had to work out to less than five U.S. cents per person per day, and it needed to be designed for users in the developing world.

Tiny device from �鶹��Ƶ startup helps blind and partially sighted people navigate daily life

sgupta — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 10:56:55 +0000

Tiny device from �鶹��Ƶ startup helps blind and partially sighted people navigate daily life sgupta Tue, 11/10/2015 - 05:56

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“The BuzzClip detects obstacles within the wearer’s immediate surroundings and provides intuitive vibrations at different frequencies depending on the distance to the object,” says Bin Liu (all photos courtesy iMerciv)

Scott McAuley

Author legacy

Scott McAuley

Social Entrepreneurship

There's a story behind the Buzzclip – a clip-on device that detects obstacles in the path of blind and partially sighted people and uses vibration to alert them to obstructions ahead.

And the story begins in India.

That's where Arjun Mali spent years volunteering with his family at a blind school and orphanage. His late grandmother was one of the school’s largest supporters and he spent a lot of time helping prepare and serve food to the children.

“I used to spend a lot of time with kids that were the same age as me. We would play games and I would teach them bits of English and read them English books,” said Mali. “They especially loved Harry Potter.”

The orphanage provides a safe and secure environment for the children to live and learn, Mali said, but the stigma associated with blindness and the everyday chaos of Indian city streets means that many of the children grow up without ever leaving the compound. When they reach the age where the opportunity of college and further education is available, many students do not participate because they fear travelling outside.

Mali and longtime friend Bin Liu – a civil engineering grad from the University of Toronto with a minor in business – channelled these experiences into a startup designed to make an important improvement in the lives of blind and partially sighted people.

“What really inspired this venture was meeting a 19-year-old student called Sunita who wanted to continue her education,” Mali said. “She would commute to a girl’s college about 35 minutes away from the orphanage and would constantly talk about her love of running.

“Everyday on her way back from school, she would try and find a place where she could safely run as fast as she could. It took her seven months to carefully find a route to a field that was big enough for her to run free. That’s when I decided that I had to do something, anything, even if it could make life a little bit better for her and many other incredible people like her.“

Through iMerciv, a company the two friends founded, they developed the BuzzClip: a small and discreet wearable device.

(Below, a six-foot-five user of the BuzzClip offers a video testimonial about how the device offers the kind of help a white cane cannot provide for someone who is tall.)

Mali and Liu developed their company at Techno2014, an entrepreneurship training program hosted by the Impact Centre, one of the University of Toronto’s nine campus-linked accelerators and part of �鶹��Ƶ’s Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

“Every day, �鶹��Ƶ entrepreneurs demonstrate the positive impact technology like the BuzzClip can have on people’s lives,” said Karen Sievewright, director of the BBCIE. “This social innovation addresses an important market need and I’m looking forward to seeing them exhibit their product at the university’s accessibility showcase at the end of this month.”

Since graduating from the Techno program, Liu and Mali have continued to build their company and experiment with different product models.

Interested in startups and entrepreneurship? Visit the BBCIE

“Due to the social stigma attached with visual impairment, for those who are partially sighted, there are no solutions at all,” said Liu. “Many of these individuals tend to opt out of using a cane or guide dog as they do not want to stand out in public or be perceived as someone that needs help.”

Last December, Mali returned to the school, Janta Adarsh Andh Vidyala in New Delhi, to test the BuzzClip prototype.

“It was extremely rewarding to go back to the orphanage and see the reactions when we tested our early prototypes. The kids and older students were amazed that they could so easily find people, walls, tables, chairs and navigate around the building like they have never done before.

“There was a lot of emotion and excitement as well as many questions, the main one being: why didn’t you bring this to us before?”

In addition to their work in India, Mali and Liu have been heavily involved in the local blind community. They regularly attend conferences as well as volunteer with organizations such as the Toronto Ice Owls, a hockey team for the visually impaired.

To raise funds for the first production batch of the BuzzClip, iMerciv launched its first crowdfunding campaign this month. The company raised almost 25 per cent of its $50,000 goal after only one day and has continued on to raise more half the goal of their campaign, which ends on November 21.

(Learn more about the crowdfunding campaign.)

Some of the perks available for supporters include obtaining a BuzzClip for themselves or providing one for a blind person in India.

“Our goal is to create a long-lasting impact for communities living with blindness or partial sight, empowering them to lead a confident and independent life,” said Mali. “With the support we receive through this campaign, we can make this goal a reality and change the lives of millions of people living with vision loss across the world.”

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Solar-powered lamp from �鶹��Ƶ to transform lives in Philippines

sgupta — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 06:52:50 +0000

Solar-powered lamp from �鶹��Ƶ to transform lives in Philippines sgupta Thu, 11/05/2015 - 01:52

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(all photos by Neda Ghazi)

Terry Lavender

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Terry Lavender

Topic

Global Lens

Features

Social Entrepreneurship

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Cynthia Goh: “A poor fisherman or farmer who’s been working all day does not want to have to keep pumping a flashlight in order to light his house.”

Thanks to �鶹��Ƶ’s Impact Centre, people in rural parts of the Philippines may soon get access to something that the western world takes for granted: being able to walk into a dark room, flick a switch and get instant light.

Professor Cynthia Goh, the Centre’s director, said rural areas of the Philippines, along with other regions of the global south, rarely have access to electricity.

The Philippines are close to the equator, so “it goes from very bright to very dark within a few minutes,” Goh said. “The sun goes down at 6 p.m. sharp and rises at 6 a.m. every day, which means for 12 whole hours, inhabitants are not able to study, do housework, or be productive.”

To celebrate the 2015 International Year of Light, the Impact Centre – part of �鶹��Ƶ's Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship – set itself a goal to create a reliable, low-cost light that provides at least four hours of light a day.

“We want it to be bright enough and a good enough quality so that a child can read and a mother can cook,” Goh said.

The light also had to be easy to use, she said. Many lighting solutions designed for developing countries require winding up or pumping, or only provide inadequate, short-term light, she said.

“A poor fisherman or farmer who’s been working all day does not want to have to keep pumping a flashlight in order to light his house. Just because people are poor, doesn’t mean that they should be subject to inconveniences.”

The Impact Centre's lighting solution is a great example of the kind of social entrepreneurship that flourishes at �鶹��Ƶ, said Karen Sievewright, director of �鶹��Ƶ's Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

“The breadth and depth of research coupled with a wide range of support at the university allows our entrepreneurs to bring better, smarter and more sustainable lighting to the world.”

The science of social impact: �鶹��Ƶ startup, Pueblo Science, earns official charitable status

sgupta — Fri, 06 Mar 2015 09:28:32 +0000

The science of social impact: �鶹��Ƶ startup, Pueblo Science, earns official charitable status sgupta Fri, 03/06/2015 - 04:28

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(photo courtesy Pueblo Science)

Scott McAuley

Brianna Goldberg

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Scott McAuley and Brianna Goldberg

Social Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

Community

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Science literacy startup celebrates five years with “food science” gala on March 19

From the streets of Toronto to the classrooms of the Southeast Asia, Mayrose Salvador’s startup Pueblo Science puts knowledge in the hands of those who need it most: kids.

The startup works in Canada and abroad to inspire and develop young scientists through interactive workshops, camps and events such as “Science on Ice,” where experiments take place during university hockey half-time breaks. (Read more about Pueblo Science)

It all began five years ago when Salvador co-founded Pueblo Science with Professor Cynthia Goh. The startup developed through the Impact Centre, one of �鶹��Ƶ’s entrepreneurship hubs now accepting applications for its summer program. (Read more about the Impact Centre)

The venture received official charitable status this year, which the Pueblo Science team will celebrate with a gala on March 19. The event is themed around “the Science of Food” and Salvador says it’s set to feature molecular gastronomy sampling, a mixology show, science tricks and live performances. (Read more about the gala)

Below, Salvador reflects on her experience bringing science to society through a socially-driven startup:

How has Pueblo Science grown since you started out?
It’s been an amazing journey. When we first began our work in 2011, we only had a handful of members and five brave volunteers signed up to train 100 teachers in the Philippines. Now we have over 250 volunteers in Canada and overseas, and our team of 20 instructors is gearing up to train 1,000 teachers in the Philippines and Thailand this spring.

This year, we celebrate our fifth anniversary. We are now a registered charity. Our training programs have expanded not only within the Philippines but also to countries like Bolivia, India and Thailand. In the Philippines, our programs have become very popular with teachers and are now supported by the federal Department of Education and the Department of Science and Technology. In Ontario, we have developed multiple partnerships with universities, community centers, libraries, and various other organizations to deliver monthly programs for students, parents and the general public.

What are you most proud of in the work and projects Pueblo Science has achieved?
I am very proud of the impact we are making in children’s lives in Canada and internationally. The very positive feedback from the teachers, the laughter and enlightenment that we see in students’ faces after they attend our programs makes our members and volunteers incredibly proud to do this work.

Some of these experiences are actually revealing a whole new set of possibilities to some children, and that can have a fundamental impact on how they see the world around them and what they pursue as a career in the future. Giving kids the long-lasting desire to be curious about the everyday and training educators how to create simple activities for their own classroom, that is very gratifying.

What’s surprised you on your journey developing Pueblo Science?
I knew when we started that I would have to learn many things to direct a charitable organization. But after five years, I am still amazed at how much more work is needed behind-the-scenes, beyond delivering our programs to kids and teachers. At the same time, I am also humbled by the generosity of the many people who have helped us over the years. They are very much willing to put in expertise, hours, and resources to help us along the way – and I am so grateful to all of them for their unconditional support.

How did �鶹��Ƶ help you in developing your startup?
The Impact Centre at �鶹��Ƶ gave me the foundational knowledge to start Pueblo through their entrepreneurship training programs and, to this day, their staff is still essential to our existence. The Impact Centre is our main source of advice, connections and much-needed resources when needed.

We also recruit many of our talented volunteers from �鶹��Ƶ. Many departments have supported us by allowing us to use space for our activities. Our Science on Ice program with the �鶹��Ƶ Varsity arena helped us connect with other Ontario universities. Collectively, these collaborations benefit over 10,000 kids every year in the province.

What are your hopes for Pueblo Science in the next while?
We hope to build our donor base and raise sufficient funds to deliver our programs this year as we envisioned it. An important part of this fundraising effort is our upcoming gala on March 19 (http://puebloscience.org/events/gala2015). This is a program that will definitely stimulate all five senses!

In the next few years, we would like to expand our programs to other countries that need our help. For this to happen, we need to attract volunteers and directors with the right skills to help or guide us in making the organization efficient and sustainable and support us in our vision to bring that "science spark" to places that need it most.

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