Institute for Optical Sciences

TechnoStorm takes on global health

sgupta — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 07:11:24 +0000

TechnoStorm takes on global health sgupta Fri, 01/25/2013 - 02:11

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TechnoStorm seeks science-based tech solutions to global health challenges such vaccine delivery. (Photo by Julien Harneis via Flickr)

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From student to entrepreneur

sgupta — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:21:31 +0000

From student to entrepreneur sgupta Wed, 11/21/2012 - 06:21

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Sandra Pupatello will moderate From Student to Entrepreneur, featuring Professor Cynthia Goh and Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Toronto Board of Trade (image courtesy of the Toronto Board of Trade)

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The role of universities in an increasingly entrepreneurial world

On Friday Nov. 23 the Toronto Board of Trade, in partnership with the University of Toronto will present a Distinguished Speaker Series on the importance of developing undergraduate entrepreneurs.

“The university is about top-notch knowledge and we are very interested in making sure that this gets out to the world,” says Professor Cynthia Goh, director of the Institute of Optical Sciences which focuses on developing technology-based entrepreneurship ventures.

“One of these paths is via students,” says Goh. “We are giving the students training so that they can build a company or so that when they enter a company they have a deeper skillset.

“Entrepreneurship is one path by which we can move the fruits of research to create value for society.”

Goh is one of the featured speakers at the event, which will be moderated by Sandra Pupatello Director, with remarks from Brad Duguid, Ontario Minister of Economic Development & Innovation.

Joining Goh for a discussion of contrasting ideas and strategies around student entrepreneurship will be Ajay Agrawal, Peter Munk professor of entrepreneurship at �鶹��Ƶ's Rotman School of Management and the founder of Creative Destruction Lab, a program aimed at providing support for student ventures. Agrawal stresses the need for strong connections between universities and their surrounding communities and government.

“There’s massive research infrastructure [at universities] and it’s important for industry and the government to remember that because they can take advantage of it,” he says.

Agrawal’s approach to entrepreneurship is action-oriented and heavily focused on achieving carefully planned and set out goals.

“The key to my approach in terms of fostering entrepreneurship on the university campus is in setting milestones for entrepreneurs,” he explains. “Young entrepreneurs are smart and energetic; the place that they need the most amount of input is helping them figure out of the thousand things they could be working on which are the most important.”

Goh on the other hand, works with science, engineering, and technical students, and stresses technology development which may take a longer period to produce.

“Our view of creating companies is about recovering knowledge to create value for society,” says Goh. “Our students tend to be people who are really interested in seeing their knowledge and research benefit somebody.”

Despite differences in approach, both professors share a desire to promote young, entrepreneurial thinkers and connect them with a broad community of support.

“At �鶹��Ƶ we have many different approaches; and that’s great because we have many different types of students,” says Goh.

She points to the wide range of successful entrepreneurial ventures to emerge from �鶹��Ƶ in recent years, from companies such as Cogni-Wave, which helps hearing loss patients in crowded environments, to Pueblo Science, which works to raise science literacy in underprivileged communities in Canada and the developing world.

Agrawal believes younger people are finding entrepreneurship increasingly accessible.

“When [the past generation went] to university most expected to graduate, join a company and stay there for the rest of their careers; and they expected to report to a boss who is senior,” says Agrawal.

“Now we have companies like Facebook that are run by young people. And we know that it’s now possible that companies can be founded by young people, especially in areas of technology, where young people often know as much as senior people.”

The Distinguished Speaker series event takes place at the Toronto Board of Trade Downtown Centre from 11:30a.m.-1:45p.m. Find out more here.

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�鶹��Ƶ return to support student entrepreneurs

sgupta — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 10:36:57 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ return to support student entrepreneurs sgupta Mon, 11/12/2012 - 05:36

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Neil Reid, co-founder of Sciex, Professor Cynthia Goh and Graeme Ferguson, co-founder of IMAX at the symposium (photo by Diana Tyszko)

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Symposium: The �鶹��Ƶ Student as Inventor and Entrepreneur

University of Toronto students have invented products and launched companies that create everything from crop protection to ultra-fast surgical lasers and earthquake-resistant building materials.

On Nov. 12, �鶹��Ƶ’s Institute for Optical Sciences (IOS) celebrates that strong tradition of research, innovation and commercialization success with a symposium for student inventors and entrepreneurs that features alumni who have led successful technology-based companies aimed at improving quality of life.

“�鶹��Ƶ is a world-class institution with a large number of brilliant students and faculty who have gone on to create cutting-edge technologies rooted in outstanding science,” says IOS director Cynthia Goh. “In order to sustain the innovation momentum, we must continue to leverage what we consider to be the key advantages of our institution: knowledge and students.”

The IOS will announce the launch of TechnoLABS at the symposium, expanding the ever growing support system for �鶹��Ƶ entrepreneurs. TechnoLABS will provide work space and access to chemical, electrical, and other laboratory equipment for prototype development.

Lunanos Inc., a company which develops innovative solutions for cleaning and disinfecting environmental surfaces, is one of more than 20 companies already taking advantage of the TechnoLABS work space located in the Banting & Best Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

“Lunanos does much of its development work in a wet lab, which would have been prohibitively expensive to rent if not for the space provided by TechnoLABS,” says Leo Mui, who co-founded the company in 2010 while completing his master’s degree in organic chemistry at �鶹��Ƶ. “Besides giving us physical space to build our company, we are able to tap into the experience and expertise of mentors on site when we need help.”

“TechnoLABS offers a very unique environment for startups and entrepreneurs,” adds Dan Hosseinzadeh, co-founder and chief technical officer of software developer PathCore Digital Pathology. “The community of thriving business and entrepreneurs within TechnoLABS tends to acts as one unit; sharing their collective experience and knowledge to make sure they all grow together.”

Students participating in TechnoLABS will have the opportunity to meet and present their companies to guest speakers such as: Tony Redpath, MaRS advisor and former CEO of Eco-Plastics; Graeme Ferguson, co-founder of IMAX; Vaughn Betz, founder of Right Track CAD; Neil Reid, co-founder of Sciex and Darren Anderson, co-founder and CTO of Vive Crop Protection.

“The symposium should give students who are considering entrepreneurship as a career an introduction to the subject, as well as the chance to ask questions of experienced entrepreneurs about the good, the bad, and the ugly about entrepreneurship,” says Anderson, who attributes his decision to pursue an entrepreneurial career to his education at �鶹��Ƶ.

“Knowledge is the University’s most valuable asset. But before society can reap the rewards, knowledge has to be commercialized and brought to market through entrepreneurship,” says Goh. “TechnoLABS essentially accelerates the process by which outstanding fundamental science carried out at the university is translated into tangible economic benefits.”

Click here for more information about the symposium.

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Entrepreneurs launch 15 startups through Techno 2012

sgupta — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:54:08 +0000

Entrepreneurs launch 15 startups through Techno 2012 sgupta Wed, 08/01/2012 - 10:54

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The entrepreneurs of Techno 2012 (photo courtesy of the Institute for Optical Sciences)

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Your friends are chatting but the subway car is so crowded you can’t make out what anyone’s saying. Wish you were in on the joke?

CogniWave is working on a solution.

The start-up - one of 15 companies to emerge from the University of Toronto’s Technopreneurship program this summer - has designed a product to help people who have difficulties separating single voices from multiple in crowded social situations.

Technopreneurship, or Techno, as participants call it, is organized by �鶹��Ƶ’s Institute for Optical Sciences (IOS).

“Each participant comes with their own academic and technical expertise,” says Cynthia Goh, director of IOS. “Over the course of Techno we work with everyone to ensure that the market they have chosen is one where they can have an impact.”

Science and engineering graduates sign up for the program in order to transform their ideas into marketable products and start-up companies. Each of the first two years of Techno produced ten companies. Leading the way this year are dynamic groups targeting a wide variety of medical issues such as autism, hearing loss, and innovative approaches to ultrasound technology.

“This is the first year we have teams working with medical treatment and devices,” remarks Goh, “it has been a great experience working with these teams and learning about the unique challenges associated with these technologies.”

CogniWave, founded by two graduate students from Electrical & Computer Engineering, hopes to help users enhance their ability to hear competing speakers. Its product uses technology which has shown to double or triple intelligibility in a normal hearing subject.

Another Techno start-up seeks to help children with autism. Brain Labyrinth Games, founded by two graduate students with the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, uses BlockJAM, a game played with different rule sets which vary the weight, texture, size, colour, and shape of the blocks, to foster the development of abstract thought. The group aims to partner with care providers and autism research centres to run clinical trials.

And Sonola Imaging Technologies is developing a new low-cost and easy to use brain imaging system based on ultrasound instead of MRI scans which are expensive, time-consuming, and uncomfortable. The company’s primary focus is on developing a technique to counteract the strong distortions caused by the skull in the ultrasound imaging process.

Located in the newly renovated Best Institute building, across from the MaRS Discovery District, IOS will continue to work with these start-ups by providing crucial networking opportunities, incubation space, web and logo design services, monthly meetings and guidance.

“Techno is exciting because we have a chance to work with a different group of students and a host of new technologies,” Goh says.

“Teaching students how to create and scale-up new solutions that have a tangible and positive impact on the world is always exciting.”

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�鶹��Ƶ entrepreneurs make science fun for kids around the world

sgupta — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:26:25 +0000

�鶹��Ƶ entrepreneurs make science fun for kids around the world sgupta Mon, 06/11/2012 - 06:26

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The Techno program helps bridge the gap between "creating revolutionary science and creating value to society" says Professor Cynthia Goh, director of the Institute for Optical Sciences

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The sciences often fail to capture the attention of young students – particularly in areas of the world where education resources are scarce. Even in low-resource countries that teach the sciences, many classes focus on rote memorization instead of interactive, hands-on demonstrations.

Pueblo Science, a not-for-profit company led by science PhD students and grown out of an innovative entrepreneurship program at the University of Toronto, has taken notice and action. Members of Pueblo Science recently returned from a successful trip to the Philippines where they promoted a hands-on approach to science education by sharing inexpensive and fun science kits they had developed in Canada.

The kits, which can be replicated locally, include materials and instructions for both teachers and students, and the Pueblo members worked on training teachers from remote villages on their use.

“The training and kits we provided to teachers this year will potentially spark science interest in more than 9,000 high-school students,” says Mayrose Salvador, president of Pueblo Science. “Teachers who participated in our training program were very excited to learn about fun experiments that they can incorporate into the current curriculum.”

Back home, Pueblo Science is now working with local Canadian schools to raise awareness of their kits and get them in the hands of local educators.

Pueblo Science is just one of many successful entrepreneurial start-up companies emerging from the annual “Technopreneurship” (or Techno, for short) workshop at the University of Toronto. Conceived and organized by the Institute for Optical Sciences (IOS), the workshop targets dynamic science and engineering graduates, teaching them the entrepreneurial skills required to transform their discoveries into products and services that ultimately benefits society.

This year, the third annual Technopreneurship workshop – called Techno 2012 – begins on June 18 and runs until July 13. The intensive four-week workshop will cover themes such as intellectual property, financial management, networking, presentation skills, product development and others.

Participants in the workshop register as teams of 2 to 4 people; the majority of time at the workshop will be spent developing the plans to actually create a new tech-based company. Following the workshop, students are able to move forward with a strategy for their tech-based company.

“We have amazing students, generating leading edge-research results, but there is a big gap between generating revolutionary science and creating value to society,” according to Professor Cynthia Goh, Director of the IOS. “The Techno program serves to bridge that gap by providing education, supervision and mentorship. Students lead the creation of new start-ups based on university knowledge.”

During the workshop, students have the opportunity to attend various lectures, network with others, and hear from past Techno workshop graduates. As the workshop progresses students often make major adjustments to their initial technological ideas – a sign of great progress in their understanding of real world and market needs.

At the end of the workshop, teams prepare a final pitch of their new company. For many students, this will be their first time presenting in a business setting and will offer a chance for them to meet leaders in their industry. This workshop is the launching point for the new entrepreneurs to begin their journey growing their company with the continued support of the IOS.

The IOS is based at the University of Toronto and supported by faculty members from a wide range of faculties and departments, including Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. While the initial mandate of the IOS is to advance the science of optics, the institute’s work on entrepreneurship training and industry relations has generated results and interest from many areas.

The Techno workshops have been successful in each of the past two years, generating about 10 companies each year. One of these success stories is Pueblo Science, a graduate of the 2010 workshop.

“Techno 2010 opened the door for Pueblo Science to gather scientists with a strong desire to impart their passion for science to the next generation!” says Salvador. “After Techno 2010, our IOS mentors’ support was nothing short of amazing: they helped us to find space where we prototype, manufacture, and assemble our kits. They also gave us invaluable advice on structuring our business plan and looking for funding.”

With such a record of success, Techno 2012 is shaping up to be another key tool for helping young technological entrepreneurs.

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Is it art or is it science?

sgupta — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:52:40 +0000

Is it art or is it science? sgupta Wed, 11/16/2011 - 09:52

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Emanuel Istrate demonstrates that holograms are two-dimensional, despite giving the impression of being 3-D. (Photo by Caz Zyvatkauskas)

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�鶹��Ƶ researcher maintains that holography is both

The intersection of art and science jumps out at visitors to The Next Dimension, an exhibition of holograms created by University of Toronto students, on display in the �鶹��Ƶ Art Centre’s Art Lounge through December 2.

The student creators are all veterans of an undergraduate holography course taught annually by Emanuel Istrate, a research associate and academic program co-ordinator for the Institute for Optical Sciences with the assistance of art professor Michael Page. Istrate notes that seeing a hologram in person is very different than seeing a photo and urges anyone with an interest to visit the exhibition. (Enjoy some photos of the holography exhibition.)

“I teach students to do technically sound work with an artistic meaning,” said Istrate as he walked around the exhibition.

His ideal for the course is a class composed of 50 per cent science students and 50 per cent arts students, and he finds that it’s a big draw for students from both types of disciplines.

“I want people who don’t normally work together to do so,” he said. “There’s too little contact between arts and science students; that’s the main reason I teach the course.

“You can lure people to holography who swore they would never study science again, and in the end, they ask very good questions during class, so they’re actually thinking about science and get it, but they wouldn’t have taken a science course.

“The science students, on the other hand, are really worried about the art thing. Science is clean; there are no arguments about the answers. More than 50 per cent of the grade for this course is based on real science questions, so they can be comfortable.”

Interestingly, the students learn the same principles taught in an optics class, but they absorb them while getting some hands-on experience. Holograms are essentially three-dimensional images stored in a two-dimensional medium – in this case, glass. They are created with lasers using a method Istrate says is very similar to working in a photography darkroom.

The images the students turn into holograms are first created using computer software that is used in Hollywood for 3-D animation. They make a laser print of that object by combining myriad 2-D images taken from different angles with the laser. Physics student Sarah Forward, along with her lab partner James Keane, created one of the show’s most popular images: a clock whose numbers appear to be flying off the face in all directions. (See a video depicting the 3-D nature of their hologram.)

"I wanted to create a hologram that illustrated Einstein's special relativity and allude to Salvador Dali's work, The Persistence of Memory," Forward said. "I chose to model a clock in the animation software 'Blender' that got thinner and changed its time as you moved from left to right. The thinning out of the clock represents Lorentz contraction and the time changes represent how there exists no absolute time in our universe, it depends on your frame of reference. The hologram includes 120 literal frames which let you in to see 120 different 'inertial reference frames'."

Keane was enthusiastic about his foray into holography.

“I thought holography sounded cool and I needed an elective course,” he said. “I’m really glad I took it. The course was really interesting. You get to learn about the science behind holograms, plus there’s an art component. I don’t usually get to do anything subjective, so this was cool.”

Philosophy student Bonnie Yang was also delighted by the course, since she was “looking for a physics course, but not full on physics.

“Here, I didn’t have to go into depth with all the calculations. It was more artistic, and I liked looking into another dimension. It was very sci fi.”

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