Astronaut and alumna Julie Payette officially became Canada’s 29th Governor General in a ceremony on Parliament Hill Monday, Oct. 2, 2017. (Photo credit: Sgt Johanie Maheu, Rideau Hall © OSGG-BSGG, 2017)

Julie Payette (ECE MASc 9T0), the U of T Engineering alumna and astronaut who was the second Canadian woman in space, has been installed as Canada’s 29th Governor General on Parliament Hill.

Payette, who was accompanied by her parents and 14-year-old son Laurier, used her first speech in office to make an impassioned plea for Canada to make evidence-based decisions and to continue trying to solve global challenges.

“It’s our duty to improve the lives of people in our community,” she said, “to diminish the gap and the inequities here and elsewhere and maybe, if we try hard to work together, then we may have a chance to find the answers, and we may be able to tackle global issues, like climate change, nuclear proliferation, poverty and population growth.”

She described her roots in Canada going back generations, and spoke about reconciliation with Canada’s First Nations, saying a few words in Algonquin: “Reconciliation [is] for the wellbeing of our communities and the future of our children.”

Read more about Julie Payette

U of T Mississauga alumna Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian woman in space, was among the dignitaries who watched Payette take the oaths of office.

Congratulations to @GGJuliePayette as she officially becomes the 29th Governer General of Canada today #GG29! What an #aweSTEM role model! pic.twitter.com/jzpoMADAgF

— Engineering Outreach (@UofTEngOutreach) October 2, 2017

In her speech, Payette recounted her path to the stars, which began when she was a girl watching the Apollo space missions on TV. Payette earned her master’s degree in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in 1990, after obtaining a bachelor’s from McGill University. In 1999, she went to space for the first time, becoming the first Canadian to board the International Space Station. On that mission, she supervised the spacewalk and operated the Canadarm robotic arm. She returned to space about a decade later on the space shuttle Endeavour.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau praised the new Governor General’s discipline, commitment and passion. “As an agent of change and a powerful voice for progress, Canada’s two-times extraterrestrial will bring a new perspective on Canada and its place in the world,” he said.

As per tradition, the Canadian heraldic authority designed a coat of arms for Payette with symbols representing her interest in classical music, her career in space and the quest for knowledge.

Payette’s many talents include the ability to speak six languages, piano and choral singing. She chose some of the music that was played during the ceremony, including Fanfare for the Common Man by American composer Aaron Copland, which has been used as wake-up music on shuttle missions.

Source: https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/u-t-engineering-alumna-julie-payette-installed-29th-governor-general/

Students participate in an ENGage workshop led by U of T Engineering Outreach. The U of T chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is collaborating with U of T Engineering Outreach to host high-school student workshops as part of NSBE’s Region 1 East conference on Feb. 24, 2018. (Credit: Tristan Cannon-Sherlock)

Three chapters of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) are joining forces to inspire the next generation at the group’s NSBE Region 1 East Canada Zone conference, to be hosted at U of T Engineering Feb. 24, 2018.

Designed on the theme of ‘Ignite, Imagine, Innovate,’ the one-day event brings together high school students, university students and young professionals for experiential outreach activities, networking sessions, and panel discussions around career development and diversity in the workplace. The day will launch with an opening keynote from NSBE U of T alumni currently working at Shopify and Rangle.io.

“Growing up, I didn’t always see people like me in positions that I wanted to be in,” says Portia Deterville (Year 3 ChemE + PEY), East Canada Zone chair for NSBE’s U of T chapter and conference co-organizer. “NSBE is an organization that shows people at a young age that they can make it to levels where they don’t see a lot of people like them — I feel like that’s important.”

“The mission of NSBE is to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers to excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community,” says Nicole Deterville (Year 3 ChemE + PEY), East Canada Zone secretary for NSBE U of T and co-organizer of the conference.

Held during Black History Month, the organizers hope the conference will both inspire high school students to consider pursuing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at college and university, and strengthen the NSBE pipeline that will help those students successfully transition into their careers and excel in leadership positions.

To do this, Portia, Nicole and Leah Smith, NSBE U of T’s president, are working with NSBE’s provincial chapter and the larger NSBE Region 1 East group. Portia and Nicole have also been instructors in U of T Engineering Outreach’s ENGage program, a week-long summer camp that engages Black students in the Toronto District School Board with workshops and activities designed to ignite a love of STEM.

High school students will participate in hands-on activities exploring a wide range of engineering topics led by the U of T Engineering Outreach team. Attendees will be invited from schools in priority neighbourhoods across Toronto, says Dawn Britton, associate director of U of T Engineering Outreach.

“Showing aspiring engineers from the Black community that they have a place here, that engineering is for everyone, is a core mission here at U of T Engineering,” says Britton. “We’re excited to be working closely with NSBE to make this important day a reality.”

NSBE’s U of T chapter will also be sending 12 delegates to the organization’s 44^th Annual Convention, NSBE44, running March 21 to 25, 2018, in Pittsburgh, Pa. The premier conference for Black STEM talent, NSBE44 aims to equip students, technologists and professional engineers with the tools and relationships to advance their education or careers.

Connecting with professionals she admires and hearing stories of their journeys to those positions is one of the most enriching aspects of her involvement in NSBE, says Portia, and she strives to share her own story with the students coming up behind her.

“I’m from Jane and Finch — it’s a tough area. Everyone always thinks that to come to University of Toronto you have to come from a wealthier family, and it’s not always the case,” she says. “If you work hard, there will be doors that can open for you. That’s what we want to show the next generation.”

Register now to attend NSBE’s Region 1 East Conference at U of T Engineering Feb. 24, 2018. Allies welcome.

Source: https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/national-society-black-engineers-hosts-conference-u-t-engineering/

First-year students (from left) Michela Trozzo (Year 1 ECE), Christian Pavlidis (Year 1 CivE) and Elisha Lu (Year 1 ECE) work with a robotic arm in the Systems Control Laboratory. More than 40 per cent of U of T Engineering’s first-year students are female, the highest proportion in Ontario. (Credit: Roberta Baker)

In 2018, Canada will issue a new $10 banknote bearing the likeness of Viola Desmond, a businesswoman and black civil-rights activist. Joining her on the shortlist was Elsie MacGill(ElecE 2T7), Canada’s first female electrical engineering graduate, and the world’s first woman aircraft designer.

This fall, hundreds of aspiring female engineers chose to follow in MacGill’s footsteps by joining U of T Engineering. The proportion of women in its first-year class is now 40.1 per cent, the highest figure among Ontario engineering programs. This brings the overall proportion of women across all undergraduate programs over 30 per cent.

The achievement is just one reflection of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering’s broad commitment to enriching diversity — in all its forms — within the engineering profession.

“Diversity accelerates innovation, enhances the student experience and enriches the profession with different perspectives and ideas,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “In the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, we are deeply invested in advancing diversity and fostering inclusivity within Engineering and beyond. These numbers show our tremendous progress, but there remains work to be done.”

“Currently, less than 12 per cent of practising licensed engineers in Canada are women,” said Kim Allen, CEO of Engineers Canada. “U of T Engineering is helping move the profession toward our shared ‘30 by 30’ objective of 30 per cent female representation among newly licensed engineers by 2030. Diversity strengthens our profession, and empowers us to create meaningful solutions to the complex problems we face today and in the decades to come.”

Driving that diversification in U of T Engineering are events such as the Girls Leadership Experience in Engineering (GLEE) and the Young Women in Engineering Symposium (YWIES), which inspire girls as they learn more about the impact they can make as engineers, in fields from sustainable energy to health care. Each year the Faculty engages more than 7,000 elementary and secondary school students, about half of whom are girls, with innovative outreach programming on our campus. U of T Engineering undergraduate students, including members of the Engineering Society’s Hi-Skule outreach group and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), also visit schools throughout the province. These STEM ambassadors lead students in immersive workshops on engineering topics, acting as mentors and sharing the boundless possibilities of an engineering education with children of all backgrounds.

Fourteen new professors — including nine women — recently joined the faculty, bringing with them experience from some of the world’s top research laboratories, such as Cambridge, Carnegie Mellon and MIT. Many hold academic appointments in more than one department, and will work on a range of cross-disciplinary challenges, from smart cities and infrastructure to next-generation devices for medical diagnostics and imaging.

The Faculty is promoting diversity on a number of other fronts. Strategic recruitment and outreach initiatives in key areas of the world have doubled the number of international applications for undergraduate programs since 2010. Currently, 27.9 per cent of undergraduate students hail from outside of Canada, up from 9.8 per cent in 2006–2007.

Last February, the Faculty created a new position: Director, Engineering Pathways and Indigenous Partnerships. The Director will coordinate a Faculty-led outreach program to First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, with the goal of increasing the rate of participation of Indigenous students in Engineering. These efforts align with calls by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to reduce educational gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians.

“In order to address our global society’s most pressing challenges, we must embrace true collaboration across all disciplines, cultures and backgrounds,” said Dean Amon. “Creativity, open-mindedness, communication and innovation are at the heart of the engineering profession — and that culture of inclusivity is thriving here in U of T Engineering.”

Source: https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/women-make-40-per-cent-u-t-engineering-first-year-class/

Go North – Inspiring Future Innovators

Editor’s Note: Today’s blog is guest authored by Jennifer Flanagan, President and CEO of Actua 

Today, at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall, over 1200 students gathered to explore, learn and have fun with science and technology at Go North – Inspiring Future Innovators.

Building on the Go North technology summit, this one-day immersive event highlights the countless possibilities that STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – has to offer. The day is run by Actua and the University of Toronto’s Engineering Outreach team, who are national leaders in STEM programming. The participants, in grades 4 to 8, and their teachers engaged in hands-on workshops meant to spark a passion and stimulate a curiosity in STEM.

The partnership between the University of Toronto, Actua and Google is built on the shared goal that this experience will ignite and inspire these young students to consider computer science as not just a field of study but as a way to solve the big world problems of the future. According to the World Economic Forum, 65% of students entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in jobs that don’t yet exist. U of T, Actua and Google recognize the urgency of fostering an interest in STEM and the critical need to help equip students with skills they will need to excel.

In Innovate Alley, a corridor lined with education startups and tools to help ignite curiosity, the students and their teachers had an opportunity to immerse themselves in hands-on workshops with U of T engineering students and Actua outreach instructors.

For more than 20 years, Actua and our university network members have worked to prepare young Canadians to be innovators and leaders by engaging them in exciting and accessible STEM experiences that build critical skills and confidence.

This includes our Codemakers program, supported by Google, which has engaged over 80,000 youth in computer science and digital skill building. Canadian youth from all over this country have participated in Codemakers whether through coding throat singing in Canada’s north or printing 3-D selfies in Vancouver or participating in events like today. This unique partnership allows us to create unique moments of inspiration that connect technology to kids lives in meaningful ways.

Together, we can show students that technology offers everyone the potential to create, to collaborate and to invent.

Posted by Jennifer Flanagan, President and CEO of Actua. The University of Toronto is one of 34 Actua network members across Canada annually engaging 250,000 youth in hands-on STEM.

Article originally found at: https://canada.googleblog.com/2017/05/go-north-inspiring-future-innovators.html

Elementary school students learn to program their own robots at Innovate U, a massive one-day STEM outreach event hosted at University of Toronto Engineering. U of T Engineering aims to spark a love of STEM disciplines in children of all ages and backgrounds, and helps deliver outreach programming to students from Toronto to Iqaluit.
(ROBERTA BAKER/U OF T ENGINEERING)

October 20, 2016 | STEM Education

An innovative outreach initiative of University of Toronto Engineering, in partnership with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), introduces coding basics to local teachers who can take those skills back to the classroom and use them to enrich lessons ranging from robotics to language arts.

“We are empowering students to think of themselves as inventors, creators and makers, and to learn to engage with technology, rather than be passive consumers,” says Dawn Britton, director of outreach for
U of T Engineering.

Antonio Santos, central coordinating principal for STEM K-12 with the TDSB, says he hopes the partnership will help the TDSB meet its goal to have all teachers in the Toronto area engaging students in coding, robotics and engineering.

“We want it to be an integral part of the educational experience of all students. We don’t want it to depend on which teacher they have or what school they attend,” he says. “Our goal is that every teacher in every classroom is actively engaging students through coding, robotics and STEM to make the class even more meaningful and purposeful.”

Mr. Santos also believes that enabling student visits to U of T Engineering helps students of all backgrounds connect their world with the university.

“Exposing the younger students to the labs where they can see actual science being applied makes university seem like an attainable place rather than a place that is ephemeral and doesn’t exist except in the abstract,” he says.

Coding and robotics also encourage computational thinking, working in groups and make the students better learners and problem solvers, says Mr. Santos.

“Engineering is all about solving problems, and at U of T we are tackling global problems like access to clean water, traffic, access to safe infrastructure and health-care innovations. Working on these issues takes a global mindset,” says Ms. Britton.

Engineering undergraduate students come from 75 countries around the world, and this year 39.6 per cent of the first-year class are women, says Ms. Britton. Diversity at U of T Engineering ensures wide ranging perspectives, and ideas are explored by the students as they study global issues.

Article originally found at: The Globe And Mail

August 5, 2016 | Tristan McGuirk

50 grade 3-6 students came to University of Toronto’s School of Applied Science and Engineering on August 3-4 to engage in coding based STEM workshops with Engineering Outreach’s CodeMakers Team. Photo by Tristan McGuirk.

This August fifty grade 3-6 students came to University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering to participate in the first ever Pop-Up Coding Camp organized by Engineering Outreach’s CodeMakers. This two-day event featured programming, problem solving, app design, and augmented reality based courses.  The camp provided motivated youth with the opportunity to develop their own set of code making abilities through a variety of in class activities.

Working in partnership with Actua, Canada’s largest STEM outreach charity, and Google Canada, this program incorporated real-world coding and program development tools including Unity 3D multiplatform content developers, Vuforia augmented reality technology, and MIT App Inventor Software. Providing access to real-world technologies, the camp enabled students to experience industry standard coding in a fun and interactive environment.

Photo by Tristan McGuirk.

Set within a post-secondary environment, the camps were led by the Codemakers — a team of 7 current U of T Engineering undergraduate students. “To see students use first-year level software, to use programs that [we were] never exposed to as kids” remains the largest motivator for the team, explains Khashish Verma, a 3rd year Engineering Science student. “Parents are intimidated by coding and children simply never receive the opportunity to learn code. If we don’t do this, who will?” asserts Verma, “it definitely gives a different perspective on what I learn in engineering at U of T”.

Engineering Outreach’s CodeMakers Team supported 50 grade 3-6 students in a 2 day Pop-Up Coding Camp. Photo by Tristan McGuirk.

June 30, 2016 | Tyler Irving

This summer, Rachel Mandel (Year 3 MechE) will travel more than 8,000 km across Canada to facilitate interactive workshops for children on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). (Photo: Tyler Irving)

Rachel Mandel (Year 3 MechE) is packing for the trip of a lifetime. Over the next two months, she will travel to indigenous communities across Ontario and the Canadian Arctic to facilitate interactive workshops on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

“It’s always been my dream to go to the Arctic,” said Mandel. “But more than just visiting as a tourist, I’ve wanted to work and live there. To make local impact. That’s one of the reasons I chose engineering: the skill set you develop allows you to contribute anywhere.”

Mandel discovered her own passion for STEM in her grade 11 physics class. “The thing I love about solving problems is that there are so many ways to go about doing it. You have to be very logical, but also very creative,” she says.

As a U of T Engineering student, Mandel puts her passion to work with the Engineering Outreachoffice, which facilitates summer camps, interactive workshops and special events that engage elementary and high school students in STEM. Each year Mandel and other student employees help the Engineering Outreach office engage more than 7,000 students from Canada and around the world.

It was while helping out with one of these events — a coding workshop for elementary school teachers — that Mandel met Tracy Ross, Director of Network Membership for Actua, Canada’s largest STEM charity and a major partner of Engineering Outreach. Ross told her about Actua’s Indigenous Youth in STEM (InSTEM) Program, a customized, community-based approach to engaging First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth in locally and culturally relevant STEM education programs. Through InSTEM, Actua organizes a series of workshops each summer in communities across Nunavut. “I e-mailed her a lot after that!” says Mandel.

Mandel soon learned she had been selected as one of 12 students from across Canada who will be making the journey north this year. The team includes both indigenous and non-indigenous students, all of whom are studying science, engineering or education at the undergraduate or graduate level. They will travel more than 8,000 km to communities such as Kimmirut, Cape Dorset, Hall Beach, Igoolik and Arctic Bay.

Before heading north, the team spent a week together at Actua’s headquarters in Ottawa. They learned how to teach workshops ranging from the use of drones in mining to the ecology of Arctic fish. They also participated in a traditional healing circle and received extensive cultural training.

Mandel’s first stop is at Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario, where she will spend a week facilitating workshops before boarding a plane to Nunavut on July 2.

“I’m especially excited to be in a culture that isn’t my own,” she says. “But at the same time, I think kids are kids everywhere. One of my favourite things about working with kids, no matter where they are from, is how excited they are to learn. They’re always blown away by everything. That genuine joy is nice to be around, and it infects you too.”

Read about Rachel Mandel’s visit to Iqaluit on CBC.ca

Article originally found at: https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/u-t-engineering-student-deliver-stem-workshops-nunavut/

May 12, 2016 | Engineering Strategic Communications

More than 1,400 students from Grades 3-8 descended on the University of Toronto on Friday, May 13 for Innovate U, a massive day of hands-on activities celebrating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and the power of innovation. The one-day event is a first-of-its-kind partnership between U of T Engineering, Google Canada and Actua, Canada’s largest STEM outreach charity.

Innovate U engaged youth in activities where they are engineering, building and inventing their own innovations and technology – from robotics and genetics to rollercoasters and video games. Students and teachers from 45 classes across the Greater Toronto Area peeked under the surface of today’s tech, including smartphones, 3D printers and solar cars, to understand how they work—all while experiencing the post-secondary environment in a fun and accessible way.

Article originally found at: https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/innovate-u-inspiring-future-innovators/

University of Toronto Engineering, Google and Actua partner on Innovate U, a day-long STEM event for children in grades 3-8, featuring hands-on coding, circuitry and more. Posted on May 12, 2016

Toronto, ON – More than 1,400 students from Grades 3-8 will descend on the University of Toronto on Friday, May 13 for Innovate U, a massive day of hands-on activities celebrating science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and the power of innovation. The one-day event is a first-of-its-kind partnership between U of T Engineering, Google Canada and Actua, Canada’s largest STEM outreach charity.

Last Friday, more than 40 high school science and math teachers from across the Greater Toronto Area joined U of T Engineering for a series of interactive and collaborative workshops on teaching and learning. Engineering for Educators (E4E) is an annual event in which secondary teachers and U of T Engineering faculty and staff discuss innovative ways to bring STEM into the secondary classroom. This year, E4E was expanded to a full-day event with a strong emphasis on practical strategies that are classroom-ready.

To read the entire article, please click here.