DEEP SUMMER ACADEMY

Q: Can I stay in residence for DEEP 2022?

The residence program will not be offered in 2022.

Q: Where will DEEP 2022 take place?

Deep Summer Academy will be taking place in-person , at the St. George Campus of the University of Toronto. This program is not delivered virtually, or in a hybrid format.

Q: Are lunches and snacks provided?

We do not offer a meal plan for DEEP Summer Academy 2022. Students are asked to either bring their own packed lunch or purchase a lunch at a local vendor during the unsupervised lunch period.

Summer 2022: In-Person

Organized by the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, DEEP offers a diverse range of pre-university engineering and science courses.

Inspiring Bright Young Minds

The Da Vinci Engineering Enrichment Program (DEEP) is designed for highly motivated high school students with an aptitude for science and math. DEEP provides students from around the world with the opportunity for advanced study in a variety of engineering, technology, business, and science disciplines.

Since its inception in 2003, DEEP has brought together over 10,000 like-minded students to explore some of the most innovative topics in engineering and science today—taught by some of our faculty’s top alumni, PhD candidates, and Master’s and undergraduate students. The program is designed to expose bright young minds to concepts usually presented in the upper years of an undergraduate degree or in graduate school.

Get a head start on exploring your options for a university degree and career. Complement your current academic studies with this unique engineering experience.

Eligibility

Grade 9–12 students (2021–2022 academic year)

The residence program will not be offered in 2022. We hope to bring back the residence program in 2023. Stay tuned!

Applications for DEEP Summer Academy 2022 are closed.

2022 COURSE OFFERINGS

DEEP Courses are offered within six streams. Under each stream heading, course descriptions can be found by selecting the course name.

The grade level(s) and the week(s) each course is being offered can be found to the right of the course name.

Course eligibility is calculated based on the student's grade as of the 2021–22 school year.

Programming will take place from 9:30–3:30 PM ET. Please note: only one course can be taken each week.

Week 1: July 4–8, 2022

Week 2: July 11–15, 2022

Week 3: July 18–22, 2022

Week 4: July 25–29, 2022

Brilliant Manufacturing Processess (BMP)

How It's Made? | Week 1: Grade 9/10 *registration closed*

Have you ever thought how cars and planes operate? Or how to make the oven that makes your pizza? From the shoes on your feet to the car you drive, nearly everything you use in your daily life is man-made, or ‘manufactured’. Fundamentally, Manufacturing Engineering brings an idea from concept generation through design processes to ultimately create a working product. If you ever watched and loved the shows, How It’s Made, Factory Made or Food Factory, this is the course for you! This course will cover the fundamentals of manufacturing in depth and its correlation within the engineering industry.

Grade 9/10: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022)

Designing Our Cities (DOC)

City in Motion | Week 2: Grade 9/10 *registration closed* | Week 4: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Since the dawn of civilization, civil engineering has been the foundation of cities. In the bigger picture, regional city planning dictates the design of road networks, water supply, waste treatment, energy production and environmental preservation. The construction of buildings is of social, economic and environmental concern to a variety of stakeholders. This course focuses on the complexity of building cities and the intricacy of building individual structures at such a scale. Students will be role playing as city planners to make decisions using basic land use principles. Moreover, the instructor will guide students on a journey to uncover the layers of “secret” infrastructure beneath a city.

Grade 9/10: Week 2 (July 11–15, 2022)
Grade 11/12: Week 4 (July 25–29, 2022)

The Future of Transportation and Smart Cities | Week 3: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Have you ever noticed the technological elements of the streetscape? Sidewalk Labs is developing a smart city design that integrates different technology to increase the quality of life for a neighbourhood. This course will analyse some of the features like light rail transit system extension, snow melting streets, public wifi for data collection and self-driving delivery vehicles. If you are interested in creating a simulation of a transit system or designing a more sustainable city, this is the course for you.

Grade 11/12: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)

Experimenting with Elements (EXE)

DnD (Drugs and Discoveries) | Week 3: Grade 9/10 | Week 4: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Devices and drugs help us manage and solve some of the largest health crises facing our world today. What would life be like without devices such as insulin pumps or vaccines? From over the counter drugs like aspirin and Tylenol, to the far reaching impacts of mind and body altering drugs like THC and opioids, the impacts of scientists and engineers are clearly seen, but hard to measure. This course is perfect for students looking to get a taste of both biomedical engineering and bioengineering. You will have the chance to design your own solution to a global problem, while also gaining hands-on lab experiences such as investigating the materials in diapers and synthesising your own acetaminophen.

Grade 9/10: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)
Grade 11/12: Week 4 (July 25–29, 2022)

CHEM-Mystery | Week 4: Grade 9/10 *registration closed*

Chemistry is part of our daily lives. From the food we consume to stay alive, to the medicine we use to cure diseases, we take the marvel of chemically engineered products for granted. However, have you ever wondered why chlorine gas was a feared chemical weapon, yet we add it into our drinking water supply? Have you wondered how life expectancy doubled in just 10 generations (about 200 years)? What if you could eat your water bottle? Let's uncover the mystery of chemistry!

Grade 9/10: Week 4 (July 25–29, 2022)

Health Technologies and Pharmaceutical (PHP)

Engineering the Future of Surgery | Week 2: Grade 9/10 *registration closed*

Modern medicine allows for minimally invasive surgeries to be performed at top-tier hospitals around the world. Biomedical engineers have played a critical role in the shaping of surgical procedures over the centuries, to make it more efficient, precise and safe. This course will introduce students to the basic principles of innovation and design for instruments and equipment in surgery. You will learn about the history of surgery and apply the engineering design process to hands-on activities and gain an appreciation for the successes and challenges faced by biomedical engineers. By solving a variety of engineering design challenges related to surgery, you will learn to be innovative, creative, and critical thinkers.

Grade 9/10: Week 2 (July 11–15, 2022)

The Art of Capturing and Interpreting Brainwaves | Week 1: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Engineers and doctors alike have been curious to explore the inner workings of the nervous system and its diseases since the 18th century. The pioneering studies of the time focused on proving the existence of electrical signals – inspired in part by a twitching frog leg. Today, brainwaves can be recorded directly from patients - on the scalp, just below the skull, or even on a single neuron level. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms allow us the ability to use these brainwaves to diagnose, treat and sometimes prevent diseases of the nervous system - anywhere from epilepsy to depression. In this course, you will find yourself traversing through the networks and pathways of the brain - by recording, analysing and characterising the electrical signals in living things. You will acquire a basic understanding of the electrical properties of the nervous system, explore the electrical system used to record signals from living tissue, and implement coding algorithms to process and detect abnormalities in the signals.

Grade 11/12: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022)

Gene Therapy and Genetic Techniques | Week 1: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

This course will introduce students to topics in genetics, cloning and gene therapy, and genetic engineering. Students will gain valuable hands-on experience with techniques used in genetics, cell and molecular biology through labs involving DNA extraction, agarose gel electrophoresis, bioinformatics, and bacterial transformation with green fluorescent protein (GFP). In addition, they will learn about the practical uses of these techniques in various industries and the ethical issues surrounding gene therapy. Students will learn to think critically and gain an appreciation for the successes and challenges in gene therapy.

Grade 11/12: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022)

Intelligent Computing Operations (ICO)

Python Basics Level 1 | Week 1, Week 2: Grade 9-12 *registration closed*

In recent years, smart solutions are being integrated into many aspects of engineering. Therefore, DEEP Summer Academy is offering a variety of programming intensive courses. Python Basics Level 1 is a course within the Intelligent Computing Operations (ICO) stream for students who have never tried computer programming before. At the end of the week, you will be able to write functions and create a simple game in Python. Registration for this course is highly recommended if you plan to enrol in other ICO or RAR courses, without prior programming knowledge.

Grade 9-12: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022), Week 2 (July 11–15, 2022)

Computer Vision and Data Analytics | Week 2, Week 3: Grade 9/10 *registration closed*

Have you ever wondered how computers see? In this class, you will learn how to develop computer imaging models using the fastest growing major programming language - Python. These automatic image interpretation models solve real life problems, for example, identifying wound types to create a more efficient medical care dispatch system and powering autonomous vehicles. Computers can also handle large databases that our brain cannot process. By using MATLAB, you can find the trends in any data, and by extension, predict the future! If you are interested in saving the world and solving problems on a computer, you should not pass up this opportunity.

Grade 9/10: Week 2 (July 11–15, 2022)

Grade 9/10: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)

Teaching Machines to Learn | Week 1: Grade 9/10 | Week 4: Grade 9/10 | Week 3: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Due to the increase of computing power in the past decade, many problems that were once unsolvable by a computer, have been realised using Machine Learning (ML). Even in the past year, there have been significant advancements in the field of ML such as the discovery of transfer learning for BERT models in Natural Language Processing, improvement of Generative Adversarial Networks for Deepfake detection and promise in fields outside computer vision, and the expansion of ML models to run on lightweight devices, enabling ML to be used on many devices such as our phones and in the browser. In this ever advancing world, research and industry have turned to ML to solve some of the hardest problems and hopefully, solve problems that are still unknown to us. In this course, we will introduce the concept of Artificial Neural Networks and use machine learning libraries to create algorithms that learn from data. You will apply these algorithms to robotic arms to accomplish different tasks. May the best robot win!

Grade 9/10: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022), Week 4 (July 25–29, 2022)
Grade 11/12: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)

Cracking the Code | Week 1: Grade 9/10 *registration closed*

Maintaining one's privacy has become increasingly difficult in the modern world. For thousands of years, cryptography has played a major role in our civilization. From the early Caesar cipher to modern cryptocurrencies, cryptography has helped secure our information and protect our privacy. This course is an introduction to the world of cryptography. Students will gain hands-on experience with various cryptographic ciphers and learn the “do's” and “don't”s when creating secure messaging schemes. Students will also learn the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies and will create and mine their own blockchains. The importance of privacy, and methods for maintaining one's privacy online will also be discussed.

Grade 9/10: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022)

Physics and Dynamics Fundamentals (PDF)

Aerospace Engineering: Design, Build, Fly | Week 3: Grade 9/10 | Week 1: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Planes, trains and automobiles…transportation is shaping the world around us in a way not seen before. We can’t simply just be along for the ride; our environment, the economy and our well-being depend on our ability to understand the science and engineering that shape transportation. Grounded in the engineering design cycle, this introductory course will challenge students to think and explore transportation in ways that perhaps they haven’t before. Kinematics, aerodynamics, applied physics and applied mathematics are all areas that will be called upon to understand the way that air flows around our vehicles.

Grade 9/10: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)
Grade 11/12: Week 1 (July 4–8, 2022)

From Lenses to Lasers: The Science and Engineering of Optics | Week 4: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

From the earliest studies of light by Aristocles, to the development of basic optics by Newton, to modern discoveries by Einstein, Born, Wolff and other luminaries, the field of optics has advanced far beyond the humble lens. Optical fibres enable high speed internet; holography is used for entertainment and anti-counterfeit bank notes; lasers are used in supermarket scanners, military and medical applications. This course will focus on the fundamentals of optics, touching on exciting new developments in this constantly evolving field. Students will learn how telescopes and microscopes work and how to measure the refractive indices of materials. We will discuss how polarisation is used in real-world applications such as sunglasses and 3D movies. At the end of the course, we will learn about lasers and state-of-the-art developments in the field of modern optics.

Grade 11/12: Week 4 (July 25–29, 2022)

Solar Cell Physics, Materials, and Devices | Week 4: Grade 9/10 *registration closed*

In the last decade, solar generation of electricity has gone from being “the future” to the present. Whether driven by concerns of climate change, air pollution, or energy independence, solar cells have become commonplace and prices have decreased exponentially. As of 2016, more solar generated electricity infrastructure is being installed than any other single source. In this course, students will focus on the fundamental physics behind solar cells, the different types of solar cells (including next generation technologies), and their fabrication. Students will also be discussing solar cell installations, their use in architecture, and the impact of solar energy on society. Students will learn through demonstration, experimentation, problem-solving, and fabrication of a simple solar cell.

Grade 9/10: Week 4 (July 25–29, 2022)

Computational Physics | Week 2: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

When faced with equations that cannot be solved exactly, physicists and engineers need to turn to numerical methods to simulate the behaviour of physical systems. Thankfully, with advances in technology, calculations which were previously near-impossible by hand can now be performed by computers in a fraction of a second. From calculating the states of subatomic particles, to predicting the weather, to solving equations of motion for planets orbiting stars, numerical methods can simulate a wide variety of physical systems. This course will teach you how to write computer programs in Python to solve the equations that govern the motion of several different physical systems. You will also be introduced to exciting topics in modern physics such as quantum mechanics, and special relativity, along with the mathematics necessary to better understand them. Over the course of the week, you will have a chance to work in small groups and choose one (or more) of several physical systems to simulate using Python. This course assumes no prior knowledge of Python.

Grade 11/12: Week 2 (July 11-15, 2022)

Foundations of Quantum Mechanics | Week 3: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Come and explore the ideas that have shaped the most successful quantitative theory ever! Quantum mechanics is the basis of our universe. Through this perspective, we will be able to observe the strange, but wonderful world that surrounds us. This course will present a rigorous introduction to both the theoretical and experimental sides of quantum mechanics. Through this, we will be able to discuss the implications of this theory and explore such topics as quantum entanglement, cloning, quantum computers, and much more. This is an advanced course that requires math proficiency.

Grade 11/12: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)

Research in Autonomous Robots (RAR)

Self-Driving Robots | Week 2: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Self-driving cars are one of the most significant technological advances in recent years. Some of the most innovative companies in the world (i.e. Google, Tesla, Uber) are actively employing this technology in their business model. Already we are starting to see their impact on transportation, urban planning, and ethics. In another 10 years, who knows how this technology will change our daily routines. This course we will discuss the theory behind self-driving cars, particularly focusing on localization, control, and path finding algorithms. Students will be provided with premade robots for which they will explore high-level artificial intelligence programming techniques to intelligently integrate sensors with their robots. The course will conclude with a final competition where students will design, build, and implement a self-driving algorithm for autonomous maze navigation.

Grade 11/12: Week 2 (July 11–15, 2022)

DEEP Robotics Competition | Week 3: Grade 11/12 *registration closed*

Students are invited to join us for the ultimate robotics design challenge! Bring the imagination and creativity and we’ll give you the knowledge, parts, and electronics to make a robot for competition. Using 3D computer-aided design (CAD) software, students will work in small groups to design the most effective robot to win. In this design challenge, students will work through the entire engineering design process, from ideas to CAD models to prototypes and to a final design. On the last day, there will be a competition between designs to see who comes on top. Good luck and may the best robot win!

Grade 11/12: Week 3 (July 18–22, 2022)

Applications for DEEP Summer Academy 2022 are closed.

HOW TO APPLY

Step #1: Email outreach@engineering.utoronto.ca with:

- The name of the course(s) of interest. Please note that only applications noting courses with current availability will be considered.
- Attach supplementary documents:

1. A recent report card or unofficial transcript showing the most recent or final grades from in-progress or completed science and math courses.
2. A statement of interest (a short essay explaining why you want to attend DEEP).

A $50 application fee will be charged to post-deadline applications when assessed.

Incomplete applications will not be evaluated. Application fees for incomplete applications will not be refunded.

Step #2: Wait to hear the results of your application.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Applicants can expect to learn the outcome of their application approximately two weeks from submission of application form, transcript/report card, and statement of interest.

Students who have been admitted into the program will receive instructions for next steps including course selection and registration.

Course selection for admitted students:

Read the course descriptions to inform your course selections. Please note: only one course can be taken each week.

Registration for each course is only secured when you have completed the online course-registration form, and made the $50 per-course, non-refundable deposit.

Course eligibility is calculated based on the most recent grade completed in the 2021-2022 school year.

The deadline for payment of outstanding balances is 10 days prior to the start of each course. Any unpaid registrations will be released on this date.

Creating an Active Account:

If this is your first time registering for one of our programs, you will be prompted to create an Active account as you register. If you are successful in getting a spot in the workshop, your spot will be held for you as you complete the registration form, so no need to rush.

Please note that it is not possible to create an account before the applications are open.

TUITION FEES

Tuition for Domestic students is $550 per week.

Tuition for International students is $845 per week.

A $225 discount is applied after registration to any student who registers for all four weeks.

Bursary Application

Bursaries are available to Canadian citizens, permanent residents and protected persons who demonstrate financial need. To find out more about our bursary application process and to apply, please click here.

To ensure that the highest number of students have the opportunity to attend DEEP, we are currently forecasting that we will be able to provide bursary support for up to 2 courses per recipient.

Cancellation Policy

DEEP Application Fees are non-refundable.

A $50 non-refundable deposit for each registration, per course, is due at time of course registration. The balance of tuition will be due 10 days prior to the start of each course.

FAQ

Can I stay in residence for DEEP 2022?

The residence program will not be offered in 2022.

What is Engineering Outreach's current COVID-19 policy?

The Engineering Outreach Office is following the COVID-19 guidance laid out by the University of Toronto. Please see UTogether for the most up-to-date information. As the University determines procedure and policy for the summer term we will update participants prior to the program start date (with as much notice as possible).

Where will DEEP 2022 take place?

Deep Summer Academy will be taking place in-person, at the St. George Campus of the University of Toronto.

This program is not delivered virtually, or in a hybrid format.

Can students starting grade 9 in September 2022 apply?

Applicants must have been in grades 9 to 12 in the 2021–2022 school year to be eligible to apply for DEEP 2022.

Are lunches and snacks provided?

We do not offer a meal plan for DEEP Summer Academy 2022. Students are asked to either bring their own packed lunch or purchase a lunch at a local vendor during the unsupervised lunch period.

Do you have questions about DEEP Summer Academy?

Join the Mailing List

Be the first to know about registrations, new programs and important dates!

Join the Mailing List

Name
First Last
Email*
Enter Email Confirm Email