TEDx

U of T thinkers deliver big ideas at TEDx Toronto

lanthierj — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 18:33:54 +0000

U of T thinkers deliver big ideas at TEDx Toronto

lanthierj Fri, 10/28/2016 - 14:33

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Calvin Rieder takes the stage at TEDxToronto 2016 to talk about his zero-cost atmospheric water condenser (photo by Engineering Strategic Communications)

Marit Mitchell

Author legacy

Marit Mitchell

Topic

City & Culture

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Alumni

Faculty of Arts & Science

Anthropology

When U of T undergrad Calvin Rieder was just a kid, he went camping with his family. During the night, dew condensed on the inside of his tent, rolled down the fabric wall and made his pillow wet.

To most, this event would mean minor discomfort. But to Rieder, that tiny rivulet of water inspired a design for an atmospheric water condenser – a portable device that pulls clean, drinkable water out of thin air.

Since waking up that morning in his tent, Rieder’s passion for developing sustainable solutions to address the urgent need for clean, potable water in developing nations has led him to become a member of the World Youth Parliament for Water, and was recently named in Plan Canada’s Top 20 Under 20. Now, his drive to promote universal access to clean water has put him centre stage on the famous TEDxToronto red carpet.

“We have to make changes that have sustainable impact — if we don’t, we won’t survive,” he told an audience of more than 1,000 attendees at the October 26 event, organized on the theme of ‘Symbols + Signals’. “I wanted to get clean water to where it’s needed, with no negative impact on the environment.

“I didn’t want to create one problem while trying to solve another, so I thought about three things: accessibility, affordability and sustainability.”

The first morning he went to check on his prototype, he was thrilled by the macabre scene: “The collecting basin was full of drowned flies, and I was delighted that there was enough water in there to do that.”

Professor (and TED speaker) Kang Lee: his new startup will change how we detect emotion

sgupta — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 09:57:40 +0000

Professor (and TED speaker) Kang Lee: his new startup will change how we detect emotion sgupta Thu, 02/18/2016 - 04:57

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(image by Bigstock)

Elizabeth Monier-Williams

Author legacy

Elizabeth Monier-Williams

Topic

Professor Kang Lee of the ��Ƶ’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) is a global leader in research that is changing the way we detect emotion and behavior such as lying.

Now, his startup Nuralogix is taking that research a step further.

Consumer-facing market research studies require a group of people, a product or service for them to experience, and methodology to collect and analyze their feedback. For companies requesting consumer insight to influence a product’s attributes, packaging or promotion, accurate information can make the difference between success and failure.

The catch? The best market research exercises can’t consistently determine when people lie. Well-intentioned subjects may do so to please the interviewer, lie to omit inconsistent information or genuinely misjudge their deeper physiological and emotional responses.

Thanks to the first commercial application for a new patent-pending process to reveal both visible and hidden facial emotions using blood-flow analysis, developed by Lee, market researchers and their clients are one step closer to acquiring more accurate, reliable data.

Lee is a developmental neuroscientist who studies social cognition and behavior, their underlying cognitive-cultural-neural mechanisms, and the development of social perception, focusing on face processing and deception. His work was recently profiled by CBC News. On Feb. 18, 2016, Lee spoke at TED Vancouver about his research.

The invitation to TED’s global event came on the heels of his successful Tedx U of T talk, “Little Liars: Insights from Children’s Lies.”

“I’ve studied human face processing and deception for over two decades,” says Lee. “To facilitate this research, I worked with my postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Paul Zheng, to develop a new imaging technology that uses a conventional video camera to reveal facial blood flow changes when people are experiencing various hidden emotions, including emotions associated with lying. We call our technology Transdermal Optical Imaging. Although it was originally developed to study face processing and deception, this versatile technology has many, many business applications, including to marketing research.”

“We recommended that Dr. Lee target market researchers in his first commercial offering since accurately pinpointing customer preferences and the buy response is such an essential focus for the consumer electronics and food and beverage industries, among others,” says Joel Liederman, MaRS Innovation’s vice-president, Physical Sciences. “I’d like to recognize Shatha Qaqish from our team and Kurtis Scissons from the ��Ƶ for their work in advancing this technology.”

When Lee disclosed his technology to the ��Ƶ’s Innovations and Partnerships Office and MaRS Innovation, commercialization staff from both organizations met with him to understand the invention, develop a go-to-market plan, file patents in key markets, and helped to make introductions to experienced management and investors.

One such introduction was to Marzio Pozzuoli, a Canadian technology entrepreneur. Impressed with the technology, Pozzoli partnered with Dr. Lee, MaRS Innovation and the ��Ƶ to take the technology to market through NuraLogix™ Corporation.

Visit Nuraglogix.com

“I truly believe this company will usher in a new era in man-machine interaction,” says Pozzuoli, now CEO of NuraLogix. “In the very near future, our technology will enable machines to understand how humans are feeling more accurately than any human being can today.”

MaRS Innovation and U of T staff also helped Lee to secure a $115,000 NSERC I2I grant to hire a developer and adapt his existing lab configuration for the technology – which was bulky and required an expensive camera, outside lighting and headset – to a more user-friendly laptop version. Doing so has increased the technology’s processing speed 90 per cent and reduced the time required for data analysis by a factor of three.

NuraLogix has also completed two pilot studies in the food and beverages industry with an Ontario-based company that revealed complementary EQ intelligence to the traditional pen and paper questionnaire. In particular, the studies found inconsistencies in subject feedback and expressed opinions about such qualities as after tastes as compared to the data captured by Lee’s technology.

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TEDXToronto showcases ��Ƶ talent

sgupta — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:23:11 +0000

TEDXToronto showcases ��Ƶ talent sgupta Fri, 10/23/2015 - 11:23

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Nina Mažar, Molly Shoichet and Andrew Peek were just a few of the U of T faculty and alumni sharing their experiences and ideas at the 2015 TEDxToronto conference (Photos courtesy TEDxToronto)

Krisha Ravikantharaja

Author legacy

Krisha Ravikantharaja

Subheadline

The 2015 conference ‘spreading ideas that matter’ from alumni and faculty

This year’s TEDxToronto conference brought 13 speakers to Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning Oct. 22 – and seven were members of the ��Ƶ community.

“We’ve got a story we like to tell, myself included, so here goes.”

With those words, entrepreneur Andrew Peek started the day with a talk about the effect of the changing pace of the world on our willingness to change. The UTSC alumnus co-founded Jet Cooper and founded Pilot, two software companies acquired by Shopify in 2013. (Read more about Peek.)

“Our stories are going to kill us. Already I can tell you they limit us, they hold us down and constrain us,“ said Peek. “Sometimes they even suffocate us. To their credit though, at least they’re consistent. They all follow the same narrative pattern, what we’ve come to call the hero’s journey.”

The U of T-filled lineup that followed Peek included experts in a diverse range of fields, from flight to marketing, medical engineering and more

Molly Shoichet, professor of biomedical engineering and Canada Research Chair in Tissue Engineering. The team of scientists she leads at U of T is designing polymers that are able to deliver nano-scale drugs to specific parts of the brain to repair damaged tissue. (Read more about Shoichet.)

Rev. Brent Hawkes holds a Doctor of Ministry degree, conjointly awarded by U of T and Trinity College. The pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, Hawkes has been a champion of LGBTQ rights for more 20 years. He performed the first legal same-sex marriages in Canada in 2001.

Architecture alumnus Tarek Ibrahim is the founder of Airvinci, a company looking to make flight – particularly through helicopters and drones – more accessible.

Nina Mažar is an associate professor of market at Rotman School of Management. Her research looks at how we are influenced by cues in our environment and how this knowledge can lead to making better decisions. (Read more about Mažar.)

Natalie Panek, who completed her Master of Science in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical/space engineering at U of T, won an internship with NASA’s Goddard Space Centre after her first year in the program. Today, she is an engineer at MDA’s robotics and automation division, and seeks to inspire girls and women into engineering and technology-related careers. (Read more about Panek.)

TEDxToronto is not the only TEDx event showcasing U of T talent this fall. TEDxMississauga which is set to take place on November 28, 2015, will feature Patrick Gunning, an associate professor at UTM and the Canada Research Chair in Medicinal Chemistry. Gunning’s research into anti-cancer drugs which do not kill healthy cells earned him recognition as an Inventor of the Year in 2013 by U of T. (Read more about Gunning.)

Previously a sessional geography lecturer at U of T's Scarborough campus, Zahra Ebrahim is also the principal of archiTEXT, a design think tank which has organized innovation projects with nationwide charities and governing bodies.

And next year you can check out TEDxUTSC on January 20, and TEDxUofT, the university community’s own TEDx event, which takes place on Saturday, March 19, 2016 at the St. Lawrence Theatre in Toronto.

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TEDx at UTSC: tackling big questions

sgupta — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 08:48:43 +0000

TEDx at UTSC: tackling big questions sgupta Wed, 02/04/2015 - 03:48

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Mandekh Hussein at TEDxUTSC (all photos by Ken Jones)

Chris Garbutt

Author legacy

Chris Garbutt

Topic

What is the value of a university education? How can poetry save a life? How do I keep the promise I made to my new friend?

It was a day of tackling big questions, and even small ones with large consequences, at the third TEDxUTSC conference.

U of T Scarborough student Mandekh Hussein set the tone for the day with her presentation, Why ask Why? “It’s not the answers that are important,” she said. “It’s the questions. Ask questions that ignite a fire.”

Brian Harrington, a computer scientist and lecturer at UTSC, said university students can learn to make an impact early, and their classroom studies are only half of the equation. It’s what you do outside the classroom that completes the picture.

Two speakers zeroed in on our lived environment and how it can be sustainable. Donald Schmitt, noted architect and designer of two buildings at UTSC, asked the audience, “Are we happy in the spaces in which we live or are we just working around what we’ve got?” He challenged delegates to demand more of architects – better light, reduced energy use, better views.

Later, David Bristow, a postdoctoral fellow at U of T’s Centre for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure, said the infrastructure we take for granted – from roads to hospitals to wireless communications – is constantly at risk. He said we need to change the way we look at our infrastructure and focus on resilience thinking – adding diversity and redundancy of supply.

For UTSC student Teresa Gomes, making a friend from Northern Bangladesh at an international conference was a spark – one that lit the kind of fire described by Hussein. Gomes made a promise to help the girls of her friend’s village get better access to education.

“There are no boundaries when helping someone,” said Gomes (pictured at right). “Each and every one of us is making an impact on the world.”

Poet and UTSC lecturer Daniel Tysdal led participants in an emotional writing workshop, showing that anyone has the tools to write poetry, and it has the power to express feelings that might otherwise be held inside.

The conference closed with Olympic gold medallist Marnie McBean, who argued that there is no such thing as a superhero. Great things are done by normal people who attack a single thing at a time, she said.

Anyone who couldn’t be at the event could watch it live online, and the livestream is still available on the TEDxUTSC website. The event lit up social media, and the hashtag #TEDxUTSC trended nationally on Twitter.

Chris Garbutt is a writer with the ��Ƶ Scarborough,

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TEDx

U of T thinkers deliver big ideas at TEDx Toronto

Read more about Rieder in The Toronto Star

Professor (and TED speaker) Kang Lee: his new startup will change how we detect emotion

Visit Nuraglogix.com

TEDXToronto showcases ������Ƶ talent

TEDx at UTSC: tackling big questions

TEDXToronto showcases ��Ƶ talent