FALL 2019 TWEAKING MOLECULES Next-Gen science: Concordia emerging as a leader in synthetic biology JAMES TUPPER COMES HOME > STUDYING FAT > THEY SHOOT! THEY SCORE! An exciting benefit for you as a Concordia University graduate. Get preferred rates and coverage that fits your needs. Take advantage of your You save with alumni benefits. You have access to the TD Insurance preferred Meloche Monnex program. This means you can get preferred insurance rates on a wide range of insurance rates. home, condo, renter’s and car coverage that can be customized for your needs. For over 65 years, TD Insurance has been helping Canadians find quality insurance solutions. Feel confident your coverage fits your needs. Get a quote now. Recommended by HOME | CONDO | CAR | TRAVEL Get a quote and see how much you could save ! Call 1-888-589-5656 or go to tdinsurance.com/concordiaalumni The TD Insurance Meloche Monnex program is underwritten by SECURITY NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY. 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All trade-marks are the property of their respective owners. ® The TD logo and other TD trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank. 5673-1218 AMG AD Ad_Request-Concordia_8-125x10-75_DEC07.indd 1 2018-12-04 3:53 PM GINA CODY SCHOOL LOOKS FORWARD JAMES TUPPER Fast-growing engineering COMES HOME school succeeds with 12 The Concordia grad who had a role Next-Gen approach to in the acclaimed TV drama Big Little burgeoning field. Lies spoke at Homecoming this fall By Joseph Leger 16 and also talked about his pride in being a Canadian in Hollywood. By Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins TWEAKING MOLECULES STUDYING FAT Concordia researchers’ work in the emergent field of synthetic Researchers at Concordia’s biology could someday change PERFORM Centre are changing your life — from improvements the way we look at fat — and in drug delivery to finding how different people have new fuels that could reduce different problems with it. environmental damage. 36 By Marta Samuel By Daniel Bartlett 26 LIVING ON THE AIR THEY SHOOT! THEY SCORE! Concordia grads are all over the airwaves in Canada’s two largest The business of sports is a big one. cities. Five high-profile hosts talk 46 From executives to managers and about their careers — and those now to the NHL’s first female scout, awful early-morning wake-ups. we talk to half a dozen grads who 41 have accomplished a lot. By Richard Burnett By Sean Farrell 10 | WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP By Damon Van Der Linde 22 | URSULA EICKER ON CITIES By Maeve Haldane 52 | FACULTY SPOTLIGHT: SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES By Rachel Andren fall 2019 volume 43 number 2 concordia.ca/magazine COVER: 2 IN GOOD C OMPANY The cover art shows a conceptual image of a DNA molecular structure. (Thinkstock) 5 CAMPAIGN FOR CONCORDIA CORRECTION: 56 ALUMNI NEWS On Page 55 of the Winter 2019 edition of the 60 HONORARY DEGREES Concordia University Magazine, the caption for Photo #8, should have read: “The 1968 Loyola 68 IN MEMORIAM Warriors football team, including Dominic D’Ermo, BA 74, and Richard Jones, BA 65, celebrated its 50th 70 WORDS & MUSIC anniversary at the Loyola Jesuit Hall and Conference Centre.” The magazine regrets the error. 72 ENOUGH SAID IN GOOD COMPANY In Good Company is a series on inspiring grads who work for corporations and non-profits that hire a large number of Concordia alumni. To be featured, please contact us at Heads-up! [email protected] or @ConcordiaAlumni on social media. Concordia grads driving innovation Aura Innovation wants to make fleet drivers’ lives easier, safer SIMONA emergency vehicles. “We lab of Concordia's student followed by an avionics RABINOVITCH can help them reduce fuel branch of the Institute of engineering specialist job at costs, reduce insurance Electrical and Electronics TRU Simulation + Training, startup by Concordia premiums, train drivers Engineers. “The prototype thanks to Concordia’s A grads wants to use more quickly, track them was very much developed Co-op program. heads-up display (HUD) and send information late at night,” Cool says. They met when Hercule technology to improve directly to the windshield.” “We both had jobs, boot- marched into the IEEE the efficiency, safety and Hercule, 26, explains strapping the startup on the Concordia lab looking for bottom lines of commercial that “the business prem- side, any time we had was the right collaborators to vehicle fleets. ise is that we have features devoured by this idea.” get a startup off the ground. With plans to launch we integrate already and the Hercule, who grew up “There was one guy in the this winter, their startup, service we offer is to create in Markham, Ont., says room, typing at the computer Aura Innovation, uses custom HUD features, any- he has always had an wearing slippers,” Hercule “augmented reality and thing our client desires.” entrepreneurial bent. recalls. “He was like, the Internet of Things to The duo started devel- As for Cool, he’s into ‘What do you want?’ ” create a fleet-management oping the concept in 2016 cars and entered the Shortly thereafter, they service,” explains co- during pizza-fueled work aerospace industry with officially partnered up to founder and chief technology sessions at the Electronics a CAE internship in 2014, apply for a startup program officer Tristan Cool, BEng at Concordia’s District 3 (electrical engineering) 17, Innovation Center. They got who started the company into the program, where, Cool with chief executive officer says, “they give mentorship, Gabriel Hercule, BComm help you pitch, speak to in- (attendee). “We offer clients vestors, approach clients.” a dashboard-mounted, It was there they first met heads-up display device that Sujan Soosaithas, BEng projects a hologram onto the (mech.eng.) 09, MEng 18, windshield displaying route their assigned mentor, who information, speed, lane would later come aboard guidance, braking gauge and as the company’s third co- a number of features related founder and chief operating to driving information.” officer (with a focus on While HUD technology mechanical design, manu- can be found in luxury con- facturing and supply chain). ong sumer vehicles, says Cool, K “We’re using an innovative a 26-year-old Montrealer, ong approach for a product that’s H tor Aura’s product is “not just A really disrupting different an interface, but a working aspects of the automotive cceler tool.” By targeting commer- A industry,” says Soosaithas. rinc cial vehicles as their client B “We’re thinking about base – think delivery vans, “THIS COULD NOT BE MORE OF A CONCORDIA INVENTION,” SAYS TRISTAN COOL what the future looks like, (CENTRE), AURA INNOVATION’S CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER. GABRIEL HERCULE semi trucks, taxi drivers, IS AT LEFT; SUJAN SOOSAITHAS IS AT RIGHT. [about] augmented reality, 2 | fall 2019 concordia university magazine (_Insérez _ _ _ un _ nom _ _) human-machine interaction. with former professors in the We’re pushing those Department of Computer and boundaries and I find that Electrical Engineering. really fulfilling.” “I encourage Concordia Things really got roll- developers, engineers and ing in late 2017, when they business students to take the were accepted into London, leap while they're young; it’s England’s Startupbootcamp really not that scary,” says IoT accelerator program (as Cool. “If you have to change HUDlog, their company’s cities, get international as original name). Theirs was soon as possible, build the (_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _) one of nine projects chosen right team and have faith in out of 350 for 2017’s IoT your idea. You’ll get ‘no’ 10 accelerator program. The times more than ‘yes,’ but trio went to London. the yes is always a big win.” BELIEVES “They invested in us,” Soosaithas also values Cool says. “We got really his Concordia ties. “What chummy with the London made the difference for me NOTHING scene, spoke to custom- was the Concordia Institute ers, developed the product of Aerospace Design & and built the team.” (Which Innovation (CIADI),” says IS IMPOSSIBLE now, they say, includes two Soosaithas, who was ac- interns and several contrac- cepted into its internship tors, plus the co-founders.) program back when he was Nominate the entrepreneur Then came a second round a student. This, he adds, of pre-seed funding as part of helped him land a variety of or executive that you think Brinc’s Connected Hardware internships “doing all these deserves to be recognized accelerator program in Hong different things,” which he Déposez une candidature au rcgt.com/prix Kong, where they were ac- feels made his CV stand out as Person of the Year cepted into its spring 2018 to Concordia’s District 3 as program. The trio spent the a possible mentor. “The dif- summer of 2018 there and ference is seen here; that’s rcgt.com/awards visited factories. what attracted [Hercule and d’ici au 30 novembre 2019! Now, Cool says, they’re in Cool] to considering me as the process of “de-bugging, a mentor. I’m part of this doing sales, developing part- project because they consid- nerships and getting ready ered me good enough to be for launch.” Hercule says a mentor, which opened the that now, before seeking door to be a co-founder.” to raise seed funding, data As for Hercule, he is another focus.