VOLUME 4 ISSUE 3 SPRING 2002 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING PLUS ENGINEERING BUSINESS SUCCESS: HANA ZALZAL FORMULA SAE: FROM THE CLASSROOM TO THE RACETRACK IN 2.9 SECONDS FUELLING THE FUTURE WITH E R I V S I T HYDROGEN N Y U Skule alumni are confident that hydrogen will be the key to O O F T sustainable energy in the future T O R O N insideskule FEATURES 12 Fuelling the Future with Hydrogen 16 Engineering Business Success: Hana Zalzal 18 Formula SAE: From the Classroom to the Racetrack in 2.9 Seconds 20 Great Teachers 22 UofT Engineers take on International Development 16 18 9 COLUMNS & NEWS 3 From the Dean 4 Research and Graduate Studies 5 For High School Students From the Alumni Office 6 From the Development Office 22 Planned Giving 7 Professional Development 8 8 Skulenews Volume 4, Issue 3, Contributing Editors: Illustration: Sanford Kong copyrighted. Limited portions concerning active participation Spring 2002 Will Cluett, Márta Ecsedi, Printing: General Printers. of its content may be reprinted in Faculty programs, and Cindy Yelle Published in Fall, Winter or reproduced without the comments and suggestions A magazine for alumni, Design: Shelley Frayer/ and Spring as a service to prior written consent of the from readers. students, and friends of the Ireland+Associates alumni, students, and copyright owner only if Please contact: Faculty of Applied Science Principal Photographers: friends of the Faculty of appropriately attributed. Professor Anastasios and Engineering Stephen Frost, Lisa Sakulensky Applied Science and Otherwise, its reproduction Venetsanopoulos, Dean, Editor: Contributing Photographers: Engineering, University of in whole or in substantial Faculty of Applied Science Anastasios N. Venetsanopoulos Cliff Fielder, Alex Kung, Toronto concerning research part by any means without and Engineering, Managing Editor: Rod Lentino, Marie Li, José partnerships, continuing the prior written consent of University of Toronto Christine Szustaczek Liuca, Christine Szustaczek, education, alumni news, the copyright owner is forbid- 35 St. George Street Associate Managing Editor: and Yan Weizblit internship programs, den. Skule TM is a registered Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A4 Ruth Weinstock Contributing Writers: and student activities. trademark of the University Telephone 416-978-3131 Co-ordinating Editor: Christine Szustaczek and Circulation: 33,000 of Toronto Engineering Fax 416-978-4859 Georgette Zinaty Ruth Weinstock ©This publication is Society. We invite inquiries E-mail: [email protected] CANADIAN PUBLICATION MAIL SALES AGREEMENT 1300636 FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCE & ENGINEERING/skulematters from the dean Unprecedented Faculty Renewal Dean Anastasios Venetsanopoulos nyone who has had the experience in North America hiring at this rate. While is a challenge in itself, since our operating of finding a suitable candidate to recruiting top academics is a tremendous budget ($43 million per year) continues fill a job vacancy knows what undertaking, it is one that is vitally important. to be severely constrained. While we are A a difficult task this can be. Research universities such as ours are the eco- extremely proud that we have the largest Hiring academic positions for the Faculty nomic engines of society and are essential for research enterprise in an Engineering school is no exception. Adding to our challenge is a country’s ability to compete in the global in Canada (over $50 million per year), we the need to find candidates for narrowly marketplace. Our professors form and lead must expand it to capture additional grants defined fields of research; the fierce compe- our nation’s research, which is disseminated and contracts to help offset the cost of faculty tition that exists for top talent; and the to industry and society through the conduit renewal and graduate student support. difficulty in making reasonable offers due to of our graduate students. Top professors also Fortunately, a number of other programs a weak dollar and a con- attract the best students are helping us achieve our goals. Over the strained Faculty budget. from around the world. past seven years, our alumni, friends and These are all issues that “The Faculty In order to hire this industrial partners have generously estab- we face at a time of unprece- needs to hire unprecedented number of lished 28 endowed chairs, creating perma- dented faculty renewal. In 90 new professors academics, we must enlarge nent positions for teaching and research. total, the Faculty needs to over the next the pool of candidates and The Federal Government’s Canada Research hire 90 new professors over five years.” proactively make offers to Chairs (CRC) program has allowed us to the next five years. Forty the most exceptional ones, create another ten Tier I (senior) CRC chairs of these positions will only with excellence as our guide. and five Tier II (junior) CRC chairs. Nine cover the retirements we anticipate. We Over the past three years, close to 50% of CRC chairs have been awarded to date, estimate that we need to grow by an addi- the newly hired professors at the Faculty providing Federal Government financial tional 50 faculty members. This growth is have been from visible minorities. We hope support to five Tier I and four Tier II due to the doubling of our enrolment in that this time of unprecedented faculty Canada Research Chairholders. various areas of IT, made possible by the renewal will afford us the opportunity to Our achievement in establishing these Provincial Government’s Access to Oppor- further expand the diversity of our faculty to chairs compares favourably to any of the tunities Program (ATOP). It is also necessary be more representative of the student popu- leading engineering schools on the conti- due to pressures for expansion stemming lation that we serve. This includes a commit- nent. One of every five faculty members will from the impending elimination of OAC ment to hiring a greater number of women occupy such a chair in the near future. (Grade 13) in Ontario high schools and the into academic positions. Having the best faculty is a critical compo- demographic explosion in Toronto. As both universities and industry vie for nent in our vision to build upon our reputa- Ninety professors represent an average- the same talent, the marketplace for aca- tion as a leading research-intensive Faculty sized engineering school. At present, we do demics is increasingly fierce. The Faculty of Engineering in North America, to become not know of any other Faculty of Engineering attempts to offer competitive salaries, which one of the best in the world. e-mail: [email protected] Phone: 416-978-3131 Web site: http: // www.dsp.toronto.edu/~anv SPRING 2002 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 3 from the research & graduate studies office Supporting Our Outstanding Graduate Students Professor Javad Mostaghimi Vice-Dean, Research & Graduate Studies am delighted to begin my six-year almost 1,300 highly motivated graduate term as Vice-Dean, Research & students of exceptional ability, at a time when I Graduate Studies at the Faculty with there is intense competition for the very best the largest engineering research enterprise minds. The large number of major Federal in Canada. My mandate includes oversee- “The graduate programs and Provincial scholarships (over 200) held ing our research mission, graduate studies, by our students is a testament to their of this Faculty are partnerships with industry, and university excellence. Our graduate students go on to attracting a growing number policy as it relates to research and graduate become professors and leaders in major of exceptional young studies. In the long term, my objectives are universities and corporations around the research scientists.” to assist departments to increase doctoral- world. They are the future leaders who will stream enrolment by at least 50% with guaranteed minimum renew education and research in our profession, and throughout funding; to develop close contacts and collaboration with industry; their careers they will be the conduits of knowledge transfer from and to enhance research funding. In a first step toward fulfilling academe to industry. The need to support these students is critical. these plans, we are tracking past research award successes to Over the last few years, graduate student enrolment has been assist faculty members to achieve greater recognition of significant, rising – 10% in the last year alone. We expect enrolment to con- innovative and collaborative research, and mapping graduate tinue to increase significantly as the number of faculty members enrolment trends to support departments in proactive graduate rises and research funding improves. The University has initiated enrolment planning. an excellent program guaranteeing minimum support for doctoral- Research plays a central role in maintaining and enhancing our stream students, which includes first year MASc students and Faculty’s national and international reputation. Graduate students doctoral students in the first four years of study. Our Faculty requires are an integral and indispensable part of the ongoing success of the an additional $2.7 million to meet this important goal. We are research mission of this Faculty. We are fortunate to have attracted seeking additional funds for new graduate scholarship endowments and further research funding. Finding Graduate Enrolment as of November 1, 2001 adequate resources to support our excep- tional graduate students represents both Department Ph.D. M.A.Sc.