SECTION SECTION SECTION 24 INTO THE DEEP 34 GRADUATE 38 RESEARCH 48 ALUMNI 2016 A YEAR Will artificial intelligence OFF THE APP-Y AND ITEMS OF IN REVIEW CHARTS HEALTHY NOTE transform medicine as we A portal for patient The automation of Alumni notes from know it? records medicine around the world THE EDWARD S. ROGERS SR. DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING 3 The future is here PHOTO BY RAINA+WILSON Artificial intelligence is very much a reality — whether you read these pages. Meet three of them who are we are cognizant of its omnipresence or not. Ma- helping us to recruit the next cohort of stellar students chines are presenting us with tailored advertisements on page 12. while we browse the internet, analyzing our financial Our relationships with our industry partners keep us portfolios before suggesting stocks to invest in and informed of industry trends, connect us to real-world adjusting the temperature on our thermostat when applications for our research and help us to prepare we enter our living rooms. But behind every machine the next generation of electrical and computer engi- that “thinks for itself” is a very real person designing neers to meet the demands of the future. One such hardware, writing algorithms and developing software. example of our department’s industrial collaboration is It’s no secret that artificial intelligence systems are our ongoing partnership with Huawei. Various research being used to engage customers and understand groups within the department are working with Huawei their behaviour — look no further than your virtual on an array of topics: from 5G cellular networks to assistant or that customer service chat box on your silicon photonics. Learn more about ongoing research favourite website. But how will artificial intelligence al- collaborations with Huawei on page eight. ter other aspects of our lives? The cover story of this This magazine offers you a panoramic view of the issue, Into the Deep on page 24, explores how one students, faculty, alumni and facilities that collective- researcher in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department ly help our department maintain its position as the of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) is using top-ranked ECE program in Canada and among the artificial intelligence techniques to unlock the secrets best in the world. I hope you will reconnect with the of the human body. department and share your views on the future of Predicting the future is no easy task. Predicting the ECE, whatever the future may hold — you may reach future of technology is nearly impossible. Who would me directly at [email protected]. have guessed even 15 years ago that 140 characters of text could impact an election or that the taxi indus- try would be transformed by a company that does not own a single cab. We are not here to predict the future, but in ECE the future is here: our undergradu- ate students are some of the brightest in the country FARID N. NAJM, and they are developing our technological future as PROFESSOR & CHAIR FEATURES 2016 8 Information Huawei EDITOR ECE professors are collaborating Jessica MacInnis with Huawei on advanced commu- ART DIRECTOR nications technology research from Katina Constantinou, FPGAs to 3D optical circuits Sugar Design PHOTOGRAPHY & ILLUSTRATION Raina+Wilson Kerry Shaw 12 Matt Chase COPY EDITORS Special Envoys Kelly Hayward Current undergraduate students Avivah Wargon act as ambassadors to prospec- tive students and alumni 20 EDITORIAL INQUIRIES ECE Communications Office Tel: 416 978 7997 Employee Number 32 Fax: 416 978 1145 Rami Rahim’s career has taken him from a small [email protected] startup to a publicly traded multinational business but kept him at the same company for nearly 20 years Visit us online: www.ece.utoronto.ca Join the conversation: in ANNUM is published annually by the communications office of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. All material is copyright © 2016, and may not be reprinted without the express written permission of the author. All correspondence and undeliverable copies: ANNUM Magazine The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department 16 24 of Electrical & Computer Engineering Sandford Fleming Building, 10 King’s College Road, Room SFB540 From A to B Into the Deep Toronto, ON M5S 3G4 Update or correct your to CD4 Can artificial intelligence techniques contact information: James Dou is helping people with teach us about the human body? 416 978 1999 or email [email protected] HIV manage and monitor their disease in remote areas around Publication Agreement No: 42887022 the world ISSN 2368-7037 Printed in Canada by Flash Reproductions. 5 SECTIONS 38 RESEARCH App-y and Healthy Accessing healthcare from the palm of your hand 29 41 UNDERGRADUATE INDUSTRY Empowering Students in ECE’s Newly From Internship Renovated Energy Systems Lab to Industry New lab equipment provides students and researchers with specs they’d find in the real world Partnership How Ali Sheikholeslami maintains a successful collaboration with Fujitsu Laboratories 45 ALUMNI We are effec- Welcome Somen Mondal tively making Meet ECE’s newest member of its Alumni Board of Advisors the world a 34 smaller place; GRADUATE we’re enabling Charting New Territory: people to con- From Masters To MedChart nect and do James Bateman wants to give patients access to business and their medical records with the click of a button keep informed. p. 22 6 ANNUM 2016 OUR STORY Founded in 1909, The Edward S. go on to prominent careers in Rogers Sr. Department of Elec- engineering, finance, medicine, trical & Computer Engineering law and more — their options (ECE) maintains a proud his- are truly unlimited. tory of world-leading research Among our faculty are 28 Fel- and innovative education. We lows of the IEEE, nine Fellows are the top-ranked ECE depart- of the Royal Society of Canada, ment in Canada and home to 13 Fellows of the Canadian 100 professors, 649 graduate Academy of Engineering, and students and 1,513 undergradu- four E.W.R. Steacie Fellows, a ates. Our classrooms, halls and prize awarded to the brightest laboratories hum with energy 1,513 and most promising scientists and creativity. and engineers across the coun- Undergraduate ECE students and professors try. ECE is a hotbed of research work together to solve some commercialization, with more students of the most pressing issues of than 160 inventions disclosed our time — we are recognized and 47 patents filed over the 649 leaders in the fields of smart grid past five years—by far the most technology, mobile application productive department for new Graduate development, next-generation inventions at the University networks, and emerging areas of Toronto. Read on to find out students such as biomedical engineering what makes us the top-ranked and robotics. Our graduates ECE department in Canada. 100 Professors, QS World University including Rankings 2016 Emeritus # # # 71 1 11 27 Post-docs in in North in the Canada America World 51 Electrical & Electrical & Electrical & Admin & Electronic Electronic Electronic Engineering Engineering Engineering tech staff 15 #1 #7 #11 Research in in North in the associates Canada America World 8 Computer Computer Computer Science & Science & Science & Visiting Information Information Information Systems Systems Systems professors 7 161 47 11 88 Inventions Patent Startups Percentage out of applications out of of ECE ECE since out of ECE ECE since invention 2011 since 2011 2011 disclosures that include a student inventor TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2016–2017 Engineering & Technology Universities #1 23 IN CANADA #16 Chair titles held by IN NORTH AMERICA ECE faculty in 2015–2016, includ- #31 ing Canada Research IN THE WORLD Chairs, Endowed Research Chairs, Industrial Research Chairs and U of T ACADEMIC RANKING OF WORLD UNIVERSITIES 2016 Distinguished Engineering/Technology & Professor Chairs Computer Sciences #1 $ IN CANADA #21 IN NORTH 55,125 AMERICA Average salary earned by ECE #50 students on PEY IN THE WORLD placements in 2016-2017 8 ANNUM 2016 9 BY JESSICA MACINNIS Huawei is one of the world’s largest information and communications technology companies; their prod- ucts have been deployed in over 170 countries, serving more than a third of the world’s population. The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) is one of Canada’s largest departments of its kind, with pro- fessors working in emerging fields across a number of research areas. So when Huawei’s Canada Research Centre in Ottawa sought to focus on the wireline, wireless, optical and IP networking sectors they looked west to the University of Toronto to partner with some of Canada’s top researchers in advanced computing and communications technology. 10 ANNUM 2016 As one of the largest purchasers of FPGA, and switch context between the different Field-Programmable Gate Arrays applications,” explains Anderson. “This is akin to how a regular processor is able to load and (FPGAs) in the world, it was execute different software programs.” The FPGA unsurprising that Huawei would Virtualization challenge is to develop the hard- want to collaborate with professors ware and software infrastructure that is needed in ECE — the department is home to make this happen. to some of the top researchers in Whether you are on Twitter in your living room, the field. FPGAs are integrated online shopping on your lunch break or using your cell phone on a road trip, you’re triggering circuits that can be programmed, a data request, causing data to travel around the and reprogrammed, after manu- world, making stops at datacentres in different facturing to implement any digital places that run different jobs at the same time. circuit: they provide flexibility Professor Baochun Li is working on making this data move faster — and smarter.