Higher Education : Innovation + Job News

With the help of the provincial government, and in conjunction with private sector partner Schneider Electric, Ryerson University will soon be launching a new laboratory dedicated to smart grid innovations.

A smart grid is simply one that gathers fine-grained information about electricity users—where they are, what their usage patterns are, when peak and lower demand times are, and so on—and uses it to more efficiently and effectively distribute power across that grid. It can empower users to be more collaborative energy consumers (by helping us know when the grid is nearing capacity), minimize blackouts and brownouts, and also facilitate the better use of renewable energy as a power source.

The smart grid lab will provide students with a learning ground, so they can receive specialized training in smart grid technology, and also be a research hub, a venue for the development and testing of innovations in smart grid technology.

“Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Energy is committed to solving urban energy challenges,” Sri Krishnan, interim dean of Ryerson's engineering school, emphasized. “Working with Schneider Electric to develop this lab enables us to take this even further and work towards creating innovative solutions within the smart grid technology space, while also providing Ryerson students the benefit of being trained in a state-of-the-art facility."

The lab will be constructed at Ryerson's Centre for Urban Energy, and is scheduled to open in July of 2014.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Matthew Kerry, Marketing and Communications Manager, Centre for Urban Energy, Ryerson University

Toronto has theatre festivals, art festivals, music festivals, food festivals, comedy festivals, vegetarian food festivals--festivals for just about every cultural interest, it seems. But we don't have a science festival, or at least we didn't until now. That will change next month, when the University of Toronto launches what it hopes will become an annual event: the Toronto Science Festival.

Just like all the other festivals we're familiar with, the goal in large part is to demystify, to attract curious members of the public who aren't experts or deeply involved in a certain community, but want to learn more.

"The idea," says Michael Reid, public outreach coordinator for UofT's Dunlap Institute, "was to try and engage people in science in a new way. We run a lot of events that attract a sort of standard audiences--public lectures, tours of our observatory--those tend to attract a crowd of people who are already quite scientifically literate."

The intention with the Toronto Science Festival is to help the public engage with science in some nontraditional ways, to offer scientific programming in new formats, and to use those unexpected formats to help people understand some of the latest innovations and research developments coming out of UofT and other key institutions. (Reid describes it as being something like Luminato, but for all kinds of scientific engagement.)

"Very generally, I don't see a lot of science on the broader cultural landscape," Reid goes on. "There isn't to my knowledge any kind of major science knowledge event that's directed at everybody." Which is why, perhaps, TSF's first year will include such unconventional events as a jazz performance by a climate scientist whose lyrics discuss physics, and a biologically-inspired dance performance by a classical Indian company.

The festival is co-sponsored by the Dunlap Institute and by UofT Science Engagement, a new office created in the past year by the university to try to foster public engagement with science and innovation.

The 2013 Toronto Science Festival will run from September 27–29 at locations across the St. George campus.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Michael Reid, Public Outreach Co-ordinator, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics

Toronto is stocked with an increasing array of incubators, accelerators, mentorship programs, and commercialization programs. But how do you know if you're ready to apply and participate in those full-fledged programs? One way to find out: try out an idea in a low-risk environment, and garner reaction before you get too far along.

Would-be entrepreneurs will have the chance to do just that at Startup Weekend, coming to Toronto August 9-11. Startup Weekends run in cities across the world, organized by a non-profit of the same name, and the goal is simple: help someone launch a startup in just 54 hours.

This upcoming Toronto installment has a theme: education.

"The startup weekends are a movement of entrepreneurs across the world who want to get together and practice the startup process in a really compressed timeframe," explains MaRS education specialist Joseph Wilson, one of the event's co-organizers. "The EDU angle on it is that there's so much interest in the education entrepreneurship space that specific verticals of startup weekends [became appealing]."

Startup Weekend EDU will be the first sector-specific weekend in Toronto, and the first education-themed weekend in Canada. "Toronto and Ontario are very good relatively speaking in education," Wilson continues, "and this has informed the entrepreneurship scene in the city. In the last few years we've seen an explosion of ed tech companies...and there are even more in the water, which we're hoping to draw out with something like this."

The weekend is open to people with a wide variety of skill sets, ranging from developers to designers to educators. The weekend is structured progressively: at the outset anyone can pitch an idea, and then based on the strength of various pitches, teams form around the most promising and work through them throughout the weekend.

"You can't build a product" in a weekend, of course, Wilson concedes. But what you can do, "is push yourself to push out a prototype or a quick beta, to test the concept, to quickly test the idea in the most practical way possible." It's a form of crowdsourcing, in a way, except not to raise money but to establish an idea's viability.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Joseph Wilson, co-organizer, Startup Weekend EDU

"Creative destruction." It's an economics term that captures the dynamic cycle in which economies make progress--develop and integrate innovations and create new sectors and industries--by destroying the previous systems.

It's also the name of a new lab based out of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. That lab has just seen its first cohort of participants complete and eight-month boot camp, designed to give participants the pragmatic knowledge and real-world connections they need to make their ventures flourish.

One distinctive feature of the program is that acceptance in no way guarantees completion: in fact, nearly half of the original group doesn't make it through to the end. Participating ventures, each of which have between one and five members, meet periodically with mentors over the course of the program to establish milestones for their companies' development, and track progress along the way. After each round of meetings, those that are weakest get dropped from the program--of the 18 original participating ventures, only eight completed the program.

Worth noting: those eight now have an equity value estimated at $65 million in total.

Creative Destruction Lab came about, explains its director, Jesse Rodgers, after "looking at the gap that exists in education and research….there's certainly a failure in terms of connecting with [the] right people. The biggest thing that's messing with early stage entrepreneurs is the judgment in how to get where they want to go, and get there faster. They can't get the right mentors, they can't get the right coaches - that's a scarce resource."

As for what distinguished the ventures that successfully completed the program from those that did not, Rodgers says, it came down to one simple element: "Team dynamic. All the ones that didn't make the cut had team issues." It was surprising, he said, just how powerful this factor was, and how universal its influence. "Regardless of industry, the common thing is just the people, and how they work."

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Jesse Rodgers, Director, Creative Destruction Lab

Many of Toronto's growing roster of accelerators, incubation labs, and other innovation centres are based in the downtown core--close to research facilities, universities, hospitals, and other amenities. But we need innovation across the city, and it's with just that goal in mind that a brand new accelerator, the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute, has been launched. The first cohort will begin the program this September.

One thing that organizers are emphasizing with this program in particular is the social and cultural value entrepreneurship can contribute to a community. Accepted fellows will fall into two groups: 10 entrepreneurs will be on a for-profit track, and another 10 on a not-for-profit track. YEDInstitute is hoping to support growth in traditional businesses and in non-profits equally, and is accepting applicants with an a wide range of sectors, from health and wellness to agriculture to real estate.

The goal, explains program director Dana Ayrapetyan, is to help the non-profit sector become more self-sufficient. "It is not as efficient as it could be," she says, and developing a stronger entrepreneurial culture around socially-motivated ventures is important for that reason.

More broadly, the 12-week program was created because the founders saw that "so many of the projects coming out of the current start-up ecosystem…had received seed funding but not necessarily long term business plan preparation, [and] couldn't establish long-term success. Those gems weren't really emerging."

YEDInstitute will combine both academic training with applied skills. Another contrast with other accelerators: selected participants won't receive funding up front, as part of their acceptance, but upon completion of the program they'll pitch the institute's own venture capital fund, for a chance to secure up to $500,000.

Applications are now open, and available online.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Dana Ayrapetyan, Program Director, York Entrepreneurship Development Institute

Correction notice: We originally misdescribed the program as being a project of York University directly. In fact, it is based out of the Schulich Executive Education Centre, but does not belong to York University or the Schulich School of Business.

The most interesting of the opportunities we've seen this week:

The Ontario Brain Institute, a major hub for research and medical commercialization, has two key positions open. They are looking for a knowledge translation lead and a communications lead; both for their outreach program.

Also looking for communications help is TechSoup Canada, which helps organizations with a social mission--non-profits, charities, social enterprises, and the like--make better use of technology. It's an entry level position, and those with compentence in French are particularly encouraged to apply.

In the environmental sector, the University of Toronto's sustainability office, which is charged with improving that institution's sustainability, is hiring a campaign coordinator to support and supervise a team of 10 students. It's a five month contract, but there may be opportunities to extend.

In senior hires, the Royal Ontario Museum is looking for a new managing director of ROM Contemporary Culture (formerly known as the Institute for Contemporary Culture) to take charge of positioning the centre as it evolves.

And in city-building organizations, non-profit 8-80 Cities, which works to make streets, transportation, and public space vibrant and available to all a city's residents, has two positions open: a director to lead some specific projects, and a more junior project coordinator, to support the organization's work.

Do you know of an innovative job opportunity? Let us know!

Entrepreneurship can come at any age--and often it can come very early in a person's working life. Hoping to give a leg up to some of the country's youngest and most promising entrepreneurs is The Next 36, a nine-month program that provides intensive mentorship and support to 36 undergraduates and recent graduates. They've just opened up applications for their 2014 cohort.

Program participants work in teams of three, each of which will develop a business aimed at the mobile technology market.

That doesn't mean that only developers and the technologically-oriented should apply though: participants come from all disciplines. The key quality applicants should demonstrate is leadership, explains marketing and events director Jon French.

It's not the sector that matters so much as the characteristic, someone with the ability to "look at an opportunity or challenge and turn it into a positive," he says. To that end, "a track record of excelling at at least one thing" is the single most important factor Next 36 looks for when selecting its finalists, which have included top athletes and musicians as well as coders and engineers. (In previous years participants have been split into roughly one-third technology majors, one-third business and commerce majors, and one-third students with a background in the humanities.)

While program participants spend their time with Next 36 developing a new business, immediate impact matters less than establishing the skills for long-term success, French says. Their main goal is that in 10 or 15 years, some of Canada's leading entrepreneurs will have come through the program, having learned the hard and soft skills they need to build viable businesses throughout a long entrepreneurial career.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Jon French, Director of Marketing and Events, The Next 36

Ryerson professor Andrew Millward thinks you need a tree in your yard.

He is so convinced, in fact, that he’s gone and developed a very seriously titled online tool, the Ontario Residential Tree Benefits Estimator, to convince you he’s right.

According to a paper the geography professor co-wrote, in which he and his team followed 577 trees to provide 25- and 40-year energy conservation projections, "each tree will save between 435 and 483 kWh per household -- equal to running a dishwasher once every day for an entire year. This can translate into a saving of upwards of $40 annually."

"Trees provide many social, economic and environmental benefits in addition to the energy conservation ones we highlight in our study," he says. "And they require an investment of time and care, especially in the first years following planting. Because large trees deliver the lion’s share of benefits, cities require a collective contribution/will/action to ensure we have large healthy trees in our cities. Tools, such as the estimator we have developed, help make the economic case for care and maintenance of trees."

Users of the tool choose their city, tree species and its location on the property to calculate their own real or potential savings.

The estimator was developed for 27 cities around Ontario, with coding by Nikesh Bhagat from Ryerson’s spatial analysis graduate program. According to Millward, the team -- which also includes Michelle Sawka, Janet MacKay, LEAF and Misha Sarkovich -- would be open to tailoring it for other cities around the country and the world.

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Andrew Millward

Earlier this month, the University of Toronto opened a new plastics research facility at its Mississauga campus. The Centre for Industrial Application of Microcellular Plastics (CIAMP) is dedicated to developing innovative plastic foaming technologies, with a strong focus on their commercial applications.

CIAMP's director is U of T engineering professor Chul Park and foamed plastics are his area of expertise. In a statement announcing the centre's opening, he explained that the goal is to work with commercial partners to develop "lighter weight, stronger plastics that use less raw material."

The centre is set up to conduct large-scale experimentation that will help researchers understand the industrial applications of the technologies they work on, which is key to bringing new materials to market effectively. Commercial uses, Park says, range from the construction and automotive industries to use in household electronics.

CIAMP got off the ground with the help of $9.2 million from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: CIAMP

Created in 2001, Summer Company is a provincial program that helps student entrepreneurs by providing financial support and mentorship to participants to create small businesses during the summer months. The goal is to help participants both with material support, by enabling them to generate income, and to endow them with essential skills they'll need as full-fledged entrepreneurs once their education is completed.

This year, as part of a focus on youth employment in the 2013 budget, the Ontario government is proposing to increase the number of spots available in Summer Company by 20 per cent, going from 500 to 600 positions.

The students who participate in Summer Company range in age from 15 to 29 and their businesses run a huge gamut, from artisanal food production to web development to construction services. Each participant must draw up a business plan and a cash flow forecast as part of the application process.

If accepted, students then go on to learn some business basics, like how to keep books and navigate the regulations in their particular sectors. They receive coaching from local entrepreneurs as they launch their businesses, and also receive up to $3,000 in financial support--some of which is meant to help with the business itself, and some to go towards continued education once the summer is done.

Applications for the 2013 edition of Summer Company will be accepted until June 3. The increased number of spots is contingent on the passage of the provincial budget; a vote on that is expected later this month.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Ministry of Economic Development

Last week the provincial government unveiled its draft budget for the year. A key highlight of that budget: $295 million over two years dedicated to boost youth employment and support initiatives in youth innovation and entrepreneurship.

The budget, which still needs to be passed in the Legislature, includes money for four separate initiatives:

An Ontario Youth Employment Fund, which comprises the bulk of the money: $195 million over two years. The province is proposing to offer incentives to employers to hire young people. Those incentives might include anything from wage subsidies for young workers as they receive training to help with purchasing tools and equipment when jobs require those. It's estimated this will create opportunities for up to 25,000 young Ontarians.

A Youth Entrepreneurship Fund to help support young entrepreneurs as they try to get new enterprises off the ground. This fund is for $45 million over two years, and is projected to created opportunities for 6,000 residents. Among the initiatives included here are mentorship help (matching young entrepreneurs with more experienced businesspeople who can coach them through launch); seed-stage financing (through small loans and grants, and administered through accelerator hubs); and high school outreach specifically for high school students with entrepreneurial interests.

A Youth Innovation Fund, which includes $10 million over two years to support commercialization specifically for post-doctoral fellows working in relevant industrial research areas. This fund also includes another $20 million for on-campus accelerators, including Ryerson's Digital Media Zone and U of T's Impact Centre.

A Business-Labour Connectivity and Training Fund: $25 million over two years, this fund would support pilot programs that help business identify and develop young talent.

The minority Liberal government will need the backing of the NDP in order to pass this budget. Supporting youth employment is part of the New Democrats' platform as well, and they aren't expected to challenge this portion of the budget as negotiations proceed.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan

In 2001, back when many of us were on our first email accounts and nobody had yet dreamed of Wikipedia, a new e-learning company was incorporated in Toronto.

Called NewMindsets, the company was founded to "help improve personal and team work effectiveness by offering situation-based solutions"--that is, with a focus on practical problem-solving strategies. The company's work was based on research conducted by two professors at York's Schulich School of Business, Gareth Morgan and Jean Adams.

Now, NewMindsets has been acquired by Waterloo-based e-learning company ClevrU, which wants to take the insights and content developed by NewMindsets and introduce them to clients internationally.

ClevrU is "in the space of providing a global online learning platform," explains CEO Mark Arnason. Its focus on emerging global markets requires ClevrU to ensure they have everything from servers in their countries of operations to multi-lingual services to mobile-friendly technology that can be easily used by users who may not have ready access to desktop machines. And what they are hoping they can offer those users elsewhere, in the wake of this acquisition, is insight into North American business practices.

NewMindsets' business focus, "especially around leadership learning," Arnason says, is particularly useful in this context. One of ClevrU's markets is China, where they have more than 58,000 users and 130,000 social media followers so far--and where, he goes on, "there is a thirst for North American business content." It's not, Arnason explains, an interest in traditional courses such as accounting, but rather in learning to navigate North American markets. It's the type of softer skill that can be especially important for business leaders who are accustomed to working elsewhere.

NewMindsets and ClevrU were connected in part thanks to MaRS Innovation, which introduced the two companies and helped them work out the details of the acquisition.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Mark Arnason, CEO, ClevrU

Ontario public broadcaster TVO is hiring for two digital positions right now. They are looking for a digital media producer to help create online content and maintain existing TVO websites. For those with more seniority, TVO.org is also looking for a manager to lead the digital team.

Also in broadcasting, the CBC is on the hunt for a mobile developer to maintain current sites and build new mobile web pages.

If you have an interest in the arts, Canadian Stage is looking for a digital marketing manager for the summer (with a possible contract extention) to help develop web content, execute social media campaigns, and provide project management. Small World Music Society is also looking for some communications help: the charity needs a marketing coordinator with a background in graphic design, media relations, and social media.

Friends of the Greenbelt and the Greenbelt fund are a pair of non-profits that work closely together to support the permanent swath of green space that runs through southern Ontario. They are currently seeking a communications manager with at least five years of experience to take the lead on marketing and media relations, as well as an education and outreach specialist to develop an engagement plan for their local food-purchasing program. Meanwhile Fresh City, a Toronto farm, is looking for a research assistant to help them understand the environmental impact of their operations.

In the academic sector, OCAD University needs a manager of graduate studies to provide oversight of their administration and business affairs.

Toronto's best-known incubator, MaRS, is hiring again, this time for a project manager with a particular background in business analytics. Finally, the Centre for Social Innovation, which runs three shared-space facilities across the city, is looking for a manager to take the lead on day-to-day operations at their new Regent Park location.

Are you hiring or do you know of an innovative job opportunity in Toronto? Email Yonge Street's innovation and jobs editor Hamutal Dotan to let her know. 

Frank Stronach paid a visit to George Brown College last month. Usually billionaires tend to visit places such as the University of Toronto or York, but Stronach chose George Brown to highlight the importance of the trades in our economy, an importance often overlooked in favour of more prestigious professions such as law and medicine.

"The college has a long and proud tradition of educating for skilled trades," says Nancy Sherman, the dean of the college’s Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies. "We regularly have information sessions and we can fill a classroom of 50 to 100 with people interested in getting into a trade."

Sherman says for a program like heating and air conditioning, there are "a couple of hundred" people on the waiting list every January and September, with a current limit of 100 to 150.

This is just the tip of the trades and apprenticeships iceberg in Ontario though. She says there are about 120,000 apprenticeships in 160 trades across the province.

For Stronach’s talk, some of Sherman’s students made a solid aluminum block to present to him, in honour of his own first assignment as a tool and die apprentice just blocks from the college’s Casa Loma campus.

"He was very proud of his education as a tradesman," Sherman says of Stronach’s talk, for which he had an audience of about 250 mostly students, but also including other trades luminaries such as Tridel CEO Leo Delzotto. "He thought that everybody should work at some point with their hands."

Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nancy Sherman

There's some good news coming out of the federal government: the University of Toronto has been awarded a total of $7.3 million over the next five years to support eight separate research projects. The money comes via the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), which is the federal government's primary agency for issuing scientific research funds.

The largest grant comes via the Strategic Network Grants (SNG) program, which focuses on supporting research that is likely to have an economic impact on Canada within a decade, and specifically on large-scale collaborative projects that span organizations and disciplines. This $4.4 million grant will go to the Canadian Network for Aquatic Ecosytems, which includes researchers from 11 universities and several government departments, and whose lead researcher is the University of Toronto's Donald Jackson. The network will use the money to investigate how the loss of aquatic biodiversity will affect Canadians—how our services, economy, and industry are changing as a result of environmental stress in aquatic ecosystems. That, said the network in a statement announcing the grant, "will help inform policies on the development of Canada’s natural resources in regions where rapid economic development is underway."

Another $2.9 million will be distributed among seven other projects at the university via a separate grants program. Among the scientists awarded research funds: a chemical engineer studying innovative ways to process pulp and paper mill waste; a materials science researcher exploring efficient light harvesting; and an ecologist examining how to optimize marine protection areas.

Writer: Hamutal Dotan
Source: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada