Media Releases

U of T engineering students offer solutions to Toronto’s challenges

April 12, 2013

TORONTO, ON – Bet­ter san­i­ta­tion for Toronto’s food carts, improved TTC emer­gency sys­tems and reduced injuries for con­struc­tion road crews are just some of the goals that first-year U of T Engi­neer­ing stu­dents have set for them­selves. The stu­dents will be shar­ing their ideas in a day-long show­case of design solu­tions and the entire city is wel­come to hear their results.

The show­case is the cul­mi­na­tion of a unique design course in U of T Engineering’s Divi­sion of Engi­neer­ing Sci­ence. Known as Prax­is, stu­dents are encour­aged to iden­ti­fy prob­lems through­out the city that can use new answers. The best projects are iden­ti­fied, and mul­ti­ple teams of stu­dents work to design inno­v­a­tive solu­tions.

The projects under­tak­en this year are:

  • Pre­vent­ing RSI in librar­i­ans
  • Heat stress in fire­fight­ers due to ther­mal pro­tec­tive cloth­ing
  • Devel­op­ing an arthri­tis-friend­ly bicy­cle han­dling sys­tem
  • Exer­cise for low-income chil­dren
  • Hand­writ­ing for Parkinson’s patients
  • Improv­ing the emer­gency sys­tems on the TTC
  • Increas­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty in home­bound seniors of Toron­to
  • Improv­ing road safe­ty for deaf cyclists
  • Improv­ing street food cart san­i­ta­tion
  • Reduc­ing struck-by injuries in the road con­struc­tion indus­try

The show­case is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents to explain their pro­pos­als and get imme­di­ate feed­back from city coun­cil­lors, gov­ern­ment offi­cials, pro­fes­sion­al engi­neers as well as mem­bers of the gen­er­al pub­lic. More infor­ma­tion can be found at http://www.praxis.uoftengineering.com.

EVENT DETAILS

WHAT:    Design for Toron­to Design Show­case

WHEN:     Tues­day, April 16, 2012

WHERE:   Great Hall, Hart House (7 Hart House Cir­cle). Map

PUBLIC SHOWCASE:      9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

MEDIA SHOWCASE:     10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Media mem­bers are wel­come to attend through­out the pub­lic show­case)

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For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Ter­ry Laven­der
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Media Rela­tions Strate­gist
Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416–978-4498
terry.lavender@utoronto.ca
www.engineering.utoronto.ca