Media Releases
Below is a selection of recent press releases. For all the latest news please visit www.utoronto.ca/news
General Inquires +1 (416) 978-0100 Email media.relations@utoronto.ca
Minuum to end battle between mobile screen space and keyboards
TORONTO, ON - Whirlscape Inc., a Canadian tech start-up, has developed Minuum, "the little keyboard for big fingers." Minuum is a tiny, one-dimensional keyboard that frees up mobile screen space while allowing fast, accurate typing. Its specialized, patent-protected auto-correction algorithm corrects highly imprecise typing. This algorithm, based on the touchscreen and wearable device research of company founders, Will Walmsley (researcher) and Khai Truong (associate professor) at the University of Toronto, configures the difference between what you type and what you mean, in real time, getting it right…
Leading authority on drug policy and the war on drugs to speak at the Munk School of Global Affairs
TORONTO, ON – Ethan Nadelmann will be featured at the Centre for Study of the United States at the Munk School giving a talk entitled, “The Rise and Fall of the Global Drug Prohibition Regime.” Ethan Nadelmann will address issues specific to Canada, as well as international matters such as: * Current debate on drug legalization in Latin America * Marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington * Drug policy and the…
Playing action videogames improves visual search
TORONTO, ON — Researchers at the University of Toronto have shown that playing shooting or driving videogames, even for a relatively short time, improves the ability to search for a target hidden among irrelevant distractions in complex scenes. “Recent studies in different labs, including here at the University of Toronto, have shown that playing first-person shooter videogames can enhance other aspects of visual attention,” says psychology professor Ian Spence. “But no one has previously demonstrated that visual search is also improved.”…
Rise Asset Development launches operations in Ottawa through Causeway Work Centre
TORONTO/OTTAWA, ON - Since 2009, Rise Asset Development, with the support of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), has provided microfinancing and mentorship to entrepreneurs with a history of mental health or addiction challenges in the Greater Toronto Area. On March 21, Rise is celebrating its expansion into Ottawa. Rise will operate through Causeway Work Centre as Rise Ottawa. Causeway Work Centre is a community economic development organization that…
Distant planetary system is a super-sized solar system
TORONTO, ON – A team of astronomers, including Quinn Konopacky of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-like planet beyond our Solar System. According to Konopacky, “We have been able to observe this planet in unprecedented detail because of the advanced instrumentation we are using on the Keck II telescope, our groundbreaking observing and data-processing techniques, and because of the nature of the planetary…
Children of divorced parents more likely to start smoking
TORONTO, ON – Both daughters and sons from divorced families are significantly more likely to initiate smoking in comparison to their peers from intact families, shows a new analysis of 19,000 Americans. This University of Toronto study, published online this month in the journal Public Health, shows that men who experienced parental divorce before they turned 18 had 48-per-cent higher odds of ever smoking 100 or more cigarettes than men whose parents did not divorce. Women from divorced families were…
U of T scientists map genome that causes Dutch Elm Disease
TORONTO, ON — Researchers from the University of Toronto and SickKids Research Institute announced today that they have successfully mapped the genes in the fungus that causes Dutch Elm Disease. The researchers believe this is the first time the 30 million DNA letters for the fungus Ophiostoma ulmi have been mapped. The findings, published in this week’s online journal BMC Genomics, could help scientists figure out how to prevent the fungus from destroying elm trees in the future. “Essentially, Dutch…
Burgess shale worm provides crucial missing link
TORONTO, ON - Canada’s 505 million year-old Burgess Shale fossil beds, located in Yoho National Park, have yielded yet another major scientific discovery – this time with the unearthing of a strange phallus-shaped creature. A study to be published online in the journal Nature on March 13 confirms Spartobranchus tenuis is a member of the acorn worms group which are seldom-seen animals that thrive today in the fine sands and mud of shallow and deeper waters. Acorn worms are themselves part of the…
U of T neural networks start-up acquired by Google
TORONTO, ON – Google has picked up a ground-breaking start-up out of the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. University Professor Geoffrey Hinton and two of his graduate students, Alex Krizhevsky and Ilya Sutskever, incorporated DNNresearch Inc. in 2012, and the company has been acquired by Google for its research on deep neural networks. Hinton is world-renowned for his work with neural nets, and this research has profound implications for areas such as speech recognition, computer vision and language…
Rotman problem solving challenge offers full scholarship to MBA applicants
TORONTO, ON – A unique new competition has been launched by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management which provides an opportunity for future Full Time MBA students to experience the School’s model based approach to problem solving and use Integrative Thinking to take a deep dive into a messy, unstructured real-world problem. The winner of the Rotman Problem Solving Challenge will take home the grand prize of full tuition scholarship for the Rotman Full Time MBA program, valued…