Media Releases

Engineering students tackle real city problems

April 5, 2010

Toron­to, ON – Ever get lost in the under­ground PATH tun­nels in down­town Toron­to? Fear for your safe­ty when walk­ing near the inter­sec­tion of Spad­i­na Avenue and Dun­das Street? Get blown away by huge wind gusts in the city’s urban wind tun­nels?

Next Mon­day, April 12, 2010, first-year Engi­neer­ing stu­dents at UofT will present their unique and inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to these and oth­er press­ing tran­sit, water and safe­ty issues in the City of Toron­to. Media are invit­ed to the Bahen Cen­tre at UofT between 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to browse the var­i­ous pro­to­types and talk to stu­dents about their cre­ative solu­tions for improv­ing life in Toron­to.

The projects are the cul­mi­na­tion of an assign­ment that began ear­li­er this year, when UofT Engi­neer­ing pro­fes­sors sent near­ly 300 stu­dents to the streets of Toron­to to pin­point usabil­i­ty, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty prob­lems in the city. The goal was to iden­ti­fy prob­lems at a com­mu­ni­ty or a local scale that could still have a big impact on city liv­ing.

“Not only have these stu­dents high­light­ed some of the real prob­lems that cit­i­zens of Toron­to face every sin­gle day, they’ve also come up with incred­i­bly unique and for­ward-think­ing solu­tions,” says Jason Fos­ter, lec­tur­er in the Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing.

EVENT DETAILS:

WHAT: UofT Engi­neer­ing stu­dents present their solu­tions to City of Toron­to prob­lems 

WHERE: Bahen Cen­tre, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, 40 St. George St. 

WHEN: Mon­day, April 12, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it the web­site at
http://engsci.utoronto.ca/esc102showcase/

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Jason Fos­ter, Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing
416–978-7024 (office) or 416–948-1331 (cell)
jason@ecf.utoronto.ca

Alan Chong, Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing
416–978-8512 (office) or 416–464-0959 (cell
Alan.chong@utoronto.ca