John Lorinc / en Serious Play: Video game studies conference to draw global scholars to 茄子直播 Mississauga /news/serious-play-video-game-studies-conference-draw-global-scholars-u-t-mississauga <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Serious Play: Video game studies conference to draw global scholars to 茄子直播 Mississauga</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-08/GettyImages-1388894384-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=a3BHP3_X 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2024-08/GettyImages-1388894384-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=NbR43Qdv 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2024-08/GettyImages-1388894384-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=rKEUl8LH 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-08/GettyImages-1388894384-crop.jpg?h=81d682ee&amp;itok=a3BHP3_X" alt="Woman uses a VR system in a darkened room"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-08-09T15:12:17-04:00" title="Friday, August 9, 2024 - 15:12" class="datetime">Fri, 08/09/2024 - 15:12</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>(photo by&nbsp;NoSystem images/Getty Images)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">茄子直播 Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/video-games" hreflang="en">Video Games</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The 18th annual Serious Play conference will focus on themes such as game development, the use of games in education and the socio-cultural role of games</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>More than 300 scholars from around the world are set to converge at the University of Toronto Mississauga to dig into to the multi-faceted world of video games.</p> <p>The 18th annual <a href="https://seriousplayconf.com">Serious Play conference</a>, scheduled for Aug. 12 to 14, will focus on themes such as game development, the use of games in education and the socio-cultural role of games in a world that increasingly reflects this discipline's choose-your-own adventure ethos.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>"Games are uniquely relevant to our moment in history 鈥&nbsp;and it has nothing to do with their economic impact or the popularity of video games," says Serious Play executive director&nbsp;<strong>Paul Darvasi</strong>,&nbsp;who lectures at 茄子直播鈥檚 Ontario Institute for Studies in Education&nbsp;on the topics of games and learning.&nbsp;</p> <p>"[It has] more to do with us living in a participatory dynamic culture. [Games] are arguably the art form of the 21st century."&nbsp;</p> <p>A long-time attendee, Darvasi and his business partner <strong>Elisa Navarro </strong>took over the conference late last year. They decided to bring the conference to Greater Toronto to take advantage of 茄子直播 Mississauga's <a href="/news/u-t-mississauga-launches-game-studies-program">new&nbsp;game studies program</a>, the campus's extensive&nbsp;<a href="/news/14000-titles-u-t-mississauga-s-syd-bolton-collection-takes-video-game-studies-next-level">Syd Bolton video game collection</a>&nbsp;and the energy emanating from the region's lively game development community.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Alexandra Gillespie</strong>, 茄子直播 vice-president and principal of 茄子直播 Mississauga, will deliver opening remarks as well as host a welcome reception for conference participants, including several 茄子直播 experts.&nbsp;</p> <p>While the global gaming industry grosses more than the music and film sectors combined, the Serious Play participants will be discussing other facets of gaming 鈥 namely the many ways it can be used to improve education, training and other types of learning.&nbsp;</p> <p>"Play is merely the way that nature incentivizes our species to learn," Darvasi says. "Children learn through play. It's a hyper-motivated way for them to engage in practices that are going to prepare them for participation in society."&nbsp;</p> <p>Culturally, he adds, games encompass virtually all the other art forms, including writing, dance, theatre, photography, film, sculpture and painting. Darvasi, who co-owns developer&nbsp;Gold Bug Interactive, describes video games as "this grand opera of human endeavour, which is weird to think about because it gets a bad name that's obscuring its more potent cultural value."&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Lawrence Switzky</strong>,&nbsp;an associate professor in 茄子直播 Mississauga鈥檚 department of English and drama who has been a driving force behind the <a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/english-drama/programs/game-studies">games studies program</a>, uses game development as a way of teaching students about narrative and character, among other themes.&nbsp;</p> <p>"This conference is a great fit for us," Switzky says. "The largest games and learning conference on the continent belongs at UTM because we have the talent and resources to accommodate it, and because we're establishing ourselves as a leader in the field with the Syd Bolton and <a href="https://collections.utm.utoronto.ca/collections/ep-media-ltd.-fonds">Electric Playground </a>collections, our game studies minor and all our programming."&nbsp;</p> <p>The conference will include sessions on games and history education 鈥 including a session on 鈥減laying the past鈥 with 茄子直播 doctoral candidate&nbsp;<strong>Ariana Ellis</strong>, who helped organize <a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/utm-transforms-all-day-play-zone-launch-new-game-studies-program">茄子直播 Mississauga鈥檚 Day of Play event last year</a> 鈥&nbsp;along with virtual reality development, cybersecurity and gamification of climate action for K-12 students.&nbsp;Other sessions will tackle topics ranging from higher education to health care and culture and society.</p> <p>Darvasi notes that Girls Who Game, a non-profit focused on gender and gaming backed by Dell, Microsoft and Intel, will collaborate on a session on esports competitive gaming, which he says has a reputation for being a very male-centric environment.&nbsp;</p> <p>"We're really highlighting the positive participation of women in esports, and we're going to be demonstrating that," he says.&nbsp;</p> <p>Some game development sessions will focus on buzzy technologies like generative AI and large-language models. For example,&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1rem;">some developers are using ChatGPT to build highly complex scenario-based games in which the players participate through prompts to navigate the story. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Darvasi says it's only a matter of time before those games acquire visual elements also generated by algorithmic and user prompts.</span></p> <p>"That's the next step for sure."&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 09 Aug 2024 19:12:17 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 308940 at 茄子直播 Mississauga launches game studies program /news/u-t-mississauga-launches-game-studies-program <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播 Mississauga launches game studies program</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-11/GettyImages-909590410-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=kPwGIijS 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-11/GettyImages-909590410-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=7F--x1-O 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-11/GettyImages-909590410-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=7SGAEIQj 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-11/GettyImages-909590410-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=kPwGIijS" alt="two young men holding video game controllers"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-11-03T09:58:54-04:00" title="Friday, November 3, 2023 - 09:58" class="datetime">Fri, 11/03/2023 - 09:58</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>(photo by&nbsp;Westend61/Getty Images)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">茄子直播 Mississauga</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The game studies minor focuses on both the creation and analysis of games</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto Mississauga is launching a game studies program that will introduce students to the world of games from cultural, artistic and technological perspectives&nbsp;鈥 and prepare them for graduate studies and careers in the burgeoning gaming industry.</p> <p>From narrative, design and business to the methodologies of testing, role-playing and the use of video game engines, the <a href="https://utm.calendar.utoronto.ca/program/ermin2023">new game studies minor</a> cuts across a wide range of disciplines.</p> <p>The program is being offered by the department of English and drama in collaboration with the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology</p> <p>"Play and games are as old as recorded history," says&nbsp;<strong>Christopher Young</strong>, head of collections and digital scholarship at the 茄子直播 Mississauga Library. "Some of the oldest artifacts and objects [are] dice or cuneiform tablets with rules on them. That speaks to how universal play is and formalizing it into a game that's based on the cultural and political history of the people at that time."&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>The launch of the game studies minor is the latest example of 茄子直播 Mississauga鈥檚 growing presence and influence in game studies scholarship and research. In 2020, the university acquired the <a href="/news/14000-titles-u-t-mississauga-s-syd-bolton-collection-takes-video-game-studies-next-level">Syd Bolton Collection</a>, a comprehensive academic collection of video games comprising over 14,000 titles. Earlier this week, 茄子直播 Mississauga also acquired access to the archives of Electric Playground, a long-running Canadian video game show.</p> <p>The two collections, cataloguing of which is almost complete, serve as a research tool.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>An important theme that runs through the learning is that play, which is often seen as an activity for children, actually and appropriately intersects with life in all its ages and stages. "To my mind, play is not preparation for what you do later on in life," says <strong>Lawrence Switzky</strong>, an associate professor in the department of English and drama.</p> <p>鈥淧lay transforms us and it transforms the spaces we move in,鈥 adds Young, who is also the chief archivist of the Syd Bolton and Electric Playgrounds collections.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-left"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-11/utm-day-of-play-map-schedule-3a-crop.jpg" width="400" height="495" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> </div> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> <p>The Student Centre at 茄子直播 Mississauga will see such a transformation this Thursday, Nov. 9, converting into a giant play zone as part of a <a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cdrs/utm-day-play">Day of Play</a> that marks the launch of the game studies program.</p> <p>From giant Jenga blocks and an inflatable obstacle course to a huge hopscotch court, a storytelling hub and of course, video games, the Day of Play will offer a range of interactive and playful activities for students, faculty and members of the public. The event will be followed by a symposium&nbsp;on the role of games in our society.</p> <p>Switzky says the goal is to "establish and promote UTM as a place where game studies, teaching and research and experiential education [happen] by making the campus come alive with games."&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>For Young, infusing play and playfulness into campus life will offer a respite from the usual.</p> <p>"If this can make people not think about what's happening for five minutes and bring a playful experience that makes their day better, I'm all for that," says Young. "Hopefully, that is the experience people will get from engaging in some of these different spaces."&nbsp;</p> <p><em>The Game Studies launch and symposium takes place in the 茄子直播 Mississauga Library and online on Nov. 9, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Students, faculty and members of the public can <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/utm-game-studies-launch-tickets-740368310547?aff=oddtdtcreator">register for the free event here</a>.</em></p> <p><em>For a full list of Day of Play activities, please <a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/cdrs/utm-day-play">visit the&nbsp;info page</a>.</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:58:54 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 304261 at So you want to build a startup? Canada鈥檚 top entrepreneurs offer 茄子直播 10 tips /news/so-you-want-build-startup-canada-s-top-entrepreneurs-offer-u-t-10-tips <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">So you want to build a startup? Canada鈥檚 top entrepreneurs offer 茄子直播 10 tips</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-27-entrepreneurship.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=TLKlq4s5 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-03-27-entrepreneurship.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=prhqmL_g 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-03-27-entrepreneurship.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=LK8_44e0 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-03-27-entrepreneurship.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=TLKlq4s5" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-28T09:22:06-04:00" title="Tuesday, March 28, 2017 - 09:22" class="datetime">Tue, 03/28/2017 - 09:22</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Among 茄子直播鈥檚 better known startups are Nanoleaf, Nymi, Arda Power, Whirlscape and Northern Biologics. Nanoleaf's Gimmy Chu co-founded the company, which develops the world's most energy efficient light bulb (photo by Johnny Guatto). </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/scott-anderson" hreflang="en">Scott Anderson</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/marcia-kaye" hreflang="en">Marcia Kaye</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/marcia-kaye" hreflang="en">Marcia Kaye</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Marcia Kaye, John Lorinc and Scott Anderson</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/creative-destruction-lab" hreflang="en">Creative Destruction Lab</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman" hreflang="en">Rotman</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/impact-centre" hreflang="en">Impact Centre</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Only half of new Canadian companies survive past five years, and only a tiny percentage become global success stories. <strong>Tiff Macklem</strong>, the dean of 茄子直播's Rotman School of Management, has been thinking and writing a lot about how to improve these odds. He doesn鈥檛 believe Canadians are lacking in education or innovative ideas. But he does think we have a problem converting ideas into products and services that people 鈥 lots of people 鈥 want. Where is Canada鈥檚 answer to Spotify (first heard in Sweden) or Skype (founded in Estonia)?</p> <p>鈥淭he crux of our problem is commercialization and scale,鈥 Macklem says.</p> <p>In his view, what Canadian startups are missing is great business judgment, which, as he points out, is not easy to acquire: 鈥淎 new venture cannot simply go downtown and purchase a unit of business judgment,鈥 he says.</p> <p>To address this, the 茄子直播 Entrepreneurship network of incubators, accelerators and programs, including at Rotman, are connecting fledgling companies with expert mentors to provide the kind of hands-on advice they鈥檒l need to get through those perilous first few years 鈥 and, with any luck, eventually compete on a global scale.</p> <p>Here are&nbsp;facts about 茄子直播 startups:</p> <ul> <li>Between 2013 and 2015, researchers at 茄子直播 and its partner hospitals created an average of one new invention every 21 hours and filed a new patent application an average of about once every five days</li> <li>About three quarters of 茄子直播 inventions are co-developed by students or post-docs</li> <li>茄子直播 offers 68 courses covering various aspects of entrepreneurship.</li> </ul> <p>For&nbsp;&nbsp;Entrepreneurship @ 茄子直播 Week,&nbsp;some of Canada鈥檚&nbsp;top entrepreneurs share&nbsp;lessons they learned on the path to success.</p> <h3><a href="http://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/entrepreneurshipweek/">Learn more about&nbsp;Entrepreneurship@UofT Week</a></h3> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 1:&nbsp;鈥淎s an entrepreneur, the best product you can build is yourself鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3957 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Allen%20Lau.jpg?itok=9wi-r7Co" style="width: 200px; height: 201px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Allen Lau</strong>&nbsp;is the CEO and co-founder of Wattpad, an online story-sharing community with 45 million monthly users.&nbsp;</p> <p>In the early days of Wattpad, 茄子直播 alumnus Lau had everything under control. He and co-founder <strong>Ivan Yuen</strong> had come up with the idea, developed the technology and written the code. They now waited for readers and writers to flock to it and&nbsp;advertising revenue to pour in. It took a while.</p> <p>That first year, 2006, Wattpad had barely a thousand users. Over the next couple of years, however, interest grew and so did the company. But Lau discovered that while he was proficient on the technology side, in other skills 鈥 marketing and publicity, raising capital 鈥 he was less competent.</p> <p>Or as he puts it:&nbsp;鈥淚 was horrible! I realized that if I wanted to scale the company, I had to scale myself,鈥 in other words, quickly acquire new skills with each phase of the company鈥檚 growth. When Wattpad needed more employees, Lau suddenly had to learn through trial and error how to hire people, then how to delegate. When the company required more than one engineer or marketer, he needed to hire team leaders, which meant he had to become a leader himself.</p> <p>鈥淎nd that鈥檚 a very different skill set.鈥</p> <p>Approaching investors required different expertise again. 鈥淲hen I approached 40 potential investors, 39 said no,鈥 Lau says. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 because the idea wasn鈥檛 good but because I failed to communicate it.鈥 With practice, his pitch kept improving. As Wattpad grew, Lau鈥檚 job shifted to communications and strategy. Now with a staff of 130 and with 45 million monthly users (even CanLit star<strong> Margaret Atwood </strong>has published new work on the site), Wattpad has moved toward becoming a global entertainment company, partnering to co-produce original Wattpad stories for movies and TV.</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like every year I鈥檓 getting a new job, which can be very daunting if you鈥檙e not good at self-learning,鈥 Lau says.&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 2: 鈥淔ind a business idea you feel passionate about鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3962 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/cynthia-goh.jpg?itok=KFwxHzUW" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Cynthia Goh</strong> is the academic director of University of Toronto Entrepreneurship and the founding director of 茄子直播鈥檚 Impact Centre, a business incubator.</p> <p>A serial entrepreneur herself, she has assisted at the births of 136 startups. From her perspective as an&nbsp;entrepreneur and a mentor, Goh looks for a certain special enthusiasm as a major predictor of success.</p> <p>鈥淭he most important thing is passion. Not for making money, but for the idea.鈥</p> <p>No matter how awesome your&nbsp;business concept, she says, if you don鈥檛 believe in it strongly enough, you鈥檒l give up at the first obstacle.</p> <p>鈥淏eing an entrepreneur can be a tough road&nbsp;so you鈥檝e got to be fuelled by passion.鈥</p> <p>She cites a recent 茄子直播 success story. Adrenalease sells performance clothing that realigns posture, and Goh credits the infectious enthusiasm of founder and president <strong>Noureddin Chahrour</strong>, a kinesiology grad, for the company鈥檚 early achievements.</p> <p>鈥淗e is obsessed with muscles, and how they function,鈥 Goh says.</p> <p>In 2015, that passion helped persuade four of the five venture capitalists on CBC-TV鈥檚 <em>Dragons鈥 Den</em> to offer him deals.&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 3: 鈥淕et an advanced degree, and set audacious goals鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3964 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/kristjan1.jpg?itok=DE-D-V-a" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Kristjan Sigurdson</strong> is the associate director of the Creative Destruction Lab and a PhD candidate at the Rotman School of Management. Launched in 2012, the Creative Destruction Lab鈥檚 nine-month program pairs startup founders with experienced technology entrepreneurs and investors. The program, based at Rotman, is designed for early-stage, science-based technology companies.</p> <p>Having an advanced degree and setting audacious goals for your startup gives you three important advantages, says&nbsp;Sigurdson. First, your deep expertise gives you the credibility to go into a meeting with investors, teach them something about the future of science or technology and convince them that you can meet your goals.</p> <p>鈥淚f you do that successfully, they鈥檙e probably going to want to take another meeting with you.鈥</p> <p>Second, it enables you to hire others with deep expertise in your field. If you have an MBA but no experience in quantum physics, it鈥檚 difficult to recruit someone with a PhD in quantum physics, Sigurdson observes.</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 easier to learn how to run a company than it is to become a leading expert in a field.鈥</p> <p>Third, when your company trajectory invariably changes 鈥 because of an obstacle you couldn鈥檛 anticipate 鈥 it鈥檚 easier to adapt if you have a deep well of knowledge to draw from and a network<br> of like-minded experts to help you. Sigurdson offers the example of a founder working with the Creative Destruction Lab whose audacious goal is to build a next-generation quantum computer that uses off-the-shelf components and works at room temperature (most quantum computing research is conducted at low temperatures). The founder has a PhD in quantum information theory and a large network of collaborators in multiple countries.</p> <p>鈥淚f he just had an undergraduate degree in physics and a faculty adviser 鈥 or an MBA and a business plan 鈥 he wouldn鈥檛 have lasted long in a room with investors,鈥 says Sigurdson. 鈥淎nd the audacious goal will help him to attract the top-notch talent he鈥檒l need to succeed.鈥&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 4: 鈥淎ccept that sometimes you鈥檒l be unlucky, and move on鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3969 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/daniel.debow_.jpg?itok=eme14US3" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Daniel Debow</strong> is a serial entrepreneur and an adjunct professor of law at 茄子直播. A member of the teams that founded Workbrain and Rypple, Debow and his partners sold Rypple to Salesforce in 2012, but Debow stayed on for three years to oversee emerging technologies. He is currently building a new startup, Helpful.com.</p> <p>鈥淥ne of the most important lessons I learned,鈥 says Debow, 鈥渨as from <strong>David Ossip</strong> (the founder of Workbrain and a 茄子直播 Scarborough alumnus).</p> <p>It was the power of the word 鈥榰nlucky.鈥欌</p> <p>Early in his career, Debow collaborated with Ossip on Workbrain 鈥 a workforce-management software system for companies with a large number of hourly staff.</p> <p>After 18 months of development, they鈥檇 finally landed British Airways as a customer and Ossip was planning to attend an airline conference in order to pitch new clients. But the day he was scheduled to travel was Sept. 11, 2001. He never got to the conference, and the terrorist attacks sent the aviation industry into a years-long tailspin. No one was buying new systems.</p> <p>鈥淒avid just said, 鈥榰nlucky,鈥 and we went off and built another plan.鈥 The point, Debow says, is that entrepreneurs like Ossip don鈥檛 dwell on unforeseen disasters,&nbsp;nor do they spend time obsessing<br> over what went wrong.</p> <p>鈥淚 learned you have to take the world as it is, not as you wish it to be,鈥 reflects Debow. 鈥淪tuff happens. You have to respond.鈥</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 5: 鈥淪pend at least one day a week cultivating relationships with investors鈥&nbsp;</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3963 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/lacavera.jpg?itok=3g67reL2" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Anthony Lacavera</strong>&nbsp;is the founder and chairman of the Globalive Group. He also founded Wind Mobile, which was sold in 2015 to Shaw Communications for $1.6&nbsp;billion.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter how good your technology or your team is,鈥 says Lacavera, a 茄子直播 alumnus who&nbsp;in the past 20 years&nbsp;has founded a dozen startups 鈥 mostly in telecommunications and software.</p> <p>鈥淚f you have no capital, someone with technology or a team that鈥檚 not as good but who has capital will beat you 10 times out of 10.鈥</p> <p>Lacavera advises entrepreneurs to continually build relationships with investors by talking to their existing ones, asking for referrals to new ones and cold-calling potential ones. He鈥檚 done that for years, and that鈥檚 why he was able to raise $700 million to start Wind Mobile in 2008.</p> <p>鈥淲ind succeeded not because I鈥檓 a great salesperson or had an unbelievable business. It鈥檚&nbsp;because I was able to raise the capital,鈥 he says.&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 6: 鈥淭est out your ideas in the real world. Don鈥檛 get caught in analysis paralysis鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3960 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/toni-allen.jpg?itok=NAML936B" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Toni Allen</strong> is the founding partner of R3VE Business Design Inc., which specializes in user experience and business innovation.</p> <p>For entrepreneurs pushing themselves to create a unique product, there鈥檚 always a powerful temptation to devote too much time to perfecting a solution, and not enough to getting it out the door.</p> <p>The lesson, according to Allen, a 茄子直播 Mississauga alumna: 鈥淵ou lose opportunities. You have to get out there and test your ideas.鈥</p> <p>Allen鈥檚 five-year-old firm, R3VE, provides user experience, service design and business model innovation to large corporate clients, including banks. Early on, Allen recounts, she was developing a product geared at a specific retailer. Allen had identified the right person to pitch and had created a proposal&nbsp;but waited too long before making her approach, and the ship sailed.</p> <p>This habit of mind 鈥 overplanning 鈥 came from her days working in a large bank&nbsp;where she鈥檇 sought to convince her colleagues that they needed to focus on the way design and technology overlap in the delivery of financial services. In that setting, she recalls, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know how to pitch ideas and make a business case.鈥</p> <p>Those early instincts about the opportunity for leveraging design thinking and user experience principles in the financial services market proved to be correct and provided the impetus for R3VE. But her insights only became a viable business when she got herself in front of customers: 鈥淲hen you have an idea, you need to try it and test it. Don鈥檛 get caught in analysis paralysis.鈥</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 7: 鈥淐hoose your business partners carefully and communicate openly and honestly with each other鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3958 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/sonya.jpg?itok=gybOuAmY" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Sonya Amin</strong> is the director, client services, of AXS Studio, which she co-founded in 2004 with fellow 茄子直播 alumni&nbsp;<strong>Eddy Xuan</strong> and <strong>Jason Sharpe</strong>. With 15 employees at its downtown Toronto office, the company creates visuals for teaching science and life sciences, including illustrations, animations and interactive applications.</p> <p>In hindsight, says Amin, she was lucky. She and her two business partners share the same goals for AXS Studio and their individual strengths complement each other. But they didn鈥檛 spend much time planning it that way, she admits.</p> <p>鈥淲e went into it as a dream that three classmates shared when they were in school.鈥</p> <p>What they did have was trust in each other 鈥 crucial for a relationship that, like a marriage, will be sorely tested at times, says Amin.</p> <p>鈥淚f you don鈥檛 trust your partner with your life then you shouldn鈥檛 be getting into business together.鈥</p> <p>Amin says the ability to speak openly and honestly with each other is paramount 鈥 a lesson the AXS Studio founders learned when it became apparent that they were not aligned on how they<br> defined growth for their company.</p> <p>鈥淲e had to have a candid conversation&nbsp;and managed to get to the heart of the matter: AXS鈥檚 goals needed to be aligned with our rarely discussed personal goals.鈥</p> <p>This realization prompted the partners&nbsp;to emphasize open and clear communication with their employees as well.</p> <p>鈥淲hen we hear of anyone talking vaguely, or if we suspect that people might be working at cross-purposes, we stop and look at it more closely,鈥 she says. 鈥淭his has helped in lots of different<br> areas from human resources to day-today production.鈥</p> <p>Amin credits the 茄子直播 biomedical communications program with enabling students like her&nbsp;with an aptitude for both art and science, to make a career out of their dual loves. The program is<br> also very practical, she says, adding that staff recommended clients when she and her co-founders launched AXS Studio.</p> <p>鈥淭hey鈥檙e amazingly supportive of their students.鈥</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 8: 鈥淒on鈥檛 mistake expressions of interest from potential customers as evidence that you鈥檝e tapped into a viable market鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3968 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/karl.martin.jpg?itok=WrQ49AJT" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Karl Martin </strong>is the co-founder and chief technology officer for Nymi, a tech company that allows users to gain access to their devices by wearing a wristband that detects their unique heart pattern.</p> <p>Throughout 2015, executives for Nymi, a Toronto firm that鈥檚 developed a wristband security device, were doing the rounds, talking up their technology to potential customers. At meeting after meeting, recalls Martin, they鈥檇 hear the same thing: we love your technology, which allows wearers to log onto a range of computer devices by detecting unique heartbeat patterns, but we need more features and capabilities.</p> <p>As the 茄子直播 alumnus recounts, he and his team were energized by all that interest, but they had big challenges taking the next step, which was to really figure out how to hone the positioning of their device to fit the needs of specific users.</p> <p>Indeed, says Martin, it was only after Nymi started getting orders from pharmaceutical manufacturers that he realized what the stumbling block had been. In ordinary office settings, there was no way to compel employees to wear the wristbands. But in the controlled environment of a manufacturing facility, where workers are required to wear sterile and protective gear, that problem evaporated. And so did the sales roadblock.</p> <p>The lesson, Martin observes, is that many entrepreneurs whose startups are transitioning from research and development to marketing glom onto the slightest spark of interest from potential customers as evidence that the firm is ready to lift off.</p> <p>鈥淩ecognize that you usually think you have a product-market fit before you actually do.鈥&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 9: 鈥淏e prepared to act quickly when faced with a big challenge鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3966 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/kim.shannon.jpg?itok=JXoqsEZT" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Kim Shannon</strong> is the founder, president and co-chief investment officer of Sionna Investment Managers, which has assets of $5 billion.</p> <p>As Sionna Investment Managers has grown over the past 15 years, says Shannon, so has her need to be adaptable.</p> <p>鈥淵ou have to keep nimble as issues emerge because you never know what鈥檚 around the corner.鈥</p> <p>One of the most significant challenges happened when her biggest client 鈥 a fund company representing 90 per cent of her business 鈥 asked her to lower her rates for them.</p> <p>鈥淲e fired them,鈥 Shannon says. A risky move indeed, but she knew that working with a difficult or controlling client didn鈥檛 fit with her long-term goals for the company.</p> <p>It was a tense time&nbsp;but a brief one. Soon other interested companies began approaching Sionna.</p> <p>鈥淏efore, those companies hadn鈥檛 wanted to be secondary clients,鈥 she explains. 鈥淏ut once the big one was gone, we had people coming to us. They actually admired us for what we鈥檇 done.鈥</p> <p>Sionna quickly diversified its client base and expanded the business. Ultimately, Shannon mended relations with the big client, and she now includes the company鈥檚 stock in Sionna鈥檚 portfolios.</p> <p>While she was a student at 茄子直播, Shannon served on student council, launched a women鈥檚 newspaper and started a peer-counselling program. She credits her volunteer activities for building<br> her skills in organization, leadership and collaboration.</p> <p>鈥淚f you have volunteer experience, your career progress will be much faster,鈥 she says. 鈥淢any successful people I see in business were once student leaders.鈥</p> <hr> <p><u><strong>No. 10: 鈥淪kate to where the puck is going鈥</strong></u></p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3961 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/serbinis.jpg?itok=N446YZUU" style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image"><strong>Michael Serbinis</strong> is the the founder and CEO of League, a digital health insurance platform. Previously, he co-founded Kobo, the e-reader service.&nbsp;</p> <p>When Serbinis thinks about the long-term goals for his company, he envisions a trillion-dollar global market.</p> <p>鈥淥ur goal,鈥 he says 鈥渋s to disrupt an age-old insurance industry with a new philosophy focused on empowering people to be healthy every day.鈥</p> <p>As the head of a startup, though, Serbinis needs to balance his long-term ambitions with the smaller challenges he and his team face every day. As with all startups, League staff are building product, hiring and firing staff, landing the next customer, making payroll, meeting investors and more.</p> <p>鈥淚t never stops, and it is pretty easy to get caught up in the short term,鈥 says Serbinis.</p> <p>鈥淏ut you have to keep your eye on the prize. I do that by having very clear long-term objectives that I repeat over and over to myself and the team. We regularly review our plans and brainstorm: What鈥檚 it going to take to meet our long-term goals? What are the risks, and what are the opportunities?鈥</p> <p>Serbinis says it鈥檚 important to make bets on the future.</p> <p>鈥淎s CEO, you cannot be consumed by today. You need to be putting in place the infrastructure that is going to help you scale. You need to be setting up enablers that will help your team three, six, nine and 12 months out.鈥</p> <p>Reflecting on his time as a grad student at 茄子直播, Serbinis says his supervisor was <strong>Joseph Paradi</strong>, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur who built Dataline, one of the first digital stock-quote platforms in Canada.</p> <p>鈥淗e was my mentor at a time when I had no money, and I didn鈥檛 know what being an entrepreneur meant or how to lead or manage teams,鈥 says Serbinis. 鈥淗e inspired me, and we still keep in touch to this day.鈥&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p><em>Watch for this story and others about entrepreneurship in the Spring 2017 issue of 茄子直播 Magazine.</em></p> <p><em>(Daniel Debow's photo was taken by Jordana Huber, Kim Shannon's photo was taken by Gordon Hawkins and Michael Serbinis photo courtesy of the League)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 28 Mar 2017 13:22:06 +0000 ullahnor 106224 at 茄子直播 grads who co-founded booming startup Exact Media named to "Forbes 30 Under 30 List" /news/u-t-grads-who-co-founded-booming-startup-exact-media-named-forbes-30-under-30-list <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播 grads who co-founded booming startup Exact Media named to "Forbes 30 Under 30 List"</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-01-12-exact%20media.jpg?h=29571366&amp;itok=szfdXlSn 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-01-12-exact%20media.jpg?h=29571366&amp;itok=bbogX6PN 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-01-12-exact%20media.jpg?h=29571366&amp;itok=Fbw-aHAV 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-01-12-exact%20media.jpg?h=29571366&amp;itok=szfdXlSn" alt="Photo of exact media"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-01-12T14:31:08-05:00" title="Thursday, January 12, 2017 - 14:31" class="datetime">Thu, 01/12/2017 - 14:31</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(photo courtesy of Exact Media)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/ken-mcguffin" hreflang="en">Ken McGuffin</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Ken McGuffin and John Lorinc</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/city-culture" hreflang="en">City &amp; Culture</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startup" hreflang="en">Startup</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/forbes" hreflang="en">Forbes</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Other 茄子直播 alums on the list: Shopify's Satish Kanwar, Massdrop's Steve El-Hage, ROSS Intelligence's Jimoh Ovbiagele, and Cover's Ben Aneesh.</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The co-founders of Toronto-based startup Exact Media, which has been described as the Airbnb of marketing, have been named to the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/30-under-30-2017/#31abaa164651">2017 Forbes 30 Under 30</a> list of the young innovators and 鈥渃hange-makers鈥 who are redefining industries from marketing to healthcare and education.&nbsp;</p> <p>They are among several U&nbsp;of T alumni that made it to the list this year. 茄子直播 alumni were&nbsp;recognized in categories like consumer technology, law &amp; policy, marketing and advertising, and retail and ecommerce.<br> &nbsp;<br> <strong>Daniel Rodic</strong>&nbsp;and <strong>Elena Sahakyan</strong>&nbsp;are two of the four&nbsp;co-founders of Exact Media, a Toronto-based&nbsp;e-commerce sampling and coupon company. The two, who are graduates of 茄子直播's Rotman Commerce program, were&nbsp;cited in the marketing and advertising category. &nbsp;</p> <p>Exact Media&nbsp;buys&nbsp;excess space inside parcels that are being delivered to people who have made online purchases. The company then tucks samples of branded products into those spots. Brands pay Exact to find these&nbsp;spaces so that people purchasing towels online may receive a sample of Tide detergent or someone buying a swimsuit may get a bottle of Olay sunscreen.</p> <p>The company's investors include&nbsp;Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, and it serves clients like Coca-Cola, Procter &amp; Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, L'Or茅al, Pfizer and Mondelez,&nbsp;</p> <p>In a recent profile in the Winter 2017 issue of<em> 茄子直播 Magazine</em>, Rodic says his career path was changed when he was accepted into The Next 36, an intensive entrepreneurship program co-founded by <strong>Ajay Agrawal</strong>, the Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management.</p> <p>鈥淭hrough The Next 36, I got funding to start my first business, and that鈥檚 what pushed me toward a more entrepreneurial path,鈥 Rodic says.</p> <p>Rodic says the company grew out of discussions with an executive at Beyond the Rack, an online clothing retailer. The retailer was looking at ways of providing its customers with cosmetics samples. Together, they realized they could slip the samples into Beyond the Rack鈥檚 parcels.</p> <p>With strong financial backing, Exact Media is planning to expand beyond North America within the next 18 months, possibly targeting the United Kingdom, Western Europe or Asia.&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="http://magazine.utoronto.ca/leading-edge/making-money-out-of-thin-air-daniel-rodic-elena-sahakyan-john-lorinc/">Read more about Rodic and Sahakyan</a></h3> <p>Other 茄子直播 alumni who made it on the Forbes list this year include Shopify's director of product&nbsp;<strong>Satish Kanwar</strong> in the all-star alumni category,&nbsp;Massdrop co-founder <strong>Steve El-Hage</strong> in the consumer technology category,&nbsp;ROSS Intelligence co-founder&nbsp;<strong>Jimoh Ovbiagele&nbsp;</strong>in law &amp; policy,&nbsp;and Cover co-founder <strong>Ben Aneesh</strong>.</p> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-scarborough-grad-forbes-top-30-under-30-list">Read more about Satish Kanwar</a></h3> <h3><a href="/news/ibm-watson-competition-u-t-students-create-virtual-legal-researcher">Read more about Ovbiagele</a></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 12 Jan 2017 19:31:08 +0000 ullahnor 103262 at M is for Mystery: The secret science of World War II /news/m-mystery-secret-science-world-war-ii <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">M is for Mystery: The secret science of World War II</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/UTMed_UTArchives_Franks_2003-3-1MS.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Njva5hbz 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/UTMed_UTArchives_Franks_2003-3-1MS.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=uGQpSoI3 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/UTMed_UTArchives_Franks_2003-3-1MS.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=0Y_GfMEH 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/UTMed_UTArchives_Franks_2003-3-1MS.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Njva5hbz" alt="Wilbur Franks poses with his anti-gravity suit"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-06-20T14:01:08-04:00" title="Monday, June 20, 2016 - 14:01" class="datetime">Mon, 06/20/2016 - 14:01</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Wilbur Franks and an anti-gravity suit (University of Toronto Archives / Jack Marshall Photography)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">John Lorinc</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/world-war-ii" hreflang="en">World War II</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><address><em>"What makes for a really good mystery? It&nbsp;isn鈥檛 just an&nbsp;interesting question or sparring with a particularly evil villain. A&nbsp;good mystery is born from the tension that builds as our hero pursues the truth, often against the&nbsp;odds."</em></address> <p>So begins <a href="http://medicine.utoronto.ca/magazine/article/dial-m-medicine">"Dial M for Medicine"</a>, Dean <strong>Trevor Young</strong>'s introduction to the Summer 2016 issue of the award-winning <a href="http://medicine.utoronto.ca/magazine/">Faculty of Medicine Magazine</a>, which this issue focuses on medical mysteries. Over the next few weeks, 茄子直播 News will reprint some of the stories from that issue. Our first mystery, the Secret Science of World War II,&nbsp;is solved by freelance writer and 茄子直播 science graduate&nbsp;<strong>John Lorinc</strong>.</p> <hr> <p>In August 1941,&nbsp;moviegoers flocked to the latest Hollywood war flick called Dive Bomber, which hit theatres months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The film tells the tale of two men 鈥 a Harvard-educated doctor and a seasoned pilot&nbsp;鈥 searching for solutions to the altitude sickness and blackouts that afflicted pilots on dangerous missions. The&nbsp;unlikely pair defied the skeptics and experimented with a 鈥減neumatic belt鈥 meant to keep blood flowing to the brain. The film, audiences were told, was dedicated to the cause of 鈥渁viation medicine.鈥</p> <p>Toronto audiences likely had no idea that the story was an almost eerily accurate retelling of the pioneering, super-secret aviation medicine experiments carried out by University of Toronto researchers at a Royal Canadian Air Force facility on Avenue Road north of Eglinton.</p> <p>The facility was located on the grounds of the former Eglinton Hunt Club, which the RCAF bought for $50,000 to run its training programs. Inside, Professor <strong>Wilbur Franks</strong> (BA 鈥24, MB 鈥28), a U鈥唎f&nbsp;T cancer researcher working for Sir<strong> Frederick Banting</strong> (MB 鈥16, MD 鈥22), used a human centrifuge to test the anti-gravity suit he鈥檇 designed for air force pilots prone to blacking out from intense g-force pressure created by tight turns and nose dives.</p> <p>The suit, which he personally tested at Camp Borden, west of Barrie, Ontario, and later at the Farnborough Airfield in England, was the first of its kind and established Franks as a pivotal figure in the history of aviation medicine. But its development exacted a heavy toll: Banting, one half of the team credited with the discovery of insulin, was killed in a crash in early 1941 in Newfoundland while heading to England to test Franks鈥 invention.</p> <p>So what exactly&nbsp;does an anti-gravity suit protect the body from? When someone is sitting at ground level, not moving, the earth鈥檚 gravitational field exerts what鈥檚 called a 1-g force, equivalent to the weight of that person. But when the same individual is being whipped around on a tight curve on a roller coaster, for example, inertia causes their body and blood to move along the original trajectory, resulting in a sudden increase in centrifugal force.</p> <p>Scientists say that when this increased pressure is double the g-force of a resting body, the individuals鈥 weight at that moment is effectively doubled. At a high g-force, the weight of blood may be several times higher than at rest. The heart, in turn, strains to pump the blood around the body, especially out of the lower extremities and into the brain. Under&nbsp;this g-force strain, an individual experiences reduced vision, temporary blindness and finally loss of consciousness 鈥 a condition known as static hypoxia.</p> <p>According to a 2004 article in the Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education and Research, the increasingly powerful fighter planes that were being developed during the interwar period seemed to be causing more accidents with pilots blacking out at the controls of aircraft that were flying higher and faster than ever before.</p> <p>In the late 1930s, with the war in Europe looming, Banting realized that aviation medicine could play a strategic role in a conflict that would see increased use of bombers and fighter planes. His interest wasn鈥檛 incidental: Banting had served as an army surgeon in World War I and remained an officer in the reserves after the armistice of November 11, 1918.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1312 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/wilburfranks_gsuit.jpg?itok=-xyp-SLM" style="width: 313px; height: 453px; float: left; margin-left: 4px; margin-right: 4px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>Working with the RCAF, Banting moved to create an aviation medicine research team at U鈥唎f&nbsp;T and tapped Franks, whom he鈥檇 met through a mutual friend of Charles Best (BA 鈥21, MA 鈥22, MD 鈥25). At the time, Franks was doing cancer research, which involved the use of a centrifuge for samples. He had noticed that glass test tubes tended to shatter in the device. But when he packed the tubes in water, they were fine.</p> <p>Seconded to Banting鈥檚 project, Franks began thinking about the significance of this modification of a testing technique, and realized the water around the tube created sufficient hydrostatic pressure against the tube to counter the centrifugal force. Perhaps, he thought, the same principle would apply to human tissue.</p> <p>After experimenting with mice at the Banting Institute, Franks in 1939 began developing a rudimentary version of an anti-gravity suit, which was lined with fluid-filled pockets and designed to fit snugly around a pilot鈥檚 legs and torso. To fund the research, Banting had approached an eccentric construction magnate named Harry F. McLean for a $5,000 grant. McLean, an aviation buff who once set out on a round-the-globe flying mission with his personal nurse, was known for wandering around in public, giving away large sums of cash or cheques.</p> <p>Early in 1940, according to 鈥淭he Remotest of Mistresses,鈥 Peter Allen鈥檚 1983 biographical essay on Franks, the researcher took a bespoke version of his invention to Camp Borden and went up with a RCAF pilot. Allen, a commercial flyer and accountant who first met Franks in the mid-1970s, writes that Franks had never even flown before, 鈥渕uch less endured high G aerobatic maneouvers.鈥 But he and Banting were both fearless, and seized with a sense of mission (they had enlisted after Canada declared war and were given officer ranks). 鈥淚t was their mentality,鈥 Allen said in a recent interview. 鈥淭hey just did stuff that was risky.鈥</p> <p>鈥淚n the airplane, I was sitting down,鈥 Franks told Allen. 鈥淸W]hen the pressure hit, I thought [the suit] was going to cut me in two.鈥 Wing Commander D鈥橝rcy Greig, an ace Royal Air Force pilot, also tested the suit during secret flights at Malton in early June 1940. He came to similar conclusions. Allen quotes Greig鈥檚 report in his 1983 essay: 鈥淭he suit in its present form is not a practical proposition.鈥</p> <p>Interestingly, German scientists as early as 1931 had arrived at a the same impasse with their own version of an anti-gravity suit for pilots. They opted to discontinue their research program.</p> <p>Realizing that they needed to refine the invention, Banting and Franks persuaded the RCAF to partner with U鈥唎f&nbsp;T and Victory Aircraft (later Avro) and build a human centrifuge at the Hunt Club facility in 1941. Jordan Bimm, a PhD candidate at York University now completing a doctorate on the history of aerospace medicine, says the centrifuge looked like a giant stand mixer, with an air-tight gondola that could hold one person. The gondola鈥檚 temperature, air pressure and orientation could be altered, with internal sensors monitoring performance. (There are photos of Franks himself in the centrifuge, which was in operation until 1987.)</p> <p>Franks reckoned it was possible to scale down the suit, so the coverage was limited mainly to the legs and buttocks. Bimm says Franks made numerous versions of the suit, up to 鈥淢ark 7.鈥 鈥淭hey refined it many, many times.鈥 U鈥唎f&nbsp;T historian <strong>Michael Bliss</strong> (BA 鈥62, MA 鈥66, PhD 鈥72), in his biography of Banting, described him and Franks as 鈥渢inkerers.鈥</p> <p>鈥淭hey tried things,鈥 Allen says. 鈥淪ometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn鈥檛.鈥</p> <p>Following Banting鈥檚 tragic death in February 1941, Franks finished developing the suit sufficiently, such that the Royal Air Force was prepared to use it in combat. But the Allies regarded the discovery as so significant that they didn鈥檛 want to fly sorties over Europe, for fear of losing a plane operated by a pilot wearing the 鈥淔ranks Flying Suit.鈥 If the Germans captured the flyer, the RAF thought they could reverse engineer it.</p> <p>Instead, RAF pilots wearing Franks鈥 invention were sent to North Africa to provide air support for US General Dwight Eisenhower鈥檚 invasion of Algeria in 1942. The results, Bimm says, were mixed:鈥淭hey found it difficult to move around.鈥 US researchers took over.</p> <p>But senior American aviation medicine experts later told Franks his pioneering work was critical in the refinement of the technology. The work in Toronto, moreover, paved the way for the Canadian military鈥檚 sustained investment in aviation research at CFB Downsview, which continues to this day. 鈥淭hat traces right back to the decision to make this a competency in Canada,鈥 says Bimm.</p> <p>The military didn鈥檛 declassify information about the Franks Flying Suit until the 1950s, and Franks himself remained a low-key medical researcher until the 1970s, when, Peter Allen heard him lecture at U鈥唎f&nbsp;T about the invention. He decided to make it his mission to ensure that Franks was duly recognized for an achievement that has reverberated through the post-war history of military flight. 鈥淔ranks was a very understated man,鈥 Allen reflects. 鈥淗e just thought he was doing his job.鈥</p> <h2><a href="http://medicine.utoronto.ca/magazine/article/secret-science-world-war-ii">Read the original story in the Faculty of Medicine Magazine</a></h2> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 20 Jun 2016 18:01:08 +0000 lavende4 14283 at Air pollution: how bad is your neighbourhood? /news/air-pollution-how-bad-your-neighbourhood <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Air pollution: how bad is your neighbourhood?</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2013-11-25T06:38:09-05:00" title="Monday, November 25, 2013 - 06:38" class="datetime">Mon, 11/25/2013 - 06:38</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">photo courtesy Natalia Mykhaylova </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">John Lorinc</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/students" hreflang="en">Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/geography" hreflang="en">Geography</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/environment" hreflang="en">Environment</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/pollution" hreflang="en">Pollution</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">PhD student's low-cost sensors could gather data across cities</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Epidemiologists' understanding of the relationship between exposure to airborne pollutants and a range of health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and asthma, has grown increasingly precise in recent years.</p> <p>What鈥檚 less well known is precisely where the air is most polluted.</p> <p>Toronto, for example, has only four air-quality measurement stations providing real-time data, even though research shows that the concentration of pollutants such as nitric oxides, volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide can vary by orders of magnitude within an area spanning just a few city blocks.</p> <p>To more precisely gauge pollution levels, <strong>Natalia Mykhaylova</strong>, a PhD candidate in chemical engineering, is developing an inexpensive air-quality monitor that could be deployed on utility poles across a city. The shoebox-sized device, which is packed with sensors and detectors that can measure the concentration of fine particles and the pollutants mentioned above, will eventually be powered by lithium batteries and small solar panels.</p> <p>The total price of the components can be kept to less than $300, Mykhaylova says,&nbsp;and the monitor can be adapted for indoor sites.</p> <p>Mykhaylova, who works in the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research in 茄子直播鈥檚 Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, says her vision is to one day connect the monitors wirelessly to a data network so the measurements can be fed into a central database in real time. Such a network would allow users to go to a website to check pollution levels in specific neighbourhoods with an eye to adjusting their travel patterns or pressuring public officials to deal with local pollution sources.</p> <p>For now, Mykhaylova and her team have placed a dozen of their homemade pollution-monitoring stations in backyards near highways around the city and are trying to determine the traffic鈥檚 impact on nearby air quality.&nbsp;</p> <p>Mykhaylova lives near the Gardiner Expressway and a large industrial facility, so she is keenly aware of the potential health consequences of living close to highways 鈥 something a growing number of Toronto condo dwellers now experience.</p> <p>The ultimate goal is to encourage local governments to deploy commercial versions of these low-cost devices in large numbers around urban areas as a way of generating a much more nuanced and up-to-the-minute picture of the invisible geography of pollution.</p> <p>鈥淭he government needs to have this data out there for people to know what the levels are,鈥 says Mykhaylova.</p> <p><em>This article previously appeared in the 茄子直播 Magazine; for more articles visit <a href="http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca">www.magazine.utoronto.ca</a> </em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/pollution-sensors-13-11-25.jpg</div> </div> Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:38:09 +0000 sgupta 5743 at 茄子直播 entrepreneurs: Shayan Hamidi and Rokham Fard /news/u-t-entrepreneurs-shayan-hamdi-and-rokham-fard <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播 entrepreneurs: Shayan Hamidi and Rokham Fard</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2013-07-29T06:25:25-04:00" title="Monday, July 29, 2013 - 06:25" class="datetime">Mon, 07/29/2013 - 06:25</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> Tarik Gidamy, Shayan Hamidi, Rokham Fard (photo by Liam Sharp)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/john-lorinc" hreflang="en">John Lorinc</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">John Lorinc</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneur" hreflang="en">Entrepreneur</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/new-college" hreflang="en">New College</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">茄子直播</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Computer Science grads tackle the condo business</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Shayan Hamidi</strong> and <strong>Rokham Fard</strong> freely admit they had no idea what kind of a fight they were picking when, as 20-something Computer Science grads with ambitions to launch some kind of business, they decided to invent a fresher and more transparent way to buy and sell homes.</p> <p>It started innocently enough: Hamidi had had a nasty experience trying to sell his parents鈥 home and buy condos for them and himself. He ended up with a part-time broker who tried to up-sell a pre-built apartment by $70,000, possibly to boost her commission.</p> <p>As Hamidi and Fard unpacked the experience, they realized there was no centralized database of solid information about Greater Toronto鈥檚 condos still under construction. As they dug further, they realized that the Canadian real estate industry was years behind its counterparts in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia when it came to providing online consumer information about homes and apartments for sale.</p> <p>鈥淭he whole experience felt pretty dated,鈥 says Hamidi, 31, co-founder of the Red Pin.鈥淭ransparency was the answer.鈥</p> <p>Adds Fard: 鈥淲e thought that would be a really interesting gap to bridge.鈥</p> <p>The two friends, together with Tarik Gidamy and <strong>Ali Ajellu</strong>, who graduated from New College with a&nbsp;BSc in 2007, launched TheRedPin.com in 2010 with links to condo projects. (Read about <a href="http://www.theredpin.com/">TheRedPin.com</a>.)</p> <p>Problem was, the builders didn鈥檛 respond to consumer requests for information that came through the site, prompting complaints from their earliest customers.</p> <p>鈥淭hat was a wake-up moment,鈥 says Hamidi.</p> <p>Two years ago, the partners decided to obtain a broker鈥檚 licence and remake their firm as a real estate broker with a foot planted firmly in the online world. Last year, armed with $2.7 million in investor backing, TheRedPin.com re-emerged as a gutsy, mold-busting challenger to the entrenched GTA real estate industry. Hamidi and his team say their admittedly idealistic goal is to put buyers and sellers at the centre of the home-buying process. To that end, they jettisoned one of the industry鈥檚 sacred cows: commission-based compensation for agents.</p> <p>Instead, the Red Pin鈥檚 13 sales reps are employees compensated on a salary-and-bonus formula that takes into account feedback from customer-satisfaction surveys. They must also follow closely established work-flow procedures so clients get their full attention and answer to customer service personnel known as 鈥渁ngels.鈥</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檝e taken the interests of the agents out of it,鈥 says Hamidi, who points out that many agent-brokers, who are essentially franchisees for the real estate firms, spend about two-thirds of their time prospecting for new clients instead of helping the ones they鈥檙e representing. The point of the Red Pin approach is to align the agents鈥 interests with those of the customers as a way of short-circuiting the sort of cynicism that inspired David Mamet鈥檚 searing send-up of the realtor trade, <em>Glengarry Glen Ross</em> (which, by they way, they鈥檝e watched with interest).</p> <p>The company has also sought to create a kind of one-stop research approach with its website: besides the MLS listings and thousands of floor plans from pre-build condo projects, the company offers a lively mash-up of interactive maps with up-to-date information about local school rankings, stores and services, as well as time-series data on housing prices.</p> <p>Strategically, the point of the exercise is to soft-sell potential buyers by using links to developers鈥 websites, search-engine optimization techniques and email newsletters designed to draw them to TheRedPin.com鈥檚 wealth of educational information long before they鈥檝e signed a binding broker agreement. It鈥檚 a classic honey-pot strategy: they figured they could leverage their data-rich site to entice prospective homebuyers to sign with them instead of one of the more established firms.</p> <p>Most real estate agents prefer more traditional techniques, such as flyer drops and billboard advertising. But, as Fard points out, 鈥淣inety-eight per cent of Canadians who want homes start their search online, according to Statistics Canada.鈥</p> <p>Adds Hamidi: 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have millions to put into shiny ads. Our advantage is to be engaging online.鈥</p> <p>Having completed $100-million worth of real estate transactions in the past 18 months, Hamidi and Fard feel confident they鈥檝e seen the future of home-buying. 鈥淲e think this is where the market is going to go.鈥</p> <p><em>John Lorinc is a writer for 茄子直播 Magazine. (<a href="http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/cover-story/starting-up-u-of-t-young-entrepreneurs-stephen-piron-cybill-lui-david-berkal-nadia-amoroso-rokham-fard-shayan-hamidi/">See more stories about 茄子直播 startups at 茄子直播 Magazine</a>.)</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/entrepreneur-theredpin-13-07-29.jpg</div> </div> Mon, 29 Jul 2013 10:25:25 +0000 sgupta 5517 at