Four members of the U of T Engineering community have been inducted as fellows of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). Professors Milos Popovic (IBBME) and David Sinton (MIE), along with alumni Jeffrey Karp (IBBME PhD 0T4) and Halim Yanikomeroglu (ECE MASc 9T2, PhD 9T8), are among the CAE’s 49 new fellows.
The CAE is a national institution through which Canada’s most distinguished and experienced engineers provide strategic advice on matters of critical importance to Canada. The new fellows were inducted on June 21 in Quebec City, Que., as part of the Academy’s Annual General Meeting and Symposium.
“The election of these outstanding alumni and faculty members to the CAE is a testament to the respect in which they are held by their peers and the impact of their accomplishments as engineering innovators, educators and leaders,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “On behalf of the Faculty, I congratulate the inductees on this prestigious and richly-deserved recognition.”
Popovic is the Director of Research at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network. His most significant contribution is the development of MyndMove, a neuromodulation system for restoring voluntary upper-limb function in patients with paralysis. In 2008, Popovic co-founded the company MyndTec to launch MyndMove as a commercial product. He played a critical role in attracting capital, promoting the therapy, training therapists to use it, and securing Health Canada and FDA approval, and remains engaged with research and development as CTO. He also helped establish the Centre for Advancing Neurotechnological Innovation to Application (CRANIA). Popovic has received several awards for his contributions to neural engineering and is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Sinton, Canada Research Chair in Microfluidics and Energy, was the first to widely apply microfluidics technologies — which were developed largely for medical applications — to energy. He is a co-founder and the CTO of Interface Fluidics Ltd., a startup focused on improving the environmental and economic performance of energy operations. Sinton has held several leadership roles, including Interim Vice-Dean, Research, for the Faculty and Editor-in-Chief of the CSME Bulletin, the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering’s flagship publication. He is a fellow of CSME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.
Karp heads the Laboratory for Accelerated Medical Innovation at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In this role, he has developed multiple products undergoing clinical development, trained 20 new faculty members, and founded seven companies, which have collectively raised $200 million. He has won numerous international awards, and is well known as a captivating public speaker. Karp’s research harnesses materials science and stem cell biology to solve medical problems with emphasis on nanoscale and microscale materials, as well as bio-inspired approaches in regenerative medicine and drug delivery, translating a variety of exciting new technologies into treatments for the patients who need them the most.
Yanikomeroglu, a professor at Carleton University, is a world-renowned academic, inventor, and researcher in wireless communications. His collaboration with Canadian and international industry on 4G and 5G wireless networks has resulted in 27 granted patents for key technologies. He is best known for his pioneering work on relaying technology, which resulted in several seminal publications with thousands of citations. This technology was adopted in various standards, including 4G LTE and 5G. Yanikomeroglu has received several awards for his research, teaching, and service. He is a fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as an IEEE Distinguished Speaker.