higher education : In The News

The Rotman School of Management's Creative Destruction Lab has received praise from a publication dedicated to trends in the business school world because of its "scores of start-ups, mostly tech-based, [that] have been accelerate this year."

 

Among them: Bionym, a wearable technology company that has grown to 27 employees and raised $1.4 million in funding since entering the lab.
 

"These are not hobby start-ups," Karl Martin, who co-founded Bionym in 2011, says BusinessBecause. "People come here to help turn your company into a billion dollar company…The mentality is unique and I can tell you it's been hugely instrumental to the kind of success and growth we have achieved."

 

The Creative Destruction Lab provides free working space and access to fellows "whom are established, successful entrepreneurs," the article says, with the intention of increasing "the probability of venture success." The program has additional opportunities for current, final-year MBA students to help "identify and solve business problems faced by the start-up."

 

The core of the program is what's called "the G7," a group of entrepreneurs and investors that act as mentors. Five of the initial seven invested $1 million in Bionym's seed round funding. In its first year alone, the Creative Destruction Lab "produced eight successful ventures and generated over $65M in equity value," the article reports. These donations are key to making the lab a reality. 

 

"The lab pulls together people with significant successes; exits in the region of hundreds of millions of dollars. There is not better teacher than somebody that can lead by example," Martin says. 

 

Fifteen new ventures have been accepted into the lab this year, several are alumni from Rotman's MBA program. A range of industries has been accepted. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: BusinessBecause

Six business students from York University’s Schulich School of Business are among six teams from four countries competing for the Hult Prize global case challenge for social enterprise startups, valued at $1 million (US). This is the second year in a row a Canadian team has advanced to the finals, The Globe and Mail reports.

 

The prize "challenges business students to devise affordable solutions to global problems, put its spotlight this year on the issue of non-communicable chronic diseases in urban slums," the article reports. "For example, according to Hult prize organizers, an estimated 74 million slum-dwellers suffer from diabetes that goes mostly untreated and, as a result, leads to early mortality."

 

The Schulich students pitched the idea of REACH Diagnostics "to develop a patent-pending detection test for diabetes that can be produced on an ordinary printer for two cents," according to a press release from Schulich.

 

For placing first regionally, the team won a two-month stay at the Hult Prize Accelerator in Boston, which incubates social entrepreneurship startups, as well as a one-year membership in the Clinton Global Initiative, which was established by former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2005.

 

The York students will compete against two teams from the United States and one each from France, India and Spain.

 

McGill students took home the prize last year for "a project that promotes cricket farming as a low-cost source of nutrition in poor countries," the Globe and Mail reports.

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: The Globe and Mail

 

A first year University of Toronto student has developed a potentially cost effective vaccine for the treatment of malaria in developing countries that is made from mustard oil. 

 

Jessie MacAlpine, a first year life sciences student, recently sat down with the university's student paper the Varsity to discuss her research, which was "extraordinarily successful at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where she won Best of Category for Medicine and Health Sciences," the paper reports. This is just one accomplishment of many. She also recently placed first in the International Cooperation Prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists where she was a Canadian ambassador. 

 

"I am currently working on in vivo studies to confirm the drug's efficacy within a mammal model. If this experiment returns results as promising as the in vitro studies, the hope will be to conduct clinical trials before establishing potential distribution channels," she told the Varsity. "The drug itself is very inexpensive – the necessary dose costs approximately a millionth of a cent – resulting in the major inhibitor to treatment being distribution. Potentially partnering with organizations such as the World Health Organization or Malaria No More could allow the inexpensive drug to reach those who are most affected by the disease. As well, because mustard oil is readily available in many malaria-endemic regions, these organizations could potentially run awareness campaigns to ensure the public is informed of the oil’s antimalarial properties."

 

MacAlpine has also chosen to patent her compound for multiple reasons, most notable to ensure the research and drug stays under her name in an effort to prevent a larger pharmaceutical company from claiming the idea—something she says could prevent the compound from reaching those who need it most. She also says it will make it easier for her to approach investors and potential laboratories once it's time to facilitate clinical trials.

 

Malaria kills more than one million people each year, especially in developing nations, the Varsity reports. MacAlpine hopes to soon locate a lab to facilitate a clinical trial and has her eyes set on an observational study in India, where mustard oil is used for cooking. 

 

"Despite my research focusing on the efficacy of the raw oil, it is possible that there is still a degree of antimalarial efficacy observed with consumption of the cooked compound. An observational study would hopefully allow a trend such as this to be determined. Finally, if all stages of drug testing return positive results, I will have to partner with a global health organization to organize awareness and distribution channels," she says.

 

MacAlpine will be speaking more about her research at the upcoming TEDxUofT conference on March 1, 2014. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: The Varsity

Facebook already has the capability to predict tags, but now a new algorithm developed by a team at the University of Toronto could give it the ability to determine relationships between people.

 

The technology is called relational social image search and it works by using the frequency of tags within photos combined with how they appear in proximity to others in photos to determine relationships. Parham Arabi, a professor in electrical and computer engineering, developed and patented the system. Wired explains in more detail how it works. 

 

"If you are tagged in Facebook or Flickr pictures with your mother and are close together, and you are also tagged in separate pictures with your father, the algorithm can determine that there is a relationship between those two and assess how strong that relationship may be. Imagine another set of photos where you feature with both your parents, but only your mother is tagged. If you search for your father in the batch of photos, these untagged images will also be returned because of the high likelihood that he features in the pictures."

 

Arabi has been working on this technology since 2005, but previously he was focused on technology that understood images based on content recognition. He switched it up to develop the current algorithm.

 

"Instead, we decided to focus on a very basic tag information that is often available but almost always ignored, which is the location of tags in images. By running the location of tags in images through our mathematical model, we obtain a relativity graph which helps us both understand social relationships and also to search images better," he told Wired.

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: Wired 

 

Toronto is the most youthful city in the world, according to a new report that compares cities globally and ranks them according to the potential for work and play.

 

The Youthful Cities Index rates cities on an annual basis and looks at economic status (high minimum wage, good annual income, affordable housing), political participation (voting age, youth voter turnout, volunteer opportunities), diversity (openness to LGBT communities, immigrants, different religions), employment (youth employment rates, employment rates post-graduation and student debt levels), encouragement of entrepreneurship (startup loans, age to register a business) and dozens more categories, as well as 112 indicators.  

 

In an article that appeared on Global News, Robert Barnard, the co-founder of Youthful Cities, said Toronto is "a city that’s amongst the most diverse in the world. It’s got a great film and music scene and it’s on the leading edge of things like digital access. On an economic standpoint, it’s a pretty good place even up against its American competition."

 

Berlin, New York City, Dallas and Paris followed Toronto in that order. Although Toronto's youth unemployment rate is at a high, when it comes to other aspects of the city Toronto is an international leader. 
 

"The excitement comes from the diversity and the playful aspects of Toronto. And there’s balance to it – overall it seemed to do pretty well in everything," Barnard said.
 

Read full story here. 

Original Source: Global News

The Toronto-based Leading Edge Group, an international company that offers lean consulting among other things, has teamed up with the Durham-based University of Ontario Institute of Technology to offer online and instructor-led education Lean Thinking certification to organizations, businesses and individuals across Canada.

 

The programs are designed to "help strip wasteful activities and optimize resources in both the public and private sectors," according to an article that ran on durhamregion.com.
 

"The partnership will offer the first full suite of academically-certified Lean programs in Canada," it continues. 

 

"The Lean methodology has become hugely important as a core competency recognized and required across industry so being able to provide entire spectrum of Lean education programs -- from beginner to advanced -- means we will be able to meet the needs of all organizations and individuals, regardless of where they are on their continuous improvement journey," says Dr. Tim McTiernan, UOIT president and vice-chancellor, in the article. 
 

The agreement allows the two organizations to work together to provide education and certification. Leading Edge Group has offices in Toronto, the United States and the United Kingdom, but is based out of Ireland. This partnership will help Leading Edge Group continue to grow in the Canadian market. 

 

Read the full story here.

Original Source: Durham Region

 

Macleans has released its annual university rankings pitting the country's schools against each other and ranking them based on an intense methodology that places 49 of Canada's universities in three categories: comprehensive universities, primary undergraduate universities, and medical doctoral universities. 
 

Universities are ranked on six broad areas based on performance indicators: students and classes (20 per cent), faculty (20 per cent), resources (12 per cent), student support (13 per cent), library (15 per cent), and reputation (20 per cent).  These indicators are broken down into 13 performance measures for primary undergraduate and comprehensive universities, and 14 for medical doctoral universities.
 

The University of Toronto ranked third in the country for medical doctoral universities, maintaining its position last year. Macleans says the school used to "dominate" the charts, but this year's results suggest capital is shifting. McGill was ranked the number one spot in this category, followed by the University of British Columbia. 
 

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology, located in Oshawa, ranked 13th place in the primary undergraduate category, which focuses on schools that provide predominantly undergraduate education. The institution was up two spots from last year. 
 

As for the comprehensive category, which measures programs based on the amount of research activity as well as a wide range of both undergraduate and graduate level programs, including professional degrees. Ryerson places 10th in the country, up to places from 12th last year.

 

Full results and descriptions can be read in the official Macleans guide, currently on newsstands. 
 

Read the full story here.

Original source: Macleans

 

The University of Toronto has once again climbed into the top 20 of the World University Rankings after a brief dip in 2012. 

 

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings judge "world class universities across all of their core missions—teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The top universities ranking employ 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balances comparisons available, which are trusted by students, academics, university leaders, industry and government," according to the rankings' website. 

 

The University of Toronto was the only Canadian university to make it in the top 20.

 

In a message from the university posted on the rankings website, it says, "The 2012-13 Times Higher Education ranking groups the University of Toronto with Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Columbia, Cambridge, Oxford, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Michigan as the only institutions in the top 27 in all 6 broad disciplinary areas."

 

The first Times Higher Education World University Rankings was issued in 2010, where the University of Toronto placed 17. In 2011, the school dropped to 19 before falling out of the top 20 to the 21st position in 2012. Crawling back into the top 20 reaffirms the school's prestige and reputation on a global level.

 

Data is collected via the "world's largest invite-only survey of academic opinion." This year's research featured information collected from 16,639 responses from 144 countries. On average, respondents had been working in academia for 17 years. Respondents come from a variety of disciplines, with a slight majority in social sciences, engineering and technology.

 

Read the full story here.

Original source: Times Higher Education

Toronto is on its way to earning a new nickname "Silicon Valley North," according to an article that ran in Global News. The article names numerous reasons. We've compiled the top five. 

 

 

This year alone, the article notes, Google "scooped up" University of Toronto startup DNN research, while Apple acquired data services startup Locationary. 

 

 

The city's ties with the surrounding Waterloo and Markham ("known for its slogan 'Canada's high-tech capital'") regions positions it as a central hub of entrepreneurial culture. 

 

Engineers
 

“If you think about Facebook, Google, all of the big Valley companies – most of them were started out of the universities. It’s the talent from the engineering schools that fuelled the tech scene in Silicon Valley,” says Payman Nilforoush, CEO of earned advertising platform inPowered, in the article. 

The article points out that major tech companies have noticed the talent coming out of schools such as the University of Toronto and University of Waterloo, noting that companies such as Google and Facebook have "made an effort to attract some of those graduates." 

Cost

Nilforoush notes that, "In his experience, relative to Silicon Valley, the cost of running a business in Toronto in most cases is nearly half."

Mentorship

"According to the Bank of Montreal, almost half of Canadian post-secondary students surveyed — 46 per cent — said they see themselves starting a business after graduation," the article reports. It states grads are relieved to find out they don't have to travel to Silicon Valley to receive the mentorship they desire due to a number of "boot camp" style programs stemming from Ontario universities. 
 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Global News.

Last week, the University of Toronto was named among the top 20 universities in the world. This week, the school has turned up on another list, this time placing seventh in the top 15 colleges that are "just as great" as American schools, according to Policy MIC. 

 

Here's what the article said:

 

The University of Toronto is a public research university founded in 1827 by royal charter. Originally known as King's College, it took on its present name when it declared itself a secular institution in 1850. It is notable for the discovery of insulin and birthplace of stem cell research, and its physics department built the first practical electron microscope in 1938. The university's library system is the fourth largest in North America and holds over 10 million bound volumes. It is also home to the first Canadian collegiate fraternity, Zeta Psi.
 

Read the full list here. 

Original Source: Policy MIC

 

The University of Toronto has ranked in the top 20 universities in the world for the second year in a row, climbing two spots from last year to tie with the University of Edinburg for 17th place. QS World Universities ranks international universities annually to determine the top educational institutions in the world.

 

"The University of Toronto has assembled one of the strongest research and teaching faculties in North America, presenting top students at all levels with an intellectual environment unmatched in breadth and depth on any other Canadian campus," says QS, directly quoting the University's profile. 

 

"U of T faculty co-author more research articles than their colleagues at any university in the U.S. or Canada other than Harvard. As a measure of impact, U of T consistently ranks alongside the top five U.S. universities whose discoveries are most often cited by other researchers around the world."

 

The University ranked with an overall score of 91.30 out of a possible 100. However, the school ranked 13th overall based on Academic reputation, which earned a score of 99.90. The University has been climbing steadily since 2007, when it was ranked 45th out of 100. This number climbed to 23rd by 2011, and broke the top 20 in 2012. 

 

Here is a list of the top 20 overall out of 100 for 2013/2014:

 

1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

2) Harvard University

3) University of Cambridge

4) UCL (University College London)

5) Imperial College London

6) University of Oxford

7) Stanford University

8) Yale University

9) University of Chicago

10 = California institute of Technology (CALTECH)

10 = Princeton University

12) Eth Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

13) University of Pennsylvania

14) Columbia University

15) Cornell University

16) Johns Hopkins University

17 = University of Edinburgh

17 = University of Toronto

19) Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL)

19) King's College London (KCL)

 

McGill University in Montreal was not too far behind, with an overall ranking of 21. The University of British Columbia ranked 49th, the Université de Montréal ranked 92nd, and the University of Alberta ranked 96th.

 

Read the full list here. 

Original source: The Independent

Representatives from nine Canadian universities including Ryerson University, York University, and the University of Toronto will spend this week touring India and speaking with students about Canada's role in higher education. 

 

The tour is in part designed to teach Indian students about opportunities in Canada, and to encourage them to pursue higher education over here. Specifically, representatives are keen on attracting the attention of students with high academic standing.

 

"India is a key undergraduate student market for Canadian universities," says Robert Finlayson of Carleton University and tour director, in the article. "Indian students are sought for their academic strength and their rich contribution to student life on Canadian university campuses. Each year we are seeing more Indian students choosing Canada as their first choice for study - as evidenced by the success of this tour. Indian students are drawn to our universities' common attributes of international reputation for academic excellence, state of the art resources, and safe campuses in welcoming locations."

 

The University of British Columbia, Carleton, Concordia, Guelph, McGill, and Queens also participated. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Deccan Chronicle 

An Australian news organization has posted an article encourage university and college students to study abroad in Canada, naming Toronto as one of the most ideal locations.

 

"Canada has both large and small universities, some at the heart of the country’s biggest and most vibrant urban areas; others are located in small cities with easy access to open spaces and natural beauty. Three Canadian cities – Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary – are among the world's top five most livable cities, according to The Economist 2012 list," the article says.

 

Zee News interviews a number of education professionals in the story who make cases for their respective cities. Greg Coelho, the associate director, International Centre at George Brown College, speaks to coop opportunities and workplace experience, not to mention Toronto's diverse makeup. 

 

“Toronto offers one of the most vibrant and diverse employment markets in Canada for students to add North American work experience to their resume," he says in the article. 

 

The article continues to discuss on-campus work opportunities and job possibilities. "It is opportunities such as these that make it worth for an international student to invest in a Canadian degree or diploma."  

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: Zee News

According to the Education at a Glance 2012 report issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Canada maintains its leadership as the world's most educated country. In fact, the percentage of our population with a tertiary education has risen from 40 per cent in 2000 to 51 per cent in 2012. In 2010, when the report was last issued, Canada was the only country with more than half its population having tertiary (post graduate and graduate) education. It remains as such.

 

"Canada has managed to become a world leader in education without being a leader in education spending, which totaled just 6.1 per cent of GDP in 2009, or less than the 6.3 per cent average for the OECD," said a summary that appeared in Wall St. 24/7. 
 

"A large amount of its spending went towards tertiary education, on which the country spent 2.5 per cent of GDP, trailing only the United States and South Korea. One of the few areas Canada did not perform well in was attracting international students, who made up just 6.6 per cent of all tertiary students — lower than the OECD’s 8 per cent average."
 

Canada is followed by Israel at 46 per cent, Japan at 45 per cent, and the United States at 42 per cent. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: Wall St. 24/7