Ryerson Alumni - Summer 2019 - 19

Electric Smart Grid Laboratory that acts like a scaled-down version
of the infrastructure you'd find in an electrical utility, from transformers and control systems to the computers that handle the vast
streams of data such a system produces.
"We can physically duplicate what a utility would have on the
street, or in one of their sub-stations," Venkatesh says. "This allows
us to visualize how it'll actually function when you connect it, as
opposed to relying on a computer model." The lab, funded in part
by the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and
Mines, will be important for testing new technologies before they're
deployed in our cities, he
says. The equipment in the
smart grid lab was part of a
$500,000 in-kind donation
from Schneider Electric
Canada.
The university already has
a strong track record of collaboration with local energy
providers. In 2016, w i t h
funding provided by the
Ontario Ministry of Energy,
Northern Development and
Mines, Ryerson worked with
Toronto Hydro and Ontariobased manufacturer eC AMION to develop a polemounted energy-storage
device. It can be charged
during off-peak hours and
SOLVING TRAFFIC
boost the available electricSNARL UPS
ity in homes during peak
Efficiently moving people
hours. So far, one of these
around our urban centres
devices-a white box coni s t he focus of anot her
taining the equivalent of
lab within the CUI, the
Fourth-year biology student Jacob Turola operates the laser cutter in the Science
more than 2,000 cell phone
Laboratory of Innovations
Discovery Zone fabrication area.
batteries-has been deployed
in Transportation (LiTrans).
There, Bilal Farooq, who is a Canada Research Chair in Disruptive on a residential street near Keele Street and Sheppard Avenue West.
Transportation Technologies and Services, uses big data and virtual The device's technical merits were proven during a 12-month
reality to ensure that our streets are ready for autonomous vehicles pilot project and may become a standard feature on utility poles
throughout the city.
and other innovations, so that we can all share the road safely.
Anything that helps city-dwellers use energy more efficiently is
An entire lab at CUI, the Data Science Laboratory, focuses exclusively on data-oriented problem solving. Ayse Bener, professor of an important step forward, Venkatesh says. And how we use
mechanical and industrial engineering, says the lab specializes in energy-and food and water as well-is only going to become more
using AI (artificial intelligence) and machine-learning techniques. critical in the decades ahead, as Toronto faces a period of unprecThe research she and her colleagues have been doing has applica- edented growth. Already the fourth-largest city in North America,
tions in transportation, health care, finance, software develop- Toronto is home to 2.8 million people, while nearly six million live
in the surrounding metropolitan area-and that figure could double
ment, and other fields.
"We develop software that mimics experts in different domains, in the next 50 years. What each of those people can do, Venkatesh
and try to understand how an expert solves a particular problem," says, is take the time to think about where the energy they use is
she says. "And then we can teach the machine to work like that coming from. "We see the outlet, the light from our lamps, the
warmth from our heaters," he says. "But where is it coming from,
expert, to come up with a solution."
and what is it doing to the environment? And how can we be a part
of ensuring that, whatever actions we take, we work toward saving
SAVING ENERGY
Along with food and water, energy is another vital element of urban this planet not just for ourselves, but for the next generation?"
life. At Ryerson's Centre for Urban Energy, housed in the CUI, Bala
Venkatesh, the centre's academic director, focuses on finding sus- Dan Falk (@danfalk), Journalism '92, is a science journalist based
tainable solutions to critical urban-energy challenges faced by elec- in Toronto. His books include The Science of Shakespeare and
tric utilities. One of the labs that he oversees is the Schneider In Search of Time.

healthy, sustainable urban water cycle," he says.
In the basement is RUW's remarkable "AQUAbox Experimental
Lab," where researchers can experiment with environments that
mimic those of a real city and its surroundings, especially its wetlands. Roughly the size of two tennis courts, the lab houses an enormous metal tank-a wetland simulator-that stretches the full
length of the facility filled with soil, plants, and of course water.
The tank can be used as a single two-metre-by-16-metre basin, or
can be divided into eight square cells, each two metres on a side-or
any other combination that's needed.
A t y pical experiment,
Reid explains, might be to
var y one environmental
parameter along the length
of the tank-the salinity for
example-while keeping
everything else constant.
"Wetlands play a vital role in
cleaning ou r water as it
makes its way through the
environment, back to the rivers and lakes, and in removing carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere," Reid says. "So
it's vital that we figure out
how we can best nurt u re
wetlands, and understand
their function."

Summer 2019 / Ryerson University Magazine

Ryerson Alumni - Summer 2019

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