October 26, 2022 | City Monitor

The leaders of CivMin’s student clubs are on a mission to boost levels of student involvement while continuing to support undergraduate and graduate students in their academic, professional and personal journeys here at the University of Toronto.

We recently chatted with each club leader to discuss their goals for the year and to get to know them a bit better.

Meet your 2022-23 CivMin GSA President Sheida Saffari

Meet your 2022-23 Civ Club Chair Kent Straky

Meet your 2022-23 Min Club Chair Alec Gilvesy

October 17, 2022 | Great Lakes Echo

 We’re checking in with the newly elected leader of CivMin Graduate Students Association. Here’s our Q&A with GSA President Sheida Saffari (CivE PhD candidate), who secured her position with the October 5 election of executives.

Please tell us a bit about yourself.
I am Sheida Saffari, and I started my master’s program one year ago at U of T. However, I switched my program to the PhD stream recently. I am pursuing my PhD under the supervision of Professor Daeho Kim, with the focus of our research on robotizing and digitizing the construction industry. More specifically, I am working on construction equipment.  

What do you do in your spare time? 
As an international student who lives alone here in Toronto, I can hardly find any spare time. Life gets super busy, especially when I am studying. I would say that in my spare time, cooking is my favourite task to do. I also work out several times during the week. That helps to maintain my mental health apart from my physical health.

Why did you choose U of T?
U of T is ranked as the best university in Canada. Country-wise I chose Canada, as it is known for the exceptional quality of the education system. Therefore, I chose Canada and U of T.  

What is your favourite place in Toronto?
I am in love with downtown Toronto. You can see the multi-nationality of people living here. As an immigrant, the diversity of languages, cultures, foods, and beliefs give me a very good feeling to be here and spend a couple of years here in Canada.  

What are your favourite spots on campus?
I would say I like spending a lot of time in couple of libraries here on campus. Hart House Library and University College Library are my favourite spots ever. I am in love with architecture and design, and both libraries provide modern services inside historical buildings. 

Could it tell us about the CivMin GSA?
CivMin GSA is an abbreviation of the Civil and Mineral Graduate Students Association. It is a co-curricular activity for graduate students that focuses on students’ professional development. 

Over the years spent at the University, Engineering students develop technical skills. However, what we do need, and what we lack, are soft skills. We need them when we enter to the job market after graduation. Participating in student associations as a volunteer gives a sense of the soft skills required in teamwork.  

What are some of your goals for the year as GSA president? 
We will do our best to have all our events in person this year. I would say I wish to focus more on Industry Night because it was a very fruitful event for graduate students last year. It is an event where professionals from industry meet our graduate students in an informal and friendly environment. Students can network and ask experts about their journey from being students to becoming professionals. This event also helps graduate students to create an amazing network to find jobs.  

Additionally, we are going to hold a lot of social events for all graduate students of the Civil and Mineral Engineering Department. As graduate students, we are super busy, and we hardly can find any time to socialize with other students. These events are helpful for mental health support, as they let participants escape from the stress of school, meet new people, and spend some time together. 

Civ Min GSA is going to host a lot of in-person pub and game nights that graduate students can participate in; these are also things we lacked last year. All graduate students are invited to gather in one of the pubs we cooperate with and have an opportunity to talk to people from other research specializations they hardly had a chance to meet during working hours in the department.  

Let me tell you a short story of mine which shows how networking could be life-changing. I was looking to switch my program [MEng] to a thesis-based stream because I really wanted to go into research and continue working in academia. For a while, I was unsuccessful in finding the right supervisor who works in my field of interest. During one of the CivMin GSA pub night events, I had a chance to talk to people who I never met at school, and ask for their advice. One of the participants eventually became my college. It was the very first time we met and started talking about our specializations, what are our research goals, and what we are looking to do in our journey here at U of T. Later, he introduced me to my current supervisor. I believe that these amazing opportunities could happen to everybody. 

How can people get involved with GSA? 
People can be in touch with us via LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and e-mail (gsa.civmin@utoronto.ca). They can contact us if they have any questions or if they wish to participate in any of our events. Following our social media and, more specifically, our LinkedIn is an amazing platform to get in touch with students were members of CivMin GSA and now are the professionals in the industry or the companies who cooperated with our association.  

However, if they wish to get involved as a member, every year we have an election and voting period during September, and that is the right time to get involved as a member of CivMin GSA. 

By Galina Nikitina

Full list of 2022-23 CivMin GSA Executives:

President: Sheida Saffari (PhD candidate)
Finance Director: Devang Bhadra (MEng candidate)
Communication Director: Tabassum Masoodakhtar Saheb (PhD candidate)
Academic Director: Amirhossein Babaei Ravandi (PhD candidate)
Social Directors:
Emily Zhang (MEng candidate)
Ali Tohidifar (PhD candidate)
Andria Liu (MEng candidate)
Bhabishya Khaniya (PhD candidate)
External Director: Julio Martinez Uribe (MEng candidate)
Athletic Director: Tianyu Shi (PhD  candidate)
Representatives:
Julio Martinez (MEng candidate)
Andria Liu (MEng candidate)
Kevin Kuriakose Joseph (MASc candidate)
Tianyu Shi (PhD candidate)
Devang Bhadra (MEng candidate)
Emily Zhang (MEng candidate)
Ammarah Zahid (MEng candidate)

Fall 2022 | The Bridge – National Academy of Engineering

A multidisciplinary collaboration between academia, industry and government will explore the potential of new modes of transport, such as zero-emission e-bikes, to reduce emissions, traffic congestion and more

A partnership between U of T Engineering, Purolator and the City of Toronto has resulted in a new installation on campus: the Urban Quick Stop. The pilot project offers researchers such as CivMin’s Professor Matthew Roorda an innovative way to study the challenges of last-mile delivery. 

“As online shopping has become more common, the pressure on all forms of package delivery has increased,” said Roorda, who serves as Chair, Scientific Advisory Committee for the Smart Freight Centre, a collaborative research hub focused on improving the movement of goods across the Toronto Region that includes members from several universities, as well as from government and industry. 

“At the same time, new modes of transport are becoming available, including some that offer benefits such as lower emissions. This new project is a great opportunity to gather the detailed data we need to quantify their benefits.” 

The Purolator Urban Quick Stop is built inside a standard 40-foot shipping container. It arrived on U of T’s St. George Campus earlier this fall, fitting neatly into a parking space provided by the City of Toronto. It is the second Urban Quick Stop to open in Toronto, following an earlier installation on Spadina Road. 

One of its functions is to act as a convenient hub for customers who live or work near campus to drop off or pick up their deliveries; in fact U of T students are being offered a 50% discount on shipments sent to or from the new hub. 

But the Urban Quick Stop can also facilitate door-to-door deliveries via the use of specialized delivery e-bikes. These three-wheeled vehicles replace larger traditional delivery trucks for the critical last few kilometres of a delivery journey. They offer many potential benefits: for example, they take up less room on the street, are easier to park and produce no harmful emissions. 

Packages arrive at the Urban Quick Stop once per day, where they are either held for the recipient or loaded onto the e-bikes. Deliveries are then completed using the dedicated bike lanes on nearby roads. 

“Our partnerships with universities and municipalities have helped us make tremendous progress against our research and development initiatives,” said Ricardo Costa, Purolator’s Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. 

“We’ve been able to respond to the increase in challenges of urban delivery and heightened focus on sustainability through more efficient network designs and electric vehicles. Now, working with the University of Toronto and the City of Toronto, we can further reduce traffic congestion, deliver more efficiently and eliminate the need for parking our trucks in Toronto.” 

“This Urban Quick Stop not only offers nimble pick up and drop services, but also gives us the insights we need in developing sustainable last-mile delivery options in dense urban areas,” said Barbara Gray, general manager, Transportation Services for the City of Toronto. 

“Coupled with other work the City is doing to improve shipping and goods movement, this innovative pilot will make deliveries greener, faster and cheaper.” 

Professor Roorda and his team plan to conduct an extensive analysis of the impact of the pilot project using data collected in a variety of ways.

For example, the Urban Quick stop will be outfitted with AI-enabled traffic cameras provided by Bosch, which will assess the impact on traffic congestion. To look at the climate impact, the team will use emissions sensors provided by Geotab, which will be attached to the e-bikes. 

“This really is a living laboratory,” said Roorda. “As we gather the data and observe how the new system operates, I think we’ll gain some really valuable insights that will facilitate further innovation in more sustainable and efficient freight transportation across the region.” 

By Tyler Irving

This story originally posted by Engineering News

Congratulations to Kareem Othman (photo, left) (CivMin PhD student) and Sara Torbatian (photo, right) (CivMin PhD candidate) on receiving CAA Graduate Scholarships in Transportation Engineering.

Kareem and Sara gave presentations on their research at the CAA Annual Meeting at the invitation of CAA’s Board of Directors on October 6, 2022.

Kareem presented “Advanced real time transit management strategies in mixed traffic on arterials,” and Sara presented “Contribution of diesel trucks to climate and air quality and implications for environmental justice.”

Read more about these award-winning researchers and the CAA Graduate Scholarships in Transportation Engineering.

This story originally published by Mobility Network

“TimberFever was a great experience which allowed us to deal with all stages of design and construction while collaborating with architecture students, learning from industry mentors and gaining knowledge of where sustainability within structural engineering is headed, says Castro. “Definitely looking forward to participating again next year!”

Ahmad offers a reflection of the competition,”TimberFever was a great opportunity to connect with students, mentors and professionals in the field of Civil Engineering and Architecture. As an Engineering student, my personal favourite aspect of this competition was the firsthand experience of working with Architects. Going through the design process, sharing ideas, learning from each others’ experiences and bringing our design to life was a greatly rewarding experience. Another important takeaway from this event is the importance of sustainable building practice, by promoting the idea of sustainability and use of materials that can regenerate naturally (such as timber). Can’t wait till next year!”

by Phill Snel

More photos available on the TimberFever Instagram feed

An excerpt from the original article highlighting our CivMin student Emma Blewett

Would free, unlimited transit provide youth experiencing homelessness with more opportunities?

Noah Kelly, a U of T graduate, and Emma Blewett, a third-year civil engineering student, are researching how free, unlimited transit access can improve the quality of life for Toronto youth who are experiencing homelessness.

TAP (Transit Access Project) for Youth is a student-led transit equity research project that seeks to reduce barriers to transit access. It was founded by five undergraduate students as part of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) at U of T, the largest student chapter of the Canadian non-governmental organization that takes strategic action to tackle global poverty in local communities.

Working with two Toronto-based homeless shelters and one transitional youth home, the team gave free PRESTO cards to 36 participants between the ages of 16 to 24 earlier this year. Each one came pre-loaded with a monthly pass. From there, the TAP team documented participants’ experiences with transit before and after receiving the card. This included interactions with transit authorities and riders, safety and social inclusion.

“Transit equity ensures the right to mobility,” says Kelly, co-founder of TAP. “Public transit access in Toronto is vital in exiting the cycle of homelessness because it enables youth to have job opportunities in the urban landscape, which would otherwise be limited to walkable areas.”

With $2,000 support from the Small Grants Program awarded by the School of Cities – an ISI which brings interdisciplinary urban-focused researchers, students, institutions and the public together to build equitable and sustainable cities – the group was able to hire a social worker to attend the interviews to inform youth of any programs or supports to help with their needs.

Guided by Steven Farber, an associate professor in the department of human geography at U of T Scarborough, and Stephanie Begun, an assistant professor in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, TAP is funded in partnership with Metrolinx, the City of Toronto’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Office and the Toronto Shelter Network, along with other stakeholders.

With a final report set to be published early next year, TAP’s data aims to fill a gap in scholarship and inform City of Toronto and TTC policy frameworks on conversations surrounding transit equity.

The project is a replication of a similar initiative that brought free transit to all people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton, Alta, in 2013. While transit discount programs do exist in Toronto, several hurdles make them insufficient, the group says.

In Toronto, the Fair Pass Transit Discount Program offers a 21 per cent discount on an adult monthly pass, which costs approximately $123 instead of the regular price of $156. To be eligible, applicants must be 20 years old or more and prove enrollment in Ontario Works,  the Ontario Disability Support Program, a Child Care Fee Subsidy (through Toronto Children’s Services) or the Rent-Geared-to-Income Subsidy – programs that researchers say aren’t by themselves enough to help youth experiencing homelessness access job opportunities.

“We have to think about setting youth up for success after they enter a shelter or transitional home,” says Blewett, financial lead at TAP for Youth. “What keeps me going in this project is being a part of research that will help young people live their lives as they should be.”

By  Tina Adamopoulos
This story originally published by U of T News

This article is part of a multimedia series about U of T’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives program – which seeks to make life-changing advancements in everything from infectious diseases to social justice – and the research community that’s driving it.

Lisa Guseva, a third-year Civil Engineering student, was part of a team to win second place at the New Frontiers in Transportation competition. The event was held September 20, 2022 at the University of Toronto.

The University of Toronto Transportation Alumni Network (UTTAN) hosted their fourth annual U of T student research competition symposium on the timely theme “Reimagining transportation systems for a changing climate.”

The team took the second place prize of $475 per student, awarded for the category “Active Transportation in a Changing Climate” with their entry Designing for Extreme Heat | Written report.

Mentors for this team were Trevor Jenkins, Project Manager Sustainable Mobility Planning, City of Hamilton, and Michelle Kearns, Associate at Access Planning.

This article originally published by the Mobility Network