News & Events

At a celebration to mark the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Engage Grants reaching the $10-million milestone in Ontario, Ryerson was recognized for strong market-driven research and innovation through collaborations between researchers and business. Held at Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone (DMZ) recently, the event culminated with the awarding of the 400th Engage Grant in Ontario to computer science professor Vojislav Misic.

The NSERC Engage Grants initiative was launched in 2010 and is designed to bring universities together with industry to provide a fast, easy and low-risk response to a company’s research and development problem. Each grant awarded provides up to $25,000 in funding over a six-month period. NSERC president Suzanne Fortier saw the DMZ as an example of a model researchers need to move into for their ideas to prosper.

“Ryerson is an institution that’s clearly in the 21^st century and in tune with today’s industry. The high level of Engage Grants collaboration at Ryerson shows that partnerships between researchers and businesses put research and development resources to work to solve practical problems,” Fortier said. “As Canada continues to make its way through challenging economic times, it’s very important for us to find effective new ways to create jobs and boost productivity.”

Research at Ryerson is on a transformational course with research funding having doubled over the last five years. Additionally, Ryerson has been an active and enthusiastic participant in the NSERC Engage initiative and is the leader, on the basis of the number of eligible researchers per university, amongst Ontario universities in the number of NSERC Engage Grants awarded. 

“Ryerson is very pleased to be at the forefront of this collaborative NSERC initiative and to be included in this $10-million milestone celebration,” said Sheldon Levy, Ryerson president. “Engaging in innovation and entrepreneurship is the key for universities to stay relevant and to contribute to Canada’s economy and to the quality of life of Canadians.”

In less than two years, 29 Ryerson researchers have partnered with 38 different companies and been awarded nearly $1 million as part of Engage Grants. “I am thrilled that Ryerson and its researchers are being celebrated for their innovation,” said Wendy Cukier, vice-president research and innovation. “Just as we lead in experiential and real-world learning, we are also ahead of the curve in undertaking research to solve real-world problems in the community, in government and in the private sector.”

Innovations have been made in a wide range of research and development clusters, from health and well being involving integration of ultrasound therapy and imaging systems; to energy, sustainability and the environment to improve energy efficiency in buildings. Misic continues the partnership with the latest Engage Grants award.

Over the next six months, Misic’s research team will be helping More Automation Solutions Incorporated, a small local business, to perfect an advanced vision-based process control system, destined for an application with a commercial bakery in the food industry.

The proposed research in this new technology will enable a test to collect real-time length, width, height, temperature and colour data for products before packaging. The solution developed in this project will be applied in the bakery industry, but it will be generic so that it can also be easily ported to other industrial environments with similar requirements.