Innovation & Impact
Collaboration with business, industry and various institutions is at the heart of Ryerson’s research mission, working with strategic partners to meet their diverse needs and promote innovation.
Collaborations
SOTI, an Ontario-based software and technology firm, is partnering with Ryerson to design autonomous aerial drones for use in indoor environments and search-and-rescue operations. SOTI’s investment will support the creation of a new research chair in addition to on and off-campus research, training and co-op opportunities for students.
In 2020–21, overcoming the continued disruptions caused by COVID-19, Ryerson was able to support the commercialization and mobilization of research results to the benefit of Canadians.
Ebrahim Bagheri (Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering) is working with leading Canadian open access publisher, JMIR Publications, to test and expand Reviewer.ly, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based peer review system for academic journals.
Victor Yang (Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering) and his collaborators’ surgical navigation device, commercialized under the name 7D Surgical System, was acquired by the global medical technology company SeaSpine in a cash and stock deal valued at $110M.
Championing Entrepreneurs
Innovation + Impact Network of Canada (I-INC)
The Innovation + Impact Network of Canada (I-INC) is a pan-Canadian network that provides access to world-class national and international partners, matching operating funds, mentors, and industry-leading best practices and programming. I-INC was founded in 2014 by Ryerson University, Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) with the support of the Canada Accelerator Incubator Program (CAIP), delivered by the National Research Council-Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP).
Lab2Market
Leading members of I-INC – Ryerson, Dalhousie University and Memorial University – identified the need for a program to accelerate the commercialization of Canada’s university-based research.
To meet this need, L2M is the first national-level program in Canada to fund and equip graduate students and their faculty supervisors with entrepreneurial skills to pursue their university-based research innovations. As part of L2M’s spring 2020 launch, Mitacs provided support to several student-and-faculty research teams to assess the commercial viability of their new technologies and to further iterate them. These collaborations include the following:
Anum Khan, a master's student in engineering, and professor Darko Jokismovic (Civil Engineering) are working on a monitoring system for “flushable” consumer products in urban wastewater collection systems.
Ashraf Elshorbagy, a postdoctoral fellow in engineering, and professor Ahmed Shaker (Civil Engineering) are working on a unique light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based 3D mapping system.
Reeda Mahmood, a master’s of science student, and professor Bryan Koivisto (Chemistry and Biology) are developing a novel method of converting existing windows into dye-sensitized solar cells.
With access to Ryerson’s Zone Learning model and the Innovation + Impact Network of Canada (I-INC), students and faculty are immersed in a thriving innovation ecosystem that helps them incubate and accelerate new businesses, create jobs in diverse fields, and bring research results to market.
Ryerson Zone Highlights
Savyn, incubated through the Social Ventures Zone, the Biomedical Zone and the Ryerson Venture Zone in Brampton, is a free digital tool that provides immigrants and refugees who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with therapies and tools. The innovative mental health platform placed first in the Penny Appeal Social Accelerator Fund, receiving the top prize of $10,000.
WearWave, launched by two secondary school students through the DMZ Basecamp and the Design Fabrication Zone, is dedicated to producing radiation-free, customizable headphones for children, the most frequent users of headphones and also the most potentially susceptible to headphones’ radio-frequency radiation. The business-to-consumer social enterprise placed first nationally at the Future Business Leaders of America competition.
HOPE Pet Food, a member startup in the Science Discovery Zone, develops pet foods from insects instead of traditional livestock and fish farming. The company seeks to reduce the carbon footprint of the commercial pet food industry, which uses more than 25% of all the meat produced worldwide. HOPE Pet Food was selected to receive $7,500 from the Adams Sustainability Innovation pitch competition held at the University of Toronto.
Through partnerships with government, industry and not-for-profit organizations, Ryerson’s faculty and staff have a proven track-record of making positive and necessary contributions to their communities and to Canada’s social betterment. Social innovation and entrepreneurship at Ryerson continues to support those who need it most, with a strong focus on new immigrant and marginalized communities.
Partnership for Change: The RBC Immigrant, Diversity and Inclusion Project
Faculty
Rupa Banerjee (Business Management) received support to examine the earnings trajectories of former international students in Canada and investigate the factors that contribute to their labour market success once they have transitioned to permanent resident status.
Murtaza Haider (Business Management) received support to examine the relationship between big data, smartphone technology and employment and career outcomes of graduates with immigrant backgrounds in order to create informed social policy.
Fatih Sekercioglu (Occupational and Public Health) received support to explore food safety practices of new immigrants so that public health service providers and settlement agencies can develop culturally appropriate food safety policies, programs and activities for new immigrants.
Students
Sharon Broughton, a master’s student in Public Policy and Administration, received support to investigate whether employers who use the federal government’s Legislated Employment Equity Program have recruitment strategies and processes that are more proactive in promoting newcomer hiring relative to unregulated employers.
Meera Govindasamy, a master’s student in Communication and Culture, received support to conduct a research project in collaboration with the Writing Support unit at Ryerson to gain insight into the best practices for supporting international students experiencing stress related to university writing.
Erica Wright, a master’s student in Immigration and Settlement, received support to create the Black Bilingual Immigrant Services Network which provides a picture of services available in Ontario that support African and Caribbean immigrants and international students, including Francophone immigrants from these regions.
Knowledge Mobilization
Knowledge is at its most powerful when it’s shared and Ryerson faculty have always made it a priority to bring the results of their research to both the broader community as well as other researchers in their fields.
AIMday Cybersecurity 2021, a collaboration between Ryerson, University of Toronto, University of Guelph, York University and the Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, saw Canada’s academic community connect with organizations like RBC, Microsoft, Sun Life and the City of Toronto to discuss pressing cybersecurity challenges. Ryerson is AIMday’s official Canadian hub.
Cecilia Rocha (Nutrition), in association with The Coalition for Healthy School Food, Canada, and Food Secure Canada, convened a panel of Brazil-Canada experts to discuss Brazil’s National School Food Program and how it could help the country reach the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
Hyacinth Simpson (English) organized and chaired the Black Canada and the Great War symposium, bringing together community historians, academics, veterans and active-service personnel, and museum curators to recover the stories of Black Canadian participation in, and contributions to, World War I.
Ryerson faculty have always made it a priority to bring the results of their research to both the broader community as well as other researchers.
Peer-reviewed publications and citations by other researchers remains one of the most effective measures of research impact, and Ryerson researchers continue to prove their excellence in this regard. In the 2020–21 fiscal year, Ryerson saw a 16.85% increase in its publishing of academic papers from the previous year, and a 13.79% increase in the work of Ryerson researchers being cited by other scholars.
*Note: Academic publications include journal articles, conference papers and book reviews. Totals fluctuate as information is made available.
Source: Web of Science, Thompson Reuters as of November 11, 2021.