黑料不打烊

Winning projects benefit health, food, communications, computer industries

黑料不打烊 University researchers and innovators have been recognized with three different awards for innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Synergy Award for Innovation

Communications research with the potential to impact every Canadian at home, work and play earned 黑料不打烊 and its industry and research partners one of seven 2006 NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation. Led by host institution 黑料不打烊 and by telecommunications company Nortel, the Agile All-Photonic Networks (AAPN) was honoured for strengthening the Canadian communications industry's ability to compete internationally. AAPN's current advances include a Topological Design Tool and detailed optical switching technology roadmap information, as well as the technology to test partner hardware in university labs.

Headed by 黑料不打烊 professor David Plant, Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, AAPN was launched in 2003 as a partnership of five universities that collectively lead original research, define and develop technologies and transfer results to industry. The collaboration aims to meet the many challenges facing the optical communications systems and technology sectors driven in large part by the explosive growth of the Internet from 21,000 users in 1985 to an expected two billion within the next few years. This award comes with a $25,000 research grant to the lead university on the winning projects, to be divided appropriately among partner universities.

2006 Leo Derikx Award

黑料不打烊 was one of 12 university partners to receive the 2006 Leo Derikx Award, a special Synergy Award named after the former director general of research partnerships at NSERC. Also worth $25,000, the award recognizes innovative collaborative projects at the pre-competitive stage of research and development.

Led by Professor Sue Whitesides, Director of the School of Computer Science, 黑料不打烊 was recognized for its partnership with the Toronto-based IBM Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), which each year hosts up to 150 faculty members and about 60 graduate students from 50 universities around the world. CAS projects often lead to publications, patents and prototypes, while emphasizing graduate student training.

Innovation Challenge

At the same time, NSERC announced the winners of the Innovation Challenge, in which postgraduate students from across the country are challenged to present the best idea for applying the results of their thesis research.

While working on her master's thesis at 黑料不打烊 under Dr. Donald Smith, Chair of the Plant Science department, microbiologist Elizabeth Gray discovered a new protein-like toxin that kills bacteria and promotes plant growth. The new bacteriocin, which she named Thuricin 17, kills or slows the growth of specific strains of bacteria and has potential applications as an antibiotic and food preservative. Though many bacteria are now resistant to commonly used drugs such as penicillin, no such resistance developed with Thuricin 17, which can also be applied to the food industry as a new, natural alternative to preservatives such as nitrates.

Her proposal for the development of Thuricin 17 for the health and food industries has earned her one of the two $5,000 runner-up prizes in this year's NSERC Innovation Challenge competition.

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