What Does Science and Engineering Mean To You ?

1. What Does Science and Engineering Mean To You?

2. Engineering • Chemical Engineering • Civil Engineering • Computer Engineering • Electrical Engineering • Engineering Science (only available at U of T) • Environmental Engineering • Industrial (Systems) Engineering • Materials Engineering • Mechanical Engineering • Mineral Engineering

3. Chemical Engineering Chemical engineering is about making a better world. It is about making artificial organs and artificial skin, and devices for spinal cord regeneration. It is about water treatment and waste recycling and cleaning of contaminated sites. It is about harnessing Canada's vast natural resources efficiently and sustainably. It is about finding better ways to preserve and fortify food for developing nations. Chemical engineering is a collection of tools for designing, building, evaluating, and improving complex chemical, biological, and material systems. Chemical engineers apply chemical and biological principles to benefit humanity, protect the environment, and build the future. It's not just chemistry - it's so much more.

4. Civil Engineering Civil engineers apply scientific and mathematical principles, experience, ingenuity and common sense to plan, develop and manage the infrastructure that supports all human activities while protecting and improving our natural environment. Civil engineering projects are exciting ventures that involve various expertise including: designing biological systems for soil remediation and drinking water treatment; using intelligent transportation systems to analyze and control traffic flow; alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and tidal; and rehabilitating historic buildings. Each project presents a unique challenge because of its one-of-a-kind nature, requiring innovative and high tech solutions. Most challenging is that the facility has to work right the first time - even if nothing quite like it has been done before. Most Civil Engineering projects are built to last a long time.

5. Computer Engineering Computer engineers respond to industry's demand for professionals who are knowledgeable in both hardware and software components - traditionally the domains of electrical engineers and computer scientists. Their integrated expertise allows for the efficient design of both computers as well as systems that include computers. They design communication networks that serve as the backbone for the Internet, the World Wide Web, digital television, multimedia networks and global telephone networks. They also design the software which allows computer-based systems to deliver increasingly sophisticated services and applications.

6. Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering involves manipulating electricity and light for the design, development and construction of exciting new products and services. It is a discipline that is pushing the boundaries of the Information Age, and has expanded to include many diverse applications such as microelectronics, digital communications, wireless systems, signal processing, computer technology, microprocessors, control, power, optoelectronics and device fabrication. Humanity's growing reliance on electrical and electronic devices, along with the rapid rate at which new advancements are made in this field, creates an exciting future for electrical engineers. Electrical engineers have excellent career opportunities in fields as varied as telecommunications, computers, energy, biomedical engineering, automotive and the aerospace industry.

7. Engineering Science Whether it's nanoengineering, biomedical engineering, aerospace engineering or infrastructure engineering, Engineering Science at the University of Toronto is a unique and dynamic program designed to provide superior students with an undergraduate education in the most innovative disciplines within engineering. Engineering Science immerses you in a challenging environment and demands a dynamic thought process. Your classmates will be just like you - intelligent, analytical, ambitious, creative, and well-rounded. Together you will share an intense and intellectually stimulating learning experience.

8. Environmental Engineering Environmental engineers play a pivotal role in improving polluted environments, designing facilities that directly affect our modern economy, public health and safety, and designing environmentally-responsible products and processes. Their knowledge of physics, chemistry, and biological processes allows them to address problems such as protecting air, water and land quality; providing safe drinking water; treating and disposing of industrial wastes; preventing environmental problems by designing 'cleaner' manufacturing processes; and developing alternative energy sources. Engineers with a firm knowledge of environmental processes and solutions are widely sought after by employers in both industry and government.

9. Industrial Engineering Whether it's streamlining an operating room, distributing products worldwide, or designing an airplane cockpit, all industrial engineers share the common goal of increasing an organization's efficiency, profitability and safety. There are industrial engineers in banks, hospitals, government, universities and airports; almost every kind of organization! Industrial engineers see "the big picture". To succeed, they must have strong leadership skills and a commitment to working with teams of managers, scientists and workers. That's why industrial engineering is considered a people-focused field of engineering.

10. Materials Engineering • Do you want to know how materials are made, and how they are selected for practical use in products? Are you curious about why things break and how to fix them? • If yes, your interests qualify you to be a 21st century materials engineer who develops materials that: • produce the next generation of computers, • reduce mechanical failure and corrosion of industrial products, • manage heat flow in systems used in space, • support a healthy society by improving the biocompatibility of artificial organs, • save lives by making transportation systems safer. • The very stuff of which everything is made • - this is the domain of the materials engineer.

11. Mechanical Engineering A mechanical engineer's work is seen every day in anything that moves. This includes designing an aircraft, planning a building's ventilation system and improving a car's fuel economy. Mechanical engineering also saves lives through biomedical technologies. The world's first artificial heart was partially designed, manufactured and implanted using mechanical engineering principles. Robotics, automation for manufacturing, environmentally responsible power generation or any form of transportation are just some of the areas where a mechanical engineer’s product can be used. In fact, it would be hard to find an area or object in every day life that is not in some way affected by a mechanical engineer.

12. Mineral Engineering Did you know that it takes 32 minerals just to turn on your computer? Computer applications and digital modeling, geology and geophysics, earthquake research and explosives are just a few of the areas which intersect with Mineral Engineering. Mineral Engineering involves extracting metals, minerals, and energy sources and construction materials from the earth, as well as exploration and the discovery of new mineral sources to meet a world-wide demand. You could design the Chunnel, build an underground sports stadium or shopping mall, or even be in charge of multi-million dollar operation facilities employing hundreds or thousands of employees. Mineral Engineers find Big Solutions to Big Engineering Problems.

13. Sciences Actuarial Science Anthropology Applied Mathematics Astronomy Biochemistry Biology Botany Chemistry Environment Economics Forest Conservation Geology Human Biology Immunology Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Materials Science Mathematics Molecular Genetics and Biology Microbiology Neuroscience Nutritional Sciences Pharmacology & Toxicology Physical and Environmental Geography Physics Planetary Science Physiology Psychology* Statistics Zoology

14. Actuarial Science Actuaries put a price tag on future risks. They have been called financial architects and social mathematicians because their unique combination of analytical and business skills is helping to solve a growing variety of financial and social problems. Actuaries make financial sense of the future. How? Actuaries improve financial decision making by developing models to evaluate the current financial implications of uncertain future events. Actuaries make a difference. Their calculations and projections are the backbone of the insurance and financial security industries. Actuarial work involves lots of math, but actuaries must also be up-to-date on business issues and trends, social science, law, and economics. In other words, actuaries have a well-rounded business approach to problem solving.

15. Biochemistry Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry of living organisms. Biochemists seek a molecular explanation of life; they are primarily interested in the relationship between molecular structure and function. Biochemists use molecular methods to explain biological processes whereas other biological scientists study the integrated functions of organs, whole organisms, and the complexes of species represented by ecosystems. This is what distinguishes biochemistry from other fundamental disciplines such as physiology and ecology. Some of the most exciting areas of current biochemistry research include: structural biology, gene expression and development, metabolic diseases, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution. The research in this field can lead to diverse careers, such as all areas of medicine, cosmetic research and food production, just to name a few.

16. Botany Botany is the area of biology that deals with plants, fungi and photosynthetic microorganism. Humans and all other animals are dependent on green plants and algae as the main source of food and oxygen. Knowledge of plant biology is essential for solving some of society’s most pressing problems, such as feeding the developing world and maintaining the earth’s fragile ecosystems. Plant biology research in the past decade has brought major advances in the understanding of how plants function. New possibilities have been developed for the better use of plants by people, including the engineering of improved crops, weed control, plant breeding and the industrial production of plant-derived biochemicals such as anticancer drugs.

17. Forest Conservation Historically, we have viewed the forest as a source of industrial timber but, with the recent world developments, focus has shifted to include sustainability and wilderness preservation, in addition to timber production. Forest conservation examines forest environments in the context of national and global sustainability, management and biodiversity protection. The forest conservation programs combine social and community issues, such as aboriginal land tenure, recreation, wilderness travel and preservation of urban green space, with the traditional biological (botany, zoology) and physical (soil science, hydrology) sciences to address broader environmental and resource management issues.

18. Geology Geology means, “Study of the Earth”. This covers everything from the origin of the Earth and its position in the Solar System, to the physical, chemical and biological processes which have brought the Earth through its 4.5 billion year history to the present time, when society itself can be seen as an agent of geological change. Besides the fundamental studies of rocks, minerals and fossils, Geology is concerned with the exploration and responsible recovery of vital resources such as metalliferous ores, coal, petroleum, natural gas, industrial minerals and ground water. An understanding of the way the Earth works is important to achieve effective protection of the environment. Geologists are frequently employed in career fields such as urban development, water and soil pollution, waste disposal, earthquake and volcanic risk assessment, public policy and resource management.

19. Neuroscience This is a multidisciplinary field in biology and medical sciences that concerns the study of all aspects related to the nervous system. Over the past 20 years there has been immense growth in neuroscience research, and neuroscience has become a major scientific discipline encompassing a very wide range of research and topics and methods. Studies related to mechanisms of learning memory, pain mechanisms, Alzheimer’s disease and movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Lou Gherig’s disease and a few examples illustrating the wide diversity of neuroscience topics. Students in this field can look forward to exciting hands-on labs working with the traditional test tubes to studying the behaviour s of live subjects.

20. Psychology Crazy? Take a psych course and you’ll be convinced you are. Psych students learn the range of emotional, cognitive and behavioural characteristics found in all animals (that includes humans!). Often, like many medical students, they start to believe they suffer from the very diseases they are studying. But don’t let that deter you from this exciting and often misunderstood field. Psychology covers much more than Freud. It studies how we learn, remember and perceive the world around us. Research in this field touches on a variety of topics including helping to develop treatments for learning disabilities and mental illness and developing methods for better parenting and child rearing. Students discover amongst many other things, the mysteries behind testing for IQ, how primate animals learn sign language, how human babies recognize their parents and what, if anything, makes girls different than boys.

21. Computer Sciences Despite the name, Computer Science is not really a “science of computers” at all. Computers are quite remarkable electronic devices, but even more remarkable is what they can be made to do: simulate the flow of air over a wing, manage communication over the Internet, control the actions of a robot, synthesize realistic images, play grandmaster-level chess, and on and on. Underlying all of this, is the real subject matter of Computer Science: computation, and what can or cannot be done computatively. Computer Science students study two main themes: the first is the issue of scale: how big a system can we specify without getting lost in the design, or how big a task can a computer handle within reasonable bounds of time, memory and accuracy. The second theme concerns the scope of computation. Computers were originally conceived as purely numerical calculators, but today they are so much more!

22. Computer Sciences Part of Computer Science is concerned with understanding just how far computational ideas can be applied. In the discipline of artificial intelligence, for example, we ask how much of the intelligent behaviour of people can be expressed in computational terms. In the discipline of human/computer interaction, we ask what sorts of normal day-to-day activities of people might be supported and augmented using computers. Many of the programs combine another field with computer science, such as Information Systems, Economics, Mathematics, Physics or Statistics. The programs in Software Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction focus on developing areas of computing.

24. Illustration of how transgenic mice are produced. • Genes responsible for particular traits or disease susceptibility are chosen and extracted. Next they are injected into fertilized mouse eggs. Embryos are implanted in the uterus of a surrogate mother. The selected genes will be expressed by some of the offspring. • Since the first gene transfers into mice were successfully executed in 1980, transgenic mice have allowed researchers to observe experimentally what happens to an entire organism during the progression of a disease. Transgenic mice have become models for studying human diseases and their treatments. Transgenic Mice

25. University of Toronto Blue Sky Solar Racing Blue Sky Solar Racing is the largest student-run project at the University of Toronto, attracting approximately 100 undergraduate and graduate student volunteers. Team members hail from a wide variety of disciplines within the university such as Engineering, Computer Science, Chemistry, English, Political Science, and Philosophy.

26. The team’s task is to design, construct, test, and race a state-of-the-art solar powered vehicle in two events spanning the United States and Australia. Each completed vehicle represents the fusion of innovation, teamwork, dedication, societal awareness, business, engineering, and space-age technologies achieved over the course of two years. Team members are committed to applying their classroom knowledge in building a solar car to help test efficient, alternative energy vehicles and promote alternative energy sources. These cars pave the way for the alternative energy vehicles of tomorrow that will help lead to a cleaner, healthier environment