Events

Meeting Agenda: - Welcome & Introductions (5 min) - Quick roundtable introductions. - Review of meeting objectives. - 2026 VTS Chapter Funding Request Overview (10 min) - Summary of the IEEE VTS email requirements. - Key deadlines: - vTools officer updates required before submission. - Chapter funding request form due 16 March 2026. - Highlight important changes: - Officer term limits (max 2 years per election, max 4 years total). - Candidate requirements for elections (2–3 candidates per position). - vTools Updates & Compliance Check (10 min) - Verify all chapter officer details are current in vTools. - Assign responsibility for updating any missing officer term dates. - Discuss treasurer exception clarification. - 2025 Chapter Activity Review (15 min) - Summary of 2025 activities (if applicable). - Lessons learned and successes to build upon. - 2026 Proposed Activities & Budget Planning (20 min) - Brainstorm and outline proposed activities for 2026. - Map activities to anticipated budget needs. - Reminder: Use “activity” instead of “event” in requests. - Action Items & Next Steps (10 min) - Assign tasks: - vTools updates. - Gathering bank account information. - Drafting funding request narrative. - Set internal deadline before 16 March 2026. - Q&A and Open Discussion (10 min) - Address any questions for VTS Chapter Chair. - Adjournment Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/537419

Canada's largest hardware make-a-thon returns February 14-15, and we're inviting makers, builders, and innovators from across the country to join us at the Myhal Centre for 24 hours of creativity and engineering. Whether you're new to hardware or a seasoned prototyper, MakeUofT is your chance to code, build, and create a real, interactive device! Bldg: Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MY), 55 St George St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5S 0C9

IEEE Photonics Society Toronto is proud to invite you to a seminar by Dr. Federico Rosei of University of Trieste, Italy. Join us Tuesday, 24 February 2026 at 4PM (ET) on University of Toronto main campus. Refreshments will be served. Registration Required. Abstract --------------------------------------------------------------- The quest for sustainable development dictates an urgent transition from fossil fuels to renewables. This presentation focuses on next generation (solar) energy technologies from a materials perspective. We study structure property/relationships in advanced materials, emphasizing multifunctional systems that exhibit several functionalities. Such systems are then used as building blocks for the fabrication of various emerging technologies. In particular, nanostructured materials synthesized via the bottom–up approach present an opportunity for future generation low cost and low energy intensive manufacturing of devices. We focus on recent developments in solar technologies, including third generation photovoltaics, solar hydrogen production, luminescent solar concentrators and other optoelectronic devices, highlighting the role and importance of critical raw materials. --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Speaker(s): Dr. Federico Rosei, Room: 202, Bldg: Galbraith Building, 35 St George St, Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/532572

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. We will discuss our group’s recent efforts in using advanced medical imaging and machine-learning based finite-element modeling to better diagnose and treat various cardiovascular diseases. We will first present our group’s recent developments in physics-informed machine-learning that can be used to regularize sparse observational data by embedding know physical laws into the loss functions. We will demonstrate the performance of this framework in patient-specific vascular geometries (e.g., aorta, idealized arteries) and subsequently validation in real-world imaging data. We will also discuss our group's work in advanced medical imaging, and in particularly, CT myocardial perfusion imaging to better detect diseased heart vessels, specifically those that limit blood flow to the heart muscles. Lastly, we will discuss recent directions within our group to characterize durability of tissue-mimicking materials towards advancing and improving bioprosthetic heart valves. Speaker(s): Owais, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/542341

Reflections on entrepreneurship in integrated photonics and workforce development Abstract: Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) promise improvements in size, weight, power, cost, and functionality compared to bulk/discrete optics and photonics for several applications. In this talk, Dr. McComber will introduce the field of integrated photonics and the histories and trajectories of the two companies he leads, providing insights into the photonics talent pipeline and marketplace as well as lessons learned in entrepreneurship. This talk is relevant for those interested in entrepreneurship and the ever-changing landscape of integrated photonics. Dr. Kevin McComber Speaker(s): Dr. Kevin McComber Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/539458

Abstract: As industry is starting to deploy systems based on 224Gbps/lane and growing pains are becoming more apparent, AI companies are clamoring already for more bandwidth. A first look at 448Gbps is already highlighting the enormous challenges of running even very short links on copper. However, industry doesn’t seem yet ready to throw the towel on pluggable modules as gateways to optical interconnect given the risks and limitations of CPO. Some of the questions that will be covered: - Can we clearly articulate what are the priorities in developing the next generation of interconnect for AI? - What are the main obstacles to the adoption of short reach optics to replace the last inches of electrical connectivity? - What can we learn from advances in C2C and in particular by the success of UCIe? - Does it make sense to still have pluggable modules and what is the best way to do that? - Was LPO a success or a bust and can we move forward with it? - What are the promises and possible pitfalls of CPO? Topics touched upon: - System level (Computing, AI) requirements & considerations (architectural trends, efficiency, bw, latency, cost etc.) - Optical and electrical energy efficiency considerations - HW technology developments and limitations (interposer, packaging, connectors, cables) - System trade offs analysis (retiming vs. linear, vs. CPO) - Chiplets and co-packaging technology - Analysis of latest OIF development on next generation interconnect Agenda: Room: GB202, Bldg: Galbraith Building, University of Toronto, 35 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The IEEE Blockchain Forum is returning for the fourth time as part of (https://www.torontotechweek.com/). The goal of this compact one-day event is to congregate BUIDLers, researchers, academics, and engineers building blockchain protocols, infrastructure, and decentralized software applications. Note: (https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/469545) counted with 200 participants and speakers from JP Morgan, the Bank of Canada, Mastercard, the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, EY, Starknet, among others. [] Co-sponsored by: Government of Ontario Agenda: Agenda TBC Ontario Investment and Trade Centre, 250 Yonge Street, 35th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5B 2L7