Tech startups have special challenges. Founders need to keep an eye on technology disruption, they have to find, recruit and keep the best talent, and they have to stay ahead of their competition. In the early stages there are no funds and never enough resources or time. In spite of this tech startup founders find a way to stand up their first product and land their first customers. Join us for an afternoon with tech startup founders Melinda Jacobs, Cofounder, Lucent Sky, Maria Karam, Founder, Tactile Audio Displays Inc and the Inventor’s Nest, and Eddy Song Fonder of Inlighten Co as they share their own stories of the early stages of their businesses. Come and hear how they do it and how they turn their ideas into products customers want. Day & Time: Monday November 27th, 2017 3:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Speakers: Melinda Jacobs, Cofounder, Lucent Sky Dr. Maria Karam, Founder, Tactile Audio Displays Inc & Inventor’s Nest Eddy Song, Founder, Inlighten Co. Location: Room: ENG 288, George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering 245 Church Street Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 RVSP: https://www.meetup.com/Get-Your-Bot-On-Robotics-Hackathon/events/245069438/ Contact: Dr. Maryam Davoudpour Organizer: Get Your Bot On!, WIE IEEE Toronto, Instrumentation-Measurement/Robotics-Automation, Magnetics, and Computer Science Department of Ryerson University. Agenda: 3:30 p.m. – Doors Open and Networking 4:00 p.m. – Welcome and Speakers 4:50 p.m. – Panel and Q&A 5:30 p.m. – Closing Remarks 6:00 p.m. – Close Biography: Melinda Jacobs is cofounder of Lucent Sky, an application security vendor based in San Francisco and Taipei. Originally from Fredericton, Melinda studied as a Loran Scholar at the University of Toronto and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the University of Toronto Alumni Association (UTAA). Last year Melinda presented a keynote at the Lean Startup conference in San Francisco and is a frequent presenter on social entrepreneurship, security and risk. She was recently named a Senior Fellow of the Canadian International Council and now resides in Toronto. Dr. Karam is the inventor and President of Tactile Audio Displays inc., and a Senior visiting research fellow at Kings College London UK. Dr. Karam’s specializes in the research and development of tactile communication systems and multi sensory technology integration in luxury autonomous vehicles, accessibility, and immersive entertainment environments. Maria is also the founder of the Inventors Nest, a new innovation and collaboration hub for artists, scientists, and techies. (please shorten or select the parts you think are relevant). I have also been a member of the IEEE since 2005. Eddy Song is the founder of Inlighten Co. Inlighten makes fashionable clothing from fibre optic textiles. Their first products are popular with the EDM community.

Friday, February 2nd at 12:15 p.m., Dr. Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh (PhD, P.Eng), Director of Biologically Inspired Sensors and Actuators Laboratory, will be presenting “High Throughput CMOS Sensors and Actuators: An Emerging Technology for Automation of Biological Laboratories”. Day & Time: Friday, February 2, 2018 12:15 p.m. ‐ 1:15 p.m. Speaker: Dr. Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh Biologically Inspired Sebsors and Actuators ( BioSA) Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Lassonde School of Engineering York University Location: Room: ENG 288, George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering 245 Church Street Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 Contact: Maryam Davoudpour Organizer: WIE IEEE Toronto, IEEE Ryerson Student Chapter, Instrumentation-Measurement/Robotics-Automation, Magnetics, and Computer Science Department of Ryerson University Abstract: Recent advances of Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Lab-on-Chip (LoC) technologies have greatly attracted the attentions for a variety of life science applications including DNA sequencing, drug discovery and automation of biological laboratories. A CMOS based LoC consists of a microfluidic device for directing the biological/chemical samples towards sensors (e.g. magnetic, optical or capacitive sensors) or actuators (e.g. magnetic or electrical actuators). An array of sensors or actuators can be realized on the top of CMOS integrated circuits (IC) for accurately measurement of chemical and/or biological signals. High throughput microfluidic/CMOS technology for cellular and molecular analysis is in a very early stage of development and there are several critical challenges that must be investigated and resolved. In this talk, professor Ghafar-Zadeh will discuss new perspectives and challenges for the design and implementation of hybrid microfluidic CMOS sensors and actuators. Also he will demonstrate and discuss his recent research achievements in this emerging field of research. Biography: Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh (PhD, P.Eng) received his BSc ( KNT University, Tehran Iran), MSc (University of Tehran, Iran) and PhD ( Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada) degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1992, 1994 and 2008 respectively. In recognition of his innovative research in the topic of hybrid microfluidic/microelectronic systems, Dr. Ghafar-Zadeh received several postdoctoral fellowship awards including NSERC PDF and FRQNT PDF and he perused two postdoctoral fellows in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University; and the Dept. of Bio-engineering, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Ghafar-Zadeh has published more than 100 journal and conference papers and a book titled CMOS Capacitive Sensors for Lab-on-Chip applications. Since 2013, he has been an assistant Professor, in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, York University, Toronto, Canada. Dr. Ghafar-Zadeh is the director of Biologically Inspired Sensors and Actuators Laboratory.

Friday, February 16th at 12:15 p.m., Nima Tabatabaei, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director of Hybrid Biomedical Optics Laboratory at York University, will be presenting “Hybrid Biomedical Optics Imaging and Instrumentation”. Day & Time: Friday, February 16, 2018 12:15 p.m. ‐ 1:15 p.m. Speaker: Nima Tabatabaei Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Director, Hybrid Biomedical Optics Laboratory York University, Canada Location: Room: ENG 210, George Vari Centre for Computing and Engineering 245 Church Street Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 Contact: Saba Sedghizade, Maryam Davoudpour Organizer: WIE IEEE Toronto, IEEE Ryerson Student Chapter, Instrumentation-Measurement/Robotics-Automation, Magnetics, and Computer Science Department of Ryerson University Abstract: The focus of professor Tabatabaei’s research is on the design and instrumentation of thermal and optical imaging technologies and devices with applications in medical diagnosis and screening. Optics-based medical devices are of particular interest to him due to their intrinsic ability of revealing malignancies in early stages. The early diagnosis of diseases improves the effectiveness of treatments, promotes prevention rather than medical intervention, and is probably the only approach for us to win the war on cancer. However, one of the major challenges in optical imaging of endogenous tissue contrast is the poor specificity due to background signals from healthy tissues. Professor Tabatabaei’s research vision is to overcome this shortcoming by separating excitation and detection channels using Hybrid methods. In this scenario, crosstalk between the channels, selectively, takes place by energy conversion at malignant sites that are sensitive to the excitation thus minimizing (if not eliminating) the signals originating form background health tissues. Biography: Nima Tabatabaei is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the director of Hybrid Biomedical Optics laboratory (http://www.HBOLab.ca) at the York University (Canada). He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (University of Toronto; 2012) before carrying out research at the Harvard Medical School and Wellman Center for Photomedicine as postdoctoral fellow. His research interests are design and development of hybrid biomedical optics imaging technologies for applications in early disease diagnosis and screening.