Silicon Valley has been known as the hub of IT innovation for most of the last decade. That image may become outdated as other regions of the world step up support for innovation and technology. Toronto is one such city with a good combination of infrastructure, universities and talent that offers a great mix for innovators. Toronto’s status as a global leader has been reaffirmed as two natives of the city were named by MIT’s Technology Review as people transforming the world. Joyce Poon of the University of Toronto and Hossein Rahnama of Ryerson University will be listed along with 35 innovators under the age of 35 which make Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s list.
The universities and educational institutes in Toronto have much to be excited about because of the two professors. Global recognition of the two innovator’s work proves that university efforts to retain top talent are working. Both Poon and Rahnama are 32 years old and conduct research at the institutes where they graduated from, even though they got offers from other world renowned institutes. If MIT is paying attention than upcoming intellectuals will definitely look at locations like Toronto as an option for their work.
Hossein Rahnama is currently an Associate director of Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone, a Research Director for Ubiquitous Computing Group and Founder of Flybits. In his busy schedule the young professor has found time to create a new way to retrieve data in a mobile device. Rahnama explains that, “Instead of searching for the information, the information will find you when you need it.” This means the device will use context clues like location, social network and time to offer information. So if you are in a train station it will give you train timings or if you are in a meeting the device will forward all your calls to voice mail.
Rahnama did his undergraduate, Masters degree and a PhD from Ryerson and was a major force behind the Digital Media Zone. The young professor explains why he chose Toronto by stating that, “I think Toronto has the potential. Instead of leaving, why not build potential here.”
Poon has a similar story as Rahnama and is the child of immigrants to Canada. She is currently Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Canada Research Chair in Integrated Photonic Devices at the University of Toronto. Poon is working on ways to use light instead of electricity to transmit data. Her research should make the exchange of information faster and more efficient and in the future may change the way computing machines are built.
Even though the researcher completed her PHD from the California Institute of Technology, she came back to University of Toronto because she had completed her undergraduate from there. Her reasoning was simple, “It was people – the student quality, that’s what really motivated me to come back. To do research, it has to be a whole team. We rely heavily on graduate-student researchers and undergraduates become graduate students. It is really the No. 1 key to success.”
Source: The Globe and Mail
Photo: The Globe and Mail
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