Success Stories

The Justice Department has quietly launched an artificial intelligence experiment as the Trudeau government prepares to use such sophisticated software to help make decisions in cases involving immigration, pension benefits and taxes. The 18-month pilot project, which involves the Canada Revenue Agency, was started even though the government has yet to establish clear ethical guidelines … Read More

Mark Ang was 17 years old when he and his older brother, David, moved out of their parents’ home. The brothers piled into a small, 500-square-foot apartment, with David working full-time to cover their rent and claiming the only bedroom. Mark, a student at the University of Toronto, was deputed to sleep on the couch. … Read More

It’s been a month since University of Toronto undergraduate student Samin Khan and his teammate from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology were on the world stage, pitching their smartARM to a panel of industry judges at the Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s annual student innovation competition. The hook of their pitch was a demonstration of how the robotic, prosthetic … Read More

Shiz Aoki has a simple but powerful way to demonstrate the need for BioRender, a University of Toronto startup whose web-based tool helps bioscience researchers produce eye-catching illustrations of their work. She flips open her laptop and loads a page featuring a dozen garish diagrams – each a mish-mash of jagged starbursts, flattened ellipses and multi-coloured … Read More

A new partnership between Medicine by Design and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), founded at the Rotman School of Management, will strengthen Toronto’s biomedical ecosystem by bringing together the University of Toronto’s world-class research in regenerative medicine and the CDL’s proven seed-stage program for science-based companies. The two organizations are collaborating to launch a health-themed cohort … Read More

A cardiovascular researcher herself, Soror Sharifpoor knows just how much cutting-edge heart research is being done at the University of Toronto and its partner hospitals – which is why she was surprised to discover a dearth of related startup companies. It’s a gap she’s now seeking to bridge. The research program manager for the Ted … Read More

Finding somewhere to park a bike on busy Toronto streets can be challenging – with some cyclists forced to walk for blocks or lock their bikes to trees and signposts. The creators of a new app are hoping to find a solution to the city’s bike parking problem by crowdsourcing data on parking issues. BikeSpace … Read More

Toronto’s burgeoning innovation district – home to hundreds of researchers, entrepreneurs and innovation-minded partners – is poised to undergo a dramatic expansion. The University of Toronto has confirmed plans to build a new innovation centre at the corner of College Street and University Avenue, directly across the street from the MaRS Discovery District and up … Read More

As the second-largest financial centre in North America, Toronto is headquarters of the Canadian financial sector. Many large finance companies are based here; and the region is also home to a burgeoning number of financial start-up companies, particularly those focused on artificial intelligence (AI), digital payments and robo-advising. And while our competitive economy and early … Read More

Oren Kraus took up coding because, by his own admission, he was not cut out for doing experiments in the lab. Now his artificial intelligence-powered startup has raised US$1.5 million to transform biomedical research and drug discovery. Called Phenomic AI, the startup develops computer vision tools for a faster and more accurate analysis of microscopy … Read More