Researchers at U of T, partner hospitals receive $35 million in provincial support 

Researchers in the University of Toronto’s Thermal Management Systems (TMS) Laboratory are working to improve the way battery systems handle heat and develop structural battery pack components.  

“Whether they are being used for electric vehicles or for stationary energy storage systems that reduce strain on the grid, lithium-ion batteries are transforming the way we use electricity,” said Carlos Da Silva, senior research associate at the TMS Lab in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and executive director of U of T’s Electrification Hub. 

“Unfortunately, today’s batteries are still sensitive to temperature: if they get too cold or too hot, it can degrade their performance and even present safety risks. We are working on new technologies that make batteries more resilient to thermal fluctuations.” 

The battery-related research is among nearly four dozen projects at U of T and its partner hospitals that are receiving almost $35 million in support through the Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence (ORF-RE) and the Ontario Research Fund – Small Infrastructure (ORF-SIF). (See the full list of projects and their principal researchers below). 

"Research at the University of Toronto and at all universities and colleges across Ontario is the foundation of the province’s competitiveness now and in the future,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.  

“This investment protects and advances cutting-edge, made-in-Ontario research in important economic sectors and helps ensure universities can continue to train, attract and retain the world’s top talent." 

At U of T Engineering’s TMS Lab, researchers led by Cristina Amon, a University Professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, are working on two funded projects. They are developing advanced computational modelling and digital twin methodologies that predict and optimize how heat flows through battery packs. The methodologies are carefully calibrated and validated through industry-relevant experiments in the lab. 

These methodologies will help battery designers anticipate and prevent thermal management challenges before they arise. It can also enable them to optimize the design and deployment of fire mitigation measures, such as ultra-thin heat barriers, within their battery systems. 

The team is also collaborating with Ford Canada and several other companies in the energy storage space. For example, they have worked with Jule (powered by eCAMION) on the development of direct current electric vehicle fast chargers with integrated battery energy storage systems, one of which was recently unveiled on the U of T campus. 

“We are grateful for this ORF-RE funding, which will accelerate our research and help us further expand our partnerships, ensuring that battery thermal innovations have a seamless transition from the lab to the marketplace,” Amon said. 

“As a result of this work, the next generation of batteries will be safer and more resilient than ever before, which is especially important in colder climates like ours here in Ontario.”  

Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence:

• Cristina Amon in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Powering Ontario’s grid transformation and electric vehicle fast charging with thermally resilient battery energy storage & Next-gen electric vehicle battery systems: Lightweight, thermally performant and fire safe for all climates
• Morgan Barense in the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – HippoCamera: Digital memory rehabilitation to combat memory loss
• Aimy Bazylak in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering – RECYCLEAN: Critical minerals recycling & re-manufacturing for the energy transition
• Ian Connell at University Health Network and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – MRI-compatible innovations for neuromodulation
• Simon Graham at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Technological innovations for clinical MRI of the brain at 7 tesla
• Clinton Groth in the Institute for Aerospace Studies in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Hydrogen as a sustainable aviation fuel – combustion research to remove impediments to adoption in gas turbine engines
• James Kennedy at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the department of psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Clinical utility and enhancements of a pharmacogenomic decision support tool for mental health patients
• Shaf Keshavjee at University Health Network and the department of surgery in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Advanced solutions to human lung preservation and assessment using artificial intelligence
• Aviad Levis in the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science – AI and quantum enhanced astronomy
• JoAnne McLaurin at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of laboratory medicine & pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Conversion of astrocytes to neurons to treat neurodegenerative diseases of the brain and the eye
• R. J. Dwayne Miller in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science – PicoSecond InfraRed Laser (PIRL) “cancer knife” with complete biodiagnostics via spatial imaging mass spectrometry
• Javad Mostaghimi in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – A new generation of compact, transportable mass spectrometers for rapid, in-field sample analysi
• Xiao Yu (Shirley) Wu in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy – Molecular dynamics modeling and screening of excipients for designing amorphous solid dispersion formulations of poorly–soluble drugs

Ontario Research Fund – Small Infrastructure Fund:

• Celina Baines in the department of ecology & evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Impacts of environmental change on organismal movement
• Sergio de la Barrera in the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Facility for quantum materials and device assembly from atomically thin van der Waals layers
• Michelle Bendeck in the department of laboratory medicine & pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – 4D quantitative cardiovascular physiology centre
• Laurent Bozec in the department of laboratory medicine & pathobiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – 21st Century challenge for Dentistry: Breaking the cycle of irreversible dental tissue loss
• Mark Chiew at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Next generation computational MRI for rapid neuroimaging and image-guided therapy
• Haissi Cui in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science – A molecule to mouse approach to study the intracellular localization of genetic code interpretation in mammalian cells
• Andy Kin On DeVeale at the University Health Network and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health – Sarcopenia and musculoskeletal interactions (sami) collaborative hub
• Ali Dolatabadi in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Advanced cold spray facility
• Spencer Freeman at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Imaging biophysical determinants of the innate immune response
• Liisa Galea at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Institute of Medical Science in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Sex and sex-specific factors influencing brain health across the lifespan
• Maged Goubran at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – AI platform for mapping, tracking and predicting circuit alterations in Alzheimer’s disease
• Eitan Grinspun in the departments of computer science and department of mathematics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – A computer graphics perspective on entanglement of slender structures
• Levon Halabelian in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Enabling a high-throughput drug discovery pipeline for targeting disease-related human proteins
• Ziqing Hong in the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Ultra-sensitive cryogenic detector development for dark matter and neutrino experiments 
• Eno Hysi at the Unity Health Toronto and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Structural and functional assessments of diabetic skin microvasculature using photoacoustic imaging
• Lewis Kay in the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Helium recovery system for the biomolecular NMR facility
• Xiang Li in the department of chemistry and the department of physic in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Real-time multi-faceted probes of quantum materials
• Qian Lin in the department of cell & systems biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – 2p-RAM for whole-brain single-neuron imaging of behaving zebrafish to study neural mechanisms of cognitive behaviours
• Xilin Liu in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Integrated circuits for wireless brain implants with multi-modal neural interfaces
• Stephen Lye at the Sinai Health System and the department of physiology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Healthy Life Trajectories Initiative (HeLTI) analytics platform
• Caitlin Maikawa in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Biointerfacing materials for drug delivery lab
• Emma Master in the department of chemical engineering & applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Accelerating biomanufacturing innovation through enhanced capacity for scale-up and downstream bioprocess engineering
• Roman Melnyk at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – The H-SCREEN: A platform for high throughput and high content imaging-based small molecule screens for disease modulation
• Juan Mena-Parra in the department of astronomy & astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – An advanced laboratory to enable novel radio telescopes for cosmology and time-domain astrophysics
• Seyed Mohamad Moosavi in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Machine learning for nanoporous materials design
• Enid Montague in the department of mechanical & industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Automation and equity in healthcare laboratory
• Michael Norris in the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Infrastructure for structural and functional virology research hub
• Amaya Perez-Brumer in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health – 3P lab: Centering power, privilege and positionality for health equity research
• Monica Ramsey in the department of anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga – Ramsey Laboratory for Environmental Archaeology (RLEA): How human-environment interactions shaped plant-food
• Arneet Saltzman in the department of cell & systems biology in the in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Heterochromatin regulation in development and inheritance
• Mina Tadrous in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy – Developing a centre for real-world evidence to improve the use of medications for Canadians
• Shurui Zhou in the department of electrical & computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Improving collaboration efficiency for fork-based software development
• Olena Zhulyn at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Targeting translation for tissue regeneration and repair
• Christoph Zrenner at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Next-generation real-time closed-loop personalized neurostimulation