Canada Excellence Research Chairs / en 老司机直播 Engineering professor aims to reimagine the internet /news/u-t-engineering-professor-aims-reimagine-internet <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">老司机直播 Engineering professor aims to reimagine the internet</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-11/jj-CERC-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vNloMF7G 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-11/jj-CERC-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FSPirGyI 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-11/jj-CERC-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=kqmwfvKX 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-11/jj-CERC-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vNloMF7G" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-11-16T15:52:57-05:00" title="Thursday, November 16, 2023 - 15:52" class="datetime">Thu, 11/16/2023 - 15:52</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Professor J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves aims to forge a smarter, more equitable internet (photo by Matthew Tierney)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/matthew-tierney" hreflang="en">Matthew Tierney</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-excellence-research-chairs" hreflang="en">Canada Excellence Research Chairs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/electrical-computer-engineering" hreflang="en">Electrical &amp; Computer Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves, who has been awarded a Canada Excellence Research Chair, says the internet runs on 50-year-old technology that hasn鈥檛 kept pace with advancements in other fields</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For <strong>J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves</strong>, the networks that make up the internet 鈥 both the physical layer of routers and switches, as well as the protocols and algorithms that distribute data 鈥 hold unused intelligence with the potential to foster major advances.</p> <p>鈥淭he internet we are using today was designed 54 years ago. I mean, I wouldn鈥檛 drive a 50-year-old car. But that鈥檚 what people are doing,鈥 says Garcia-Luna-Aceves, a professor in the University of Toronto's Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering. 鈥淭here have been adjacent technological advancements over the years in radios, machine learning and the like. But the main algorithms used鈥痠n the internet protocol stack haven鈥檛 followed suit.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Garcia-Luna-Aceves was this week appointed a <a href="https://www.cerc.gc.ca/home-accueil-eng.aspx">Canada Excellence Research Chair</a> in Intelligent Digital Infrastructures, a position that will help him explore and tap into the resources that lie 鈥渦nder the hood鈥 of computer networks. Awarded by the Government of Canada, the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) program aims to fund ambitious research projects that help position Canada as a global leader in innovation.</p> <p>Garcia-Luna-Aceves points to the smartphone鈥檚 upward trajectory as a counterexample to that of the internet.</p> <p>鈥淵our smartphone is intelligent,鈥 he says. 鈥淲hat makes it so? To act intelligently, one needs memory. Endowing network entities with vast amounts of memory capacity would allow us to rethink the routing protocols that are the backbone of the internet.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Garcia-Luna-Aceves himself is responsible for sections of that backbone.&nbsp;In the late 1980s, he developed an algorithm to handle the fast communication demands of a flying network of missile interceptors. Although the algorithm was never used for that purpose, it was adopted by networking and communications giant Cisco as part of their Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), called DUAL, which is still widely used today.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭hat technology was great for that time,鈥 says Garcia-Luna-Aceves. 鈥淏ut we need to build routing tables that not only take into account policies, but the characteristics of the use&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;the content and the service being accessed and the intent for the communication.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>To get there, he says, we need to go back to first principles 鈥 which means forgetting the hardware and bandwidth limitations of 50 years ago, and asking ourselves how we would design the internet today.&nbsp;</p> <p>That means we need to look at whom the technology is enabling and whom it is not.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淎ny solution needs to be not only scalable but affordable and deployable in different settings,鈥 he says. 鈥淭here are areas, communities and industries today that the internet does not reach, where it has potential as a technology enabler 鈥 applications in agriculture, in fishery, you name it. And we can only learn about them by talking to those who have been disenfranchised in the past.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>Garcia-Luna-Aceves plans to launch a multidisciplinary research hub, called the Centre of Excellence for Networking Innovation in Toronto, that draws on international researchers and industry partners to further his vision.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淧rofessor Garcia-Luna-Aceves has his sights on an ambitious and impactful project. Everything in his distinguished career suggests he鈥檚 the person for the job,鈥 says Professor鈥<strong>Deepa Kundur</strong>, chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering. 鈥淚 enthusiastically congratulate him on his CERC, a well-deserved recognition of his incredible talent.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity like very few others,鈥 says Garcia-Luna-Aceves. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a clean slate to pursue my research. That I can do so in one of the best, most inclusive cities in North America is an added blessing.鈥&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 16 Nov 2023 20:52:57 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 304505 at Canada's net-zero transition should place equity at the forefront: 老司机直播 Scarborough professor /news/canada-s-net-zero-transition-should-place-equity-forefront-u-t-scarborough-professor <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Canada's net-zero transition should place equity at the forefront: 老司机直播 Scarborough professor</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-11/Paty-Romero-Lankao-Fall-2023-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=b8zczEsV 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-11/Paty-Romero-Lankao-Fall-2023-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=19N0Kr1W 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-11/Paty-Romero-Lankao-Fall-2023-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=JBeNjpe0 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-11/Paty-Romero-Lankao-Fall-2023-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=b8zczEsV" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-11-16T15:13:11-05:00" title="Thursday, November 16, 2023 - 15:13" class="datetime">Thu, 11/16/2023 - 15:13</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Professor Patricia Romero-Lankao says equity must be a core consideration of Canada's transition to a net-zero future (supplied image)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/alexa-battler" hreflang="en">Alexa Battler</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/canada-excellence-research-chairs" hreflang="en">Canada Excellence Research Chairs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">老司机直播 Scarborough</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Patricia Romero-Lankao, who has been appointed a Canada Excellence Research Chair, says clean energy transitions need to take place in an equitable manner</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>For the last year and a half, the University of Toronto鈥檚 <strong>Patricia Romero-Lankao</strong> has been leading social and policy approaches for a City of Los Angeles project that examines how clean energy transitions can address 鈥 and not exacerbate 鈥 equity issues.</p> <p>On Thursday, the LA100 Equity Strategies initiative <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/85947.pdf">published its final report</a>&nbsp;about&nbsp;how Los Angeles鈥檚 clean energy future can take place in an equitable manner.</p> <p>The same day, Romero-Lankao, a professor in the department of sociology at 老司机直播 Scarborough, was named a <a href="https://www.cerc.gc.ca/program-programme/index-eng.aspx">Canada Excellence Research Chair</a> in Sustainability Transitions by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The position comes with $8 million in research funding that will help Romero-Lankao bring her expertise to bear on how Canada, too, can bolster equity as it transitions to a net-zero carbon future.</p> <p>鈥淚 think we are now in a watershed. We are moving more from the problem to the solution space,鈥 says&nbsp;Romero-Lankao, 鈥淲e need to focus more on who pays for what, who benefits and who bears the negative impacts so that it鈥檚 win-win.鈥</p> <p>As cities around the world embark on plans to phase out fossil fuels, they鈥檙e also grappling with the fact that their most disadvantaged residents are already being left behind in the clean tech movement.</p> <p>Los Angeles, for example, <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/analysis/los-angeles-100-percent-renewable-study.html">plans to power the entire city with clean electricity by 2035</a>.&nbsp;While wealthier Californians slash their carbon footprints and energy bills by buying electric vehicles and installing solar panels, more than 16 per cent of the city's population live below the poverty line 鈥 nearly a third of these low-income households can't afford necessary amenities such as air conditioning in the sweltering climate.</p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;,serif"><span style="font-family:&quot;Open Sans&quot;,sans-serif"><span style="color:#485667">Many of the report鈥檚 findings stem from Romero-Lankao鈥檚 work with community organizers to hold sessions where community members could share their lived experiences, including how past policies and programs failed them.</span></span></span></span></p> <p>Key to much of&nbsp;Romero-Lankao鈥檚 work is recognition justice 鈥 the understanding that past energy projects left severe and ongoing damage to communities through practices like redlining (targeting marginalized areas for high-risk loans) and neglect of housing and infrastructure.</p> <p>Historically, the people making the lowest incomes shoulder most of the health and socioeconomic impacts of living and working near power plants and refineries, Romero-Lankao says. She adds equity in energy transitions means concentrating the benefits in those communities, while ensuring the inevitable burdens 鈥 such as noise from wind farms or impacted property values 鈥 don鈥檛 again fall on them.</p> <p>Through analysis and ongoing community feedback,&nbsp;Romero-Lankao and the team&nbsp;designed a series of measures to expand marginalized communities鈥 access to clean energy, energy-efficient and climate-controlled housing, and affordable electric transit, putting the city on track to meet all their equity goals.</p> <p>The strategies build on another one of Romero-Lankao鈥檚 recent papers, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-023-01351-3">published in&nbsp;<em>Nature Energy</em></a>, which created a framework to help governments, technology developers and other practitioners launching large-scale green energy projects to hold community dialogues that highlight and address equity issues.</p> <p>鈥淭here is more to our transition than all our beautiful technological ideas; there is a decision-making that politicians and coalitions have to make differently with communities, and this reconfiguration of power is something to catalyze,鈥 she says.</p> <p>Romero-Lankao has&nbsp;spent decades fighting to make social science an integral part of environmental work.&nbsp;For&nbsp;almost 20 years she was a social scientist for the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. In addition to publishing 148 peer-reviewed papers, she was the co-leading author of a working group that helped create a ground-breaking assessment report that earned a Nobel Peace Prize for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.</p> <p>Romero-Lankao鈥檚 work as a Canada Excellence Research Chair will include centering communities in knowledge production and mobilization as she builds a data repository and toolkits to help make Canada鈥檚 net zero carbon transitions equitable. She has found that marginalized communities in Canadian cities 鈥 who spend a larger-than-average share of their incomes on energy bills 鈥 are particularly concerned about the consequences of clean energy, such as the health impacts of lithium mines, and how the workforce will change.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚 want to create a hub or a platform for us to connect our research with teaching, students, and learning from and with communities,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 want to be very experimental and risk-seeking, and ensure that we are known for doing amazing work in a couple of years.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 16 Nov 2023 20:13:11 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 304504 at