Da Vinci Inspired Flying Machine Sets Flight Record

University of Toronto  PhD candidate, Todd Reichert built a human powered flying machine inspired by sketches made by Leonardo da Vinci in 1485. Reichert then flew the machine on August 2nd at Tottenham, Ontario with an official from from the world-governing body for air sports and aeronautical world in attendance. The governing body is anticipated to confirm Reichert's world record some time in October. The machine, with a wing span of 32 metres, about the same length as that of a Boeing 737 sustained altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds. Check out the video, it truly is the most graceful flying machine that I've ever laid eyes on! Well done Todd! Kudos to Leonardo as well.

HPO Flight from U of T Engineering on Vimeo.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/22/human-powered-plane-toronto.html?ref=rss#ixzz10LPGnjNC

Graduate School of Digital Media Being Contemplated For Toronto

Three Ontario universities - Ryerson, Waterloo and the University of Toronto - are contemplating the creation of a graduate school of digital media to be located in downtown Toronto and which could be up and running within two years.

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy said that the idea is to create a centre where industry can bring their most challenging problems in this field and where graduate students can gain real experience, according to the Globe and Mail. The 3 universities are said to already be collaborating in the area of digital media and the 2 years is really required to locate a physical home for the program.

Canadian Students Win Top Award In Google's Android Developer Challenge

Five Ontario students, 3 from University of Waterloo and 2 from the University of Toronto have teamed up to create "Ecorio" an Android application that "... gives users the ability to reduce their environmental footprint with tools that provide transit options for trips, allow them to invest in carbon reduction projects and share their tips with other users." according to the CBC. On the team's Facebook site they explain "We're not a company. We are 5 guys from Ontario, Canada and we think that this environmental thing might be for real. There are many people with lots of ideas on how we can live smarter, greener and sustainable lives. Ecorio is one piece of that mosaic" Well done gentlemen, I'm sure the $275,000 prize will cover some of that student debt! Read more about Ecorio at the team's web site.

A better touch based technology?

From Apple's iPhone / iPod Touch to Microsoft's Surface PC, everyone is striving to change the way we interact with our devices and it seems that touch screen is the way to go. One big drawback to touch screen is that your hand momentarily obscures your view as you invoke action on the screen. Researchers at Mitsubishi, Microsoft, and the University of Toronto have teamed up to tackle this problem. Their answer appears to lie in a new technology dubbed LucidTouch, "users can choose to manipulate objects by touching a sensor pad on the back of the device; this allows users to resize images and text, as well as navigate around any graphical user interface without their hands getting in the way of the display." ars technica had an opportunity to view the prototype and has an article chronicling the experience.