Robotics, life sciences research on display for Minister Nolan Quinn

Read about the CRAFT visit here

Faculty and students from the Robotics Institute and CRAFT demonstrated physical AI and microfluidic technologies to Ontario’s Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security

Left to right: Minister Nolan Quinn tours a robotics research showcase featuring student-built drones, and mobile and social robots with applications in indoor navigation and health care. Minister Quinn uses INSITE: a handheld skin bioprinter with Sushant Singh: recent graduate in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, inventor and founder of startup VRiT Inc.

On March 9, the Honourable Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security, visited the University of Toronto’s Robotics Institute and the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT) for a firsthand look at emerging technologies in physical AI, autonomous systems and microfluidics.

U of T has longstanding leadership in these research areas, including developing essential controls for the Canadarm, and novel medical devices for diagnostics, human tissue engineering or biofabrication, and organ-on-a-chip technologies.

U of T Engineering Dean, Chris Yip,also joined the Minister for the visit.

“Minister Quinn’s visit highlights the importance of strong partnerships between government and our academic community,” says Chris Yip, Dean, U of T Engineering.

“Across robotics and the life sciences, our researchers are developing transformative solutions to real-world challenges while providing students with exceptional hands-on training. By working together, we can amplify the impact of university research and ensure our graduates make meaningful contributions to Ontario’s innovation economy.”

“Ontario’s world-class engineering programs are preparing students for the in-demand jobs of tomorrow that drive Ontario’s economy,” says Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security.

“I was thrilled to tour some of the University of Toronto’s world-class engineering spaces which are equipping students with the hands-on skills they need to launch successful careers in Ontario’s critical sectors.”

Advancing AI-driven robotics research and training

The tour began with a robotics showcase hosted by the University of Toronto Robotics Institute in the two-story drone teaching lab in the Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

The showcase featured three themes: drones, mobility, and social robots. These areas represent key intersections of AI, robotics and real-world applications.

Experiential learning through student-designed drones

Each year, students pursuing the Engineering Science Robotics major design, build and test their own drones as part of a hands-on capstone course. It is designed to give students the opportunity to apply their technical knowledge to a real-world challenge by developing a complete robotics hardware and software system.

Graduate researcher, Hshmat Sahak (right), demonstrates robot path planning to Minister Quinn.

Autonomous vehicles have cross-sector applications, including remote delivery, logistics and environmental monitoring. Graduate researcher, Hshmat Sahak, demonstrated his work on indoor navigation in Professor Tim Barfoot’s lab, which builds on Barfoot’s commercialized Visual Teach & Repeat (VT&R) navigation framework.

Sahak’s research integrates smart rerouting with VT&R to help robots safely detect obstacles and plan optimized paths in GPS-denied or noisy environments — capabilities essential for real-world deployment.

Supporting older adults through human-robot interaction

Graduate students Matthew Lisondra and Souren Pashangpour demonstrate how an expressive mobile manipulator can respond to voice commands to help older adults with simple household tasks.

The Minister also met with Professor Goldie Nejat from the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, and graduate researchers, Abi Nevo, Souren Pashangpour, Haitong Wang and Matthew Lisondra,who are developing socially assistive robots designed to support older adults with daily tasks, provide companionship and facilitate cognitive engagement.

The students demonstrated the QT robot, showing how its large-language-model-powered interface enables personalized conversations, and presented an expressive mobile manipulator. This technology is capable of following a user and assisting with simple household tasks such as holding tools.

“Robotics hardware, or physical AI, is essential to fully realizing the potential of artificial intelligence to support the province’s economic growth,” says Tim Barfoot, Director, University of Toronto Robotics Institute.

“We look forward to continued collaboration with policymakers to support excellence in STEM education and accelerate the adoption of physical AI across Ontario’s priority sectors.”

Demonstrating real-world applications for medical device technologies at the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT)

Minister Nolan Quinn meets with Professor Axel Guenther, Co-Director of CRAFT and Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, along with biomedical engineering graduate students, Bernadette Ng (centre) and Emine Dide Yurtal (right), who demonstrated diagnostic and organ-on-a-chip devices built at CRAFT.

Open to both academic and private sector users, the CRAFT Tissue Foundry is a biosafety level 2 lab that supports the development of medical technologies including biofabrication, diagnostics and organ-on-a-chip technologies.

Co-led by Professor Axel Guenther, Professor at the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, CRAFT represents a strategic partnership between the University of Toronto, Unity Health Toronto, and the National Research Council of Canada, and supports the entire value chain of manufacturing microfluidics-based products in Canada.

CRAFT research focuses on translating innovations in disease diagnostics and bioanalytics, miniature human organ models as alternatives to animal testing and biofabrication into the Canadian industry and healthcare systems.

Tiny devices with a big impact

Minister Quinn met with Bernadette Ng, graduate student in Professor Aaron Wheeler’s lab in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and Emine Dide Yurtal, graduate student in Professor Milica Radisic’s lab in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry.

Ng showed the Minister one of the digital microfluidic devices she worked on as a student, which contains small electrodes that can carry liquids across surfaces in a programmable way. These technologies enable the development of low-cost diagnostic devices with medical applications, as well as enabling chemical analysis in a scalable format.

Dide demonstrated one of the organ-on-a-chip devices developed in the Radisic Lab. These powerful devices represent models for human tissues such as the heart, kidneys, lungs or other parts of the body. They can be used as a more human-like alternative to animal testing for the development of new medicines, and coupled with new developments in biomedical research, such as artificial intelligence, represent a powerful tool for drug discovery.

From discovery to translation

Recent PhD graduate, winner of the 2026 Desjardins Startup Prize (late category) and founder of startup VRiT Inc., Sushant Singh, along with Avantika Vaidya, from Professor Axel Guenther’s research group, demonstrated a handheld bioprinter: INSITE.

INSITE has the potential to revolutionize wound and burn treatments. It eliminates the need for autografts by printing personalized bioinks for skin grafts — useful in cases where these may not be readily available. This technology has also been demonstrated in zero gravity environments with applications for medical needs in remote settings.

Following a brief demonstration by Sushant, Minister Quinn used the printer to print collagen sheets on paper. This is illustrative of how CRAFT strives to build user-friendly devices, bringing medical treatments to those that need them.

“Toronto is one of the global centres in developing microsystems for applications in the life sciences and in medicine,” says Axel Guenther, Co-Director, CRAFT.

“The 450 trainees and 90 research groups active in CRAFT design, prototype and validate their microdevices along with industry in open research facilities that are established and maintained with support from Canadian federal funding and Ontario provincial programs, such as the Ontario Research Fund.”

Left to right: Dan Voicu, CRAFT Operations Manager, Avantika Vaidya, CRAFT Technician, Axel Guenther, Co-Director of CRAFT and Professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Sushant Singh, recent PhD graduate and current postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Minister Nolan Quinn, Bernadette Ng, PhD student at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Dean Chris Yip, Emine Dide Yurtal, PhD student at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and Jennifer Doucet, CRAFT Program Manager.