Operation Breakthrough: Innovations from FEAS
The Office of Social Innovation (OSI) and Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science (FEAS) have teamed up to produce Operation Breakthrough: Innovations from FEAS, a digital repository and video interview series highlighting innovations made by the Ryerson community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hosted by Dr. Miljana Horvat, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies, FEAS, the six-part video series features interviews with faculty, staff and students from across FEAS on their innovative responses to the pandemic and their contributions to societal change.
Projects range from efforts to provide laptops to local high school students, safeguarding the workforce against COVID-19 and designing the most effective face masks for the Canadian fashion industry. Each project explores ways to further equitable access to social, economic and political resources and services during COVID-19.
The idea for Operation Breakthrough was sparked by Dr. Samantha Wehbi, Creative Lead at OSI, as a way to showcase some of the many projects the Ryerson community has been developing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There were so many negative stories coming out from the COVID-19 pandemic, and I saw Operation Breakthrough as a way to highlight the other side of the story. The side of the story that looks at how researchers at Ryerson were coming together to challenge the social issues that were arising as a result of the pandemic.”
“There were so many negative stories coming out from the COVID-19 pandemic, and I saw Operation Breakthrough as a way to highlight the other side of the story. The side of the story that looks at how researchers at Ryerson were coming together to challenge the social issues that were arising as a result of the pandemic.”
For Dr. Wehbi, Operation Breakthrough was also a way to present social innovation from a social justice lens and speak to some of the unequal impacts of COVID-19 on traditionally marginalized communities. Instead of focusing on the social deficits caused by COVID-19, Operation Breakthrough highlights the strengths of what is being done to help solve these challenges.
“Operation Breakthrough was a great opportunity to demonstrate to both researchers and students how their work can help contribute to the betterment of society.” For Dr. Horvat, partnering with OSI on this initiative helped highlight the many cross-disciplinary responses to COVID-19 created by the FEAS community. Operation Breakthrough also provided a space where researchers could showcase their work to a wider audience and emphasize the importance of research that contributes directly to the broader community and society as a whole.
Operation Breakthrough first launched as a call-for-submissions back in October 2020, asking students, staff and faculty members from FEAS to submit innovative projects they had made in responding to COVID-19 and the societal changes that had occurred. The projects were then collected and shared in an online repository on the OSI website. Through the repository, community members can read overviews of the initiatives and access links to final reports and other resources.
“When we’re working from home, we don’t have the opportunity to see each other and share our research.” In Dr. Horvat’s opinion, the repository helps fill the void for in-person networking and provides a space for researchers to present their work in a virtual environment.
"I was left deeply moved after some of the interviews, especially with the student-led projects. I always have gratitude for my colleagues’ incredible work, but the interviews truly highlight these projects’ unique social impact. I hope they will act as a tool to influence future FEAS students and researchers to pursue research projects driving social change."
As an extension of the repository, six projects were featured in a video interview series to provide additional insights into their projects and impacts on the community. The interviews took place over Zoom, as a conversation between Dr. Horvat and the research teams from each project.
As the host, Dr. Horvat saw the interviews as an opportunity to see FEAS community members and their work from a new perspective. “I was left deeply moved after some of the interviews, especially with the student-led projects. I always have gratitude for my colleagues’ incredible work, but the interviews truly highlight these projects’ unique social impact. I hope they will act as a tool to influence future FEAS students and researchers to pursue research projects driving social change.”
The video interviews feature the following projects and teams from FEAS:
- Episode 1: Outdoor Space in Urban Apartment Housing with Dr. Terri Peters, Assistant Professor, Department of Architectural Science, FEAS
- Episode 2: Laptops4Students with Ronald Noronha and Awais Ullah, Masters of Engineering and Entrepreneurship, ‘20
- Episode 3: Engineering COVID-19 Fashion with Hyejin Lee, Masters of Arts in Fashion, FCAD, ‘20; Kai Lordly, Masters of Applied Science, Aerospace Engineering, ‘22; and Leya Kober, Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, ‘21
- Episode 4: Automatic Endometrial Cancer Diagnosis with Dr. Dafna Sussman, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, FEAS
- Episode 5: Safeguarding the Workforce Against COVID-19 with Dr. Sharareh Taghipour, Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair in Physical Asset Management, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, FEAS and Dr. Mohammad Reza Bazargan Lari, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, FEAS
- Episode 6: Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury with Dr. Sinthuran Jegatheeswaran, Post Doctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering, FEAS
Click the button below to watch the full six-part video interview series and explore the Operation Breakthrough project repository!
Project Submissions
Have a project you’d like to submit to Operation Breakthrough?
Submissions to the repository are being accepted on an ongoing basis. Please submit your project via the (google form) project submissions form. (external link, opens in new window)