Matt Ratto recognized with Award of Excellence for COVID-19 response
Schwartz Reisman Faculty Affiliate Matt Ratto has been recognized for his extraordinary contributions to the COVID-19 response in Ontario through the Toronto Emergency Device Accelerator (TEDA).
Back in April of 2020, the rapid spread of COVID-19 left health-care facilities in Canada and elsewhere scrambling to secure personal protective equipment and medical devices for front-line workers.
Matt Ratto, an associate professor in U of T’s Faculty of Information and specialist in human-computer interaction, healthcare software and hardware, and the intersections between humanities and engineering, set out to co-ordinate a multi-disciplinary group of U of T researchers known as the Toronto Emergency Device Accelerator (TEDA). The 20-strong TEDA team aimed to co-ordinate and deploy equipment from across the University of Toronto to produce medical supplies like masks, face shields, and ventilators for health-care workers on the front lines of COVID-19.
Ratto says his desire to set up the initiative was influenced by his experience working on 3D-printed prosthetics as chief science officer at Nia Technologies, a social enterprise that helps rehabilitation clinics in the developing world produce 3D-printed prosthetic legs. He has now been recognized with a Minister of College and Universities’ Award of Excellence for his and TEDA’s extraordinary contributions to the COVID-19 response.
“The University of Toronto congratulates Professor Ratto on this important recognition,” said Professor Christine Allen, U of T’s associate Vice-President and Vice-Provost of Strategic Initiatives. “Partnering with the Toronto General Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre among others, TEDA was able to make a real and immediate difference.”
Ratto told U of T News that TEDA demonstrates “the clear positive impacts” that can happen when people work across disciplines and connect directly to communities in need.
Matt Ratto co-ordinates the Toronto Emergency Device Accelerator (TEDA) initiative. Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn.
“We’re very proud to have Professor Ratto as a faculty affiliate at SRI,” says Schwartz Reisman Director Gillian Hadfield.
“Both his academic work and the community-oriented initiatives he spearheads strive to make the world a better place through the responsible use and deployment of powerful new technologies. And by gathering a diverse group of U of T scholars, he’s advancing the kinds of necessary collaborations across academic disciplines, sectors, and industries that will tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems. The Schwartz Reisman Institute’s fundamentally interdisciplinary framework and solutions-oriented focus will both be strengthened by the work of brilliant and dedicated scholars like Professor Ratto. We congratulate him on this well-deserved award.”
Ratto noted he was very impressed by the way U of T faculty, staff, and students worked directly with health-care professionals in hospitals and long-term care facilities “to create innovative solutions to the critical supply issues we faced in Canada.”
“Some of this work leveraged U of T’s technical expertise and involved new uses of digital fabrication equipment like 3D printers and laser cutters. But much of it involved the study and analysis of social context and workplace organization as part of the process of finding and fitting innovative solutions into actual use.”
Other U of T collaborators in the TEDA project include:
Nicholas Hoban, a lecturer at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and coordinator of the faculty’s digital fabrication lab, who cut models for face shields.
Kamran Behdinan, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, who worked to design and manufacture assisted bag ventilator devices.
Nadia Caidi, associate professor in the Faculty of Information, who examined the interface between the engineering aspects, human factors, and user side of TEDA to and ensure that, in addition to devising safe devices and products, the team was also providing safe and correct information.
Want to learn more?
Read “U of T researchers mobilize resources to produce equipment for health-care workers,” U of T News, April 15, 2020.
With files from U of T News.
