ME July 2014

Ali Rizvi Age: 27

Student, University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada

UNDER THIRTY A

li Rizvi is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He combines rigorous academic research with an entrepreneurial drive to bridge the gap between a proof-of-concept invention and commercialization. Ali is developing innovative and industrially viable technologies to manufacture low density porous plastics with super-absorptive properties for oil-spill cleanup applications. He holds patents that have been favorably received by the industry, including a major Japanese chemical company.

He is the co-founder and director of manufactur- ing at a start-up company and leads the company’s product development for rapid prototyping, material selec- tion, material research and development, incorporation of advanced manufacturing technologies, and plastics mold design. The start-up, which received the Venture-

“A great idea that can’t be produced and scaled up economically will fail. The reason I pursued manufacturing engineering was to develop insights that will facilitate commercialization of scientific breakthroughs.”

Start grant from the Research & Innovation Commer- cialization Centre - Ontario, has achieved substantial success and continues to grow at an exponential rate. Ali graduated with High Distinction with an Hon- ours B.S. in Environmental Chemistry and a minor in Economics from the University of Toronto and was fast-tracked into the Ph.D. program in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Ali said that he wanted to study manufacturing because it is the key to commercializa- tion of an idea: “A great idea that can’t be produced and scaled-up economically will fail. The reason I pur- sued manufacturing engineering was to develop insights that will facilitate commercialization of scientific break- throughs. During my undergraduate work in chemistry, I

112 ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | July 2014

engaged in cutting edge research in various disciplines of chemistry. What I noticed was that scientists evaluate research by considering whether it makes an original contribution to our understanding of the world and often overlook or not address the more pragmatic factors, like cost of manufacturing, and scalability.” Ali has been awarded a number of grants including a challenge grant from the Canadian government aimed at addressing health-related problems in third world countries. The proposal is aimed at developing a field- capable device based on the mobile phone that would overcome the difficulty of field-diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in third world countries where sophisticated equip- ment and electric power are typically not available. Ali has two patents and ten technical publications in refereed journals and conference pro- ceedings. His scientific contribu- tions have received academic and industrial recognition. In 2013, Ali received the NSERC Alexander Graham

Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. In 2012, Ali was awarded the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) PerkinElmer Award: Composites Division for the best paper. In 2012, he also received the Queen Elizabeth II-GSST Award: DuPont Canada Scholarship in Sci- ence and Technology.

Ali, as a graduate assistant, has been active in the academic life of the university. He has supervised six summer research students who came from countries across the globe.

He served as a judge at the LIVE Competition 2013, a two-day national business competition; Show Me the Green Conference 2013; and the University of Toronto Engineering Kompetition 2012–2014. ME

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