Research & Ideas

Illustration of a squirrel looking at a mobile device.

Save Your Money

An app from Vicis Labs aims to help millennials and the precariously employed manage their cash

Close up shot of researcher turning a screw on a quantum computer.

AI’s Quantum Leap

In combining two of computing’s hottest trends, the Creative Destruction Lab sees new opportunities for startups

Illustration of an astroturf.

Astroturfing

The practice of faking a grassroots movement gets an update in the age of social media

Outside view of the Institute for Management and Innovation at University of Toronto Mississauga

ICUBE UTM

The name of this U of T Mississauga business accelerator refers to three “i” words central to entrepreneurship

Illustration of a smartphone app (left side) and a car (right side)

Uberization

Companies such as Uber are disrupting entire industries, but this is good for the economy overall, says an economics prof

Illustration of a wooden frame with a tube in the middle, dividing and ending in four pencils depicting four national flags

Say What?

Knowtions aims to make translating complex scientific documents into any language faster and more accurate

Photo of a man sitting at a computer.

Loan Ranger

Online peer-to-peer lending company hopes to change how Canadians obtain loans

Since becoming CEO of Canada Goose in 2001 at the age of 27, Dani Reiss (BA 1997 Woodsworth) has built the company into one of Canada’s most recognized brands. Photo: Daniel Ehrenworth

The Reluctant CEO

Arts grad Dani Reiss wanted to become a writer, then realized there was more than one way to tell a story

Open for Business

U of T launches the Banting & Best Centre, one of North America’s largest entrepreneurial hubs

From left: U of T professors Craig Simmons and Peter Zandstra and PhD students Jennifer Ma and Curtis Woodford are among the dozens of researchers who will work to advance treatments for heart patients at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

Testing the Waters

U of T offers undergrads the chance to try being entrepreneurs – without any of the risk

Illustration of a unicorn with dollar signs above its head.

The Business Unicorn

Companies that attain a $1-billion market valuation before their 10th year are vanishingly rare

Photo of Jonathan Yam.

A Quicker Fix

A new app aims to smooth out the often prickly relationship between residents and property managers

Photo of a golf ball and club.

Nanofacturing

From making golf clubs stronger to designing water repellant garments

Cybill Lui. Photo by Liam Sharp

Dream Job

Cybill Lui worked for years on Wall Street, then followed her heart into the high-risk world of film production

Nadia Amoroso. Photo by Liam Sharp

Beauty in Numbers

Nadia Amoroso helps clients interpret complex data quickly and present it memorably

Stephen Piron. Photo by Liam Sharp

Uncovering Fraud

Computer science grad Stephen Piron is helping banks stay on the right side of regulators

Photo of iPads on a desk with a pencil.

Patent Wars

Intellectual property rights are intended to foster innovation. But could they actually be stifling it?

The Gates Foundation challenge to Reinvent the Toilet awarded third prize and US$40,000 to U of T's team from the Centre for Global Engineering, from left: Prof. Elizabeth Edwards, team leader Yu-Ling Cheng, Samiel Melamed, Prof. Mark Kortschot, Tiffany Jung, Meagan Webb and Zachary Fishman

Frugal Thinking

How do you bring basic sanitation to two billion people in low-income countries? Inventing a toilet that works for pennies a day is a start

Photo of David Rosenberg.

The Sage of Bay Street

David Rosenberg warned of a financial crisis few others saw coming. So why, amid ongoing global turmoil, is Bay Street’s most noted pessimist ready to change his tune?

Image of a Canadian $100 bill under a microscope

Business Boot Camp

U of T’s “technopreneur” program gives scientists such as Mallika Das a crash course in running their own company

Neena Kanwar

Risky Business

U of T science students are learning how to turn their high-tech ideas into products the world wants

Man in a business suit midair trying to catch a football

What’s a CEO Worth?

Rotman dean Roger Martin says executive pay shouldn’t be tied to a company’s stock price, after all

Undermining Staying Power

If a business wants to enjoy the benefits of long-term staying power, it must reject theories built on shareholder value theory and replace them with a theory embedded firmly in the real market

Black and white photo of men in hats and trench coats standing in line

The D-Word

Q&A with Walid Hejazi, professor of business economics and international competitiveness at the Rotman School of Management.