Webinar: Alchema Research: Contactless Robotics in Soft Material Handling
Date and time: 28th October 2026 | 2pm GMT
Registration & more info: Click Here – Registration for the webinar is now open
Join us for an introduction to AcoustoFab’s contactless robotic platform
a new approach to precision handling built on acoustic technology, and its role in the emerging world of Physical AI. This session will explore how contactless, acoustic-based manipulation enables pick, inspect, sort, and place parts with a level of precision and gentleness that traditional solutions can’t match, and why this matters as manufacturing moves toward more intelligent, adaptive physical systems.
We’ll present a range of applications across industries, showing how the platform’s contactless approach solves real handling challenges, delicate components, irregular geometries, contamination-sensitive processes, and complex sorting requirements, while feeding into broader Physical AI capabilities like adaptive perception and autonomous decision-making on the factory floor.
Who should attend?
Engineers, operations and plant leaders, robotics/automation teams, scientists, lab leaders and anyone interested in the intersection of lab automation and Physical AI.
What you can expect:
- Talks from experts in the field about how Alchema can be used to change the way we interact with the physical world around us.
- Exclusive insight into the world’s first programmable contact-free robotics platform and how it is changing automation.
- Live Q&A with the AcoustoFab team.
- A downloadable recording of the webinar for you to refer back to at your leisure
What you’ll learn:
- What a contactless robotic platform is and how acoustic-based precision handling works.
- A tour of applications across industries: pick-and-place, inspection, and sorting Where contactless sorting outperforms traditional methods.
- The advantages of contactless handling: precision, gentleness, and reduced contamination risk.
- Where this fits into the future of manufacturing automation.
Interested in mentoring the next wave of scientists and improving high school STEM education? Get involved with the Discovery program this Fall!
The Discovery Program at the University of Toronto is seeking mentors for its upcoming Fall 2026 term (October 2026 – December 2026). This initiative targets high schools with fewer educational resources, offering students an opportunity to engage in university-level STEM projects. In partnership with high school educators from the Toronto District School Board, participating students work in teams to design and execute experiments to solve real-world problems over three full day visits to UofT. We are currently recruiting volunteer mentors to help guide high school students through their iterative designs. As a mentor, you’ll guide students through capstone projects in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, helping them apply their knowledge in a hands-on, inquiry-based learning environment. You will also have the chance to gain skills and experience for future teaching opportunities, connect with fellow mentors in the Discovery community, and share your passion for science and engineering with students!
If you’re interested, sign up using this link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/M35ArkHPdD or scan the QR code on the image below. For more details, visit uoftdiscovery.ca or reach out via email to: discovery@utoronto.ca
Emotional Intelligence: The Human Side of Technical Leadership
Wednesday, October 14 | 10 – 1:30PM | GB202 I Register in advance
📜 Participants will receive a certificate of completion.
🤌 Coffee, tea, light snacks, and full-lunch will be catered.
Engineering and technical environments require strong analytical thinking, problem-solving and technical expertise. But success, particularly when working with others, also depends on how we handle stress, communicate, manage disagreements and respond to different people.
In this interactive three-hour workshop, participants will explore four areas of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.
We’ll look at questions such as: What happens when I’m stressed or frustrated? How do I know when I’m getting triggered? How can I pause before reacting? How do I recognize what someone else may be experiencing? And how can I handle a difficult conversation without making things worse?
Using practical examples, reflection and discussion, participants will explore how emotional intelligence can help with teamwork, conflict, communication, trust and working under pressure, in graduate school, research teams and future workplaces. Participants will leave with practical strategies they can use right away to manage their own reactions, work more effectively with others and handle challenging situations.
Résumé and Cover Letter for Industry
Thursday, October 21 I 12:00 – 2:00 pm I GB202 I Register in advance
🍕 Pizza and pop will be catered at the event.
Looking to tune up your résumé and cover letter for industry roles? Join us for a session with Career Exploration & Education to learn strategies and tips to build and refresh your industry job application material.
We will discuss:
✅ Creating application materials targeted to industry roles
✅ How to analyze industry job descriptions so you can successfully tailor your résumé
✅ Strategies to create a more effective and captivating résumé including writing strong accomplishment statements and organizing résumé sections effectively
✅ Approaches to drafting tailored cover letters in an efficient and compelling manner
Bonus Activity: Participate in a peer-based résumé review for personalized feedback! You will need to bring a digital copy of your working résumé (does not need to be finalized) and be ready to share it with your peers.
September 23 @ 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Physical AI from Cloud to Robot: An AMD Perspective
Abstract
Building intelligent robots requires more than deploying a model to hardware. Modern robotics workflows span cloud-based training, simulation, fine-tuning, and efficient on-device inference, all supported by increasingly capable development tools. This talk explores how these pieces fit together targeting the newly launched AMD Kria AI Developer Platform.
From a collection of AI trends, we will highlight the latest model architectures, fine-tuning techniques, and hardware acceleration that enable efficient deployment of embodied AI applications. The talk will also examine the growing role of AI coding agents in robotics, showing how they can accelerate software development and complement existing physical AI workflows before a robot is ever deployed.
At AMD, we have the benefit of working with customers and academic collaborators on all these aspects of robotics. With that perspective in mind, while we are sharing our experiences, we also hope to learn from the University of Toronto community on how we might engage more.
About Graham Schelle
Graham Schelle is a fellow at AMD within the Research and Advanced Development Group (RAD) based in Colorado, USA. He leads a team within AMD Research looking at Physical AI strategies across cloud and edge full-stack deployments. Specifically, with the open-source Ryzers effort, the team has mapped a variety of Robotics frameworks onto AI PCs, reimagining client devices as embedded platforms for Physical AI workloads. He is also a lead maintainer of the PYNQ and the RFSoC-PYNQ open-source projects for adaptive SoCs at AMD.
Register to join the Introduction to Medical Affairs Workshop hosted by University of Toronto’s Life Sciences Career Development Syndicate (LSCDS)!
Date: Wednesday September 23rd 6-8PM
Location: UofT St George Campus
Pizza will be provided!
This workshop will be led by Dr. Jefferson Tea, CEO and Founder of Agilis Health and former Vice President of Medical & Regulatory Affairs at Takeda Canada. Dr. Tea holds a PhD in Pharmacology and MBA from the University of Montreal, and he has held leadership roles in major pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer.
If you are curious about how to apply your PhD or post-doctoral research background to a career in Medical Affairs, please register for the free workshop here: https://forms.gle/SxazDp9Ye4WjxNDu6
The exact building and room number will be e-mailed to registered participants closer to the event date.
We hope to see you there!
LSCDS Team
