Ridha Ben-Mrad, P.Eng., Fellow CSME, Chief Research Officer and Associate Academic Director of Mitacs. He is also Director of the Mechatronics and Microsystems Group and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto. He joined the University of Toronto in 1997, having previously held positions at the National Research Council of Canada in Vancouver, BC, and the Ford Research Laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan. R. Ben-Mrad received a PHD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1994. He also received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State, a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering both from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. R. Ben-Mrad’s research interests are micro-actuators and sensors, MEMS, microfabrication, and development of smart materials based devices. He led a large number of collaborations with industrial partners from across Canada. His research led to a number of patents and inventions including 15 US, Canadian, European and Chinese patents and more than 180 refereed research publications. He supervised the work of more than 120 researchers. He received the Faculty Early Career Teaching Award in 2002 and the Connaught Innovation Award in 2013 and in 2014. R. Ben-Mrad chaired the IEEE IES Committee on MEMS and Nanotechnology (2015-2016), is Associate Editor of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Tech News (2013-current) and the Journal of Mechatronics (2015-current), serves on the Steering Committee of the IEEE Journal on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (2010-current) and is a member of the IEEE IES Publication Committee (2013-current). He was a Technical Editor of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics (2010-2014) and a guest editor of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2010-2012). He was as the founding Director of the Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics at the University of Toronto (2009-2011), served on the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Mechanical Engineering Grant Committee (2008-2011) and was Associate Chair of Research of his department (2009-2012). He is a Co-founder and CTO of Sheba Microsystems Inc. (www.shebamicrosystems.com), a Toronto based manufacturer of miniature cameras for the smart phone industry.