Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Thank you very much for the invitation.

Although my background is not in UAVs or regulations, I will be glad to help with this important cause. To give some brief background about me, I am a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Toronto. I am the design chair for the faculty-wide Institute for Multidisciplinary Design and Innovation. Before that, I was at Ryerson University. I was the founding chair of the department of aerospace engineering at Ryerson University and the founding director at Ryerson University for aerospace design and innovation. So I have been involved with aerospace-related research and programs for a while.

Currently at the University of Toronto, we have a lot of collaboration with aerospace companies, including Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney, and other companies. My own research falls in the area of lighted structures for both aerospace and automotive applications.

In terms of the UAV, I have been lucky enough to have a collaboration with Drone Delivery Canada, which is a new company. We have run a couple of projects with them so far. One of them, which was recently in place, is for the delivery of the payload, so we are working with them on the mechanism for the delivery of the payload.

Overall, certification is a very important issue, because it has an impact on the safe operation of aircraft, including UAVs. I was looking into the background of that, the regulations that have been in place—and I believe one is going to come into effect very soon—about airspace for the drones, which has also been in practice for the past few years. I think this is very important, because this is the area that I believe has an impact on the safe operation of UAVs in general.

I'm quite supportive of any regulations that bring into play safety and the airworthiness of these aircraft, including UAVs.

Thank you very much.

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