Labs and learning: INSPIRE program offers preview of grad studies in sciences

Kate Martin

July 13, 2026

Science and Technology

A woman works with a microscope at a lab, with the material the microscope is looking at projected on a nearby computer monitor.

Neha Puritan gives instruction on a research module as part of the INSPIRE program at UTM in June 2026.

(Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

In high-tech labs, alongside researchers and entrepreneurs, students considering a graduate degree in the sciences got a glimpse of what the experience could look like at the University of Toronto Mississauga this summer.

Over two weeks in June, the Interdisciplinary Science Program in Research and Entrepreneurship – or INSPIRE – offered skills training, mentorship and hands‑on research experience in advanced biophysical, mathematical and computational techniques.

The program is designed to help third- and fourth-year undergraduates prepare for graduate studies in physics, chemistry or cell and systems biology, as well as a career in cutting-edge research.

This year’s cohort participated in research modules in labs and workshops at SpinUp, UTM’s wet lab incubator, where they interacted with young entrepreneurial scientists.

Alya Nergiz, who is going into her fourth year studying health and disease, immunology and physiology, came from the St. George campus to explore UTM’s offerings.

“I’ve been going back and forth on planning and career options,” she said of her plans after graduation. “I wanted insight into research with less instructor-led labs and more do-it-yourself.”

Nergiz said she appreciated the exposure she got at SpinUp as part of the program.

“I’ve taken business courses where they talk about entrepreneurship in terms of Uber or Airbnb,” Nergiz said. “But I had never thought about it in terms of science.”

A group of people in white lab coats talk in a lab.

Mahmoud Sultan and Sneha Shanbhag, of Carboform, speak to participants during the INSPIRE program at UTM in June 2026. (Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

The SpinUp aspect was also a major draw for Sonia Dami, a third-year student from Tunisia who is pursuing a major in physics with minors in math and statistics at UTM.

“I hadn’t experienced entrepreneurship before, so I am more aware now of how it works, and the real-world innovation research of a startup,” said Dami. “Everything was new to me, in a good way.”

Sahar Himmati came to INSPIRE looking for ways to apply her knowledge as she heads into her final year at UTM as a double major in biology, and health sciences and commerce.

“This way, when you go into grad school at U of T, you have more intention,” she said. “The entrepreneurship training just makes it even more appealing.”

A person works with a testube and other lab equipment in a closeup shot.

Participants work on a research module as part of the INSPIRE program at UTM in June 2026. (Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Faisal Halabeya, INSPIRE’s program co-ordinator and a physics PhD student at UTM, said the program aims to get senior undergraduates thinking about the possibilities that lie ahead.

“We are planting a seed that, hopefully, by the time they are ready for graduate school they'll be thinking about all this stuff already,” he said.

Halabeya, who is also an instructor with the program, said the SpinUp component helps students see the variety of paths graduate degrees in the sciences can lead to.

“Increasingly not everybody who does science is a professor at a research university. A lot of people are working in startup companies,” said Halabeya.

“Students get to see the incubator culture that we have available here at UTM and shadow a real startup company that was spun out of UTM research and external projects. The idea is to really show them the business side of science: marketing themselves, how to pitch to investors, how to bring a product to market.”