An Algonquin College applied research team is busy putting out fires. Their firefighting robot was spotlighted on CTV Morning Live last week and was a hit project at RE/ACTION Showcase last Friday.
The robot uses infrared flame sensors in order to detect fire in its surroundings. When a fire is detected, the robot fires a water cannon in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
Last week, our Vice President of Innovation & Strategy, Doug Wotherspoon was interviewed by the Ottawa Citizen for a feature story about why Ottawa is poised to be the next artificial intelligence hub.
AI fits with Algonquin College in several ways, said Doug Wotherspoon, the college’s vice-president of innovation and strategy. The school has applied AI to its operations by embedding AI concepts in its programs and working with local companies to help them leverage the technology.
The college launched its Data Analytics Centre in 2017, a multimillion-dollar facility at the Ottawa campus which lets student research teams partner with organizations on projects that advance their use of AI.
The centre recently partnered with one company, AirShare, which is developing AI-guided missiles for detecting, tracking and shooting down drones around airports. The missiles are designed to safely intercept unauthorized drones by deploying what the company calls a “cloud” of latex countermeasures to bring them down.
Another company Algonquin has partnered with is contextere, which makes an AI system that provides blue-collar workers with contextually-important information for tasks they’re working on. The goal is to make workers more efficient and less prone to mistakes. “What the industrial employee does not need is more sensors, more complexity, and more dashboards — they simply need to know when and where to execute,” the company’s website says.
“The beauty of the data centre is that it creates a shared knowledge,” Wotherspoon said. “Even though we might be working with one company that is using artificial intelligence one way, the building of the community allows people to learn from each other, industry to industry and students to students.”
With the centre, the college fills a void for small- and mid-sized companies that don’t have the resources in-house to explore AI possibilities, while offering students a prime hands-on learning and networking opportunity, Wotherspoon said.
While AI is often viewed as a technology-sector issue, Wotherspoon said it will have an impact across every layer of every industry. That’s why, in addition to introducing more AI-centric programs, Algonquin is working on updating its programs to incorporate AI aspects. The school is also using AI to help analyze student engagement and automate actions such as reminder notices, as well as integrating AI into its IT systems.
Host Carmen Klassen spoke with Biotechnology Professor Martin Lee and his students about their latest applied research project. Martin outlines how his team employed a special machine almost “twice as hot as the sun’s surface” to break down the components of common sushi and fish in order to analyze their nutritional value.
Dispelling the mercury myth?
The research group inspected fish samples from across Ottawa, including frozen, sushi grade, and canned samples from a number of different supermarkets. Among their many key findings: they detected no significant nutritional difference between fresh fish and canned fish, and they found no significant levels of mercury in any samples.
Diefenbunker Lighting Design Group – Innovative Lighting Design, Modern Lighting Solutions, Economical Conceptualization.
Industry Partner: Diefenbunker Presenters: Sheldon Johnston, Josh Fergusson, Paul Desaulniers, Dan Doak Professors: Mauricio Ledon & Leann Nicholson
A.C.E. (Advanced Conveyance Examination)
2nd Place Winning Project
Our team (dotMatrix) was tasked to work with the Canadian Border Services Agency to develop and design an Android app to aid the workflow of Border Service Officers. Advanced Conveyance Examinations (A.C.E) is a tool for Border Service Officers to view and add methods used to conceal illegal goods within vehicles.
Industry Partner: Canada Border Service Agency Presenters: Jervin Francisco, Cesar Guerrero, Keanu Reeves, Michael Jalowiecki, Dharaksinhra Raj Professors: Steve Griffith & Su Cheng Lee
Automatic Palletizing Station
3rd Place Winning Project
The objective of this project is to create a fully automated palletizing station using the Fanuc robot arm. The station will work with the existing MPS modules in the school. It will take the boxes produced by the system, stack them on a skid, and wrap them in order to be sent out for shipping.
Industry Partner: Algonquin College Presenters: Kinchit Patel, Mauricio Mendoza, Damian Easton, Akshat Verma Professor: Wael Ismaeil
This past week, Alex Yang, Managing Director of the Construction Research Centre at Algonquin College spoke at CanBIM on the research capabilities, an understanding of the applied research partnership opportunities, some examples of the Construction Research Centre’s capabilities and some insight into the Digital College initiative.
Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Algonquin College offers multiple ways to develop a partnership with private organizations to conduct collaborative applied research projects and to access government subsidies to offset costs. These projects can access the College’s dedicated research equipment including LiDAR tools, 3D modeling software, and environments, Thermographic imaging, 3D printing, building performance measurement and more.
In a new engaging initiative, Construction Research Centre is developing a digital model of the entire campus using BIM and focused on creating a road map to guide user-centric development of tools and capabilities to serve the community.
Thank you to the Canada BIM Council for allowing our team to speak about Algonquin College’s research initiatives at CanBIM: Ottawa Satellite Session.
Canada BIM Council serves as Canada’s business voice for the entire architecture, engineering, construction, owner, operator, and education community who are working collectively to adopt and implement digital technologies and practices.
To learn more about Canada BIM Council visit: www.canbim.com
Matthew Jerabek likes to tell a story about walking through the DARE District for the first time and feeling like he knew every nook and cranny of Algonquin College’s grand new innovation space.
In fact, thanks to virtual reality, he was fully acquainted with it long before opening day. Today’s technology had made it possible to take the DARE District designs in building information modeling (BIM) software and import them into VR, where visitors could explore its spaces at leisure.
“While the building was still thought, an idea, a hole in the ground,” he said, “the architects could walk through it on a one-to-one scale and witness the design they had created. If you have a design, it is almost impossible to see all the details before you can actually walk through it. Thanks to VR, they saved above $1 million in rework because they could ‘walk through it”’ before it was built. And because I was able to experience this, I was able to navigate the building easily the first time I was in it.”
Imagine the advantages for archeologists exploring remote sites, for astronauts exploring space, for artists devising complex creations — the list of serious applications is limitless. Following an introduction by Doug Wotherspoon, Vice President, Innovation and Strategy, Jerabek, Impact Coordinator, Applied Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship and lead of the Makerspace, and Anthony Scavarelli, Professor, Design Studies, invited their noon-hour audience to consider the possibilities as part of their Tech Tuesday talk on the Future of Virtual Reality at Algonquin.
Jarabek’s first VR experience took place during 2016’s Applied Research Day (an event now known as RE/ACTION). He remembers watching with the assembled crowd as a five-year-old girl made “incredible” artwork using VR software created by a team of Algonquin College graduates.
When she was done, he decided he wanted to try out the VR experience.
“I put the headset on,” he said. “The crowd around me disappeared. I looked up at the stars in a dark sky. I was completely transported into an amazing new experience. Once I was in this new world, I wanted to explore. I had this heightened curiosity. And curiosity leads to discovery. Learning through discovery is one of the most impactful ways you can engage your mind.”
Algonquin College has earned its place in VR lore through the success of MasterpieceVR, the world’s first collaborative 3-D painting, sculpting, and modeling program. Its programmers include alumni from the Game Development and Mobile Application Design and Development programs.
The future of VR and learning over the next decade is the topic of Scavarelli’s doctoral research. In his presentation, he highlighted two main concepts that are driving interest and innovation in the field: immersion, which brings people into virtual space, and presence, the “funny state” where individuals actually believe that virtual space is a real space.
“Presence is a very subjective term, and everyone has different levels of it,” he said. “It’s very hard for me to believe I’m in a real space. But my kids, for example — if I put them in, they believe right away.”
Scavarelli’s research is leading him to ask questions related to the applications and impact of virtual reality. How can we create more authentic learning experiences using this sense of presence? How do we connect better and collaborate in this learning space? And how do we include the increasingly diverse learners in post-secondary institutions in the process?
One of VR’s great advantages for learning, he said, is its experiential nature.
“Using your body to interact with things is more powerful than reading about it in a book,” he noted and reminded his audience of an aphorism attributed to Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” The merits of active learning have been understood for thousands of years.
What’s next for virtual reality? Will it stumble, as it did in the ‘90s, only to be renewed by another generation devoted to its merits? Scavarelli is exploring the questions and potential answers. Will VR be for everyone? Can it be used to create a platform for collaborative learning in post-secondary institutions? How do we make immersive environments feel safe for people who don’t like being isolated by the headsets now in use?
He didn’t offer many answers, only a researcher’s certainty: “There’s a lot to figure out.”
Matthew Jerabek likes to tell a story about walking through the DARE District for the first time and feeling like he knew every nook and cranny of Algonquin College’s grand new innovation space.
In fact, thanks to virtual reality, he was fully acquainted with it long before opening day. Today’s technology had made it possible to take the DARE District designs in building information modeling (BIM) software and import them into VR, where visitors could explore its spaces at leisure.
“While the building was still thought, an idea, a hole in the ground,” he said, “the architects could walk through it on a one-to-one scale and witness the design they had created. If you have a design, it is almost impossible to see all the details before you can actually walk through it. Thanks to VR, they saved above $1 million in rework because they could ‘walk through it”’ before it was built. And because I was able to experience this, I was able to navigate the building easily the first time I was in it.”
Imagine the advantages for archeologists exploring remote sites, for astronauts exploring space, for artists devising complex creations — the list of serious applications is limitless. Following an introduction by Doug Wotherspoon, Vice President, Innovation and Strategy, Jerabek, Impact Coordinator, Applied Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship and lead of the Makerspace, and Anthony Scavarelli, Professor, Design Studies, invited their noon-hour audience to consider the possibilities as part of their Tech Tuesday talk on the Future of Virtual Reality at Algonquin.
Jarabek’s first VR experience took place during 2016’s Applied Research Day (an event now known as RE/ACTION). He remembers watching with the assembled crowd as a five-year-old girl made “incredible” artwork using VR software created by a team of Algonquin College graduates.
When she was done, he decided he wanted to try out the VR experience.
“I put the headset on,” he said. “The crowd around me disappeared. I looked up at the stars in a dark sky. I was completely transported into an amazing new experience. Once I was in this new world, I wanted to explore. I had this heightened curiosity. And curiosity leads to discovery. Learning through discovery is one of the most impactful ways you can engage your mind.”
Algonquin College has earned its place in VR lore through the success of MasterpieceVR, the world’s first collaborative 3-D painting, sculpting, and modeling program. Its programmers include alumni from the Game Development and Mobile Application Design and Development programs.
The future of VR and learning over the next decade is the topic of Scavarelli’s doctoral research. In his presentation, he highlighted two main concepts that are driving interest and innovation in the field: immersion, which brings people into virtual space, and presence, the “funny state” where individuals actually believe that virtual space is a real space.
“Presence is a very subjective term, and everyone has different levels of it,” he said. “It’s very hard for me to believe I’m in a real space. But my kids, for example — if I put them in, they believe right away.”
Scavarelli’s research is leading him to ask questions related to the applications and impact of virtual reality. How can we create more authentic learning experiences using this sense of presence? How do we connect better and collaborate in this learning space? And how do we include the increasingly diverse learners in post-secondary institutions in the process?
One of VR’s great advantages for learning, he said, is its experiential nature.
“Using your body to interact with things is more powerful than reading about it in a book,” he noted and reminded his audience of an aphorism attributed to Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” The merits of active learning have been understood for thousands of years.
What’s next for virtual reality? Will it stumble, as it did in the ‘90s, only to be renewed by another generation devoted to its merits? Scavarelli is exploring the questions and potential answers. Will VR be for everyone? Can it be used to create a platform for collaborative learning in post-secondary institutions? How do we make immersive environments feel safe for people who don’t like being isolated by the headsets now in use?
He didn’t offer many answers, only a researcher’s certainty: “There’s a lot to figure out.”
This past week, Alex Yang, Managing Director of the Construction Research Centre at Algonquin College spoke at CanBIM on the research capabilities, an understanding of the applied research partnership opportunities, some examples of the Construction Research Centre’s capabilities and some insight into the Digital College initiative.
Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Algonquin College offers multiple ways to develop a partnership with private organizations to conduct collaborative applied research projects and to access government subsidies to offset costs. These projects can access the College’s dedicated research equipment including LiDAR tools, 3D modeling software, and environments, Thermographic imaging, 3D printing, building performance measurement and more.
In a new engaging initiative, Construction Research Centre is developing a digital model of the entire campus using BIM and focused on creating a road map to guide user-centric development of tools and capabilities to serve the community.
Thank you to the Canada BIM Council for allowing our team to speak about Algonquin College’s research initiatives at CanBIM: Ottawa Satellite Session.
Canada BIM Council serves as Canada’s business voice for the entire architecture, engineering, construction, owner, operator, and education community who are working collectively to adopt and implement digital technologies and practices.
To learn more about Canada BIM Council visit: www.canbim.com
On Feb. 26, the Data Analytics Centre at Algonquin College hosted an open session demonstrating ‘Data Analytics for Rural Transformation’ / DART.
DART is a cloud-based software solution supporting the socio-economic planning of rural communities. It can integrate and visualize data from a variety of sources in various formats into one dashboard-style interface with powerful search and reporting functions.
The event was attended by Mike Barre (National Research Council-IRAP), Alessandro Alasia (Statistics Canada), Mariane Huard (Standards Council of Canada) and Phillip Dawe (Centre for Security Science).
DART addresses the following challenge: In the face of evolving open data and e-government initiatives, rural municipalities and community organizations have access to an increasing amount of data but have limited capacity to amalgamate, interpret, analyze and visualize it. For data to be useful in support of evidence-based decision-making, municipalities and organizations require the ability to derive insights quickly, efficiently and with limited resources.
With DART municipal and community-based organizations have access to:
• User-Friendly data integration and visualization tool with a dashboard interface
• Reports that are available by custom geography
• Flexibility for land-use planning, economic development, social services, etc.
• Regularly updated with latest available data
• Map-based visualization
Through one intuitive interface, the DART application can import community profiles and other data from a variety of sources in various formats, enable demographic, economic and property queries, calculate proximity to community resources and visualize the information in charts, graphs, or maps.
DART was developed as a collaborative research project between the ‘Data Analytics Centre’ and ‘Community Analytics Associates’. Students from various programs contributed to the effort: Computer Technology – Data Science, Computer Programmer, Interactive Media and Design and Graphic Design. ‘Community Analytics Associates’ currently ‘incubates’ in the DARE District.
The Office of Applied Research, Innovation & Entrepreneurship is seeking volunteer judges for the applied research showcase competition on Friday, August 9th, 2019.
Every year, student teams work on applied projects in which they apply knowledge and skills acquired through their field of study. This spring, they will be on display at the applied research showcase: “RE/ACTION” on Friday, August 9th, 2019. Research projects fall into a number of categories:
Science, Engineering, and Construction
Arts, Design, Business, and Management
Information Technologies, Mobile and Web Design
Judges evaluate selected student team’s results, based on novelty/creativity, technical competence, impact, the strength of client-team interactions and communication and presentation skills.
This event provides an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs and industry leaders to network with Algonquin’s capable and motivated academic community of students and faculty.
Those interested in participating as judges, or who have more questions about this opportunity, can contact:
Danielle Evong
Office of Applied Research and Innovation, Algonquin College evongd@algonquincollege.com
613-727-4723 ext. 5213
