ECE Professor elected into the Canadian Academy of Engineering

Congratulations ECE Professor Dr. Purang Abo lmaesumi for being elected into the Canadian Academy of Engineering!

Dr. Abolmaesumi has gained an international reputation for his outstanding research in the areas of cancer imaging and image-guided interventions. His work in medical image analysis ranges from theory to practice in computer-guided diagnosis and therapy systems. Leading research institutions across the globe make use of his innovations in ultrasound imaging. His contributions have had an international impact on the development of biomedical engineering solutions.

The Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) is a national organization that allows Canada’s most prominent and experienced engineers to provide strategic advice on the nation’s most important matters. Fellows of the CAE are elected by their peers, with the main criterion being their distinguished achievements and their contributions to the engineering discipline. Fellows of the CAE use their expertise to ensure the prosperity and well-being of Canada and its citizens.

Fifty new Fellows and two International Fellows were welcomed by President Yves Beauchamp into the Canadian Academy of Engineering on June 15th, 2020. The ceremony was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in conjunction with the Academy’s 2020 Annual General Meeting. The 2020 Induction Dinner has been postponed and will take place in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the 2021 Annual General Meeting.

Sara Hosseinirad Awarded Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship!

Sara Hosseinirad, a second-year doctoral candidate currently researching an automated closed-loop system of anesthesia, is the recipient of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Sara’s research aims to automate the entire anesthesia process. “The closed-loop anesthesia control has been proven to outperform manual control; however, some technological developments are missing. One of them is the lack of an integrative system that includes the impacts of changes in anesthesia, fluid, cardiac output, etc. on each other.” Sara breaks her solution into two steps. “In the first step, we will design a new depth of hypnosis and analgesia control system and its associated safety system based on a novel, universal pharmacokinetic model of propofol and remifentanil, known as Eleveld model. In the second step, we will investigate multivariable control of the many aspects of anesthesia beyond the depth of hypnosis and analgesia, e.g., cardiac output, arterial pressure, temperature, etc.” She is supervised by Guy A. Dumont and Maryam Kamgarpour.

The research Sara is conducting is a breakthrough in the field of anesthesiology. It would allow the entire anesthesia process to run automatically. This automation would allow anesthesiologists to run several operating rooms simultaneously, all while maintaining a high standard of quality. This is very beneficial for less-equipped hospitals, where there are a lower number of anesthesiology specialties as less anesthesiologist are required. “This research will reduce the post-operation complications by administering just enough anesthetic drugs during surgical operations.”

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship is a prestigious award valued at $50,000 for up to three years. The award was founded in 2008 to attract world-class doctoral students to Canada and establish Canada as a global center in research and higher learning. Recipients require both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement. Sara was the only recipient from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UBC.

Being the recipient of this award is a great honor and gives Sara well deserved and valuable recognition for all her hard work. She believes it “will open doors of opportunity as a Ph.D. student” and is the beginning of her research path. She says her “future success depends on keeping the momentum going.”

Congratulations Sara on your great achievement!

You can learn more about the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

ECE Student Pramit Saha leads Imagine Speech Recognition Project

UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering master’s student, Pramit Saha, is working at the forefront of developing speech-related brain-computer interfaces. The Imagine Speech Recognition Project led by Pramit and directed by ECE Professor Sidney Fels in the Human Communication Technologies (HCT) Lab aims to detect speech tokens from speech imagery brain signals. This project has revealed the possible existence of brain imagery footprint related to articulatory movements underlying imagined speech productions

Speech imagery is about representing speech in terms of the unspoken words inside the human brain without them being vocalized. They hypothesize the existence of a brain footprint for the thoughts underlying covert speech, even though the person is not vocalizing. Furthermore, it is possible to detect the imagined words by understanding the intended involvement of the vocal tract and vocal fold, which is internally encoded in the brain signals. Their deep neural network architecture is able to capture information that the brain sends to the tongue, vocal fold, etc, even without there being vocal communication. Interpreting active thoughts from EEG signals can be very challenging. Their carefully designed methodology for learning the EEG manifold includes the computation of a cross-covariance embedding from high dimensional EEG data that successfully captures the joint variability of the electrodes. This allows the classification of the phonological attributes of the imagined words based on the presence/absence of different parts ofd the articulatory system. These categories are then used to identify the imagined speech. Pramit Saha’s and Professor Sidney Fels’ work has the potential to advance the field of speech-related brain-computer interfaces aimed at providing neuro-prosthetic help to those with speech-related disabilities and disorders. It can help users with a way to express their thoughts, which can greatly help in rehabilitation.

Below, Pramit Saha speaks about the importance and potential impact of the work that is being done:

What motivates you to pursue research in this topic?

Speech is the most basic and natural means of communication. However, the neuro-muscular mechanism underlying the production of articulatory speech is extremely complicated, as a result of which, decoding imagined speech by analyzing the noisy brain signals is a highly challenging problem. The primary objective of this research is to understand the discriminative brain signal manifold corresponding to imagined speech that can enable us to relate the brain signals to the underlying articulation mechanism, crucial in designing speech-related brain-computer interfaces. Such interfaces are targeted to provide neuro-prosthetic help for more than 70 million people worldwide who are suffering from speaking disabilities and speech-related neuro-muscular disorders. Decoding their imagined speech will provide them with effective vocal communication strategies for controlling external devices through speech commands interpreted from brain signals. The idea of being able to contribute towards potentially providing people with a better means to communicate and express thoughts without needing to vocalize, thereby increasing the quality of their life, keeps me strongly motivated to pursue research in this field.

How does this project align with your professional goals?

My research goal primarily centers around the investigation of the neural pathways behind expressive communication abilities including speech and gestures. Human speech production is one of the most complex processes within the human motor repertoire, which needs precise coordination of different speech articulators. Such a refined control of articulators is apparently difficult to master. However, it is quite astonishing to me to imagine how we can perform such complex articulation spontaneously without considerable effort by establishing the connection between speech production sites in our brain and the articulators involved in vocalization. The neuro-computational bases behind such articulation are still not well understood and how the speech intent is related to the intended motion of these articulators is an open question in the domain of imagined speech research. In this work, we endeavor to address the issue by developing a hierarchical deep learning-based model that leverages phonological information (involving intended activity of different articulators) embedded in the brain signals to decode the intended speech token.

More details on their work can be found here:

Hierarchical Deep Feature Learning for Decoding Imagined Speech from EEG

Deep Learning the EEG Manifold for Phonological Categorization from Active Thoughts

Towards Imagined Speech Recognition With Hierarchical Deep Learning

To find out more about Pramit Saha:

Personal website

UBC M.A.Sc. Student Developing a Wearable Device to Track Heart and Brain Signals

Fitness and health trackers have undergone rapid technological development in the past decade, allowing average consumers to now better understand their sleep, track their diet, and monitor their physical activity. Even without the purchase of a wrist-based tracking device, your smartphone can now generate key insights about your health from just sitting in your pocket all day.

Similar technologies are applied throughout the medical field; carefully monitoring patient health is a vital step to providing timely, effective care. The current process to track brain and heart signals, however, requires trained personnel for both setup and continual maintenance. Furthermore, the equipment used in existing signal monitoring techniques can be uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time.

Jorge Lozano, a UBC M.A.Sc. working in the Stoeber Lab, has his sights set on changing that. Through his graduate work, Lozano has been looking into developing a new tool for the long-term measurement of heart and brain signals that is more affordable, easier to use, and comfortable to wear.

In the status quo, a wet electrode is used to monitor vital signs, which is the source of a lot of the discomfort for patients and health care workers alike. By “wet”, this implies that an electrolytic gel or liquid is used to detect the electrical signals produced by our heart and brain. While this method is effective for recording high-quality measurements, the electrode will inevitably dry over time, meaning trained personnel must apply and constantly re-apply the paste for any extended usage. Additionally, the paste can be felt on the skin, meaning it can cause discomfort, especially when signal monitoring is carried out for a while.

Lozano’s alternative is a new microneedle dry electrode that will allow for long term measurement of heart and brain signals at a fraction of the previous cost. Microneedles themselves are painless for consumers, despite their intimidating title; at roughly 0.6mm in length, they do puncture the skin, but do not reach any pain nerve receptors. Yet, at this length, they are still able to detect electrical signals that can be used to generate key insights.

Current microneedle development is painful for manufacturers, however. The fabrication of the needles is complex, and existing market microneedles lack key electrical and mechanical properties for optimal use. Lozano’s research includes a new kind of microneedle that is backed by a flexible electrode, allowing for increased coverage over any part of the human body. Additionally, via conductive polymeric materials and an innovative cast-and-mold fabrication process, development is now significantly simpler and less expensive.

Lozano, in reflecting on the journey from the beginning of his undergraduate degree to the midst of his master’s, identified a lot of growth he had to undergo to get this far. “I think my degree has had a lot of small challenges,” he mentions, “one of them was learning to fail and let go of some ideas that you thought will work, I easily spent weeks working on a process or a material that at the end will not be useful for my device.” Learning how to iterate quickly with hardware, as opposed to software, became another learning point for Lozano. Reflecting back, he says “[i]n contrast, with software projects, [the development of the microneedle] required intensive use of different equipment for testing, fabrication, characterization, so I needed to learn quickly […] in order to have faster prototype iterations.

In the future, Lozano hopes to work in a position where he can conduct research and development for medical devices, right at the intersection of electronics and healthcare. It isn’t hard to imagine that in just a mere few years, with this research in hand, consumer-ready wearable devices can democratize health tracking, making it affordable to detect issues with your health far earlier and empower medical professionals to get in front of various diseases before they strike.

Learn more about Lozano’s research as a part of the Stoeber Lab.

Quentin Golsteyn, BASC ’20, Computer Engineering

“I am a strong believer that you can make a difference in the world at the local level. Opportunities for positive change exist all around us.”

From the start of my degree, I wanted to get involved and try to help my community. Working on projects and initiatives is my approach to understanding more about who I am, and developing skills that will help me later on.

I was involved in the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) throughout my entire degree, first as Video Director — making videos highlighting events happening in the engineering community every week, and later as VP Academic — one of seven executives of the society. I also served as the Applied Science Student Senator, sitting on the UBC Senate. My involvement at the EUS and Senate helped me find a project that would be my focus for most of my degree. Over the next three years, I worked with faculty members and staff to determine factors influencing student wellbeing. I presented my findings at the Canadian Engineering Education Conference.

In my fourth year, I was selected for a research internship, a dream role, at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. During the internship, I worked for a laboratory in the field of human-computer interaction.

I plan on pursuing a career in software development, focused on web development and data visualization.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO GO INTO YOUR FIELD OF STUDY AT UBC?

I always shared a passion for tinkering with computers and various electronic devices around my house. I was confident in my choice to pursue a career in software development. Before joining UBC, I was not sure if I should go into computer engineering or computer science. I had the chance to attend the UBC Engineering Open House before applying to UBC. There, I saw a strong student community with people sharing a genuine passion for what they do. This convinced me that engineering at UBC was for me as it offered a program in a field I was interested in, and I immediately saw myself being a part of its community.

WHAT HAS MADE YOUR TIME AT UBC MEMORABLE?

The variety of experiences I had at UBC was what made my time at UBC memorable. Both in class, outside of class, and through internships, I had the chance to partake in a wide variety of projects, initiatives and events. From helping run EUS events such as a dog therapy event to a chariot race during E-Week, to attending a graduation ceremony as a student senator, to publishing a paper at a scientific conference, to going on a hike in the Swiss alps with friends during my internship in Switzerland. I am extremely grateful for all these opportunities to do a wide variety of things during these last five years.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST VALUABLE NON-ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE STUDYING AT UBC?

My work as the Student Wellbeing Coordinator for the Faculty of Applied Science has been my most valuable experience studying at UBC.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE IN YOUR PROGRAM. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED THAT IS MOST VALUABLE?

The most valuable thing I learned while at UBC is the importance of having an interdisciplinary skillset. Today’s engineering solutions require an understanding of their non-technical requirements as much as their technical ones. The many projects we have to work on always require us to think beyond technical aspects. Understanding how humans interact with our solutions, the potential environmental and business impact of an approach are important considerations for the success of any project. I came to realize this during my first two internships. I was confused at first why certain decisions were being made, but I quickly realized that there was much more to consider when making engineering decisions beyond just the technical aspect.

HOW ARE YOU APPLYING THE SKILLS YOU LEARNED THROUGH YOUR STUDIES AT UBC?

An important skill I learned while at UBC is learning how to balance your time and knowing your limits. Engineering is difficult, particularly due to the high course load of the program. Many times, I placed myself in a situation where I worked too hard for too long. In my fourth year, I began to realize the importance of taking breaks and learning to stop. The important thing is to make sure to give yourself time to see friends, binge on a new TV show, or go out for walks. After taking on these habits, I began to feel more rested. Although a non-academic skill, I am continuing to actively consider my time today, making sure I don’t overwork myself on any project.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE A STUDENT ENTERING YOUR DEGREE PROGRAM?

I would give two pieces of advice that perhaps contradict one another, but I see as particularly relevant given the move to online classes. One: get out there and seek new experiences. University is a truly unique environment where you can discover what interests you and find experiences that will help you beyond graduation. Whether classes are online or they resume in-person courses, make sure to seek opportunities and get involved on projects and initiatives. Two: remember to take breaks. Beyond school and extracurriculars, my university experience was shaped by the friends I made and the trips and hangouts we had over the years. Sometimes, we forget to take time to nurture these relationships. And now that classes are online for the first semester, we must all be proactive in taking some time off.

HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR DEGREE HAS BENEFITTED YOU COMPARED TO A DIFFERENT FIELD OF STUDY?

I think engineering is an interesting field for the breadth of knowledge it covers compared to other fields of study. It requires a strong foundation in the sciences but also teaches how to apply this scientific knowledge to real-world projects. As an engineering student, you develop a good appreciation of the impact a particular solution may have on the people and environment. Through a lot of hands-on work, you learn how to work with others, prototype and test your ideas and manage a project to completion.

WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?

I draw my inspiration from addressing big and small problems around me. I’ve found that the process of looking for a solution to problems takes me on a path of learning and discovery. Even a small question can be an interesting opportunity to learn new things and can lead to a significant outcome. I’ll usually keep a mental note of challenges I encounter during my day to day activities and dedicate some time each week to experiment with a few ideas. While I do not expect anything concrete to come out of these brainstorming sessions, I always manage to learn something new, or better, find new questions to ask about the problem at hand.

WHAT ARE YOUR IMMEDIATE AND/OR LONG-TERM PLANS FOR THE FUTURE?

My immediate plans are to begin working as a web developer and to eventually pursue a master’s in human-computer interaction. My goal is to create a career where I can continue to learn and experiment with ideas regularly. In the long-term, I plan on going back to Europe to reconnect with my roots. I am originally from France and always wanted to return to live a part of my career there.

WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR WORLD?

I am a strong believer that you can make a difference in the world at the local level. Opportunities for positive change exist all around us. I want to continue to improve my skills in software development and user experience. At the same time, I want to maintain a lifestyle where I can jump onto new opportunities to bring change in my community. I think this is my way for me to bring a difference in our world.

Read the original article at https://apsc.ubc.ca/spotlight/quentin-golsteyn

ECE PhD Candidate Awarded Prestigious Microsoft Research Grant

Farah Deeba, a fourth-year PhD candidate currently researching innovative techniques for monitoring placenta health in mothers, is now the recipient of the prestigious Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, worth up to $25,000.

Through her research, Farah is exploring better ways of tracking placenta health; in an interview with Microsoft, she said “th e placenta, despite being the single most important factor responsible for a healthy baby and a healthy mother, remains neglected in pregnancy monitoring.” Farah continued, “As a woman, I feel a special connection to my research topic. I believe my research will promise health and security to every pregnant woman during this precious but vulnerable stage of life.” Her passion and dedication are imbued throughout her work and have facilitated her deep interest in the topic.

The funding will assist her in extending her research to a ‘point-of-care’ application for pregnancy monitoring, which means the monitoring can be done wherever the patient is being treated, outside of a lab. Farah additionally plans to use the grant to support travel to conferences, and to purchase GPUs to speed up the data analysis.

The Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant, founded in 2017, provides select doctoral students throughout North America with a grant worth up to $25,000 to support the completion of their research. In just its four-year lifespan, the award has only grown more competitive; this year, only 10 students were selected out of a pool of 230 deserving applicants, for an acceptance rate of just 4%. This year’s recipients came from numerous different intuitions, all with highly respected technical programs, including the likes of Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and of course, UBC. Farah was the sole recipient from a Canadian institution.

Not only are the recipients presented with invaluable funding to support both tuition costs and their research, but they are also invited to participated in a career development summit this coming fall. Though it’ll be virtual this time around, Farah and her fellow cohort will have the chance to mix and match with other Microsoft Research award recipients, research scientists, and make key connections before pursuing life after the completion of their doctoral degree.

At UBC, Farah works as a research assistant with Professor Robert Rohling in the Robotics and Control Laboratory, focusing on developing techniques for enhanced disease detection and tissue characterization using ultrasound. Prior to coming to UBC, she completed her M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also no stranger to research; throughout her time as a graduate student, she has authored/co-authored 21 peer-reviewed journals and international conference papers.

Congratulations on your great achievement Farah!

You can learn more about Farah, her research, and the Microsoft Research Dissertation Grant.

CREATE Program to Crystallize Eminence in Quantum Computing Training in BC

A new program aimed at developing leaders in quantum computing—solidifying British Columbia’s (BC’s) reputation as an international quantum technology hub—was awarded $1.65 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

Led by UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Lukas Chrostowski, the CREATE program—under the banner of Quantum BC—will unite faculty from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Simon Fraser University (SFU), and the University of Victoria (UVic). This collaborative network brings together an influential and interdisciplinary team of scientists and educators who will train the next generation of students to shape the emerging BC quantum computing industry.

“Quantum computing is a field that is growing exponentially in British Columbia, and this program will be the first in the world produce graduates capable of both building elements of quantum computing hardware and programming and developing quantum computing algorithms, systems and applications,” said Chrostowski, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and lead of the UBC Quantum Computing Research Excellence Cluster. “The students we train through CREATE will go on to be the researchers and innovators who realize Canada’s quantum computing goals over the next ten to twenty years.”

Students who complete the CREATE program will receive highly specialised training and work experience to become leaders in their field, enhance the local ecosystem, and create their own companies. This program, the first of its kind in Canada, will enable participants to work directly with industry through internships that give real-world context for the theoretical and experimental work they will do in labs at SBQMI and UBC, as well as at SFU and UVic. The program has partnered with Canadian companies including D-Wave, 1QBit, Xanadu, CMC, and Lumerical, as well as international companies such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM in order to create learning and career opportunities for this new generation of specialists.

Some programming is already in place, including a seminar series and a graduate-level introduction to quantum computing course taught by new SBQMI member Joseph Salfi.

“We’re in a really interesting time in this field,” said Salfi, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and partner in the CREATE program. “We’re buoyed by of a lot of big discoveries, at a moment where the possibility of advancing quantum computing in significant ways is within our reach. It’s a great time to be a grad student in physics, computer science, or engineering—any area that can feed into quantum computing.”

The launch of the new graduate program in quantum computing represents a second critical milestone for Chrostowski, for SBQMI, and for Quantum BC’s education efforts. In order to train future leaders in the industry, Chrostowski and colleagues previously teamed up UBC Engineering’s Geering Up program, Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster, Microsoft, and D-Wave, in order to nurture prospective graduate students as early as their K-12 school years.

“We’re looking to attract groups who may not otherwise be exposed to the possibilities of an education in quantum physics, and we’re doing that by creating K-12 curriculum toolkits, summer programs, and accessible forms of communication, including a podcast,” said Chrostowski. “We are going need big ideas and diverse thinkers to grow the field, and BC has a lot of untapped talent we’re hoping to appeal to.”

The program launches officially in September, but recruiting is underway for several scholarships; visit quantum-bc.ca/learn to learn more. Applications for the first cohort of CREATE program participants are due July 1, 2020.

The NSERC The Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program supports the training and mentoring of teams of highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and abroad through the development of innovative training programs that encourage collaborative and integrative approaches, and address significant scientific challenges associated with Canada’s research priorities facilitate the transition of new researchers from trainees to productive employees in the Canadian workforce.

View the original article at https://qmi.ubc.ca/news/jun-18-2020/create-program-crystalize-eminence-quantum-computing-training-bc

MASc Student Selected to Attend 2020 Heidelberg Laureate Forum!

ECE MASc student, Aarti Kashyap has been has been recently invited to participate in the 2020 Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) in Germany. Established in 2013, HLF brings forth 200 young researchers worldwide in the mathematical and computer science field. Participants are carefully selected by a distinguished panel of experts to network with top people of the discipline such as Nobel Laureates and Fields Medal winners.

As many of the attendees are either senior PhD students or junior faculty and post-docs, Aarti’s invitation is quite significant. “It is very exciting. Given the fact that I am a Masters student, I did not expect to be selected for HLF,” Aarti says.

Aarti works under the supervision of Professor Karthik Pattabiraman, specializing in building formal models for safety-critical systems such as artificial pancreas system and air traffic control management. This is important as safety-critical systems have human life depending on them and hence require hard guarantees before they can be deployed. These hard guarantees can be provided through the means of mathematics.

Building formal models help in designing safer and more robust systems. Cybercrimes are rising very quickly due to the extreme dependence on computers. To protect them we need strong reasoning mechanisms such as math, making this topic extremely useful in society.

As HLF is an event that tries to bridge the gap between mathematics and computer science, this overlaps well with Aarti’s current and future research goals. This symposium provides a space for ideas and innovation, meant to motivate and inspire the next generation of scientists. Aarti says she is most looking forward to interacting with researchers who have built the mathematical foundations for Computer Science as well as meeting peers that will also be attending the event.

ECE Prof Kruchten Awarded 2020 Linda M. Northrop Award

Congratulations to Philippe Kruchten, an ECE professor that has been selected as the recipient of the Linda M. Northrop Software Architecture Award!

The award is given to an individual or team that has used software architecture to significantly improve practices, outcomes, or both in an organization or in the software-development community. Kruchten will deliver a webcast, introduced by Linda Northrop, called “Software Architecture: A Mature Discipline?” at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, June 2.

Kruchten has been a significant member of the international software architecture community for more than 30 years. Specializing in large, software-intensive systems design, Kruchten directed the development of the Rational Unified Process, an iterative software development process framework, and developed the 4+1 Architectural View Model. His contributions as a pioneering practitioner, a thought leader, an author, and an educator have advanced the recognition of software architecture as an important topic for practitioners.

“I’m truly honored by this award,” said Kruchten. “For the last 30 years I’ve always considered the SEI as the world beacon of software architecture. So many great developments and community initiatives originated there, and much of it under the leadership of Linda Northrop. This means a lot to me.”

Original story

Bo Fang Wins Award in Dependable Computing!

Bo Fang, an ECE Ph.D. student has been awarded the William C. Carter PhD Dissertation Award in Dependability for his Ph.D. thesis, titled Approaches for Building Error Resilient Applications. The William C. Carter PhD Dissertation Award in Dependability is the most prestigious award a Ph.D. student can receive in the dependable computing field. It is presented annually at the DSN Conference since 1997 to one Ph.D. student worldwide. The award recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the field of dependable computing throughout their graduate dissertation research. Fang says “it is an honor to be awarded by the DSN community. I am humbled to be recognized by the community and my colleagues.”

The award is sponsored by IEEE TC on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (TCFT) and IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (WG 10.4) to commemorated the late William C. Carter who was a pioneer in the formation and development of the field of dependable computing.

Fang is supervised by Dr. Karthik Pattabiraman and Dr. Matei Ripeanu. His research focuses on the effect hardware faults have on high-performance computing systems. Fang’s research proposes an error propagation model and crash model to identify which faults have the potential to cause silent data corruption and crashes, allowing for selectively triggering recovery. This stems from the idea that most transient hardware faults do not have a significant impact at the software layer. Ignoring faults that do not create problems allows HPC systems to be more efficient. Fang additionally proposes applying a roll forward recovery scheme in standard checkpoint/restart systems. This trades confidence in results for efficiency in performance and energy saving.

Bo Fangs research relates to the award as the “research focuses on designing approaches for building error-resilient applications, in the context of high-performance computing scenarios.” This is tightly in line with the research performed by the dependability community. His work has been published in top tier venues, and inspired many other researchers to write follow up papers based on his research. Bo’s work has been adopted by two national labs, The Pacific Northwestern National Labs (PNNL) and Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) as well as companies such as Nvidia and AMD. Bo is a recipient of the NSERC Post-Doctorial Fellowship and was ranked number two in the computer science division. He is currently doing a post-doc at the Pacific Northwestern Nation Labs (PNNL).

Dr. Pattabiraman states the significance of Fang’s work allows “High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems [to] be much more efficient in terms of performance and energy when it comes to providing fault-tolerance. The latter is especially important as these systems consume large amounts of energy for their operation and hence Bo’s work provides significant cost-savings in these systems”