CREATE Program to Crystallize Eminence in Quantum Computing Training in BC

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”

UBC Researchers Design Ultrasound Scanner Network for COVID-19

Scanner expected to speed up diagnoses in rural and remote areas

UBC researchers are collaborating with local partners to establish a network of portable, handheld ultrasound scanners that can soon accelerate COVID-19 diagnosis in B.C. and potentially beyond.

The scanners pair a locally-developed commercial ultrasound device with a secure online library of lung ultrasound images and a specially developed artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, allowing health care practitioners to diagnose COVID-19 at the point of care—almost instantly.

Family doctors and acute care units in rural B.C. will be the first users, with 50 units ready for deployment. More than 30 additional scanners will be distributed to urban acute care sites managed by Vancouver Coastal Health.

The project is co-led by Dr. Oron Frenkel, an emergency physician at St. Paul’s Hospital and a clinical assistant professor at UBC’s faculty of medicine; Dr. Teresa Tsang, UBC cardiologist and professor of medicine and director of echocardiography at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital; Dr. Purang Abolmaesumi, professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Dr. Robert Rohling, professor of electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering.

“With this scanner, we can potentially detect COVID-19 lung changes earlier while waiting for lab test results,” says Tsang. “This may also enable us to anticipate who will likely deteriorate rapidly, so that we can support these patients optimally from the start.”

Data from the field suggests that the scanner can detect up to 33 per cent more cases of COVID-19 pneumonia than some current lab tests. “It’s easy to use, so even physicians with less experience can obtain fast, accurate results,” said Tsang.

The team will build Canada’s first ultrasound library for lung disease and will use AI to enable the handheld scanners to accurately detect patterns typical of COVID-19 and other lung diseases at the point of care.

“This project demonstrates UBC’s expertise in applied AI research,” said Dr. Purang Abolmaesumi, the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering at UBC. “With these scanners, we showcase UBC’s and B.C.’s cutting-edge capabilities in developing AI technology for medical imaging, with direct impact on our community and the Canadian health care system.”

Dr. Robert Rohling, who also leads the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems at UBC, highlighted the different contributions of the project members and partners. “Providing accurate, timely diagnostics for COVID-19 is a tremendous challenge. What really helps to solve it is the diverse and talented team. Each member is a leader in their field but more important is that doctors are working with engineers and UBC is working with B.C. companies.”

The scanners—called PoCUS, for point-of-care ultrasound— were designed and provided by Burnaby-based Clarius Mobile Health. They can be disinfected easily between patients and come with a mobile phone app for ease of use.

Pivoting in the midst of COVID-19

The Clarius scanners have been in use since 2017 but were swiftly adapted in March to diagnose COVID-19 in order to contribute to the public health response to the virus.

It is part of Intelligent Network Point of Care Ultrasound (IN-PoCUS), a $2.5 million project led by B.C.’s Digital Technology Supercluster aimed at improving health care diagnosis in rural B.C.

The Digital Technology Supercluster solves some of industry’s and society’s biggest problems through Canadian-made technologies. It brings together private and public sector organizations of all sizes to address challenges facing Canada’s economic sectors including healthcare, natural resources, manufacturing and transportation.

Other funding and in-kind contributions were provided by Providence Health Care, Clarius Mobile Health, Change Healthcare, UBC, Vancouver Coast Health and Rural Coordination Centre BC.

ECE Capstone Faculty Award Recipients

UBC ECE’s 2020 spring cohort’s perseverance and persistence has paid off, and they’ve seen their Capstone projects to completion. Each team overcame many challenges to provide timely deliverables spanning a wide array of ECE-related subjects. Over 230 students formed 48 teams that leveraged four years worth of learning in order to design solutions to challenges proposed by industry and community partners.

ECE is proud to present this year’s Capstone Faculty Award Winners:

  • Propbot (Divya Budihal, Jack Guo, Nancy Hong, Zhaosheng Li, Hannah Sawiuk)
  • Project Skynet (Peter Deutsch, Arthur Hsueh, Ardell Wilson, Muchen He, Meng Wang)
  • Procedural Generation Tool (Ian McCall, Matthew Berends, Mitch Duffield, Mathew MacDougall, Simong Song)
  • Digital Health & Wellness: Video Fall Detection using Deep Learning (Mohamed Hamdan, Alessandro Narciso, Abdul Moiz, Winnie Gong, Kirsten Kwan)

Congratulations to all Capstone students on your hard work over this past year.

Propbot, sponsored by the UBC Radio Science Lab

Divya Budihal, Jack Guo, Nancy Hong, Zhaosheng Li, Hannah Sawiuk

Propbot aims to provide researchers with key information to design robust and transformative communication systems—and it does so completely autonomously. This team of fourth-year students created a robot architecture capable of traversing the UBC campus and completing large-scale data collection. The restrictions of COVID-19 posed a serious obstacle to the Propbot developers; to continue testing, they constructed a completely virtual environment to simulate Propbot and ensure its functionality. The team’s development of Propbot is only the first phase in a multi-year project that will shape the future of communication systems at UBC.

Project Skynet, sponsored by the UBC ECE System-on-Chip (SoC) Lab

Peter Deutsch, Arthur Hsueh, Ardell Wilson, Muchen He, Meng Wang

Generic, off-the-shelf component architectures available in CPUs and GPUs are not optimized for the ever-expanding field of machine learning. This team focused on showcasing the promise of tailor-made hardware being developed by Dr. Mieszko Li and team at the UBC SoC Lab. One common method of achieving this custom performance is through the use of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), a kind of reconfigurable digital circuit, allowing for rapid iteration of hardware designs.

The team mounted an FPGA and the necessary circuitry on a drone equipped with a camera and CPU. The final project is capable of performing machine learning—quite literally—on the fly. The drone performs object-detection using YOLOv2, a popular open-source machine learning algorithm. The team faced countless obstacles due to the COVID crisis, such as trouble ordering parts or having to build each subcomponent separately in respect of social distancing regulations. However, they persevered and ended up with not only a fantastic final product, but also a feeling of preparedness for the unforeseen challenges in a career of engineering.

Procedural Generation Tool, sponsored by Blackbird Interactive

Ian McCall, Matthew Berends, Mitch Duffield, Mathew MacDougall, Simong Song

While the current pandemic may have forced UBC students and staff indoors, these students were already developing new ways of creating procedurally-generated virtual environments for us to explore from home. “Procedural generation” refers to the use of algorithms to create entire landscapes using various noise patterns and simulation. This team created a tool which eases the process of designing and fine-tuning those very algorithms, allowing their client, Blackbird Interactive, to more rapidly construct the worlds they envision. This, in turn, will reduce costs and provide an effectively-infinite number of high-quality environments for the studio’s fans to explore.

The software-based solution was developed in C++ and comes equipped with an editor to allow developers to preview their results. The final result can be exported and works with a variety of engines. It even ships with 33 types of terrain generation functions, right out of the box.

Digital Health & Wellness: Video Fall Detection using Deep Learning, sponsored by TELUS

Mohamed Hamdan, Alessandro Narciso, Abdul Moiz, Winnie Gong, Kirsten Kwan

Remote health monitoring is of tremendous value to the field of healthcare, improving quality-of-life for patients and greatly reducing costs in the healthcare industry. This team looked to tackle fall detection, which is of great value for the elderly and people with disabilities. Additionally, fall detection can be a life-saving signal in the event of a heart attack or stroke. Leveraging the latest advancements in machine learning technology, the team created their own labelled data set and trained a deep learning based neural network. The final model detects falls with over 90% accuracy from the video feed.

Though COVID-19 restrictions prevented in-person meetings, the team was able to do a live-demo at their last in-person meeting, as they had completed their project ahead of schedule. Their impressive accomplishment will surely support the healthcare system in preventing lives from being lost.

All projects completed in this year’s Capstone course were exemplary and showcased the grit and character of UBC engineers, while also giving back to UBC’s local community and industry. Congratulations to all who participated, and a special congratulations to this year’s award winners.

Though COVID-19 restrictions prevented in-person meetings, the team was able to do a live-demo at their last in-person meeting, as they had completed their project ahead of schedule. Their impressive accomplishment will surely support the healthcare system in preventing lives from being lost.

ECE’s Approach for the Fall Term

Dear ECE community,

Following guidelines from UBC and our provincial health leaders, we have decided that classes for the fall 2020 term will be delivered 100% online for the first term, with a full suite of course offerings. The department will be offering all its courses in a virtual format. The fall term will start as scheduled, and all classes will be offered, albeit some in a revised manner. You will be able to complete the entirety of the term from anywhere in the world. We are committed to ensuring you stay on track towards your degree despite these necessary adjustments.

Within ECE, an expert team of faculty members and staff have worked diligently since mid-March to make sure new and returning students will get a solid and high-quality teaching experience and remain engaged in both academic and non-academic settings. We recognize the importance of the hands-on experience you receive participating in ECE-related extracurriculars on campus, and we’re looking into ways of providing students with a rich experience outside of the classroom as well. We hope to soon be able to share more concrete details regarding courses, registration, and extracurriculars, but for now, we will continue to work hard to shape the upcoming semester.

Be sure to stay connected with ECE and APSC through following our website and our various social media channels. We will provide regular updates, so that you can make informed decisions for next semester. If you have any further questions or wish to get in touch directly, feel free to contact us at help@ece.ubc.ca.

Steve Wilton

Department Head, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Claire Preston, MASC ’20, Electrical and Computer Engineering

“I consider the world around me on a daily basis and find that there are so many aspects that I believe can be improved upon or solved with new technology developments.”

As a science fiction enthusiast, I have always been fascinated with stretching the possibilities of reality. This is perhaps what led me to study physics for my bachelor’s degree. During that time, I developed a keen interest in applying physics to the development of new devices in order to change the way we interact with our world and one another. My time at UBC was spent working on soft electronics, done by taking a conventional hard electronic device such as a smartphone and asking — can we make this into something soft? Stretchable? How will this change the way we sense and interact with our surroundings?

My main thesis project is on the development of a stretchable display using innovative conducting polymers towards low-power conformable devices, while a secondary project involves the development of soft tactile sensors. Innovations in these areas could lead to unconventionally flexible devices that could have drastic implications for biomedical devices, wearable electronics and humanoid robotics.

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

My research internships and the strong mentorship I received during my undergraduate degree helped me hone in on my passion — the application of scientific principles to real world problems for the advancement of technology. I have always liked designing things and missed doing so during my more theoretical undergraduate degree. I learned how to investigate the deeper understanding of our physical reality, but then I wanted to apply this understanding to improve upon existing technology. I have found that taking innovative materials developed using fundamental science and applying them to new devices demands the perfect blend of creative and analytical skills. This practice can produce almost immediate tangible impacts. 

WHAT HAS MADE YOUR TIME AT UBC MEMORABLE?

I have been gifted with an amazing supervisor and research group. In addition to having the chance to contribute to cutting edge projects, I had the privilege of choosing a research topic I was interested in and following it through for two years. While I am sure I will never forget the long evenings spent in the lab, some of the most memorable times have been while traveling for research. I had the chance to do some work at a lab in France — I got to cycle to the lab daily with my supervisor and eat pain au chocolat! I’ve also had the opportunity to visit Japan and various places in the US to exchange ideas with other research teams.

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

First as a councillor and now a member of the House Finance Committee in the Graduate Student Society, over the past two years I have represented the interests of graduate students in my department by debating and voting on policies that directly impact our experience. These policies affect graduate student funding, advocacy and professional and networking opportunities. It is easy to get wrapped up in your research project, but in the GSS I was able to work with students in other programs, greatly diversifying my knowledge and skills. Now, I know how to manage a six figure budget and understand many intricacies of university-level government decision making. I would highly recommend getting involved in a student society as a graduate student as there are so many skills and connections that can be built that would not be developed while working in the laboratory.

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

One of the most valuable things I learned is the high-level research process and how to obtain project funding and support. I was lucky to have the opportunity to closely observe relationships between academia and industry to learn how the two groups collaborate and move forward on innovative projects while balancing different interests. The matter of intellectual property is central to many of these endeavours and can greatly affect the direction in which a project can move forward or be commercialized.

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

During my master’s, I learned a lot about electronic device design and new materials for innovative devices with wide applications. I was also a trainee in the Nanomat CREATE program, in which I received special training in nanomaterials and characterization. This established the knowledge base I was able to build on and apply to my research projects in soft electronic device design.

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

If you have an idea of what you want out of your degree, it is important to plan early to make sure you learn the skills you’re looking to learn in the amount of time a master’s degree allows — two years is a very short amount of time! If you would like to incorporate international conferences or internships, you have to start figuring that out right from the beginning.

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

Moving from science to electrical engineering means I am still using much of the knowledge I learned as a science student by applying it to designing devices. Each person has their own major field of interest — for me, this transition was the most ideal fit to learn what I wanted: how to apply science to engineering innovative devices. I felt this degree was the best path forward to a career in this direction. “I consider the world around me on a daily basis and find that there are so many aspects that I believe can be improved upon or solved with new technology developments.”

WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?

I consider the world around me on a daily basis and find that there are so many aspects that I believe can be improved upon or solved with new technology developments. Several works of science fiction, like Star Trek, depict a positive future with a more sustainable, equal and compassionate utopian society with fantastic technological capabilities. I believe these have long inspired people like me to dream about and work towards what our world could become. In the real world, I have long been inspired by scientists, especially physicists, and clean energy technology advocates. Both groups are able to envision a reality beyond our own, perhaps along the lines of a Star Trek universe, that could very much become possible in the future with technology advancement.

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

I hope to establish an engineering-related career involved in the development of devices with new functionalities that impact energy, biomedical or consumer electronics. Currently I plan to look for an engineering position but I may be interested in further graduate studies in the future.

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

I hope to find a career in next-level technology development to help the world in some way and push the boundaries of what devices can accomplish. Whether this will be towards a Star Trek-inspired application remains to be seen. View more 2020 Student Stars at apsc.ubc.ca/students/stars/2020.

View original article at https://apsc.ubc.ca/spotlight/claire-preston

Karthik Pattabiraman Wins Award in Dependable Computing!

Dr. Karthik Pattabiraman, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UBC won the Rising Star in Dependability Award. This is the first year this award is offered. It recognizes a researcher, from either acidemia or industry who has completed their PhD in the last 10 years. The award is presented to someone in the field of dependable and resilient computer systems and networks, who demonstrates the potential for creative ideas and innovative research.

The innovative research Dr. Pattabiraman believes won him this award is what he calls “Good Enough Dependability”. He says it has been the “mainstay of my research programme at UBC for the last 10 years. Traditionally, in my area of dependable computing systems, the main focus has been on ultra-reliable systems such as banking, aerospace, healthcare etc. where cost was not the most important concern. In contrast, my research programme aims to apply the principles of constructing dependable systems to commodity systems such as desktop computers and mobile phones, where cost is a big factor. Therefore, we had to come up with new paradigms and tricks to adapt the traditional solutions to these systems.”

Some of Dr. Pattabiraman’s current research is focused on the “Internet of Things (IoT), in which computation is embedded into tiny devices all around us such as smart speakers, thermostats, automotive systems etc. and hence we need to provide low-cost dependability in these systems. The resource constraints of these devices make it very challenging to ensure they’re dependable.” A common element in his research is figuring out a way to provide dependable computing at a low cost and apply it to both large and small systems. 

Karthik Pattabiraman feels he was selected for this award for early career achievements because he was able to “chase the big ideas and problems in my field thanks to the generous support from the NSERC and the many companies we collaborated with. I especially benefited from the collaborative atmosphere in the ECE department, and the strong support of my students and colleagues.” 

The award is presented at the DSN conference. The DSN conference is the most prestigious venue in the dependable computing area and it is celebrating the 50th anniversary this year. It is sponsored by The IEEE TC on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (TCFT) and IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance (WG 10.4). Karthik Pattabiraman received the William C Carter PhD Dissertation Award in Dependability in 2008. His PhD student, Bo Fang, who he co-supervised also won the William C Carter PhD Dissertation Award in Dependability in 2020. Both of the awards won by Karthik Pattabiraman are presented by the same organization.

Capstone Design Projects

A capstone design project is a major component of our engineering curriculum. You will design a product/service of significance, and solve an open-ended problem in electrical or computer engineering.

Students must register to the specific capstone project course related to their program and option, as the nature of the projects offered will be different. 

If you are a member of industry who would like to find out more please visit our Capstone Partners page.

Programs

CPEN 491 Computer Engineering Capstone Design Project

ELEC 491 Electrical Engineering Capstone Design Project 

ELEC 494 Biomedical Engineering Capstone Design Project

Take a look at some previous year’s projects: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014


Capstone Design Project Course Objectives

Once a project is assigned, students will oversee everything from idea generation to product deployment. By the end of the capstone design course, you will have demonstrated that you can:

  • work in a team
  • communicate with a client
  • formulate and analyze a problem
  • explore and propose a solution
  • manage a budget and run a cost evaluation
  • present to an audience in written and verbal format 
  • implement and validate a working prototype of your proposed solution

Course Structure & Commitment

Capstone runs from September to April and counts for 10 credits. Students are grouped into teams of four to six and focus on working with a client or customer. In many cases, the client will be from local industry or from an organization on campus.

Each project will be assigned an instructor, who will act as your supervisor. You may also be assigned a project mentor or advisor to provide expertise as required.

You will be supplied funds for the project.

Two afternoons each week will be reserved for the capstone design project courses to allow for regular meetings with your supervisor for:

  • progress reports
  • in-class instructions
  • invited lectures
  • student presentations
  • team meetings and work time

Each student is expected to put about 260 hours of work across both terms into this project.

Timeframe

First Week

Faculty or clients will present possible projects, and you will be asked to bid for a few. Teams will then be formed; in some cases, these may be interdisciplinary.

First Month

The first month will be dedicated to understanding the issue at stake, with a gradual elaboration of a design and a prototype.

October to March

Submission of reports and presentations to instructors, clients and peers.

April: Capstone Design Celebration

The year will culminate with a project fair to showcase your projects at the beginning of April.

Help Us Solicit Projects

If you know of any industry members who would like to submit a project, or if your co-op employer is interested in offering a project, please contact capstones@ece.ubc.ca or visit the Capstone Partners page.