2024 Design & Innovation Day

Welcome to Electrical and Computer Engineering Design and Innovation Day!

We are excited to share the projects our students have worked on over the final year of their undergraduate program! The capstone design project is a major component of the ECE engineering curriculum where students work in teams of four to six to design a product/service of significance and to solve an open-ended problem in electrical and computer engineering.

April 11th, 2:00-5:00pm

Capstone Video Awards, 3:00pm

Fred Kaiser Building – 2332 Main Mall, UBC Campus – Atrium and Kaiser 2020/2030

https://design-innovation.apsc.ubc.ca/

Browse through our ECE projects and abstracts featured at Design + Innovation Day!

Emerging Technologies and Innovations

Industrial Automation and Processes

Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability

Healthcare and Medical Devices

Transportation and Mobility Solutions

Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems

Map

Projects

Team Name	Title	Company	Project Theme
AI-47	From Chips to Kits: Demonstrator Kits for Next-Gen Silicon Photonic Chiplets	Dream Photonics Inc.	Industrial Automation and Processes
AI-76	ZEROe Sailing Vessel Electrical Integration	Alberni Yachts Inc.	Transportation and Mobility Solutions
AI-79	Water Level Depth Logger	Opus Petroleum Engineering Ltd.	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
CG-22	Using IoT Devices (Raspberry PI) to Count People For Occupancy or Traffic	UBC Cloud Innovation Centre	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
CG-23	Remote Sensing for Forest Fires	UBC Cloud Innovation Centre	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability
CG-29	iHear	Deng Audio Research	Healthcare and Medical Devices
CG-39	Detecting Buried Metallic or Non-metallic Anomalies	Rampart Detection Systems Ltd	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
CG-78	Precise Detection of Free Street Parking Using AI and Video Processing	UBC – Digital Multimedia Lab	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
HA-60	Development of Renewable Energy Assessment Tool Mine Site	Fluor Canada	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability
HA-61	Electrification of Harbour Air Beaching Gear	Harbour Air Aerospace Services	Transportation and Mobility Solutions
HA-83	Sizing of Temporary Personal Protective Grounding Cables	BC Hydro	Industrial Automation and Processes
HA-84	Medium Voltage Underground Cable Circuits Ampacity Tool	BC Hydro	Industrial Automation and Processes
HA-85	Frozen Soil’s Impact on the Thermal Resistivity’s Used in Medium Voltage Cable Circuit’s Ampacity Calculations	BC Hydro	Industrial Automation and Processes
JM-46	Bass Guitar Pluck Type Classification Using a 2-D Piezo Pickup	Yamaha Guitar Group, Inc	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
JM-58	Developing a Wearable ExG Device to Study Sleep	SimPL lab	Healthcare and Medical Devices
JM-67	Backend Development for Motor Deficits Detection Using Hand Drawing and Facial Expression	NeuroPrior AI	Healthcare and Medical Devices
JY-68	Development of a Wearable Sensor Device for Human-Robot Interaction with EEG Capabilities	NeuroPrior AI	Healthcare and Medical Devices
JY-71	3-Axis Motion Control Testing System	NovaSense Technology Ltd.	Industrial Automation and Processes
JY-72	3-Axis Motion Control Fabrication System	NovaSense Technology Ltd.	Industrial Automation and Processes
JY-92	Wearable System for Health Status Monitoring	Adaptive Microsystems Lab (AdaMist), The University of British Columbia	Healthcare and Medical Devices
PB-35	Automated Test Framework Migration		Industrial Automation and Processes
PB-48	Real-time Market Data Collection System	Tartigrade Limited	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PB-49	Automated Invoice Processing App	Tartigrade Limited	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PB-50	Talent Acquisition Automation	Tartigrade Limited	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PB-66	Slice-based Debugging for Java Development Environments	UBC ECE, ReSeSS Research Lab, Dr. Julia Rubin	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PL-10	Exploring Uncharted Chemical Space of Environmental Exposures using Graphical Neural Networks	University of British Columbia	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PL-12	Passive RF System for 24/7 custody of Space Objects in GeoSynchronous, Cislunar Orbits and beyond	MDA Systems Lid	Industrial Automation and Processes
PL-40	Leveraging LLMs for a Course Question-Answer Repository	UBC Cloud Innovation Centre	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PL-44	Intelligent Intersection Communication Hub	Breeze Labs Inc.	Transportation and Mobility Solutions
PN-01	AI Based “Co-pilot” to Assist Solar Project Managers with Crew Assignment & Scheduling	Scoop Robotix Inc.	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability
PN-05	Immersio Immy Chat	Immersio	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PN-08	Wet GPU Software Stack	Samnian Software Inc.	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PN-14	Open Data: Aerial Drone Footage – Lost Hiker Challenge	UBC Cloud Innovation Centre	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
PN-42	Product Image Generator to Create Variation of Product Images at Scale (Using AI and Content Generation Engines)	Esparkify	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
PN-54	Efficient HW Implementation of DNN based Frame Rate Up Conversion (FRUC) for Real Time Video Transcoding	NetInt	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
SF-07	Interactive Augmented Reality Factory	UBC MANU Program	Emerging Technologies and Innovations
SF-11	Event-focused Carpool: Connecting Communities Through Innovative Web-Based Carpooling Solutions	CarPals	Transportation and Mobility Solutions
SF-21	Video Streaming Using Cloud Technology	UBC Cloud Innovation Centre	Artificial Intelligence and Software Systems
SF-36	A Lab in a Shoe: Detecting Trips and Stumbles With a Wearable Device	University of British Columbia	Healthcare and Medical Devices
SF-41	Human Anatomy Teaching App	UBC Faculty of Medicine	Healthcare and Medical Devices
SF-51	IoT Solutions for Sustainable Beekeeping	FEC	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability
TL-30	Mapping Below the Forest Canopy (Part 1 – Software)	Korotu Technology Inc.	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability
TL-31	Mapping Below the Forest Canopy (Part 2 – Hardware)	Korotu Technology Inc.	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability
TL-32	Use of Frequency Modulated Continuous Wavelength Radar (FMCW) to Detect Heart Rate, Respiratory Rate of Patients in Hospital Waiting Rooms, Seclusion Rooms and those in Police Custody	Aberrant Designs Inc.	Healthcare and Medical Devices
TL-43	Gesture Control and Vital Function Detection using 60GHz Radar Sensing and AI/ML processing	Delta Controls Inc.	Healthcare and Medical Devices
TL-63	Measuring Forest Change with AI	Korotu Technology Inc.	Environmental Monitoring and Sustainability

2022/ 2023 Design and Innovation Day

Design and Innovation Day 2023: Winners, Projects, and Photos

2024 3MT Participants

Get ready for ECE’s Three Minute Competition Heat, happening Wednesday, March 6 at 11am in room Kaiser 2020/2030! If you are interested in attending to watch the competition, please RSVP through the following link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bQ5suiuRs0LCK1w

To get an idea of the presentations, take a look at some of the thesis topics for this year’s heat!

Mohammadreza Hallajiyan
Security by Design: Systematic Security Assessment of AI/ML-enabled Medical Devices

Mohammed Elnawawy
Risk Profiling Framework for ML Attacks in Safety-Critical Applications

Mohsen Salehi
Enhancing Security in Embedded Devices

Zihuan Wang
Sensing while Communicating: Help Cellular Networks Open Their “Eyes”

Farhad Abbasi
Efficient Battery Chargers: Change of the control method in each charging stage

Hamidreza Aftabi
Unveiling Jaw Restoration: Predicting Functional Outcome of Jaw Surgery via Computer Modeling

Victor Sira
Robust Clock Generation for Integrated Circuits

ECE/ECEGSA Research Day

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and ECEGSA (ECE Graduate Student Association) hosted a Research Day on January 24th, 2024! The event was a graduate student-led effort organized by ECEGSA to showcase the research of ECE graduate students through poster sessions and lightning talks.

The Research Day created an opportunity for students to show their research and creativity and encouraged communication and collaboration in the ECE community. Faculty, students, and staff were able to listen, observe and interact with the many areas of research occurring within the department.

An alumni panel was organized to share “Life After Graduation.” ECE MASc and PhD alumni were invited to share their advice and experience about career development. The alumni panel discussed various topics regarding which skills students should be developing in graduate school, how to consider career options and more. This panel was an interactive opportunity for the audience to ask questions and hear advice.

“The ECE research day provided an amazing opportunity for students to connect, share updates, and gain insights into each other’s research. In addition, presenting my research at this event was a valuable opportunity for me to improve my presentation skills.” -Mani, Masters student

“I found ECE Research Day to be an excellent opportunity to learn about the diversity of research projects conducted in the department, in fields beyond my own research area. Through engaging talks and poster sessions, I was able to exchange research experiences with other graduate students and network with ECE grad alumni.” – Abraham, PhD student

Following the poster and talk sessions, an award ceremony took place, where participants were ranked in various areas.

Award Winners:

People’s Choice Poster Award

Mateo Rendon; Research Topic: Design of aging and wear-out sensors on a novel 12nm FinFET technology

People’s Choice Lightning Talk Award

Victor Sira; Research Topic: Multi-Phase Ring Oscillators and Their Applications

Distinguished Poster Award

Mateo Rendon
Hooman Vaseli
Nalin Munshi
Nima Nasiri

Session 1 Distinguished Lightning Talk Award

Nikhil Pratap Ghanathe
Victor Sira
Abraham Chan

Session 2 Distinguished Lightning Talk Award

Hooman Vaseli
Dias Azhigulov

Special thanks to Jonathan Lew (Organizer) and Wanwen Chen (Co-organizer), as well as to the adjudicators, volunteers, and alumni panelists for all the hard work dedicated to the ECE/ECEGSA Research Day!

For further information on the posters and talk sessions that were featured, visit the ECEGSA website.

Two UBC Engineering students awarded 2024 Cansbridge Fellowship

*UBC engineering students Matthew Chow and Lily Watt have been named recipients of the 2024 Cansbridge Fellowship.*

Originally published in UBC Engineering News

University of British Columbia engineering students Lily Watt and Matthew Chow are among this year’s recipients of the Cansbridge Fellowship. They are two of 15 fellows who will be joining a week-long conference in New York, a summer internship in Asia enabled by a $10,000 scholarship, and a lifelong professional network.

Watt, a third-year engineering physics student and previously a research assistant at UBC’s Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, is interested in quantum computing and applied robotics, and hopes to break into a novel technology industry during her Cansbridge Fellowship. She sees the fellowship as a gateway to both professional growth and personal development, and is eager to immerse herself in a new language and way of life.

“The fellowship not only provides globally-minded training and mentorship, but will also enable unique opportunities to identify with others,” said Watt, who is currently president of the UBC Quantum Club, and part of UBC Subbots and UBC WasteNauts (former) design teams. “My goals for the future are to explore the world and connect with people, and to push forward the development of technologies that will help them.”

Third-year computer engineering student Chow looks forward to connecting with the Cansbridge community and engaging with leaders in entrepreneurship. He aims to use scalable software as a tool to make hardware products safer and higher quality.

“Getting the opportunity to meet founders, investors and business leaders at the Cansbridge Fellowship Conference will expand my understanding of business and entrepreneurship, helping me to create my own company in the future,” said Chow, who has served as technical director of the UBC Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and led the UBC Solar software team. He has also completed co-op placements working on Tesla’s Cybertruck firmware and at Zipline, a unicorn start-up in San Francisco, to design software for autonomous delivery drones.

Previous Cansbridge fellows have gone on to acquire distinctions such as the Thiel Fellowship, YCombinator and Schwarzman Scholars. They have also secured positions at companies like Microsoft and Google, or run their own start-ups like Mosaic, Wombo and One Species.

Currently, the Cansbridge Fellowship is supported by several Canadian universities including UBC, University of Toronto, McGill University, Western University, Queens University, Simon Fraser University, University of Alberta, University of Calgary and University of Waterloo, as well as alumni of the program.

UBC Weather Advisory: January 18, 2024

In-person learning activities at UBC’s Vancouver campus are cancelled for January 18, 2024. Please review communications from your instructors to see whether classes will be moved online or given in another format.

Campus is not closed, but UBC staff may be working remotely where possible. Please visit www.ubc.ca for updates about Vancouver campus.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering staff are available remotely from 8:30am-4:30pm, but please be aware our physical office is closed. Find staff contact information here to reach them remotely.

For virtual advising options, please visit undergraduate advising and graduate advising.

Contact help@ece.ubc.ca for any questions or concerns.

‘Smart Glove’ Can Boost Hand Mobility of Stroke Patients

*UBC electrical and computer engineering professor Dr. Peyman Servati demonstrating the smart glove. Photo credit: Lou Bosshart/UBC Media Relations*

Originally published in UBC News

New washable wireless smart textile technology developed at UBC in collaboration with Vancouver startup also has potential uses in virtual reality and American Sign Language translation

This month, a group of stroke survivors in B.C. will test a new technology designed to aid their recovery, and ultimately restore use of their limbs and hands.

Participants will wear a new groundbreaking “smart glove” capable of tracking their hand and finger movements during rehabilitation exercises supervised by Dr. Janice Eng, a leading stroke rehabilitation specialist and professor of medicine at UBC.

The glove incorporates a sophisticated network of highly sensitive sensor yarns and pressure sensors that are woven into a comfortable stretchy fabric, enabling it to track, capture and wirelessly transmit even the smallest hand and finger movements.

“With this glove, we can monitor patients’ hand and finger movements without the need for cameras. We can then analyze and fine-tune their exercise programs for the best possible results, even remotely,” says Dr. Eng.

Precision in wearable electronics

UBC electrical and computer engineering professor Dr. Peyman Servati, PhD student Arvin Tashakori and their team at their startup, Texavie, created the smart glove for collaboration on the stroke project. Dr. Servati highlighted a number of breakthroughs.

“This is the most accurate glove we know of that can track hand and finger movement and grasping force without requiring motion-capture cameras. Thanks to machine learning models we developed, the glove can accurately determine the angles of all finger joints and the wrist as they move. The technology is highly precise and fast, capable of detecting small stretches and pressures and predicting movement with at least 99-per-cent accuracy – matching the performance of costly motion-capture cameras.”

*The smart glove is stretchy, wireless and washable. Photo credit: Lou Bosshart/UBC Media Relations*

Unlike other products in the market, the glove is wireless and comfortable, and can be easily washed after removing the battery. Dr. Servati and his team have developed advanced methods to manufacture the smart gloves and related apparel at a relatively low cost locally.

Augmented reality and robotics

Dr. Servati envisions a seamless transition of the glove into the consumer market with ongoing improvements, in collaboration with different industrial partners. The team also sees potential applications in virtual reality and augmented reality, animation and robotics.

“Imagine being able to accurately capture hand movements and interactions with objects and have it automatically display on a screen. There are endless applications. You can type text without needing a physical keyboard, control a robot, or translate American Sign Language into written speech in real time, providing easier communication for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.”

The research findings were published in Nature Machine Intelligence.

Interview language(s): English (Servati, Eng, Tashakori), Farsi (Tashakori)

B-roll and images: https://bit.ly/UBCsmartglove

ECE Professor Vincent Wong and Former Postdoctoral Fellow Ming Tang Receive IEEE 2022 Best Paper Award

Congratulations to ECE Professor Vincent Wong and Dr. Ming Tang, who received the 2022 Best Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. The award is for their paper with title “Deep Reinforcement Learning for Task Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Systems”, which was published in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing in June 2022. Dr. Tang was a former postdoctoral fellow at UBC. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen, China.

To learn more about the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing.

ECE Professor Juri Jatskevich Wins the 2023 Nagamori Award!

Congratulations to Dr. Juri Jatskevich, who received the 2023 Nagamori Award “For Modelling, Analysis and Control of Electric Motors and Generators.” The Award was presented during a beautiful ceremony held in Kyoto, Japan, on September 3, 2023.

The Nagamori Awards were established to “bring vitality to technological research of motors and related fields, such as generators and actuators, and also to support the researchers and development engineers who strive each day to fulfill their dreams.” The Nagamori Foundation of Kyoto, Japan, was started in 2014 by its president, Mr. Shigenobu Nagamori, who founded the Nidec Corporation. The Nagamori Foundation is serving a noble cause by recognizing and promoting researchers and scientists who made significant contributions and work in the area related to electric motors and their application for the benefit of humanity.

Dr. Juri Jatskevich, “I feel honoured and humbled to accept this prestigious Nagamori Award. I had great teachers in the field of electric machinery. I was also blessed to have very talented graduate students and colleagues at UBC whose work must also be recognized by this Award. In my career, I contributed to the modeling, analysis and control of permanent magnet synchronous (PMSM) and brushless DC motors, as well as on other widely-used motors and generators, helping to make their operation more efficient and reliable in many systems and applications. Better electric motors and their control undoability contribute to new technologies, a better environment, and increase the quality of human life. Therefore, receiving this Nagamori Award is also very inspiring.”

Juri Jatskevich (IEEE Fellow) received an Electrical Engineering Degree (BSEE) from the Ukrainian National Agricultural University, Kyiv, Ukraine. He received the MSEE and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. His research interests include power electronic systems, electrical machines and drives, and modeling and simulation of electromagnetic transients. Dr. Jatskevich served as an Associate Editor, Editor-in-Chief, and Editor-in-Chief At-Large for several IEEE journals. He was the recipient of the 2022 IEEE PES Cyril Veinott Electromechanical Energy Conversion Award.

Learn more about Nagamori Award.

ECE Alumnus Partha Pande Appointed As Interim Dean at WSU

Congratulations to the University of British Columbia, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) alumnus Dr. Partha Pande, who has been named interim dean of Washington State University’s (WSU) Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture (VCEA), effective February 12, 2024.

Dr. Pande is a key member of the college’s leadership team, serving as director for WSU’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science since 2018 and as a professor and Boeing Centennial Chair in Computer Engineering since 2013.

Dr. Pande has been a faculty member at WSU since 2005. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of British Columbia in 2005. He received an NSF Career Award in 2009 and Voiland College’s Anjan Bose Outstanding Researcher Award in 2013. Dr. Pande is a fellow of IEEE.

Read more about Dr. Partha Pande’s appointment as interim dean

ECE Student Perspective Story – From Computer Architecture to Future Industry Plans!

Lufei Liu is a 4^th year PhD student in computer architecture, advised by Professor Tor Aamodt. Lufei completed her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at UBC in 2020, where she then directly started her PhD program.

Lufei’s research primarily focuses on GPU (graphics processing unit) hardware architecture, specifically with computer graphics and hardware acceleration of ray tracing. Ray tracing is a technique for computer graphics rendering that involves tracing simulated light paths (rays) through 3D-modelled scenes to gather realistic shadow and lighting effects as these rays interact with the environment. Lufei and her research team members investigate ray tracing accelerators in GPUs and propose hardware modifications that could speed up ray tracing workloads.

Are there areas of your research people wouldn’t expect?

Although my research is focused on hardware, I primarily work with software and write C++ code to simulate hardware behaviour. C++ is an object-oriented programming language commonly used for applications that require more control over hardware resources. Surprisingly, we can evaluate many interesting hardware techniques without taping out a chip, which refers to when the hardware design for an integrated circuit (chip) is complete and ready to be sent to the fabrication facilities for physical production.

What impact could this research have?

We hope to influence the design of future devices, particularly in the AR/VR field. Ray tracing can bring the level of realism needed for the virtual world, but high-quality graphics rendering at the frame rates required for headsets is still a very difficult task. Reducing inefficiencies and introducing clever optimizations through hardware can really make a difference here.

What are your future research/work plans?

After my PhD, I plan to work in an industry research lab. As a student, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the proprietary systems that real devices are using, which hinders our research efforts. In the future, I hope to work on research beyond these constraints.