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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Lufei Liu is a 4th 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.
Smart soft sensor can improve prosthetics and enhance human-robot interaction
Smart, stretchable and highly sensitive, a new soft sensor developed by UBC and Honda researchers opens the door to a wide range of applications in robotics and prosthetics.
When applied to the surface of a prosthetic arm or a robotic limb, the sensor skin provides touch sensitivity and dexterity, enabling tasks that can be difficult for machines such as picking up a piece of soft fruit. The sensor is also soft to the touch, like human skin, which helps make human interactions safer and more lifelike.
“Our sensor can sense several types of forces, allowing a prosthetic or robotic arm to respond to tactile stimuli with dexterity and precision. For instance, the arm can hold fragile objects like an egg or a glass of water without crushing or dropping them,” said study author Dr. Mirza Saquib Sarwar, who created the sensor as part of his PhD work in electrical and computer engineering at UBC’s faculty of applied science.
Giving machines a sense of touch
The sensor is primarily composed of silicone rubber, the same material used to make many skin special effects in movies. The team’s unique design gives it the ability to buckle and wrinkle, just like human skin.
“Our sensor uses weak electric fields to sense objects, even at a distance, much as touchscreens do. But unlike touchscreens, this sensor is supple and can detect forces into and along its surface. This unique combination is key to adoption of the technology for robots that are in contact with people,” explained Dr. John Madden, senior study author and a professor of electrical and computer engineering who leads the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL) at UBC.
The UBC team developed the technology in collaboration with Frontier Robotics, Honda’s research institute. Honda has been innovating in humanoid robotics since the 1980s, and developed the well-known ASIMO robot. It has also developed devices to assist walking, and the emerging Honda Avatar Robot.
“Dr. Madden’s lab has significant expertise in flexible sensors and we’re happy to collaborate with this team in developing tactile sensors that can be applied to robots,” said Mr. Ishizaki Ryusuke, one of the study’s lead authors and chief engineer at Frontier Robotics.
Practical and scalable
The researchers say the new sensor is simple to fabricate, which makes it easy to scale to cover large surface areas and to manufacture large quantities.
Dr. Madden noted that sensors and intelligence are making machines more capable and lifelike, increasingly allowing people to work and play alongside them, but much more can be achieved.
“Human skin has a hundred times more sensing points on a fingertip than our technology does, making it easier to light a match or sew. As sensors continue to evolve to be more skin-like, and can also detect temperature and even damage, there is a need for robots to be smarter about which sensors to pay attention to and how to respond. Developments in sensors and artificial intelligence will need to go hand in hand.”
Interview language(s): English (Sarwar, Madden), French (Madden)
The paper was initially published in 2017 with former ECE PhD student Guanpeng Li, now a faculty member at the University of Iowa, and with researchers from Nvidia and MIT.
Submitted publications for IEEE Top Picks in Test and Reliability were reviewed by a committee of renowned experts in the field, and papers were then shortlisted. The paper was chosen by a competitive process, including a 2-page submission highlighting the impact of the paper to be considered.
The paper was presented at the IEEE Top Picks in Test and Reliability workshop on October 12-13, 2023, to present the most impactful publications in the past six years in the areas of VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) test and reliability.
Dr. Pattabiraman and his team’s paper examined Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) usage in safety-critical contexts such as Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and robots and their reliability to understand the effect of soft errors on DNNs. Soft errors are typically caused as a result of high-energy particles striking electronic devices, causing them to malfunction. It was demonstrated through these researchers’ work that DNNs are not resilient to soft errors and that a single fault can cause safety violations in the operation of DNNs.
The “Get to Know…” series is meant to introduce incoming students to the people in ECE and learn more about the ongoing research and work happening in ECE!
Dr. Joseph Salfi is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC! Professor Salfi’s research focuses on the investigation, realization and assembly of building blocks for quantum information systems that could one day perform calculations well beyond the capabilities of classical information technologies. His work includes optimizing the coherence and scalability of quantum bits, engineering the interactions of qubits for quantum computers and simulators, and building hybrid systems of spin qubits and microwave photons.
In this instalment, Professor Joe Salfi shares the courses he will be teaching, his research focus, and more!
Which course(s) will you be teaching this Fall semester?
ELEC 204: Linear Circuits (for EngPhys)
CPEN 514: Quantum Information and Computation
What interests you most about your research/ what drew you to this topic?
My research area is Quantum Information and Computation. What draws me to it is a combination of three things. The first is that it is a high-impact area that attracts top researchers. Quantum Computation is a completely new way to process information that promises to enable the solution to computational problems that are out of reach using any conceivable classical computer. The second is that we are close to delivering on the promise described above for industrial use-cases. Proof-of-principal quantum computers have been demonstrated that can perform calculations that are impossible on classical supercomputers, and the next challenge is to do this in an industrial use-case. The third, and probably most important reason I am interested in it, is that it combines theoretical and experimental quantum physics (my area of graduate training), and electrical and computer engineering (my area of undergraduate training), two areas that I am most interested in.
Where is your favourite spot on campus?
For work: My lab, in AMPEL 111, housing quantum experiments.
Outside work: The Rose Garden. The UBC Aquatic Centre. Loafe (good coffee!).
What is your favourite coffee/tea drink to order?
Americano and espresso.
What is a fun thing about you that others might not know?
Physical activities like Squash and Cycling are very important to me.
The “Get to Know…” series is meant to introduce incoming students to the people in ECE and learn more about the ongoing research and work happening in ECE!
Hooman Vaseli is a 4th year PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering! He received his Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Electrical Engineering at UBC.
Hooman’s focus is in the Robotics and Control Lab (RCL) where the research focuses on machine learning, computer vision, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), specifically for automatic analysis of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and medical imaging data such as echocardiography (echo), which is the ultrasound images and videos taken from the heart. He is focused on improving risk prediction of ischemic stroke by analyzing patients’ echo and EHR.
In this instalment, Hooman shares his current research focus, advice for ECE students, and more!
What courses were you a TA in?
I TAed CPEN 211, CPEN 333, and ELEC 371.
What advice would you give second-year students to succeed in their ECE studies?
Find what you are passionate about in this vast field of ECE. If you like programming, learn coding and algorithms very well (even if you are in ELEC), especially if you want to focus on Artificial Intelligence, because, unfortunately, not so many researchers in the field have your background or the kind of opportunity you have now in learning proper coding skills. And no matter what grades you get at the end of the day, enjoy life as it’s short!
P.S. For CPEN211, Verilog is not like software programming that runs line by line! Imagine you are drawing the blueprint of a circuit but through coding. So it’s an “everything everywhere all at once” kind of thing!
What is your favourite coffee/tea drink to order?
Vanilla Cold Brew
Favourite hobby?
Right now, salsa dancing at UBC Salsa Rueda Club. It’s fun, a good exercise for hand-eye coordination and memory skills, and I get to meet new people.
Where is your favourite place in Vancouver? Favourite spot on campus?
I love everywhere in Vancouver! Ocean, mountain, city! Probably Cypress Mountain is my favourite spot for its nice hiking trails and ski resort. My favourite campus spots are Rec Center for the bird-coop gym and leagues I used to attend, and NEST for our student clubs.
