Welcome back to ECE to all of our new and returning students! Get in touch with us at help@ece.ubc.ca if you have questions, and we look forward to working with you throughout the term!
UBC Bionics – Student Team Perspectives
UBC Bionics was first formed in 2018 to create a space where students could apply all the skills they learned in class, and further develop their hands-on experience in the advancement of bionics. The group is an undergraduate engineering design team that aims to foster an environment that is readily accessible to students and provide a space for them to apply, strengthen, and hone their technical skills. They take pride in providing a very hands-on learning experience for all of their members, with support and guidance from senior leads.
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering was fortunate to connect with the Bionics team to discuss their accomplishments, how students can get involved, and some of the exciting work coming up this year!
Hi UBC Bionics! Tell us a bit about your team! How many students do you have, what do they do, and where are they from?
Our team currently has about 40 students, reaching all areas of STEM, including a plethora of engineering, computer science, biology, and chemistry students. We even have students from Sauder, and are open to applicants from all academic backgrounds! Since we operate with a top-down approach, we are able to take on a good number of 1st and 2nd year students who will then be trained and mentored by upper-year students.
ECE students on the UBC Bionics team are involved in a variety of tasks depending on which subteam they join. The Electrical subteam works on circuit design using CAD software, testing and doing plenty of hands-on work. The Embedded Software subteam works on system design, management and prioritization of tasks within our bionic arm, GRASP. ECE students joining the team can expect to gain a lot of experience in a team project setting, applying their technical skills in circuit design, learning new software programs, and relating ECE course content more specifically to bionics.
Why did you choose to join UBC Bionics in the first place?
We chose to join the team mainly because of the projects involved and its alignment with industry and research. A lot of other design teams do not have the same biology and technical integrations that you get with the bionics field. Being able to work with both sides and being involved in a relatively new team was also a significant factor in our applications to UBC Bionics.
As a part of the team you get to work on a lot of project development and get to see your impact on the project design clearly. You get a lot of practical experience building different aspects and can perform a lot of physical testing as prototypes come together. It is a great way to get into more complex work without the full risk or stress of employment/career and you gain a lot of experience, as well as a positive environment to learn in. It’s also a lot of fun and a great community.
Is there something you have learned that you wished you had known when you first began your undergrad program? What advice would you give your younger self?
We have a list of different things we wished we had known before we started, as well as advice we would give to our younger selves:
- Explore your interests and try different technologies, environments, or more broadly research and/or industry
- To join design teams earlier to get a sense of how different engineering programs work together to complete a project, even if it feels like a long shot
- Just try things! Explore it even if it’s outside of your comfort zone.
- Don’t be afraid to explore new topics
- Be a little stupid, but not over the top
- For designing software: Get hung up on the best way, rather than to go with the best solution and see how far it takes you. It doesn’t have to be the best solution the first time.
- The dumber the question the more important you ask!
Have there been any accomplishments that you and your team are most proud of?
One of our biggest accomplishments was the creation of our first prototype of GRASP. Being able to design, print, and test circuit boards as well as seeing everything connect to modules in the arm was an incredible achievement.
For the embedded team, setting up the pipeline communications in the system was a major step in our progress but Raestro is probably the achievement our sub team is most proud of. Raestro is an open source library that we have published on crates.io which controls the motors used in our bionic arm. We’re proud to report that as of August 6th, 2022, it has received 333 downloads.
What is one thing about your team that would make someone laugh or impress them?
One of the coolest parts of our team is our access to opportunities outside of the APSC/UBC space. We have a research subteam that works in collaboration with research labs at UBC and gives students the chance to experience working in academia and network with professionals. Our access to information from APSC and EDT has led to an invitation to the ASEE 2022 annual conference on integrating equity, diversity, and inclusion into our team’s culture-that was a really great chance to network and meet others in the industry and discuss issues that we face in STEM! Of course, there’s a lot of community outreach as well that we can accomplish as a team–we make an effort to attend Open Houses and collaborate with other youth programs on workshops that introduce engineering to younger and even prospective students.
On a sillier note though, for our first prototype of the arm we were able to successfully get Netflix and Minecraft running on the graphical user interface (GUI). To explore functional near-infrared spectroscopy (FNIR) from the electrical side, we modeled it using Minecraft redstone mode. We have also made Excel spreadsheets to decide on team lunch options!
Do you feel that your experience on the team is helping you prepare for life after university/in your career? How so?
Definitely! When applying for CO-OP positions and other jobs, we have been able to carry over practical experience we gained from the design team. We’ve also been able to experience working in a cross-disciplinary team and have networked with individuals in the field. Lastly, working in an environment that requires some self-learning has helped us apply new techniques for our learning and use that knowledge during project development.
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to talk with us! To wrap up, how can others join the team or get in touch with you if they are interested in learning more?
Applicants can find more information about our team at ubcbionics.com or on our social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, & Twitter) at @ubcbionicsteam. Interested individuals can also reach out to us at ubcbionicsteam@gmail.com with any inquiries! Our team is active in the UBC and APSC community, and can often be found at Imagine Day, as well as at Open Houses.
UBC Formula – Student Team Perspectives
Founded in 1991, UBC Formula is a student organization that designs, builds, and races a Formula-style race car in the annual Formula SAE competition in Michigan. Each team member contributes their skills in a specialized area such as powertrain, chassis, suspension, electronics, controls, or dynamics. After 27 years of innovation and accomplishments, UBC Formula strives to continue its vision of helping students develop their engineering skills.
ECE has had the opportunity to interview the UBC Formula team! Keep reading to learn more about the team and their work!
What does your team do if you could sum it up in a few sentences? Give us your elevator pitch!
The purpose of design teams is to elevate students’ education by immersing them in a structured organization that resembles real life employment. Students have a large amount of freedom to apply concepts learned in class and take projects through the entire engineering design cycle.
Formula UBC designs, builds, tests, and races a new single-seat race car each year. The team participates in an annual student competition put on by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Every May, the team brings our car down to Michigan and competes against approximately 120 international teams. The competition is not solely focused on racing but rather takes a holistic approach to developing a race car. We are judged on a business presentation as well as the car cost, design, efficiency and a series of performance metrics including cornering ability, acceleration and drivability.
To place well in competition, Formula UBC Racing works year-round to prepare a car for competition. Approximately 60 members across 10 sub-teams use a variety of information sources to design a car, starting as early as June. Throughout the year, students take parts or entire subsystems through all the stages of design. It begins with problem definition and concept generation, simulations and iteration, manufacturing, and testing if applicable, before finally implementing the design.
What specifically are ECE students involved in on your team? In other words, what can an ECE student expect to be working on by joining the team/why would an ECE student want to join?
ECE students are involved in sensor integration, data acquisition, vehicle wiring harnesses, power distribution, and driver-controlled pneumatic systems like paddle shifting and opening/closing the rear wing for the Drag Reduction System (DRS). Anything from a tire temperature sensor to a brake light can be designed by students on the team. Integration into the vehicle and the design process for any individual part often requires inter-disciplinary team communication to make good design justifications like how to mount new parts in CAD so nothing interferes once the parts go on the car. ECE students can expect to learn about most of the electrical modules, sensors, and interconnecting harnessing on the car and in doing this they will be able to learn skills like making a wiring harness, implementing CAN bus communication, C- based STM32 microcontroller firmware, and PCB design in Altium. In addition to learning new skills, you will be in a student-led environment and surrounded by people who have similar interests so it’s a great place to make friends and have the opportunity to work on projects together.
Have there been any accomplishments that you and your team are most proud of? What are they?
Our team is very proud to have achieved 18th in the AutoX competition and 11th fastest in Acceleration. As of May this year, we are the fastest team in Canada. We are also proud to have placed in design finals last year in 2021.
How does being part of a student team enhance your experience at UBC and in the ECE department?
Being a part of a student team allows you the opportunity and budget to work on a complex project and learn skills that you may not get through your coursework. The team also teaches what good communication and leadership looks like, while building critical thinking skills when unexpected problems arise at the last minute. The student team has also provided a strong community to spend time with outside of work hours.
How can others join the team or get in touch with you if they are interested in learning more?
You can reach out to Formula UBC social media on Facebook, Instagram, or contact info on our website: formulaubc.com.
Novel percussion instrument co-developed by ECE professor Sidney Fels to debut at SIGGRAPH in Vancouver
A unique presentation at this year’s SIGGRAPH—the world’s leading computer graphics conference which opens next week in Vancouver—may well inspire future digital content creators and multimedia artists.
Engineer and musician Victor Zappi will play a short rock/electronic piece on August 10 as part of his presentation on the Hyper Drumhead – a futuristic percussion instrument that he co-developed with Sidney Fels, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at UBC.
The Hyper Drumhead is like a virtual drum set—no drumsticks are required.
“The Hyper Drumhead is a virtual percussion surface that you can excite by touch. You draw shapes on the touch screen surface and you modify them to change the timbre and create all sorts of unique sound effects,” says Fels, an expert known for his work on new interfaces for musical expression and 3D displays.
To play the instrument, a musician can choose to load pre-recorded sound files into a connected computer, or he can inject live inputs such as vocals or guitar. Each audio source is assigned to a specific area on the screen. Changing the dimensions of the shape changes the pitch or other aspects of the music, and the musician can remix and layer different tracks to create a complete music piece.
Click here to view a demo of the Hyper Drumhead
Conceptually, the technology is not too different from physical drum sets, where the shape and size of the drum largely determines the sound, with larger drums creating warmer tones and smaller drums producing brighter, sharper tones. But what makes it different is that the computer does a simulation of the physics of the movement of sound across the virtual drumhead. This allows any type of surface and sound to be explored.
An early version of the Hyper Drumhead won first place in 2018 at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, a worldwide competition aimed at discovering new ideas in musical instruments.
“There is a learning curve, but it’s quite intuitive. Even people who have no musical training can learn to play the Hyper Drumhead,” says Zappi, who’s currently an assistant professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University.
SIGGRAPH, the most important conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques where companies such as Disney Research, Nvidia and Facebook Reality Labs present their work, runs August 8 through 11.
EDITORS: Victor Zappi and Sidney Fels are available to speak to media about their invention. For more information, contact lou.bosshart@ubc.ca
UBC AeroDesign – Student Team Perspectives
UBC AeroDesign (UBCAD) is an engineering student team founded in 1992. Each year, the team designs and builds a fixed-wing electric-powered remote-control aircraft to compete in the SAE Aero Design competition series. UBCAD’s mission is to allow students to engage with a real-world problem in the field of aerospace, providing them with the opportunity to develop their engineering skills in a team environment. From aerodynamic and structural analysis, to propulsion and controls simulation, to machine learning and computer vision, UBCAD does it all!
ECE has had the opportunity to interview Simon Jobst, Tony Wang, and Bryson Wu from UBCAD. Read on to learn more about the team and their work!
How many students are on your team, and what are the different areas/departments your teammates are from? What year-levels are represented? (Simon)
UBC AeroDesign currently has 53 members, belonging to the Departments of Mechanical, Electrical, Engineering Physics, Integrated, and Materials Engineering. Each year we recruit 10-15 new members from a wide range of disciplines and year levels to join our team. We are proud to have a wide range of year-level representation on our team, ranging from first-year to final-year students, allowing for technical mentorship for more junior members.
What specifically are ECE students involved in on your team? In other words, what can an ECE student expect to be working on by joining the team/why would an ECE student want to join? (Bryson)
ECE students typically choose to work on the avionics (aircraft electronics and software) for our primary aircraft and for a smaller drone that deploys from the Advanced Class
primary aircraft. Avionics work can include:
● Machine learning/computer vision models for target identification and navigation planning
● Embedded programming for aircraft sensing and control
● Full stack programming for data visualization, target verification, and telemetry reporting
● Power supplies sizing/optimization that drive our electric motors and electronics
Additionally, if interested, ECE students have an equal opportunity to learn aircraft and mechanical design techniques!
Have there been any accomplishments that you and your team are most proud of? What are they? (Simon)
Over the past 30 years, our team has competed in the annual SAE Aero Design competition against top universities all over the globe, including schools from the USA, Poland, India, China and many more We placed in the top five 15 times over the years, and placed first in the design component during the virtual competitions in both 2020 and 2021.
During our most recent 2021-22 design season, we designed 3 aircraft and cumulatively manufactured 11 prototypes. Revamping to full-scale capacity and in-person work after the 2 year suspension of physical prototyping was a huge logistical accomplishment that all of us at UBC AeroDesign are
exceptionally proud of!
Moreover, we are proud to announce the following results from the 2022 SAE Aero Design East event held in Fort Worth, Texas between May 20-22, 2022:
● UBC AeroDesign Regular Class: 10th place overall (of 22 teams), with a 2nd place design report and 2nd place technical presentation, and
● UBC AeroDesign Advanced Class: 5th place overall (of 18 teams), with a 6th place design report and 9th place technical presentation.
How does being part of a student team enhance your experience at UBC and in the ECE department? (Bryson)
You create cool things from scratch with raw engineering creativity. You make friends that you can rely on and geek out with. Perhaps more tangibly, being a part of UBC AeroDesign has helped me understand the “why” behind our engineering curriculum and exposed me to an industry-like engineering process outside of our coursework. Many of us on UBC AeroDesign have also found that nothing pushes away imposter syndrome as effectively as seeing our work take flight.
Do you feel that your experience on the team is helping you prepare for life after university/in your career? How so? (Simon)
UBC AeroDesign has excellent potential to prepare you for life after university and career eligibility. We are proud to offer excellent co-op placement mentorship opportunities, and provide each other connections to well-established and reputable employers (e.g. Dometic, Seaspan, Kardium, Tesla, General Fusion, etc.). Moreover, attending competition allows members to connect with competition sponsors, such as Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Skunk Works, and Siemens. Being a member of UBC AeroDesign extends far beyond simply being part of a design team; you join a group of motivated individuals that support each other every step of the way!
What would you say to someone who is considering joining your team? Why would you recommend someone to join? (Tony)
Design team experience is extremely valuable for any aspiring engineer, but also makes you stand out when applying for co-op positions. A design team is essentially a technical club, targeted toward engineering students. You are able to meet numerous talented students and alumni, learn about engineering design, and develop skills as a person. There are so many design teams to choose from, and I would say to choose one not just based on reputation, but to choose a team that designs something you are truly passionate about. Even though AeroDesign consists of over 50 members, every person’s contribution to the team directly impacts the aircraft we send to competition, so your work is just as valued as a team lead’s work!
How can others join the team or get in touch with you if they are interested in learning more? (Tony)
If you are interested in learning more about UBC AeroDesign, we host live information sessions at the end of August and in the beginning of September (Imagine Day, etc.). You are welcome to reach out to us there, or on social media:
Website: https://ubcaerodesign.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UBCAeroDesign
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ubcaerodesign/
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/company/ubc-aerodesign
Feel free to also email us at ubcaerodesign@gmail.com to learn more about the team, or recruitment.ubcaerodesign@gmail.com if you’re more specifically interested in joining the team!
Simon Jobst is a third-year mechanical engineering student specializing in the aerospace option. Simon is the Regular Class Airfoils lead (focus on aerodynamics, mechanical structures, and electromechanical system integration) and sponsorship lead. He intends to pursue a career in either the aerospace or HVAC industry.
Bryson Wu is a 3.5th year ELEC student and leads UBC AeroDesign’s Advanced Class group. While he would love to work on aircraft systems after graduating, he is also interested in software engineering, mechatronics, and hardware design in non-aviation contexts. UBCAD is looking to expand the electrical engineering work they do on the team. If interested, contact Bryson through his social media platforms or at brysonwu@icloud.com.
Tony Wang is a student in the department of Mechanical Engineering heading into his 3.5th year under the aerospace specialization. He has been on UBC AeroDesign for 2 years, where he is the Regular Class Fuselage Structures Lead and Marketing Lead. He has loved airplanes since he was young, and has developed a stronger appreciation for the design and build of an airplane through being on UBCAD. Tony is looking to focus on aircraft design as a career, but is open to many other industries, particularly in the automotive/EV industry. He has two more co-op terms to complete before graduating, and is looking forward to working in different industries to figure out what he would like to do in the future.
Call for Capstone Proposals
Proposal Submission for 2022/2023 is open!
Please contact Paul Lusina (capstones@ece.ubc.ca) if you have questions about our next Capstone cohort, or check out our Capstone Client FAQs.
Interested in seeing what our students have to offer? Check out our 2021/2022 Design & Innovation Day showcase.
For examples of past capstone projects, we welcome you to view our capstone videos from 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Are you interested in becoming a Capstone partner?
Please watch this 4 minute video to answer:
Why do organizations choose to be partners?
What is your role as a partner?
How do we manage intellectual property?
How can you get involved?
How does Capstone work for clients?
In the Capstone course, senior students in teams of four to six work on projects proposed by industry, or other organizations. Each team is supervised by a faculty member who acts as the technical director, assisting or pointing the student to appropriate technical expertise. You will act as the client.
The projects can be general projects in:
- electrical and computer engineering
- software engineering
- energy
- biomedical devices
- microsystems
- nanotechnology
Benefits of taking part!
How to get involved and what to expect!
ECE invites you to propose a project to our students which will prepare them for employment and in turn give you an opportunity to meet the next generation of graduates.
A Capstone instructor assesses each proposal and provides feedback to you (the client). You are invited to revise your proposal based on the instructor’s feedback. Clients with successful proposals have the option to pitch their proposals to the Capstone students in early September. By the second week of September, each student bids on projects by ranking their top 10 preferred projects. This ranking is used to form teams. In 2018, 46 teams were formed from approximately one hundred proposals.
Our students and faculty would be working towards developing potential solutions with you from September and April. You will have ample opportunity to be actively engaged in the development of solutions.
For detailed information about what a project proposal should look like and how to submit a proposal to us, please see our Project Submission Page.
Time Commitment
Partners are expected to support students define the problem and give feedback on their design solution. The amount of time commitment required depends greatly on the type of project you propose. As a minimum expect approximately 10 hours of engagement in September & October and a further 10 hour for the remainder of the term.
Capstone Course Timeline
| September – 1stweek of class | Clients pitch their project to students. | |
| Mid-September | Student teams formed and clients are contacted | |
| End of Milestone 1 | Mid-October | Project proposals due. Client and instructor feedback |
| End of Milestone 2 | Early December | Design review 1 due. Client and instructor feedback |
| End of Milestone 3 | Mid-February | Design review 2 due. Client and instructor feedback. |
| End of Milestone 4 | Early April | Product review due. Client and instructor feedback |
| Early April | Design and Innovation Day public showcase hosted by APSC | |
| Mid-April | Client receives all project deliverables and signs-off on the project. |
Resources
ECE will commit a significant amount of financial resources. To make this a successful partnership and a sustainable model, it is our hope that you and your organization will commit in a similar fashion, feasible for your organization.
Submit a proposal!
2022/2023 project submissions are open
If you have any questions, please contact capstones@ece.ubc.ca, or check out our Capstone Client FAQs.
Capstone Perspectives: IoT sensor to improve learning and focus in classrooms, 2022 Capstone Faculty Award Winner!
Join us in congratulating ECE undergraduates Mitchell, Matthew, Lam, Valentine, and Larry for their accomplishment in receiving one of this year’s Faculty Awards at the 2022 Capstone Design and Innovation Day! We were able to connect with the team to ask about their work together on the capstone team, their excitement about their chosen project, and some of the challenges they were able to overcome together!
Which company did you work with?
We worked with Airtame, a company that builds wireless screen sharing devices for school and business settings headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.
What would be the “elevator pitch” for your project (i.e., what is your innovation, what problem does it solve, etc.)?
Studies have shown that environmental conditions such as CO2, temperature and humidity exceeding certain thresholds can have a negative impact on the effective learning of students in classrooms. Our project lets the teacher know when the classroom conditions are becoming unfavourable to learning, and nudges them towards making changes to the classroom to help students learn more effectively.
What inspired you to pursue this particular project?
The project was well presented by the clients from the start of the project. This project also seemed like a good opportunity to work through and complete a proof of concept design from start to finish while involving multiple facets of electrical and computer engineering.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while working on your project?
The biggest challenge we faced was integrating our teams’ work together into one functioning unit. We split ourselves up into teams to satisfy hardware, firmware and user application requirements, and when it came time to consolidate our teams’ work into one working unit, we realized we had many slight inconsistencies to debug which took more time than we had anticipated.
What excited you the most about your project?
The experience of working with a group of bright and driven students in a simulated professional capacity!
What is the most interesting/surprising thing you learned while working on your project?
One surprising thing we learned throughout the project was just how much part availability can fluctuate. We would spend a considerable amount of time designing PCB revisions to a specific footprint for certain components, only to find months later when we wanted to make a second order that the part was no longer in stock and would not be for the foreseeable future. For this reason we selected several backup components that would satisfy the requirements of the project.
Capstone Perspectives: Hardware & Software biofeedback for Physiotherapy, 2022 Capstone Faculty Award Winner!
Join us in congratulating ECE undergraduates Warren, Stephanie, Gabriel, Hugh, and Jaiden for their accomplishment in receiving one of this year’s Faculty Awards at the 2022 Capstone Design and Innovation Day! We were able to connect with the team to ask about their work together on the capstone team, their excitement about their chosen project, and some of the challenges they were able to overcome together!
Which community partner did you work with?
The UBC Tendon Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation research group.
What would be the “elevator pitch” for your project (i.e., what is your innovation, what problem does it solve, etc.)?
PhysViz is an exercise-based telerehabilitation system. The package includes a Bluetooth-enabled load sensor and mobile application for providing biofeedback to patients, and a clinician-facing web portal for monitoring patients and updating exercise prescriptions.
The client’s system relied on an expensive dynamometer, so we developed a low-cost and scalable proprietary load sensor device from scratch. On the software side, in addition to user experience improvements requested by our client, we introduced exercise session tracking, self-assessment questionnaires, and direct messaging capabilities to the existing mobile app and web portal architectures.
What inspired you to pursue this particular project?
On a technical level, we pursued this project because we were interested in its hardware and software approach to assisting physiotherapy. Many current physiotherapy technologies are cumbersome, expensive, and often out of reach for most physiotherapy clinics creating a gap between the research realm and physiotherapists treating everyday clients. Given our diverse engineering backgrounds, we felt it was a good opportunity to address this biomedical issue through the generation of a novel and more accessible technology.
A number of us have also had experience struggling with rehabilitation either directly or through affected loved ones; those of us were eager to address a very relevant matter in our personal lives.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while working on your project?
With no load cell suppliers or printed circuit board fabricators in Canada, we had to outsource many of our hardware components overseas. International shipping incurred significant fees and several months in lead times, compounded by the global chip shortage and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic affecting supply chains worldwide.
We mitigated this by prototyping and testing in parallel with the lengthy delivery periods, using the aforementioned commercial dynamometer as a reference for our final design’s expected performance. By carefully managing our time and individual member expertise, we delivered a functional prototype on schedule.
What excited you the most about your project?
Besides exercising the skills and knowledge we gained during our studies, this project challenged us in fields and aspects of engineering less familiar to us.
Our hardware sub-team engaged in a supply chain throughout our printed circuit board sourcing and manufacturing process, load cell testing and calibration efforts, and mechanical design iterations. Lacking any prior practical knowledge in frontend and backend development at first, our software sub-team was also virtually thrown into the deep end; self-studying mobile and web app architectures turned out to be a stimulating experience, however.
This year in capstone has been an exciting learning opportunity overall.
What is the most interesting/surprising thing you learned while working on your project?
It was interesting to put our previous internships and personal hardware and software project experiences into practice to develop a fully functional prototype for our client. Sourcing components was surprisingly difficult; we didn’t expect to take almost two months of searching before finally coming across an s-type load cell fitting our client’s form factor constraints and performance specifications.
What does the future hold for your project?
Although remote physiotherapy is not a new idea, PhysViz is a novel concept never before seen on the market.
PhysViz still has a ways to go before it is fit for wide-scale clinical use. For one, a rechargeable battery circuit could elevate the load sensor device’s efficiency and ease of use. The mobile and web apps could also use better backend security, and gamification features would help to maintain active patient engagement.
We look forward to seeing how far our client and their future capstone teams take PhysViz.
Capstone Perspectives: Monitoring Nature with AI Automatic Change Detection, 2022 Capstone Faculty Award Winner!
Join us in congratulating ECE undergraduates Ege Berk, John, Yan, Kerem, and Lemuel for their accomplishment in receiving one of this year’s Faculty Awards at the 2022 Capstone Design and Innovation Day! We were able to connect with the team to ask about their work together on the capstone team, their excitement about their chosen project, and some of the challenges they were able to overcome together!
Which community partner did you work with?
We had the opportunity to work with Korotu Technology; an innovative sustainable finance technology startup based in Toronto founded by Sean and Agata Rudd.
What would be the “elevator pitch” for your project (i.e., what is your innovation, what problem does it solve, etc.)?
The impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss are becoming more and more severe after billions of trees are lost every year due to deforestation. Immediate action is required to prevent further prohibited deforestation, and we believe that our easy-to-use nature monitoring mobile application, which tracks and visualizes deforestation changes in any area of interest, provides access to the general public to engage and be accountable in protecting nature while calling people to action in our attempt to mitigate deforestation.
What inspired you to pursue this particular project?
The project combines our interest in nature and sustainability alongside our passion in using engineering principles and technical skillset to tackle real-world problems. As climate change, deforestation and biodiversity loss are some of the most critical problems we are facing today, we unite as a team and collaborate with Korotu technology to develop a mobile application that will call people to action against these serious issues.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while working on your project?
Designing the system-level architecture and training a decent machine learning model were the most challenging parts.
What excited you the most about your project?
When we were able to develop a classification algorithm and display the classified images on our front-end in an interactive way, we knew that the app would be useful for the general public. The deforestation changes between different years were evident and easy to see for the end-user, and the change metrics were simple and easy to understand. We were really excited as a team to see the app developing closer to an end-product and because we realize that the app has a lot of potential for real-life use cases, we believe that our mobile application can be beneficial to call people to action against climate change.
What is the most interesting/surprising thing you learned while working on your project?
We found a devastating amount of tree loss in Collingwood, Ontario from 2013 to 2021 after classifying the corresponding satellite images. This change was not as easy to notice by looking at the raw satellite images.
What does the future hold for your project?
Currently, our application supports only one type of nature change detection: deforestation. In the future, other natural changes such as glacier loss or erosion could also be integrated into our app, making it a one-stop application for nature change monitoring.
The application will also be integrated into Korotu Technology’s existing products and will potentially be used to attract new investors and raise awareness about current nature issues.
Dr Sudip Shekhar Wins Schmidt Polymaths Science Award!
We are very excited to announce that Dr. Sudip Shekhar, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the Schmidt Polymaths Science award and is the first Canadian to do so! The Schmidt Polymaths Award is presented to ten recipients with remarkable research track-records and includes a grant to further fund their work. Each recipient is awarded US $500,000 annually for a period of up to 5 years, a total of up to US $2.5 million. This grant is intended to allow the exploration of potentially breakthrough ideas that may not otherwise receive adequate funding.
Dr. Shekhar plans to use the funding from the Schmidt Polymath Award to research circuit techniques to shrink the photonic microchip biosensor technology to a portable, disposable size. These biosensors have the potential to provide inexpensive, robust point-of-care biomedical testing, and improve accessibility to medical testing for remote communities and emergency services. This technology can also be used at drive through testing centers, drug stores, and at home. According to Dr. Shekhar, “Point-of-use diagnostics is a complex multidisciplinary research field, but I believe it is an area primed for the microchip revolution. Our scientific mission with this award will be to build disposable credit-card-sized test kits that give rich, multiplexed, quantitative data for viruses, cardiac, and neurological ailments.”
ECE has had the opportunity to interview Dr. Shekhar on his award and the future impacts of his work. We welcome you to read on to hear from Dr. Shekhar!
Dr. Shekhar, congratulations on winning the Schmidt Science Polymath Award! What does winning this award mean to you?
The Schmidt Science Polymath award is unique since it is meant to recognize prior path breaking successes in conducting multidisciplinary research. The award provides unrestricted gift funds to enable a pivot towards high-risk, high-reward research that may not be easy to fund from other sources if the research does not fit the mold. This recognition humbles me, and I am very excited to dream big and pursue research that could one day make significant changes to our society.
Can you give us a brief summary of your research so far and how the research development process has been? Any difficulties that were overcome, breakthroughs, etc.?
My research is at the junction of circuits and communication systems, photonics, physics, quantum mechanics, signal processing, computing, and machine learning. Each of them is a vast field, and I am obviously not an expert in all of them. Therefore, to conduct impactful research, our group spends considerable effort in understanding the big picture to pick meaningful problems to solve. This also requires fostering collaborations with colleagues at UBC and around the world and companies with a research bent. Once we understand and speak somewhat of a similar language, the partnerships are extremely rewarding. But at the same time, multidisciplinary research is challenging and takes time.
When you think back to when you started the multidisciplinary research that contributed to the award, why did you start in those areas in the first place?
I will give an example of silicon photonic systems, which require an understanding of photonic devices and their interplay and cointegration with electronic circuits. The pace of technology development in electronic integrated circuits has slowed considerably due to the laws of physics. This was evident in 2010 itself, when I was working as a Research Scientist at Intel Labs. At the same time, another technology leveraging the same silicon platform but incorporating photonics on the chip promised much higher speed, fueled by the speed of light. I started investigating silicon photonics and its cointegration with electronics – at Intel from 2010-2013, and then at UBC, and my group has had considerable success in shaping the industry roadmap. Silicon photonics also promises to enable entirely new applications in communications, computing, autonomous driving, and sensing, and my group is working in some of those areas.
What research are you planning to pursue as a Schmidt Polymath, and why will it be important in the years to come?
This Polymath award will enable a research pivot to work to democratize and decentralize medicine using silicon electronic-photonic integrated circuits. While commercial-grade platforms today offer quantitative gold-standard tests for nucleic acid and protein biomarkers, they require centralized laboratory analysis, trained technicians, long time-to-result, and expensive equipment. On the other hand, current rapid, low-cost assays like lateral-flow strips (e.g., pregnancy tests) tend to be qualitative and low-sensitivity. Biomarker testing cannot be ubiquitous until it reliably gives accurate, rapid, and cost-effective diagnoses in a user-friendly format.
Microchips can be built in the billions and cost pennies at such volume. Photonic microchips are highly sensitive biosensors to detect biomarkers, and the technology has already been proven commercially. Although the chips cost very little, the standard commercial-grade measurement equipment costs tens of thousands of dollars, sits on a lab bench, and discards most of the data due to its inherent architectural limitations.
Point-of-use diagnostics is a complex multidisciplinary research field, but I believe it is an area primed for the microchip revolution. We would utilize the Polymath award funding to research circuit techniques to shrink the equipment to a portable, disposable, inexpensive testing kit device. We already have a fantastic, multidisciplinary team with colleagues from ECE (Chrostowski, Mirabbasi, Jaeger), SBME (Cheung, Grist), Physics & QMI (Young), Pathology and Lab Medicine (Wellington), and have made early breakthroughs to realize such a vision.
What future impacts do you feel this research can have?
Our scientific mission with this award will be to build disposable credit-card-sized test kits that give rich, multiplexed, quantitative data for viruses, and cardiac and neurological ailments. If costing <$10, such kits will be a game-changing technology for isolated communities (e.g., rural territories) without centralized testing facilities, emergency services, drive-through testing, drug stores, and, in the long run, for at-home use.
Is there anything else that you would like the people reading this interview to know about your work and your research team?
We eagerly seek collaborative opportunities from experts in biomedical sample preparation, assay development, scalable microfluidics, point-of-care and point-of-use diagnostic applications. We are also looking to recruit several undergraduates, graduates, and postdoctoral fellows to help us with our ambitious goals.
This year, you won the Killam Teaching Prize at UBC, and now have been chosen as the first Canadian Schmidt Science Polymath. What is your secret?
I have always believed that a good research leader ought to be good in teaching. And conducting cutting-edge research helps in bringing a unique perspective to the classroom too.
Dr. Sudip Shekhar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. For more information on Dr. Shekhar and his research, visit his UBC ECE faculty page at https://ece.ubc.ca/Sudip-Shekhar/ or the Schmidt Futures announcement page for this year’s Schmidt Science Polymaths award: https://www.schmidtfutures.com/schmidt-futures-announces-recipients-of-schmidt-science-polymaths-award/