icics brochure

Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems

289-2366 Main MallVancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada

Tel: 604-822-6894 Fax: 604-822-9013

[email protected]

Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS)

Adding Dimension to ResearchICICS is an umbrella organization at the University of

British Columbia that helps bring down disciplinary

walls. Over 150 members from 18 different depart-

ments collaborate through ICICS’ programs, state-of-

the-art lab facilities, and industrial contacts. Research

projects gain added dimension from this mix of

diversified talents, and reach society through com-

mercialization.

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Our Mission:To proactively foster innovative multi-disciplinary research in advanced technologies systems for sustainable communities.

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HistoryICICS has promoted multidisciplinary research in

advanced technologies systems since 1986. In 2000,

membership was expanded from Computer Science,

Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechani-

cal Engineering to include faculty from across the

campus. Many synergistic research innovations have

resulted that have helped improve our lives. In today’s

world, where traditional disciplinary boundaries are

constantly shifting, ICICS is ideally positioned to foster

scientific and technological breakthroughs that ad-

dress key societal problems.

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ICICS People: A Spectrum of TalentOver 150 faculty members collaborate with ICICS, from: Computer

Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineer-

ing, Biomedical Engineering, Architecture and Landscape Archi-

tecture, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Mining Engineer-

ing, Mathematics, Statistics, Commerce, Medicine, Forestry,

Psychology, Music, Linguistics, and Education.

ICICS members and their students have access to ICICS’

state-of-the-art lab facilities and equipment. They

also benefit from ICICS programs and other initiatives

that strengthen ties between researchers and industry,

facilitate technical transfer of ICICS innovations to indus-

try, and provide scholarships for their top students.

Engineering

Computer Science

Sauder School of Business

Mathematics

Medicine

Forestry

Education

Psychology

Linguistics

Arts

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FacilitiesThe ICICS building is a 60,000 ft2 (5,600 m2) 7-storey

facility housing 46 different labs and state-of-the-

art equipment for conducting research in advanced

technologies systems. ICICS researchers and graduate

students in these labs are making significant strides

in communications technologies, multimedia and 3D,

signal processing, computer vision, haptics, robotics,

assistive devices, medical imaging, user interfaces,

computer animation and graphics, electroacoustic

music, and many other areas. Being housed under

one roof further encourages ICICS researchers to col-

laborate across discipline boundaries.

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Outreach

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Industry DinnerEvery year, ICICS hosts an industry dinner that brings together ICICS researchers and executives from industry. Important collaborations are

often initiated over dinner and reach the marketplace several years later.

Communications WorkshopICICS co-hosts an annual communications workshop for industry, the academic community, and the general public. Recent workshops

have featured our members’ and keynote speakers’ advances in Wireless Networks, Multimedia Communications, Social Networking, Com-

munications for the Smart Grid, Sensor Networks, and Communications Systems for Healthcare.

Biomedical Engineering WorkshopThis workshop hosted by ICICS brings together ICICS members from engineering with their colleagues in medicine to explore exciting

new research in biomedical engineering, such as Engineering Approaches to Clinical Problems in Parkinson’s Disease, Image Guidance

for Robot-Assisted Surgery, Microelectromechanical Systems for Biomedical Diagnostics, and Catheters and Endoscopes with 3D Imaging

Capabilities.

Expert TalksICICS brings in top experts in a variety of fields to discuss their research with ICICS members and students.

KPMG and ICICSICICS works with the accounting firm KPMG to connect our members with potential industrial supporters.

Partnership with the Peter Wall InstituteICICS and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies co-sponser events that bring researchers from a broad range of disciplines together

to explore exciting new multidisciplinary research initiatives.8

2010 and 2011 ICICS Industry Dinners were hosted at the Royal Vancouver

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Master of Software Systems Program

The Master of Software Systems (MSS) program founded

and run by ICICS meets the personnel needs of the software

industry. It equips students who have bachelor degrees

in science, engineering, mathematics, business, and other

disciplines with a broad set of software systems skills. The

16-month program comprises 30 credits taken in 3 semes-

ters, and a 4-month industry internship. MSS graduates

are highly successful in finding employment, often with

prominent Canadian and international companies.

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Key Areas of Research• Architectural design• Biomedical technologies• Business processes• Cognitive and behavioural psychology• Communications• Computational intelligence• Computer graphics• Data visualization/mining• Digital multimedia • Distributed systems• eHealth applications• Human–computer interaction• Integrated systems design• Interactive music• Mechatronics• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)• Nanotechnology• Process automation• Robotics and control• Signal processing• Sustainability• Virtual aerospace manufacturing

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ICICS/TELUS People & Planet FriendlyHome Initiative

An ICICS/TELUS consortium that promotes sustainability while maintaining and improving quality of life.

A new direction for sustainability...

• Technology is the key to establishing innovative sustainability solutions

• This technology can only be developed from multidisciplinary research,

which lies outside industry norms

• ICICS offers multidisciplinary expertise needed for such an endeavor

• This project is applicable to mainstream living environments, can be

easily duplicated and will contribute to our economic growth

Sample ICICS Research Projects

Sample ICICS Research Projects12

Communications

The Communications Group designs and evaluates architec-

tures, algorithms, protocols, and management strategies for

wireless, sensor, and optical networks, and for the Internet

and other communications systems. In one project, a num-

ber of researchers from the group are addressing the looming

problem of bandwidth scarcity for wireless devices. Since this

problem is mostly due to the inflexibility of spectrum alloca-

tion to licensed users, the researchers are investigating the

challenges and opportunities of dynamic, flexible spectrum

access, or cognitive radio technology. This enables rarely used

licensed or unlicensed frequency bands to be utilized by wire-

less networks. Once optimized, cognitive radio will allow more

efficient and flexible use of the radio spectrum.

The Communications Group has many industrial collabo-

rators nationally and abroad, including TELUS Mobility, Nokia,

and Qualcomm.

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3D Video Innovations

For 3D video to be widely adopted, the viewing experience

needs to be rich, immersive, true-to-life, comfortable, and

not require the viewer to wear glasses. The ICICS Digital

Multimedia Lab is advancing the state-of-the-art in 3D video

to achieve this leap in quality. High Dynamic Range (HDR)

video technology invented at UBC is being incorporated to

provide life-like contrast. Guidelines are being developed

that will make capturing of real scenes feasible and the end

result pleasant to watch. Novel video processing techniques

will allow tailoring of content for different displays. New

compression techniques will enable broadcast of data-

intensive 3D HDR video.

Glasses-free displays are also being developed. One

display uses rapidly rotating optical elements to simultane-

ously render up to 30 3D viewpoints. Another prototype

uses multi-layered LCD panels to produce the 3D effect.

Sample ICICS Research Projects14

Psychology and ICICS

The Brain and Attention Research (BAR) Lab uses cutting-

edge technology to study human cognition and its associ-

ated neural mechanisms and behavioural outcomes in com-

plex, real-world settings. This requires a multidisciplinary

approach, with methodologies that include eye-tracking,

body-motion tracking, naturalistic observation, functional

brain imaging, experience sampling, multimodal stimula-

tion, and physiological monitoring. Populations studied

range from young to old and from healthy individuals to

people with brain and behavioural disorders due to disease

or injury.

The BAR Lab contributes to ICICS projects where

psychological assessments are required. One example is

assessing the user quality-of-experience when viewing 3D

video generated by a suite of novel techniques.

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Managing Disasters

Catastrophic events such as earthquakes make the

connections among critical infrastructures (power,

water, transportation, communications, hospitals, etc.)

painfully clear. Coordinating their responses, however,

is difficult because managers don’t want to share their

data. An ICICS-led team has developed a simulator

that helps infrastructure managers prepare for disas-

ters and make coordinated decisions in real-time dur-

ing crises, while protecting the privacy of exchanged

information. The team is now the key player in an in-

ternational effort involving seven countries, and has a

state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Centre in the

ICICS building. Their system was chosen to provide

planning and decision support during the 2010 Winter

Olympics in Vancouver.

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“Virtual” Aerospace Manufacturing

In aerospace manufacturing, the need for precision

and the cost of materials like titanium mean that

parts must be made right, the first time, with no room

for error. A system invented in the Manufacturing Au-

tomation Lab enables manufacturers to perfect mill-

ing dynamics virtually before any machining occurs.

Roughly 80% of the world’s aerospace companies,

including Boeing, Airbus, Pratt & Whitney, and Bom-

bardier, rely on the virtual-machining expertise of

UBC’s Manufacturing Automation Laboratory.

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Image courtesy of Exotic Matter AB


Realistic Film Simulations Physics-based animation software invented at

ICICS can produce highly realistic simulations of

smoke, liquids, clothing, and more. It has been

used in films such as the Harry Potter series,

10,000 BC, Hell Boy II: The Golden Army, The Dark

Knight, and Inkheart. A scene from Avatar cre-

ated using these techniques, in which one of the

Na’vi drinks rain water from a leaf, won the “Best

Single Visual Effect of the Year” award in 2010

from the Visual Effects Society.

ICICS Goes to Hollywood

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Capturing Faces for Animation

A markerless facial capture system developed at ICICS uses com-

mercially available video cameras to create animations based on

real faces. The result is highly detailed animations that can con-

vey a range of human emotions. A library of different expressions

and positions can be created for a given character, which can lat-

er be altered—virtual makeup can be applied, for instance—and

used in different scenes. Aliens may soon no longer dominate

the world of facial animation.

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Computer Vision

SIFT is a computer vision technique for identifying scenes

and objects that is in wide use around the world. The algo-

rithm breaks up an object or scene into many small features

that can be identified regardless of scale, orientation, illumi-

nation, etc. These features are then matched to features in

a training database, and the object or scene identified. SIFT

has many applications, such as enabling mobile robots to

locate themselves and assess their surroundings, or stitch-

ing together overlapping images into a panoramic scene.

SIFT was used by Sony in their robotic dog, AIBO.

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Smart Powered Wheelchair A “smart” powered wheelchair under development uses

computer vision, sonar, GPS, infrared, etc., to learn about

its location and possible hazards, such as staircases or other

wheelchairs, to prevent accidents. The aim is to increase the

independence and improve the quality of life for people

confined to wheelchairs in settings such as group homes,

where powered wheelchairs are not currently allowed for

safety reasons.

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The Sounds of ICICS ICICS has a state-of-the-art sound studio where re-

searchers from Music, Linguistics, and Electrical Engi-

neering collaborate on award-winning interactive music

projects. Software developed in the studio enables a

computer to follow a musical score based on pitch, so

interactive audio and video clips can be triggered. In

another project, gloves are worn by a performer that

can be used to generate song and produce additional

sounds and images, opening the door to a singer creat-

ing her own audio-visual accompaniments.

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Assistive Technologies Robotic systems are being refined to help elderly people and those with

disabilities in their daily activities. One example is an interactive per-

sonal robot that interprets a user’s speech, body language, eye move-

ment, and physiological responses when carrying out tasks. These be-

haviours, and others aimed at manufacturing applications, are being

incorporated into the PR2 personal robot, which is known for its “soft

touch”. ICICS is the only university facility in Canada equipped with this

state-of-the-art robot.

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Guidance System for Robotic Surgery

An ICICS team is improving the guidance system of surgical ro-

bots so surgeons won’t have to rely on vision alone to guide in-

struments. Different types of images (e.g., ultrasound, MRI, X-ray,

CT scan) taken both before and during the operation are fused

to create an “augmented reality” view that will enable surgeons

to minimize tissue and nerve damage. The team is focusing on

prostate- and kidney-cancer treatment, where minimally inva-

sive surgery is crucial. Their system could be used for a number

of procedures in the future, with a profound impact on health-

care—better surgical outcomes, shorter hospital stays, faster

recovery times.

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Mobile Respiratory Monitoring

Pulse oximeters monitor blood oxygen levels through a finger-

tip sensor, and issue alerts when levels become critical. They

have saved many lives since becoming the standard of care in

anesthesia in the early 1980s. However, a lack of resources and

training have limited their use in the developing world, where

mortality from anesthesia is 100–1,000 times that in the devel-

oped world.

The Phone Oximeter combines a pulse sensor and module

with a smart phone to create a low-cost device that can display

real-time respiratory information, using symbols that cross lan-

guage barriers. Clinical expertise will be added to the software

in the future that will allow non-specialists to monitor anesthe-

sia. The low cost, simplicity, and real-time wireless communica-

tion capability of the Phone Oximeter also lends itself to home-

based management of respiratory disease.

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3D

Spin-off Companies

Motion Metrics International Corp.: This internationally suc-cessful ICICS-incubated company develops intelligent embed-ded monitoring systems for the open-pit mining industry.

Point Grey Research Inc.: is a worldwide leader in the devel-opment of advanced digital camera technology products for machine vision, industrial imaging, and computer vision appli-cations. The company was founded in 1997 based on 3D stereo camera technology developed in the ICICS Laboratory for Com-putational Intelligence.

Brightside Technologies: was founded by an ICICS computer scientist and his colleague from Physics, to commercialize their High Dynamic Range (HDR) display technology. These displays are 50 times brighter than conventional displays and are capa-ble of displaying images close to the way humans see them. Brightside was purchased by Dolby Laboratories in 2007.

Exotic Matter AB: This animation company was co-founded by an ICICS computer scientist based on his photorealistic anima-tions of smoke, liquids, clothing, and more. These techniques adhere to the laws of physics and have been used in films such as the Harry Potter series, 10,000 BC, Hell Boy II: The Golden Army, and The Dark Knight. Exotic Matter did the water animation se-quences for Avatar.

Zite: is an iPad app that uses machine learning to automati-cally create a personalized “magazine” by discovering user preferences. It is based on technology developed by ICICS-supported UBC computer science students for the web discov-ery engine Worio. Zite was acquired by CNN in August 2011.

3D Gateway Solutions, Inc.: is developing innovative cap-ture, compression, and display techniques aimed at making 3D the dominant display format.

Recon Instruments: develops display goggles for skiers and snowboarders that provide real-time feedback such as speed, latitude/longitude, altitude, distance travelled, etc. NASA is looking at Recon technology for use in spacesuit helmets.

Cloudburst Research, Inc.: applies the latest research in com-puter vision to create compelling consumer applications on mobile devices.

A number of successful spin-off companies have been incubated at ICICS, including:

3D Gatewaysolutions inc.

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Research innovations realized by ICICS members are transferred to society through industrial partnerships. Hundreds of US patents have been issued to ICICS members, and over 30 of them have been licensed by companies. Companies ICICS members have collaborated with since 2001 include:

Industrial Collaborators

Advanced Telecommunications Research Laboratories Agilent Technologies AMS Homecare Inc.Apple Computer Inc.Archus Orthopedics Ascalade Communications AT&T ResearchBC HydroBC Ministry of Transportation BC Transmission Corp. Bell Canada Boeing Braintech Inc. BroadbandTV Cameleon Controls Canfor Cisco Systems City Tel (Prince Rupert) CMC COM DEV Council of Forest Industries Crosslight Curtiss-Wright Controls

Dolby Laboratories Dyaptive Systems EJC Tamrock Loaders Electronic Arts EM Technologies Entrust EXI Wireless Systems Inc. Forintek FPInnovations fSONA Systems Corp. General Motors of Canada Google Greenland Corp. Greenley & Associates Guard RFID Solutions Inc. Hermary Opto Electronics Hewlett Packard Highland Valley Copper Howe Sound Pulp & Paper IBM Research IDELIX Software Inco Insightful Corporation

Kensington Computer Products Group Kintama Research Corp. Lafarge North America MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) Manitoba Hydro McKesson Medical Image Group Micronet Microsoft Corporation MidNet MIMOW Technology Motion Metrics International Motorola Wireless Data Systems Division Nanowave Technologies Inc. Nippon Steel Corporation Nissan Motor Co. Nokia Mobile Phones Nortel China Nortel Networks Northern Digital Inc. Novax Industries Corp. Nxtphase Corporation Oculus Information

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OMNEX Control Systems ULC P2P Health Systems Inc. Paprican (Pulp & Paper Research Institute of Canada) Partners for Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (PACE) Plaintree Systems Inc. PMC-Sierra Point Grey Research Powertech Labs Inc. Pratt and Whitney Canada Process Simulations Limited QLT Inc. Recombo Restore Medical Rogers Cable Communications Inc. SAP Shanghai Post & Telecom Shaw Communications Shell Canada Sierra Wireless SMART Technology Sony Spark Robotics Technology Inc. SST Wireless Inc. Sun Microsystems Syncrude Canada

Tality Corporation TELUS Thomson Corporate Research Thought Technology Ltd. Ultrasonix Medical Corporation Valhalla Systems Inc. VeriChip Corp. Versawave Western Clinical Engineering Westport Power Inc. Weyerhaeuser Inc. Wireless 2000 Inc. Xerox Canada Zak Technologies

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BC Cancer Agency

BC Neurotrauma Fund

Canadian Space Agency

City of Vancouver

Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Defence Research and Development Canada

Greater Vancouver Regional District

International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD)

Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology

LifeSciences BC

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

National Taiwan University of Science

North Pacific Marine Science Foundation

North Pacific Universities Mammal Research Consortium

Collaborations with Other Organizations

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UBC’s Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) is an umbrella organization that promotes collaboration among researchers from the faculties of Applied Science, Arts, Commerce, Education, Forestry, Medicine, and Science, and with industry. ICICS facilitates the collaborative multidisciplinary research of approximately 150 faculty members and 800 graduate students in these faculties.

Our members attract approximately $18 million annually in grants and contracts. Their work strengthens Canada’s

Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems

289-2366 Main MallVancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada

Tel: 604-822-6894 Fax: 604-822-9013

[email protected]

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