Title:

Breeding the Global Engineer: An Engineer with Soul

Date:

Monday, November 14, 2011 at 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Location:

Rm E1-270, EITC (Engineering & Information Technology Complex),
Fort Garry Campus, University of Manitoba

Speaker:

Mark Talesnick, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Departments of Civil Engineering
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa, Israel

Abstract:

Technion (Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel) is proposing the establishment of a center for educating a new type of engineer, the “global engineer.” The term “global engineer” was coined by Professor Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), an international association dedicated to initiating and fostering sustainable engineering projects in developing and disadvantaged communities all over the world. “Global engineers” are engineers trained to work together with developing communities to respond to their particular local needs. While in a more perfect world, this training would be an integral part of the education, practice, and research at many levels of a university, the establishment of the proposed Global Engineering Center will constitute a significant first step in highlighting and addressing areas that need improvement, and perhaps ultimately bringing them into the mainstream of engineering education.

The establishment of the Global Engineering Center will enable the Technion to host visiting professors and practitioners who are expert global engineers; will provide the resources for workshops and hands-on projects, and the materials and travel funds required to construct and install engineering projects in developing areas; and will provide fellowships for graduate students and funding for a half-time administrative staff member.

The Global Engineering Center will enable the expansion of the type of activities carried out by the Technion’s EWB group, and crucially, will enable more students from a variety of faculties to learn how to apply their skills and knowledge to create innovative solutions to real-world engineering challenges in developing areas.

Professor Talesnick will address a number of pertinent critical questions, including the need for global engineers, and why we should take part in the global engineering revolution. He will also provide examples from his work related to EWB.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Mark Talesnick (born 1959 in Toronto) has been a professor at Technion in the field of GeoMechanics, earthquake engineering and soil structure interaction, since 1993. He obtained his BSc in Geological Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1982. After moving to Israel in 1982, he obtained MSc and DSc in Civil Engineering from Technion in 1985 and 1990, respectively. He has a number of journal and conference publications in these fields.

He formed Engineers Without Borders (Technion) in 2007, and led student groups to remote villages in eastern Nepal to construct BioGas reactors, water harvesting and social/economical projects. He is credited with the development of the concept of a new breed of engineer, the Global Engineer. Together with Professor Bernard Amadei, the founder of Engineers without Borders, he developed a “study abroad program” for international students to work with Israeli students, with two rounds already completed in August 2010 and 2011.

He was the one who formed and captained the Israel National Ice Hockey Team (1992-1994), and coached the Junior Israel National Ice Hockey Team (1995/6).

Cost:

Free, All are welcome.

Organizers:

• IEEE Computer & Computational Intelligence Chapter
• IEEE Education, Management, and Communication Chapter (EduManCom)
• UofM IEEE McNaughton Student Centre
• University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS, T-Sat)
• University of Manitoba Amateur Radio Society (UMARS)
• Institute of Industrial Mathematical Sciences (IIMS)
• University of Manitoba Engineering Society (UMES)
• Engineers Without Borders – UofM Chapter
• Canadian Technion Society Winnipeg Chapter

Contact:

For questions or more information contact Witold Kinsner at 474-6490.

Title:

Anomaly detection in Web documents using global, crisp and fuzzy-based cosine clustering methodology

Date:

Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Location:

Rm E2-365, EITC (Engineering & Information Technology Complex),
Fort Garry Campus, University of Manitoba

Speaker:

Menahem Friedman, Ph.D.
Visiting Professor
Departments of Physics and Systems Science Engineering
Ben-Gurion University
Negev, Israel

Abstract:

New crisp and fuzzy approaches for clustering documents (represented by vectors of key phrases of variable sizes) are presented and applied for detecting anomalous behavior on the Web. This work is characterized by two features: (a) The number of clusters is not restricted, i.e., an incoming vector which is not similar to any of the existing cluster centers starts a new cluster, and (b) A vector with multiple appearance n is counted n times. These features appeared to be the main reason for the high quality performance of the proposed algorithms. The work described in this seminar can be used to identify terrorist activity on the Internet.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Menahem Friedman (born 1940 in Jerusalem) is a retired scientist from the Nuclear Research Center – Negev (NRCN) in Israel. He is currently a visiting professor at the Departments of Physics and Systems Science Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Together with Abraham Kandel, he published “Introduction to Pattern Recognition, Statistical, Structural, Neural, and Fuzzy Logic Approaches” in 1999 and “Calculus Light” in 2011.

Cost:

Free, All are welcome.

Organizers:

• IEEE Computer & Computational Intelligence Chapter
• University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS)
• University of Manitoba Amateur Radio Society (UMARS)
• University of Manitoba IEEE McNaughton Student Centre
• Institute of Industrial Mathematical Sciences (IIMS)

Contact:

For questions or more information contact Witold Kinsner at 474-6490.

Date:

Monday, October 3, 2011 from 6:00pm to 8:30pm

Location:

E1-514 EITC
University of Manitoba

Speakers:

Craig Nemeth, Matthew Sebastian, Frank Serafin (VE4FHS), Troy Denton, and Matthew Woelk (VE4MDW)

Abstract:

This hands-on workshop is designed to introduce first and second year students to the design of embedded systems. Each student will receive a Texas Instruments MSP430 LaunchPad development board to work with and take home after the workshop.

A team of experienced mentors will demonstrate how to:

• use Code Composer Studio,
• program the embedded microprocessor in C,
• debug embedded programs, and
• use input/output ports to interface external components.

Pizza & pop served in E1-514 EITC from 6:00-6:30pm. Workshop in E3-528 from 6:30-8:30pm

Registration:

$5 for UMARS/UMIEEE/UMSATS members
$10 for non-members.

Registration includes pizza, pop, development board, programming cables, and software to continue learning at home.

Only 15 spots available on a first-come-first-serve basis. Register online before October 2, 2011 by clicking here.

Organizers:

• University of Manitoba Amateur Radio Society (UMARS)
• University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS)
• University of Manitoba IEEE Student Branch (UMIEEE)
• IEEE Computer and Computational Intelligence Chapter
• IEEE EduManCom Chapter
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba

Event Sponsor:

• Shell Canada

Contact:

For more information contact Dario Schor, VE4SCH or Frank Serafin, VE4FHS.

Gallery:

Title:

FPGAs at 28nm: Technology Challenges Facing the World’s Largest Integrated Circuits

Date:

Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Location:

Rm E2-365, EITC (Engineering & Information Technology Complex),
Fort Garry Campus, University of Manitoba

Speaker:

Vaughn Betz, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
Toronto, ON

Abstract:

A triarchic theory of granular computing is formulated and examined in the light of the most recent research results. The three components are labeled as the philosophy, the methodology, and the computation. It offers a unified view of granular computing as a way of structured thinking, an approach of structured problem solving, and a paradigm of structured information processing, focusing on hierarchical granular structures. Based on results from well-established disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, education, artificial intelligence, computer programming, and many more, the triarchic framework aims at synthesizing the various studies and models into a unified theory of granular computingFPGAs are very early adopters of the latest process technology, and are amongst the world’s largest and most complex integrated circuits. For example, Altera’s 28 nm Stratix V FPGAs contain 4 billion transistors — the most ever on a non-memory integrated circuit.

This talk will describe some of the driving applications and technology trends pushing FPGAs to 28 nm and smaller process nodes. It will also highlight how FPGA architecture is evolving, as exemplified by Altera’s Stratix V FPGAs. Power management and silicon efficiency issues are pushing FPGAs to become somewhat more application-targeted, and to incorporate larger amounts of hard logic that makes them more complete systems-on-a-chip. In addition, the very high I/O bandwidth requirements of next-generation systems and new physical effects in the latest process nodes require innovation in FPGA architecture and circuit design.

Stratix V supports partial reconfiguration to increase silicon efficiency by swapping in different functionality over time. The talk will describe both the hardware that enables partial reconfiguration, and the software tools that will enable efficient design without becoming entangled in low-level physical details. Finally, it will discuss both software challenges and promising research efforts to create CAD tools that will help designers productively create the very large systems enabled by modern FPGAs.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Betz is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, with research interests in FPGA architecture and CAD.

Dr. Betz received his PhD from the University of Toronto, his MS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his BSc from the University of Manitoba, all in electrical engineering. Dr. Betz co-founded Right Track CAD in 1998 to commercialize the VPR CAD system he developed in his PhD. Altera acquired Right Track in 2000, and Dr. Betz became the Senior Director of Software Engineering at Altera, until he joined the University of Toronto in July 2011. He is the architect of the Quartus II place and route engine, and one of the architects of the Stratix and Cyclone FPGA families. He has published over 30 technical papers and holds 61 US patents.

Cost:

Free, All are welcome.

Organizers:

• IEEE Computer & Computational Intelligence Chapter
• IEEE Robotics and Control Chapter
• University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS)
• University of Manitoba Amateur Radio Society (UMARS)
• University of Manitoba IEEE McNaughton Student Centre
• Institute of Industrial Mathematical Sciences (IIMS)

Contact:

For questions or more information contact Witold Kinsner at 474-6490.

Date:

Thursday, July 14, 2011 from 6:30-8:30pm.

Location:

E2-210 Engineering Information and Technology Complex
University of Manitoba Fort Garry Campus

Speaker:

Mr. Greg Linton

Abstract:

In this tutorial, participants will learn about the six orbital elements and different types of orbits using the Satellite Tool Kit (STK) from Analytical Graphics Incorporated.

STK is a very powerful software used to model complex space systems such as:

• Determine when faces of the satellite are facing the sun,
• Model different antennas and their effect on communications with a particular ground station, and
• Studying and planning attitude manoeuvres.

This tutorial will begin with a simple introduction to Keplerian Orbital Elements and different types of orbits using STK. The participants will model the orbit for a the T-Sat mission that is being designed by members of the University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS).

Speaker Bio:

Mr. Greg Linton studied at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and graduated with an Electrical Technologist Diploma in 1999 and a Bachelor of Science in Physics the following year. Greg joined Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Studies in October of 2006 as a Space Instructor. Since then he has hosted students from across the Canadian Forces as part of the Space Section’s well known courses and instructed for the Aerospace Systems Course. His current topic areas include display technologies, statistics and space sciences.

In addition to training DND employees he participates in the Aviation and Aerospace In Manitoba Day, which introduces 650 grade six students to aerospace careers and opportunities. Greg also helps out with the Manitoba Space Adventures Camp, in which high school students learn about a number of advanced space topics. Activities at the camp include the use amateur weather research balloons that reach over 70,000 feet in altitude.

Greg started his masters studies with the University of Manitoba in the fall of 2010. His thesis topic studies the use of broadband satellites internet communications for the command and control of micro-satellites. He is an active member of UMSATS’ Communications Team.

Cost:

FREE!

Registration:

There are 40 spots available on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Register online by clicking here.

Organizers:

University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society
IEEE EduManCom Chapter
IEEE Computer and Computational Intelligence Chapter
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba

Contact:

For more information contact Dario Schor.

Gallery: