Conference

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2025

Amanda Brown — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:54:04 +0000

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2025 Amanda Brown Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:54

Symposium Schedule

Time	Presenter	Session Title
10:00 - 10:30 a.m.	Welcome coffee and snacks with faculty and students
10:30 a.m - 11:45 a.m.	Student Research Seminar Session 1 – Co-Chaired by Dr. Eihab Abdel-Rahman and Dr. Jessie Ma
10:30 a.m.	Sabrina Saiko	Therapeutic Applications of Social Robotics for Autism Spectrum Disorder
10:45 a.m.	Yasser Shama	Bifurcation Drift in Electrostatic MEMS Sensors: Characterization and Mitigation Strategies
11:00 a.m.	Wendy Ding	Age-Related Differences in Eye Movements During Level 3 Autonomous Vehicle Takeover
11:15 a.m.	Marco Moran-Ledesma	TRAIN-KNEE: Developing a Haptic Manikin for Knee Injury Assessment Training
11:30 a.m.	Rui Zhou	Sensitive, Accurate and Fast Terahertz Detectors Design
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.	Pizza lunch Special guest speaker Dr. Dan Mashatan, Senior Manager – Autonomy & AI SW - Teledyne FLIR Unmanned Systems North America on "Autonomous Missions for Aerial Unmanned Systems in Challenging Environments"
1:15 pm. - 2:15 p.m.	Student Research Seminar Session 2 – Co-Chaired by Dr. Nasser Lashgarian Azad and Dr. Nima Maftoon
1:15 p.m.	Chang Liu	Language-guided Context-aware Unsupervised Semantic Segmentation Under Distribution Shift
1:30 p.m.	Yaoxin Li	Mamba Fusion for Multimodality Action Quality Assessment
1:45 p.m.	Nima Abbasi Firoozjah	A General Computational Framework for Restoring Cellular-Resolution in Optical Coherence Tomography Images of the Eye
2:00 p.m.	Abdul Abbasi	Empowering Security Analysts: A User-Centric Approach to Explainable AI for Insider Threat Detection
2:15 p.m.	Nicholas Pellegrino	Improved Machine Learning Methods for Noisy and Hierarchical Data

For any questions, please reach out to Anna Cunningham, Academic Services Coordinator, Graduate Studies.

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2024

Natasha Poley — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 19:13:49 +0000

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2024 Natasha Poley Thu, 04/04/2024 - 15:13

The Department of Systems Design Engineering is delighted to announce that we will be holding our 2024 Graduate Symposium! The symposium will take place on Tuesday, April 9, 2024 in the E7 Ideas Clinic (E7-2409). Session descriptions are available in the Symposium e-book (PDF).

Symposium Schedule

Time	Presenter	Session Title
9:00 - 9:30 a.m.	Coffee
9:30 - 10:30 a.m.	Machine Learning and Intelligence, and Optimization and Decision Making
9:30 a.m.	Sajjad Kazemi	Proximal Policy Optimization for Satellite Collision Avoidance Maneuver Planning in Low Earth Orbit
10:00 a.m.	Thomas Fortin	Scaling Laws for Compute Optimal Biosignal Transformers
10:15 a.m.	Ali Asl	Preference and Performance-Based Adaptive Task Planning in Human-Robot Collaboration
10:30 - 10:45 a.m.	Break
10:45 - 12:00 p.m.	Human Factors and Ergonomics
10:45 a.m.	Khatereh Shariatmadari	Comparing 2-level and 3-level Graded Collision Warning Systems Under Distracted Driving Condition
11:30 a.m.	Sheida Marashi	Design and Evaluation of an App for Workplace Task Management for People with Mild Cognitive Impairment/Dementia
11:45 a.m.	Wachirawit Umpaipant	Dynamic Alert Design Based on Driver’s Cognitive State for Take-over Request in Automated Vehicles
12:00 - 12:30 p.m.	Pizza Lunch
12:30 - 1:30 p.m.	Vision, Image, and Signal Processing, and Societal and Environmental Systems
12:30 p.m.	Chun Cheng Feng	Eliminating the Need for Ground Truth Information in Photometric Calibration
12:45 p.m.	Ryan Schmalenberg	Camera Calibration from Out-of-Focus Images
1:00 p.m.	Diana Shakhova	EV Charging Demand Optimization in Ontario
1:15 p.m.	Kirsten Wright	From Owners to Tenants: Financialization in an Agent Based Urban Model with Agglomeration Effects
1:30 - 1:45 p.m.	Break
1:45 - 2:30 p.m.	Dr. Mahdi Alavi - Guest Speaker	Advanced Systems Design for Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy in Engineering and Medical Applications
2:30 - 3:30 p.m.	Biomedical Engineering. Modelling, Simulation and Systems Theory, and Mechatronic and Physical Systems
2:30 p.m.	Jenna Veugen	Photon Absorption Remote Sensing Probe for High Resolution Label-Free in Vivo Imaging
2:45 p.m.	Pouyan Keshavarz Motamed	Developing a Validated Numerical Tool to Predict Cancer Cell Occlusion Location in a Circulatory System
3:00 p.m.	Nahid Rahmati	Computational Study of Cancer Cell Adhesion in Curved Vessels due to Wall Shear Stress Variations
3:15 p.m.	Vidyasagar Rajendran	Towards Humanoids Using Personal Transporters Designed for Humans

For any questions, please reach out to Anna Cunningham, Administrative Coordinator, Graduate Studies.

Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience presents: Brain Day 2023

Amanda Brown — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 15:54:51 +0000

Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience presents: Brain Day 2023 Amanda Brown Mon, 03/27/2023 - 11:54

The University of ��ݮ��Ƶ's Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience supports the development of robust explanatory theories of mind and brain through education and research. In pursuit of that goal, the CTN has invited four internationally renowned speakers to present generally accessible lectures from each of the perspectives of neuroscience, computational neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy on the ideas of mind, brain, theories, and models.

April 11th, 2023

Coffee and light breakfast
8:30 am, E7 event space, room 2472

Welcoming Remarks
9:00am, E7, room 3353

Rafal Bogacz
Inferring Neural Activity Before Plasticity: A Foundation for Learning Beyond Backpropagation
9:15 am - 10:30 am

Serife Tekin
Reclaiming the Self in Psychiatry: A Case Study of Olfactory-Triggered Trauma
10:45 am - 12:00 pm

Natasha Rajah
The Importance of Considering Biological Sex & Diversity in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging
1:30 pm - 2:45 pm

Dora Angelaki
Views on Naturalistic Tasks in Neuroscience: Flexible Neural Coding During Visually Guided Navigation
3:00 pm - 4:15 pm

Reception
4:15 pm, E7 event Space, room 2472

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2023

Amanda Brown — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 15:38:51 +0000

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2023 Amanda Brown Mon, 03/27/2023 - 11:38

The Department of Systems Design Engineering is delighted to announce that we will be holding our 2023 Graduate Symposium! The symposium will take place on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 in the E7 Ideas Clinic (E7-2409). Session descriptions are available in the Symposium e-book (PDF).

Symposium Schedule

Time	Presenter	Session Title
9:00 - 9:30 a.m.	Coffee
	9:45 - 10:45 a.m.	Human Factors
9:45 a.m.	Naomi Paul	An Experimental Comparison of the Effectiveness of Various Levels of Simulator Fidelity on Ab Initio Pilot Training
10:00 a.m.	Sneha Srinivasan Rammanoharan	Comparative Data Analysis of Older Driver's Vs Younger Driver's Gap Acceptance Behaviour at Signalized left turns - A Driving St
10:15 a.m.	Jose A. Alguindigue	Driver Drowsiness Detection System based on PERCLOS and Heart Rate Variability
10:30 a.m.	Rory Ewing	Defining Expertise in Requirements Elicitation
10:45 - 11:00 a.m.	Break
11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.	Biomedical Engineering
11:00 a.m.	Behzad Danaei	Model-Based Optimization of Acetabular Cup Orientation Based On Functional Pelvic Tilt Following Total Hip Arthroplasty
11:15 a.m.	Hossein Mohammadi	Experimental, modelling, and parametric study of cutting characteristics of thin viscoelastic membranes under needle insertion
11:30 a.m.	Marco Moran-Ledesma	Interactive Training Tool for Injury Assessment of a Human Joint
11:45 a.m.	Arya Amiri	Regional Heterogeneity in Aortic Aneurysms: A Method for Finite Element Analysis
12:00 p.m.	AliAsghar Mohammadi Nasrabadi	A Multibody Predictive Dynamic Model to Optimize Acetabular Cup Orientation in Total Hip Arthroplasty Surgery Considering Differ
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.	Lunch
1:30 - 2:45 p.m.	Vision, Image, and Signal Processing & Mechatronics
1:30 p.m.	Weidong Liang	Detection of Small Objects in UAV Images via an Improved Swin Transformer-based Model
1:45 p.m.	Aravind Ravi	Combined Action Observation, Motor Imagery and Steady State Motion Visual Evoked Potential Based Brain Computer Interface
2:00 p.m.	Faizan Sana	Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Navigation System to Traverse Unsignalized Intersections
2:15 p.m.	Samed Kocer	Resonant MEMS Deformable Mirror for Fast and Wide-Field-of-View Focus Scanning
2:30 p.m.	Carl Azzi	Advancing the Extraction of Mechanical Properties From Biaxial Data

For any questions, please reach out to Jessica Sparry, Administrative Coordinator, Graduate Studies.

��ݮ��Ƶ Robotics Day

Amanda Brown — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 14:42:47 +0000

��ݮ��Ƶ Robotics Day Amanda Brown Fri, 02/24/2023 - 09:42

��ݮ��Ƶ Robotics Day

The ��ݮ��Ƶ Robotics Day will bring together robotics researchers and graduate students at ��ݮ��Ƶ and provide an opportunity to share the extraodinary robotics research that is happening on campus.

We will have industry representatives from the region, and a combination of teaser talks by research group leaders and poster sessions by students and postdocs.

This event is co-organized by the Human-Centred Robotics & Machine Intelligence research group and RoboHub.

Event Agenda

Time	Event / Speakers
8:30-9:00	Registration, coffee + pastries
9:00-9:15	Welcome and Opening remarks
Overview talks by robotics research group leaders
9:15-9:25	Katja Mombaur - Human-Centred Robotics and Machine Intelligence (HCRMI)
9:25-9:35	Yash V. Pant - Control, Learning and Logic (CL2)
9:35-9:45	John Zelek - Vision Image Processing (VIP)
9:45-9:55	Kerstin Dautenhahn - Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab (SIRRL)
9:55-10:05	Arash Arami - Neuromechanics and Assistive Robotics Laboratory
10:05-10:15	Richard Nuckols - Assistive & Rehabilitation Robotics
10:15-10:25	Hamed Shahsavan - Smart Materials for Advanced Robotics Technologies lab
10:30-11:00	Break + Networking
11:00-11:10	Carolyn Ren - ��ݮ��Ƶ Microfluidics Laboratory (WML)
11:10-11:20	James Tung - Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering Lab
11:20-11:30	Lukas Bauman for Boxin Z - Surface Science and Bio-nanomaterials Lab
11:30-11:40	Yue Hu - Active & Interactive Robotics Lab (A.I.R. Lab)
11:40-11:50	Chris Eliasmith - Computational Neuroscience Research Group
11:50-12:00	John McPhee - Motion Research Group
12:00-12:10	William Melek - RoboHub & Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Automation
12:15-1:15	Lunch + Networking
1:15-1:35	Clearpath and OTTO
1:35-1:55	Indro Robotics, Kinova, Reallife Robotics, Avidrone
1:55-2:00	Poster session introduction
2:00-2:45	1st Poster session and Industry demos
2:45-3:00	Afternoon break
3:00-3:45	2nd Poster session and Industry demos
3:45-4:00	Farewell

Registration

Registration is required and will close on Monday, February 27 at 3:00 pm.

This is a free event. Morning coffee+pastries and lunch provided.

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2022

Amanda Brown — Tue, 10 May 2022 19:55:20 +0000

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2022 Amanda Brown Tue, 05/10/2022 - 15:55

The Department of Systems Design Engineering is delighted to announce that we will be holding our annual Graduate Symposium again in 2022! The symposium will take place on Thursday, June 23, 2022 in Faculty Hall (E7 7th floor room 7363).

The deadline to register for the Symposium is June 17, 2022.

The Symposium schedule (PDF) has been broken into four sessions, with two industry guests speaking during the lunch hour about their experiences taking their degree into an industry position. The Symposium e-book (PDF) provides a description for each session. Coffee will be provided during the morning and afternoon, and pizza will be provided for lunch.

For any questions, please reach out to the Graduate Coordinator, Jessica Sparry at sydegsec@uwaterloo.ca

World Water Day 2021

Valerie Pablo — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 19:00:04 +0000

World Water Day 2021 Valerie Pablo Mon, 03/01/2021 - 14:00

Join the Water Institute for an interactive event exploring what water means to different people, its true value, and how we can better protect this vital resource together.

9:30-11:00 a.m.
An interactive workshop in the morning, where participants will have an opportunity to explore their relationship to water while learning from one another as we answer the question, “what does water mean to you?”

The workshop will be followed by a presentation from Ogamauh annag qwe (Sue Chiblow), Crane Clan and raised in Garden First Nation, who has worked extensively with First Nation communities for the last 30 years in environmental related fields, who will share knowledge on Anishinaabek N’bi pedagogies that we are water, water is life, water has a spirit, water is medicine, and is the lifeblood of Mother Earth. Her presentation will contrast Anishinaabek worldview to mainstream society’s worldview, exploring women’s roles and responsibilities in water governance.

2:00-3:30 p.m.
In the afternoon, Brooklyn native Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist, policy expert, and Co-Founder of the All We Can Save Project, will be in conversation with CTV News' Science and Technology Specialist Dan Riskin, discussing ways to heal our oceans, our climate, and our injustices.

GEDIx: A 30-minute Exchange featuring WatCO with special guest Evercloak

Engineering Advancement Coop — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 19:32:33 +0000

GEDIx: A 30-minute Exchange featuring WatCO with special guest Evercloak Engineering Ad… Tue, 02/16/2021 - 14:32

WatCO and Evercloak: Commercializing the intellectual wealth at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. When innovative technology is transferred from research to the marketplace, it can have such a transformative impact on society. From improving the quality of life to enhacing business productivity and job growth.

Join us for the next GEDI Exchange (GEDIx) webinar featuring WatCO with special guest Evercloak, as they discuss one of the ways of commercializing the profusion of innovation to be found at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ.

Hult Prize UW Finals

Engineering Advancement Coop — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 20:52:15 +0000

Hult Prize UW Finals Engineering Ad… Mon, 11/25/2019 - 15:52

Hult Prize is the world’s biggest engine for the launch of for-good, for-profit startups emerging from university with over 2500 staff and volunteers around the world. In nearly a decade, the movement has deployed more than $50M of capital into the sector and mobilized more than one million young people to re-think the future of business as it continues to breed disruptive innovation on college and university campuses across 120 plus countries.

Hult Prize On-Campus is an initiative to give an opportunity to deliver social change by bringing Hult Prize programs to UW. As part of the On Campus Program, you will be able to train, educate and inspire students by building an impact community around On Campus events.

The topic for this year is Environmental Sustainability and Accountability. Eight finalist teams will compete for their chance to advance to the global arena. The winning team will advance to one of 15 regionals of their choice to continue their journey with Hult Prize. Prize money will be awarded to the top three campus finalists, thanks to sponsorship by ECL.

"The prize is not simply looking for ways to make current business practices less environmentally damaging, but for transformative new models that make a positive net impact on the environment..." - Bill Clinton

This is an event that you do not want to miss! Register and join us for a night of innovative ideas, expert judges, and a light dinner!

"The Hult prize will challenge teams from around the world to build new businesses, to make positive contributions toward both the environment and economy, with the goal of reaching a million more consumers within a decade, in a way that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and reduces the threat of climate change. The prize is not simply looking for ways to make current business practices less environmentally damaging, but for transformative new models that make a positive net impact on the environment, with every sale completed, every dollar earned and every decision made." - Bill Clinton

��ݮ��Ƶ Nanotechnology Conference

Engineering Advancement Coop — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 15:28:04 +0000

��ݮ��Ƶ Nanotechnology Conference Engineering Ad… Wed, 11/20/2019 - 10:28

On November 23 and 24, 2019, the ��ݮ��Ƶ Nanotechnology Conference will celebrate its 5th anniversary bringing together students, employers, researchers, and entrepreneurs around a common interest in nanotechnology. Join us, as we expand into a two-day conference to explore how nanotechnology is used in industry, its advances in innovative research, and its use to power new ventures.

Conference

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2025

Symposium Schedule

Register for the Symposium by April 3

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2024

Symposium Schedule

Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience presents: Brain Day 2023

April 11th, 2023

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2023

Symposium Schedule

��ݮ��Ƶ Robotics Day

��ݮ��Ƶ Robotics Day

Event Agenda

Registration

SYDE Graduate Symposium 2022

World Water Day 2021

GEDIx: A 30-minute Exchange featuring WatCO with special guest Evercloak

Hult Prize UW Finals

��ݮ��Ƶ Nanotechnology Conference