Engineering Supermodels

In my third year as an undergrad, I was fortunate to have taken a course in system simulation from a jazz musician trapped in an engineer's body. He later became my supervisor for my Master's degree. Most of my peers considered this course to be the proverbial "bird" course -- not very challenging and the material seemed a tad stale. For me, it was nothing short of an epiphany. Sometime during that course, my entire understanding of the engineering curriculum changed.

The most memorable part of this life changing experience is the realization that calculus exists for the sole purpose of modeling (pure math readers out there, please humor me). The rate of change (a derivative) fundamentally describes variation in the physical world and powerful tools allow you to literally integrate these change elements over any domain of interest. Of course this is a gross trivialization but in some sense, it's helpful to walk away from the trees and weedy bits and notice the sign that says Sir Isaac Newton National Forest.

In my past life, I was immersed in the world of engineering models. As part of the Maplesoft company, producers of the famous math tool Maple, and more recently, a full-blown physical modeling software tool called MapleSim, I explored a wide range of pedagogical avenues that stressed the importance of rich models for effective engineering.

Last week, Quanser engineer Dr. Derek Wight and I attended the Second Annual Summer Workshop on Educational Applications of MapleSim, held at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Although the main focus for the meeting was the software aspect of modeling and engineering education, it was a very revealing experience now that I have Q colored glasses on as part of the Quanser team.

The modeling community, like any technical community, has its own comfort zone where people vigorously debate the virtues of this formulation technique or the hazards of that solver. But in the end it's still a model and by definition it's an abstraction of the real physical world. The real world is highly complex, non-linear, and often entirely unpredictable. We as engineers however, have to somehow get some understanding of this complexity and introduce measures to produce predictable, beneficial outcomes. The basic question of how can educators impart this dose of reality into the curriculum has plagued profs for decades. Last week, I got an entirely new perspective on this challenge part of a company that made its name on hardware.

The future direction of engineering education, and control education in particular, will inevitably depend on the effective interplay among the key ideas of mathematics, science, modeling, and experimentation. Quanser, along with key partners like Maplesoft, represent an unprecedented educational workflow that can help students deal with the emerging complexities of engineering systems. From initial concepts, to high fidelity virtual models, to realistic harware in the loop simulation and control, to ultimately imparting that elusive big picture of engineering design, we have an immense opportunity to bring true excitement, insight, and relevance into the curriculum. I really believe that we're on the verge of something truly important for the world and I'm sure you're going to hear a lot more about these ideas in the months to come.

My jazz musician supervisor was living proof that good things happen when you put two completely different schools of thought together. Seeing this philosophy play out as my past life converged with my present and future life at the workshop was truly music to my ears.

Unmanned Vehicle Systems Research at Quanser

The unmanned systems research at Quanser has not stopped with the introduction of the Unmanned Vehicle Systems Lab, a research and teaching platform already adopted by many universities around the world. Recently, our engineering team experimented with a new unmanned ground vehicle nicknamed QGV (with Q as in Quanser). QGV is a mobile robot equipped with a five degree-of-freedom articulated arm. The mobility of the vehicle, plus the dexterity of the arm enable the robot to reach remote and/or hazardous environments and to interact with its surroundings. The applications of such platforms include warehouse automation, search and rescue missions and land surveying , as well as military uses such as bomb and mine defusal and even combat tasks.

Unmanned vehicles can operate in two distinct modes. In the first mode, teleoperation, the vehicle is controlled by a human operator via a communication link. The operator receives feedback from on-board sensors and sends the appropriate commands back to the vehicle. In the second mode, the vehicle acts as an autonomous robot and chooses commands based on the collected sensory information, using control algorithm running on the vehicle.

To demonstrate the abilities of the Quanser Unmanned Ground Vehicle, the robot is programmed to perform a search and object collection mission. Sensors on-board, including a camera and infra-red range sensors, are utilized to scan the environment for the target objects, while avoiding colliding with the perimeters as well as the obstacles. After finding the specific colored object, the vehicle approaches it and attempts to pick it up, using the articulated arm on the vehicle. Infra-red sensors are used to measure the distance between the vehicle and the target in order to place the arm in the right position. The target is then collected and the vehicle moves on to the next target of the specified color.

Watch a short demo here and visit Quanser's Innovation Hub at ASEE 2011 and ACC 2011 conferences to see it live.

From the desk of the new guy … Tom Lee, Chief Education Officer

The Quanser office, on a good day, is a ninety minute drive, each way, from my home in Waterloo, Canada.

As recently as three weeks ago, I had a dream job working with a hundred and twenty talented professionals at the renowned software company, Maplesoft.

About two months ago, I told my wife Sharon that I had decided to leave my dream job (which I had held for over twenty years BTW) to join this other company that she had never heard of. Her response was understandably "So why are you doing this?".

I am 48 years old I have two wonderful children, Eric (fifteen) and Maddi™ (thirteen). My wife Sharon holds a Ph.D. in political philosophy. Her dissertation was on the topic of rights of children to education. At last count, I have visited 433 distinct places in the world. From this, it's easy to see how some of the bigger questions in life begin to haunt my day to day existence. "What is this world going to be like when my kids get older?", "Have I done enough on this planet?", and "If I care so much about the world, why do I keep voting center-right?".

I'm thrilled to have been a part of some pretty amazing journeys so far. In my previous job, I witnessed how a company and a technology fundamentally transformed how mathematics is done in the 21st Century. I am a member of the faculty of a university that was unknown not 70 years ago but today is one of the engines of engineering research innovation. I like to think that some of my past work has made some modest contributions in the global engineering context. And most importantly, I have seen my own passions for one thing or another positively influence my kids' lives and I think I am getting a little closer to answering the question, "Have I been a good father?".

I am thrilled that I have been invited to this next transformational journey. Engineering education has held a very special place in my consciousness, or maybe conscience, since my days as a struggling undergraduate student.

I have known Quanser founder, my friend Dr. Jacob Apkarian, for over a decade. I have always admired his unique combination of engineering bravado and a deeply rooted passion for improving the state of modern engineering education. And, he's a pretty funny guy. Earlier in April, I bumped into him at the FIRST Robotics Championship in St. Louis and we chatted for a long, long, long time about life, the universe, and data acquisition.

So after a long pause, my wife asked me again, "So why are you doing this?". I answered, "You know? I think it'll be fun working with Jacob."

This is going to be one hell of a ride.

Quanser focused on collaboration and long term solutions

Quanser is commited to working closely with academia to develop individual projects and support long-term goals. Our involvement with the Advanced Visualization Laboratory project at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a recent example of this commitment.

The Advanced Visualization Lab is a state-of-the-art digital facility that allows researchers from engineering, science and liberal arts to convert large amounts of data into visuals on large-scale and high resolution visualization walls (VisWalls) or other display devices. As an unusually immersive visual experience, the Advanced Visualization Lab allows researchers to better understand and experience complex phenomena.

Two years ago, Quanser and Brent Nowak, UTSA Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering were having a discussion about Quanser’s HD2 high definition haptic device and the major role it could play in expanding the possibilities of the Advanced Visualization Lab that UTSA was then starting to develop.

The UTSA laboratory features a 14.5-foot-wide by six-foot-tall visualization wall—a 98 Mpixel tiled display of two dozen 30” widescreen monitors, with each monitor offering twice as many pixels as a high definition television. Image courtesy of the University of Texas, San Antonio.

“The Lab’s visualization wall lets us analyze large amounts of data, and zoom in and out to observe a subject such as simulated medical surgery in incredible detail,” says Nowak. “But we also wanted to increase the Lab’s capability by adding a high definition haptic device that could be integrated with both the VisWall and a very large (82”) 3D television monitor, so researchers could‘touch and feel’ the digital models they created in the course of their research.”

Quanser’s HD2 haptic device provides six degrees of freedom motion and five degrees of freedom force/torque feedback, making it an ideal tool to practice surgical simulations and other techniques.Future lab projects include multi-scale modeling for computational biology and biomedicine, development of cancer surgical simulation and real-time monitoring systems, and design and performance of autonomous underwater vehicles, to name a few.

Quanser’s strong reputation was a major factor the partnership with UTSA, according to Nowak. “We wanted to collaborate with Quanser because of its overall reputation for quality—the quality of its hardware and software products, and its ability to integrate its products with new technology like ours. We knew its engineers and consultants could be counted on to work closely with us and support our efforts to break new ground. That’s incredibly exciting and energizing.”

The Quanser - UTSA collaboration is ongoing. Right now, our engineers are working with UTSA to integrate the HD2 haptic device into the lab's Linux environment. Derek Wight and Pasha Javid continue to work at both Quanser headquarters in Markham and onsite in San Antonio, to assist the Advanced Visualization Lab in realizing its full potential.

Exciting Young Students about Science and Engineering

At Quanser our goal is to motivate, captivate and educate students about engineering sciences. But why wait until kids reach university age to get them stoked about science? When the opportunity arises, we reach out to younger students as well.

Recently Herve Lacheray, Quanser’s Software Manager volunteered as a judge in the All Science Challenge (ASC) at York University in Toronto. Presented by Let’s Talk Science, the All Science Challenge is an exciting question and answer competition for Grades 6, 7 and 8 student teams. It takes place annually on university campuses across Canada in May.

The young participants were well-prepared. For at least two months they’d worked in teams of four to study a broad range of science topics in the All Science Challenge Handbook, from which all the questions were taken. On event day the competition was divided into four parts. Two extensive question and answer quizzes were followed by an intriguing Design Challenge - building a shock-absorbing container that would protect an egg from breaking when dropped. The top three scoring teams entered a Final Elimination Round of questions and answers.

The day was a great success for all involved, not just the winning team. At York on this day, the participation of girls was particularly high, demonstrating (if it still needed to) that science isn’t a “boys club” anymore. That’s good news for future science enrollment at universities. So was the enthusiastic participation by the young contestants. “The kids were very enthusiastic,” Herve noted. “You could see that they had studied hard. It was a pleasure to be a part of it all.”

On May 30^th Quanser participated in a second, highly engaging All Science Challenge event, this time at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. Our volunteer judges on that day were Fayez Khan, R & D Engineer, and Don Nguyen, Production Technician.

We take great pride in helping schools excite students about science and fully expect a few of these girls and boys will soon be studying engineering at the university level. Chances are, some Quanser course materials and educational experiments will be part of their studies then as well.

To check out the ASC event at York University, watch this video:

Quanser Adds Chief Education Officer to its Executive Team

Quanser is delighted to announce that it has hired Dr. Tom Lee to fill the newly-created position of Chief Education Officer.

Dr. Lee’s role will be multi-faceted, although key areas will include spearheading the development of Quanser’s global academic community, guidance for Quanser technology and solution development, as well as supporting the company’s partner and alliance programs.

Dr. Lee comes to Quanser from MapleSoft, a valued Quanser partner, where he was Vice President, Applications Engineering and Chief Evangelist.

“Tom is a passionate advocate for the improved quality of Engineering Education, which is what we are all about,” said Paul Gilbert, CEO of Quanser. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our team, along with a unique balance of technical, business and organizational abilities. We can’t wait to get started.”

Dr. Lee will assume his new position in June of 2011, working primarily from the company’s Waterloo office, but will spend time in Markham and traveling around the globe.

Canadian Innovation Changing the World

Besides telling you what Quanser is doing to engineer a brighter future, we like to pass along news of what other forward-thinking organizations are doing.

That's why we are pleased to let you know about the first annual Innovation Nation Conference taking place this July 18 and 19 at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario. With a strong focus on Canadian innovation in science, engineering, arts and entertainment, the conference will bring together industry experts, scientists, artists, engineers, academics and students. Produced and developed by the Centre for Surgical Invention and Innovation (CSii), the conference is a great opportunity to network with some of the brightest lights in Canada's innovation community today. It's also a chance for you to take a look into the future at the 2011 CSii Canadian Robotics & Innovation Competition, showcasing innovations from university and high school students from all across the country.

If you're interested in where inventions and innovation are going, check out this conference.