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.

Quanser Helps Develop a Rehab Robot for Stroke Survivors

What's the most effective, efficient way to help hemiparetic stroke survivors regain control of their arms so they can get back to performing normal, everyday activities? For Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Director of the University of Toronto's Intelligent Assistive Technology and Systems Lab (IATSL), that's not an academic question. It's the subject of ongoing research he's conducting with a team comprised of University of Toronto postgraduate students, rehabilitation specialists from the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, and mechanical and control engineers from Quanser.

Quanser's involvement began four years ago when Dr. Mihailidis suggested some of his postgraduate students work on this project while interning at Quanser. Paul Lam came to work on initial hardware design with Quanser mechanical engineer Don Gardner, and Patricia Kan worked closely with Quanser software engineer Herve Lacheray to enhance existing game-oriented physical exercises and add artifical intelligence capability to the rehab device. As a result, a first iteration of a 2 DOF upper limb rehab device was designed, built, tested and eventually used in rehab situations.

The first prototype of the of the Rehabilitation Robot for stroke survivors was a device with two degrees of freedom.

A third intern, Rajibul Huq, came on board to focus on the device's control software. He collaborated with Herve to build on the control design work done earlier by Patricia. In May of 2010, Elaine Lu joined the IATSL/Quanser team, concentrating on hardware design. Their shared goal was to design a new prototype of the original rehab device that would extend its dynamic rehabilitation capability.

For the robot to be of value to stroke victims, a user-centered focus was key. As a first step, Elaine had sent out an online survey to over 200 rehabilitation therapists, asking for their input on what the robotic device should do and what it should look and feel like to be of rehabilitative use to upper limb stroke survivors. She brought her survey results to Quanser and started to implement them into her design.

Over a four-month period Elaine spent most of her time developing this project in consultation with Quanser's engineers. She familiarized herself with the robotic hardware Quanser had already developed, including the controls we'd already designed, and began working to incorporate some of the ideas her online survey had generated.

A working prototype was completed in April of 2011. Elaine will soon take it to a focus group of therapists and stroke survivors for real-world trials. The trials will highlight what's right and what can be improved. A third prototype will then be built incorporating this feedback.

Based on the feedback from patients and therapists, researchers from the University of Toronto, Toronto Rehab Institute and Quanser developed a new Rehab Robot prototype, now ready for real-world trials.

In the future, Dr. Mihailidis and the IATSL team plan to set up a clinic at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute to conduct clinical trials, using 10 of advanced Rehab Robot prototypes. The eventual goal is to perfect the Rehab Robot for everyday use by stroke survivors in the privacy of their own homes, as well as in rehab clinics.

As the IATSL and TRI researchers, or any of our engineers could tell you, "Engineering a better future" is not merely a slogan at Quanser. It's our focus. It's why we collaborate with the academic and research community.

Meet Quanser at the IEEE CCECE Conference

If you are planning to attend this year's IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE) on May 8 -11 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, you will have an opportunity to learn about Quanser teaching tools that are helping educate the next generation of engineering professionals. These tools are giving undergraduate and graduate students valuable hands-on experience and exposure to the challenges of real-world engineering.

Stop by Quanser's exhibit at the conference to talk to our engineers about teaching controls and research collaboration. You can also see a live demo of our rotary SRV-02 based workstations, one of Quanser's cost-effective solutions that assist universities in producing graduates with industry-relevant skills.

We look forward to meeting you at the conference.