U of T Robotics News
Reveries of a UofT Robotics Trailblazer
Time travel with this control systems math prodigy and find out how a “three-legged pedagogical stool” approach helped him become an award-winning scientist who made the “first real space robotics” possible.
Watch: Better Robotics through Artificial Intelligence | Angela Schoellig is Humboldt Professor for AI
How can we push back the limits of machine learning? And, at the same time, what limits do we need to set to robots’ autonomous decision-making to prevent them from becoming a threat. Angela Schoellig is searching for the answers.
Apple Machine Learning Research: Learning Spatiotemporal Occupancy Grid Maps for Lifelong Navigation in Dynamic Scenes
We present a novel method for generating, predicting, and using Spatiotemporal Occupancy Grid Maps (SOGM), which embed future information of dynamic scenes.
UofT Robotics Institute at ICRA 2022 Workshops
Once again, the University of Toronto Robotics Institute will have a strong presence at the 2022 International Conference of Robotics and Automation with workshops by Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Mishu Duduta, Angela Schoellig, and Goldie Nejat
‘My dream job’: How a PEY Co-op student is helping develop a new generation of autonomous space robots
PEY Co-op student Erin Richardson (Year 3 EngSci) is spending 16 months at Canadian space engineering firm MDA, where she is working on a new generation of autonomous robots for the forthcoming Lunar Gateway space station.
CFI funding for soft robotics
This soft robot is made of a common polymer combined with carbon nanotubes, and acts like an ‘artificial muscle’ that contracts in response to electric currents.
UTIAS is hiring faculty positions – deadline to apply March 31
University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) is hiring for two robotics-related faculty positions, deadline to apply March 31.
Raquel Urtasun, Waabi Launch Revolutionary Simulator Waabi World
Video and Blog of announcement: Welcome to Waabi World (blog) How Waabi World works (blog) Waabi World video In the news: Canadian AI simulator maker Waabi aims to recharge the quest for autonomous vehicles | The Globe and Mail | Sean Silcoff & Ivan Semeniuk | February 9, 2022 Waabi’s new simulator could scale autonomous vehicles tech faster |… Read more »
How robots can make aging in place more enjoyable (via The Globe and Mail)
Pepper isn’t your average seniors’ residence care worker. That was immediately evident when the diminutive robot arrived at the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care in Scarborough, Ont. to lead weekly exercises, call bingo numbers and take visitors’ temperatures during the pandemic.
27.01.22 Goldie Nejat: “Hi, How Can I Help You?“: Intelligent Robots as a Part of our Everyday Lives — From our Workplaces to our Homes
Join us on January 27, 2022 at 4 pm ET for Dr. Goldie Nejat’s MScAC talk entitled “Hi, How Can I Help You?”: Intelligent Robots as a Part of our Everyday Lives — From our Workplaces to our Homes
SRI Seminar Series: Rosalie Wang, “The future of our everyday lives: Older adults, caregivers, and AI-enabled health and social care”
Want to know why intelligent wheelchairs, personal assistive robots, and smart homes are in rapid development? Watch the video with Robotics Institute affiliate Prof. Rosalie Wang.
Why autonomous vehicles won’t be taking over Ontario’s city streets in 2022 (CBC News)
To have fully autonomous vehicles means replicating processes of the human brain, and that’s not easy.
The Future is Robotic: U of T Groundbreakers EP3
Can tiny, worm-like robots revolutionize the way surgeons work? How will human-robot interactions be improved? Can AI and robotics create self-driving cars that make winter driving safer?
U of T Robotics Institute and AGE-WELL NCE submit letter to Toronto City Council about MUD motion
Today the University of Toronto Robotics Institute and the AGE-WELL NCE submitted a joint letter to Mayor Tory and Members of Toronto City Council regarding the motion to amend city by-laws and implement an outright ban of so-called Micro-Utility Devices (MUDs), or service robots, from operating or stopping on all sidewalks and bike paths. The… Read more »
We Had BIG News In 2021!
We had BIG news in 2021, and we had LOTS of news in 2021! Check out our end-of-year newsletter here.
HeRo Course Alert: Intro to Healthcare Robotics, Winter 2022
As part of the HeRo/CREATE graduate training program from NSERC, next term Professor Yu Sun is coordinating Introduction to Healthcare Robotics (MIE1080). Part of the program for HeRo trainees, this unique course is open to all students at the university.
Groundbreakers Series: Meet U of T’s research heroes who are solving the world’s grand challenges
Meet the people behind the research transforming our world in the Groundbreakers video series that dropped today – Nov. 29. Check out the YouTube premiere event and hear a special performance from spoken word artist Britta B, a message from Christine Allen and watch the first Groundbreakers episode: Stopping the next pandemic. There is also… Read more »
NSERC Synergy Award celebrates decades of collaboration on nanoscale electron microscopy and robotics
A long-standing collaboration between researchers at U of T Engineering and Hitachi High-Tech Canada (HTC) has been recognized with a Synergy Award for Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
UofT RI’s Raquel Urtasun on Toronto Life’s THE INFLUENTIALS 2021 List
Congratulations to UofT Robotics Institute’s Raquel Urtasun, AI & self-driving pioneer, who is No 14 on Toronto Life’s 2021 list of 50 INFLUENTIALS for launching Waabi with $100 million in capital—among the most ever raised by a Canadian tech start-up!
2021 ISMR Workshop: Diversity in Medical Robotics
The Workshop on Diversity in Medical Robotics brings together experts from academia, industry, and clinical practice for a one-day event. The goal of this workshop is to highlight the contributions of women and underrepresented individuals to the field of medical robotics and inspire the next generation of medical roboticists.
Tim Barfoot: Where Can Machine Learning Help Robotic State Estimation? | Tartan SLAM Series
Where can machine learning help robotic state estimation? That’s the question Prof. Tim Barfoot addressed in the November 11 edition of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute Tartan SLAM series, a series that aims to foster fun, provocative discussions on robotics. Series overviews and links can be found on the webpage here. Abstract for Prof. Barfoot’s… Read more »
Non-magnetic objects induced to move by electromagnets (Nature News and Views)
Congratulations to MIE’s very own Eric Diller for this recent publication in Nature! A set of electromagnets has been used to move metal objects without touching them, even though the objects are not magnetic. This method could potentially be used like a ‘tractor beam’ to move hazardous objects in space.
Robots in the wild: U of T’s Florian Shkurti on overcoming ‘edge cases’ in machine learning
The technology behind self-driving cars has been racing ahead – and as long as they are cruising along familiar streets, seeing familiar sights, they do very well. But the University of Toronto’s Florian Shkurti says that when driverless vehicles encounter something unexpected, all that progress can come screeching to a halt.
Raquel Urtasun awarded Everingham Prize at ICCV21
The Everingham prize is awarded to a researcher, or a team of researchers, who have made a selfless contribution of significant benefit to other members of the computer vision community. Raquel Urtasun and her and her colleagues Andreas Geiger, Philip Lenz, Christoph Stiller were awarded the prize thanks to their work on the KITTI Vision Benchmark Suite.
