TORONTO ROBOTICS CONFERENCE

18-19 July 2023
Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship
55 St. George Street, 5th Floor

From logistics and mobility to healthcare, bright futures in robotics start here.

THIS EVENT IS NOW OVER.

DOWNLOAD THE CONFERENCE SCHEDULE (PDF)

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

All kinds of robots.

MOBILITY TRACK + HEALTHCARE TRACK

autonomous cars

marine and underwater

robotic
delivery

longterm autonomy

mobile manipulation

jointless
continuum

magnetically-
guided

Pepper is a socially interactive robot used by a team in the Autonomous Systems and Biomechatronics Lab at U of T Engineering to study persuasion and authority in robot-human interactions. (Photo: Liz Do)

socially-
assistive

cellular-
level

image-
guided

Two days of hot topics, tech talk, and career-focused dialogue
with U of T’s expert robotics network.

HOT TOPICS
Robotics, 5G & Cybersecurity | Toronto's Sidewalk Robots

CAREER MOVES
Industry | Entrepreneurship | Academic

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

KEYNOTE PANEL

Cybersecurity: Implications for Roboticists

As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, robotic systems need to be prepared to mitigate these threats. In this dynamic keynote address, cybersecurity and technology experts weigh in on the policy, politics, regulations and risk landscape of the technical security issues roboticists could encounter.

Tuesday, July 18

Moderator

Igor Gilitschenski

Assistant Professor

Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences (MCS@UTM)

Cybersecurity Expert

Isaac Straley

Chief Information Security Officer
University of Toronto
&
Canadian Shared Security Operations Centre (CanSOCC)

5G Innovation

Neel Dayal

Senior Director, Innovation and Partnerships
Rogers Communication

Bio

PANEL DISCUSSION

Toronto's sidewalk robots: What went wrong and can we do better?

This forward-looking and informative discussion will bring together key stakeholders, including industry experts and researchers, to explore the history of Toronto's sidewalk robots and the field's impact on urban mobility, accessibility and services.

Wednesday, July 19

Moderator

Steve Waslander

Professor

Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

Inclusive Design

Varun Chandak

Founder

Access to Success

Transportation Innovation

Bern Grush

Executive Director

Urban Robotics Foundation

Transit Policy and Innovation

Charissa Iogna

Project Manager

City of Toronto

Bio

Varun is the founder of Access to Success, a Toronto-based not-for-profit that runs Canada's only accelerator for accessibility startups. Driven by his hearing loss and Erb’s Palsy, Varun helps startups, large enterprises and social purpose organizations implement inclusive design to help scale accessibility innovations. As a sought-after speaker, he has been recognized as a Top 50 Changemaker in Canada and received the inaugural Tom Wilson Leadership in Disability award. Varun holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, is a Chartered Accountant, and lives in Toronto with his wife and his hyperactive goldendoodle, Dash.

Bio

Bern Grush is the Executive Director of the Urban Robotics Foundation and project lead for the draft technical standard ISO 4448 (Public-area Mobile Robots and automated pathway devices). Since 2002, Bern has been involved with transportation-related innovation and regulatory research for road pricing, parking management, automated vehicles, and now the robots that will ply our sidewalks. Before that, he co-founded PCI Geomatics to develop AI for image analysis systems for earth-imaging satellites. He has degrees in Human Factors Psychology from the University of Toronto and Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Bio

Charissa Iogna is a Project Manager at the City of Toronto. She works in Transportation Services' Strategic Policy and Innovation Unit. She has been leading the work on Micro-Utility Devices since 2021. Prior to joining Transportation Services, Charissa worked as a transit planner in City Planning for 10 years. She is a graduate from U of T with a Master's of Science in Planning and an Honour B.A. in Urban Studies and Human Geography specializing in Transportation and Social Equity.

PANEL DISCUSSION

Launching a robotics start-up: Opportunities and challenges

Thinking about taking your robotics research to the next level? This inspirational and motivational panel discussion will highlight the opportunities and challenges of starting your own venture and how to leverage the U of T entrepreneurship ecosystem and jumpstart your start-up or spin-off.

Tuesday, July 18

Moderator

Jon French

Director

University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (UTE)

Entrepreneur

Robert Brooks

Founder and CEO

Forcen

Entrepreneur

Chloë Ryan

Founder and CEO

Acrylic Robotics

Entrepreneur

Pooja Viswanathan

Co-founder and CEO

Braze Mobility

Bio

Robert Brooks is the founder and CEO of Forcen, a Toronto-based manufacturer of force/torque sensing solutions. Forcen has rebuilt force/torque sensing from the ground up with a patented technology stack to enable plug-and-play, maintenance-free sensing in unstructured, complex, and high reliability applications across surgical, logistic, field, space, and frontier robotics.

Robert has over a decade of experience in robotics working broadly across nuclear, manufacturing, logistic, pharmaceutical, and surgical robotics industries. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto with his thesis focused on next generation sensing and actuation for surgical robotics.

Bio

Chloë Ryan is the founder & CEO of Acrylic Robotics, a tech startup building the world's first way to make painted art at scale in service of independent artists. Their technology captures artist's paint strokes and then replays each stroke using real paint on canvas with their robotic arms, allowing artists to sell limited-edition collections of painted replicas at a more accessible price point. Chloë is herself a visual artist in addition to having a background in mechanical engineering from McGill.

Acrylic has participated in top Canadian accelerators including Next AI, Centech Propulsion, Next 36, McGill Dobson X-1 and U-Test at the University of Toronto. She has been awarded numerous entrepreneurial prizes including the Top Next 36 Entrepreneur prize, GRIT's 'Canada's Top 10 Ventures to Watch', the Pierre Péladeau Bursary for Top Student Entrepreneurs in Quebec and McGill's Entrepreneurial Grit Award.

Bio

Dr. Viswanathan has a passion for improving accessibility and independence for people with physical disabilities. She has completed doctoral and post-doctoral research in robotics and assistive technologies and has been working with "smart" wheelchair technology for over a decade, publishing several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on the subject. She has also led international workshops at RESNA, ISS, and ESS, collaborating with researchers and clinicians in seating and mobility around the world. Pooja is an expert in knowledge translation and commercialization and acts as a consultant to many Canadian networks and organizations.

Before founding Braze Mobility, she has worked in telecom, banking, and the automotive industry where she worked on state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms at Honda Research Institute in Silicon Valley. She has received awards and scholarships from several prestigious organizations in Canada and the U.S., including Google Scholar awards. When she's not working, she's climbing, teaching music, playing racquet sports, or solving escape rooms.

PANEL DISCUSSION

Career moves: Alumni panel discussion

SPONSORED BY MAGNA INTERNATIONAL

We're excited to welcome back three U of T alumni for this insightful panel discussion as they share their career highlights after graduate studies and experience working in industry, academia and start-ups.

Tuesday, July 18

Moderator

Brokoslaw Laschowski

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - KITE

Alum

Jordan Hu
UTIAS MASc 2T2

Autonomy Developer
Waabi

Alum

Yi Li
MIE PhD 1T2

Senior Manager of Robotics and Process Automation
Head of Advanced Automation Laboratory

Alum

Onaizah Onaizah
MIE PhD 2T0

Assistant Professor
Department of Computing and Software
McMaster University

Alum

Patrick Ryan
MechE MASc 2T6

Senior R&D Engineer
Baylis MedTech

Bio

Jordan is a autonomy developer at Waabi and currently develops perception models for self-driving trucks. He previously pursued a MASc at Toronto Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Lab (TRAIL) under Professor Steven Waslander, where he focused on LiDAR-based 3D object detection methods for autonomous vehicles. Before his masters, he completed a BASc in Mechatronics Engineering with an Artificial Intelligence Option at the University of Waterloo, gaining valuable experience working with various robotics and software companies.

Bio

Dr. Yi Li, Senior Manager of Robotics and Process Automation in Stronach Centre for Innovation - the Magna Corporate R&D Centre, Head of Advanced Automation Laboratory. Dr.Li graduated from Robotics and Automation Laboratory (RAL), Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering(MIE) in 2012. He has more than 10 years of industrial experience in vehicle design and advanced automation system. His expertise spans research and development, as well as team management. He has led and participated in a total of 35 R&D projects. Authorized 4 invention patents in complex environment mobile robots and unmanned delivery vehicles. From May 2021, he led two major projects of the Canada Next Generation Advanced Manufacturing Fund (NGen): Autonomous Adaptable Robot System and 3D Vision-Guided Robotic Assembly System.

Bio

Onaizah Onaizah is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing and Software and an Associate Member of the School of Biomedical Engineering. Onaizah received her BSc in Physics from the University of Toronto in 2013, her MSc in Medical Biophysics from Western University in 2015 and her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2019. She was a Research Fellow in Surgical Robotics at the University of Leeds working in the STORM Lab from 2020-2022. She was the recipient of the NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020 and was featured as one of nine women to watch from the University of Toronto Engineering’s class of 2020. Her research interests include small-scale and soft robotics incorporating both fabrication and control strategies.

Bio

U OF T ROBOTICS EXPERTS

Tim Barfoot

Professor

Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

Jessica Burgner-Kahrs

Associate Professor

Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences
(MCS @UTM)

Eric Diller

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE)

Igor Gilitschenski

Assistant Professor

Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences (MCS@UTM)

Lueder Kahrs

Assistant Professor

Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences (MCS@UTM)

Jonathan Kelly

Professor

Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

Thomas Looi

Project Director

Centre of Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention (CIGITI) at the Hospital for Sick Children

Goldie Nejat

Professor

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE)

Milos Popovic

Professor

Institute of Biomedical Engineering (BME), Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - KITE

Steve Waslander

Professor

Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS)

EXHIBITORS

TRAINEE PARTICIPANTS

HEALTHCARE TALKS

Trainee	Talk Title
Rebecca Berthold	Contact simulation for continuum robots
Cristina Getson	Human-Robot Interactions with an Autonomous Health Screening Robot in Long-term Care Settings
Timothy Kwong	Learning human-robot formations for accompanying humans
Nan Liang	Robot dance for older adults in long-term care
Hang Liu	Using AI to boost IVF success
Priyanka Rao	Modeling and Analysis of Tendon-driven Continuum Robots for Rod-based Locking
Mehdy Dousty	Hand Grasp Classification in Egocentric Video after Cervical Spinal Cord Injury
Jinjie Sun	Auto-Suction: A Vision-based Concentric Tube Continuum Robot Autonomous Suction Task for Surgery
Andrea Gotelli	Implicit time integration of robots with rigid bodies and Cosserat rods based on a Newton-Euler recursive algorithm

MOBILITY TALKS

Trainee	Talk Title
Tuesday, July 18
Ashkan Mirzaei	Coming soon.
Philip Huang	Stochastic Planning for ASV Navigation Using Satellite Images
Jason Zhou	aUToLights: A Robust Multi-Camera Traffic Light Detection and Tracking System
Yasasa Abeysirigoonawardena	Generating Transferable Adversarial Simulation Scenarios for Self-Driving via Neural Rendering
Edwin Ng	Cross-Modal Data Fusion for 3D Instance Segmentation of Indoor Environments
Daniil Lisus	Are We Ready for Radar to Replace Lidar in All-Weather Mapping and Localization?
Qiao Gu	ConceptFusion: Open-set Multimodal 3D Mapping
Wednesday, July 19
Jacob Deery	ProPanDL, Uncertainty aware Panoptic Segmentation
Evan Cook	Out of Distribution Detection with Normalizing Flows
Sandro Papais	Multi-frame 3D Object Tracking
Marc-Antoine Lavoie	Long-tail Learning for Open World Classification
David Yoon	Towards Consistent Batch State Estimation Using a Time-Correlated Measurement Noise Model
Keenan Burnett	Picking Up Speed: Continuous-Time Lidar-Only Odometry using Doppler Velocity Measurements
Sherry Chen	Self-Supervised Feature Learning for Long-Term Metric Visual Localization
Jordy Sehn	Local Obstacle Avoidance for Long-term Autonomous Path Following
Yash Kant	Animating Humans with Invertible Networks
Emmett Wise	Extrinsic Calibration of 2D Millimetre-Wavelength Radar Pairs Using Ego-Velocity Estimates

HEALTHCARE POSTER SESSION

Trainee	Poster Title
Haley Mayer	Novel Robot for Gut Biopsy
Jinjie Sun	Auto-Suction: A Vision-based Concentric Tube Continuum Robot Autonomous Suction Task for Surgery
Nirmal Pol	Using Optical Coherence Tomography Imaging to Track Surgical Robots
Parand Alizadeh Alamdari	Epistemic Side Effects: An AI Safety Problem
Stephanie Benjamin	Enabling the Prenatal Detection and Management of Autoimmune Congenital Heart Block with Novel Biomarkers
Zhaoxin Li	3D Printing of Multilayer Magnetic Miniature Soft Robots with Programmable Magnetization

MOBILITY POSTER SESSION

Trainee	Poster Title
Adam Heins	Robust Single-Point Pushing with Force Feedback
Claas Voelcker	Learning latent decision-aware models for reinforcement learning in continuous state-spaces
Keenan Burnett	Picking Up Speed: Continuous-Time Lidar-Only Odometry using Doppler Velocity Measurements
Philip Huang	Stochastic Planning for ASV Navigation Using Satellite Images
Qiao Gu	ConceptFusion: Open-set Multimodal 3D Mapping
Sherry Chen	Self-supervised learning for long term metric visual localization
Xiaoyun Liu	3D Tracking of Capsule Robot in Ex-vivo GI Tract Using Ultrasound
Yasasa Abeysirigoonawardena	Generating Transferable Adversarial Simulation Scenarios for Self-Driving via Neural Rendering

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 18

Robotics Career Day

Time and Location	Activity	Speakers
8:30 - 9 a.m. Myhal Lobby	Registration Coffee and snacks
9 - 9:15 a.m. Myhal 150	Welcome Remarks	Eric Diller, Conference Chair, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
9:15 - 10:30 a.m. Myhal 150	Keynote Panel Cybersecurity: Implications for Roboticists	Neel Dayal, Senior Director, Innovation and Partnerships, Rogers Isaac Straley, CISO, U of T Moderator: Igor Gilitschenski, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences
10 - 10:15 a.m. Myhal 150	3MT Showcase	Stochastic Planning for ASV Navigation Using Satellite Images Speaker: Philip Huang Parallel Continuum Robots: Collaboration in Confined Spaces Speaker: Sven Lllge A Soft Cable-Driven Robotic Hand for Dexterous Grasp and Manipulation Zhanfeng Zhou
10:15 - 10:30 a.m. 5th Floor Atrium	Break and move to 5th floor
10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.	Student Talks - Healthcare Room 570 Student Talks - Mobility Room 580
12 - 1:30 p.m. Atrium	Lunch and Exhibition SPONSORED BY CLARONAV INC.
1:30 - 2:55 p.m. Myhal 150	Presentation The U of T entrepreneurship ecosystem: Resources for prospective entrepreneurs	Jon French, Director, U of T Entrepreneurship Pratyush Raman, Go-To-Market Lead, The Entrepreneurship Hatchery
2 - 2:30 p.m. Myhal 150	Panel Discussion Launching a Robotics Start-up: Opportunities and Challenges	Robert Brooks, CEO and Founder, ForceN Chloë Ryan, CEO and Founder, Acrylic Robotics Pooja Viswanathan, CEO and Co-founder, Braze Mobility Moderator: Jon French, Director, U of T Entrepreneurship
2:30 - 2:45 p.m.	Break (coffee and tea available on 5th Floor Atrium)
2:45 - 4 p.m. Myhal 150	Panel Discussion Career Moves: Alumni Panel Discussion SPONSORED BY MAGNA INTERNATIONAL	Jordan Hu, Autonomy Developer, Waabi Yi Li, Senior Manager of Robotics and Process Automation, Head of Advanced Automation Laboratory, Magna International Onaizah Onaizah, Assistant Professor, McMaster University Patrick Ryan, Senior R&D Engineer, Baylis MedTech Moderator: Brokoslaw Laschowski, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - KITE
4 - 6 p.m. 8th Floor Terrace	Networking Social

Wednesday, July 19

Robotics Research Day

Time and Location	Activity	Speakers
8:30 - 9 a.m. Myhal Lobby	Registration Coffee and snacks
9 - 9:15 a.m. Myhal 150	Welcome remarks	Steve Waslander, Conference Chair, Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies
9:15 - 10:30 a.m. Myhal 150	Toronto's sidewalk robots: What went wrong and can we do better?	Varun Chandak, Founder and President, Access to Success Bern Grush, Executive Director, Urban Robotics Foundation Charissa Iogna, Project Manager, Transportation Service, Strategic Policy and Innovation, City of Toronto Moderator: Steve Waslander, Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies
10:30 - 10:45 a.m. Atrium	Break
10:45 - 11:45 a.m.	Expert Talks: Healthcare Room 570 Expert Talks: Mobility Room 580	HEALTHCARE EXPERTS Continuum Robots Speaker: Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences Solving Challenges in Robotic Tissue Cutting Speaker: Lueder Kahrs, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Engineering MOBILITY EXPERTS Perception for Autonomous Driving in Winter Speaker: Steve Waslander, Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies Trainee talks: Jacob Deery Evan Cook Sandro Papais Marc-Antoine Lavoie
11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. Atrium	Lunch Break, Poster Session and Exhibition
1:15 - 2 p.m.	Expert Talks: Healthcare Room 570 Expert Talks: Mobility Room 580	HEALTHCARE EXPERTS Socially Assistive Robots That Care For Us Speaker: Goldie Nejat, Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Magnetic Serial Robots for Neurosurgery Speaker: Eric Diller, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering MOBILITY EXPERTS Convex Relaxations for State Estimation Speaker: Tim Barfoot, Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies Trainee talks: David Yoon Keenan Burnett Sherry Chen Jordy Sehn
2 - 2:15 p.m. Atrium	Break
2:15 - 3:15 p.m.	Expert Talks: Healthcare Room 570 Expert Talks: Mobility Room 580	HEALTHCARE EXPERTS Hybrid Continuum Surgical Robotics for Minimally Invasive Surgery Speaker: Thomas Looi, Project Director, Centre of Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention (CIGITI) at the Hospital for Sick Children How Functional Electrical Stimulation Therapy can be used to overcome paralysis Speaker: Milos Popovic, Professor, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - KITE MOBILITY EXPERTS Inductive Biases for Safe Interactive Autonomy Speaker: Igor Gilitschenski, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematical & Computational Sciences Trainee talk Yash Kant A Hot Take on Generative Models for Robotics Speaker: Jonathan Kelly, Professor, Institute for Aerospace Students Trainee talk Emmett Wise
3:15 - 3:30 p.m. Room 580	Closing Remarks	Eric Diller, Conference Chair, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Steve Waslander, Conference Chair, Professor, Institute for Aerospace Studies

ORGANIZERS

PROGRAM CHAIR - MOBILITY - Steve Waslander
PROGRAM CHAIR - MEDICINE - Eric Diller

OPERATIONS - Kimberly Colburn
PARTNERSHIPS - Hallie Siegel
COMMUNICATIONS - Amanda Hacio

TICKETS AND PRICING

Note for U of T students: All students must register on Eventbrite to attend. Ticket cost will be covered by your supervisor. If cost is an obstacle for your attendance, please contact Kimberly on the Robotics Institute Student Slack.

	Student	General Admission
Full Conference	$40	$150
July 18 ONLY	$25	$125
July 19 ONLY	$25	$100
No conference, social/networking event only (July 19)	$50	$50

Whether you would like to connect with top Robotics Institute graduate students, showcase your latest technology, demonstrate your thought leadership or promote your brand, there's a sponsorship package for you. Sponsorship can include:

Speaking opportunities

TORONTO ROBOTICS CONFERENCE

18-19 July 2023 Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship 55 St. George Street, 5th Floor

From logistics and mobility to healthcare, bright futures in robotics start here.

THIS EVENT IS NOW OVER.

LEARN MORE ABOUT:

All kinds of robots.

Two days of hot topics, tech talk, and career-focused dialogue with U of T’s expert robotics network.

SPONSORED BY

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

KEYNOTE PANEL

Cybersecurity: Implications for Roboticists

Moderator

Cybersecurity Expert

5G Innovation

PANEL DISCUSSION

Toronto's sidewalk robots: What went wrong and can we do better?

Moderator

Inclusive Design

Transportation Innovation

Transit Policy and Innovation

PANEL DISCUSSION

Launching a robotics start-up: Opportunities and challenges

Moderator

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

PANEL DISCUSSION

Career moves: Alumni panel discussion

Moderator

Alum

Alum

Alum

Alum

U OF T ROBOTICS EXPERTS

EXHIBITORS

TRAINEE PARTICIPANTS

HEALTHCARE TALKS

MOBILITY TALKS

HEALTHCARE POSTER SESSION

MOBILITY POSTER SESSION

SCHEDULE

Tuesday, July 18

Robotics Career Day

Wednesday, July 19

Robotics Research Day

ORGANIZERS

TICKETS AND PRICING

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

18-19 July 2023
Myhal Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship
55 St. George Street, 5th Floor

Two days of hot topics, tech talk, and career-focused dialogue
with U of T’s expert robotics network.