Researchers, industry partners using automated tools to keep birds safe
Birds will be more protected from landing at oilsands sites through a new research project involving University of Alberta computing scientists and Aerium Analytics, a drone technology company. Working with Imperial Oil Ltd., the researchers will fully automate tracking tools to better detect and deter birds from touching down and nesting on industrial areas like…
$27M from Alberta government goes to research in health, energy, environment, agriculture and astrophysics
An investment of $27 million from the Alberta government will significantly boost research capacity and lead to innovations across the sciences at the University of Alberta. The provincial government announced recently that a four-year investment through its Research Capacity Program will be used to upgrade or create new facilities and infrastructure for 11 research projects.…
Device would allow children with severe mobility issues to control toys or wheelchairs with their minds
Imagine children with severe mobility issues being able to move their wheelchairs with their minds. That’s the idea behind a new brain-computer interface being developed by researchers at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary. Think2Switch is designed to be a simple and nearly universal bridge connecting brain signals to switch-enabled devices such as a wheelchair,…
Computing scientists developing AI to combat pandemic by taking advantage of health data
How many new COVID-19 cases will be in the ICU three weeks from today? University of Alberta scientists are using the wealth of public health data on COVID-19 to build AI-powered tools to help project and combat the pandemic. “Our team is using ideas from epidemiology and machine learning to develop tools to forecast the…
Synthetic data based on records ensures confidentiality
A University of Alberta researcher is developing an inventive solution to a problem plaguing health-care research around the world: how to make data-driven decisions without compromising the privacy of personal medical records. Dean Eurich, professor in the School of Public Health, is academic lead on a project that has successfully created a “synthetic data” set that…
Strength in agricultural, environmental and engineering research shows in latest NTU rankings based on scientific publications
Bolstered by a strong showing in agriculture, the University of Alberta landed in the top 100 of a world ranking that compares the scientific performance of universities based entirely on academic publications. According to the 2021 NTU Ranking, calculated by National Taiwan University, the U of A ranked 91st globally – up one spot over last…
Microfabrication tools allow inventors to design and test precision medical devices at rapid speeds
In the world of precision medicine, really, really small is a really big deal. That’s certainly the case for western Canadian entrepreneurs who have big ideas for tiny medical devices, thanks to a new investment from Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) in a University of Alberta facility. Medical device developers now have access to $1.5 million in…
Eden Redman co-founded student group-turned-non-profit to support students exploring new ways for computers to interact with the brain
Everything from brain-controlled prosthetics to games that are responsive to brain activity are within our grasp, according to University of Alberta student Eden Redman. Redman’s work promoting and expanding access to brainwave-sensing technology has earned him the Student Entrepreneur of the Year award at Startup Edmonton’s YEG Startup Community Awards. Announced at an online ceremony in May,…
Star Trek-like scanners may be on the verge of becoming a reality
Futuristic handheld scanners that can instantly diagnose all that ails us are on the verge of becoming a reality, thanks to a University of Alberta researcher whose use of artificial intelligence (AI) to pinpoint a growing host of disorders landed him an unprecedented research chair. Jacob Jaremko, a pediatric and musculoskeletal radiologist and researcher in…
Alberta-based 48Hour Discovery works with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to streamline the process
With the cost of drug development beginning to skyrocket in the 1990s, pharmaceutical giants thought the path to better economics lay in high-throughput screening facilities that would test libraries that ranged in size from a few thousand up to million compounds at a time. “Separate shelves, many rooms, with the emphasis on robotics and automation…
