Living and working in a 6G world

What new businesses and business models will emerge in a 6G world?

Living and working in a 6G worldSixth-generation (6G) wireless communications technology, expected by 2030, could offer the potential for truly transformative applications and functionality because of the higher capacity and lower delay time between sending and receiving voice or data over the network (latency). The anticipated microsecond latency of 6G communications will make it 1,000 times faster than the millisecond latency…

How artificial intelligence will change our world

The core technologies involved in AI are moving at breakneck speed

How artificial intelligence will change our worldWhen we think about the next two decades, two existential questions dominate the conversation among futurists and foresight researchers. The first is whether we can prevent the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. The second is what the relationship between technology, humans, and money might look like after 20 years of advancements in artificial intelligence…

How AI bias impacts women and people of colour the most

We need to have more diversity in the data used in training AI databases

How AI bias impacts women and people of colour the mostArtificial intelligence (AI) offers numerous benefits, but training with robust data is essential to developing quality AI systems. Our underwater database assists in developing recognition systems for ocean/sea search and rescue operations, our dental database helps train new dentists in accurate diagnosis of dental diseases, and our facial recognition database assists law enforcement in the…

SimTec MD uses VR to train health professionals

Learning from the pros

SimTec MD uses VR to train health professionalsFor this episode of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by B. McKay Byam of SimTec MD – a company that uses virtual reality to transform the everyday experiences of medical patients, students, and professionals. After all, when you can’t afford to fail in a high-risk environment like health care, how else can you safely provide…

High school injuries inspire engineering grad’s future career

Through engineering, Portia Rayner discovered her calling as an experimenter, innovator and leader

High school injuries inspire engineering grad’s future careerPortia Rayner describes her University of Alberta engineering degree as a seismic “shift in mentality.” At first, she wasn’t at all sure engineering was the right program for her. She had once wanted to be a veterinarian, and later thought chemistry or pharmacology would be a better fit. “You always hear those stories of the…

Creating Canada’s high-tech innovators of tomorrow

Federal funding supports intensive advanced training for future leaders in AI and diabetes research

Creating Canada’s high-tech innovators of tomorrowIn a global competition for talent, Canada is seeking to train the best graduate students to become “highly qualified personnel” – university-educated experts with the savvy and ingenuity to lead innovation in high-tech industries, government and academia. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has announced two new programs at the University of…

Ultrasound holds promise of accurate, risk-free diagnosis of dental disease

Safe, portable imaging system one of five new health technologies funded by Alberta Innovates

Ultrasound holds promise of accurate, risk-free diagnosis of dental diseaseDentists may soon add portable ultrasound to the standard equipment in their offices, allowing them to accurately and affordably diagnose aspects of their patients’ periodontal disease without any risk of radiation. That’s the goal of a University of Alberta research team that will continue to develop and commercialize its patented dental ultrasound system thanks to…

Depression didn’t spike after initial pandemic wave: social media data

Researchers who used AI to analyze keywords on Twitter say people were more resilient than anticipated

Depression didn’t spike after initial pandemic wave: social media dataResearchers who analyzed language related to depression on social media during the pandemic say the data suggest people learned to cope as the waves wore on. University of Alberta researcher Alona Fyshe and her collaborators at the University of Western Ontario hypothesized that depression-related language would spike during each wave of COVID-19. But their study shows…

App uses artificial intelligence to track healing wounds in real time

U of A engineering students beat out 3M and others with an invention that lets patients know when to seek care

App uses artificial intelligence to track healing wounds in real timeThree University of Alberta engineering students have developed a mobile app that tracks the progress of a healing wound. The app calculates whether treatments are working as they should based on descriptions of size, depth and shape along with more subjective impressions of pain and irritation, says programmer Connor Povoledo. Accurate tracking can predict infection…

Canadians not as polarized about energy policy as we imagine

There’s actually a striking amount of broad-based consensus around energy

Canadians not as polarized about energy policy as we imagineA new artificial-intelligence-powered social media tool is showing that Canadians aren’t as polarized about energy policy and transition as we might imagine. Developed by University of Alberta engineering professor Lianne Lefsrud and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, Ai4Buzz uses targeted keywords to harvest, aggregate and examine Twitter conversations about energy and energy policies. Organized by category into a series…