Google to build living laboratory for urban innovation in Toronto

rasbachn — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 20:04:43 +0000

rasbachn Tue, 10/17/2017 - 16:04

Cutline

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with elementary school students who spent the day designing the neighbourhood of the future at a workshop held by U of T engineering's outreach program (photo by Roberta Baker)

Tyler Irving

Topic

City & Culture

Cities

Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science

Waterfront Toronto

Subheadline

Sidewalk Toronto will redevelop part of the city’s Port Lands into a technology-enhanced community

Waterfront Toronto is partnering with Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google, to design a new kind of mixed-use, complete community on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.

The project – called Sidewalk Toronto – will be located in a new neighbourhood called Quayside, located in the Port Lands. It will combine forward-thinking urban design and new digital technology to create people-centred neighbourhoods that achieve precedent-setting levels of sustainability, affordability, mobility and economic opportunity.

The announcement was made at Corus Entertainment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory, and featured remarks from Eric Schmidt, the executive chair of Google’s parent company Alphabet, as well as the head of Sidewalk Labs and representatives from Waterfront Toronto.

“A world leader in urban innovation, Sidewalk Labs will create a testbed for new technologies in Quayside – technologies that will help us build smarter, greener, more inclusive cities which we hope to see scaled across Toronto’s eastern waterfront and, eventually, in other parts of Canada and across the world,” Trudeau said at the event.

Trudeau added the project will “effectively transform Quayside into a thriving hub for innovation” and cited Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer of deep learning and a University Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto, as an example of the “innovative thinkers” Canada has to offer.

Hinton, who attended the October 17 announcement, is also an engineering fellow at Google and heads the Silicon Valley company’s artificial intelligence research project in Toronto.

Read about President Gertler's involvement with Waterfront Toronto

Dawn Britton, associate director of engineering outreach at University of Toronto, attended today’s announcement, along with 20 aspiring engineers in Grades 4 to 6 who have participated in engineering outreach programs such as Girls Jr. DEEP, a week-long course fostering experiential learning in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. The students spent the day imagining, designing and building components of the neighbourhood of the future.

At the event, they shared their designs with the prime minister.

“When students see how technology can transform their environment and make a difference in their daily lives, they are inspired to become inventors, innovators and makers,” Britton said.

Sidewalk Toronto offers an opportunity to accelerate and enhance this research through strategic partnerships. It will also inspire a new generation of students to think innovatively about urban design and perhaps develop technologies that could make the cities of the future safer, cleaner and more livable.

“A living laboratory of this kind is a natural partner for our researchers and students as they work across disciplines to address urban and global challenges,” said Cristina Amon, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of our faculty, I would like to welcome Sidewalk Labs to the neighbourhood.”

Interested in AI and augmented reality? ModiFace creates 50 internships for U of T engineering undergrads

ullahnor — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 16:03:39 +0000

Interested in AI and augmented reality? ModiFace creates 50 internships for U of T engineering undergrads

ullahnor Tue, 04/11/2017 - 12:03

Cutline

ModiFace technology lets users virtually manipulate their appearance, trying on makeup products and hair styles in 3D and real time. The company is hiring 50 interns (photo courtesy of ModiFace)

Marit Mitchell

Author legacy

Marit Mitchell

Topic

Breaking Research

Artificial Intelligence

Augmented Reality

Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science

Students

Undergraduate Students

Internships

Subheadline

Company founded by U of T engineering associate professor gives $4 million to support undergraduate, graduate internships and research at Canada’s top-ranked engineering school

Augmented reality startup ModiFace is investing $4 million to create new undergraduate and graduate student internships, and support leading research at U of T's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

The company, founded by Associate Professor Parham Aarabi of the department of electrical & computer engineering, uses augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) to build advanced facial visualization software for the beauty and medical industries. ModiFace technology powers over 100 AR applications by Fortune 500 brands including Sephora, L’Oreal, Allergan, Vichy and Clairol, among others.

“The future of ModiFace is highly dependent on our access to the best AR engineers in the world,” says Aarabi. “For AR, it takes about a year for a new graduate to get up to speed with the latest concepts in artificial intelligence, systems engineering and computer vision. As a result, we want to invest in students early while they’re still in school to start giving them the best training in these fast-moving fields.”

As part of U of T Engineering’s Professional Experience Year (PEY) internship program, ModiFace is hiring 50 undergraduate students into 12- to 16-month paid positions that allow students to gain extensive professional skills before graduation. Applications are now open, and the first cohort will start in May 2017.

The company is also launching ModiFace research internships, modelled after successful research programs by top tech companies in the U.S., which will allow graduate students to complete an enriched research internship during their master’s or PhD studies. A total of 10 graduate students will be undertaking these internships in the next two years. Simultaneously, ModiFace is establishing a research grant program to support industry-partnered research in fields from artificial intelligence and deep learning, to computer vision and graphics.

“ModiFace perfectly illustrates why U of T is the top university for research-based startups in North America,” says Cristina Amon, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “This investment in enriched experiential learning opportunities for our students further reinforces the strong relationship between the excellence of our innovative engineering programs and the thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem around us.”

“ModiFace’s internship programs will help Ontario’s engineering students get the skills and training they need to succeed in the growing field of augmented reality,” said Reza Moridi, Ontario minister of research, innovation and science. “The initiative dovetails with our government’s innovation strategy, including the recent launch of Ontario’s Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which will help Ontario continue to attract top talent and strengthen our province’s innovation and knowledge-based economy.”

The announcement builds on the recent creation of the Vector Institute, a multidisciplinary research and commercialization hub that aims to solidify Toronto’s place as a global AI destination.

Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science

Google to build living laboratory for urban innovation in Toronto

Read more about Geoff Hinton

Read about President Gertler's involvement with Waterfront Toronto

Interested in AI and augmented reality? ModiFace creates 50 internships for U of T engineering undergrads

Read more about the Vector Institute