• Advanced Topics on Scalable Deployment of Machine Learning and Drone-Based Search and Rescue

    Online via Zoom Toronto, Ontario Canada

    On Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 1:00 p.m., Dalia Hanna and Mujahid Sultan will be presenting “Advanced Topics on Scalable Deployment of Machine Learning and Drone-Based Search and Rescue”. Day & Time: Thursday, July 23, 2020 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Speakers: Dalia Hanna, Mujahid Sultan Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, IEEE IM/RA, Ryerson CS Graduate Student Council, IEEE Ryerson Computational Intelligence Chapter, Ryerson CSCU Location: Virtual – Zoom Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Title: Factors affecting the Automation of the Search and Rescue Operations: An Algorithm on Finding Missing Lost Persons Living with Dementia Abstract: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are now used in many applications. The focus in this presentation is on their use in public safety, specifically in search and rescue (SAR) operations involving lost persons living with dementia (LPLWD). When it comes to saving lives, there are many human factors associated with UAV operations that impact the performance of expert human SAR teams that could be improved through forms of automation. These include familiarity with the search location, tasks associated with piloting and search/flight management during SAR operations.  A LPLWD may not be interested in assisting in their own rescue as they may not know they are lost. As such, it has been observed that they tend to keep walking until they are faced with an obstacle that bars their further progress. The approach presented in this research work focuses on developing a people finding algorithm to identify higher probability locations where an LPLWD might be found, through informed, behavior-based analysis of the search location; then, developing an algorithm to fly a UAV to the vicinity of these higher probability locations.  The algorithm was tested and validated through field testing. The results from both the data collection process and the field tests indicated that there are efficiencies in using the drone, which enhances the probability of finding the lost person alive.  An informed cleaning process involving both manual and ‘R’-automated approaches to scrub and augment the data–adding any missing values in the dataset, helped in understanding the behaviour of the lost person and in determining what significant variables enhanced their survivability. Linear regression was utilized to acquire the correlation among the numeric values in the database. The analysis indicated that there was no significant correlation among the independent variables; however, the data indicated that the wanderer tended to be found closer to where they left or were last seen. Logistic regression was used to investigate the survivability using three classification models. Finally, a framework is presented considering all the factors form the field tests and data analysis. Title: How to build and deploy machine learning models in the scalable cloud  Abstract: Machine learning model development is a skill taught at schools and is a good skill to have but where most of the student’s lake is how to serve these models to the clients. How to scale. Make sure that the server does not die if it gets a million hits in a second. How to build security around it. Agenda: Interested students who want to build along with me, can bring their laptop with MobaXterm installed and we can do the following together. login to a cloud environment (I will provide the cloud login credentials during the presentation) create a virtual environment for development build a semantic search engineby pulling libraries from the net pick a visualization and presentation method from D3JS develop an application using MVC pattern like the flask wrap the application in a docker container install scalable web engine like NGINX host it to the cloud (azure) provide secure access with a username and password to anyone on the internet This presentation will expose the tools required to build scalable machine learning applications in the cloud. Registration: Please visit https://forms.gle/7ZoimYgVjjpC9mag8 to register. Biographies: Dalia Hanna Topic: Factors affecting the Automation of the Search and Rescue Operations: An Algorithm on Finding Missing Lost Persons Living with Dementia Dalia Hanna is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Computer Science, Ryerson University. She is a member of Ryerson’s Network-Centric Applied Research Lab, a multidisciplinary Computational Public Safety-focused research lab. She has a B.Sc. in Electronics and Communication Engineering and M.Sc. in Instructional Design and Technology with a specialization in Online Learning. Dalia is also a certified project management professional (PMP ® ) and a certified facilitator. Her research interest in utilizing technology tools for public safety, search and rescue, and emergency management operations. . Dalia authored several research papers and presented in national and international conferences. Mujahid Sultan Topic: Factors affecting the Automation of the Search and Rescue Operations: An Algorithm on Finding Missing Lost Persons Living with Dementia Mujahid Sultan is a senior computer scientist and enterprise architect with vast experience in machine learning, pattern recognition, deep learning, NLP, text synthesis, transcription, time-series forecasting and cloud-native developments (Python, microservices, APIs, Docker, Kubernetes). His current research focus: a) working to develop a robust clustering method with mathematical proofs b) improving learning from imbalanced data on graph-based deep learning backends (TensorFlow, Torch and CNTK), and c) building Machine Learning based dynamic SDN controllers. He has authored in high impact journals in fields of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Visualization, Genetics and Drug Discovery for Cancer, Requirements Engineering and Enterprise Architecture. His publications can be found at https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6721-4044 Areas of Expertise include: Regression, Clustering, Classification, Deep Learning, Convolutional and Recurrent Neural Networks (LSTMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Self-Organizing Maps (SOM), Topic Modeling and Parallel Processing. Expert in info visualization using matlab, matplotlib, D3js and plotly. Skills: Full-stack development: (Angular+Flask+Docker); Python: (Scikit-Learn, Keras, TensorFlow, NLTK, Spacy, NumPy, Matplotlib, SpaCy to name a few); MATLAB: (toolboxes: statistics, microeconomics, parallel processing, bioinformatics to name a few). Platform experience: Docker Containers and Kubernetes on AWS, Azure/Azure Stack and Google Cloud Platform. PaaS/IaaS: (AWS: (Elastic Beanstalk, Lambda, Poly, Sage-Maker), Azure ML, and Heroku).

  • Introduction to NLP for Classification Task – Session 4

    Online via Zoom Toronto, Ontario Canada

    On Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at 6:00 p.m., IEEE Toronto WIE, Computational Intelligence Society, and IM/RA will be hosting “Introduction to Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Classification Task – Session 4”. Day & Time: Wednesday, July 29, 2020 6:00 p.m. ‐ 8:00 p.m. Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, Computational Intelligence Society, IM/RA Society Location: Virtual – Zoom Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi, Younes Sadat Nejad Abstract: Introduction to Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Classification Task is a series of workshops hosted by IEEE Toronto Section, WIE, Computational Intelligence Society, Instrumentation Measurement/Robotics Automation Chapter and Ryerson Advanced AI lab. Our main goal is to get started on NLP classification tasks for competition and explore duplicate question detection and sentiment analysis tasks. In this session, we will be focusing on RNN and LSTM. Register: Please visit https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/236479 or https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/236480 for more details and to register.

  • Measurement, Control and Protection in Smart Grid Energy Management Systems for Smart Buildings in a Smart City

    Toronto, Ontario Canada

    Webinar by the IEEE Ottawa Section, Instrumentation & Measurement Society Chapter (IMS), Power and Energy Society Ottawa Chapter (PES), Reliability Society and Power Electronics Society Joint Chapter (RS/PELS), Communications Society, Consumer Electronics Society, and Broadcast Technology Society Joint Chapter (ComSoc/ CESoc/BTS), and IEEE Ottawa Educational Activities (EA). Day & Time: Thursday, July 30, 2020 6:30 p.m. ‐ 7:30 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Saifur Rahman Organizers: IEEE Ottawa Section, Instrumentation & Measurement Society Chapter, Power and Energy Society Chapter, Reliability Society and Power Electronics Society, Broadcast Technology Society Join Chapter, IEEE Ottawa Educational Activities, IEEE Toronto WIE Location: Virtual – Zoom Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Abstract: Smart grid is a modern electric system with its architecture, communications, sensors, measurements, automation, computing hardware and software for improvement of the efficiency, reliability, flexibility and security. In particular, the smart grid, when fully deployed, will facilitate the (i) increased use of digital information and measurement, control & protection technologies, (ii) deployment and grid-integration of distributed energy resources (DERs), (iii) operation of demand response and energy efficiency programs, and (iv) integration of consumer-owned smart devices and technologies. Different non-linear controls, such as back-stepping control, feedback linearization, model predictive control, and sliding mode control are applied to control DERs, and their grid integration. Another control technique gaining application in the smart grid space is based on multi-agent systems (MAS) which provide autonomy, reactivity and proactivity. As speedy communication facilities, such as fiber-optics, microwave, GSM/GPRS, 4G/5G are becoming the integral parts of the functioning smart grid, the integration of MAS in smart grid applications is becoming simple and feasible. This lecture focuses on the measurement & control issues of the smart grid and how MAS can provide an efficient tool to address such issues. In addition, an overview of the related challenges and opportunities for energy efficient building operation and management with deployment experience in the US will be provided. Register: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/236481 Biography: Prof. Saifur Rahman is the founding director of the Advanced Research Institute (www.ari.vt.edu) at Virginia Tech, USA where he is the Joseph R. Loring professor of electrical and computer engineering. He also directs the Center for Energy and the Global Environment (www.ceage.vt.edu). He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and an IEEE Millennium Medal winner. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the IEEE Electrification Magazine and the IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. In 2006, he served on the IEEE Board of Directors as the Vice President for Publications. He is a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) and has lectured on renewable energy, energy efficiency, smart grid, electric power system operation and planning, etc. in over 30 countries. He was IEEE Power and Energy Society President 2018-2019 and is now a candidate for IEEE President-Elect 2021. He chaired the US National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering, 2010-2013. He conducted several energy efficiency projects for Duke Energy, Tokyo Electric Power Company, US National Science Foundation, US Department of Defense, State of Virginia and US Department of Energy.

  • Career Night Series: Writing an Effective CV

    On Tuesday, October 6, 2020 at 6:00 p.m., IEEE Toronto WIE and IM/RA will host “Career Night Series: Writing an Effective CV”. Day & Time: Tuesday, October 6, 2020 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA, Ryerson Computer Science Location: Virtual Contact: Wincy Li Description: Not sure what the difference is between a resume and a CV? Unclear about how to structure your CV or what content to include? Join us for this webinar to learn how to construct an effective CV! If you require any accessibility needs, please contact Camara Chambers at c.chambers@ryerson.ca. Register: Please visit https://lnkd.in/gBaMf9y to register.

  • Python Project-based Workshop: How to build your own intelligent agent

    On Friday, November 13, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., Enas Tarawneh will present “Python Project-based Workhsop: How to build your own intelligent agent”. Day & Time: Friday, November 13, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Enas Tarawneh Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA, York University WiCSE Location: Virtual Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Abstract: The workshop will focus on creating an intelligent agent that can listen to questions given through natural language and generate natural language responses. The workshop will also dabble into customizing the voice used in these responses. This workshop includes: a) Programming speech recognition. b) Leveraging cloud-based resources such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech and AI querying to generate responses. c) Connect these together to create a turn taking intelligent agent. d) Customizing the voice used in these generated responses. Register: Please click here to register. Biography: Enas Tarawneh is a PhD student at York University in the department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. She works in the Vision, Graphics and Robotics (VGR) Laboratory as a research assistant. Her most recent research involves the development and evaluation of a cloud-based avatar (intelligent agent) for human-robot interaction that is part of a project funded by VISTA. She holds an OGS and VISTA doctoral scholarship. Prior to this, Enas worked as an academic Lead, instructor, and e-learning coordinator in the Institute of Applied Technology in UAE in which she received an award for “Distinguished Curriculum Support” and another for “Excellence in E-learning coordination”. Most importantly, Enas is a wife and mother of three, that believes that open-mindedness and positivism is the best accomplishment and the source of true happiness.

  • Python Project-based Workshop: How to track motion from bird eye multiple camera perspectives

    On Friday, November 27, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., Enas Tarawneh will present “Python Project-based Workhsop: How to build your own intelligent agent”. Day & Time: Friday, November 27, 2020 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Speaker: Enas Tarawneh Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA, York University WiCSE Location: Virtual Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Abstract: The workshop will focus on extracting images from multiple sources (webcam, video, ROS bag) and perform image processing to detect regions of high motion or change over a period. The workshop will also show how to stitch the multiple bird eye views from multiple cameras together to form one image of the floor where the motion is detected. This workshop includes: a) Extracting frames from a camera, video or ROS bag and generating a image stream b) Stitching the multiple bird eye views and calibrating to create one 2D image of the floor c) Perform multiple image processing to extract motion d) Create a motion map on the generated image of the floor. Register: Please click here to register. Biography: Enas Tarawneh is a PhD student at York University in the department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. She works in the Vision, Graphics and Robotics (VGR) Laboratory as a research assistant. Her most recent research involves the development and evaluation of a cloud-based avatar (intelligent agent) for human-robot interaction that is part of a project funded by VISTA. She holds an OGS and VISTA doctoral scholarship. Prior to this, Enas worked as an academic Lead, instructor, and e-learning coordinator in the Institute of Applied Technology in UAE in which she received an award for “Distinguished Curriculum Support” and another for “Excellence in E-learning coordination”. Most importantly, Enas is a wife and mother of three, that believes that open-mindedness and positivism is the best accomplishment and the source of true happiness.

  • Improving Data Usability for Clinicians and First Responders in a Unified Healthcare System

    On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 1:30 p.m., Steve Delaney will present “Improving Data Usability for Clinicians and First Responders in a Unified Healthcare System” and Iwona Sokalska will present “Corda Blockchain as a Sustainable Supply Chain for Open Education”. Day & Time: Thursday, December 10, 2020 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Speakers: Steven Delaney, Iwona Sokalska Organizer: Ryerson CS Graduate Student Council, IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA Location: Virtual Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Abstracts: Title: Improving Data Usability for Clinicians and First Responders in a Unified Healthcare System Cost effective, efficient and exemplary healthcare services is of paramount importance to all Canadians.   Countries around the world are addressing this through the consolidation and integration of siloed patient healthcare records into a unified system.  However, consolidation and advances in technology that generate healthcare data threaten to overload clinicians with information. This makes the usability of healthcare data in terms of speed of access and relevancy that is optimized to the role of the clinician and healthcare scenario, key to the success of the unified healthcare system.   My research objective is to design and demonstrate a solution, that provides clinicians with a superior experience that provides them with the most relevant data for the current needs of the patient in order to determine and apply the best treatment in a timely manner, using Semantic Web and Blockchain technology to support patient privacy and role based access and permission controls. Title: Corda Blockchain as a Sustainable Supply Chain for Open Education: Blockchain solutions are disrupting the established supply chains. The ability to customize the transaction in the “business context” is one of the key reasons why blockchain will play a major role in reinventing the existing rigid supply chains. In this presentation, we are going to look at Corda blockchain features that enable powerful supply chains capable of supporting new business models. We are going to build a case of why such a disruption is needed in the publishing industry to support the Open Education and Higher Education Affordability Act. The open education licences require proper attribution of contributors. One of the challenges in open education is that licences can be easily misused by 3-rd party content purveyors. In addition, content creators often do not know where and how their content is being used. It is impossible for content creators to measure the impact of their works or to prevent licence misuse. Universities, professors, retail bookstores, libraries and 3rd party higher education platforms constitute a complex ecosystem. In this ecosystem, real barriers are causing scaling issues. The issues include content findability, compliance, licence misuse, licence rigidity and proliferation of licence types and lack of interoperability for licences. The presentation will outline a Corda based supply chain and Information Retrieval to addresses these issues. Providing a decentralized platform for independent players in a system to reduce the complexity of transacting. Mainly by using smart contracts to manage licence agreement workflows. Scalability, data privacy and data traceability are key considerations in the Corda blockchain which can be leveraged to support a sustainable business model and healthy ecosystems. Register: Please visit https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/246971 to register. Biographies: Steve Delaney Steve is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at Ryerson University working on the data quality of healthcare records.  He has an MBA from York University and an Honours Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Toronto.  He obtained his ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors/Rotman School of Business.  He is currently on the Board of the CIO Association of Canada and is a member of several Advisory Councils.  Steve is the Co-Founder of Capital Blockchain, a Canadian firm that develops blockchain solutions for the private and public sector.  Previously Steve was the CIO of the Ontario Telemedicine Network, CIO of MCAP ( $100B mortgage firm) and VP Technology at RBC and BCE. Email: steven.delaney@ryerson.ca Iwona Sokalska Iwona Sokalska is a 2nd-year Computer Science PhD student at Ryerson University. Iwona’s interests are in the automation of knowledge dissemination and knowledge extraction. Under the supervision of Professor Andriy Miranskyy, Iwona is developing techniques for semantic code analysis using Artificial Intelligence, specifically Graph Neural Networks. Iwona is a co-founder of OpenSail, a distributed platform for licenced content dissemination. With over 10 years of experience, Iwona has designed products and services in Medical Imaging, Medical Informatics and Enterprise Knowledge Management Systems. Iwona holds an Honours B.Sc. double major in Computer Science and Mathematics from York University and an M.Sc. Data Science and Analytics from Ryerson University. Her mission is to improve the support of Open Education Community and increase adoption of Open Education Resources in institutions around the world.

  • Career Night Series: Writing Attention Grabbing Resumes

    On Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 6:00 p.m., IEEE Toronto WIE and IM/RA will host “Career Night Series: Writing Attention Grabbing Resumes & Cover Letters”. Day & Time: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 9:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA, Ryerson Computer Science Location: Virtual Contact: Wincy Li Description: Unclear about how to tailor a resume to industry jobs? Want to learn how to describe your accomplishments in an impactful manner? In this webinar, you will learn how to gain the attention of hiring managers with well-written resumes and cover letters! For accessibility needs, please contact Wincy at wincyli@ryerson.ca as soon as possible. Register: Please visit https://ryerson.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_K0eDFX2LQtu97tfq0Wpy_w to register.

  • IndustrioTech© Seminars – Smart Maintenance

    IEEE Toronto WIE and IM/RA is hosting “IndustrioTech”, a series of seminars on Smart Maintenance (Predictive Maintenance) using variety of technologies. Day & Time: Thursday, January 28, 2021 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Speakers & Topics: Dr. Ahmad Barari Director of Advanced Digital Manufacturing and Advanced Digital Metrology Laboratories, Associate Professor at University of Ontario Institute of Technology Topic: LIVE Simulation for Predictive Maintenance Mohsen Tayefeh Industry 4.0 strategic Business manager, CAD MicroSolutions Topic: Imperative foundations toward Smart Maintenace: Matching up the Technology with the Business Value Shafiul Alam Research Engineer McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) Topic: Predictive Maintenance and Industry 4.0 (Case study Honda manufacturing plant) Dr. Amir Harandi CEO, Artintech Inc. Topic: ML and GA: Artificial Intelligent techniques in Smart Maintenance Organizer(s): IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA Location: Virtual Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi Register: Please visit here to register.

  • In celebration of International Women’s Day Wearables in Healthcare: A Woman’s Perspective

    Join us for an afternoon celebrating the work of women in wearable technology focused on health and life stages. Network with women using and integrating tech for the value it can provide. Collaborate in workshops where we will co-design the future wearables, apps and services that address our priorities and needs. Date: 10 Mar 2021 Time: 03:00 PM to 05:00 PM Speaker(s): Renn Scott, Samira Rahimi Location: Virtual Organizer(s): IEEE Toronto WIE, IM/RA Contact: Toronto Section Affinity Group,WIE, Toronto Section Jt. Chapter, IM09/RA24 Biographies: Renn Scott; MA, Interaction Design, RCA, Founder + Chief Designer of Daily Goods Design LABS, Senior Director of UX + ID at Myant A design leader and prolific inventor, Renn has a passion for creating innovative user experiences and forward-thinking product designs. With over 20 years of experience at companies such as Myant, IBM and BlackBerry in leadership roles within user experience, design research, consumer insights and strategic innovation, Renn has helped design best in class products and experiences. Renn’s hands-on approach and point of view as a designer is radically different than most. For any project she always starts with ‘WHY create’ in the first place and uses a co-creative design methodology and best practices based on insights gained from female consumers. Renn’s experience and observations has been that there is a lack of female design leaders and designers in the tech and design fields. Instead of just leading by example Renn also strives to empower other women to make, create and innovate in the field of design, technology and fashion by sharing her insights, skills and knowledge through Daily Goods Design LABS pop ups and educational event series. Samira Rahimi Eng. Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, McGill University Samira Rahimi Eng. Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McGill University, affiliated scientist at Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital, and academic member of Mila—Quebec AI Institute. She is FRQS Junior 1 Research Scholar in human-centered AI in primary health care. Her work as Principal Investigator has been funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Roche Canada, Brocher Foundation (Switzerland), and the Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR)-Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). With an interdisciplinary background, Dr. Rahimi is interested in the development and implementation of clinical decision support tools and patient decision aids, as well as integrating human-centered AI tools in primary health care. She specializes in computational intelligence, decision making, and applied operational research in health care.

  • From an Idea to a Startup

    Virtual - Zoom

    We are living in the age of innovation. Every day, innovators are solving many problems that people are facing in life. In the process of innovation, there are many questions about how we can find problems. What is innovation exactly? How can we find solutions? And how can we learn the innovation process? I am Masoud Valinejad, CEO-Director of technology in NovoSolTech Company, and innovation mentor with more than five-year experience, with 10 USA patents, and more than five national and international special prizes in innovation competitions. In this webinar, I want to show you how you can become an innovator and entrepreneur through some steps and practices. Contact: Ayda Naserialiabadi

  • Product Lifecycle Management

    Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/275555

    Product Lifecycle Management is a process used to manage all of the business and technical aspects in the life of a product business, from early stage concept to product retirement. It is used extensively by most Global MultiNational Corporations but it serves small startup businesses very well also. It deals with and includes participation from all of the important business organisations. As such it is very relevant to engineers involved in any aspect of product development. Marto Hoary has worked with a number of multinationals in the USA and Europe where in he has observed and learned the use of this process first hand. Speaker(s): Marto J Hoary, Sr MIEEE, M. Eng. Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/275555