Events

[] Join the IEEE Toronto Instrumentation & Measurement – Robotics & Automation Joint Chapter for a talk on the Walking with Robots, presented by Dr. Amy R. Wu from Queen's University. Wednesday, July 31, 2024 @ 5:00 – 6:00 PM Abstract: A world embedded with robots seems inevitable. One challenge, however, is designing robots to work with us, not against us. It is unclear how assistive robots, such as robot companions, would affect activities of human daily living, such as walking. To inform the design of controllers that enable seamless human-robot interaction during walking tasks, we first sought to determine whether legged robots could affect human walking behavior. Robots have the potential to greatly improve human lives, but we should ensure they are designed to interact well with us to minimize mechanical and possibly energetically related consequences from human-robot interaction. In this talk, Dr. Amy R. Wu will discuss two studies they conducted with human participants and quadrupedal robots walking side-by-side. They compared human behavior with and without the robot and found that legged robots can affect human gait even without physical interactions, which has implications for the design of robot companions or monitoring robots. Speaker(s): Amy R. Wu, PhD, P.L.Eng Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/425309

Federated learning (FL) is an efficient and privacy-preserving distributed learning paradigm that enables massive edge devices to train machine learning models collaboratively. Although various communication schemes and algorithm designs have been proposed to expedite the FL process in resource-limited wireless networks, the unreliable nature of wireless channels, device heterogeneity, and data heterogeneity are still less explored. In this talk, number of solutions solutions will be discussed for addressing the above practical challenges in wireless FL. Firstly, to tackle the unreliable wireless channels, a novel FL framework, namely FL with gradient recycling (FL-GR), which recycles the historical gradients of unscheduled and transmission-failure devices to improve the learning performance of FL will be discussed. Secondly, to solve the heterogeneity issues, partial model aggregation, knowledge aided learning and adaptive model pruning-based FL framework will be explained. Based on our research experience, some open problems of wireless FL will be provided. Speaker(s): Professor Arumugam , Room: 460, Bldg: ENG, 245 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5B 1Z4

The IEEE Blockchain Forum is returning as part of (https://www.canadacryptoweek.com/) for a second edition. The goal of this forum is to congregate BUIDLers, researchers, academics, and engineers building blockchain protocols, infrastructure, and decentralized software applications. Our theme for this year is Securing Blockchain infrastructure for the Financial Services Industry. Since our last gathering, two ETF launches brought the crypto industry a mile or two closer to mass adoption. The ranks of institutional players such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale (socgen), and others keep growing. Beyond the realm of finance, enterprise blockchain has found its way to the technology stack of industry leaders as diverse as Toyota, L'Oréal, Visa, and Samsung to name few. Still, this technology is fairly new. For example, the Ethereum network (the world computer doted with a Turing-complete programming language) went live only 9 years ago, on July 30th, 2015. A lot more work is required for the technology to mature, particularly on the cybersecurity front. Although the public chains have proven reliable in securing assets, bridges and other smart contracts have proven to be less worthy of trust. As blockchain technology becomes one of the key issues shaping the public discourse during the US presidential election, industry leaders will soon be faced by questions regarding quality of service, ethical use, and its level of security. This forum invites researchers and engineers to share their research and best practices to secure blockchain infrastructure for the core services our industry and our society rely upon, starting with the financial services. Speakers include - David Barreto, Developer Advocate at Starknet Foundation - Baltazar Rodriguez, Acting Head at the BIS Toronto Innovation Hub - Dr. Soosan Naderi, Blockchain Director at Cyber Security Global Alliance (CSGA) - Zhiyang Chen, PhD student at University of Toronto - Adit Patel, Co-founder of Blockscope - Irene Katzela, CTO at Dandelion - Marc Lijour, Financial Services Innovation at Exaion and Adjunct Faculty at International Business University - Christian St. Louis, Data & Research at Ethereal Ventures - Andres Assmus, CEO at CityZeen - Sam Drissi, CEO at Artizyou - Opinder Preet Singh, Founder & CEO at PropTy - Ehsan Shariati, COO and Co-founder at Functionland - Géraldine Jippé, COO and co-founder of AssetsWaves - Dr. Keerthi Nelaturu, Technical Advisor at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Co-sponsored by: Ontario Centre of Innovation, Exaion, Starknet, InCyber Forum North America Speaker(s): Baltazar Rodriguez, David Barreto, Soosan Naderi, Zhiyang Chen, Marc Lijour, Irene Katzela Agenda: Agenda 1pm - 1:15 pm Welcome and introductions - Marc Lijour and Irene Katzela, co-chairs of the Toronto IEEE Blockchain local group 1:15 pm - 1:30 pm Welcome from our sponsor and host: Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) 1:30pm - 2pm Talk #1: Evolving Financial Landscapes: A Pragmatic Approach to Blockchain Integration By Baltazar Rodriguez, Acting Head, BIS Innovation Hub Toronto 1:30pm - 2pm Talk #2: Cairo, a general purpose CPU for creating verifiable programs By David Barreto, Developer Advocate at Starknet Foundation 2pm - 2:30 pm Panel discussion - Securing public blockchains Moderator: Marc Lijour Panelists: David Barreto, Adit Patel, Soosan Naderi, Zhiyang Chen, Christian St. Louis, Ehsan Shariati 2:30pm - 3pm Talk #3: Data propagation, security and consensus in Ethereum network By Soosan Naderi, PhD, Blockchain Director at Cyber Security Global Alliance (CSGA) 3 pm - 3:30 pm Talk #4: Demystifying Invariant Effectiveness for Securing Smart Contracts By Zhiyang Chen, PhD student at the University of Toronto and Research Engineer at Zircuit 3:30pm - 4 pm Panel discussion - RWA Tokenization Moderator: Marc Lijour Panelists: Opinder Preet Singh, Sam Drissi, Andres Assmus, Dr. Irene Katzela, Géraldine Jippé 4 pm - 5 pm Networking Room: Suite 300, 325 Front Street West, 3rd floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5V 2Y1

Join this virtual workshop to explore essential platforms and strategies for building your online presence. Delve into Meta Ads creation, optimization, and analytics, and gain the skills to craft compelling campaigns. Learn to navigate additional advertising platforms such as Google Ads and master the fundamentals of Google SEO. Discover which platform best suits your unique needs and how to effectively utilize them to enhance your online presence. Whether you're a beginner or looking to refine your digital marketing skills, this workshop will provide you with the knowledge and tools to succeed in the digital world. Speaker(s): , Ayda Naseri Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/430054

[] Join the IEEE Toronto Instrumentation & Measurement – Robotics & Automation Joint Chapter for a talk on the Supporting Patient-Clinician Collaboration on Shared Surfaces, presented by Dr. Fateme Rajabiyazdi from Carleton University. Tuesday, August 20, 2024 @ 4:00 – 5:00 PM Abstract: Patient health data needs to be discussed between patients and clinicians to make treatment decisions, inform lifestyle changes and improve care management. Sharing this data is necessary to allow for the simultaneous review of, interaction with, and manipulation of the data. However, there is a lack of meaningful collaboration and appropriate technological tools to enable close interactions between the clinical team and patients. Standard technological devices (i.e., a computer, a desktop monitor) and systems (i.e., electronic health records) that are available in clinics do not have the capabilities to facilitate a patient’s view or understanding of the data, nor interactions with their data. As a result, patients are not empowered to share health responsibilities with clinicians to discuss and make clinical care decisions. In this talk, Dr. Rajabiyazdi will discuss their progress in designing innovative technological data-centric systems displaying patient health data on shared surfaces to empower patient-clinician interaction using an iterative people-centered method. Speaker(s): Fateme Rajabiyazdi, Ph.D., P.Eng. Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/423931

Abstract : Digital computing is approaching its fundamental limits just as compute-intensive workloads like machine learning are taking off. To address this, we are building a new kind of computer–an analog optical computer–to accelerate AI inference and hard optimization workloads. The computer has the potential to improve the efficiency and sustainability of these workloads by around 100x by stepping away from several fundamentally limiting aspects of general-purpose digital computing. It leverages chip-scale optical and electronic technologies from the consumer space that are low cost and scalable. In this talk, I will describe two generations of this computer that we have built, outline our roadmap for scaling, and discuss the importance of hardware-software co-design for such emerging computers and their potential for accelerating real-world problems in the post-Moore Law’s era. Speaker(s): Dr. Hitesh Ballani, Bldg: McConnell Engineering building, , Room MC603, 6th floor, 817 Sherbrooke St W, , Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 0C3, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/430520

[]Join the IEEE Toronto Instrumentation & Measurement – Robotics & Automation Joint Chapter for a talk on the Materials As Machines, presented by Dr. Irina Garces from Carleton University. Wednesday, August 21, 2024 @ 4:30 – 5:30 PM Abstract: The Materials as Machines Lab specializes in developing systems and devices geared toward producing material systems that can adapt or be tailored to variable operating conditions. Our focus lies in the development of smart material systems applicable across a spectrum of fields, including deployable actuators, manipulators, soft robotics, wearables, and biomedical applications. Leveraging additive manufacturing, these innovative material systems offer practical, cost-effective solutions for engineering challenges. By integrating sensors into multifunctional actuating materials, we create dynamic structures and assemblies capable of self-sensing and adaptation. In this presentation, Dr. Garces will present their ongoing research on self-sensing actuation, tailored additive manufacturing, and explore the transformative potential of this technology in prosthetics, and examine its diverse applications across industries. Speaker(s): Irina Garces, Ph.D. Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/424150