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The Emerging Opportunities Fund is providing young university researchers
with an opportunity to explore new ideas, while giving graduate students
hands-on experience in the lab. It's also giving tomorrow's research
stars a further incentive to stay in Canada.
Dr. Inna Sharf won't have her new space robotics systems laboratory
at McGill University up and running until spring 2004, but she has already
attracted interest from the Canadian Space Agency and industry heavyweight
MD Robotics, developer of the Canadarm. Dr. Sharf is one of 31 university
researchers to receive support this year from the Emerging Opportunities
Fund (EOF) - a new, $900,000 program that helps top academic researchers
who are in the first five years of their careers investigate exciting
new ideas. The program is offered by the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent
Systems (IRIS), a Network of Centres of Excellence managed by Precarn
Incorporated.
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Jump-starting new research at home
The Emerging Opportunities Fund (EOF) awarded more than $900,000 in its first two competitions in 2003. Researchers received up to $35,000 for one year for projects incorporating robotics and intelligent systems (technologies that perceive, reason, and essentially act like humans), which may one day lead to major breakthroughs for Canada on an international scale.
"We have people with PhDs and people with master's degrees going down to the U.S.," says McGill University researcher Dr. Inna Sharf. "So programs like the Emerging Opportunities Fund that help to increase research funding in Canada will help. A lot of it comes down to looking at what the opportunities are. Research funding is what allows you to build your labs and build your research programs."
For York University computer scientist Dr. Hui Jiang, the EOF is helping him build a system that will make it possible for humans to talk to robots using spoken dialogue. "This grant is helping me to establish my research program at York University in my early career stage. With its help, I am able to attract one post-doc fellow into my research group. I really appreciate it."
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"It's harder for newer researchers to get research funding," explains Dr. Sharf, who is developing a new lab at McGill's Mechanical Engineering Department to emulate the weightless environment of space. "Professors who are established and have a reputation usually have an easier time attracting money. For newer researchers, it's tough. The IRIS program helps us get established and build our credibility."
With the funding she received from the EOF in April, the associate professor was able to hire an engineering master's student to work full time on the new lab. The facility features a robotic arm that uses intelligent systems to grasp and manipulate a helium/air-filled balloon - emulating robotic manoeuvres that would happen in space with a free-floating object. The research could one day make it easier to remove space debris and repair satellites in orbit. The lab has received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Space Agency, and now MD Robotics is interested in participating.
Meanwhile, back on earth, another EOF recipient is building a robotic system that can play competitive pool against a human opponent.
"We would like to be the Deep Blue of the robotic pool world," says Dr. Michael Greenspan, referring to the supercomputer that competes against the world's top human chess masters. "We would like to get to the stage where we can beat the best pool players in the world using our robotic system. We think that's achievable within 5 to 10 years."
The system will include a set of cameras positioned above the pool table that will interact with the robotic pool cue to pinpoint the position of balls to within one millimetre. It's a technological marvel that, in addition to its potential entertainment value, will help to enhance the perception, planning, and action capabilities of intelligent systems and identify more effective robotic solutions.
"At this stage, the IRIS funding is being put almost exclusively towards research salaries of students to work on the vision component, which I think is the heart of the system," Dr. Greenspan adds.
A former researcher with the National Research Council's Institute for Information Technology, Dr. Greenspan joined Queen's University two years ago as an associate professor in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering and the School of Computing. He says the support he received in April from the IRIS EOF "fills a very useful niche in the funding spectrum. It allows you to investigate areas that you may not otherwise have the opportunity to explore."
www.precarn.ca
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