Explore engineering-, science- and environmental studies-based research at a celebration co-hosted by three of York’s Faculties in collaboration with the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation and York Libraries on Friday, Feb. 28.
The event highlights the research of five York scholars on topics ranging from three-dimensional (3-D) augmented urban spaces, the exploration of searching for other universes, 3-D imaging and measurements for photogrammetric engineering and an opportunity to learn more about 3-D Printing Services at Steacie Library.
Robert Hache
“This research celebration provides an opportunity for members of the York community to learn more about the breadth of engineering research at the University and its connections to other disciplines including science and environmental studies,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation. “Throughout the year, we will continue to highlight research in the five areas of opportunity for the strategic development of research, as described in the Strategic Research Plan, Building on Strength.”
Students, faculty and staff are invited to the celebration, from 2 to 4pm, in the Lassonde Building Lobby. The event will feature mini-research byte presentations followed by a Q&A session with the audience and various research demonstrations. To RSVP to Engineering that Matters, fill out the form by Feb. 26.
Featured presenters include: Lassonde School of Engineering Professors Gunho Sohn and Costas Armenakis; Associate Lecturer Hugh Chesser; Adjunct Librarian Sarah Shujah of the Steacie Science & Engineering Library; Matthew Johnson, a Faculty of Science professor; and Christina Hoicka, a professor and PowerStream Chair in Sustainable Energy Economics, Faculty of Environmental Studies.
Alongside these research presentations, many other interesting research projects taking place at Lassonde and York will be showcased and demonstrated, including an interactive demonstration from the Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design, the Athenians Project demonstration led by Professor Nick Cercone, Geomatics Engineering display, a 3-D printing showcase with the Steacie Science & Engineering Library and the York University Rover Team.
Costas Armenakis
Costas Armenakis: Geomatics Engineering, A Flavour of 3-D Imaging Applications
Professor Armenakis will present his work on 3-D imaging and measurements for photogrammetric engineering and remote sensing mapping from terrestrial, aerial and space-borne imaging and ranging sensors. He will demonstrate the importance of positioning-centric research and how engineering research conducted on unmanned mobile mapping systems, 3-D landscape modelling, road assets extraction, monitoring of ice fields and spatially based emergency management systems can provide solutions for the socio-economic betterment of society.
Gunho Sohn
Gunho Sohn: 3-D Virtual Augmented City
Professor Sohn’s talk will introduce the emerging concept of augmented urban spaces and its applications and provide an overview of ongoing research projects at York in relation to urban sustainability, infrastructure risk monitoring and disaster management. In particular, this presentation will concentrate on fundamentals and the state of the arts to automatically reconstruct 3-D urban models, including building rooftops, facades, single trees, power lines, railway and indoor space modelling from remote sensed data. The presentation also presents recent works to model augmented urban spaces and spatial awareness and discuss its limitations and future research directions.
Christina Hoicka
Christina Hoicka: Socio-technical Research and Sustainable Energy
Professor Hoicka will describe her development as an interdisciplinary researcher with training in engineering, strong sustainability and environmental studies, and geography. Her research program focuses on the study of energy decisions, community energy planning and the transition to sustainable energy systems.
Matthew Johnson
Matt Johnson: Searching for Other Universes
Professor Johnson will explore how human conception of the size and diversity of the universe has changed dramatically throughout history. The existence of other planets, stars and galaxies was once wild speculation. However, we now have observational evidence that the universe contains hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. Is this all there is? A nexus of ideas from theoretical cosmology, quantum gravity and string theory suggests that it isn’t. Rather, these theories predict the existence of an enormous diversity of regions, each of which could rightfully be called a universe; these theories suggest that we inhabit a multiverse. Perhaps most excitingly, this idea can be tested with observations of the large-scale structure of the observable universe. This talk will explore the multiverse, and what these ideas might mean for science and society.
From left, Hugh Chesser and Sarah Shujah
Sarah Shujah and Hugh Chesser: 3-D Printing Services @ Steacie Library
Shujah (adjunct librarian) and Chesser (associate lecturer) will discuss the set of 3-D touch printers that are being set up in the Steacie Library to give students and faculty the ability to produce relatively simple plastic components. The talk will describe how the service can be accessed, show some examples of printer output and provide some tips and tricks for component design and print set-up.