Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
289-2366 Main MallVancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
Tel: 604-822-6894 Fax: 604-822-9013
Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS)
Adding Dimension to ResearchICICS is an umbrella organization at the University of
British Columbia that helps bring down disciplinary
walls. Over 150 members from 18 different depart-
ments collaborate through ICICS’ programs, state-of-
the-art lab facilities, and industrial contacts. Research
projects gain added dimension from this mix of
diversified talents, and reach society through com-
mercialization.
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Our Mission:To proactively foster innovative multi-disciplinary research in advanced technologies systems for sustainable communities.
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HistoryICICS has promoted multidisciplinary research in
advanced technologies systems since 1986. In 2000,
membership was expanded from Computer Science,
Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechani-
cal Engineering to include faculty from across the
campus. Many synergistic research innovations have
resulted that have helped improve our lives. In today’s
world, where traditional disciplinary boundaries are
constantly shifting, ICICS is ideally positioned to foster
scientific and technological breakthroughs that ad-
dress key societal problems.
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ICICS People: A Spectrum of TalentOver 150 faculty members collaborate with ICICS, from: Computer
Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineer-
ing, Biomedical Engineering, Architecture and Landscape Archi-
tecture, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Mining Engineer-
ing, Mathematics, Statistics, Commerce, Medicine, Forestry,
Psychology, Music, Linguistics, and Education.
ICICS members and their students have access to ICICS’
state-of-the-art lab facilities and equipment. They
also benefit from ICICS programs and other initiatives
that strengthen ties between researchers and industry,
facilitate technical transfer of ICICS innovations to indus-
try, and provide scholarships for their top students.
Engineering
Computer Science
Sauder School of Business
Mathematics
Medicine
Forestry
Education
Psychology
Linguistics
Arts
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FacilitiesThe ICICS building is a 60,000 ft2 (5,600 m2) 7-storey
facility housing 46 different labs and state-of-the-
art equipment for conducting research in advanced
technologies systems. ICICS researchers and graduate
students in these labs are making significant strides
in communications technologies, multimedia and 3D,
signal processing, computer vision, haptics, robotics,
assistive devices, medical imaging, user interfaces,
computer animation and graphics, electroacoustic
music, and many other areas. Being housed under
one roof further encourages ICICS researchers to col-
laborate across discipline boundaries.
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Outreach
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Industry DinnerEvery year, ICICS hosts an industry dinner that brings together ICICS researchers and executives from industry. Important collaborations are
often initiated over dinner and reach the marketplace several years later.
Communications WorkshopICICS co-hosts an annual communications workshop for industry, the academic community, and the general public. Recent workshops
have featured our members’ and keynote speakers’ advances in Wireless Networks, Multimedia Communications, Social Networking, Com-
munications for the Smart Grid, Sensor Networks, and Communications Systems for Healthcare.
Biomedical Engineering WorkshopThis workshop hosted by ICICS brings together ICICS members from engineering with their colleagues in medicine to explore exciting
new research in biomedical engineering, such as Engineering Approaches to Clinical Problems in Parkinson’s Disease, Image Guidance
for Robot-Assisted Surgery, Microelectromechanical Systems for Biomedical Diagnostics, and Catheters and Endoscopes with 3D Imaging
Capabilities.
Expert TalksICICS brings in top experts in a variety of fields to discuss their research with ICICS members and students.
KPMG and ICICSICICS works with the accounting firm KPMG to connect our members with potential industrial supporters.
Partnership with the Peter Wall InstituteICICS and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies co-sponser events that bring researchers from a broad range of disciplines together
to explore exciting new multidisciplinary research initiatives.8
Master of Software Systems Program
The Master of Software Systems (MSS) program founded
and run by ICICS meets the personnel needs of the software
industry. It equips students who have bachelor degrees
in science, engineering, mathematics, business, and other
disciplines with a broad set of software systems skills. The
16-month program comprises 30 credits taken in 3 semes-
ters, and a 4-month industry internship. MSS graduates
are highly successful in finding employment, often with
prominent Canadian and international companies.
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Key Areas of Research• Architectural design• Biomedical technologies• Business processes• Cognitive and behavioural psychology• Communications• Computational intelligence• Computer graphics• Data visualization/mining• Digital multimedia • Distributed systems• eHealth applications• Human–computer interaction• Integrated systems design• Interactive music• Mechatronics• Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)• Nanotechnology• Process automation• Robotics and control• Signal processing• Sustainability• Virtual aerospace manufacturing
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ICICS/TELUS People & Planet FriendlyHome Initiative
An ICICS/TELUS consortium that promotes sustainability while maintaining and improving quality of life.
A new direction for sustainability...
• Technology is the key to establishing innovative sustainability solutions
• This technology can only be developed from multidisciplinary research,
which lies outside industry norms
• ICICS offers multidisciplinary expertise needed for such an endeavor
• This project is applicable to mainstream living environments, can be
easily duplicated and will contribute to our economic growth
Sample ICICS Research Projects
Sample ICICS Research Projects12
Communications
The Communications Group designs and evaluates architec-
tures, algorithms, protocols, and management strategies for
wireless, sensor, and optical networks, and for the Internet
and other communications systems. In one project, a num-
ber of researchers from the group are addressing the looming
problem of bandwidth scarcity for wireless devices. Since this
problem is mostly due to the inflexibility of spectrum alloca-
tion to licensed users, the researchers are investigating the
challenges and opportunities of dynamic, flexible spectrum
access, or cognitive radio technology. This enables rarely used
licensed or unlicensed frequency bands to be utilized by wire-
less networks. Once optimized, cognitive radio will allow more
efficient and flexible use of the radio spectrum.
The Communications Group has many industrial collabo-
rators nationally and abroad, including TELUS Mobility, Nokia,
and Qualcomm.
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3D Video Innovations
For 3D video to be widely adopted, the viewing experience
needs to be rich, immersive, true-to-life, comfortable, and
not require the viewer to wear glasses. The ICICS Digital
Multimedia Lab is advancing the state-of-the-art in 3D video
to achieve this leap in quality. High Dynamic Range (HDR)
video technology invented at UBC is being incorporated to
provide life-like contrast. Guidelines are being developed
that will make capturing of real scenes feasible and the end
result pleasant to watch. Novel video processing techniques
will allow tailoring of content for different displays. New
compression techniques will enable broadcast of data-
intensive 3D HDR video.
Glasses-free displays are also being developed. One
display uses rapidly rotating optical elements to simultane-
ously render up to 30 3D viewpoints. Another prototype
uses multi-layered LCD panels to produce the 3D effect.
Sample ICICS Research Projects14
Psychology and ICICS
The Brain and Attention Research (BAR) Lab uses cutting-
edge technology to study human cognition and its associ-
ated neural mechanisms and behavioural outcomes in com-
plex, real-world settings. This requires a multidisciplinary
approach, with methodologies that include eye-tracking,
body-motion tracking, naturalistic observation, functional
brain imaging, experience sampling, multimodal stimula-
tion, and physiological monitoring. Populations studied
range from young to old and from healthy individuals to
people with brain and behavioural disorders due to disease
or injury.
The BAR Lab contributes to ICICS projects where
psychological assessments are required. One example is
assessing the user quality-of-experience when viewing 3D
video generated by a suite of novel techniques.
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Sample ICICS Research Projects
Managing Disasters
Catastrophic events such as earthquakes make the
connections among critical infrastructures (power,
water, transportation, communications, hospitals, etc.)
painfully clear. Coordinating their responses, however,
is difficult because managers don’t want to share their
data. An ICICS-led team has developed a simulator
that helps infrastructure managers prepare for disas-
ters and make coordinated decisions in real-time dur-
ing crises, while protecting the privacy of exchanged
information. The team is now the key player in an in-
ternational effort involving seven countries, and has a
state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Centre in the
ICICS building. Their system was chosen to provide
planning and decision support during the 2010 Winter
Olympics in Vancouver.
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“Virtual” Aerospace Manufacturing
In aerospace manufacturing, the need for precision
and the cost of materials like titanium mean that
parts must be made right, the first time, with no room
for error. A system invented in the Manufacturing Au-
tomation Lab enables manufacturers to perfect mill-
ing dynamics virtually before any machining occurs.
Roughly 80% of the world’s aerospace companies,
including Boeing, Airbus, Pratt & Whitney, and Bom-
bardier, rely on the virtual-machining expertise of
UBC’s Manufacturing Automation Laboratory.
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Image courtesy of Exotic Matter AB
Sample ICICS Research Projects
Realistic Film Simulations Physics-based animation software invented at
ICICS can produce highly realistic simulations of
smoke, liquids, clothing, and more. It has been
used in films such as the Harry Potter series,
10,000 BC, Hell Boy II: The Golden Army, The Dark
Knight, and Inkheart. A scene from Avatar cre-
ated using these techniques, in which one of the
Na’vi drinks rain water from a leaf, won the “Best
Single Visual Effect of the Year” award in 2010
from the Visual Effects Society.
ICICS Goes to Hollywood
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Capturing Faces for Animation
A markerless facial capture system developed at ICICS uses com-
mercially available video cameras to create animations based on
real faces. The result is highly detailed animations that can con-
vey a range of human emotions. A library of different expressions
and positions can be created for a given character, which can lat-
er be altered—virtual makeup can be applied, for instance—and
used in different scenes. Aliens may soon no longer dominate
the world of facial animation.
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Sample ICICS Research Projects
Computer Vision
SIFT is a computer vision technique for identifying scenes
and objects that is in wide use around the world. The algo-
rithm breaks up an object or scene into many small features
that can be identified regardless of scale, orientation, illumi-
nation, etc. These features are then matched to features in
a training database, and the object or scene identified. SIFT
has many applications, such as enabling mobile robots to
locate themselves and assess their surroundings, or stitch-
ing together overlapping images into a panoramic scene.
SIFT was used by Sony in their robotic dog, AIBO.
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Smart Powered Wheelchair A “smart” powered wheelchair under development uses
computer vision, sonar, GPS, infrared, etc., to learn about
its location and possible hazards, such as staircases or other
wheelchairs, to prevent accidents. The aim is to increase the
independence and improve the quality of life for people
confined to wheelchairs in settings such as group homes,
where powered wheelchairs are not currently allowed for
safety reasons.
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Sample ICICS Research Projects
The Sounds of ICICS ICICS has a state-of-the-art sound studio where re-
searchers from Music, Linguistics, and Electrical Engi-
neering collaborate on award-winning interactive music
projects. Software developed in the studio enables a
computer to follow a musical score based on pitch, so
interactive audio and video clips can be triggered. In
another project, gloves are worn by a performer that
can be used to generate song and produce additional
sounds and images, opening the door to a singer creat-
ing her own audio-visual accompaniments.
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Assistive Technologies Robotic systems are being refined to help elderly people and those with
disabilities in their daily activities. One example is an interactive per-
sonal robot that interprets a user’s speech, body language, eye move-
ment, and physiological responses when carrying out tasks. These be-
haviours, and others aimed at manufacturing applications, are being
incorporated into the PR2 personal robot, which is known for its “soft
touch”. ICICS is the only university facility in Canada equipped with this
state-of-the-art robot.
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Sample ICICS Research Projects
Guidance System for Robotic Surgery
An ICICS team is improving the guidance system of surgical ro-
bots so surgeons won’t have to rely on vision alone to guide in-
struments. Different types of images (e.g., ultrasound, MRI, X-ray,
CT scan) taken both before and during the operation are fused
to create an “augmented reality” view that will enable surgeons
to minimize tissue and nerve damage. The team is focusing on
prostate- and kidney-cancer treatment, where minimally inva-
sive surgery is crucial. Their system could be used for a number
of procedures in the future, with a profound impact on health-
care—better surgical outcomes, shorter hospital stays, faster
recovery times.
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Mobile Respiratory Monitoring
Pulse oximeters monitor blood oxygen levels through a finger-
tip sensor, and issue alerts when levels become critical. They
have saved many lives since becoming the standard of care in
anesthesia in the early 1980s. However, a lack of resources and
training have limited their use in the developing world, where
mortality from anesthesia is 100–1,000 times that in the devel-
oped world.
The Phone Oximeter combines a pulse sensor and module
with a smart phone to create a low-cost device that can display
real-time respiratory information, using symbols that cross lan-
guage barriers. Clinical expertise will be added to the software
in the future that will allow non-specialists to monitor anesthe-
sia. The low cost, simplicity, and real-time wireless communica-
tion capability of the Phone Oximeter also lends itself to home-
based management of respiratory disease.
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3D
Spin-off Companies
Motion Metrics International Corp.: This internationally suc-cessful ICICS-incubated company develops intelligent embed-ded monitoring systems for the open-pit mining industry.
Point Grey Research Inc.: is a worldwide leader in the devel-opment of advanced digital camera technology products for machine vision, industrial imaging, and computer vision appli-cations. The company was founded in 1997 based on 3D stereo camera technology developed in the ICICS Laboratory for Com-putational Intelligence.
Brightside Technologies: was founded by an ICICS computer scientist and his colleague from Physics, to commercialize their High Dynamic Range (HDR) display technology. These displays are 50 times brighter than conventional displays and are capa-ble of displaying images close to the way humans see them. Brightside was purchased by Dolby Laboratories in 2007.
Exotic Matter AB: This animation company was co-founded by an ICICS computer scientist based on his photorealistic anima-tions of smoke, liquids, clothing, and more. These techniques adhere to the laws of physics and have been used in films such as the Harry Potter series, 10,000 BC, Hell Boy II: The Golden Army, and The Dark Knight. Exotic Matter did the water animation se-quences for Avatar.
Zite: is an iPad app that uses machine learning to automati-cally create a personalized “magazine” by discovering user preferences. It is based on technology developed by ICICS-supported UBC computer science students for the web discov-ery engine Worio. Zite was acquired by CNN in August 2011.
3D Gateway Solutions, Inc.: is developing innovative cap-ture, compression, and display techniques aimed at making 3D the dominant display format.
Recon Instruments: develops display goggles for skiers and snowboarders that provide real-time feedback such as speed, latitude/longitude, altitude, distance travelled, etc. NASA is looking at Recon technology for use in spacesuit helmets.
Cloudburst Research, Inc.: applies the latest research in com-puter vision to create compelling consumer applications on mobile devices.
A number of successful spin-off companies have been incubated at ICICS, including:
3D Gatewaysolutions inc.
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Research innovations realized by ICICS members are transferred to society through industrial partnerships. Hundreds of US patents have been issued to ICICS members, and over 30 of them have been licensed by companies. Companies ICICS members have collaborated with since 2001 include:
Industrial Collaborators
Advanced Telecommunications Research Laboratories Agilent Technologies AMS Homecare Inc.Apple Computer Inc.Archus Orthopedics Ascalade Communications AT&T ResearchBC HydroBC Ministry of Transportation BC Transmission Corp. Bell Canada Boeing Braintech Inc. BroadbandTV Cameleon Controls Canfor Cisco Systems City Tel (Prince Rupert) CMC COM DEV Council of Forest Industries Crosslight Curtiss-Wright Controls
Dolby Laboratories Dyaptive Systems EJC Tamrock Loaders Electronic Arts EM Technologies Entrust EXI Wireless Systems Inc. Forintek FPInnovations fSONA Systems Corp. General Motors of Canada Google Greenland Corp. Greenley & Associates Guard RFID Solutions Inc. Hermary Opto Electronics Hewlett Packard Highland Valley Copper Howe Sound Pulp & Paper IBM Research IDELIX Software Inco Insightful Corporation
Kensington Computer Products Group Kintama Research Corp. Lafarge North America MacDonald Dettwiler (MDA) Manitoba Hydro McKesson Medical Image Group Micronet Microsoft Corporation MidNet MIMOW Technology Motion Metrics International Motorola Wireless Data Systems Division Nanowave Technologies Inc. Nippon Steel Corporation Nissan Motor Co. Nokia Mobile Phones Nortel China Nortel Networks Northern Digital Inc. Novax Industries Corp. Nxtphase Corporation Oculus Information
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OMNEX Control Systems ULC P2P Health Systems Inc. Paprican (Pulp & Paper Research Institute of Canada) Partners for Advancement of Collaborative Engineering (PACE) Plaintree Systems Inc. PMC-Sierra Point Grey Research Powertech Labs Inc. Pratt and Whitney Canada Process Simulations Limited QLT Inc. Recombo Restore Medical Rogers Cable Communications Inc. SAP Shanghai Post & Telecom Shaw Communications Shell Canada Sierra Wireless SMART Technology Sony Spark Robotics Technology Inc. SST Wireless Inc. Sun Microsystems Syncrude Canada
Tality Corporation TELUS Thomson Corporate Research Thought Technology Ltd. Ultrasonix Medical Corporation Valhalla Systems Inc. VeriChip Corp. Versawave Western Clinical Engineering Westport Power Inc. Weyerhaeuser Inc. Wireless 2000 Inc. Xerox Canada Zak Technologies
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BC Cancer Agency
BC Neurotrauma Fund
Canadian Space Agency
City of Vancouver
Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
Defence Research and Development Canada
Greater Vancouver Regional District
International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD)
Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology
LifeSciences BC
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
National Taiwan University of Science
North Pacific Marine Science Foundation
North Pacific Universities Mammal Research Consortium
Collaborations with Other Organizations
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UBC’s Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) is an umbrella organization that promotes collaboration among researchers from the faculties of Applied Science, Arts, Commerce, Education, Forestry, Medicine, and Science, and with industry. ICICS facilitates the collaborative multidisciplinary research of approximately 150 faculty members and 800 graduate students in these faculties.
Our members attract approximately $18 million annually in grants and contracts. Their work strengthens Canada’s
Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
289-2366 Main MallVancouver, BC V6T 1Z4 Canada
Tel: 604-822-6894 Fax: 604-822-9013
Connecting Knowledge
© Copyright 2011 ICICS. All rights reserved.