Engineering EngineeRing University of Victoria, Canada

Vol. 9 No. 2 | Fall 2015

Nick Birch and Tyler Rhodes were not simply gaining work experience during their entrepreneurial co-op terms this year. Instead, these third-year electrical and computer engineering students were busy developing a prototype to help reforest clear-cut areas of B.C.’s forestry land. When they learned that global deforestation greatly exceeds the rate of reforestation, they realized that the implications of this loss could be mitigated with the help of technology and automation.

Tyler and Nick see the bigger picture. “We see a future where technology and automation could make a big impact on reforestation rates. So we decided to combine our passion for electronics engineering with our desire to build something good for the environment and began building the TreeRover.”

The TreeRover prototype is a go-cart sized remote controlled vehicle that plants trees using compressed air in a pneumatic system. Holding up to 10 seedlings per load, the machine punches a hole in the ground, drops a sapling into the newly excavated cavity and a secondary piston packs in the dirt to ensure the sapling is firmly in place. They tested the TreeRover at the Cowichan Lake Research Station and plan to

do additional testing in the spring at one of the University of British Columbia’s research forests.

While their initial prototype cost about $1,600 to build, Nick and Tyler have launched a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo to raise an additional $5,000 to continue developing the machine. They are already in discussions with a forestry research and development company interested in the project. The current model works well on flat terrain but they see future versions adapted to a wider range of terrain types.

“Eventually, we see the TreeRover working in conjunction with an aerial mapping drone which would fly over the planting site and collect data allowing for careful microsite selection. The TreeRover would then navigate to these pre-selected sites guided by GPS and deposit seedlings while collecting a variety of data as it goes,” Tyler said.

Along with being UVic Engineering students, Nick and Tyler are also friends with shared interests, making the project a natural fit. Nick and Tyler both grew up on Vancouver Island and have always enjoyed outdoor pursuits. Given their shared interest, in electronics projects and sustainable

technologies, a tree-planting robot seemed like a logical choice for an entrepreneurial co-op project.

This promising innovation has earned them plenty of local media attention, including features in the Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun, and interviews on CTV, Global News, CFAX Radio and CBC Radio. Their goal is to contribute to an environmental mission to rebuild healthy forests and support the work of tree-planters, not replace them.

More information on their campaign and the TreeRover can be found at: iotaenterprises.com.

Lending a (robotic) hand in the fight against deforestation

A tree seedling after being driven into the ground by the “spike tube” (in a retracted position in this photo). The next step in the planting routine involves a “foot” extending and pressing the soil in around the seedling before the robot moves onto the next site.

Students Nick Birch (left) and Tyler Rhodes, inventors of the Tree Rover

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Welcome to the fall 2015 edition of EngineeRing.

Student demand for Engineering and Computer Science programs continues to be strong, with record high enrolments. This is a nationwide phenomenon and not unique to UVic.

To help maintain a high standard of educational quality we are hiring more professors and staff, and the university has assigned E-Hut to the Faculty of Engineering as research space. The much-renovated E-Hut is one of the few Second World War buildings left on campus.

The Biomedical Engineering program will graduate its first class in the spring of next year, while the Civil Engineering program will offer its first fourth year classes in the summer.

This September we accepted the first cohort of students for the MEng in Telecommunications and Information Security, a full cost recovery graduate program offered by the ECE department.

A Canadian leader in unmanned air systems research, design and flight testing, UVic’s Centre for Aerospace Research (CfAR) received a significant boost in federal funding this year from Western Economic Diversification, NSERC, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, and industry partners, enabling CfAR to continue to lead the development of next-generation unmanned aerial vehicles.

I’m pleased to announce the Faculty’s second Schulich Leader Scholarship winner, Austin Sawyer. Two of these scholarships are given out each year at UVic as part of the largest scholarship program in Canada. You can read more about Austin and the Schulich Scholarship program in this newsletter.

Our students, faculty and staff are grateful for the continuing support of our alumni. Your contributions are important for the faculty and much appreciated. I encourage you to keep in touch and be involved with us and the university. We welcome your feedback and hope to see you on campus soon.

Best wishes,

Tom Tiedje PhD, FCAE, FRSC, PEng.

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Congratulations to Austin Sawyer, recipient of the UVic Schulich Leaders Scholarship in the field of Engineering. A Victoria local, Sawyer enters his first year with an impressive track record for innovation, most recently garnering national awards for a biodegradable oil spill boom he co-developed for a science fair project. This attention also led to an invitation to speak at TedxVictoria last November.

The Schulich Leaders Scholarship program is one of the largest in Canada. Created in 2011 by entrepreneur and philanthropist Seymour Schulich, the scholarships are awarded to 40 students in Canada pursuing undergraduate studies in STEM subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The scholarship for Engineering is $80,000 and $60,000 for other areas of study; and Sawyer is one of two local students awarded the scholarship this year.

Driven towards environmental issues, Sawyer recognizes the significant role that engineering plays in mitigating our

environmental footprint. “Engineering won my attention because I love to create things and learn about how things work. I realized how even the smallest idea could turn into something amazing and there is always room to improve every technology that already exists.” 

Along with working two part-time jobs, Sawyer excels in athletics and still makes time for mentoring and tutoring his younger peers. He knows that being a Schulich leader means much more than academic excellence. For him, it means “you have a unique view on the world. You do not shy away from problems that are challenging and do not skip the mistakes you make.  You must look to the future and constantly be thinking of improving the technology around you and be thinking of ways to help others and inspire others to do the same. Ultimately you have an intense passion for the areas of STEM and believe you can make a difference.”

Congratulations to UVic’s 2015 Schulich Scholar

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If holding the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering wasn’t enough, Dr. Stephanie Willerth, faculty member in both Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Medical Science, is now a Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Young Innovator. In its second year, this international competition is held by the academic journal CMBE. The contest entails a highly competitive process of selection and peer-review. Due to this rigorous vetting process, the final nominees undoubtedly represent the best in the field. Notably, seven of the eleven researchers selected this year are women.

Willerth’s research garnered the panel’s attention for its future implications in neural tissue engineering. Her lab seeks to direct these stem cells to form implantable, engineered tissues by exploring how to replicate the signals and structures found in healthy tissue from the nervous system.

Willerth’s toolkit for engineering neural tissue includes microparticles that can release chemicals over time, as well as Jell-O-like gels that support three-dimensional cell growth. She is combining these materials with reprogrammed adult cells, to create personalized, engineered tissues to repair the nervous system. She was

recognized for her work using these microparticles in a novel fashion for promoting stem cell differentiation.

Willerth is member of the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, a British Columbia-based organization committed to finding treatments for spinal cord injury. By working with this organization, Willerth will help enable the use of engineered neural tissues to alleviate the suffering of patients living with spinal cord injuries.

Helping develop the next generation of biomedical engineers, Willerth was the founding coordinator for UVic’s new Biomedical Engineering program, the first of its kind in Western Canada. The program welcomed its third student cohort this year.

Willerth, along with other Young Innovators, will present her research at the 2015 Annual Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting in Tampa, Florida this fall.

Austin Sawyer presenting at TedxVictoria in 2014

International recognition for biomedical engineering research at UVic

Dr. Stephanie Willerth (left) with a biology undergraduate student

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Forest fire management will be one of the applications of new technology being developed by University of Victoria’s Centre for Aerospace Research (CfAR), which received funding this fall from Western Economic Diversification.

In the three years since its inception, the centre has become a Canadian leader in Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) research, design and flight testing.

CfAR-developed aircraft, called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs and customized payloads are currently undergoing design and testing for a wide variety of applications such as wildlife monitoring, agriculture, mining exploration using remote sensing technology and search and rescue.

The new federal funding ($527,000) gives the centre the capacity to continue the development, commercialization and certification of next-generation UAVs.

CfAR is led by Canada Research Chair and centre director Afzal Suleman of UVic’s Faculty of Engineering. The team includes three engineering faculty and there are currently 20 engineers, graduate and undergraduate students being trained in this emerging field.

In Canada, some of the centre’s industrial partners include Bombardier Aerospace, Meggitt Training Systems Canada, Rigid Robotics, Terra Remote Sensing, Brican Flight Systems, and internationally, UVic’s CfAR has been collaborating with Boeing (USA).

Unmanned aircraft technology (which encompasses the aircraft itself, as well as flight and ground control systems, and on-board payloads) is the fastest growing sector in the aerospace industry in Canada. At present, it is illegal for unmanned aircraft to be flown out of the line of sight of operators due to privacy and safety concerns. To commercialize these products, certification and regulation are a primary concern to industry. For this reason, another priority of the centre is to develop standardized tests to assist pilot-operators to certify their aircraft with Transport Canada.

In addition to the Western Economic Diversification funding, the centre has received an additional $1.5 million in cash and in-kind funding from industry, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Canadian Foundation for Innovation in the current fiscal year.

For more information please contact Prof. Afzal Suleman at suleman@uvic.ca.

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Photo credit: UVic Photo Services

Dr. Afzal Suleman presenting one

of CfARs UAVs

UVic aerospace centre flies high with funding boost – By Department of Mechanical Engineering

Codename Entertainment is a video game company founded in 2008 by David Whittaker (MSc, Computer Science, 2009) and Justin Stocks (BSc, Computer Science, 2009), under the name of DJArts Games Inc. In 2012, the executive team expanded to include Eric Jordan (BFA, Visual Arts, 1993) as CEO.

Codename has grown significantly since Whittaker and Stocks developed their first game, Egg Breaker, in 2008. In early August, their most recent game, Crusaders of the Lost Idols, received high scores on the idle gaming charts. It debuted at the top spot on the site Kongregate.com, which is one of the largest web-gaming sites in the world. Idle gaming is a relatively new genre of video games in which players can amass points while leaving the game to run itself. Crusaders of the Lost Idols is currently the top idle game on Kongregate (beating out over 1,200 other idle games) and the most played game on the entire website (out of over 100,000 games).

Codename has also increased their staff size to 15 employees and retain a strong connection to UVic. They hire one or two co-op students every semester and are currently working with professors, graduate and post-doctoral students in the Computer Science and Economics departments at UVic.

Coming hand-in-hand with Codename’s success is a strong belief in giving back to the community. During the annual Extra Life campaigns, they commit to playing video games for 24 hours straight and live streaming the experience with proceeds going to BC Children’s Hospital. They also sell items in games and donate proceeds to anti-bullying activities, facilities for the homeless, World Wildlife Fund and the Canadian Red Cross.

Codename has also come together with other game studios in Victoria to reach out to local high school students, hoping to encourage young people to channel their passion for video games into a possible career. In addition to hosting

panel discussions with industry experts, Codename also participates in the Video Game Work Experience Program where high school students can spend four days embedded in a local video game studio.

Finally, Codename believes in giving back to UVic. In May, along with other local companies—DigiBC, KANO/APPS, InLight Entertainment, One Bit Labs, EA Canada and Viatec—Codename announced their investment in annual scholarships for students at both UVic and Camosun College. These scholarships—the Tectoria Video Game Industry Award for Developers and the Tectoria Video Game Industry Award for Artists—will support students interested in entering the gaming sector as developers (UVic Computer Science) or artists (Camosun Graphic Novels Program).

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Codename Entertainment – By Angelica Pass

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING PO Box 1700 STN CSCVictoria, BC V8W 2Y2engr.uvic.caemail: engralum@uvic.ca

Giving Back Our alumni make a difference by volunteering at events, speaking to classes, hiring co-op students or supporting scholarships. To help change the lives of our current students, you can make a donation today at uvic.ca/givingtouvic or by contacting the Development Coordinator, at 250-472-4210 or devtcoor@uvic.ca.

Planning a reunion?The UVic Alumni Association can help by promoting your event to classmates, arranging speakers or providing door prizes. Network and keep involved by exploring the list of groups and upcoming events to find something that’s right for you. alumni.uvic.ca/events/reunions.php

Alumni NewsletterEngineeRing is published twice yearly by the Faculty of Engineering to communicate the faculty’s goals, strategic direction and activities in order to connect alumni with each other and the university. Send your story ideas and feedback to Chrystal Phan at cmphan@uvic.ca.

Moving? Let us know and we’ll make sure your record is updated.

Design | UVic Graphic Services

G E T CO N N E C T E D : Reconnect with classmates, share stories, and learn about upcoming special events by joining a group today.

UVic Engineering Alumni @UVic Alumni Photostream for UVic Alumni

Help UVic reduce waste by switching to an electronic version of the newsletter. Update your email and address preferences by visiting alumni.uvic.ca/connect/preferences.php

Best known for discovering the sunken R.M.S. Titanic, few people know that deep-sea explorer Dr. Bob Ballard, an active researcher, is also a partner of Ocean Networks Canada (ONC). Late this summer, Ballard’s research ship, the E/V Nautilus, performed maintenance using Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles (ROVs) on ONC’s VENUS and NEPTUNE undersea observatories. A proponent of STEM outreach, Ballard extended an invitation to one of UVic’s Science Venture educators to join his crew on the last leg of their mission (Science Venture is UVic’s STEM outreach program that holds workshops and camps for youth K-12). Katherine Silversides, a mechanical engineering student, was chosen for the expedition. Katherine has a long history with the Science Venture program, as former camper to part-time “staph”.

Working in the Strait of Georgia, the E/V Nautilus deployed two hydrophone platforms for ONC to track noises in the Strait of Georgia. The E/V Nautilus is outfitted with two sophisticated ROVs, Hercules and Argus, which work together whenever they are in the water. Argus is tethered to the back of the ship, while Hercules is tethered to Argus. With a heavier build, Argus can absorb the movements of the ship, allowing Hercules to float freely and conduct delicate work, including disconnecting cables, attaching hooks to platforms and retrieving samples. On this mission, the boxes were used to bring back ropes and bungy cords so that nothing was left on the ocean floor.

For Katherine, this was as once-in-a-lifetime experience:

“My time on the E/V Nautilus was an amazing opportunity to meet marine researchers and engineers who work on the NEPTUNE and VENUS networks. It was a chance to learn more about marine engineering, which comes with a completely different set of challenges than working on land. I really appreciated them giving me this window into the undersea world.”

Deep-sea exploring on the E/V Nautilus

Science Venture’s Katherine Silversides

on the E/V Nautilus research vessel

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