You’re invited to register for workshops and tutorials being held Sunday September 18th. 

You can choose one session in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Morning Sessions:

  • Meta-Learning in the Real-world
  • Introduction to Codes and Standards

Afternoon Sessions:

  • Vertically Integrated Ocean Data
  • Continual Curriculum Improvement

For conference attendees, you can register for one session for $80, or two sessions for $100!

For those not attending the conference, registration per session costs:

  • $50 for students
  • $100 for IEEE members
  • $120 for non-IEEE members

Space is limited, register soon!

Morning Sessions

Meta Learning in Real-world: Basics and Applications

Description

Deep learning has achieved impressive success in different real-world applications. However, most deep learning algorithms would require a large amount of training data. Meta-learning, also known as learning, to learn, has shown the capability of learning fast with a limited number of samples. In this tutorial, we aim to present the recent progress of meta-learning algorithms and real-world applications of meta-learning. Specifically, we will introduce three lines of meta-learning methods, i.e., gradient-based methods, metrics-based methods, and memory-based methods.  Furthermore, we will also present the application of meta-learning in real-world systems such as smart grids and transportation systems. Finally, we will discuss the challenges and potential research directions.

Presenter’s Biography

Di Wu is currently an Adjunct Professor at McGill University. Di did postdoctoral research at Montreal MILA and Stanford University in 2018-2019. He received the Ph.D. degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 2018 and the MSc degree from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2013. Di’s research interests mainly lie in designing algorithms (e.g., Reinforcement learning, operation research) for sequential decision-making problems and data-efficient machine learning algorithms (e.g., Transfer Learning, Meta-Learning, and Multitask Learning). He is also interested in leveraging such algorithms for applications in real-world systems (e.g., Communication Systems, Smart Grid, and Intelligent Transportation Systems).

Introduction to Codes and Standards

Description

Codes and Standards are indispensable because of the essential role they play in our lives. They touch every aspect of our lives by ensuring safety, quality and reliability of products and services. Additionally, codes and standards guarantee compatibility between different markets to facilitate international trade. According to Raymond G. Kammer, the past director of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), about 80% of global merchandise trade is affected by standards and by regulations that embody standards. Therefore, it is important to understand the standards development process, the different types of standards, and how to become actively involved in the development process.

This tutorial provides attendees having little or no background of codes and standards with the information required to develop a basic understanding of the topic. It also serves as a refresher for experienced attendees. The 5W’s method will be used to engage attendees and historical examples to emphasize the importance of complying with codes and standards. Innovation and its relation to standards will be discussed. Finally, a real-life design example will be shared with attendees to demonstrate how codes and standards are applied in practice.

Presenter’s Biography

Nehad El-Sherif, M.Sc., P.Eng., MBA, SMIEEE is the Founder and President of MNKYBR Technologies Inc., a Canadian company specialized in R&D and engineering services. El-Sherif is a Professional Electrical Engineer with experience in software & hardware design, new product development, product certification, business development, product management, sales & marketing, and electrical safety. He authored and co-authored IEEE peer-reviewed papers, technical articles, white papers and delivered technical presentations at various industry conferences. El-Sherif is a senior member of IEEE and an executive board member of IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) and IEEE Canada. He serves on NFPA Code Making Panel 2 (CMP-2) for the continued development of the National Electrical Code (NFPA 70), CSA Z462 (Workplace Electrical Safety Standard) technical committee, as well as various UL and CSA product safety certification standards technical panels. El-Sherif received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Ain-Shams University, Cairo, Egypt and an MBA from the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. He is a sessional lecturer at the University of Saskatchewan and holds two patents.

Afternoon Sessions

Vertically Integrated Ocean Data

Description

The world’s oceans are part of the larger biome in which we live, yet only about 5-10% of the Earth’s seabed has been mapped. We know that we must know more about the oceans which we live beside, gather our food from, and play in. 

There is a significant process to collect information about the seabed, process the information into a usable format, and present that information in an understandable and useful way. This workshop will introduce participants to this process, using a hands-on approach. 

The goal of the workshop is to walk participants through the process of collecting, processing, hosting, and using ocean data. Although there is a myriad of ocean data types that look at the water column, the seabed, and the ground beneath the seabed, we will focus on seabed mapping using sidescan sonar data. Sidescan sonar presents a very usable and intuitive ‘map’ of the seabed that is visually comprehensible, comparatively easy to process, and useful to many users.

Presenter’s Biography

The workshop will be hosted by Steve DeLory of Terradepth, Inc. Terradepth’s mission is to enable human interaction with the ocean. Steve DeLory is the Chief Engineer and VP Marine Operations at Terradepth. With decades of experience on, in and around the ocean, Steve straddles the worlds of building ocean data collection platforms, employing the platforms effectively, and ensuring ocean data is usable. Steve is a Project Management Professional, and licensed as a Professional Engineer in the Province of Nova Scotia (inactive), and States of Colorado and Texas (active). He holds degrees in electrical engineering, space operations and project management.

About Terradepth: Terradepth is increasing human interaction with the ocean by sending our high-tech autonomous submersibles farther, longer and deeper than any human being has gone before. Collecting comprehensive, high-resolution ocean data empowers society with information and knowledge crucial to the sustainable advancement of a variety of key industries. Immersive, virtual marine information can assist with projects in sectors such as global telecom, clean energy, national security and many more. By turning Earth’s oceans into an immersive and accurate virtual world, we can connect humanity with the last unexplored frontier on our planet.

Continual Curriculum Improvement

Description

This workshop is intended to present and discuss current challenges and opportunities in modern Electrical and Computer Engineering Programs.  Panelists will present recent projects that are intended to improve the undergraduate curriculum in engineering.  Potential subjects include: 

  • how to use the experience we gained during pandemic to deliver our material; 
  • the delivery of a hands-on course to integrate prior knowledge; 
  • how to use Graduate Attributes to assess and improve our curriculum; 
  • efficiently mounting a Computer Engineering program; 
  • managing increasingly large cohorts in our curriculum;

Panelists

  • Yunwei Ryan Li (University of Alberta): “How to use the experience we gained during pandemic to deliver our material”
  • Tim Davidson (McMaster University): “The delivery of a hands-on course to integrate prior knowledge”
  • Jean-Francois Bousquet (Dalhousie University): “Mounting a modern computer engineering degree”

Session Chair

  • Steve Wilton (University of British Columbia)

This workshop is organized by Canadian Heads of Electrical and Computer Engineering (CHECE). 

Panelist Biographies

Yunwei Ryan Li is a professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta. He received the B.Sc. in Engineering degree in electrical engineering from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2006. In 2005, Dr. Li was a Visiting Scholar with Aalborg University, Denmark. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ryerson University, Canada. In 2007, he also worked at Rockwell Automation Canada before he joined University of Alberta, Canada in the same year. His research interests include distributed generation, microgrid, renewable energy, high power converters and electric motor drives. Dr. Li serves as Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Letters. Prior to that, he was Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, and IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics. Dr. Li served as the general chair of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress of Exposition (ECCE) in 2020. He is the AdCom Member at Large for IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) 2021-2023. Dr. Li received the Nagamori Foundation Award in 2022 and the Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer Award from IEEE PELS in He is recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by the Clarivate.

Tim Davidson received the B.Eng. (Hons. I) degree in electronic engineering from the
University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth, in 1991 and the D.Phil. degree in engineering
science from the University of Oxford, U.K., in 1995.
He is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster
University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, where he has served as Chair of the Department for ten
years, and as Acting Director of the School of Computational Engineering and Science for two
years. His research interests lie in the general areas of communications, signal processing, and
control.
Dr. Davidson received the 1991 J. A. Wood Memorial Prize from UWA, the 1991 Rhodes
Scholarship for Western Australia, and a 2011 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Signal
Processing Society. He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Signal
Processing, the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and the IEEE Transactions on
Circuits and Systems II. He has also served as a Guest Co-Editor of issues of the IEEE Journal
on Selected Areas in Communications, the IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal
Processing, and the EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing. He was a General Co-
Chair for the 2014 IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless
Communications, a Technical Program Co-Chair for the 2021 IEEE International Conference on
Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing and the 2014 IEEE Global Conference on Signal and
Information Processing, and the Technical Chair for the 2015 Asilomar Conference on Signals,
Systems and Computers. Dr. Davidson has previously served as the Chair of the IEEE Signal
Processing Society’s Technical Committee on Signal Processing for Communications and
Networking, and as Chair of the selection committee for the IEEE Fourier Award for Signal
Processing. He is currently serving on the society’s Fellow Evaluation Committee. He is a
Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.

Jean-François Bousquet joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Dalhousie in July 2013. He is a graduate of École Polytechnique de Montréal where he completed his B. Eng. in Electrical Engineering in 2001. He also completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Calgary in 2007 and 2011 respectively, where he focused on the implementation of low-power integrated circuits applied to wireless communication. Between 2009 and 2011, he was employed as a high- speed analog integrated circuit designer at Ciena for the development of coherent fibre optics communication networks. Since he joined Dalhousie, he has applied his broad knowledge in field of electrical and computer engineering towards underwater communications. He is particularly interested in enabling underwater networks, using low-power electronics systems. His passion is to use highly-integrated circuits to enable reconfigurable communication systems. Dr. Bousquet is currently the Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Dalhousie.