Researchers at SFU Burnaby now have provincial support for four major projects.
Burnaby-Lougheed MLA Katrina Chen announced Aug. 13 that SFU will receive provincial research funding that will help drive innovation through economy by creating jobs, protecting the environment and supporting the advancement of a stronger health-care system
The university will be receiving $842,779 as part of the BC Knowledge Development Fund.
“The world-class researchers at SFU are not only advancing scientific knowledge, they are developing new technologies that will change the way we live,” Chen said in a news release.
"We’re investing in new research equipment so that SFU can stay on the cutting edge while contributing to a strong economic recovery in Burnaby and across B.C.”
The funds will help support state-of-the-art equipment facilities and labs that are essential for research. The four projects that will benefit are:
- Artificial Intelligence engineering and visualization – This project is advancing research in precision medicine, medical imaging and multimedia processing. The state-of-the-art infrastructure will enable new algorithms that can process and analyze data for applications such as dementia research, ophthalmology, cancer imaging, and more. The lab will also transfer knowledge and technology to Canadian biomedical and pharmaceutical companies
- Data visualization – This project is researching new ways to visualize and understand data, and empowering people by developing comprehensible and inclusive technologies. Data-driven technologies affect our everyday lives in our homes, work, classrooms, and healthcare. This funding will support the latest in display and interactive equipment to support the very latest in data visualization research
- Human-centred autonomous agents through data collection and generation – This project is researching how to improve virtual simulations of everyday scenarios and developing artificial intelligence systems that can more efficiently and safely collect larger volumes of data. Researchers hope to address data bottlenecks and enable higher-quality and higher-quantity data collection. The research has a variety of applications, including autonomous cars, service robots and virtual assistants, that assist people in their daily lives
- Next-generation smart building - This project is researching smart building technology and ways to include people as an integral part of the building system. This will involve computer vision, motion sensing and wireless networking. Researchers hope to facilitate a new computational platform that can support the fast-growing start-up ecosystem in B.C. and provide business opportunities ranging from smart building operations to autonomous robots
The provincial government says the funds for SFU are part of $25 million to support 34 post-secondary projects at five universities across B.C.
