ICICS

�Information Visualization

�Spatialising Data

�Computer Graphics

Growing computational power and

burgeoning data sets bombard us

with more information than we can

easily comprehend. Tamara Munzner’s

work in information visualization

(infovis) applies computer graphics

and the human visual system to help

users explore and explain data.

Ever since prehistoric humans beganpainting petroglyphs, visual metaphorshave been used as powerful cognitive tools.“What the computer provides that thou-sands of years of graphic design does not—is interaction,” says Tamara Munzner, whorecently came to the department ofComputer Science at UBC from Compaq’sresearch centre in Palo Alto, California.

Munzner uses the computer as aninteractive visualization tool to help usmake meaning out of data. Designing aplausible synthetic information space thata user can easily comprehend and navigateis a major challenge, particularly when itinvolves interacting at a guaranteed framerate in real time. Information visualization,or “infovis,” is an emergent and highlyinterdisciplinary research area, which drawson concepts from computer graphics,

human-computer interaction, cognitivepsychology, semiotics, graphic design,cartography, and art. Munzner notes thatafter ten years, infovis has becomerecognized as a field in its own right.

“Spatial perception is the strongest ofour visual cues,” says Munzner. “So choicesabout spatialising the data are the mostcritical.” Once she comes up with a spatialconcept, the next step is to scale it to alarge data set. Another challenge is design-ing algorithms to determine what element

is most important in a scene, particularlywhen everything is abstract to begin with.

Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Munzner is interested in buildingsystems that show both focus and contentat once. “The idea is to have detail andoverview in the same view, and to have somekind of carefully chosen distortion thatallows you to merge them,” says Munzner.

Continued on page 2

Crossing the Digital Divide 3

Modelling the Manner of Speaking 4

New Faculty 5

The Big Squeeze 7

Following the Flow 9

Passing Notes 10

Visualizing Abstract Information

New CS Assistant Professor

Tamara Munzner says the high

level of interaction among junior

and senior faculty in the IMAGER

Computer Graphics Laboratory,

and the opportunities for

collaboration in ICICS were

deciding factors in her coming

to UBC.

I N S T I T U T E F O R C O M P U T I N G , I N F O R M A T I O N A N D C O G N I T I V E S Y S T E M S • I • C • I • C • S •

T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F B R I T I S H C O L U M B I A

ICICSSpring 2003 Vol. 14. No. 1

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:33 pm Page 1

ICICSDirector’s Corner

This expanded issue of FOCUS illustrateshow quickly our ICICS team is growing—and the vitality of their collaborative workwithin ICICS and with other industry anduniversity researchers across Canada.

Tamara Munzner (CS) is a pioneer inthe emergent field of information visualiza-tion (infovis), which draws on conceptsfrom computer graphics, human-computerinteraction, cognitive psychology, semiotics,graphic design, and cartography. She collab-orates with several ICICS members andresearchers across Canada to build tools tohelp us explore and explain data.

Shahriar Mirabbasi’s (ECE) work inmixed-signal integrated circuits facilitatesSystem-on-a-Chip design. His research inmicro-power wireless transceivers involvescollaboration with Chemical andBiological Engineering, AgriculturalSciences and Fisheries in the developmentof animal tagging.

Linguist Bryan Gick studies the motorprocesses involved in making speech. Hiswork has applications in speech recognitionand synthesis, speech pathology and surgery.

In a special foldout section, we intro-duce eleven new ICICS members and offerbrief synopses of their research activities.Look for in-depth profiles of these dynamicnewcomers in upcoming issues of Focus.

The work of Panos Nasiopoulos (ECE),who directs research in rich media transmis-sion and interactivity in the Midnet Lab, isalso featured in this issue. Panos directs theICICS Master of Software Systems Programin addition to his research activities.

An expert in fluid mechanics andaerodynamics, Sheldon Green’s (ME) workimproves the instruments used in pulp andpaper manufacture. He is also helping todevelop new meteorological instrumenta-tion in collaboration with AtmosphericSciences and other ME faculty.

Rabab Ward, ICICS Director

She plans to collaborate with ICICSmember Ron Rensink (of CS andPsychology) to investigate how mucha scene can be manipulated throughoperations such as translation, rotation,and scale before pre-attentive visualinterpretation breaks down, and usershave to re-acquire the scene in orderto make sense of it.

Key Collaborations

With funding from GEOIDE, afederally supported Networks of Centresof Excellence, Munzner and otherresearchers across Canada are working tosee how effectively they can augmentgeospatial data from geographic mapswith an abstract view that includes moresemantic or interpretive data. At UBC,this project includes the SustainableDevelopment Research Initiative, Forestry’sMichael Meitner and Stephen Sheppard.She is also discussing a new project on thevisualization of data mining withRaymond Ng of CS.

Munzner is also keen to apply herwork to evolutionary biology and bioinfor-matics. “What is appealing about bioinfor-matics problems is that they have three

things going for them: big data sets, clearproblems, and funding,” says Munzner.“It is difficult to find all three together.”

Using Geometry to Get the Picture

Tamara Munzner honed her skills in visu-alization at the NSF-funded GeometryCentre in Minneapolis. There, she helpeddevelop the video “Outside In,” whichuses sophisticated computer animation todemonstrate a famous mathematicalhypothesis in topology—how to turn asphere inside out without puncturingor tearing it.

After working in the specialized areaof mathematics visualization, she beganPhD work at Stanford in informationvisualization, and also consulted withSilicon Graphics, where she developedsoftware to help web designers visualizethe hyperlink structure of a large websitein its entirety, rather than one page at atime. “The interesting aspect of this workis trying to understand the user’s path byoverlaying web trail traffic on top of sitestructure,” says Munzner.

Munzner has developed several info-vis software tools. She says that workingin industry gave her invaluable experiencewith real-world data sets. “When youbuild the systems that you want people touse, you run up against hard problems,and scalability and usability are just twoof them.”

Tamara Munzner can be contacted at604-827-5200 or tmm@cs.ubc.ca

Munzner: Continued from page 1

“With infovis, the more users youhave who can provide feedback, thebetter off you are in terms of being

able to understand what the problemis, so you can design something

better next time.”

2 FOCUS

�

Image from the Video “Outside In”

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:33 pm Page 2

�Integrated Circuit Design

�Wireless/Wireline

�System-on-a-Chip

�Micro-Power Animal Tags

Advances in digital IC fabrication haveproduced digital circuits that are morerobust and flexible than their analog coun-terparts. For new ICICS member ShahriarMirabbasi, there is one main snag in thisshift to digital—most physical signals thatare transmitted or received are still analogin nature. Implementing more functionalityin the digital domain demands more strin-gent performance requirements on analogand mixed analog-digital interface blocks.These mixed-signal blocks are the majorbottleneck in the technology—one thatMirabbasi is working to unplug.

System-on-a-Chip (SoC)

In UBC’s System-on-a-Chip (SoC)Lab, Mirabbasi collaborates with fellowresearchers to improve the performance ofintegrated mixed-signal microchips. Thetechnology of choice for system-on-a-chipimplementation is silicon-based CMOS(Complementary Metal-OxideSemiconductor) technology. In addi-tion to low fabrication cost andhigh yield, CMOSprovides thepossibility ofintegrating analogand digital circuitry onthe same chip.

Advantages of unitinganalog and digital blocks onthe same chip include lowerpower consumption, smallerpackage size, and a higher speed ofoperation. Designing analog anddigital circuits on the same substrateintroduces subtle challenges. Analog circuits

require a quiet environment; however,different switching activities in the digitalcircuitry cause a “noisy” environment and

corrupt the sensitive analog signals.

Tracking Steller Sea Lions

Mirabbasi also collaborates withRoyann Petrell (Chemical and

Biological Engineering), ScottMcKinley (Agricultural

Sciences), Andrew Trites(Marine Mammal

Unit, Dept. ofFisheries), and

fellow ICICS membersWilliam Dunford and Matt

Yedlin (both of ECE) on thedesign and implementa-tion of micro-power

wireless transceivers for animal tagging.With funding from the North PacificUniversities Marine Mammal ResearchConsortium, National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA), andNorth Pacific Marine Science Foundation,they are developing a tiny biotelemetrydevice for tracking Steller sea lions.Designing reliable, low-voltage, low-power,high-speed mixed-signal ICs is crucial to theconstruction of tags with battery longevity.

This research also has biomedicalapplications, such as for pacemakers

and other implants. “You don’t wantto implant something inside thebody that consumes excessivepower,” says Mirabbasi. “This notonly shortens battery life, but alsocauses the implant to heat up.”

Continued on page 9

Crossing the Digital DivideAffordable access to increasing amounts of data—anywhere, anytime—challenges researchers

like ECE assistant professor Shahriar Mirabbasi. His work in mixed-signal integrated circuit (IC)

design aims at helping the microelectronic industry meet this need.

New ECE faculty member

Shahriar Mirabbasi is putting

his work in high performance

mixed signal ICs to the test in

UBC’s System-on-a-Chip Lab.

Spring 2003 3

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:33 pm Page 3

How do we make the sounds needed forarticulate speech? How do those soundsdiffer between languages? And how canwe track the movement of the mouth, lipsand vocal tract to model those sounds andreproduce them digitally? “Understandinghow we acquire and uselanguage is all part of learningmore about how the mindworks,” says Bryan Gick,assistant professor inLinguistics and foundingdirector of UBC’sInterdisciplinary SpeechResearch Laboratory.

Bryan Gick studies the motorprocesses that go into making speechsounds, such as constrictions of thevocal tract, and movement of thetongue, mouth and lips to understandhow we control our articulators in order

to be able to measure and model them.“Once we begin to understand what

humans can do with their vocaltracts, then we start to understandthings about speech in general,”says Gick. His work has potentialapplications in speech recognitionand synthesis, speech pathology,linguistics, and surgery.

The Measure of Speech

Gick and his collaborators havedeveloped techniques for using ultrasoundimaging to measure the tongue duringspeech production. They plan to createmore complete vocal tract models by firstusing MRI to get a static image of thevocal tract, into which they can then insertultrasound images of tongue movement.They also combine video signals from theultrasound with video of the face to tracklip and head movement. Converting vocaltract shapes into sound further involvesmodelling the complex aerodynamics ofbreath, or turbulence, in the vocal tract.This turbulence is what makes “thhh”and “shhh” sounds.

Gick’s work in vocal tract modellingwith fellow ICICS member Sid Fels ofECE was presented by graduate studentsFlorian Vogt and Ian Wilson at the 2001Advanced Systems Institute (ASI)Exchange, where it won a CommunicationAward. Gick notes that coupling vocaltract with face simulation has an importantpotential application in telecommunica-tions, because it reduces the amount ofbandwidth needed for audiovisualtransmission. “If you have a single synthesissystem, where you track very basicmovements and the entire head is modeledas one object, then if you send one setof parameters for speech, the face, mouthand lips all move in tandem.”

Bryan Gick can be contacted at604-822-4817 or gick@interchange.ubc.ca

4 FOCUS

Modelling the Manner of SpeakingLinguist Bryan Gick’s research on the mechanisms of speech production

gives new meaning to the phrase “read my lips.”

“We haven’t really understood the whole

speech motor control system—just because it is so difficult to get at.”

�Vocal Tract Modelling

and Synthesis

�Speech Motor Control

�Ultrasound Imaging

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:33 pm Page 4

New Faculty The ICICS Eleven

01 Chen Greif, CS. Research: Scientific computing. “Manymathematical problems can be solved numerically by usingpowerful computers. The rapidly growing computing poweravailable even on today’s simplest home PCs makes this researcharea all the more dynamic and exciting. I am interested ininvestigating and implementing efficient numerical solutiontechniques for problems arising in computer science, mathematicsand engineering.”

02 Juri Jatskevich, ECE. Research: Computer simulation ofelectrical systems. “Power electronics play an increasinglyimportant role in the performance and reliability of modernaircraft, ships and vehicles, as well as ground electric powersystems. Simulation is key in achieving the design goals. I aminterested in how we can reduce the time required to simulateand analyze complex systems.”

03 Vikram Krishnamurthy, ECE. Research: Statistical signalprocessing. “The suppression of noise and optimization of systemsthat evolve randomly are crucial in the design of new generationcell phones, PDAs, radar systems, and sophisticated electronicwarfare systems. My goal is to devise and analyze high performancestatistical signal processing algorithms for these complex systems.”

04 John D. Madden, ECE. Research: Molecular actuatorsand devices. “A key aim of my research is the developmentof muscle-like motors, made of electronically conductingpolymers that change dimension as their chemical state isaltered. An interesting application is their use in powering theflight of insect-sized vehicles (in collaboration with Joseph Yan,ECE). I am also investigating the ability of these polymers tostore and rapidly release tremendous quantities of electricalcharge, a property that is potentially useful in fuel-cell-drivenvehicles. In order to fully realize the potential of super-capacitorsand polymer motors, fabrication methods are being devisedthat enable the structure to be controlled at nanometre-lengthscales.”

05 Joanna McGrenere, CS. Research: Human-computerinteraction. “From desktops to laptops, PDAs, cell phones, andembedded devices—all this technology was supposed to makeour lives easier and yet even I am often flummoxed by it!My goal is to factor the human element into the design oftechnology. In particular, I am investigating adaptive andadaptable interface designs as complementary yet competingapproaches to accommodating individual differences amongusers.”

5 FOCUS

�

01 Chen Greif

�

09 Robert Schober�

10 Vincent Wong

�

02 Juri Jatskevich

�

11 Joseph Yan

�

03 Vikram Krishnamurthy

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:33 pm Page 5

11�

08 Tamara Munzner

06 Walter Mérida, ME. Research: Proton exchange membranefuel cells. “My research focuses on clean energy sytems. We muststrive towards energy systems that are sustainable and geopoliticallystable. My overall research strategy is focused on fuel cell andhydrogen technologies. The goal is to allow renewable energy tocomplement our current dependence on fossil sources. To this end,I am interested in finding collaborators at ICICS to model thefundamental processes in a fuel cell.”

07 Shahriar Mirabbasi, ECE. Research: Analog and mixed-signalintegrated circuit design. “In the current information age, ‘digital’is the buzz word; however, most physical signals are analog innature. Designing high-speed, low-power analog and mixedanalog-digital circuits is an engineering art that we are tryingto master.”

08 Tamara Munzner, CS. Research: Information visualization.“I build systems to help people understand large datasets usinginteractive computer graphics. In the past I've worked with peopleranging from topologists and cognitive linguists to web-sitedesigners and networking researchers. I'm enthusiastic aboutstarting new collaborations at UBC, especially within ICICS,in bioinformatics and other areas.”

09 Robert Schober, ECE. Research: Wireless communication.“My research goal is to design and analyze efficient algorithmsthat enable high-data-rate wireless communication and have anaffordable computational complexity. Applications of my researchinclude second and third generation mobile communicationsystems, Bluetooth, and wireless local area networks (WLANs).”

10 Vincent Wong, ECE. Research: Wireless networking. “Myresearch interests include scheduling and topology discovery inwireless personal area networks, routing in wireless mobile ad hocnetworks, and handoff and location management in wirelesscellular networks. As an ICICS member, I am looking forward tothe opportunities for collaboration that the Institute provides.”

11 Joseph Yan, ECE. Research: Micromechatronics systems.“I research micromanipulation and microassembly tools as anenabling technology for the fabrication of micromechatronicsystems. I am particularly interested in using these tools for thedevelopment of biomedical devices. Another exciting part of myresearch is biomimetic robotics, in which the design of machinesis inspired by biological systems which are adapted to similar tasksor environments (e.g., a centimetre-scale robot achieving flightusing flapping wings, like biological insects).”

We welcome the eleven talented scientists

who have recently joined the ICICS team.

These cv-snapshots provide a glimpse into

the research they are doing and illustrate

current and potential creative collaborations

—the focus of ICICS’s mandate.

Spring 2003 6

�

04 John D. Madden�

05 Joanna McGrenere�

06 Walter Mérida�

07 Shahriar Mirabbasi

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:34 pm Page 6

�Interactive Multimedia

�Video Broadcasting

and Streaming

�Digital Video Security

Panos Nasiopoulos directs research in theMidnet lab, an important funding sourcefor this ICICS member, where researcherswork to enable rich media transmission andinteractivity using new wireless networksand high definition television broadcastingsystems. “Two big challenges whentransmitting multimedia informationinclude bandwidth fluctuation acrosswireless networks and processing poweron receiver units,” says Nasiopoulos.“Another challenge is how to protectdigital media from piracy. These are theproblems we are working on in theDigital Multimedia Lab at ECE.”

Digital Video for Wireless Communications

As an associate professor at thedepartment of Electrical and ComputerEngineering, Nasiopoulos refines algo-rithms to make transmission of largeamounts of video, audio and graphicinformation possible across third generation(3G) wireless networks. Random fluctua-tions in the available bandwidth per userpresent the primary challenge to videotransmission over wireless networks. Inaddition, the size and cost limitations oflow-end processors embedded in mobileunits severely limits the complexity ofdecoder algorithms.

“Our research centres on the emergingvideo coding standard, H.264,” saysNasiopoulos. The H.264 codec enablesdelivery of Internet Protocol-basedbroadcast-quality video at data rates ofless than 1 Mbit/second. The lab isdeveloping techniques that enable H.264to adapt to the instability of networkbandwidth, with the goal of adjustingvideo quality in real time, increasing

the error resilience of theoverall system and reducingthe decoding complexity formobile processors.

Viewer-controlled TV Programming

Interactive television (ITV)changes the way TV viewers experienceentertainment, by giving them the ability tocontrol programming content. Today, ITVrefers to technologies that integrate theworld wide web with television programs.A web page is displayed beside the videoon the TV screen, which provides furtherinformation or graphic enhancements.This technology is limited since it does

not allow users to actuallycontrol a show’s videoor audio content. ICICSDigital Multimedia researchershave developed services for ITVthat provide DVD-like interac-tivity for viewers, allowing them

to actually control the visual contentof the TV program.“We’re looking for methods which

add the extra video and audio streamscontaining interactive content to thetransmission lines of digital TV systemswithout increasing bandwidth or degradingthe quality of the main video and audiostreams,” says Nasiopoulos.

Continued on page 9

Spring 2003 7

The Big Squeeze:Digital Multimedia Sends the Most Using the Least

Panos Nasiopoulos is a busy

man; he also directs the

Master of Software Systems

program at ICICS, a program

unique in Canada.

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:34 pm Page 7

�Fluid Mechanics

Instrumentation

�Pulp Fibres, Fibre Mats

�Papermaking

Last summer, Sheldon Green undertooka kayaking expedition to Alaska, wherehe paddled more than 700 nautical milesin two months. A kayak is a responsive,sensitive boat—a fitting craft for Green,who develops finely-tuned instrumentsthat can measure subtle interactions influid mechanics and aerodynamics.

Green, an ICICS member and profes-sor of Mechanical Engineering, is currentlyinterested in improving the instrumentsused in pulp and paper making. Heand graduate student Tze Bun Wong arepursuing the holy grail of industrialpapermaking: a device that accuratelymeasures and separates fine, high-valuepulp fibres from their coarser, lower-value cousins.

Measuring High-Speed Fibre Flows

Knowing how wood fibres of differingquality behave in the hydrocyclone—a critical component of papermakingmachines where wood fibres are separat-ed—could lead to improvements both inhow the fibres are used and in the waysthe machines are designed and operated.Fine “earlywood” fibres, for example, couldbe streamed into paper production, whilecoarser “latewood” fibres could be usedfor fibreboard.

Another papermaking instrumentthat Green is working on measures thecharacteristics of fibre mats, created inthe early stages of the paper makingprocess. The manufacturing processof this initial form of paper—whichinvolves spraying watery fibre pulpbetween two porous “forming fabrics”and then squeezing out the watertakes a tenth of a second. Greenand co-op students WillaDuplantis and Larry Lihave built a bench-scaled device thatsimulates thenearly instant

formation of a fibre mat in a papermachine.With this instrument they can observe andmeasure the movement of water and theformation of mats at the same operatingspeeds as most modern papermakingmachines— speeds too high for most exist-ing measuring devices. “An early prototypeof the instrument has now been modifiedto simulate the pulp shearing that occurs in

real papermachines. It is asclose to real life as one can

achieve without repli-cating the entire form-

ing section of a paper-machine,” says Green.

Continued on page 9

“We have developed the

first device capable of

measuring the hydrodynamic

characteristics of individual

pulp fibres.”

“This new force balance allows

one to accurately measure

small forces in the presence

of much larger forces,” says

Green. “Often, a large load

confounds the measurements

of a much smaller load.”

8 FOCUS

Following the FlowSheldon Green develops new instrumentation to measure subtle interactions

in fluid mechanics and aerodynamics.

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:34 pm Page 8

Spring 2003 9

Green: Continued from page 8

Measuring Drag to Improve anAthlete’s Speed

Green is also interested in improvinginstrumentation used in aerodynamics;specifically, he is working on a new forcebalance for use in wind tunnels. NikeCanada recently used the instrument todetermine the drag of different fabrics onathletic performance in a series of windtunnel tests.

Olympic skeleton racers have also usedthe balance to reduce their drag—and increase their speed during runs.

Collaboration with ICICS membersis an important element of Green’s work, asevidenced by the number and breadth ofprojects he is involved in.

He is working with Carl Ollivier-Gooch (ME) to measure the subtleperformance characteristics of the ductedtip propeller, with Gary Schajer (ME) andRoland Stull (Atmospheric Sciences) todevelop new meteorological instrumenta-tion, with James Olson (ME) to studypapermachine forming fabrics, and withIan Frigaard (ME) to examine the non-Newtonian flows of oil-drilling muds.

Currently, Green is on sabbaticalat Monash University in Melbourne,Australia, where he pursues his papermak-ing instrumentation research at theuniversity’s renowned Australian Pulpand Paper Institute. He returns in June,when he will perhaps have time again tolaunch his kayak into the waters of thePacific Northwest.

Sheldon Green can be contacted at604-822-5562 or green@mech.ubc.ca

�

Digital video watermarking

Mirabbasi: Continued from page 3

The Limits of CMOS

Designing mixed-signal chips forwireless and wireline communications withrobust performance at high frequencies isa key aspect of Mirabbasi’s work. As acost-effective technology for integratedcircuits, CMOS is used for a variety ofapplications, such as wireline or wirelesscommunications. However, the demandfor faster data rates is pushing ICs tooperate at higher frequencies.

“We are trying to see how far we canimprove the performance of mixed-signalcircuits implemented in standard digitalCMOS technology, without having to addcostly analog fabrication options,” saysMirabbasi. “Eventually, CMOS will beunable to function as we move to higherand higher operating frequencies.” He islooking at other technologies, such as silicongermanium, but notes the difficulty inreplacing a technology that is alreadyentrenched in the marketplace.

“You don’t want to implant

something inside the body

that consumes excessive power.

This not only shortens battery

life, but also causes the

implant to heat up.”

Shahriar Mirabbasi can be contacted at604-827-5218 or shahriar@ece.ubc.ca

Nasiopoulos: Continued from page 7

Protecting Content Against Piracy

Unfortunately, the ease with which endusers can produce digital copies, whichmaintain the perfect quality of the original,has become a serious piracy issue formultimedia content developers and agrowing concern for TV broadcasters.

Digital video watermarking uses theinherent properties of digital images, withthe limitations of human vision, to insertinvisible data into digital video to provide copyright protection. The watermark

tracks pirated copies, prevents illegal copyingand authenticates digital data. In the multi-media lab, Nasiopoulos and others are devel-oping real-time video watermarking solu-tions for DVD and digital TV applications,by taking advantage of some of the inherentfeatures of the MPEG-2 and H.264 videocompression standards. This includesmotion compensation between consecutiveframes and distribution properties of fre-quency coefficients, to create watermarks inareas imperceptible to the human eye.

Nasiopoulos’ vision is to establish the

Midnet lab as the neutral ground uponwhich discussions can be held amongmajor corporations and researchersto set world standards in multimediacommunications.

See the Master of Software Systems websiteat www.icics.ubc.ca/mss/

Panos Nasiopoulos can be contacted at604-822-2646 or panos@ece.ubc.ca

�

�

FOCUS(Spring03) 17:06:03 04:34 pm Page 9

Provincial Government funds “Doubling theEnrollment” (DTO) initiative at UBC

UBC will receive $46 million in provincial funding forfacilities to support students in high-tech programs, specifically455 new undergraduate spaces in Computer Science and 652spaces in Electrical and Computer Engineering to be added by2006/07. The funding will also provide an additional 204graduate spaces. The physical expansions of ECE and CS willbe in close proximity to the new ICICS building, which is tobe completed as of December 2004.

“Due to the strength of this commitment by the ProvincialGovernment, we can further our aim of fostering research andcollaboration among the best academics in Canada here atICICS,” says Rabab Ward, Director of ICICS. “As informationand telecommunication technologies become ubiquitous, theexpansion of the ECE and CS programs will give ICICS a greatboost in the pursuit of cutting edge research into technologiesthat serve people and society at large.”

Advanced Systems Institute recognizesoutstanding UBC grads

ICICS and the BC Advanced Systems Institute (ASI)awarded 16 scholarships to UBC Applied Science graduatestudents on October 17, 2002. ICICS grad students again didvery well at the ASI exchange on March 11, 2003. The winnersof the ASI Communication Award are Charles Boivin, ImanBrouwer and Ann Nakashima from ME, and Ashley Gadd,Dave Tompkins and Amy Yan from ECE.

Killam teachers awards goes to two ICICS membersThe prestigious 2003 UBC Killam Teaching Prizes for the

Faculty of Applied Science are to be awarded to ICICS membersDr. Steve Wilton, associate professor in the department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. Tony Hodgson,

associate professor in the departmentof Mechanical Engineering. ICICScongratulates both Steve and Tony ontheir outstanding teaching and onbeing awarded these prestigious prizes.

This year's other nominees were allviewed by the committee as outstanding

educators, making its choice of only two prizewinners adifficult one, and thus all the nominees should be congratulated.

World renowned aerospace engineerVinod Modi dies February 12, 2003Dr. Vinod Modi, professor emeritus ofMechanical Engineering and long time ICICSmember, passed away on February 12, 2003. Dr.Modi joined UBC in 1961; he became professoremeritus in 1995. Dr. Modi's contributions to the

field of aerospace engineering, aerodynamics, dynamics ofocean based systems and biomechanics are recognizedworldwide. His versatility was reflected by research intoareas as diverse as the human heart, offshore oil platforms,V/STOL airplanes, wind energy, ground vehicle aerodynam-ics, control of the proposed Space Station and mobilerobotic manipulators. He is the author of more than 500technical publications on these subjects. Dr. Modi servedas a consultant to a number of industrial and governmentagencies, including the United Nations. His contributionswere recognized by thirty awards, won from 1981 to 2002.He was also an award-winning photographer, once raising$32,000 in the sale of his photographs for the NationalAssociation of the Blind. He will be very much missed byfriends and colleagues here at ICICS.

Tony HodgsonSteve Wilton

Passing Notes:

•I•C•I•C•S• Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems www.icics.ubc.ca

Vinod Modi

UBC’s Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS) is an umbrella organization

that promotes collaboration between researchers from the faculties of Applied Science, Arts,

Commerce, Dentistry, Education, Forestry, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Science. ICICS supports the

collaborative computer-oriented research of more than 120 faculty members and over 500 graduate

students in these faculties. ICICS researchers attract approximately $15 million in annual grants

and contracts. Their work will have a positive impact on us all in the future.

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