UNB Research Centre Leading The Charge Into The Technological Future
The University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Applied Computing Innovation Centre (ACIC) is helping New Brunswick businesses adapt to the ever-accelerating pace of technological change.
The soon-to-be official research centre is already cutting its teeth with several applied computing projects that bring together data, computation and physics-based modeling, use of new hardware and visualization to help businesses and governments solve complex problems. One example is a project focused on mapping the ocean floor where the goal is to bring the data into an interactive digital twin. In such a system, data and computation are used in models and combined with visualization in unique ways to support decision making.
“We don’t walk on the bottom of the ocean; we do the next best thing,” said Dr. Andrew Gerber, professor of mechanical engineering at UNB and research lead at ACIC. “Ocean mapping involves a lot of sonar data collection underwater, then analyzing that data when bringing it on board.”
From there, he and his colleagues at ACIC apply their skills, and in particular Dr. Ian Church, head of the Ocean Mapping Group at UNB, to build an interactive digital twin system with related data processing methods. These methods involve translating sonar data into bathymetry for fluid dynamic analysis, and together construct a picture of the underwater environment. This is enhanced by the vast amounts of additional information extracted from the ocean mapping activity. To do all of this efficiently and accurately, they must be on the leading edge of computing technology, maximizing the use of the latest tools and methods.
“In addition to the ocean mapping, we offer a unique specialty in that we look to take advantage, when possible, of new computing hardware such as Graphics Processing Units (GPUs),” he said.
Traditional computers are built around Central Processing Units (CPUs), which have a completely different way of processing information from that used for GPUs. Today new software applications should combine the two approaches to obtain optimal solutions.
“These different types of computer architecture offer varying opportunities, but you have to adapt your software to fully optimize those opportunities,” Gerber explained. “Some companies know about this potential but don’t know how to adapt their tool. Part of it is, they don’t know which way to proceed or if they can find the talent to do it.”
ACIC tackles technological change
This ability to leverage GPU processing capability is one part of the enormous amount of technological change the world has seen recently. However, companies and other organizations aren’t always well-positioned to take advantage of all the new opportunities. That’s where ACIC’s research-informed guidance comes in.
“Companies know their thing, and they’re trying to find ways to create new opportunities for their businesses,” Gerber said. “The ACIC is intended to be a place where we can help. An awful lot of change is happening, and I think it’s made it difficult for companies to adapt. We are trying to create some know-how in that area, right here in New Brunswick.”
Atlantic Canadian businesses have more opportunities than ever as industry and government lean on data to make strategic decisions. As a result, applied computing that combines data and physics-based modelling with other new technologies such as cloud and edge computing are becoming a more important part of doing business.
“I think a lot of the work we’re doing with big data is probably the biggest frontier that we’re confronting right now as a society because there is so much data being generated,” said Dr. David MaGee, vice president of research at UNB. “It’s a question of what we do with that data, how we look at it and how we analyze it. How do we take multiple data, or data from multiple points, to tackle some of our most significant problems?”
Partnerships important part of the process
Managing and helping to spread the word about the 450 UNB researchers, including those at ACIC, who solve these significant problems is a big job – one MaGee takes on with pride.
“I have an advocacy role,” he said. “Within my office, our Research and Innovation Partnerships team is specifically outward facing. Their role is to engage with all potential research partners outside of the university and help find the experts that can support their needs and it’s a role we’ve intensified through our Fulcrum initiative.”
Government, industry, NGOs, and Indigenous groups are some examples of entities his office engages with to apprise them of the research work being done. A listing of the research institutes, centres and groups can be found on the Office of Research Services’ web page.
The Research and Innovation Partnerships team spends time in the community looking for partners. They also serve as a conduit to the university when outside groups want to answer their research and innovation questions.
“We are looking to build new relationships as well as foster relationships we already have,” MaGee said.
Working with an organization like ACIC to get a handle on new technology can be extremely useful as industry and government seek to optimize new paradigms like the Internet of Things (IoT).
“We are now entering an increasingly connected world so when you think of IoT we see new opportunities in how data and computer models are combined to support decision making,” said Gerber.
“Furthermore, organizations of all sizes, due to cost and security, run much of their data and many of their services from the cloud, so this has to be a part of our solutions as well,” said Gerber
“You have these two worlds that most companies must deal with,” he added. “There is the local world, using local computing hardware, where they have traditionally run their tools and analyzed their data. But many new tools are cloud-based so they must learn how to navigate managing the local together with the cloud and make it work for their particular business.”
ACIC currently exists as a collaboration among several researchers in mechanical engineering, geodesy and geomatics engineering, with an interest in computer science.
The three leading researchers at ACIC, including Gerber, generated more than $4 million in research revenue over the last 10 years that directly relates to the work the centre is doing.
Gerber said the time is right for this kind of research, both at the university and in the community. Training students in different disciplines about applied computing while combining aspects of data modeling, physics-based modeling, cloud and edge computing, will help shape the workforce of the future.
“All these things have happened over 10 years, tremendous changes,” said Gerber. “We really felt the ACIC was needed to help companies address this complexity.”
This story was sponsored by the University of New Brunswick