Learning from the pros
For this episode of Amplify Your Business, we’re joined by B. McKay Byam of SimTec MD – a company that uses virtual reality to transform the everyday experiences of medical patients, students, and professionals. After all, when you can’t afford to fail in a high-risk environment like health care, how else can you safely provide…
Through engineering, Portia Rayner discovered her calling as an experimenter, innovator and leader
Portia Rayner describes her University of Alberta engineering degree as a seismic “shift in mentality.” At first, she wasn’t at all sure engineering was the right program for her. She had once wanted to be a veterinarian, and later thought chemistry or pharmacology would be a better fit. “You always hear those stories of the…
Federal funding supports intensive advanced training for future leaders in AI and diabetes research
In a global competition for talent, Canada is seeking to train the best graduate students to become “highly qualified personnel” – university-educated experts with the savvy and ingenuity to lead innovation in high-tech industries, government and academia. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has announced two new programs at the University of…
Safe, portable imaging system one of five new health technologies funded by Alberta Innovates
Dentists may soon add portable ultrasound to the standard equipment in their offices, allowing them to accurately and affordably diagnose aspects of their patients’ periodontal disease without any risk of radiation. That’s the goal of a University of Alberta research team that will continue to develop and commercialize its patented dental ultrasound system thanks to…
Researchers who used AI to analyze keywords on Twitter say people were more resilient than anticipated
Researchers who analyzed language related to depression on social media during the pandemic say the data suggest people learned to cope as the waves wore on. University of Alberta researcher Alona Fyshe and her collaborators at the University of Western Ontario hypothesized that depression-related language would spike during each wave of COVID-19. But their study shows…
U of A engineering students beat out 3M and others with an invention that lets patients know when to seek care
Three University of Alberta engineering students have developed a mobile app that tracks the progress of a healing wound. The app calculates whether treatments are working as they should based on descriptions of size, depth and shape along with more subjective impressions of pain and irritation, says programmer Connor Povoledo. Accurate tracking can predict infection…
There’s actually a striking amount of broad-based consensus around energy
A new artificial-intelligence-powered social media tool is showing that Canadians aren’t as polarized about energy policy and transition as we might imagine. Developed by University of Alberta engineering professor Lianne Lefsrud and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, Ai4Buzz uses targeted keywords to harvest, aggregate and examine Twitter conversations about energy and energy policies. Organized by category into a series…
The nurse-patient relationship is being re-shaped by the proliferation of technology
When Gillian Lemermeyer decided at age 17 to become a nurse, she was following in her mother’s footsteps, so she expected her mom to be thrilled when she told her the news. “I was surprised when she grew very serious,” Lemermeyer remembers. “She said, ‘Okay, but do you understand what it means to be looking after…
AI-powered portable ultrasound system makes scans and diagnoses accessible from anywhere
Imagine if family doctors, nurses, technicians – even ski patrollers – could use handheld ultrasound devices to screen for everything from hip dysplasia to wrist fractures to heart disease from anywhere. A new approach to scans developed at the University of Alberta pairs the accessibility of portable ultrasound with an artificial intelligence app that can…
Having trouble spotting trends in endless spreadsheets? Visual analytic tools can help
With its vast volumes, big data is useless without the analytic and presentation functionality of visual analytical tools. Think how difficult it is to spot anomalies or trends in endless rows of spreadsheet data. Visual analytic tools solve that overload problem. Big data is an in-vogue topic in the information technology world. Many executives see…