MRC Studio, AI Hub make a splash at virtual reality conference Posted on August 21, 2024 at 1:00 pm. Durham College (DC) students and employees showed off their applied research work at the VRTO Spatial Media World Conference & Expo in July, displaying their talent and ingenuity and making connections in the tech industry. Representing DC’s Office of Research Services, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ORSIE), the MRC Studio and AI Hub attended the conference to showcase their latest breakthroughs. A team of work-study students showed off a mixed reality demo using the Meta Quest 3 virtual reality (VR) headset. By scanning real world objects and digitizing them for manipulation in 3D space, the demo allows users to pick up and examine items within an augmented reality. The mixed reality demo was prepared by Game – Art students Joshua Vandergeer, Alexis Mantler and Nathan Lang and Computer Programming and Analysis students Connor Vandergeer and Manu Sugunakumar. The experience of showing off their own work while rubbing shoulders with accomplished industry veterans was a highlight for the students, according to Connor Vandergeer. “It felt really rewarding to be a part of the community,” he said. “Speaking to professionals, seeing what they think and how impressed they were and just enjoying the demo, it was a really great experience.” The applications for the demo are practically limitless according to Jason Hunter, Manager of the MRC Studio. “A lot of people still relate VR to entertainment and games only, but there’s a lot of applications within other industries that the hardware and software can be used for,” he said. “We have a lot of industry partners who want to find ways to do digital twinning, either of spaces or of objects, particularly for training and simulation.” For example, an industrial company could use the technology to train new employees on heavy machinery, remotely and with no risk to their safety. A second demo, developed by Game – Art student James Gleeson, used a Looking Glass display and Unreal Engine to create holographic 3D models that could be turned and rotated manually. Both demos wowed the crowd, according to Hunter. “There were a lot of smiling faces and minds blown,” he said. “It’s really satisfying to see that we could still impress people who have been working within the field for a long time. That’s really gratifying for the students.” Working with the MRC Studio over the summer has been an invaluable experience for them. “It’s a great opportunity for students to start getting industry experience within their field, and it’s a great place to test what you’re learning,” said Joshua Vandergeer. Students weren’t the only ones making us #DCProud at the event. MRC Principal Investigator Harrison Forsyth was invited as a guest speaker to discuss his recent work digitizing real world objects and environments for virtual applications. “It was a great pleasure to speak at the event on behalf of Durham College,” said Forsyth. “Most importantly, the teams from the MRC Studio and AI Hub got an opportunity to engage with leaders in the extended reality community. This was a huge win for our teams and I am certainly very proud of the work we do.” IT Student Expo a “gigantic confidence boost” for Durham College students eyeing tech careers Posted on April 5, 2024 at 12:55 pm. After months of hard work, students at Durham College (DC) were excited to showcase their innovative projects at DC’s annual IT Student Expo on April 3. In the gymnasium, dozens of booths were set up so students could give live demonstrations of their capstone projects and discuss how their work could potentially benefit their peers and the general public. The expo highlighted work from students in several IT-related programs including Artificial Intelligence Analysis, Design and Implementation, Computer Programming and Analysis, Computer Systems Technology, and Cybersecurity. Among the presenters were Computer Programming and Analysis students Dallas Smith, Glasford, and Henry Peng who worked together to develop an app called My Transit to help make using GO Transit much easier and more streamlined. The idea began with complaints from Smith’s girlfriend about her regular commute. “For example, if she sees her train is canceled or delayed, she can stay with her friends longer and she doesn’t have to rush and leave to get to Union,” Smith said, as he pointed to a delayed train on the app. “That’s kind of where my idea for the app came from, I made it for her but then I realized we could do more with it.” My Transit also allows the user to purchase tickets through the app instead of having to use a Presto Card and users can save their frequent trips on the app. “It will track that exact trip and it will tell you the platform the train will be on, an hour in advance. In the stations you only know 10 minutes prior so this will tell you earlier and it has live updates.” Moving forward, the students said they were hoping to connect with GO Transit and share their app with them. Andrew Graham and Sebastian Castelan Rodriguez had money on their minds when designing PennyPilot, software for computers and phones that allows users to input their spending to track a variety of metrics about their spending habits. “As a college student you probably have a lot of friends who are, let’s just say, not very good at managing their money,” Graham said. “The idea behind PennyPilot is to give people access to actually being able to manage their money and in a way that is fun and entertaining.” Amelia Eric-Markovic was inspired by her mom forgetting her grocery lists to a create Homie, an IOS app to help users keep on top of small, tedious tasks. It contains an event calendar, a to-do list and a shopping list so you never have to rely on paper. “Homie is here to help you organize every facet of your life, whether it’s assignments or just your typical tasks,” she said. “It’s managing your life as a student and as a student with a life outside of this as well.” Eric-Markovic’s dream is to work with Apple and she’s hoping her skills earned through the Computer Programming and Analysis program combined with coding and design work on her IOS app will land her an internship with the company this summer. DC faculty who supported the students said the IT Student Expo teaches them to market and advertise their creations. “The thing that we find with this event is it’s this gigantic confidence boost for students who are already capable but don’t realize it,” said Kyle Chapman, a professor in the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Information Technology (SEIT). Stephen Forbes, a professor in the same faculty said the event is a great display of how students have matured and gained experience over the semester. Stephen said, “Here at Durham College, we try to focus on getting them to build not only the technical skillset, but what we call durable transferable skills.” ‘It’s not just about the technology, it’s how we’re going to change the world with it’: The powerful impact of GenAI on how we live and work Posted on November 30, 2023 at 10:29 am. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) — including ChatGPT – is a game changer on the scale of the internet and Durham College (DC) is embracing that change and exploring how it’s going to impact us in the world of work and beyond through active discussions and research. On November 22, the DC Alumni Association held a discussion called ‘GenAI: The Power of Infinite Possibilities’. The event was hosted by DC president Don Lovisa and professor Lon Appleby and is available via The Rotary Global Classroom. Panelists included three DC graduates who work with GenAI as well as Amanda Maknyik, associate dean of Teaching, Learning and Program Quality at DC. Maknyik explained that GenAI is a branch of artificial intelligence. “It’s unique in the fact that it learns and it can actually create unique new content so that content can be in text form, it can be graphical format, it can be videos, it can be music, it can be any number of things,” she said. “It differs from artificial intelligence in that it learns from the user.” Roop Gill is part of the commercial team at Sanctuary AI, a company whose mission it is to create the world’s first human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots. She is also an alumna of DC’s Chemical Laboratory Technician program and she was enthusiastic about the topic of GenAI. “It’s like being part of this exciting science fiction movie but it’s real life,” said Gill. “It’s not just about the technology, it’s how we’re going to change the world with it.” Computer Programming and Analysis graduate Shane Graham said the development of GenAI is as revolutionary as the internet and everyone is going to be using it. As director of software engineering at Invyzn, a company that handles fleet management solutions including vehicle tracking and big data, he said he uses GenAI on a daily basis for things like writing code, planning projects or even writing emails to save time. “What I found was for higher level things, it worked exceptionally well, so writing up scope of work documents, writing API documentation, even planning — it could plan a project pretty well and then I’d just overview it and approve it essentially,” said Graham adding that it was saving him a great deal of time. “In the beginning I was a little worried about using it for code as well, same with the people at my company, but we’re finding that we can easily build out small scripts where it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would get us to a point where we could then go in and manipulate it to exactly what we want.” GenAI is expected to fundamentally change the skills workers need to succeed in their career. AI can’t be creative like the human mind so the key factor in harnessing the power of it is engineering prompts to generate valuable outputs. “AI isn’t here to take away jobs, rather it’s a tool that will evolve how we work … AI won’t replace your job, but someone who knows AI will,” said Gill. She cited a 2022 report from the World Economic Forum which predicted 85 million jobs worldwide would be displaced by technology and automation, however 97 million new roles would be created due to the same forces. The panel tackled complex questions — and some had no simple answers — like the impact of GenAI on sustainability as complex computing requires large amounts of energy. Artificial Intelligence Analysis graduate Tejas Vyas said a lot of start ups are working on the sustainability issue when it comes to increasingly complex computing. A principal investigator at DC’s AI Hub, a software developer at Preference North America and a 2021 Artificial Intelligence Analysis grad, Vyas also took an optimistic approach when asked about the impact on GenAI on human intelligence. “Every new technology increases human intelligence,” he said. “Think of it this way: we started with a wheel — we created that wheel then we moved forward, we created a car out of it and now we move forward, we created a self-driving car. Getting something that is very smart is a stepping stone we can build upon. If students and the public are able to use (GenAI) well it will be able to augment existing intelligence.” GenAI is revolutionizing the workplace and DC is preparing students and faculty to adapt and thrive in this new environment. Find out more about how DC’s Centre for Teaching and Learning is supporting the use of GenAI in higher education.
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