Gordon M. MacNabb Scholarship

The Gordon M. MacNabb Scholarship Foundation was founded in 1993 as a charitable organization to support graduate students studying and working in the area of robotics and intelligent systems.  The Foundation as awarded $5,000 scholarship supplements each year since its inception.

2009

Brent Tweddle, University of Waterloo

The winner of the prestigious 2009 Gordon M. MacNabb Scholarship, sponsored by MDA Corporation is Mr. Brent Tweddle, a graduate of the University of Waterloo.  

Brent Tweddle will be starting his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Space Systems Laboratory under the co-supervision of Professors David Miller and Alvar Saenz-Otero. Brent has been participating as a Research Assistant in the development of hardware upgrades to the SPHERES satellite. His doctoral work will concentrate on improving the state-of-the-art in computer vision for robotic repair and inspection satellites.

Brent describes his work as follows: "Small robotic satellites would be extremely useful for robotically repairing large astronomical satellites, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, or for inspecting manned spacecraft such as the International Space Station (ISS) or Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). However, these robotic satellites would need to rely on onboard cameras to ensure that they could safely navigate around the larger host spacecraft without any risk of collision."

2008

Ambrose Chan, University of British Columbia

Mr. Ambrose Chan is a PhD  student at the University of British Columbia under the co-supervision  of Professors Elizabeth Croft and Jim Little. Mr. Chan is currently  participating in the Precarn-supported "Bin-picking" project that is  led by Braintech of Vancouver.  The title of his research is "Visual Servoing of Mobile Eye-In-Hand Manipulators to Objects with Model Uncertainties".  Ambrose  describes his work as follows: "Vision provides a robust sensing tool  for robots moving in complex environments. The ability to control robot  motion via visual commands has been of considerable interest to  automotive/service robot manufacturers, hazardous materials handlers,  and human-machine interface designers. However, there are many  challenges to implementing effective, collision-free vision-based  robotic control in unstructured, environments where models of the world  are imprecise. For example, picking jumbled objects out of a bin, where  the environment itself changes as the parts are removed. The primary  goal of this research is to develop a vision based robot controller  capable of planning and updating robot motion for both target finding  and target picking, while simultaneously refining its model of the  target object and the environment through ongoing visual input. In  other words; a robot that always keeps it eye on the prize, but also  minds it elbows."

2007

Kuiran (Thomas) Chen, Queen's University

Kuiran (Thomas) Chen is a PhD student at Queen's University's Medical Image Analysis (MedIA) Laboratory, supervised by Dr. Purang Abolmaesumi. University. Chen's research is in ultrasound-guided computer-assisted surgery, where ultrasound and advanced computer technologies is employed to help surgeons perform a variety of operations. Doctors have used ultrasound for years in abdominal surgeries to help make diagnoses and perform treatment (e.g., injections). However, many surgeons today are still not comfortable with doing such procedures under ultrasound guidance for two major reasons. First, it is very difficult to interpret the information from an ultrasound image, for which years of medical training is needed. Second, the ultrasound image does not indicate the whereabouts of the surgical tool (e.g., the needle tip) inside the body. To alleviate these problems, Chen's research is developing new ways to fundamentally improve the ultrasound imaging technology, especially providing surgeons with information about the position of the surgical instruments. The intelligent system acts like a “medical GPS” where the ultrasound images generates a virtual map inside the patient and, when combined with accurate position tracking, the system will guide the surgeon (like a driver) to insert the needle (like a car) toward the desired surgical location not only more precisely, but also much more quickly and efficiently than can be done using current techniques.  

2006

Christopher Bone, Simon Fraser University

Christopher Bone is a PhD student in Geography at Simon Fraser University. The focus of his PhD is the use of intelligent systems for developing a spatial model of anthropogenic responses to natural disturbances of forest environments. The work aims to integrate intelligent agent interactions with dynamic cellular automated landscapes within a geographic information system (GIS) framework. The agent-based models can be used to simulate decisions to log forests based on their susceptibility to disturbances as well as to optimize profits in response to economic markets, while the cellular automata will model the change in land use patterns that are a result of the interactions between the agents as well as the change caused by the natural disturbances. This builds on Chris’ previous work that used cellular automata to model complex systems such as insect outbreaks. A case study using mountain pine beetle outbreaks in British Columbia was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model in evaluating the threat of the outbreaks. 

 2005

Alona Fyshe, University of Alberta

Alona Fyshe is a Masters of Computer Science candidate at the University of Alberta, working in the bioinformatics program. Her area of research involves the problem of deep protein sequence annotation, based on automated literature searchers, a problem that requires both natural language understanding and machine learning. Her supervisor is Prof. Duane Szafron, a researcher on IRIS’ IACCG project.

2004

Krista Laugesen, Queen’s University

Krista Laugesen is currently working on a Ph.D. in the Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University. Ms. Laugesen’s research, which focuses on the development of a selective polymer coating, is an integral component of an optical fiber system used for the detection of environmental contaminants. Different polymer materials will be designed to detect different classes of contaminants. Working with intelligent systems, the resulting signals will provide a unique or "fingerprint" sample.  Ms. Laugesen is a member of the Precarn IAEMS project research team, part of an international collaboration.

2003

Stephen Smith, Queen's University

Topping nearly 50 highly qualified applicants, Stephen Smith, a recent graduate in Engineering Physics from Queen's University, was the 2003 recipient of the Gordon M. MacNabb Scholarship. In the fall, he will begin Master's studies at the University of Toronto, pursuing research in the control and design of autonomous robotics for planetary exploration, with the Systems Control Group, in the Electrical Engineering department.

2002

Predrag Prodanovic, University of Western Ontario

Predrag is completing his fourth year at the University of Western Ontario where he will continue with his Masters studies at the Intelligent Decision Support Laboratory. His proposed topic of research is the analysis of complex water resources systems using the tools of systems theory and artificial intelligence (fuzzy logic merged with system dynamics modeling, chaos theory and the theory of non-linear dynamics). The focus is on predicting the response of water resources systems to climate change, climate variation and climate extremes such as floods and droughts, thereby improving the design, maintenance and operational policies of water systems.  Pictured with Dave Perry (left) of MD Robotics

2001

 

Thomas R. Hay, Pennsylvania State University

 Thomas Hay is working on his doctorate at Pennsylvania State University, in the Engineering Mechanics Department Ultrasonics Lab. His focus is on developing a model for guided wave propagation that can easily be applied to such structures as bridge girders, rail, multi-layered aircraft structures, submarine hulls, pipelines and the like.

2000

Pascal Poupart, University of Toronto

Pascal Poupart did his Master's degree at the University of British Columbia and is now enrolled in the Phd program at University of Toronto.  His research focuses on developing probabilistic methods of dealing with uncertainty.

1999

Faustina Hwang, Memorial University

St. John’s native, Faustina Hwang, graduated from Memorial University in Electrical Engineering and has begun her research project in rehabilitation robotics for her Master’s degree in Engineering. She is working on techniques that will improve robots so they are better-suited to the needs of disabled persons.  Her project involves the integration of human intelligence with machine manipulation. The goal is to enable a person to interact with a robot in a manner that makes it safe and easy to complete a wide range of tasks.

1998

Michael Flemming, University of Waterloo

Michael Fleming, doctoral candidate at the University of Waterloo, holds a BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Mount Allison University and a Master's in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Waterloo.  His doctoral research will involve the study of "mixed initiative systems".  These are systems that take into account the different capabilities of the human operator and the AI system thereby enabling both to contribute to the decision making process.  
Pictured with Loris Gregoris (left) of MD Robotics and Gordon M. MacNabb (center).

1997

Michael D. Naish, University of British Columbia

Michael Naish, a Master's student at the University of British Columbia, completed a combined undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Western Ontario. For his Master's degree he plans to develop an open architecture system for multi-sensor integration in industrial applications. His supervisor is Dr. Elizabeth Croft of the mechanical Engineering Department at UBC. In addition to a strong academic background, Mr. Naish spent a one-year industrial internship at the General Motors Diesel Division where he developed a computer integrated testing system for locomotives.

1996

Heather McGowan, University of New Brunswick

As a masters student in Biomedical Engineering, Heather has been exploring methods of simplifying backpropagation in artificial neural network architectures to handle a set of complex medical data collected from coronary surgery patients.  In January 1997, Heather began her doctoral studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. By working with a large database of gestation parameters and neuro-developmental risk factors collected from a population of expectant mothers and their neonates (with Ottawa-based research partners), Heather will be able to assess the performance of such a network in light of the well-understood temporal progression of maternity and neonatal outcomes. Knowledge gained will also lead to prevention strategies that will improve the health of newborns.

1995

Robert Leger, MacMaster University

1994

Pierre Payeur, Université Laval