Creating more intelligent computers, understanding how fish can live out of water, and improving learning and memory are among University of Guelph projects to benefit from an $8.6-million investment from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
The awards were announced in Ottawa by Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science and technology. Across Canada, the government will invest $414 million to support 3,808 research projects in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Today’s announcement includes the 2013 competition results for NSERC programs, including Discovery Grants, Discovery Accelerator Supplements, and graduate and post-doctoral awards. Most research projects are supported for five years.
Guelph’s 50-odd projects span five colleges and numerous departments. U of G also received 34 graduate scholarships and a post-doctoral fellowship.
"These awards provide our researchers with the equipment, technology and other resources they need to leverage their innovations into new knowledge and practical applications,” said Kevin Hall, vice-president (research).
“One of Guelph’s strengths is our leadership and dedication in supporting research that has tangible impacts.”
Engineering professor Graham Taylor received nearly $220,000 to study “deep learning,” or computer methods that mimic the human brain’s activity. Computers learn to recognize patterns in digital representations of sounds, images and other information, and make decisions based on the processed data.
“It's amazing to be working in the field amid all this excitement about artificial intelligence,” said Taylor, who joined the U of G faculty in June 2012 and had received NSERC support as a graduate student.
“Deep learning especially has received a great deal of attention in the media lately for its success at some of the most influential high-tech companies, such as Google, Apple and Microsoft,” he said.
“Everyone's generating data. Everyone wants to do more with their data. So over the next few years, I hope to collaborate with many different researchers here and tackle more problems with deep learning.”
He called the NSERC grant critical to his research and for attracting and training data engineers “who can satiate the growing demand for highly qualified personnel with deep analytical skills.”
Source: University of Guelph