Registration Link https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/from-bees-to-drones-exploring-bio-inspired-machine-vision-applications-for-tickets-119187632417 Abstract: Bees are used as vectors for pollination and transport of agricultural chemicals in outdoor agriculture and greenhouses. However, in certain situations the use of natural pollinators is problematic, namely: hybrid production, cultivation of pharmaceutical drugs, chemical transport greater than the tolerance of the vector species, or atmospheres poor in oxygen. Small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could serve as an alternate pollination vector in such situations and perform other functions (i.e. yield estimation, early pest detection, soil moisture estimation, etc.). A step towards the deployment of such a tool is to bring the ability to locate, classify, and analyze flowers aboard a drone. Current machine vision approaches in agriculture focus on the visual and infrared spectrums. This project takes a novel approach by analyzing images from the UV spectrum; better mimicking the visual system of natural pollinators for locating and distinguishing flowers. During evolution, flowers have developed reflective and UV absorbing compounds to better distinguish their reproductive structures from conspecifics and various natural environments. This allows potential pollinators to locate the species and the floral part to be visited at a relatively large distance while traveling at an efficient speed. This talk will introduce the concept of precision agriculture, the current state of robotic “bees” in development, and the logistics/benefits of doing image analysis in the UV spectrum. Preliminary results from this study will also be presented as well as plans for upcoming field tests. Bio: Megan Heath is a Master’s candidate in environmental engineering at École de technologie supérieure. Her work focuses on finding modern, technological solutions to environmental problems. She has recently been accepted into the NSERC- funded UTILI CREATE program for training on UAS systems. She derives inspiration for her work from her passion for the outdoors and vintage Sci-fi. Lab page link: https://initrobots.ca/recherches/voir-comme-une-abeille LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-heath-a7b24494/          

Abstract IEEEXtreme is a worldwide Annual Hackathon conducted by IEEE Student Branch, in which teams of IEEE Student members participate against each other in a span of 24 hours to solve a set of programming problems. This year IEEEXtreme 14.0 is being held on 24th October. Ragunath Anbarasu, the web master of IEEE WIE Ottawa and an active IEEE volunteer from Carleton University has been selected as the Ambassador and section lead for Ottawa region. In this session he will walkthrough the IEEEXtreme competition and WIEHACK613, a mock hackathon IEEE WIE Ottawa is organizing as a practice for IEEEXtreme. Register Now! And learn more about the event! Bio Ragunath Anbarasu is currently doing his Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering with Specialization in Data Science at Carlton University. He has been the Web Master of IEEE WIE Ottawa for nearly a year and is extremely active in volunteering activities related to IEEE. He has been coordinating with the organizers in hosting this years IEEEXtreme Programming Competition in their respective student branches and supporting Non-IEEE Student Branch Members to get exposure to the Hackathon. He will be extending his help to students looking for support and guidance with information related to IEEEXtreme and connect them to a professional member.

Abstract: In this ever-changing world, it’s important to have the support of someone who could help and guide us to advance in our career. Women are great achievers, but due to the systemic bias, many are unable to climb up to leadership positions in their career. Women empowerment is very much needed especially in these tough times and promoting women by providing platforms where they could build themselves is need of the hour. Here in IEEE WIE, we understand its importance and try to provide such platforms especially to the women in our society who lag behind in their learning path because of many reasons and couldn’t come up. IEEE wants every woman to achieve what they desire to be. We promote not only women but also men who understand and go by our notion. ANCWT (Advancing New Canadian Women in Technology) aim is to help women with technical skills in engineering accomplish their goals by providing an employment bridging program. ANCWT was established in 2016 and has collaborated with multiple employers in the engineering field. Therefore, the IEEE-WIE, Ottawa, and ANCWT have come forward and took an oath, that we will strive hard to make women gain the required knowledge and confidence to overcome this barrier and find themselves in the background of every picture. Join us on 10th August 2020, in a seminar in which Dr. Sawsan Abdul Majid, President of ANCWT accompanied by two alumni of ANCWT, Oyaje Omakwu, and Dalia Elimam will and take us through their journey with ANCWT in Canada. Bio: Dr. Abdul-Majid is a member of the academic community at the faculty of engineering at the University of Ottawa since 2008 as (Researcher, group manager, Part-time professor & graduate student coordinator). She holds a Ph.D. in Optical Communication Systems from Varna University, Bulgaria, and brings more than 25 years of academic (Teaching & Research) experience, as well as eight years of industrial experience and she has more than 45 publications. Sawsan is a creator and a president of Advancing New Canadian Women in Technology (ANCWT), a Uottawa based employment bridging program. https://ancwt.ca Her goal is to help newcomer women (immigrants & refugees) who have gained their educations in engineering, IT, and computer science from abroad find their dream jobs in Canada, and settle within the Ottawa community. Oyaje Omakwu holds a bachelors’ degree in Mechanical Engineering from Nigeria and a masters’ degree in Engineering Management from the University of Ottawa. She has 10 years of experience in project management and business analysis. She joined ANCWT cohort in 2018, through which she got the opportunity to work as a Project Analyst with the Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada. It is her desire to help new immigrant women learn about the ANCWT program and its benefits and she is part of the team overseeing ANCWT online activities. Dalia Elimam, a Chemical Engineer from U.A.E with 16 years of experience in chemical analysis for drinking water pesticides and toxins in food for UAE government. She was introduced to ANCWT in 2019 through the newcomers’ program which guided her to find an entry-level position at Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans- Canada. She is now a Jr. Business Analyst at DFO and work with the client portfolio management team. Registration link below!