News

NL Student Teams Receive Grants from IEEE Canadian Foundation for Autonomous Vehicles Competitions

The teams received grants to participate in autonomous underwater and aerial vehicles

Published: May 3, 2022 by IEEE Newfoundland and Labrador Section

In their April AGM and Board meetings, the IEEE Canadian Foundation approved the awarding of three Special Grants, two of them to NL student groups aiming to participate in international competitions for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

The MUN Robosub AUV team is an engineering student group at Memorial University, comprised of engineering students designing a bio-inspired AUV to represent Memorial University in the RoboSub Competition. RoboSub is an international student competition by RoboNation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote hands-on educational experiences that empower students. The competition is held each summer at the U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific’s TRANSDEC Anechoic pool in San Diego, California. Student teams design and build autonomous underwater vehicles that can identify and distinguish objects through machine learning, pick up objects, drop markers, monitor subsea structures, collect data and touch buoys under the water, thus mimicking those of real-world systems. The aim is to challenge students and advance the field of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), which are widely used for underwater exploration, seafloor mapping, and sonar localization, amongst many others.

Phoenix Aerospace is an aerospce club run by Memorial University Students, with the goal of “creating a safe space that opens up new opportunities for students to explore the inner workings of UAVs and aerospace applications.” The team received the IEEE Canadian Foundation Special Grant to compete in the 2022 IEEE Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Competition. The goal of this year’s competition, named “Research Infrastructure for Real-Time Onboard Vision Enabled Robots” (Ri4rover), is to have “autonomous drones actively track one of several ground robots in a miniature city”.

According to their website, “[t]he IEEE Canadian Foundation awards “Special Grants” to an IEEE Student Branch, an IEEE Section, an IEEE Canada Committee, a non-IEEE entity such as a high school , or in rare cases an individual, all in Canada. Special Grants are intended to partially fund one-time new and innovative projects that advance IEEE’s core purpose to foster technological innovation and excellence to benefit humanity.”

Students ICF Grants

Latest News

Applications to the IEEE NL Term 6 Scholarship are now open

Active IEEE student members can compete for a one-time $1000 scholarship. Deadline is Oct. 10, 2022.

The Awards committee of the NL Section has released the call for applications to the Term 6 Scholarship for IEEE Student Members. For more information, click here to read the call for applications.

NL Student Teams Receive Grants from IEEE Canadian Foundation for Autonomous Vehicles Competitions

The teams received grants to participate in autonomous underwater and aerial vehicles

In their April AGM and Board meetings, the IEEE Canadian Foundation approved the awarding of three Special Grants, two of them to NL student groups aiming to participate in international competitions for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

IEEE Canadian Foundation Extends Deadlines for Scholarships

IEEE NL Undergraduate and Graduate Student members are eligible to three of the scholarships with extended deadlines

In their April AGM and Board meetings, the IEEE Canadian Foundation extended the deadlines of four different scholarships, as reported in IEEE Canada’s April Newsletter. Of the four scholarships, IEEE NL Undergraduate and Graduate student members are eligible to three: the IEEE Canadian Foundation Dr. Raymond D. Findlay Scholarship, the Nick Cercone Graduate Scholarship in Computer Science, and the Gargantini-Strybosch Scholarship. More information on the scholarships can be found below:

IEEE Canada Congratulates Dr. Octavia Dobre for Interim Dean Appointment

Dr. Octavia Dobre was appointed as Interim Dean of Engineering and Applied Science, effective May 2, 2022, until April 28, 2023.

In their April Newsletter, IEEE Canada congratulated Dr. Octavia Dobre for her appointment as Interim Dean of Engineering and Applied Science. “Big congratulations to Dr. Octavia Dobre for being appointed Interim Dean of Memorial’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science,” wrote IEEE Canada. According to Memorial University’s Gazette, Dr. Dobre “has been appointed interim dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, effective May 2, 2022, until April 28, 2023,” replacing Dr. Greg Naterer, who has been appointed vice-president, academic and research, at the University of Prince Edward Island. As announced by Dr. Naterer, Dr. Dobre is the first female Dean of Engineering at Memorial Univeristy.