Self-Driving Cars / en 茄子直播 team takes top spot in self-driving car challenge for 6th time in 7 years /news/u-t-team-takes-top-spot-self-driving-car-challenge-6th-time-7-years <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播 team takes top spot in self-driving car challenge for 6th time in 7 years</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-08/AUTODRIVE_24_5601-crop.jpg?h=3a919dd0&amp;itok=kFCXUnGZ 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2024-08/AUTODRIVE_24_5601-crop.jpg?h=3a919dd0&amp;itok=YPAb6B8H 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2024-08/AUTODRIVE_24_5601-crop.jpg?h=3a919dd0&amp;itok=Q35dvO8b 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-08/AUTODRIVE_24_5601-crop.jpg?h=3a919dd0&amp;itok=kFCXUnGZ" alt="UofT's self driving car avoids a mock moose crossing the road"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-08-07T13:42:55-04:00" title="Wednesday, August 7, 2024 - 13:42" class="datetime">Wed, 08/07/2024 - 13:42</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>As part of the competition, the 茄子直播 team鈥檚 autonomous vehicle had to react to obstacles such as a fake deer moving across the road (photo courtesy of aUToronto)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6738" hreflang="en">Safa Jinje</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">茄子直播</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utias" hreflang="en">UTIAS</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">"Each time we saw an obstacle 鈥 a stop sign, a red light, the railroad bar coming down 鈥 and the car reacted by stopping and then continuing,鈥痺e let out a big cheer or a sigh of relief"</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A team from the University of Toronto has placed first for sixth time in seven years in a North American self-driving car competition.&nbsp;</p> <p>After finishing in second place last year, <a href="https://www.autodrive.utoronto.ca">the aUToronto team</a> returned to the top spot at&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.autodrivechallenge.com" target="_blank">2024 SAE AutoDrive Challenge II</a>, which was held in June at the Mcity Test Facility in Ann Arbor, Mich.</p> <p>The aUToronto team competed against nine other teams from across Canada and the United States.</p> <p>鈥淭hrough the AutoDrive Challenge, we are preparing the next generation of engineers to head into the industry, to keep pushing towards the challenging goal of reaching Level 4 autonomous driving,鈥 says&nbsp;<strong>Tim Barfoot</strong>, a professor at the 茄子直播 Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering and one of the team鈥檚 academic advisers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭he team did another excellent job this year.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The team approached the competition by going back to first principles to ensure they had a reliable and robust system, says&nbsp;<strong>Kelvin Cui</strong>, a 茄子直播 Engineering alumnus and&nbsp;the team鈥檚 principal.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>He joined aUToronto last fall after five years with the University of Toronto Formula Racing team, where he founded the 鈥渄riverless鈥 division.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e looked at what was going to get us the most points at competition and made sure that we were not overbuilding our system and adding too much complexity,鈥 he says.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>This meant pushing for additional testing time at UTIAS and achieving more than 900 kilometres of system testing prior to the competition.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2024-08/AUTODRIVE_24_5334-crop.jpg?itok=xSJviMQl" width="750" height="500" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>The team placed first out of 10 teams from institutions across the United States and Canada (photo courtesy of aUToronto)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>A partnership with the AutoDrive team from Queen鈥檚 University was instrumental to aUToronto鈥檚 preparation. The aUToronto team drove Artemis, their autonomous vehicle, to Kingston, Ont. to assess the system at Queen鈥檚 testing facility, which features intersections and electronic streetlights.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e added radar to our vehicle as a new sensor, so we needed to be aware of all the sensor failure modes,鈥 says third-year Engineering Science student <strong>Robert Ren</strong>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淎 lot of our testing time went into making sure that including radar didn鈥檛 break anything else in our system, and that it could handle any sensor failure cases.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Including radar sensors in the vehicle鈥檚 perception system&nbsp;allowed it to measure the motion of objects directly, which is not possible with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淩adar can help with adverse weather object detections,鈥 adds Ren.&nbsp;鈥淪o, if the vehicle is operating under heavy rain or fog, the LiDAR is going to be limited, but the radio waves from radar can help the vehicle see what objects are in front and what objects are moving. 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9ycZUeNM64/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank">View this post on Instagram</a></div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);">&nbsp;</div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);">&nbsp;</div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;">&nbsp;</div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)">&nbsp;</div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);">&nbsp;</div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);">&nbsp;</div> <div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);">&nbsp;</div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;">&nbsp;</div> <div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;">&nbsp;</div> </div> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9ycZUeNM64/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by aUToronto (@autoronto_uoft)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script> <p>In an event where both LiDAR and radar sensors fail, the aUToronto system can still rely on visual cameras to perform object tracking.鈥疶his made the team鈥檚 object tracker much more robust compared to last year when the team&nbsp;experienced sensor failure during a dynamic event.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Brian Cheong</strong>, a 茄子直播 Engineering master鈥檚 student who has been a member of aUToronto since 2021, acted as technical director of the autonomy team this year 鈥&nbsp;part of a new leadership structure introduced by Cui.&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淚n the past, it was a lot of work for our team鈥檚 principal to keep track of all the systems,鈥 Cheong says.&nbsp;鈥淪o instead of having to work directly with all 15 sub teams, Kelvin created groups of sub teams that we called stacks, and each stack had a director.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The restructuring and technical innovations paid off, with aUToronto completing its first clean sweep in the AutoDrive Challenge II, placing first in all static and&nbsp;dynamic events, including the concept design presentation and intersection challenge.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淭he intersection challenge was a big highlight for us,鈥 says Cheong. 鈥淜elvin and Robert were in the car, and I was on the sidelines watching with the rest of the team.&nbsp;Each time we saw an obstacle 鈥 a stop sign, a red light, the railroad bar coming down 鈥 and the car reacted by stopping and then continuing,鈥痺e let out a big cheer or a sigh of relief.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淎nd then we were all silent as the car approached the final obstacle, which was a deer.鈥疻e watched as Artemis slowed down to a stop and the deer moved by. Then we screamed and cheered, and we could hear cheering from inside the car.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淥ur success is entirely a team effort,鈥 adds Cui. 鈥淚t was not smooth sailing before the competition. The only reason we won is because everybody put in so much effort to test our vehicle every day.</p> <p>鈥淭hat鈥檚 how we were able to get this reliable system across the line.鈥濃&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-oembed-video field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item"><iframe src="/media/oembed?url=https%3A//youtu.be/gG7DG-t2aiQ%3Fsi%3DkYGqZF0-x-6a4MBn&amp;max_width=0&amp;max_height=0&amp;hash=6whKFK-X5NSAGZdfMqSydpcgBMCmEPw2x-2wTgtl2jw" width="200" height="113" class="media-oembed-content" loading="eager" title="AutoDrive Challenge II Year 3 Highlight Video"></iframe> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 07 Aug 2024 17:42:55 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 308926 at 茄子直播 researchers enhance object-tracking abilities of self-driving cars /news/u-t-researchers-enhance-object-tracking-abilities-self-driving-cars <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播 researchers enhance object-tracking abilities of self-driving cars</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-05/PXL_20230608_181335793-crop.jpg?h=7575563c&amp;itok=mDJZAkzx 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2024-05/PXL_20230608_181335793-crop.jpg?h=7575563c&amp;itok=VS33Oojz 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2024-05/PXL_20230608_181335793-crop.jpg?h=7575563c&amp;itok=lwAIt_Pp 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2024-05/PXL_20230608_181335793-crop.jpg?h=7575563c&amp;itok=mDJZAkzx" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2024-05-29T10:59:42-04:00" title="Wednesday, May 29, 2024 - 10:59" class="datetime">Wed, 05/29/2024 - 10:59</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p><em>Sandro Papais, a PhD student, is the co-author of a new paper that introduces a graph-based optimization method to improve object tracking for self-driving cars&nbsp;(photo courtesy of aUToronto)</em></p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6738" hreflang="en">Safa Jinje</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/robotics" hreflang="en">Robotics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utias" hreflang="en">UTIAS</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">The new tools could help robotic systems of autonomous vehicles better track the position and motion of vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists<br> </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Researchers at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) have introduced a pair of high-tech tools that could improve the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles by enhancing the reasoning ability of their robotic systems.</p> <p>The innovations address multi-object tracking, a process used by robotic systems to track the position and motion of objects 鈥 including vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists 鈥 to plan the path of self-driving cars in densely populated areas.</p> <p>Tracking information is collected from computer vision sensors鈥(2D camera images and 3D LIDAR scans) and filtered at each time stamp, 10 times a second, to predict the future movement of moving objects.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淥nce processed, it allows the robot to develop some reasoning about its environment. For example, there is a human&nbsp;crossing the street at the intersection, or a cyclist changing lanes up ahead,鈥 says&nbsp;<strong>Sandro Papais</strong>, a PhD student in UTIAS in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering. "At each time stamp, the robot鈥檚 software tries to link the current detections with objects it saw in the past, but it can only go back so far in time.鈥&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.17892">In a new paper</a> presented at the 2024 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Yokohama, Japan, Papais and co-authors <strong>Robert Ren</strong>, a third-year engineering science student, and Professor <strong>Steven Waslander</strong>, director of UTIAS鈥檚 <a href="https://www.trailab.utias.utoronto.ca/">Toronto Robotics and AI Laboratory</a>, introduce Sliding Window Tracker (SWTrack) 鈥 a graph-based optimization method that uses additional temporal information to prevent missed objects.</p> <p>The tool is designed to improve the performance of tracking methods, particularly when objects are occluded from the robot鈥檚 point of view.&nbsp;</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-center"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/scale_image_750_width_/public/2024-05/Objects%20and%20Labels.jpg?itok=mTZFj1NL" width="750" height="426" alt="&quot;&quot;" class="image-style-scale-image-750-width-"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>A visualization of a nuScenes dataset used by the researchers. The image is a mosaic of the six different camera views around the car with the object bounding boxes rendered overtop of the images (image courtesy of the Toronto Robotics and AI Laboratory)</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淪WTrack widens how far into the past a robot considers when planning,鈥 says Papais. 鈥淪o instead of being limited by what it just saw one frame ago and what is happening now, it can look over the past five seconds and then try to reason through all the different things it has seen.鈥濃&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The team tested, trained and validated their algorithm on field data obtained through nuScenes, a public, large-scale dataset for autonomous driving vehicles that have operated on roads in cities around the world. The data includes human annotations that the team used to benchmark the performance of SWTrack.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>They found that each time they extended the temporal window, to a maximum of five seconds, the tracking performance got better. But past five seconds, the algorithm鈥檚 performance was slowed by computation time.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淢ost tracking algorithms would have a tough time reasoning over some of these temporal gaps. But in our case, we were able to validate that we can track over these longer periods of time and maintain more consistent tracking for dynamic objects around us,鈥 says Papais.&nbsp;</p> <p>Papais says he鈥檚 looking forward to building on the idea of improving robot memory and extending it to other areas of robotics infrastructure.&nbsp;鈥淭his is just the beginning,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e working on the tracking problem, but also other robot problems, where we can incorporate more temporal information to enhance perception and robotic reasoning.鈥&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Another paper, <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.12303">co-authored by master鈥檚 student <strong>Chang Won (John) Lee</strong> and Waslander</a>, introduces UncertaintyTrack, a collection of extensions for 2D tracking-by-detection methods that leverages probabilistic object detection.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淧robabilistic object detection quantifies the uncertainty estimates of object detection,鈥 explains Lee. 鈥淭he key thing here is that for safety-critical tasks, you want to be able to know when&nbsp;the predicted detections are likely to cause errors in downstream tasks such as multi-object tracking. These errors can occur because of low-lighting conditions or heavy object occlusion.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淯ncertainty estimates give us an idea of when the model is in doubt, that is, when it is highly likely to give errors in predictions.鈥疊ut鈥痶here鈥檚 this gap because probabilistic object detectors aren鈥檛 currently used in multi-tracking object tracking.鈥濃&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Lee worked on the paper as part of his undergraduate thesis in engineering science. Now a master鈥檚 student in Waslander鈥檚 lab, he is researching visual anomaly detection for the Canadarm3, Canada鈥檚 contribution to the U.S.-led Gateway lunar outpost.&nbsp;&nbsp;鈥淚n my current research, we are aiming to come up with a deep-learning-based method that detects objects floating in space that pose a potential risk to the robotic arm,鈥 Lee says.</p> <p>Waslander says the advancements outlined in the two papers build on work that his lab has been focusing on for a number of years.</p> <p>鈥淸The Toronto Robotics and AI Laboratory] has been working on assessing perception uncertainty and expanding temporal reasoning for robotics for multiple years now, as they are the key roadblocks to deploying robots in the open world more broadly,鈥 Waslander says.</p> <p>鈥淲e desperately need AI methods that can understand the persistence of objects over time, and ones that are aware of their own limitations and will stop and reason when something new or unexpected appears in their path. This is what our research aims to do.鈥&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 29 May 2024 14:59:42 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 307958 at Three takeaways from Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun鈥檚 entrepreneurial journey /news/three-takeaways-waabi-ceo-raquel-urtasun-s-entrepreneurial-journey <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Three takeaways from Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun鈥檚 entrepreneurial journey</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-03-09-True-Blue-Impact-Day_Polina-Teif-28-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5LPTXbW1 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-03-09-True-Blue-Impact-Day_Polina-Teif-28-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=3nMWOmtL 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-03-09-True-Blue-Impact-Day_Polina-Teif-28-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=MgIFi7Bw 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-03-09-True-Blue-Impact-Day_Polina-Teif-28-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5LPTXbW1" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>mattimar</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-03-15T12:00:54-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 15, 2023 - 12:00" class="datetime">Wed, 03/15/2023 - 12:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Raquel Urtasun, a professor of computer science and founder and CEO of self-driving startup Waabi, delivers a talk during the Desjardins Speakers Series at 茄子直播's Entrepreneurship Week (photo by Polina Teif)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/mariam-matti" hreflang="en">Mariam Matti</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship-week" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship Week</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">茄子直播 Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/centre-engineering-innovation-entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Centre for Engineering Innovation &amp; Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/raquel-urtasun" hreflang="en">Raquel Urtasun</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><b>Raquel Urtasun </b>may be a world-leading expert in machine learning and computer vision 鈥 but that doesn鈥檛 mean she likes to talk about her abilities.</p> <p>In fact, the CEO of self-driving vehicle company Waabi says she had to overcome her humble nature when trying to convince big-name investors<b> </b>she had the winning formula to transform the self-driving industry<b>.</b></p> <p>鈥淵ou need to say [to venture capitalists] 鈥 why you, why this team and why this technology in a way that鈥檚 very convincing,鈥 says Urtasun.</p> <p>The approach worked. Urtasun, a professor in the department of computer science in the University of Toronto鈥檚 Faculty of Arts &amp; Science, <a href="/news/u-t-s-raquel-urtasun-raises-100-million-self-driving-startup-waabi-reports">secured $100 million in initial capital</a> 鈥 <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2021/06/08/uber-veteran-launches-her-ai-mindset-self-driving-startup-with-835-million-round/?sh=4d071be16edf">one of the largest rounds of seed funding in Canadian history</a>. She鈥檚 since worked on developing the next-generation of AI-powered technology for self-driving trucks.</p> <p>She recently spoke about her entrepreneurial journey during a keynote speech at True Blue Impact Day, which marked the culmination of the seventh annual <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/events/entrepreneurship-week/">茄子直播 Entrepreneurship Week</a>.</p> <p>Here are three takeaways from her talk:</p> <hr> <h4>Be bold and aim high</h4> <p>As someone who prefers to show others she can do something, Urtasun says she knew that asking for $100 million from a slew of big-name investors would not come naturally.</p> <p>But she was confident in her detailed plan.</p> <p>鈥淚n front of the venture capitalists, you cannot be humble,鈥 she says. 鈥淭hey will never fund you.鈥</p> <p>Urtasun says she made sure to draw a roadmap of how she intended to use the money.</p> <p>鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to worry about fundraising in six or nine months,鈥 she adds. 鈥淚 wanted the money so we could execute and build this transformational technology.鈥</p> <h4>Be strategic about your team</h4> <p>Urtasun is the sole founder of Waabi, but she says her team and the investors she鈥檚 worked with have been incredibly important in building the company. She adds that she knew from the beginning she wanted to work with investors from the technology and AI sector 鈥 including fellow 茄子直播 AI luminaries <b>Geoffrey Hinton</b> and <b>Sanja Fidler</b> 鈥 because they would better understand Waabi鈥檚 mission.</p> <p>鈥淚 think it鈥檚 important to have people you can rely on and that have each other鈥檚 back,鈥 she says.</p> <p>The investments from Uber, Khosla Ventures, BDC Capital and others have allowed the company to develop Waabi World, an advanced simulator to test its autonomous vehicles, and Waabi Driver, its first generation of self-driving trucks.</p> <h4>Ignore the competition</h4> <p>鈥淢y philosophy is to write a strategy and focus on that,鈥 Urtasun says, adding that it鈥檚 important to tune out naysayers.</p> <p>Case in point: When she first founded the company two years ago, she says she heard people say that she was getting into the self-driving sector 鈥渢oo late.鈥</p> <p>鈥淲hat I heard a lot was 鈥榚verybody鈥檚 in this path, what are you doing?鈥 What I hear today is 鈥榟ow did you perfectly time this?鈥欌 she says. 鈥淎nd nothing changed, right? I just focused on doing my thing.鈥</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="media_embed" height="422px" width="750px"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422px" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/810572969?h=851c2b39b5" width="750px"></iframe> <p height="422px" width="750px"><a href="https://vimeo.com/810572969">Desjardins Speaker Series: Driving Innovation with Raquel Urtasun, Founder of Waabi</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user67399647">茄子直播 Entrepreneurship</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 15 Mar 2023 16:00:54 +0000 mattimar 180762 at 茄子直播 Entrepreneurship Week 2023: Top 10 startups to watch /news/u-t-entrepreneurship-week-2023-top-10-startups-watch <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播 Entrepreneurship Week 2023: Top 10 startups to watch</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/top-ten-v5.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Dqozm0kv 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/top-ten-v5.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=UhRjZMrh 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/top-ten-v5.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=meAsQRy7 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/top-ten-v5.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Dqozm0kv" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-03-02T11:01:59-05:00" title="Thursday, March 2, 2023 - 11:01" class="datetime">Thu, 03/02/2023 - 11:01</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(supplied images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/mariam-matti" hreflang="en">Mariam Matti</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/black-founders-network" hreflang="en">Black Founders Network</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship-week" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship Week</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/temerty-faculty-medicine" hreflang="en">Temerty Faculty of Medicine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/true-blue-expo" hreflang="en">True Blue Expo</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/hub" hreflang="en">The Hub</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">茄子直播</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dalla-lana-school-public-health" hreflang="en">Dalla Lana School of Public Health</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-kinesiology-physical-education" hreflang="en">Faculty of Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/leslie-dan-faculty-pharmacy" hreflang="en">Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/psychology" hreflang="en">Psychology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/st-michael-s-hospital" hreflang="en">St. Michael's Hospital</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">茄子直播 Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-scarborough" hreflang="en">茄子直播 Scarborough</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A plant-based alternative to conventional plastic. Using drones to tackle reforestation in wildfire-ravaged locations. And a new generation of self-driving technologies that leverage the full potential of artificial intelligence.</p> <p>These are just some innovative ideas that have emerged from the University of Toronto鈥檚 entrepreneurship community in recent years.</p> <p>Ranked <a href="/news/u-t-among-top-five-university-business-incubators-world-ubi-global?utm_source=UofTHome&amp;utm_medium=WebsiteBanner&amp;utm_content=UBIGlobalRanking">one of the top five university business incubators in the world</a>, 茄子直播 Entrepreneurship is set to celebrate these and other startups, as well as their founders, during its annual <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/events/entrepreneurship-week/">茄子直播 Entrepreneurship Week</a> from March 6 to 9. The schedule includes pitch competitions, workshops, panel discussions and the popular <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/event/true-blue-expo-2023/">True Blue Expo</a>, which will feature the founders of more than 40 of 茄子直播鈥檚 top startups.</p> <p>Another highlight:<b> Raquel Urtasun, </b>founder and CEO of Waabi and a 茄子直播 professor of computer science, will discuss lessons learned while building her&nbsp;self-driving vehicle company at the <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/event/desjardins-speaker-series-entrepreneurship-week-keynote/">Desjardins Speakers Series</a> on March 9.</p> <p>Here are 10 exciting 茄子直播 startups to keep an eye on in 2023:</p> <hr> <h3><a href="https://www.arma-bio.com/"><b>Arma Biosciences</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/arma-thumb2.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">The ability to give patients agency over their own health monitoring was one of the reasons <b>Surath Gomis</b> co-founded Arma Biosciences. The startup鈥檚 goal is to develop a new sensor technology for biomarker-informed digital health care. In partnership with Analog Devices, work on the company鈥檚 first product is underway 鈥 a handheld finger-prick blood test for patients with heart failure.</p> <p>With a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from 茄子直播, Gomis established the company in 2020 with his supervisor <b>Shana Kelley</b>, a researcher in 茄子直播鈥檚 Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Temerty Faculty of Medicine.</p> <p>Gomis hopes future products will include wearable, implantable and ingestible sensors for monitoring applications. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="https://erthos.ca/"><b>Erthos</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/erthos-thumbnail.jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 150px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left;">茄子直播 alumnae <b>Nuha Siddiqui</b> and <b>Kritika Tyagi</b> are working to transform the plastic industry for the better. In 2018, the pair co-founded Erthos, a company that offers fully biodegradable plant-based material as a replacement for single-use plastics.</p> <p>Erthos creates resins using materials that are both compostable and microplastic-free 鈥 and compatible with existing manufacturing technology. Siddiqui and Tyagi recently made the <i>Forbes </i><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/erthos/?sh=1fca8fe33ee0">list of 30 under 30 in the social impact category</a>, which noted that Erthos has raised more than US$5.5 million in funding.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.transcrypts.com/"><b>TransCrypts</b></a></h3> <p><b><img alt src="/sites/default/files/Transcrypts-thumbnail.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">Ali Zaheer</b> and <b>Zain Zaidi</b> co-founded TransCrypts to transform digital privacy and security. Back in 2020, they set out to answer a simple question: 鈥淲hy can鈥檛 consumers own their important documentation digitally and in a way that can be easily verified?鈥</p> <p>TransCrypts&nbsp;鈥 which took home a <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/resource/ute-startup-prize/#:~:text=The%20University%20of%20Toronto%20Entrepreneurship,place%20on%20March%207%2C%202022">$10,000 second-place</a>&nbsp;startup prize at a 茄子直播 pitch competition during last year鈥檚 Entrepreneurship Week&nbsp;鈥&nbsp;is a blockchain-based document verification platform that gives people direct access to their official documents, such as medical records. Supported by 茄子直播 Scarborough鈥檚 <a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/thehub/welcome">The Hub</a>, Zaheer and Zaidi <a href="/news/startup-brings-blockchain-ukrainian-refugees-lands-24-million-funding">have already helped thousands of Ukrainian refugees access medical records</a> through a pilot project and landed US$2.4 million in funding from backers including <i>Shark Tank</i> investor Mark Cuban.</p> <h3><a href="https://waabi.ai/"><b>Waabi</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/waabi-thumb-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">A world-leading expert in machine learning and computer vision, <b>Raquel Urtasun </b>was inspired to start Waabi when she recognized a need for a new generation of self-driving technologies that leverage AI鈥檚 full potential. Backed by high-profile investors, <a href="/news/raquel-urtasun-s-self-driving-startup-waabi-brings-volvo-strategic-investor-reports">including Volvo</a> and Uber, the company is leading the way when it comes to the next generation of self-driving solutions.</p> <p>The company recently launched Waabi World, an advanced simulator to test its autonomous vehicles, and Waabi Driver, its first generation of self-driving trucks. Urtasun says she focused on the long-haul trucking sector because it鈥檚 one of the most dangerous occupations 鈥 not to mention an industry that suffers from a shortage of drivers.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.wooyourboo.com/"><b>WooYourBoo</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/wooyourboo-thumbnail.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">Husband-and-wife co-founders La Vance and <b>Colleen Dotson</b> 鈥 head coach of the 茄子直播 Track &amp; Field Club 鈥 are the entrepreneurial force behind a slick dating app for people already in relationships.</p> <p>WooYourBoo aims to help partners reconnect and better communicate with each other through quizzes, activities and rewards.</p> <p><span style="background:white">鈥淥ur goal is to create depth and help you reconnect with this person that you鈥檝e committed to 鈥 and make it fun</span>,鈥 Colleen recently <a href="/news/relationship-feeling-stale-wooyourboo-startup-help-couples-reconnect">told <i>茄子直播 News</i></a>.</p> <p>The Dotsons say that 茄子直播鈥檚 <a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/for-entrepreneurs/black-founders-network/">Black Founders Network</a> was instrumental in building WooYourBoo, which was among the inaugural cohort of the BFN Accelerate Program.</p> <h3><a href="https://otilumionics.com/"><b>OTI Lumionics</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/oti-thumbnail.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">OTI Lumionics could change the look of the smartphone in your pocket.</p> <p>Founded by 茄子直播 alumnus <b>Michael Helander</b>, the company has been working on expanding its line of organic LED technology solutions 鈥 <a href="/news/startup-s-tech-could-put-end-unsightly-screen-notches-smartphones">including smartphone screens that are uninterrupted by notches</a>, which are currently needed to house front-facing cameras and other equipment in some smartphone designs.</p> <p>The company, which was spun out of research at 茄子直播, has <a href="https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/quantum/2018/12/11/microsoft-quantum-startups/">collaborated with Microsoft Quantum</a> and, most recently, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/26/say-goodbye-to-the-notch-oti-raises-55m-for-technology-to-remove-screen-obstructions/">their name has been connected to Apple</a> as a key supplier for a future notch-free iPhone.</p> <h3><a href="https://flashforest.ca/"><b>Flash Forest</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/flashforest-thumbnail_0.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">Flash Forest, a startup with ties to 茄子直播 Mississauga, is fighting climate change and restoring forests by leveraging the use of drones, AI, geographic information systems and plant science technology.</p> <p>The company 鈥 which received support from 茄子直播鈥檚 Mississauga鈥檚 ICUBE incubator 鈥 recently inked a federal contract to use drones to <a href="/news/startup-lands-federal-contract-plant-one-million-trees-across-canada-using-drones">plant more than one million trees</a> over the next two years in wildfire-ravaged locations across Canada.</p> <p>The co-founders, brothers Bryce and Cameron Jones, say they are focused on restoring severe wildfire sites where the seed pods and cones are lost.</p> <h3><a href="https://signal1.ai/"><b>Signal 1</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/signal-thumbnail-3.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">Signal 1 is <a href="/news/health-startup-signal-1-ai-uses-machine-learning-save-lives-globe-and-mail-betakit">looking to transform health care</a> by equipping doctors and nurses with real-time AI predictions.</p> <p>The company, co-founded by CEO <b>Tomi Poutanen</b>, a 茄子直播 alumnus, and <b>Mara Lederman</b>, professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management, has built a machine learning tool called CHARTWatch that can help predict how much support a patient will need.</p> <p>The tool was originally developed at St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital by a team led by Signal 1's clinical adviser <b>Muhammad Mamdani</b>, who is vice-president of data science and advanced analytics at Unity Health Toronto and holds cross-appointments at 茄子直播鈥檚 Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Dalla Lana School of Public Health.</p> <p>The surgical unit at St. Michael鈥檚 Hospital <a href="https://unityhealth.to/2023/02/chartwatch-surgical/">has already begun using CHARTWatch</a> to help care teams communicate and make decisions.</p> <h3><a href="https://mounibrealfoodonly.ca/"><b>Mounib Real Food Only</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/mounib-thumb2.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">When 茄子直播 Scarborough alumna <b>Iman Mounib </b>encountered gut health issues, she took it upon herself to create products that are free of refined sugars, palm oils, gluten and dairy.</p> <p>She founded Mounib Real Food Only, <a href="/news/simple-eco-friendly-chocolate-hazelnut-spread-real-food-only-startup-has-you-covered">which sells a chocolate hazelnut spread</a> made of just three local ingredients. The company also makes a peanut chocolate spread, as well as an almond chocolate version. Mounib鈥檚 goal was to create alternatives to popular products that are both tasty and good for you.</p> <p>The products are sold in almost 20 restaurants, cafes and stores in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as one location in Ottawa.</p> <h3><a href="https://hippocamera.com/"><b>HippoCamera</b></a></h3> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/hippocamera-thumb-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 150px;">HippoCamera is a smartphone application that helps to improve memory recall, which could be beneficial for individuals in the early stages of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease or other forms of memory impairment.</p> <p>Backed by years of research at 茄子直播, the app has an easy-to-use interface and is a personalized way to boost recall of daily experiences and enhance activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays a key role in memory.</p> <p><b>Morgan Barense</b>, a professor in the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and co-author of <a href="/news/smartphone-app-designed-u-t-researchers-can-significantly-improve-memory-recall">a recent study on the technology</a>, said her team found that memories that were associated with the HippoCamera were long-lasting 鈥 and that the device worked for both healthy older adults and those starting to show cognitive decline.</p> <h3><a href="https://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/events/entrepreneurship-week/">Learn more about U of Entrepreneurship Week</a></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 02 Mar 2023 16:01:59 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 180382 at Raquel Urtasun鈥檚 self-driving startup Waabi brings on Volvo as strategic investor: Reports /news/raquel-urtasun-s-self-driving-startup-waabi-brings-volvo-strategic-investor-reports <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Raquel Urtasun鈥檚 self-driving startup Waabi brings on Volvo as strategic investor: Reports</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/RaquelUrtasun_2021_86-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=YfYM8Dgz 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/RaquelUrtasun_2021_86-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=sFbAgf-T 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/RaquelUrtasun_2021_86-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WSVlBhoe 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/RaquelUrtasun_2021_86-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=YfYM8Dgz" alt="A portrait of Raquel Urtasun with her arms crossed, wearing a Waabi T-shirt"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>bresgead</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-01-20T16:00:46-05:00" title="Friday, January 20, 2023 - 16:00" class="datetime">Fri, 01/20/2023 - 16:00</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(Photo courtesy of Waabi)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/robotics" hreflang="en">Robotics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vector-institute" hreflang="en">Vector Institute</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p style="margin-bottom:11px">University of Toronto researcher <b>Raquel Urtasun鈥檚 </b>self-driving startup Waabi <a href="https://waabi.ai/welcoming-volvo-group-venture-capital-as-a-strategic-investor-in-waabi/">has added the venture capital arm of Swedish carmaker Volvo&nbsp;to its list of high-profile investors</a>.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Volvo Group Venture Capital AB is investing an undisclosed amount in Toronto-based Waabi鈥檚 AI-powered autonomous trucking technology, according to <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/self-driving-truck-startup-waabi-brings-on-volvo-vc-as-strategic-investor/">TechCrunch</a>.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">鈥淲e鈥檝e been extremely selective in terms of who we bring on board as an investor and this is the right time for Waabi to bring on a strategic OEM [original equipment manufacturer],鈥 Urtasun, a 茄子直播 professor of computer science and Waabi鈥檚 founder and CEO, tells the high-profile U.S. tech website.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Waabi has already raised more than $100 million from investors including Khosla Ventures, Uber and other Silicon Valley giants. Also among its backers are AI luminaries <b>Geoffrey Hinton</b>, a 茄子直播 <a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a> Emeritus of computer science, and <b>Sanja Fidler</b>, an associate professor of computer science.</p> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">Urtasun tells the <i><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-volvo-invests-in-toronto-driverless-vehicle-startup-waabi/?utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&amp;utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links">Globe and Mail</a></i> that Volvo鈥檚 investment 鈥渟ignificantly鈥 increases Waabi鈥檚 valuation.</p> <h3 style="margin-bottom: 11px;"><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/self-driving-truck-startup-waabi-brings-on-volvo-vc-as-strategic-investor/">Read more at<i>&nbsp;</i>TechCrunch</a></h3> <h3 style="margin-bottom: 11px;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-volvo-invests-in-toronto-driverless-vehicle-startup-waabi/?utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&amp;utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links">Read more at the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a><i></i></h3> <p style="margin-bottom:11px">&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 20 Jan 2023 21:00:46 +0000 bresgead 179294 at Waabi鈥檚 self-driving technology set to be road-tested, Raquel Urtasun tells Globe and Mail, Forbes /news/waabi-s-self-driving-technology-set-be-road-tested-raquel-urtasun-tells-globe-and-mail-forbes <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Waabi鈥檚 self-driving technology set to be road-tested, Raquel Urtasun tells Globe and Mail, Forbes</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Waabi_Driver_08-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=I4j032Jd 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Waabi_Driver_08-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Ffx55fk0 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Waabi_Driver_08-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=fETJIciQ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Waabi_Driver_08-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=I4j032Jd" alt="overhead view of a waabit self-driving truck on a highway"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>bresgead</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-11-18T13:05:17-05:00" title="Friday, November 18, 2022 - 13:05" class="datetime">Fri, 11/18/2022 - 13:05</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(Photo courtesy of Waabi)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vector-institute" hreflang="en">Vector Institute</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto鈥檚<b>&nbsp;Raquel Urtasun</b>, a leading expert in machine learning and computer vision, is taking her startup鈥檚 self-driving technology for long-haul trucks out for a spin, with several autonomous vehicles ready to hit the road in the United States, according to reports.</p> <p>The CEO and founder of Waabi told the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-waabi-driverless-trucks-north-america/"><i>Globe and Mail</i></a><i> </i>that a handful of trucks are 鈥渞eady to be deployed鈥 with human drivers and engineers on-board for safety. In&nbsp;<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/11/16/as-doubts-grow-over-self-driving-vehicles-this-ambitious-upstart-rolls-out-its-first-robot-trucks/?sh=502ac75d3810"><i>Forbes</i>&nbsp;magazine</a><i>, </i>Urtasun 鈥 a professor of computer science in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and&nbsp;faculty member at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence 鈥 said that Waabi will train&nbsp;the self-driving system to navigate any number of virtual scenarios using a&nbsp;simulator that harnesses the full power of AI.</p> <p>She added that the approach gives Waabi an advantage over bigger competitors since it鈥檚&nbsp;more efficient 鈥 and effective 鈥 than&nbsp;relying on real-world testing.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淏ecause we can do everything on the simulator we are already ready with a generation that is much more advanced,鈥 Urtasun told the magazine.</p> <p>Waabi emerged from stealth mode in June 2021 after <a href="/news/road-ahead-raquel-urtasun-s-startup-unleash-full-power-ai-self-driving-cars">raising more than $100 million</a> in funding from Silicon Valley giants such as Khosla Ventures and Uber, as well as AI luminaries including 茄子直播's&nbsp;<b>Geoffrey Hinton</b>, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards-funding/university-professors/">University Professor</a>&nbsp;Emeritus and&nbsp;<b>Sanja Fidler</b>, an associate professor of computer science.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-waabi-driverless-trucks-north-america/">Read more in the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> <h3><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2022/11/16/as-doubts-grow-over-self-driving-vehicles-this-ambitious-upstart-rolls-out-its-first-robot-trucks/?sh=502ac75d3810">Read more in <em>Forbes</em></a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 18 Nov 2022 18:05:17 +0000 bresgead 178222 at 茄子直播's aUToronto team wins first competition of AutoDrive Challenge sequel /news/u-t-s-autoronto-team-wins-first-competition-autodrive-challenge-sequel <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">茄子直播's aUToronto team wins first competition of AutoDrive Challenge sequel </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/aUToronto2022_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HFjmF2oB 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/aUToronto2022_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=lX7IIV1K 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/aUToronto2022_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=p6ubdIaM 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/aUToronto2022_crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HFjmF2oB" alt="AutoDrive Challenge team"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-06-14T15:49:13-04:00" title="Tuesday, June 14, 2022 - 15:49" class="datetime">Tue, 06/14/2022 - 15:49</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The aUToronto team, made up mostly of 茄子直播 undergraduate students, won the first phase of the AutoDrive Challenge II, which took place earlier this month in Ann Arbor, Mich. (photo courtesy aUToronto)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tyler-irving" hreflang="en">Tyler Irving</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utias" hreflang="en">UTIAS</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://www.autodrive.utoronto.ca/">A self-driving vehicle team</a> from the University of Toronto鈥檚 Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering has taken the top spot overall in the first competition of the four-year AutoDrive Challenge&nbsp;II.</p> <p>The achievement by aUToronto <a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/autodrive-challenge-u-of-t-engineering-places-first-for-the-fourth-straight-year/">continues an impressive winning streak for the team</a>, which&nbsp;consistently placed first throughout the original four-year AutoDrive Challenge.</p> <p>In the current contest, the intercollegiate competition鈥檚 original concept has been expanded with more teams and more sophisticated tasks as participants&nbsp;develop and demonstrate an autonomous vehicle (AV) that can navigate urban driving courses.</p> <p>鈥淭his year was a fresh new start for us,鈥 says&nbsp;<strong>Frank (Chude) Qian</strong>, a master鈥檚 candidate at the 茄子直播 Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) and&nbsp;team principal for aUToronto. 鈥淲e have a very young team, with nearly 90 per cent&nbsp;of the students new to the competition.鈥</p> <p>Approximately 85 per cent&nbsp;of these students are undergraduates from across 茄子直播 Engineering鈥檚 departments and divisions. The remainder are graduate students or undergraduates from other parts of 茄子直播, including the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/PerceptionCart-crop.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;"></p> <p><em>Throughout the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022, the aUToronto team spent hours designing, training and testing their perception cart, pictured here at the 茄子直播 Institute for Aerospace Studies. (photo courtesy of&nbsp;aUToronto)</em></p> <p>A total of 10 institutions from across North America sent teams to AutoDrive Challenge&nbsp;II. They assembled earlier this month at Mcity in Ann Arbor, Mich., a unique purpose-built proving ground for testing the performance and safety of connected and automated vehicles.</p> <p>鈥淭his is the first year of the second round of the AutoDrive competition, so the team was required to design, build and code everything from scratch,鈥 says&nbsp;<strong>Steven Waslander</strong>,&nbsp;an associate professor at UTIAS who advises the team along with fellow faculty members <strong>Tim Barfoot</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Jonathan Kelly</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Angela Schoellig</strong>.</p> <p>鈥淚t was a monumental effort and one that shows the true depth of talent and dedication of all the members of this amazing group of students.鈥</p> <p>In the first phase of the four-year competition, the teams were using what are known as perception carts.</p> <p>鈥淲e use these to validate the design of our perception system, which we will incorporate onto a real vehicle for next year鈥檚 competition,鈥 says Qian. 鈥淥ur brand-new sensor suite is based on a new solid-state LiDAR modality.鈥</p> <p>LiDAR is a sensing technology that works in a similar way to radar, except that it uses laser light instead of sound. It is a key component of the sensor suite 鈥 which also includes traditional radar and visual cameras similar to those found in smartphones 鈥 that enables a self-driving vehicle to build up a 3D representation of its surroundings.</p> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/aUTorontoinAnnArbor-crop.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px;"></p> <p><em>Members of the aUToronto team with their winning perception cart at MCity in Ann Arbor, Mich&nbsp;(photo courtesy of&nbsp;aUToronto)</em></p> <p>In addition to being declared the overall winner, the 茄子直播 Engineering team received top marks in a wide range of categories, including the concept design event, the traffic light challenge and mobility innovation.</p> <p>One of the most dramatic parts of the competition was the dynamic object detection challenge, during which the cart had to detect and avoid a mannequin of a deer.</p> <p>鈥淚n the final testing session, the team realized their segmentation code was failing due to a change to the deer mannequin being used,鈥 says Waslander.</p> <p>鈥淗aving planned for just such an event, they immediately switched to high gear. They took and labelled over 2,000 images of the new deer, then spent the whole night training and tweaking a brand-new detector. It worked brilliantly in competition the next day, securing first place.鈥</p> <p>Qian says he is very proud of all that the team has accomplished.</p> <p>鈥淭his year with so many newer members, training became very important,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e also lost some precious development time due to challenges associated with COVID-19. I cannot give enough credit to the aUToronto flight team members who really took one for the team and pulled through together.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 14 Jun 2022 19:49:13 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 175243 at In Globe and Mail, Raquel Urtasun discusses 'milestone' in self-driving car development /news/globe-and-mail-raquel-urtasun-discusses-milestone-self-driving-car-development <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">In Globe and Mail, Raquel Urtasun discusses 'milestone' in self-driving car development</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/RaquelUrtasun_2021_93.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BZXBtreE 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-04/RaquelUrtasun_2021_93.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=M5ERIZF2 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-04/RaquelUrtasun_2021_93.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xoH9KvCm 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/RaquelUrtasun_2021_93.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=BZXBtreE" alt="Raquel Urtasun"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-02-09T11:36:41-05:00" title="Wednesday, February 9, 2022 - 11:36" class="datetime">Wed, 02/09/2022 - 11:36</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(Photo courtesy of Waabi)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/computer-science" hreflang="en">Computer Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vector-institute" hreflang="en">Vector Institute</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Raquel Urtasun</strong>, a professor of computer science in the University of Toronto鈥檚 Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and CEO of Waabi Innovations, says the company has hit on a new strategy for training self-driving cars: an artificial intelligence-driven&nbsp;simulator.&nbsp;</p> <p>The simulator puts a virtual driver through different traffic scenarios, flagging problems with its performance and helping it improve faster.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檝e flipped the equation for how much simulation versus real world [training] you need鈥氣 Urtasun, the company鈥檚 founder,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadian-ai-simulator-maker-waabi-aims-to-recharge-the-quest-for/">told the <em>Globe and Mail </em>this week</a>. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really the key for unlocking self-driving technology.鈥</p> <p>A former chief scientist and head of Uber's autonomous vehicle&nbsp;unit, Urtasun left Uber after the division was sold to Aurora Innovation in 2020. <a href="/news/road-ahead-raquel-urtasun-s-startup-unleash-full-power-ai-self-driving-cars">She founded Waabi</a> with more than $100-million in seed financing.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadian-ai-simulator-maker-waabi-aims-to-recharge-the-quest-for/">Read more in the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 09 Feb 2022 16:36:41 +0000 geoff.vendeville 301106 at WinTOR鈥檚 on its way: 茄子直播 partnership to train self-driving cars to handle tough winter conditions /news/wintor-s-its-way-u-t-partnership-train-self-driving-cars-handle-tough-winter-conditions <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">WinTOR鈥檚 on its way: 茄子直播 partnership to train self-driving cars to handle tough winter conditions</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-536114279-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Uoc8Y6Ip 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/GettyImages-536114279-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=9i-rfVDl 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/GettyImages-536114279-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=rmQhls7y 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/GettyImages-536114279-crop.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Uoc8Y6Ip" alt="close up of a car tire on a snowy road"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2021-07-12T14:24:24-04:00" title="Monday, July 12, 2021 - 14:24" class="datetime">Mon, 07/12/2021 - 14:24</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">茄子直播 Engineering's Steven Waslander is leading a project, one of six at the university to receive support from the Ontario Research Fund, that focuses on teaching self-driving cars to handle winter road conditions (photo by PinkBadger via Getty Images)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tyler-irving" hreflang="en">Tyler Irving</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-dentistry" hreflang="en">Faculty of Dentistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utias" hreflang="en">UTIAS</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Companies around the globe are racing to create fully autonomous vehicles that can handle anything the road throws at them. But, according to the University of Toronto鈥檚 <b>Steven Waslander</b>, there鈥檚 one scenario that hasn鈥檛 yet received nearly as much attention as it deserves: winter.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淲inter conditions aggravate the remaining challenges in autonomous driving,鈥 says Waslander, an associate professor at the 茄子直播 Institute for Aerospace Studies in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering.</p> <p>鈥淩educed visibility limits perception performance, and slippery road surfaces are a big challenge for vehicle control.鈥</p> <p>To drive safely in all conditions, including winter, Waslander says autonomous vehicles need to fully observe their surroundings despite limits to their sensor range to get advanced warning of challenging situations and to react quickly to changing conditions.</p> <p>Along with fellow 茄子直播 Engineering researchers and members of the&nbsp;<a href="https://robotics.utoronto.ca/">茄子直播 Robotics Institute</a> 鈥 including&nbsp;<a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/tag/tim-barfoot/"><b><span style="text-decoration-line:none">Timothy Barfoot</span></b></a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/tag/jonathan-kelly/"><b><span style="text-decoration-line:none">Jonathan Kelly</span></b></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/tag/angela-schoellig/"><b><span style="text-decoration-line:none">Angela Schoellig</span></b></a>&nbsp;鈥 Waslander is leading a new partnership that will address these challenges by bringing together the best minds from academia and industry. The project, called WinTOR: Autonomous Driving in Adverse Conditions, is a new collaboration that aims to transform Toronto into a global hub for research and development related to autonomous driving in winter. Corporate partners include leading companies in the autonomous vehicles sector such as General Motors Canada, LG Electronics, Applanix and Algolux.</p> <p>It's one of six projects from 茄子直播 to receive <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1000443/ontario-invests-in-research-and-innovation">support from the Ontario Research Fund</a>. Five &nbsp;of the projects are led by researchers from the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, while the sixth is led by a researcher at the Faculty of Dentistry. (<a href="#list">See the full list below</a>.)</p> <p>鈥淲ith this investment, the Ontario Research Fund is supporting important work of 茄子直播 researchers that will benefit all Canadians,鈥 says <b>Christine Allen</b>, associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic initiatives. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 exciting to see that two of the initiatives to receive funding, focused on advanced robotics and innovative mobility, are among 茄子直播鈥檚 key areas of strategic, interdisciplinary focus.</p> <p>鈥淭hrough these <a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/initiatives/initiatives/">Institutional Strategic Initiatives</a> we鈥檙e mobilizing interdisciplinary cross-divisional research and collaboration to address societal challenges. We鈥檙e committed to developing these initiatives to a scale that can attract support from government, philanthropic or industry sources 鈥 and WinTOR is a terrific example.鈥</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="media_embed" height="422px" width="750px"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HXOPBwKZFaQ" title="YouTube video player" width="750px"></iframe></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The WinTOR team already has a track record of success. Last year, Waslander and his collaborators published the&nbsp;<a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/can-self-driving-cars-handle-a-canadian-winter-were-about-to-find-out/">Canadian Adverse Driving Conditions (CADC)</a>&nbsp;dataset. Created using the&nbsp;<a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-automotive-research/watcar-autonomoose/about-autonomoose">Autonomoose</a>,&nbsp;a self-driving vehicle designed by Waslander and his team, the open-source data record real winter driving conditions on roads in southwestern Ontario.</p> <p>The valuable dataset is already being used by researchers from around the world to train new AI software. It joins a long list of research accomplishments from the project鈥檚 research team, whose combined expertise covers the full extent of autonomous driving perception and planning domains, including object detection and tracking, robust state estimation and calibration, localization and mapping, prediction and planning and safety-critical learning control.</p> <p><a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/tag/autonomous-vehicles/"><i>Read more about autonomous vehicle research at 茄子直播 Engineering</i></a></p> <p>All four professors are advisers to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autodrive.utoronto.ca/">aUToronto</a>&nbsp;team, a group of undergraduate and graduate students who have designed and built a self-driving electric vehicle called Zeus. The 茄子直播 Engineering team has&nbsp;<a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/autodrive-challenge-u-of-t-engineering-places-first-for-the-fourth-straight-year/">placed first in the international AutoDrive Challenge</a>&nbsp;in each of the four annual competitions to date.</p> <p>The new partnership is supported by more than $12 million in funding from a variety of sources. In addition to the Ontario Research Fund, that includes funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, as well as direct and in-kind donations from the project partners. More than 20 individuals will work as part of the team, including graduate and undergraduate students, professors and engineers.</p> <p>鈥淲e are excited to understand how we can apply the collaborative research under this program to real-world scenarios,鈥 says Louis Nastro, director, land and autonomous vehicle strategy at Applanix. 鈥淚t gives us an opportunity to attract highly talented individuals with the experience needed to join our team, and helps Canada establish itself as a leading provider of advancement in autonomy.鈥</p> <p>鈥淎lgolux鈥檚 mission is to solve the issue of computer vision robustness in harsh driving conditions, a fundamental problem not effectively addressed by current approaches,鈥 says Felix Heide,&nbsp;co-founder and chief technology officer of Algolux. 鈥淎s a Canadian company, we are thrilled to bring our expertise to this project and continue to advance the state-of-the-art in perception technologies.鈥</p> <p>鈥淲e are excited and proud to be a partner of this initiative,鈥 says <b>Kevin Ferreira</b>, director of the LG Electronics Toronto AI Lab. 鈥淚t is challenging to drive social impact with game changing technology in a fast-moving industry such as autonomous driving.</p> <p>Partnerships and collaborations, such as this initiative, are an effective strategy to make contributions to the research community, and to deliver impactful applications that improve safety while driving.鈥</p> <p>The WinTOR project is divided into three broad themes:</p> <ul type="disc"> <li>Sensor filtering for object detection<b>:&nbsp;</b>New ways of analyzing the data from sensors such as visual cameras, radar and lidar will help to separate the signals that represent real objects from the noise caused by falling or blowing snow. Strategies will include both pre-processing techniques and improved artificial intelligence algorithms trained to be aware of the limits of their own performance.</li> <li>Sensor fusion, localization and tracking: While today鈥檚 self-driving cars can reliably determine where they are in relation to their surroundings, the techniques they use begin to break down under adverse driving conditions. The team will leverage new algorithmic strategies in vision and lidar registration, as well as new sensing options, such as ground-penetrating and automotive radar, to make localization algorithms more resilient in adverse conditions.</li> <li>Prediction, planning and control: self-driving cars of the future will need to change the way they drive in response to winter hazards. For example, they might take a slightly different path to avoid a snowdrift or slow down when driving over a section of road that their sensors have perceived as particularly slippery. They will learn the implications of adverse weather on the vehicles around them and be able to assess the increased uncertainty of outcomes, enabling them to plan actions that can be executed reliably in winter conditions.</li> </ul> <p>As ambitious as the current plan is, the team is just getting started. They are leveraging their network 鈥 including the 茄子直播&nbsp;<a href="https://robotics.utoronto.ca/">Robotics Institute</a>, one of more than a dozen&nbsp;<a href="https://isi.utoronto.ca/initiatives/initiatives/">institutional strategic initiatives</a>&nbsp;at the university 鈥 to grow their team.</p> <p>鈥淲e continue to seek additional faculty, partners and funding to grow the effort,鈥 says Waslander. 鈥淲e have many more ideas to work on, from multi-hypothesis prediction and interaction planning to attentive perception and explainable, efficient AI for autonomous driving.鈥&nbsp;<a id="list" name="list"></a></p> <hr> <p><b>Here is the full list of 茄子直播 researchers who are leading projects that received Ontario Research Fund support:</b></p> <ul> <li><b>Konstantinos N. Plataniotis</b>, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, Transforming Pathology Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Patient Outcome and Hospital Efficiency</li> <li><b>Philippe Lavoie</b>, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, Characterization, Prediction and Control of Flap Noise Sources from Aircraft</li> <li><b>Eric Miller</b>, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, iCity 2.0: Urban Data Science for Future Mobility</li> <li><b>Patrick Chang Dong Lee</b>, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, Innovative and Cost-Effective Micro/Nanocellular Foaming Technology for Sustainable Lightweight Applications</li> <li><b>Steven Waslander</b>, Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, All-Weather Autonomy: Securing Ontario鈥檚 Leadership in the Self-Driving Revolution</li> <li><b>Christopher McCulloch</b>, Faculty of Dentistry, The Fibrosis Repair Team</li> </ul> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 12 Jul 2021 18:24:24 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 169816 at 茄子直播 Engineering team places first in AutoDrive Challenge for fourth straight year /news/u-t-engineering-team-places-first-autodrive-challenge-fourth-straight-year <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden"> 茄子直播 Engineering team places first in AutoDrive Challenge for fourth straight year</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/Zeus%20Year%204.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=DnNgv5rc 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-04/Zeus%20Year%204.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=zLN1BtrU 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-04/Zeus%20Year%204.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vq7C_yWG 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-04/Zeus%20Year%204.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=DnNgv5rc" alt="self-driving electric car Zeus"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2021-06-16T11:25:36-04:00" title="Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 11:25" class="datetime">Wed, 06/16/2021 - 11:25</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>A team of students from 茄子直播 Engineering won the annual competition with their self-driving electric car "Zeus," pictured here outside the MarsDome at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (photo by Chude Qian)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tyler-irving" hreflang="en">Tyler Irving</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/self-driving-cars" hreflang="en">Self-Driving Cars</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/undergraduate-students" hreflang="en">Undergraduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utias" hreflang="en">UTIAS</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The University of Toronto&nbsp;team participating in the international <a href="https://www.sae.org/attend/student-events/autodrive-challenge/">AutoDrive Challenge</a> recently placed first in a virtual competition to demonstrate the capabilities of its self-driving electric vehicle&nbsp;鈥&nbsp; the fourth year in a row that the team has come out on top.</p> <p>The team, known as&nbsp;aUToronto, consists of more than 70 members, most of whom are&nbsp;undergraduate or graduate students in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering.</p> <p>Together, they鈥檝e&nbsp;retrofitted a&nbsp;Chevrolet Bolt 鈥 named Zeus 鈥 with a suite of sensors, including visual cameras, radar and lidar. Additional hardware and student-designed software inside the car processes the signals and converts them into commands that enable the car to drive itself safely and efficiently.</p> <p>鈥淲e鈥檙e elated to see this continued validation of our team鈥檚 efforts,鈥 says PhD candidate<strong> Keenan Burnett</strong>, a former captain of the team who has continued to act as a key adviser in the latest competition.鈥淲e try our best to stay competitive and not let our past wins make us complacent. We use ourselves as our benchmark for&nbsp;success, continually trying to outdo ourselves and improve on our previous iterations.鈥</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="media_embed" height="422px" width="750px"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rUklxBfcH_k" title="YouTube video player" width="750px"></iframe></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The team鈥檚 faculty supervisors include&nbsp;<strong>Tim Barfoot</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Angela Schoellig</strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Steven Waslander</strong>&nbsp;of the 茄子直播 Institute for Aerospace Studies, or UTIAS.</p> <p>鈥淒espite all the challenges of keeping the team going throughout COVID, our students have had a great year of learning about self-driving technology, working in a team, and pushing their limits,鈥 says Barfoot. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 be more proud of our aUToronto team once again for another great year in the Autodrive competition.鈥</p> <p>鈥淎 tremendous amount of effort went into succeeding this year,鈥 adds Schoellig. 鈥淲e had to accomplish new and more advanced autonomous driving tasks, complete more sophisticated simulation challenges, and prove the safety of our car. This win reflects our team鈥檚 continued technical, collaboration and communication strength. I am extremely proud to work together with such a capable team.鈥</p> <p>The AutoDrive Challenge&nbsp;launched in 2017&nbsp;with eight universities from across Canada and the U.S. In addition to 茄子直播 Engineering, competitors included Kettering University, Michigan State University, Michigan Tech University, North Carolina A&amp;T State University, Texas A&amp;M University, the University of Waterloo and Virginia Tech.</p> <p>Zeus has taken the top spot in each of the competition鈥檚 previously yearly meets: <a href="/news/u-t-s-autoronto-team-wins-first-competition-autodrive-challenge">the&nbsp;2018 meet in Yuma, Ariz.</a>,&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="/news/u-t-s-student-led-team-wins-international-self-driving-car-challenge-second-year-row">2019 meet in Ann Arbor, Mich.</a>&nbsp;and <a href="/news/third-year-running-u-t-engineering-team-wins-international-self-driving-car-challenge">a&nbsp;virtual competition held in the fall of 2020</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p>鈥淏oth the year three&nbsp;and year four competitions challenged the teams to perform autonomous ride-sharing under controlled environments,鈥 says master鈥檚 student&nbsp;<strong>Jingxing (Joe)&nbsp;Qian</strong>, the current team lead for aUToronto.</p> <p>鈥淭he vehicles are tasked with navigating multiple destinations while handling various traffic scenarios. One particular interesting requirement this year is that we need to reach SAE J3016 Level standard for the loss-of-GPS scenario: the vehicle must perform fallback strategies to either continue the task or pull to the road shoulder when GPS signal is lost.鈥</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="media_embed" height="422px" width="750px"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UBCFxFUpjEE" title="YouTube video player" width="750px"></iframe></div> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>While the teams based in the U.S. were able to meet in person in Ann Arbor, the Canadian teams competed by means of reports, presentations, simulations and video demos. Qian says the team is used to this format since much of the work on the car has been done virtually for the past year.</p> <p>鈥淲e managed to get a small task force to perform real-world tests one or two days per week,鈥 says Qian. 鈥淎fter testing, they would share demo videos and results to the team.&nbsp;We also developed an automatic&nbsp;evaluation system that leverages various simulation environments. It runs daily on our&nbsp;deployment server against a set of test scenarios, and it has greatly improved our development&nbsp;efficiency.鈥</p> <p>As for the next steps, aUToronto has already been&nbsp;selected to compete in the <a href="https://news.engineering.utoronto.ca/u-of-t-engineering-to-compete-in-sae-autodrive-challenge-ii/">SAE AutoDrive Challenge&nbsp;II</a>,&nbsp;scheduled to begin this fall. They will have a new car and new competition, and they are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.autodrive.utoronto.ca/recruitment">actively recruiting new team members&nbsp;as well</a>.</p> <p>鈥淲e will be getting a brand new GM Chevy Bolt EUV 2022 to build up our autonomy system from the ground up,鈥 says master鈥檚 student&nbsp;<strong>Frank (Chude) Qian</strong>, who will lead the team for the AutoDrive Challenge&nbsp;II.</p> <p>鈥淲e hope to develop our vehicle with real-world driving scenarios, apply industry safety standards&nbsp;and bring awareness and&nbsp;assurance to the general public about autonomous&nbsp;vehicles. We are excited to compete with the new universities and hopefully continuing our winning streak.鈥</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 16 Jun 2021 15:25:36 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 301388 at