Two UWindsor engineering researchers have received more than $715,000 in federal funding to bring cutting-edge artificial intelligence to the manufacturing floor.

Professors Jonathan Wu and Afshin Rahimi say they can mitigate human error and maximize productivity in manufacturing plants through advanced computer vision.

“Human errors were the major driver behind $22.1 billion in vehicle recalls in 2016,” says Dr. Wu, a former Canada Research Chair in Automotive Sensor and Information Systems.

He and Dr. Rahimi aim to create a smart production assistant that will help manufacturing plant operators gain unprecedented visibility into their manual production operations, allowing them to optimize their worker efficiency while maximizing productivity. They will achieve this by automating data generation using computer vision, converting raw data into useable information, visualizing information using common business intelligence methodologies and prediction of future.

The professors have received $717,450 of support from the Mitacs Accelerate program and additional support from Smart Computing for Innovation (SOSCIP) in partnership with i-5O, an early stage Silicon Valley based start-up that has developed a proprietary computer vision powered digital twin to help manufacturers track, measure, and improve their manual production processes. Headquartered in San Francisco with operations in Toronto and Windsor, the company works with large Fortune 500 manufacturers in North America and Asia.

Khizer Hayat, chief innovation officer of i-5O, says its collaboration with Wu and Rahimi will bring the latest in artificial intelligence for improving human performance to the manufacturing industry.

“Thanks to their expertise, our collaboration has created a cutting-edge artificial intelligence product that delivers double digit percentage increases in human performance to our clients,” Hayat says.

Rahimi’s team focus on three major components of the project, including data extraction and processing for object detection and classification using computer vision, deep learning, and neural networks; hardware design and optimization for fast data-processing on-site; and data visualization for information translation and user interactions.

Wu’s team will develop a computer vision and deep learning based temporal action detection model and apply it to the video collected from manufacturing floors to obtain the start time and end time of each process in the operation.

More than 70 per cent of tasks in manufacturing are still manual, therefore, more than 75 per cent of the variation in manufacturing comes from human beings,” Rahimi says. “Currently, when plant operators want to gain an understanding of their manual processes, they send out their highly-paid industrial engineers to run time studies.”

Automated inspection monitoring can help plant operators save both money and time, Rahimi adds.

Cost savings can also occur in future phases of the project by informed planning from forecasted trends in production line performance.

—Kristie Pearce

Michael Petro (BA 1974) loved his studies in communications at the University of Windsor and he showed it Thursday, announcing a commitment of $500,000 toward the creation of an endowment to support undergraduate and graduate student film production.

In a virtual event attended by faculty and students from the Department of Communication, Media and Film and the School of Creative Arts, Petro discussed his experiences at UWindsor in the 1970s and during graduate studies in film at the University of Southern California.

“I loved photography and writing in high school,” Petro said. “My dad wanted me to become an engineer, but I hated engineering and math, so I signed up for psychology. But then I found out the university had a communication studies program, so I signed up for the first-year course.

“I loved it. I said to myself: this is it; this is me.”

Petro especially enjoyed production courses with professor Hugh Edmunds. After graduating from USC, Petro landed a job with a Detroit-based company producing and directing training and educational programs for Chevrolet and other major industrial clients.

By 1980, he had created his own company, MJP Communications, producing industrial and educational training films, developing virtual reality programming, and producing over 500  English-French bilingual video programs for clients that included General Motors, Toyota, Chrysler, Sony, Pioneer, Park-Davis, and the National Film Board.

“Where do I go from here? That’s perhaps the most difficult decision anyone has to make,” said Petro. “Before being an art or craft, it’s a business. The bottom line is we are storytellers.

“So you have to continually ask yourself ‘Who am I? What am I passionate about? What story can I tell?’

“If you work at something that you like, you get paid twice. I always said when I was in business that I never worked a day in my life.”

Petro said he hopes the Michael J. Petro Endowment for Film Innovation will be a lasting aid to those who are truly passionate.

“This can help you along on your own path,” he said. “I wish the next generation of filmmakers great success.”

Marcello Guarini, dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences noted that Petro has a legacy of contributing to UWindsor film programs.

“More than a couple of decades ago, Mike started donating film production equipment to Communications, Media and Film,” he said. “If you add up the value of all that equipment, the market value is in the six-figure range. So this gift today is really the latest gift in a very, very long history of generosity on Mike’s part.”

Johanna Frank, head of the Department of Communication, Media and Film said the scholarship endowment will enhance learning opportunities for students and raise the program’s profile.

“A degree in film is about developing visual, technical, critical thinking, and storytelling skills,” she said. “It’s also about maintaining a strong work ethic, an understanding of professional workplace expectations, and a commitment to a culture invested in ethics and equality.

“So, thank you, Mike, for this endowment that will help our students grow and prepare them to pursue rewarding careers in the film industry.”

—Susan McKee

Algal blooms, toxic substances, invasive species, habitat loss, and land use changes are among the eight most pressing environmental problems that continue to plague the Detroit River and western Lake Erie, according to a binational report released Tuesday.

The State of the Strait Report, based on information collected by more than 40 organizations in Canada and the United States, said the Detroit River ecosystem needs additional clean-up and restoration despite gains in the recovery of plant and animal life since the 1960s.

“Western Lake Erie is now at risk of crossing several potential tipping points caused by the interactions of a variety of drivers and stresses,” said conservation scientist John Hartig, visiting scholar at UWindsor’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and one of the experts who helped prepare the report.

“Addressing any of the eight environmental and natural resource challenges identified in the report is demanding, but mitigating them all at once and in the face of the climate change crisis is daunting,” Dr. Hartig said.

The State of the Strait is a collaboration of government managers, researchers, students, environmental and conservation organizations, and concerned citizens. They meet once every two years, producing a report on the status of the Detroit River and western Lake Erie ecosystem. This report is the product of the last conference, held at the University of Windsor in November 2019.

It identifies eight key environmental and natural resource challenges threating the health of the ecosystem:

• climate change;
• excessive nutrients from runoff causing algal blooms and death of animal life;
• toxic substance contamination;
• invasive species;
• habitat loss and degradation;
• nonpoint source pollution;
• human health and environmental justice; and
• population growth, transportation expansion, and land use changes.

The report calls climate change a “threat multiplier,” in which warmer, wetter, and wilder climatic conditions amplify the other threats.

“This report is an excellent example of synthesis of science to comprehensively assess ecosystem health and of strengthening science-policy linkages in support of ecosystem-based management,” said Mike McKay, GLIER’s executive director.

“This report showcases how the intellectual capital of this binational region can be leveraged to help understand and address the region’s most pressing environmental and natural resource challenges.”

The State of the Strait is sponsored by the University of Windsor, Eastern Michigan University, Wayne State University, the University of Michigan-Dearborn, the University of Michigan’s Environmental Interpretive Centre in Dearborn, the International Wildlife Refuge Alliance, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Detroit River Canadian Cleanup, the International Joint Commission, Friends of the Detroit River, the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes, DTE Energy, and the government of Canada.

—Sarah Sacheli

English professor Nicole Markotić will open a guest lecture Thursday in her graduate class “Monsters in Children’s Lit” to the campus community.

Philip Nel, professor of English at Kansas State University, will be virtually present from 1 to 2 p.m. Oct. 1. Dr. Nel has published 11 books, including 2017’s Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and co-edited more, including Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children’s Literature.

His presentation Thursday is free and open to the public, but will be conducted via Microsoft Teams. To gain access, email Dr. Markotić requesting an invitation at markotic@uwindsor.ca.

On Wednesday, Oct. 7, the University of Windsor will celebrate the third annual UWin Day, the unofficial birthday of UWin Proud, the University’s spirit program. To kick off the celebration, students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to test their skills in the kitchen and make a blue and gold inspired treat at home in the first-ever Great UWindsor Bake Off.

“In lieu of cake on campus, we thought it would be fun to see what our campus community could come up with from home to celebrate,” says Sarah Racinsky, communications assistant in the Office of Student Experience.

Those who wish to enter the contest must submit a picture of their sweet treat before Oct. 6 to the UWin Proud website: uwindsor.ca/studentexperience/proud.

The top submissions will be put to a vote on the Student Experience Instagram account Oct. 7, UWin Day, to see who takes the cake, with the winning student and staff or faculty member each receiving a virtual baking class for themselves and a guest with McCall's Baking.

To enter the contest, or to see other events and activities happening on UWin Day, visit uwindsor.ca/studentexperience/proud.

Less than one year after its launch, the Windsor Law Centre for Cities has released its first report: “States of Emergency: Decision-making and participatory governance in Canadian municipalities during COVID-19.”

The report, led by Windsor Law professor and Centre for Cities director Anneke Smit, scans municipal governance practice across Canada during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, while providing recommendations for reform to state of emergency legislation, and changes to municipal approaches to ensure that wide public participation in local decision-making is upheld — even during an emergency.

“Cities have been faced with some of the most challenging decisions of any level of government during the pandemic. At the same time, they are at the centre of addressing other crises including climate change, systemic racism, and a lack of affordable housing, and budgets are limited,” says Prof. Smit. “There has been a lot of focus on what decisions are being made, and less on who is at the table to make them. Our report pulls back the curtain to get a better view of this.”

States of emergency were declared in most of Canada’s larger cities early in the pandemic. The report illustrates changes to municipal decision-making structures as a result, including unilateral decision-making by mayors and cancelled council, committee, and public consultation meetings.

Smit notes that with COVID-19 having hit vulnerable populations and in particular Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities hardest, making sure their voices are heard when decisions are made is particularly important.

The report cites several best practices where cities have innovated to ensure that public engagement and robust debate continued even during lockdown. It concludes that reform is needed at both provincial and municipal levels to ensure that cities’ emergency powers are limited in scope and time to what is truly necessary in a particular emergency, emphasizing that participatory governance must continue to be the norm.

In addition to Smit, the authorship team includes three current Windsor Law students — Hana Syed, Aucha Stewart and Michael Fazzari — and alumna Terra Duchene (JD 2019), who worked on the report over the summer months.

View the full report on the Centre for Cities website.

—Rachelle Prince

As announced in June, the University of Windsor’s Endowment Fund has committed to incorporating environmental, social, and corporate governance issues into its investment decision-making processes, as a signatory to Principles for Responsible Investment supported by the United Nations.

The University’s commitment to responsible investing is an important and fundamental component of its overall sustainability strategy, notes Gillian Heisz, controller and executive director, financial reporting and accounting.

The finance department has drafted a new Responsible Investment Policy that will be recommended for approval by the investment committee of the Board of Governors in November 2020. Finance invites comment from the campus community and has created a brief survey to gather input. This consultation period will end Oct. 9.

An adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering has been honoured by the Rotary Club of White Rock-Peace Arch in recognition of his dedication to the ideal of “service above self.”

Saad Jasim, a Rotarian since 1993, received the Paul Harris Fellowship award, which is named for the founder of the international humanitarian organization.

Dr. Jasim is manager of utilities for the city of White Rock in southern B.C., president of the engineering firm SJ Environmental Consultants Inc., and president of the International Ozone Association, as well as an adjunct professor supervising Windsor engineering students at undergraduate and graduate levels.

The Department of Human Resources invites employees to explore its 2020-21 Professional Development Calendar, which outlines a range of professional and personal development opportunities geared towards enhancing abilities, skills, and knowledge offering immediate and practical on-the-job application.

A copy of the Calendar at a Glance can be downloaded from the Human Resources website.

Virtual sessions for October include:

• Anti-Black Racism: A Canadian Context (Oct. 1, 9 to 11 a.m.)
• Creating Accessible Content (Oct. 6, 9 to 11 a.m.)
• Virtual Learning and Training Tools at UWindsor (Oct. 8, 9 to 10:30 a.m.)
• Being Kind to Ourselves (Oct. 20, 9 to 10:30 a.m.)
• How Microsoft Excel Can Increase Your Productivity (Oct. 23, 9 to 11 a.m.)
• Procurement at UWindsor - Broader Public Sector Rules Refresher (Oct. 27, 9 to 11 a.m.)
• Supporting Students with Mental Health Concerns (Oct. 28, 9 to 11 a.m.)

To learn more about these professional development opportunities and to register, visit the professional development workshops database.