Report of Artificial Intelligence Seminar organized by IET & CEP in Vancouver on Jan 18, 2020

Seminar Banner at the venue Venue of the seminar - Langara College, Vancouver

IET-UK and Chartered Engineers Pacific (CEP) have jointly organized a Seminar on " Artificial Intelligence Awareness

Among Engineers and Students " on January 18, 2020 at Langara College, Vancouver. The seminar was coordinated by

Dr. Suresh Vishwakarma (MIET), Chairman Chartered Engineers Pacific, CCA Member, and IET Representative for

Western Canada and supported by Zeeshan Khan, Treasurer of CEP. Suresh was the Emcee of event who welcomed the

attendees and George De-Ridder (FIStructE), Secretary of CEP gave vote of thanks.

People in many industries are now using Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications or machine language to perform automation

touching ever more spheres of human activity around the globe. It is expected Artificial Intelligence techniques and

applications is likely to enhance the entire engineering profession in future. The seminar aimed to update the young

engineers and engineering students on some applications of AI, while a number of senior chartered engineers attended. It

was positively experienced by all attendees. This was the second IET event in Vancouver, no registration fee was charged

in this event also. The entire funding was received from IET-UK and Local CEP network. Sponsorship was received from

ZE Power Group and SAMSUNG. Langara College, Vancouver kindly allowed to allow using their seminar room for free.

Chair Suresh Vishwakarma giving inaugural address Tom Duggan, Director SAMSUNG awarding Door Prize

The seminar targeted for 40 participants and 100% registrations were received. Only 33 registrants attended the seminar

due to bad weather on Jan 18. Food and beverages were provided during the short break. Lunch was provided after morning

session. Participants received registration bags containing seminar agenda and promotional items supplied by SAMSUNG

IET, ZE Power, and SukhiBath Motors. Door prize, best question prize, and prizes for group activities were also included.

There were total five presentations by Aiman El-Ramly (Chief Business Officer at ZE Power Group, Richmond BC),

Samantha Deoraj (Territory Manager at Nexsys International LC, Trinidad and Tobago and Young Member Representative

of Institution of Mechanical Engineers America Region,), David McQuiggan (Principal Director at Aerospace Corporation,

Los Angeles), Dr. Mrinal Bachute (Associate Professor at Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune, India) and Prof. Rahul

Bachute (Associate Professor at DY Patil Institution of Engineering and Technology, Pune, India).

After welcoming the speakers and participants, Suresh gave a short overview of IET and CEP and its activities. He also

inspired the young engineers and engineering students to join IET. Below are the brief descriptions of each session.

Speaker Aiman El-Ramly giving his presentation Chair Suresh Vishwakarma giving token of appreciation to Aiman El-Ramly

Aiman El-Ramly – “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Database Management”

Aiman gave a broad overview on the historic development of AI and the underlying data management requirements to

facilitate AI development today. He provided a clarity on the confusing AI lexicon as he explained the differences and

association between digitization, predictive analytics, deep learning, machine learning and AI. He expanded on the potential

roles the machine plays in generating actionable intelligence and support dynamic decision making. He summarized his

presentation with many real-world machine projects undertaken by ZE PowerGroup utilizing its ZEMA software platform.

Speaker Samantha Deoraj giving her presentation Chair Suresh Vishwakarma giving token of appreciation to Samantha Deoraj

Samantha Deoraj - “Application of AI & IoT in Optimizing Performance & Management of Wastewater Treatment Plants”

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Caribbean struggle to adhere to the standards outlined in the Water Pollution

(Amendment) Rules. This is mainly due to budget constraints, maintenance and reliability challenges. Studies of historical

failure and maintenance records revealed that most of high impact failures were associated with rotational equipment such

as motors and pumps. AI & IoT solutions were proposed to reduce the failure rate of rotational equipment and improve the

overall WWTP reliability. The proposed AI & IoT solutions utilized a sensor network, which monitors key equipment

parameters. These parameters are uploaded to a cloud database, where trends were developed and compared to

a dynamic AI model of identical spec. equipment. Flags and alarms would be raised for equipment which are trending out

of spec. Proposed AI & IoT solutions are economically viable with 8 months payback period and save US$ 3.5M annually.

Jose Lema, Volunteer at the Registration Desk Participants attending seminar

Mrinal Bachute – “Role of Adaptive Technologies and AI in Education and Automotive Industry: Past, Present and future”

The presentation focused on exploring role of AI in Education and Industry as a whole. Current developments with few case

studies were discussed. It provided an insight into the future of AI in education and automotive Industry. Impact of AI on

teaching and learning in higher education can be explored together. The session investigated educational implications of

emerging technologies on the way students learn and how institutions teach and evolve. Recent technological

advancements and the increasing speed of adopting new technologies in higher education are being explored to predict the

future nature of higher education in a world where AI is part of the fabric of our universities. AI is impacting automotive

sector in a big way. Use of AI is no longer limited to self-driven cars. AI can do much more. It can keep us connected, on

schedule, and safe even when we are driving ourselves. Areas of impacts include Predictive Maintenance, AI-Powered

Driver Risk Assessment, AI in Car Manufacturing, AI Automotive Insurance, AI Cloud Services and many more domains.

Speaker Dr. Mrinal Bachute giving her presentation Secretary George DeRidder giving certificate to Dr. Mrinal Bachute

David McQuiggan – “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Space System and Future Space Missions”

Space systems are space vehicles and infrastructure working together to perform specific tasks in the space environment.

David's presentation provided an overview of AI technologies and applications for space systems, space systems

engineering, and future space missions. Ten applications were presented, most notably: (1) Satellite Pose Estimation using

a variety of poses and illumination conditions using data augmentation, deep learning and geometry to effectively map 2D

image points of a space vehicle to 3D space-model to estimate orientation and position of a spacecraft, (2) on-board satellite

analytics and cyber defense prototype for satellites using AI and machine learning, (3) AI enabled cloud based computer

tasking and scheduling of persistent automated temporal/geo-spatial overhead monitoring by satellites, (4) Hybrid Multi-

modal Neural Network (MNN) and Gradient Boost Model developed to improve number of rejects (false positive) screened

by observers and increase number of Near Earth Objects (NEO) detected to augment, not replace, the human observer,

(5) Reinforcement learning to demonstrate semi-autonomous rendezvous and docking of satellites, and (6) multi-objective

evolutionary optimization decision support tool to optimally design a constellation for numerous science objectives, downlink

constraints, number of launch opportunities, and to search large trade spaces for multi-objective optimized solutions .

Speaker David McQuiggan awarding Best Questioner award to Saurabh Prof. Rahul Bachute giving his presentation

Rahul Bachute – “Applications of Field database Modelling system in Mechanical Engineering”

The presentation focused on applications of AI techniques in mechanical engineering for process improvement. One case

study was discussed in detail containing comparison of traditional method and other method comprising the AI techniques.

Mechanical Industries are adopting recent technological advancements to carry out different processes. Still there are some

processes where human intervention with machines is required. Those processes can be upgraded to improve performance.

Secretary George De Ridder giving certificate to Prof Rahul Bachute Chair Suresh Vishwakarma and Treasurer Zeeshan Khan with speakers

The seminar went off very well. Primarily, because of lively questions-answers sessions during presentation and workshop.

On behalf of Chartered Engineers Pacific, Dr. Suresh Vishwakarma expresses sincere thanks and appreciations to IET for

providing funding and all necessary support for organizing a successful event. Thanks to the generous sponsors and

volunteers especially Saurabh, Michael, Sukhpreet, Jose, and Amrit for their selfless efforts to make seminar success.