EDUCATION

In New Westminsters

BY S TEPHEN H UI

River Market,
Cora Fanucchi pointed to three 3-D printers sitting on tables in a small room on the second floor.
The student research assistant with the Digital
Cultures Lab at Douglas College told the Georgia
Straight that the Printrbot, Afinia, and MakerBot
printers turn digital files into physical objects by
depositing layer upon layer of molten plastic. For
example, the MakerBot Replicator, the largest of
the three machines, was used to print a model of a
Tyrannosaurus rex skull.
As you can see, the prints that are produced
with this are not only bigger, but theyre definitely better, Fanucchi, who lives in Burnaby, said
at the Douglas College Maker Lab (206A810
Quayside Drive). This is probably one of our
best prints. Its pretty amazing.
Located a few blocks south of the colleges New
Westminster campus, the Maker Lab opened in
2014 opposite the Vancouver Circus School. As
one of a dozen or so makerspaces in Metro Vancouver, its a collaborative space that has machinery in it that allows you to play with technology,
form unique partnerships, meet people, and gain
experience, according to David Wright, the coordinator of research and innovation at Douglas.
The Maker Lab is overseen by members of the
Digital Cultures Lab, which consists of a team of researchers exploring the use of digital media in education, and is available for use by Douglas students
and staff. So far, it has hosted research projects and
workshops on 3-D printing and infographics.

Adventures in
makerspaces

Cora Fanucchi, the student research assistant with Douglas Colleges Digital
Cultures Lab, helps turn digital files into real-world objects. Stephen Hui photo.

of this stuff, Wright said. the University of Southern California, among

I think that what were go- other places. It notes that makerspaces often have
ing to do in the next year is tools such as laser cutters, soldering irons, and
really look at ways in which Arduino and Raspberry Pi computers.
Whatever the supplies, the overarching goal
the classroom can become
a prototyping space. Right of a makerspace is to be a place where people
Douglas Colleges Maker Lab allows students to collaborate and now, the classroom is really are free to experiment and make things, on
experiment with fast-emerging technology like 3-D printing
do-oriented rather than their own, and as part of a productive community, the report says.
make-oriented.
A report released earlier this year by the
Back at the Douglas College Maker Lab,
Wright told the Straight that the 3-D printers
Fanucchi showed the Straight the rest
have been used to reproduce a statue of assas- Texas-based New Media Consortium
of the makerspaces equipment. The
sinated U.S. president John F. Kennedy, Doug- identifies makerspaces as one of six imCheck out
MakerBot Digitizer is a 3-D scanner
las Couplands Gumhead sculpture, cultural portant developments in educational
STRAIGHT.COM
technology for higher education, along
that takes a physical object and makes a
artifacts, and various trinkets.
Visit our website
digital file that can be used to print repWeve done that primarily because were look- with Bring Your Own Device, the
for related content
licas. Theres also a Parrot drone and an
ing at: how do these machines work, what can flipped classroom, wearable technoland to comment on
Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset.
they do, whats reasonable, how long does it take? ogy, adaptive learning technologies, and
this story
the Internet of Things. The NMC Horizon
Fanucchi noted that, when she tells
Wright said by phone from Kitsilano.
people shes into 3-D printing, they are
Wright noted the Maker Lab should prove Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition foreoften surprised and enthusiastic. It took seven
useful to students in the colleges new engin- casts the widespread adoption of makerspaces by
eering program, which starts up in September. postsecondary institutions within two to three years. hours for the MakerBot Replicator to print her a
Proponents of makerspaces for education high- penholder built out of digits representing the apDouglas is introducing a one-year engineeringfoundations certificate and a two-year engin- light the benefit of engaging learners in creative, proximate value of pi, the mathematical constant.
higher order problem solving through hands-on deI didnt really know much about 3-D printing
eering-essentials diploma.
The idea behind this thing is to give students sign, construction, and iteration, the report states. prior to this, Fanucchi said. I thought it would
a space where they can experiment with these The question of how to renovate or repurpose class- be a really great opportunity for me to learn, and
things, use them, and see how they work or dont rooms to address the needs of the future is being it was. Ive had so much fun doing it. answered through the concept of makerspaces, or
work, which is often the case, Wright said.
According to Wright, other colleges and uni- workshops that offer tools and the learning experi- On September 17, the Digital Cultures Lab presents Building Better Boxes in a Culture of Innovaversities would benefit from creating makerspaces ences needed to help people carry out their ideas.
According to the report, makerspaces have tion, an Innovation Series workshop on 3-D
and promoting hands-on learning.
But they should do their homework first around popped up at NSCAD University in Halifax, Har- printing and other technologies, at the Anvil Cenpeople like us, who are pretty much on the vanguard vard University, the University of Michigan, and tre (777 Columbia Street) in New Westminster.

IN TELLIG ENT CARS HI T T HE R OAD >>>

Since Karl Benz invented the

2 modern car in the 1880s, hu-

mans have steered its descendants

on the worlds roads.
Ahmad Rad, a professor in
Simon Fraser Universitys School
of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, told the Georgia Straight that
times are changing. Hes researching driverless cars and advanced
driver-assistance systems at SFUs
Surrey campus.
So maybe automobile is a misnomer, Rad said during an interview
at the Autonomous and Intelligent
Systems Laboratory on the campus
at Central City. What were seeing
now is a paradigm shift, in a sense
that the car that we know is gradually
morphing into an autonomous robot.
The task of a driver will change from
driving to supervising the car.
Rad and PhD student Mehran
Shirazi showed the Straight the
driving simulator in one corner
of the lab. It consists of a car seat
with a steering wheel, a dashboard,
andin place of a windshield
three flat-screens showing a city
street. Two infrared cameras sit on
the dash, facing the driver.
The professor explained that the
cameras constitute an eye tracker,
which discerns where the driver
is looking. This system can detect
whether a driver is sending a text

message, intoxicated, or falling asleep.

Rads research team uses Fatal
Vision goggles to simulate the impairment associated with particular blood-alcohol concentrations.
In the future, he predicted, an automated car will temporarily take
over from a distracted driver, and
pull over and park or head home if
someone is unfit to drive.
The human is driving the car,
Rad said. But once it sees that the
human is talking [on a cellphone]
or sending texts, it will take over.
Or, in worse cases, if the car recognizes that this person is drunk, it
will take control of the car.
According to Rad and Shirazi,
cars of the future will pair the eye
tracker with a front-facing camera.
This camera will be used to detect
jaywalkers and road signs.
In many cases, drivers might
not look at the signs, Shirazi said.
The eye tracker will detect if the
driver has seen the sign or notthe
speed limit, any warnings. If not,
the car itself would detect the sign
and inform the driver that there
was this sign that you missed.
Alternatively, Rad added, the
car might override the driver in
order to obey a stop sign or stay
under the speed limit.
The professor said that eye-tracking systems could be introduced

SFU prof Ahmad Rad is researching

driverless cars. Stephen Hui photo.

in luxury cars in five to 10 years.

However, he asserted that, once the
software has been proven to be reliable, these systems should be made
mandatory for every car on the street
because they will reduce the number
of collisions.
At some point, the seat belt was
something which was designed for
safety, Rad said. A lot of people
didnt wear seat belts. But now it is essential for every carfrom expensive
to cheap.

> BY STEPHEN HUI

As for fully driverless cars, Rad

predicted they wont become widespread for another 20 years. He
remarked that people shouldnt
underestimate the challenge of developing the artificial intelligence
required for self-driving cars.
Driving implies a lot of
thingsa multilayered decisionmaking process, Rad said. And
the decision-making part is the
challenge. Just putting sensors in
the car and getting information
is one thing. But how to interpret
the data into decisionsthat part
is really the key and creates challenges in designing a completely
autonomous car.
In March, the B.C. Freedom of
Information and Privacy Association released a report on the privacy
implications of connected cars.
Written by lawyer Philippa Lawson, The Connected Car: Who Is in
the Drivers Seat? includes vehicles
equipped with driver-monitoring
systems and autonomous cars integrated with intelligent transportation systems in this category. According to the report, intelligent
transportation systems rely on
vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-toinfrastructure communications.
As a key component of the expanding Internet of Things, Connected Cars are now feeding the Big

Data machine and in particular,

the increasingly personalized and
targeted commercial marketing
industry, the report states. The
same technologies that create this
data also create new security risks.
Besides exposing vehicle operations
to malicious hacking through new
wireless entry points, they are creating huge new databases of personal data that is vulnerable not
only to unauthorized access but
also to unexpected use by governments, law enforcement agencies,
insurers and others seeking to identify, monitor or take action against
individual drivers or car owners.
At the Autonomous and Intelligent Systems Laboratory, Shirazi
showed the Straight an Emotiv
EPOC neuroheadset. The EEG device has 14 electrodes and records
electrical activity in the brain.
Using the headset, Shirazi said,
theyre able to detect when a driver
is thinking about braking, turning
left, or turning right. This research
could eventually allow someone to
drive a car without touching the
steering wheel or pedals.
Noting that a neuroheadset is
very invasive, Rad asserted that
such a system would likely be used
by people who have disabilities that
prevent them from driving a standard car. -

AUGUST 20 27 / 2015 THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT 23