CASR

Budget  for
Research  &
Development

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 Aerospace
 & Defence
Industry
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Visual Analytics – Aerospace IRBs – SFU Press Release – May 2008/Sept 2009 IRBs and Visual Analytics:  Cash,  Data Bases, & Pretty Pictures A Press Release from the SFU Public Affairs and Media Relations Offsets in the form of Industrial Regional Benefits are how the Federal Government recoups  the value of a contract awarded to a  foreign company.  The IRB program dictates that  the total value of  any such award be re-invested in Canadian firms or institutions.  The question is: Does it work? The answer will depend on perspective. If the IRB results in a technology transfer that allows a Canadian company to create a finished product in the future, most Canadians would see that as a complete success. If  that  IRB results in employment for Canadian workers producing parts for foreign products, that would  be seen as a success by the UAW and Industry Canada. The intellectual labour of academics is harder to quantify. As part of  its C-17 offsets, Boeing has chosen to support Visual Analytics in Canada with a 5-year, $1.35M cash-equivalent grant (in the form of software, Boeing data, and consulting) to be shared between SFU and UBC. What is visual analytics? Basically it is about making sense out of highly complex patterns – that is, untangling all the data. [Google Analytics is a good example of making pictures out of a very large data base.] With approval by Industry Canada as qualified IRB offsets, the Boeing contibution is eligible for matching funding from NSERC  ( Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of  Canada) under their Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) grant program. Thus far, most NSERC grants for VA research in BC have been in the tens or hundreds of  thousands. That  Boeing IRB is eligible for matching funds over a million. So, a tidy sum for the folks at SFU's School of  Interactive Arts + Technology who, no doubt, deserve the award and will move visual analytics research along. This is said to "focus on four key sectors, including manufacturing,  finance,  health and  information communication technology". Sounds fascinating. But what, if anything does it have to do with developing Canadian aerospace skills equivalent to those of  Boeing workers? The text of a May 2008 SFU Public Affairs and Media Relations Press Release follows: ( note: a 23 May 2008  Media Release with the text was issued by UBC Public Affairs ). Boeing grant targets emerging visual analytics field Contact: John Dill ,  778.782.7555 , dill@cs.sfu.ca ,  Brian Fisher,  778.782.7554 , bfisher@sfu.ca , Ron Rensink , 604.822.2579, rensink@cs.ubc.ca , Terry Lavender, PAMR, 778.782.7408 May 23, 2008 A $1.35 million grant from The Boeing Company will put Simon Fraser University and the University of  British Columbia in the forefront of the emerging field of visual analytics, leading to better ways for governments, industry and academia to cope with an increasing flood of information. The five-year grant will fund investigations by a team of researchers from both universities, led by SFU's [Professor Emeritus] John Dill and [Associate Professor] Brian Fisher, and UBC’s [Associate Professor] Ron Rensink. The researchers will collaborate with the Chicago-based aerospace company to evalu- ate and improve ways to analyze complex data on aircraft safety, reliability and main- tainability. The techniques they will develop can also help decision makers in banking, health care, transportation and public safety to interpret the vast amounts of informa- tion that they currently struggle to understand. "The conventional approach for computing has been to build software that could process information and try to make intelligent decisions automatically," says Dill, a professor at SFU's School of Interactive Arts and Technology. "Instead, visual analytics uses computers to visually convey what the data is telling us, and puts decision making back in the hands of humans."  "By integrating the per- ceptual and cognitive sciences with visualization technology, our applications can better support human understanding, problem-solving and collaboration" says Rensink, principal investigator with UBC’s visual cognition lab. Boeing's investment is an integral part of  its C-17  Industrial Benefits  (IB)  Program. Under this program, Boeing is required to match nearly $800 million invested by the Canadian government in acquiring four C-17 [CC-177] strategic transport aircraft, by issuing contracts or making investments of equal value to Canadian industry partners and institutions. Boeing is the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined. The company designs and manufactures rotorcraft, electronic and defence systems, missiles, satellites, launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems. Boeing is recognized by the Aerospace Industries Association of  Canada as one of the four pillars of  the Canadian aerospace industry.