Dalhousie signs research agreement with Boeing

On Tuesday, September 6 at the Life Sciences Research Institure, Dalhousie University announced a partnership with the international aerospace company for applied projects in advanced materials, mobile graphics and visual and text analytics – each addressing specific industrial needs that will have implications not just at Boeing, but beyond. Thanks to this new investment from Boeing, faculty and students in computer science and engineering disciplines are being given a huge opportunity to engage in just that sort of research.

Key Points:

The funding for the projects, totaling in excess of $7 million, comes through Canada’s Industrial & Regional Benefits program, which requires companies who win defense and security contracts with the Government of Canada to make investments in the Canadian economy.
Evangelos Milios, computer science professor, is leading two of the projects. The first, mobile graphics, will help deliver complicated drawings, schematics and blueprints to aircraft manufacturing and maintenance technicians using smartphones, tablet computers and projection systems. The other, visual and text analytics, is about finding new ways to display, mine and interpret the massive amount of data that Boeing collects about each aircraft for improving safety.
Paul Bishop, with the Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science at Dal, heads up the third project in advanced materials, which will use advanced computer modeling and other techniques to develop alloys and coatings to improve durability and strength of the materials used in aircraft parts: aluminum, titanium, steel.
Each of these projects with Boeing will involve a number of faculty researchers, but also will provide extensive opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to conduct applied research.

Pull Quotes:

“Every maintenance action on Boeing aircraft is recorded and sent to Boeing – the same with any accident, injury, problem during take-off. There is a massive amount of text on everything to do with the aircraft, but it’s what we call ‘noisy’ text: it has jargon, includes ad-hoc acronyms, has poor grammar, and it may not make sense to people in other parts of the company. We want to work to make it clean and accessible so it can be used by aircraft designers and safety engineers to improve aircraft safety." - Evangelos Milios, computer science professor, Dalhousie University.
“We believe this kind of collaboration can lead to more breakthroughs than Boeing and our partners can accomplish on our own. We’re proud to have Atlantic Canada’s leading research university on these research projects.” -Diane Axness, director of platform systems/subsystems technology with Boeing, who spoke of the value the research will have.
“We have a strong history of partnership. We’re privileged and honoured to include Dalhousie on the list.” -Susan Colegrove, regional director of International Strategic Partnerships for Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
“It’s a great environment for students. They get to take part in an applied program with a direct industrial impact.” -Dr. Paul Bishop, Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science, Dalhousie University.