THIS WEEK IN TECTORIA

A community blog celebrating Victoria's booming tech sector

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Got a cool story about technology and creativity in Victoria? Email stories, tips, pictures, links and anything of interest to Tessa Bousfield at: tectoria@viatec.ca

Tomorrow’s developers take up AbeBooks’ Hackathon challenge

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The first AbeBooks’ Hackathon took place over the weekend at the University of Victoria. Teams of students from the computer science program took part in the contest that began at 4pm on Friday afternoon and continued for 24 hours.

The challenge was to conceive and produce an innovative application using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform, and then demo the product to a team of developers and engineers from AbeBooks.com. One group of students stayed up the entire 24 hours, working in the computer lab at UVic. Members of staff from AbeBooks were on-hand throughout the 24-hour period to lend advice and encouragement. Prizes were handed out at the conclusion.

“It was great to see the range of ideas that the teams developed; everything from sentiment analysis of tweets to predict the US presidential election and scalable real-time message distribution to a playlist recommendation system that was designed to learn what you like to listen to where,” said Tim Munro, director of engineering at AbeBooks.

It was free to participate and entrants received a copy of a book called Programming Amazon EC2 by Jurg van Vliet,  a commemorative t-shirt and enjoyed a valuable learning experience with AWS.

See more photos from the event on Flickr.

Underwater robot to boost search for Franklin’s ships

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Archeologists hunting for the wreckage of the doomed Franklin Expedition in Canada’s frozen north have discovered human remains but there is no sign of the two missing ships. But help is close at hand in the form of an automated underwater vehicle from the University of Victoria that will arrive soon. The Globe and Mail has more.

AbeBooks to stage Hackathon coding competition at Uvic

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Some news from my neck of the technology woods (I’ve worked for AbeBooks for more than seven years). Students in the University of Victoria computer science and software engineering programs are being invited by AbeBooks.com to participate in a 24-hour Hackathon coding competition on September 28-29.

The challenge is to conceive and produce an innovative application using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform. At the conclusion, the students will demonstrate their work to a team of AbeBooks’ software engineers, who will award a series of prizes that include $500 worth of access to AWS. A group of AbeBooks software engineers including Director of Engineering Tim Munro and Engineering Manager Cliff McCollum will be on hand to answer questions and assist students with the processes.  Students can compete individually or in groups of up to four.

The event will be staged at the University of Victoria engineering labs and begins at 4pm on Friday September 28. The event is limited to the first 40 applicants.

It is free to participate and all entrants will receive a copy of a book called Programming Amazon EC2 by Jurg van Vliet,  a commemorative t-shirt (modelled by my colleague Kerry Wright in this picture) and a valuable learning experience with AWS; access to which will be provided by AbeBooks for the coding competition.

It should be a lot of fun. We have strong links to UVic – a couple of new interns from the computer science and software engineering programs were introduced to the company just yesterday.

Ocean Networks Canada takes its technology to the Artic

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Ocean Networks Canada has been given a five-year licence to install a cabled observatory system under the ice off in Nunavut, reports the Times Colonist.

The system uses technology that is already in use and sending real-time information from under the sea off Vancouver Island to scientists around the world.

Information about ice thickness is particularly important for people living, working and travelling in Northern Canada.

The aim is to connect the real-time data to information from satellites and other sources. The system is being tested at UVic’s Marine Technology Centre. Recent reports show the Arctic sea ice has melted to its lowest extent since 2007.

Drone aircraft coming to sky near you

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The University of Victoria’s Centre for Aerospace Research is to receive $671,500 in funding from the federal government, according to this report. The centre, located near Victoria International Airport, will research and develop unmanned air vehicle technology (that’s drones to you and me) with the intention of making the technology available for commercial use.

Unmanned aircraft can be used by farmers to check on their crops but they can also be used to monitor forest fires, isolated coast lines, ports, borders, avalanche areas, endangered wildlife environment and pipelines.

UAVs can fly up to 30 hours with a high-resolution camera attached to the undercarriage and follow a preprogrammed route.

Astronaut Julie Payette to speak at UVic

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There’s an interesting event coming up at the University of Victoria – Canadian astronaut Julie Payette will be giving an illustrated presentation on Monday August 27 at 7 p.m. in the Farquhar Auditorium.

Payette’s presentation will feature photos and video from her space flights and there will also be a Q&A . It’s free and suitable for all ages.

An astronaut and a professional electrical and computing engineer, Payette has twice left the Earth and logged more than 611 hours in space. During her mission on the space shuttle Discovery in 1993, she orbited the Earth 153 times and was the first Canadian to board the International Space Station. Payette served as mission specialist, operating the robotic Canadarm and supervising the spacewalk. In 2009, Payette served as flight engineer on the crew of the shuttle Endeavour during a mission to the space station.

Payette was chief astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency from 2000 to 2007. That’s quite the resume and it should be a fascinating evening.

Tickets must be reserved in advance. Call 250-721-8480 or go online.

UVic students develop online mapping tool for renters

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A couple of students at the University of Victoria have developed a new online mapping tool to help people looking for rental accommodation in the city. Computer Science PhD students Jamie Starke and Lars Grammel built the application for prospective renters to see where a rental property is located in proximity to work, school and transit routes in the city.

“When I was looking to rent a place here, I was frustrated by the amount of time I had to spend talking to property management companies to make sure I was aware of everything on the market,” said Starke. “Then I had to look at a map and sort out whether the location works for me. That’s when I decided to take matters in my own hands and create something that would allow users to do both easily and in one online location.”

The mapping tool was created through UVic’s Chisel group, which stands for Computer Human Interaction Software Engineering Lab. Chisel’s “primary objective is to develop tools that support people in performing complex cognitive tasks.”