Sheridan Hosts Inaugural Mobile Computing Symposium

Earlier this week, Sheridan’s Faculty of Applied Science and Technology hosted its Mobile Computing Symposium, held in collaboration with the Office for Applied Research and Innovation and presenting partner, Rogers Communications Inc.  The Symposium brought together experts from Canada’s mobile innovation leaders with representatives from small businesses across the GTA looking to better understand opportunities for innovation in mobile computing and how these technologies might be integrated into their businesses.

Event Sessions

The event provided industry guests with ample opportunities to network and learn from Sheridan’s professors and students from the School of Applied Computing, which is home to Sheridan’s Bachelor of Applied Computer Science in Mobile Computing.  

The Symposium began with a keynote presentation from Anthony Bartolo, Senior Technology Evangelist at Microsoft, who discussed mobile technologies within the future of computing and positioned mobile as an enabler of innovation, while examining some of the challenges ahead.

Pictured above: Participants attend Sheridan's Mobile Computing Symposium at the Trafalgar Campus.

Bartolo’s presentation was followed by an Industry Expert Session led by Christopher Emery, Senior Director, Corporate Strategy & Planning at Rogers. Emery discussed two of the most prominent emerging factors in the mobile world: the rise of 5G Networks and the Internet of Things (IoT), and the connectivity infrastructure and considerations that will be required to support them.

Over lunch, attendees took in a student poster competition, and networked with students from the School of Applied Computing. As part of the poster competition, each student team was challenged to create a solution to a real-world problem, several of them working with industry partners. Student projects included augmented reality solutions to encourage creativity in the workplace, a mobile item scanner using Internet of Things, and more.  

The afternoon session began with a presentation by Manish Nargas, Research Analyst at IDC, who highlighted the major mobile innovation opportunities presented by wearables and Virtual/Augmented Reality. Nargas explained the basics of each technology and provided an outlook of market growth, including how each tool has begun to be utilized within various industries.

Nargas’ presentation was followed by a series of breakout sessions, spread over three streams: industry use cases led by IBM, Apple, SOTI and the City of Mississauga; research and innovation project presentations by Sheridan mobile computing faculty researchers; and technical hands-on sessions led by speakers from Microsoft, Apple, RedBit, and Google.

Following the breakout sessions, there was a discussion about innovation support funding opportunities led by representatives from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), and the presentation of the Student Poster Competition prizes.  

Student Competition Winners

The competition was judged by an expert panel comprised of the Symposium’s lead speakers, with attendees also selecting a winning team by popular vote. The Fan Favourite Award was presented to Bobby Mann and Coulter Baker for their project, ‘Sheridan Orientation Augmented Reality’; the SOTI Innovation Award was presented to Bhupesh Bhatia and Brandon Boodhoo for their project, ‘Reducing Food Waste Through Ethylene Detection & Cloud Computing’; and the Grand Prize Award was presented to Tuan Mai, Need Reddy, and Ken Suong for their project, ‘Automated Classification of Commercial Products On Planograms Using Computer Vision’.

Pictured above: Fan Favourite Award Winners, Coulter Baker (centre left) and Bobby Mann (centre right) pose with Sheridan Professors and Mobile Symposium Co-chairs, Dr. Ed Sykes (far left) and Dr. Magdin Stoica (far right).

The Symposium was held with the support of a variety of partners and sponsors, including presenting partner Rogers, as well as SOTI, IBM, IDC, Microsoft, Google, Apple, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, the City of Mississauga, and RedBit.

Pictured above: Students from the School of Applied Computing who took part in the Student Poster Competition are recognized at the Symposium.

Learn more about Sheridan’s Bachelor of Applied Computer Science in Mobile Computing. 

Pictured at top of page: Event attendees take in the Student Poster Competition held as part of the Symposium.