Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are usually employed to quickly render images on everyday computer screens, and do so quickly and efficiently for relatively little cost. Modern GPUs are able to do hundreds or thousands of simultaneous calculations; rewriting conventional computer problems in the language of GPUs offers the potential to dramatically decrease the computing time for complex problems such as Electromagnetic Transmission (EMT) simulations.

Funded through a series of NSERC partnership grants, Cubresa Inc. have been working with the applicants to develop technologies for pre-clinical imaging for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and PET friendly radiofrequency (RF) coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of small animals.

Grasslands are one of the most endangered habitat in North America. In Manitoba, over 90% has been lost in the last 100 years and with it a suite of prairie adapted species. The Poweshiek skipperling is one such species which in recent years has plummeted in abundance for unknown reasons. Less than 500 individuals remain in the wild and the grasslands of southeastern Manitoba represent one of the species’ last strongholds.

2012 marked a pivotal milestone in the field of neural networks. The intersection of general purpose computing using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), labelled big datasets, and very large neural networks (called deep neural networks) enabled a break-through in machine learning that has led to impressive results in many fields and applications, such as self-driving vehicles and real-time language translation. Recently, the advances offered by these techniques have been applied to the areas of music and speech synthesis, which have opened up exciting new areas of applications.

It is estimated that 23,200 women in Canada will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and that the disease claims the lives of about 100 Canadian women per week. The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer offers many advantages over conventional X-ray mammography, including increased sensitivity and the absence of ionizing radiation. MRI is achieved through the manipulation, and subsequent detection, of the magnetic properties of the hydrogen atoms in our bodies.