Computer characters and robots could learn complex motor skills through trial and error, thanks to a machine learning algorithm developed at UBC. Using DeepLoco, characters can navigate through a narrow zigzagging path and even dribble a soccer ball.

Gail Murphy, a leading expert in software engineering and chief scientist at Vancouver’s Tasktop Technologies, has been appointed UBC’s Vice-President, Research and Innovation. Murphy helped found the Cascadia Urban Analytics Consortium—a joint initiative with the University of Washington.

Pressed plants and flowers may sound quaint, but the UBC Herbarium’s DNA collection may be more important than ever. “It gives you a window into the past and answers to our future,” says curator Linda Jennings. A talk on botanical insecticides takes place in Victoria September 28.

A love of history drove physicist Alejandro Yoshizawa (BSc’09) to try his hand at documentary filmmaking, often about underrepresented communities. Now he wants to make a film about physicist and UBC alumnus Shuichi Kusaka, who worked with Oppenheimer. His latest film premieres on CBC September 30.

UBC computer scientist Alla Sheffer has developed software that can discern the shape of a three-dimensional object and turn it into a two-dimensional sketch. The sketches are comparable to those produced by professional designers.

Canada’s largest radio astronomy telescope, known as CHIME, is ready to start mapping space. CHIME—a collaboration among 50 Canadian scientists, including researchers from UBC—will study dark energy, fast radio bursts and radio pulsars.

Phone carriers acquired spare TV airwaves in a $19-billion auction designed by computer scientists and economists at UBC and Stanford. Prices weren’t set by high bidders, but by how low broadcasters were willing to go to turn over their airwaves.

UBC’s Natalia Nolde predicts and assess extreme events, helping to improve everything from dyke design to financial models. Since extreme events don’t occur in isolation—dyke failure could involve sea levels and wind patterns—the research involves complex variables.