Rogers and UBC renew 5G research partnership through 2025
by CM Staff
Research will be applied in areas such as wildfire management, human tele-operations and emergency responses that will help save lives and support the province.
VANCOUVER— Rogers and the University of British Columbia have a new partnership model for 5G research and development projects to help researchers at UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses and Rogers to develop, explore and test new made-in-Canada 5G capabilities.
Research will be applied in areas such as wildfire management, human tele-operations and emergency responses that will help save lives and support the province. Rogers and UBC will partner with Mitacs, enabling additional funding as well as internships to expand the reach of 5G research projects.
“Our continued partnership allows us to pursue research discoveries and develop new applications of 5G to address societal and economic challenges,” said Professor Santa Ono, UBC President and Vice-Chancellor, in a press release.
“Together, we are investigating how 5G technology can help to shape and rebuild our world in ways that can have far-reaching positive impacts at UBC and beyond. I am looking forward to seeing what we’ll accomplish together.”
Joe Natale, President and CEO, Rogers Communications stated in a press release that 5G is a critical part of Canada’s future, and the ecosystem around leveraging its full potential is as important as building out the network behind it.
“Rogers is committed to fostering 5G innovation in Canada to help grow our economy, create new businesses, and help our local communities thrive. We started on this journey with UBC three years ago and are proud to have that continue today; bringing the collective strength of Rogers together with the research and academic expertise of UBC creates a formidable combination of talent and resources that raises the bar of 5G potential in Canada,” said Natale.
Among the projects initially selected for the new UBC partnership framework are Wildfire Prevention and Smart Forests, Human Teleoperation over 5G, Timely and Extended Monitoring in Emergencies and Disasters.
“The 2021 wildfire season in B.C. was the third worst on record in terms of area burned,” said Dr. Mathieu Bourbonnais, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographic Sciences at UBC’s Okanagan campus, in a press release.
“We look forward to working with Rogers in the Okanagan to develop and test the application of real-time monitoring of forest and fuel conditions to predict fire risk. This will assist in fire and landscape management, fire ecology, and climate sciences and we will develop and test the application leveraging existing collaborations in the Okanagan.”
This partnership is one part of Rogers more than $25 million national investments in R&D and strategic partnerships at leading Canadian institutions.
