SMART-ART Program receives Lassonde EDI seed funding

In August, York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering announced new equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) funding initiative to promote a culture of EDI at the School while helping to remove systemic barriers for faculty, students, and staff in academia.

The inaugural competition was a success, with many students, staff, and faculty members applying for funding. The top six projects selected to receive funding were announced on April 13 and SMART-ART was one among them.

Summary of the funded project:

Recruitment Activities for NSERC CREATE: Smart – Autonomous Robotic Technology for Space Exploration (SMART-ART)

Smart Autonomous Robotic Technology for Space Exploration (SMART-ART) is a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada- (NSERC) funded, industry-oriented student training program to develop essential technical and professional skills for Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) trainees in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous robotics, computer vision, and systems engineering for space exploration.

The SMART-ART EDI seed funding will allow the program to address culture(creating an inclusive environment), pipeline (developing a diverse pool of HQP candidates), partnerships (facilitating partnerships aligned with our EDI values), and stewardship (embedding EDI into project management policy) via a role model approach, including an EDI awareness podcast program, EDI training course, targeted advertisement, and outreach campaign programs, special events and talks.