The University of Manitoba hosted its second annual SET Day, assembling over 100 students and teachers from across the province to learn about the future of research.
SET Day - Science, Engineering and Technology Day - is the only event of its kind in Manitoba and 30 high schools participated.  The day featured presentations by leading researchers in six fields: high-energy astrophysics, physiology, wireless communications, plant science, robotics and civionics.

Getting Bridges to Talk
Dr. Chad Klowak, Professor
Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Discussed how structural health monitoring has been around for thousands of years, but recent technology has allowed engineers to gather richer sources of data by embedding sensors into the capital projects.  This branch of engineering is called civionics and the future labour market will likely demand more engineers specialized in civionics since many infrastructure projects are, in human terms, geriatrics in need of constant monitoring.

Robotics: Now and in the Future
Dr. Nariman Sepehri, Professor
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering

Future robots will be smaller, softer to the touch, able to shape-shift, and be able to teach themselves.  But as it stands, there are many problems for future engineers to grapple with, mainly the fact that the best robots still lack the simplest abilities, like distinguishing a shadow from a hole in the ground.

Signaling the Future
Dr. Lot Shafai, Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Canada Research Chair in Applied Electromagnetics

The only way to send information is through electromagnetic waves, so our ability to control them is correlated to our ability to send information.  The better we understand the spectrum - the better we can manipulate it.

Space: The Final Frontier
Dr. Samar Safi-Harb, Associate Professor
Physics and Astronomy, and Canada Research Chair in Supernova Astrophysics

How supernova and the gaseous remnants they leave behind are essential to life.  The topic dealt with  nearly unfathomable quantities of energies and distances that often drew gasps of awe from the audience. Samar told would-be astrophysicists they will be working on understanding the origin of high-energy cosmic rays, mapping the insides of neutron stars, hunting for magnetars, and of course, trying to solve the mysteries surrounding Dark Matter and Dark Energy.

Text "T" for Treatment
Dr. Peter Cattini, Head/Professor
Physiology, Faculty of Medicine

How our expanding knowledge of gene regulation may one day allow us to trick immune systems into accepting donor organs.  Peter Cattini also suggested the future will see the advent of a wallet-friendly card that holds a person's genetic information.  The gizmos won't stop there though - he speculated that diagnostic equipment may one day be in everyone's home, allowing a patient to step into a full-body scanner and send the results to a doctor via the internet.

What's for Supper ?!?
Dr. Jane Froese, Professor
Plant Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences

Speculated that the world population in 2033 will have climbed from  the close to 6 billion people alive today to 8.5 billion people.  Since current food production is unsustainable future meals may consist of genetically modified organisms produced in farms adept in multi-cropping or companion cropping.  But since nitrogen is the most limited element in the soil, and a crop's yield is proportional to the amount of the most limiting nutrient, finding new ways - other than the energy-intensive fertilizing process - to deliver nitrogen to crops will be a focus of research in years to come.