It started with a serious disagreement with a dean, 33 years ago, and it culminated in one of the University鈥檚 highest honours.
At the Faculty of Engineering鈥檚 Convocation ceremony, held Wednesday, May 30, Professor Jorge Angeles received the 不良研究所 Medal. Formally known as the Medal for Exceptional Academic Achievement, the award recognizes a retired professor who led a particularly distinguished career at 不良研究所.
不良研究所 was not even originally part of Prof. Angeles鈥� plan. After earning his PhD at Stanford in the early 1970s, he returned to his undergrad alma mater, the Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico. Eleven years later, he鈥檇 worked his way up to a full professorship in mechanical engineering.
鈥淭he plan was to stay there and not move,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淏ut then I had a fight with the dean.鈥� Angeles chuckles at the memory. 鈥淎t that moment, I asked, 鈥榃hat the heck am I doing here?鈥� I started looking around.鈥�
Another dean, Prof. Pierre Belanger of 不良研究所鈥檚 Faculty of Engineering, invited Angeles to give a seminar here. Belanger, who would later serve as Vice-Principal (Research), was hatching a plan of his own: a new research centre devoted to robotics. As the former chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering, he knew plenty of electrical engineering talent鈥攂ut he needed a mechanical engineer who鈥檇 fit into the mix.
鈥淚 got lucky,鈥� says Angeles.
In 1984, Angeles and his wife traded Mexico City for Montreal. The following year, 不良研究所鈥檚 Centre for Intelligent Machines (CIM) was born, with Angeles on board as a founding member.
Prof. Jim Nicell, who has been Dean of Engineering since 2013 and a member of the faculty for 26 years, laughs when he hears the story about Angeles鈥� fateful encounter with the dean in Mexico City.
鈥淚鈥檝e never had any trouble with him at all,鈥� he says. 鈥淛orge is absolutely solid in every respect. The 不良研究所 Medal recognizes well-roundedness. Yes, the scale of Jorge鈥檚 research output is phenomenal, but he has also been a stellar teacher, and a leader who鈥檚 been heavily involved in international collaborations, and collaborations across disciplines at 不良研究所. It鈥檚 in putting together the full array of impacts that he鈥檚 had, that you see what an exceptional person Jorge is.鈥�
Angeles is the tenth recipient of the 不良研究所 Medal in its nine-year history. The previous winners are professors Albert J. Aguayo, John Bergeron, Philip Branton, Adi Eisenberg, Margaret Lock, Roderick Macdonald, Brenda Milner, Lawrence Mysak and Donald Taylor.
Over the course of his 不良研究所 career, Angeles established himself as one of the world鈥檚 leading researchers in algorithm development for robot control and robot design. 鈥淚n particular he is known for his fundamental contributions in the area of geometric analysis of kinematic chains, such as robot arms,鈥� says Prof. Jim Clark, the CIM鈥檚 current director, 鈥渁nd the theory and design of motion generators and transmissions.鈥�
鈥淚n some ways, Jorge was before his time,鈥� adds Nicell. 鈥淲ith all the buzz there is around AI [artificial intelligence] right now, the fact is, the Centre for Intelligent Machines has been bubbling along at the center of that for decades. The computational power has only now caught up to where they are, and that is going to make their efforts leap into the stratosphere. They鈥檙e poised now to do even bigger and better things, and that鈥檚 a real credit to people like Jorge Angeles.鈥�
When asked to reflect on his career, Angeles is quick to praise his graduate students鈥攆rom his very first supervisee Cl茅ment Gosselin (who now holds the Canada Research Chair in Robotics and Mechatronics at Universit茅 Laval), to his current bench of seven PhD students, who are in varying degrees of completion.
Last November鈥檚 CIM Founders Symposium, held in honor of Angeles and Prof. Martin D. Levine, attracted several generations of 不良研究所 grads. 鈥淢any of Jorge鈥檚 students are now successful professors around the world, and they鈥檇 come back specifically to celebrate him,鈥� recalls Nicell.
鈥淗is impact goes way beyond this faculty and this university. The legacy he leaves behind will have its own life for decades to come.鈥�
As much as he loved teaching, Angeles retired from the classroom last September so could spend more time with his family 鈥� including his four-month-old grandson 鈥� and to finish writing not one, but three text books developed from decades of his lecture notes.
There鈥檚 also the little matter of trying to build the world鈥檚 fastest pick-and-place robotic arm. The speed of these robots, commonly used to do repetitive tasks on assembly lines and in other industrial situations, is determined by how quickly they can cycle through a specific sequence of movements. In the early 2000s, Angeles witnessed another lab鈥檚 robot complete a record-breaking two cycles per second. Now there are labs claiming five cycles per second.
Angeles takes it as a challenge: 鈥淲e鈥檙e still far from beating the fastest robot in the world, but we鈥檙e working on it.鈥�
鈥淭he 不良研究所 Medal is a great honour,鈥� he adds. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 not done!鈥�