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Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science

UVic mechanical engineering brings adaptive robotics expertise to Indigenous carving preservation project

May 25, 2026

Totem poles outside of First Peoples House.
Welcome figures outside First Peoples House carved by Doug Lafortune (Tsawout).

A new federally funded project to preserve Kwakwaka'wakw carving traditions through collaborative robotics includes a key contribution from UVic's Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, with Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Keivan Ahmadi serving as co-primary investigator.

The project, "Robotic Carving to Augment and Preserve Intergenerational Kwakwaka'wakw Knowledge Transfer," was awarded $250,000 over two years through SSHRC's New Frontiers in Research Fund. It is led by Carey Newman, UVic's Impact Chair in Indigenous Art Practices, and brings together researchers from Fine Arts and Engineering and Computer Science alongside Camosun College's Camosun Innovates applied research and development centre, led by Richard Gale, and the Royal BC Museum.

Carving is central to Pacific Northwest Indigenous Peoples' social, legal, and cultural orders — from drums, masks and rattles to canoes, poles and the structural elements of big houses. The project aims to design and build an adaptive robotic system that works in collaboration with a master carver to augment and preserve the intergenerational transmission of carving knowledge, at a time when that transmission faces growing pressures from climate change, urbanization, and the ongoing legacies of colonialism.

Ahmadi's expertise in machining dynamics, adaptive control, and advanced manufacturing is central to the project's core technical challenges of building a system that can respond in real time to the variable, unpredictable microstructure of cedar.

"By combining adaptive robotics with the expertise of master carvers, we are developing a technology that supports cultural preservation while advancing the future of human-centered manufacturing," says Ahmadi.

The project also connects to broader applications in robotics and advanced manufacturing, including robotic surgery and any domain requiring close collaboration between human skill and automated systems. However, the project's driving purpose is keeping living knowledge alive and accessible to future generations.

"Projects like this one show the value of research that brings disciplines together around a shared purpose," says Colin Bradley, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science. "Keivan's expertise in adaptive manufacturing is making a key technical contribution, and we're proud that Engineering and Computer Science can play a role in work that matters so deeply to Indigenous communities and to UVic's reconciliation commitments."

The project is aligned with The Seedling, Newman's separate federally funded cultural and environmental artwork, which involves planting a Western Red Cedar, designing a digital 3D totem, and carving it when the tree matures in 600 years, a work that radically expands the timescales within which cultural memory and responsibility are imagined.