Professors at York University's Lassonde School of Engineering have been awarded more than $2.2 million in Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The funds will help the researchers to further the knowledge of their respective fields for a period of five years.
In the 2017 competition, 100 per cent of the Lassonde professors who applied for a renewal and 80 per cent of the first-time applicants were successful. Recipients of the Discovery Grants are:
Michael Brown – For his work in modelling image formation and in-camera imaging pipelines, Michael Brown, from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, was granted $300,000 to further his research and push the knowledge boundaries of his field.
Marcus Brubaker – Marcus Brubaker, from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, works on inference and model building for vision-based estimation of transmissive objects. He was awarded $195,000 in funding to support his research endeavour.
Suprakash Datta – Researching algorithms for efficient wireless communication in the Internet of Things, Suprakash Datta, from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, was granted $100,000 to pursue his research program.
Manos Papangelis – Manos Papagelis, from the Department on Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, was awarded $100,000 in research funding for his work in theory and application with respect to mining and exploration of the social graph.
William Colgan – William Colgan, from the Department of Earth and Space Science & Engineering, will be looking into the implication of ice dynamics on the rise in sea level in his research program titled “Implications of millennial-scale ice dynamics on Greenland's recent sea level rise contribution” for which he has was awarded $135,000.
Mojgan Jadidi Mardkheh – Mojgan Jadidi Mardkheh, from the Department of Earth and Space Science & Engineering, is working on a research project titled “Knowledge Discovery in 3D Geospatial Spaces: Towards an Integrated BIM, 3D GIS and IoT Data Framework.” He was awarded with $100,000 in research funding.
Jinjun Shan – Jinjun Shan, from the Department of Earth and Space Science & Engineering, is in a research pursuit to learn more about dynamics modelling and cooperative control of multiple piezoelectric actuators for high-precision applications. He was granted $185,000 to further his research project.
Jian-Guo Wang – Jian-Guo Wang, from the Department of Earth and Space Science & Engineering, was awarded $120,000 to explore multisensory integrated navigation in his research program titled “Emerging data fusion methodology in multisensor integrated navigation for challenging environments.”
Hossein Kassiri – Hossein Kassiri, from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, is pursuing a research program in neural microsystems titled “Next Generation Implantable Neural Interface Microsystems.” He has been granted $145,000 in funding.
Usman Khan – Usman Khan, from the Department of Civil Engineering, is looking into floods and their associated implications under his research program titled “Floods in megacities: Impacts of urban growth, sustainable infrastructure and climate change.” He has been given $100,000 for this research.
Dan Palermo – Dan Palermo, from the Department of Civil Engineering, is working on using “smart materials” to create structures with damage resilience properties in his research program titled “Development of Damage-Resilient Structures Using Smart Materials” for which he received $140,000.
Alidad Amirfazli – Alidad Amirfazli, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is pursuing a research program titled “Fundamentals and Applications of Liquid Drop Interactions with Complex Surfaces” for which he has been granted $350,000.
Paul O’Brien – Paul O'Brien, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is developing transparent, selectively permeable heat mirrors for which he has been granted $120,000.
These grants – based on recommendations from peer review committees containing world experts in each of 12 science and engineering fields – typically last for five years. The NSERC Discovery Grants program is very highly valued within the Canadian research community.
NSERC provides the core funding and freedom so Canada’s best researchers can pursue their most promising ideas and breakthrough discoveries – world‑firsts in knowledge.