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Thirteen faculty members from York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering were awarded Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grants, totalling $2.73 million in funding to support new and ongoing research. Two other faculty members received NSERC Research Tools & Instruments grants totalling a combined $300,000.
The programs that received funding this year aim to tackle emerging global issues and complex challenges in engineering and science, with many programs exploring the diverse applications of artificial intelligence (AI) methods, extending research to flood forecasting, medical devices and digital cameras, to name a few examples.
NSERC Discovery Grants are especially important for early career researchers, allowing them to independently pioneer long-term research programs and bring their creative vision to life – a first-time opportunity for many – while accelerating innovative research activities, diverse partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations.
This year the NSERC Discovery Grant recipients, and their funded research programs, are:
Alidad Amirfazli, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for "Surface Droplet Interactions for Complex Systems: Fundamentals and Applications."
Michael Brown, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Next Generation AI-Based Camera Pipelines."
Andrew Eckford, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Towards Advanced Molecular Communication Systems."
Moshe Gabel, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Efficient, General, and Accessible Distributed Stream Processing."
Hossein Kassiri, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Patient-Optimized Highly-Scalable Multi-Modal Implantable Brain Computer Interfaces."
Usman Khan, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, for "Harnessing the power of AI to develop a Canada-wide flood forecasting system."
Sana Maqsood, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Developing interactive systems to improve users' security and privacy."
Kiemute Oyibo, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Using Persuasive Technology and Machine Learning Models to Address Digital Inequity."
Katerina Papoulia, adjunct associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, for "Multiscale methods for failure analysis of concrete materials."
Aditya Potukuchi, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Polymer methods for Markov Random Fields."
Razieh Salahandish, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Integrated wearable platforms for self-monitoring of complex biomarkers."
Haley Sapers, adjunct professor in the Department of Earth & Space Sciences & Engineering, for "Biogeochemisty of Impact Craters."
Laleh Seyyed-Kalantari, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for "Mitigating the unfairness of AI-based medical image diagnostic tools."
This year the NSERC Research Tools & Instruments recipients, and their funded research programs, are:
Aleksander Czekanski, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for "In-Situ Complex-Geometry Autonomous 3D Printing System for Heterogeneous Soft Tissue Structures."
Terry Sachlos, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for "X-ray Irradiator for Tissue Engineering Applications."