UOIT celebrates new Canada Research Chair and another chair renewal

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) is pleased to announce a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Digital Life, Media and Culture and the renewal of its CRC in Health Informatics. Funding for each chair is valued at $500,000, over five years.

The CRC in Digital Life, Media and Culture was awarded to Dr. Isabel Pedersen, associate professor, Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, to build upon a body of work that questions how technology frames human identity. By using communication theories and humanities methods, she will bring further understanding about the impact of emergent digital media on life and culture.

“I am truly honoured to be awarded this chair,” said Dr. Pedersen. “Attention drawn to new digital devices through popular media is becoming more prevalent. These devices are often invented and embraced by society before we are able to understand the impact they have on our lives, culture, art and social practices. As chair, I look forward to further investigating this area and strengthening society’s understanding of the impact digital media has on society.”

Dr. Pedersen’s research will make evident the influential strategies used to govern new media adoption through the collection and analysis of inventors’ writings. The research will also gather inventories of popular artifacts like films, novels, videos, art installations and social media texts, in order to understand the full range of the process. 

Dr. Pedersen has a PhD in Language and Literature and a master’s degree in Language and Professional Writing from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English from Trinity College, University of Toronto in Ontario. She has published articles in international learned journals including Semiotica, Social Semiotics, Biography, Continuum and the Canadian Journal of Communication. Her book manuscript Ready to Wear: A Rhetoric of Wearable Computers and Reality-Shifting Media is in press at Parlor Press and will be the first book-length digital rhetoric treatment of wearable technology.

UOIT’s Health Informatics CRC renewal was awarded to Dr. Carolyn McGregor, professor and associate dean of Research, Faculty of Business and Information Technology, cross-appointed with the Faculty of Health Sciences. With growing global interest in her research, Dr. McGregor is changing how information is used to monitor the health of hospital patients. Dr. McGregor's research focuses on using advanced technology to monitor infants born prematurely or ill at term, since certain life-threatening conditions such as infection may be detected up to 24 hours in advance of noticeable symptoms by observing changes in physiological data streams. Led by Dr. McGregor, a group of internationally recognized researchers including neonatologists from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, and hospitals in the United States, China and Australia, are improving advanced stream computing software developed by IBM Research to work toward greatly enhancing the decision-making capabilities of doctors. Being able to predict potential changes in an infant's condition with greater accuracy will allow doctors to intervene more quickly, greatly impacting neonatal care through reduced mortality and morbidity rates and overall health-care costs.

“I am very pleased to have the opportunity to build upon an area of research I am so passionate about,” said Dr. McGregor. “This research holds tremendous potential to save lives, reduce costs of care, assist in identifying new disease and treatments, and improve patient management. It is a great honour to be recognized for this work. I look forward to continuing the advancement of health informatics research and working with this talented group of researchers and partners.”

“Congratulations to Drs. Pedersen and McGregor for their remarkable accomplishments,” said Dr. Michael Owen, vice-president, Research, Innovation and International. “These awards are a true reflection of the high-quality innovative research conducted by UOIT’s faculty and their students, and demonstrate the university’s commitment to finding solutions to societal problems of global importance.” 

Since 2003 UOIT has established an international reputation as a research-intensive university. Establishing its first spin-off company, UOIT has filed more than 30 patent applications and been appointed four prestigious CRCs, with another six in development and six Industrial Research Chairs. UOIT research is focused on six priority areas, all of which emphasize its multidisciplinary market and community focus: Manufacturing for the 21st Century; Energy and Sustainable Environment; Human Health and Community Wellness; Information and Communications Technology and Informatics; Life Sciences and Biotechnology; and Education for the 21st Century. These priority areas closely align with federal and provincial research and innovation priorities in the context of Advantage Canada's Federal Science and Technology Strategy and the Ontario Innovation Agenda.

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