New federal funding reinforces Ontario Tech University’s commitment to research excellence

Ontario Tech University is an emerging leader in compelling scientific discovery and innovation. In addition to supporting unparalleled student learning experiences and delivering outstanding teaching, Ontario Tech researchers are taking on today’s and tomorrow’s societal challenges by finding solutions and applications to meet these needs.

More than two dozen Ontario Tech researchers will share more than $3 million in new federal research funding recently unveiled by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The awards represent six different Ontario Tech faculties.

NSERC Discovery Grant categories include both early-career researchers and established researchers. Two researchers are also receiving NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplements (denoted by*) for researchers who have a ‘superior research program that is highly rated in terms of originality, and who show strong potential to become international leaders within their field’.

Ontario Tech houses more than 80 specialized and modern research laboratories and facilities. The university’s commitment to high-quality research attracts leading scholars from across Canada and around the world.

2020 NSERC Discovery Grants

Faculty of Business and Information Technology

• Khalil El-Khatib, PhD: A framework for next-generation digital forensic analysis
• Salma Karray, PhD: Game theoretic models in supply chains
• Richard Pazzi, PhD: Road sensing through a connected vehicle fog approach for smart cities

Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science

• Kirk Atkinson, PhD: Assessment of small modular reactor core performance using antineutrinos

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

• Sayyed Ali Hosseini, PhD: Finish machining of additive manufactured metals
• Hossam Kishawy, PhD: Machining of composite materials: mechanics, quality and coolant strategies
• Brendan MacDonald, PhD: Flow control in textile-based capillary-driven microfluidic platforms
• Jaho Seo, PhD: Integrated technical solutions for urban construction using autonomous excavators

Faculty of Health Sciences

• *Nicholas La Delfa, PhD: Advancing digital human modeling and work simulation methods for proactive ergonomics

Faculty of Science

• Heidar Davoudi, PhD: Actionable behaviour discovery in heterogeneous social graphs
• Hendrick de Haan, PhD: Combining deep learning and coarse grained simulation methods to study high-dimensional nanobiophysical systems
• Brad Easton, PhD: Doped metal oxide electrocatalyst supports with enhanced conductivity
• Sean Forrester, PhD: Cys-loop ligand-gated chloride channels from dirofilaria immitis: Biological function and pharmacology
• *Theresa Stotesbury, PhD: Characterizing the local environment of films created from natural and engineered biofluids
• Jaroslaw Szlichta, PhD: Continuous data curation
• Faisal Qureshi, PhD: Visual perception in ad hoc networks of smart cameras

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

• Matthew Shane, PhD: Unimodal, multimodal and machine-learning techniques to identifying structural, functional and connectivity dynamics underlying empathic accuracy

2020 NSERC Research Tools and Instruments Grants

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

• Carlos Rossa, PhD: Development platform for acoustoelectric impedance tomography in internal radiation therapy
• Sheldon Williamson, PhD: Customized electromagnetic interference/compatibility test chamber for testing and validation of wide-ranging wireless power transfer systems

Faculty of Science

• Denina Simmons, PhD: Liquid Chromatography High Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Proteomics, Metabolomics, Epigenetics, and synthetic oligonucleotides

2020 NSERC Discovery Development Grants    

Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science

• Rachid Machrafi, PhD: Study of alternative radiation detectors and shielding materials for complex and mixed radiation fields

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

• Ali Grami, PhD: Integration of satellites in 5G and fixed broadband access networks
• Qusay Mahmoud, PhD: A framework for AI-enabled middleware components for securing IoT systems

Faculty of Science

• Dario Bonetta, PhD: Chemical genetic approach toward understanding cellulose biosynthesis
• Mehran Ebrahimi, PhD: Inverse problems in medical Image processing

2020 SSHRC Insight Grant

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

• Arshia Zaidi, PhD (co-Principal Investigator Barbara Perry, PhD): An era of Islamophobia: navigating the dynamics of ethnic identities, social exclusion and emotional well-being among South Asian Muslim youth in Canada.

Quotes

“Dynamic research is a cornerstone of the Ontario Tech University story, and we’re poised to become a national leader among Canada’s smaller research-intensive universities. Congratulations to all of our funding recipients, who collectively highlight our commitment to basic scientific discovery as well as understanding and integrating the social and ethical implications of technology through the application of knowledge. Our research portfolio comprises more than 300 members who address societal challenges in collaboration with our extensive networks of research partners, to improve the quality of life and work for all Canadians.”
-Dr. Les Jacobs, Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Ontario Tech University

“On behalf of the Government of Canada, I’d like to thank the country’s researchers for the hard work they continue to do at such a challenging time. With this support, we are investing in, and celebrating, the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research.”
-The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

“At NSERC, we take great pride in the Discovery Grants program as our funding flagship. It provides a firm research foundation for the research programs undertaken by thousands of exceptional science and engineering investigators—professors, students, postdoctoral fellows and support staff across Canada.”
-Alejandro Adem, President, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Related links

• Ontario Tech University’s Strategic Research Plan 2020-2025
• Ontario Tech University’s Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation
• Government of Canada invests almost $500 million in science and engineeringg (NSERC, June 17, 2020)