Entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to innovation continue to propel Ontario Tech’s impressive research growth
Ontario Tech’s powerful upward research trajectory continues after Canada’s research funding Tri-agencies announced new grants valued at nearly $4.5 million for 32 new projects across multiple research disciplines being led by dozens of the university’s faculty experts.
This builds on Ontario Tech’s strong reputation for impactful scholarship, supported by more than 500 industry and community partnerships. Driven by a passion for ethical applications of technology, the university’s research activities focus on such key areas as artificial intelligence, developing a clean and sustainable energy future, community wellness and the promotion of equitable health care, social and teaching innovation, advanced manufacturing, and the secure deployment of digital technologies. Currently, Ontario Tech generates more than $25 million annually in research funding.
Ontario Tech’s capacity for advancing discovery and applying knowledge
Hundreds of top academics from across Canada and around the globe call Ontario Tech home. In addition to their collective research contributions and creation of new knowledge, these subject matter experts are equally committed to delivering the best teaching and learning to the university’s more than 11,000 students.
Ontario Tech’s academic roster includes 10 Canada Research Chairs, 12 Ontario Tech Research Excellence Chairs, as well as UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and industrial chairs. The university’s research enterprise features more than 80 specialized labs and modern facilities.
One of the highlights among this year’s projects is an Imagining Canada’s Future Ideas Lab grant awarded to Legal Studies researcher Dr. Jen Rinaldi of the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities. The grant addressing Global Health and Wellness in the 21st Century is one of just four across the country from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.
Tri-agencies providing federal funding
Recent Ontario Tech research projects attracting more than $4.47 million in new federal funding (listed by funding category)
Ontario Tech faculty codes
- FBIT – Faculty of Business and Information Technology
- FEAS – Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
- FEd – Mitch and Leslie Frazer Faculty of Education
- FHSc – Faculty of Health Sciences
- FSc – Faculty of Science
- FSSH – Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- NSERC Discovery Grants
Advancing the frontiers of robotics: Cable-driven parallel robots and beyond
- Applicant: Dr. Mitchell Rushton (FEAS)
Intrusion detection and forensic analysis for Internet of Things (IoT) systems in connected and automated vehicles
- Applicant: Dr. Pooria Madani (FBIT)
Comprehensive assessment and management of holistic integration of ultra-fast charging infrastructure
- Applicant: Dr. Walid Ibrahim (FEAS)
Innovative approaches for power system protection and automation
- Applicant: Dr. Tarlochan Sidhu (FEAS)
Design and development of next-generation high-power, high-efficiency wireless charging systems for e-mobility applications
- Applicant: Dr. Sheldon Williamson (FEAS)
Development of an advanced research program for predicting tire wear and interaction with various terrains
- Applicant: Dr. Moustafa El-Gindy (FEAS)
Learning pixel-level video understanding
- Applicant: Dr. Mennatullah Siam (FEAS)
Multiphase flow processes around bluff bodies in adverse weather
- Applicant: Dr. Martin Agelin-Chaab (FEAS)
Determining the functional role of the benthic primary-producer matrix across lentic freshwater ecosystems
- Applicant: Dr. Andrea Kirkwood (FSc)
A novel paradigm for advancing low-resource languages: Uncovering factors and expanding large language models
- Applicant: Dr. En-Shiun Lee (FSc)
Data visualization and exploration on smartwatches
- Applicant: Dr. Ali Neshati (FSc)
- NSERC Discovery Development Grants
Multi-modal robots
- Applicant: Dr. Scott Nokleby (FEAS)
A novel approach to customizing virtual reality in training applications to improve skill acquisition and retention for novice users
- Applicant: Dr. Alvaro Uribe Quevedo (FBIT)
Enhancing authentication: Increasing resiliency against targeted password attacks and preventing misuse of cryptographic libraries for authentication
- Applicant: Dr. Miguel Vargas Martin (FBIT)
Towards a human-like autonomous robotic manipulation system
- Applicant: Dr. Haoxiang Lang (FEAS)
Futuristic power electronics packages and motor controls for emerging technologies
- Applicant: Dr. Mohamed Youssef (FEAS)
Novel-type systems for neural computation
- Applicant: Dr. Ken Pu (FSc)
- NSERC Research Tools and Instruments Grants
Raman spectroscopy instrumentation for material identification in medical diagnostics and environmental remediation applications
- Applicant: Dr. Nisha Agarwal (FSc)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Hossam Gaber (FEAS); Dr. Liliana Trevani (FSc)
Out of the museum and into the future: Oligosynthesizer replacement
- Applicant: Dr. Jean-Paul Desaulniers (FSc)
- Co-applicant: Dr. Theresa Stotesbury (FSc)
Nanoparticle tracking analysis for innovation in materials and biological science
- Applicant: Dr. Denina Simmons (FSc)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Brad Easton (FSc); Dr. Olena Zenkina (FSc)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
- SSHRC Connection Grant
Do 2SLGBTQQIA+ supportive policies and practices increase firm performance?
Disability in education: Sustaining an inclusive Africa
- Applicant: Dr. Jen Rinaldi (FSSH)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Anita Ewan (Red Deer Polytechnic); Dr. Evelyn Kissi (University of Ghana); Dr. Gillian Parekh (York University); Dr. Kathryn Underwood (Toronto Metropolitan University)
- SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant
Innovating education: Using a mobile makerspace to promote culturally sustaining and inclusive STEAM learning in rural communities in Hawai'i
- Applicant: Dr. Laura Morrison (FEd)
- Co-applicant: Dr. Janette Hughes (FEd)
- Collaborator: Dr. Phaedra Robinson (RAI [Robot-Assisted Instruction] Hawai’i)
- Partner: RAI Hawai’i
- SSHRC Insight Grants
Reducing the impacts of emotion recognition bias on Canadians
- Applicant: Dr. Steven Livingstone (FSc)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Frank Russo (Toronto Metropolitan University); Dr. Frank Rudzicz (Dalhousie University); Dr. Jessica Tracy (University of British Columbia); Dr. Marc Pell (McGill University); Dr. Michele Morningstar (Queen's University)
Augmented humans, AI, and digital life
- Applicant: Dr. Isabel Pedersen (FSSH)
- Co-applicant: Dr. Andrea Slane (FSSH)
- Collaborators: Dr. Andrew Iliadis (Temple University); Dr. Ann Hill Duin (University of Minnesota); Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai (CNIB)
- SSHRC Insight Development Grants
The proliferation of buy-now, pay-later: Firms' perspectives
- Applicant: Dr. Hui Zhu (FBIT)
- Collaborator: Steven Zhu (PhD candidate, University of Houston)
Exploring the forensic confirmation bias with Canadian mock jurors
- Applicant: Dr. Logan Ewanation (FSSH)
- Co-applicant: Dr. Evelyn Maeder (Carleton University)
- SSHRC Imagining Canada’s Future Ideas Lab – Global Health and Wellness in the 21st Century
Do no harm: Toward the abolition of carceral forms of perinatal clinical care
- Applicant: Dr. Jen Rinaldi (FSSH)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Idil Abdillahi (Toronto Metropolitan University); Dr. Julia Smith (Simon Fraser University); Dr. Amy Wright (University of Toronto); Dr. Yann Zoldan (Université du Québec à Chicoutimi)
Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR)
- CIHR Planning and Dissemination Grant
Co-designing and participatory approaches to building partnerships: Advancement for Dementia Care Centre, Provincial Geriatrics Leadership Ontario, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences
- Nominated Principal Applicant: Dr. Winnie Sun (FHSc)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Amer Burhan (Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences); Dr. Brenda Gamble (FHSc); Dr. Manon Lemonde (FHSc)
- Collaborators: Gillian Barrie (Alzheimer Society Durham Region); Stacey Hawkins (PhD candidate, FHSc); Kelly Kay (Seniors Care Network; and PhD candidate, University of Toronto); Tim Pauley (Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences)
- Partners: Alzheimer Society Durham Region; Seniors Care Network
- CIHR Operating Grant: Healthy Cities research initiative: Data analysis using databases and cohorts
Evaluating the impact of changes in the proximity and density of vape retailers around secondary schools in Ontario on adolescent vaping behaviours
- Nominated Principal Applicant: Dr. Adam Cole (FHSc)
- Principal Applicant: Dr. Jason Gilliland (Western University)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Caroline Barakat (FHSc); Dr. Rachel Laxer (Public Health Ontario); Dr. Scott Leatherdale (University of Waterloo); Drs. Jamie Seabrook and Shiran Zhong (Western University); Anne Philipneri (Public Health Ontario)
- CIHR Operating Grant: Data analysis using existing databases and cohorts
Prevalence and outcomes of water birth versus 'land' birth in Ontario mothers and neonates at low risk of complications: A secondary analysis of routinely collected BORN (Better Outcomes Registry and Network) data
- Applicant: Dr. Ginny Brunton (FHSc)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Nooshin Rotondi (FHSc); Dr. Elizabeth Darling (McMaster University); Dr. Shaun Morris (SickKids Hospital
- Knowledge Users: Alexa Tobin Minichiello (Association of Ontario Midwives); Terri Rout (Waterbirth Coalition of Canada); Lesley Ann Tarasoff (Provincial Council for Maternal Child Health); Helen Peak (Lakeridge Health Corporation Research Institute); Samantha Krueger (Markham Stouffville Hospital, Alongside Midwifery Unit); Robyn Berman (Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre)
- CIHR Catalyst Grant: Health impacts of gambling and gaming
Identifying patterns of and risk and protective factors for gambling among secondary school students in Canada
- Nominated Principal Applicant: Dr. Adam Cole (FHSc)
- Principal Applicant: Dr. Karen Patte (Brock University)
- Co-applicants: Dr. Scott Leatherdale (University of Waterloo); Dr. Mark Ferro (University of Waterloo); Dr. Tara Elton-Marshall (University of Ottawa)
- Principal Knowledge User: Dr. Rachel Laxer (Public Health Ontario)
Related links
Selected recent Ontario Tech University research highlights
Quote
“These federal research grants and the wide scope of strategic research projects they support fully demonstrate Ontario Tech’s commitment to improving the lives of Canadians through the social and ethical application of technology, including artificial intelligence. In collaboration with our many community and industry partners, the university provides national leadership in the conversations pertaining to the future of energy, applied bioscience, environmental sustainability and technology.”
- Dr. Les Jacobs, Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Ontario Tech University
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