STITCH - Key Persons
Dr. Ali McManus earned her doctorate from the University of Exeter, UK and held a faculty position at the University of Hong Kong for 18 years before joining the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at UBC in Kelowna in 2013. She is the current President of the North American Society for Pediatric Exercise Medicine and serves on the editorial board of Pediatric Exercise Science. She directs the CFI funded Pediatric Inactivity Physiology Laboratory, which focuses on generating a greater appreciation of the cardiopulmonary and vascular impact exercise, physical activity and sedentary behavior play in the health and wellbeing of children.
Dr. McManus' lab is pursuing the following areas of research:
creating a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms by which cardiopulmonary and vascular adaptations to exercise occur in the child and adolescent;
generating a detailed appreciation of the impact prolonged sitting has upon cardiopulmonary and vascular function in childhood;
developing novel intervention strategies for the prevention and treatment of sitting-induced cardiopulmonary and vascular dysfunction in childhood.
Job Titles:
- Coordinator
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Cluster Coordinator
Boris Stoeber received his Electrical Engineering Diploma from the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, in 1998, his General Engineering Diploma from the École Centrale de Lyon, Ecully, France, in 1998, and his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002. From 2003 to 2005, he was a Postdoctoral Scientist in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Stoeber's research interests include sensing technology, biomedical microdevices, microoptical devices, microflow control strategies, flow physics of complex microflows, and fabrication techniques for microelectromechanical structures.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Research Strength Areas
Cyril Leung received the B.Sc.(honours) degree from Imperial College, University of London, UK, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
He has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Department of Systems Engineering and Computing Science, Carleton University. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC. He served as Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies, in the Faculty of Applied Science from 2008 to 2011. His current research interests are in wireless communications systems as well as technologies to support active independent living for the elderly.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal
Fabio Cicoira is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal. His current research activity focuses in stretchable, flexible and healable organic electronics, bioelectronics and electronic devices based on metal oxides. Prof. Cicoira received his MSc in Chemistry from the Università di Bologna and his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. He worked at the National Research Council of Italy and at INRS-EMT and at Cornell University. He has published 70 articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and several book chapters. His works have been cited more than 2500 times and his H-index is 28.
Job Titles:
- Professor / Materials Engineering
Job Titles:
- Founder of the Advanced Control
- Professor
- Research Strength Areas
Dr. Najjaran is the founder of the Advanced Control and Intelligent Systems (ACIS) Laboratory at the School of Engineering. His research focuses on the analysis and design of advanced control systems in a variety of applications ranging from service and humanoid robots to digital microfluidic systems.
Dr. Wang's research interests are in the broad areas of statistical signal processing, with applications to information security, biomedical imaging, genomic, and wireless communications. She co-received the 2004 EURASIP Best Paper Award and 2005 Best Paper Award from IEEE Signal Processing Society, and a Junior Early Career Scholar Award from Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia in 2005. She co-edited a book Genomic Signal Processing and Statistics (Hindawi Publishing Co., 2005) and co-authored a book Multimedia Fingerprinting Forensics for Traitor Tracing (Hindawi Publishing Co., 2005). She is the chair and founder of the IEEE Vancouver SP chapter. She was Finance Chair of IEEE International Workshop on Genomic Signal Processing and Statistics 2005 (GENSIPS05), Local Arrangement Chair of 2003 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man & Cybernetics (SMC03), Co-vice Chair of the Second International Symposium on Multimedia over Wireless (ISMW2006), and the Publicity Chair of 2006 International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing (MMSP06).
Dr. Janice Eng is a professor and Canada Research Chair in the UBC Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She studied as an undergraduate at UBC in the combined Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy (PT/OT) program. At the masters level, she studied at the University of Toronto, graduating with an MSc in Biomedical Engineering. Lastly, she completed her doctorate in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Eng also completed her post-doctoral training in Neurophysiology at Simon Fraser University.
John Madden and his team are investigating new and unusual electronic materials for application in solar cells, energy storage (batteries and supercapacitors), printable electronics and as artificial muscle. Materials include conducting polymers (for artificial muscle applied to drive medical devices, and for printable electronics), carbon nanotubes (ultrahigh stress artificial muscle), electrospun carbon nanofibres (energy storage), and photosynthetic reaction centres (photovoltaic devices).
Dr. Madden worked as a research scientist at MIT before joining UBC in 2002. He completed his PhD work in the BioInstrumentation Laboratory at MIT. His bachelor's degree is in Honours Physics, UBC and he has a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering, McGill.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor at the Okanagan
Kevin Golovin is an assistant professor at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan for his research on drag-reducing surfaces, anti-icing materials, extreme liquid repellency, and the fracture mechanics of interfaces. After completing his PhD, Golovin continued to develop novel, next-generation coatings and materials at HygraTek LLC. HygraTek is currently commercializing Golovin's ice-repellent materials for wind farms and power-lines in cold climates.
Dr. Golovin holds several patents and has published and presented extensively in the field of material science. His work on icephobic surfaces has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Chemistry World, The London Telegraph, and Science Magazine. Along with a team of business students, he received the first-place grand prize at the 2016 Patagonia Eco Innovation Case Competition.
Dr. Golovin's diverse research team is investigating next-generation surface science with a focus on addressing energy and sustainability challenges. His research group explores high-impact engineering using a multidisciplinary, fundamental research approach.
Dr. Golovin's research group is always looking for highly motivated students to join. Interested students should send Dr. Golovin an email including (1) whether they require funding, (2) their CV, and (3) a cover letter. Interested postdoctoral scholars should additionally include a potential project outline. Due to the volume of emails received, only potentially successful applicants will be contacted.
Dr. Konrad Walus is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received his Electrical Engineering degree, from the University of Windsor in 2001 and completed his PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Calgary, in 2005.
Dr. Walus' research focuses on the applications of nanotechnology in electronic devices. As an example, he is investigating the application of molecular devices as an emerging computational nanotechnology, as well as the application of nanostructured materials in bio- and gas sensing. In order to exploit the novel properties of nanostructured and organic materials at the micro-scale, Dr. Walus and the other members of the MINA team are also applying novel inkjet micropatterning techniques to fabricate micro-devices using functional "inks" consisting of composites of organic polymers infused with nanostructures in order to augment and enhance performance while also reducing cost. His specific research interests include electronic devices based on molecular quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) and electronic devices fabricated using inkjet micropatterning including printed sensors, transistors, and LED's.
Dr. Lyndia Wu obtained her Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering in the Engineering Science Program at the University of Toronto. Then, she completed her Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering at Stanford University, and pursued a postdoctoral researcher position in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Her general research interest is to develop engineering tools to better understand and improve human health.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor / Mechanical Engineering
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Cluster Associate Director / Neurology
- Cluster Associate Director, Professor / Neurology
Dr. Martin McKeown is a clinical neurologist with an interest in Movement Disorders, particularly Parkinson's disease. The unique combination of his medical training and engineering background is reflected in his research where engineering principles are applied in investigating disease mechanisms and potential treatments.
Job Titles:
- Head of Department / Chemistry
- Head of Department, Professor / Chemistry
Michael Wolf was born in Halifax, NS and completed his BSc in biochemistry and chemistry at Dalhousie University, and his PhD at MIT where he worked with Mark Wrighton. He was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow with Marye Anne Fox at the University of Texas-Austin, before joining the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor in 1995. Currently a full professor, he serves as graduate advisor in the Department of Chemistry at UBC. His group has contributed to the fields of conjugated polymers and materials, the photochemistry and photophysics of conjugated materials and coordination complexes, and the synthesis and applications of modified nanomaterials. He served as the director of the Laboratory of Advanced Spectroscopy and Imaging Research (LASIR) at UBC, and is the UBC lead of the Prometheus Project, BC's Multi-Institution Advanced Materials Science and Engineering Initiative. He has served as the chair of the Inorganic Division of the CSC, as well as the director for Subject Divisions on the CSC Board, and is on the editorial board of ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. He won a UBC Killam Research Prize in 2003, the CSC Award for Pure and Applied Inorganic Chemistry in 2004, and was elected a Fellow of the CIC in 2015.
Dr. Hoorfar is a Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and the head of the Advanced Thermo-Fluidic Laboratory (AFTL) with diverse research programs providing ample opportunities for the students to work in multidisciplinary areas that straddle concepts of fluid mechanics, physical chemistry (liquid-surface interactions), biochemistry (cell deformation and separation), electrochemistry (fuel cells), advanced imaging (microCT), computational modeling, and fabrication of microstructures.
Job Titles:
- Professor / Mechanical Engineering
Panos Nasiopoulos earned his bachelor's degree in physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (1980), Greece, and his bachelor's (1985), master's (1988), and Ph.D. (1994) degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. He is a professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the former Director of ICICS and the Master of Software Systems at UBC. Before joining UBC, he was the President of Daikin Comtec US and Executive Vice President of Sonic Solutions. He is a registered professional engineer in British Columbia, a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and has been an active member of the Standards Council of Canada, MPEG, ACM and IEEE.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Steering Committee
- Cluster Director
- Cluster Director, Professor
Peyman Servati is leading Flexible Electronics and Energy Lab (FEEL) and Centre for Flexible Electronics and Textiles (CFET) and is a member of Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC) and Microsystems and Nanotechnology (MiNa) Research Group of UBC. His research interests are low-cost and flexible solar cells, flexible transistors and electronics, growth and synthesis of semiconductor nanowires (NWs) and nanocomposites, electronic device modeling and engineering, and novel device engineering for medical and energy applications.
Dr. Servati received his PhD and MASc from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Waterloo, in 2004 and 2000, respectively, and BASc from the University of Tehran, Iran, in 1998. Before joining UBC, he was a Research Associate at the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (CAPE), University of Cambridge working on nanowire growth and device engineering. Before joining the University of Cambridge in 2005, he was a Senior Research Scientist with Ignis Innovation Inc., a spin-off company of the University of Waterloo working on novel glass and plastic displays.
Dr. Servati is the winner of 2006 NSERC Canada-UK Millennium Research Award and 2005 NSERC Doctoral Prize, and the 2004 University of Waterloo Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies Honour. He has more than 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, 4 patents and 10 patent applications, and 3 book chapters. He is the co-winner of the 2002/03 IEE Institution Premium for the Best Paper in Circuits, Devices, and Systems, and the winner of Bronze Medal in the XXV International Physics Olympiad (I.Ph.O.), Beijing, China, 1994. Dr. Servati is the regional editor for IEEE Electron Device Newsletter and the Chair of Displays Subcommittee for IEEE Photonics 2011.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director, Professor
Robert Rohling is a Professor with a joint appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering & Mechanical Engineering at UBC. Dr. Rohling's research is in the field of biomedical engineering with specialization in medical ultrasound. Dr. Rohling is also the Director of the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS).
Shahriar Mirabbasi received the BSc in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 1990, and the MASc and PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto in 1997 and 2002, respectively. Since August 2002, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC where he is currently a Professor.
Dr. Mirabbasi and his team's research interests include analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuit and system design for wireless and wireline data communication, data converter, sensor interface, and biomedical applications.
Shuo Tang received her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2003. From 2003 to 2006, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine. She began as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC in 2007, where she is now an Associate Professor (since July 2013).
Dr. Tang's research interest is in biomedical optical imaging systems and devices, including multiphoton microscopy, optical coherence tomography, and micro-endoscopy systems for biomedical applications.
Dr. William Miller is a Professor in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of British Columbia. He is also the Associate Dean of Health Professions Education in the Faculty of Medicine. He pursued his undergraduate Occupational Therapy program at the University of British Columbia, followed by his MSc. and PhD at the University of Western Ontario and his Post-doctoral Fellowship at the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Miller's research interests include wheeled mobility devices, determinants of wheelchair use, measurement tools (development and evaluation), balance and ambulation confidence, and assessment of assistive technology (e.g. wheeled mobility devices) used to enable mobility disabled adults (e.g. individuals with lower limb amputation, spinal cord injury, and stroke).
Dr. Miller also provides research mentorship to both professional entry level MSc and PhD students. He is also involved with the American Journal of Occupational Therapy as an Editorial Board Member, and the CIHR Post-Doctoral Trainee Award Committee as a Reviewer.
Guy A. Dumont received his Diplôme d'Ingénieur from ENSAM, Paris, France in 1973 and his PhD in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1977. In 1973-74, and again from 1977 to 1979, he worked for Tioxide France. From 1979 to 1989, he worked with Paprican, the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada. In 1989, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UBC where he is a Professor. From 1989 to 1999, he held the Senior NSERC/Paprican Industrial Research Chair in Process Control.
Dr. Dumont has won various awards including a 1979 IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control Honorable Paper Award; the IEEE Control Systems Society 1998 Control Systems Technology Award and NSERC Synergy Awards, in 1999 for the development of the technology behind Universal Dynamics' BrainWave adaptive controller, and in 2002 for the development of Honeywell's Intellimap cross-directional control loop-shaping technology.
Dr. Dumont's current research interests are: adaptive control, distributed parameter system control, control loop performance monitoring, predictive control, with applications to the process industries, mainly pulp and paper. Recently, he has expanded his interests to biomedical engineering, particularly to biomedical signal processing and automatic drug delivery. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and of the BC Advanced Systems Institute and a member of ISA, PAPTAC and TAPPI.
Karen C. Cheung received her BSc and PhD degrees in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. From 2002-2005, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Her research interests include lab-on-a-chip systems for cell culture and characterization, inkjet printing for tissue engineering, and implantable neural interfaces.
Job Titles:
- Executive Medical Director for Global Health at BC Children 's Hospital
- Professor
Mark Ansermino is the Executive Medical Director for Global Health at BC Children's Hospital and a professor, researcher and clinician in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at UBC. He was a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar and winner of the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in 2011 and the Research and Recognition Award of the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society in 2018.
He leads an interdisciplinary research team (with Professor Guy Dumont) of engineers and clinicians who develop and evaluate novel technical solutions (devices and applications) to improve the health outcomes of women and children around the world. As a team, they combine science and engineering to create cutting edge technology that uses clinical data, automation and smart physical sensors to improve outcomes. Their focus is on extracting important data features from devices and using predictive models, based on large population datasets, to provide accessible decision-making support at all levels of healthcare in every area of the world.