Ontario Tech University Receives Nearly $4.5 Million in Federal Grants for Research Projects
Faculty at Ontario Tech University will receive nearly $4.5 million in federal grants for 32 new research projects, according to a university announcement on September 13, 2024. The funding is provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Ontario Tech University reported that the funded research will cover topics in engineering, science, health sciences, social sciences, education, and business. The university stated that the grants were distributed from multiple federal programs, including NSERC Discovery Grants, SSHRC Insight Grants, and CIHR Operating Grants.
According to the university, NSERC Discovery Grants were presented to researchers for projects in areas such as robotics, connected vehicle security, electric vehicle infrastructure, power system automation, e-mobility wireless charging, tire wear prediction, video understanding, freshwater ecosystems, language models, and smartwatch data visualization. Specific researchers include Dr. Mitchell Rushton (robotics), Dr. Pooria Madani (connected vehicles), Dr. Walid Ibrahim (charging infrastructure), Dr. Tarlochan Sidhu (power systems), Dr. Sheldon Williamson (wireless charging), Dr. Moustafa El-Gindy (tire wear), Dr. Mennatullah Siam (video understanding), Dr. Andrea Kirkwood (freshwater), Dr. En-Shiun Lee (language models), and Dr. Ali Neshati (smartwatches).
NSERC Discovery Development Grants were awarded to Dr. Scott Nokleby (multi-modal robots), Dr. Alvaro Uribe Quevedo (virtual reality in training), Dr. Miguel Vargas Martin (authentication security), Dr. Haoxiang Lang (robotic manipulation), Dr. Mohamed Youssef (power electronics), and Dr. Ken Pu (neural computation). Equipment grants supported purchases for medical diagnostics and environmental instrumentation (Dr. Nisha Agarwal), oligosynthesizer replacement (Dr. Jean-Paul Desaulniers), and nanoparticle tracking analysis (Dr. Denina Simmons).
SSHRC funding was provided for social science and education research. Recipients include Dr. Jen Rinaldi (inclusive education in Africa and perinatal clinical care), Dr. Laura Morrison (mobile makerspace learning), Dr. Steven Livingstone (emotion recognition bias), Dr. Isabel Pedersen (augmented humans and AI), Dr. Hui Zhu (payment models), and Dr. Logan Ewanation (forensic confirmation bias). Dr. Rinaldi received an Imagining Canada’s Future Ideas Lab grant, noted by the university as one of four awarded nationwide this year for projects in global health and wellness.
CIHR provided support for health-focused projects. Recipients include Dr. Winnie Sun (partnership approaches in dementia care), Dr. Adam Cole (vaping retailer proximity and gambling risk among secondary school students), and Dr. Ginny Brunton (birth outcomes research in Ontario).
Further details, including a full list of funded projects and applicant names, are available through Ontario Tech University’s official website and the public releases from NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR.