Concordia’s Gina Cody School awards 11 professors Research and Innovation Fellowships

The selected projects will open the door to new industry partnerships

March 16, 2023

By Ursula Leonowicz

Eleven Concordia researchers will have the chance to pursue their collaborative projects thanks to the new Gina Cody Research and Innovation Fellowships. The topics they’ll cover range from using artificial intelligence (AI) in historical tourism to developing lenses to treat glaucoma patients.

In its inaugural year, the fellowships allow recipients at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science to pursue their research — and they go beyond just offering financial aid. The fellowships provide an opportunity for recipients to develop meaningful partnerships with well-suited fitting companies outside the walls of the university.

The projects were selected based on their scope, quality, collaborative nature, anticipated outcome and potential impact.

Seven of the eleven Concordia researchers who received fellowhips (clockwise from top left): Zhibin Ye, Ahmed Soliman, Tse-Hsun Chen, Majumdar Suryadipta, Wei-Ping Zhu, Yan Liu and Yang Wang.

“The Gina Cody School Research and Innovation Fellowships aim to recognize professors who are performing highly innovative research that can strengthen our external partnerships,” says Emad Shihab, the Gina Cody School’s associate dean of research and innovation.

“They also highlight our commitment to bringing novel research to market as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

The fellows will each receive $40,000 delivered in two phases. Phase one, which covers the first year of the fellowship, provides financial support for submissions to external research grant funding programs.

In year and phase two, subsequent funding supports the projects during their initial funding phase.

The following four projects are examples of the innovative and creative research being supported by the new fellowships:

Smiling man with short, dark hair, combed back and a beard

Muthukumaran Packirisamy

A new approach to 3D printing

Muthukumaran Packirisamy’s project has already gained notable media attention. His research on direct sound printing was named one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of 2022 by Québec Science, receiving coverage from news outlets like CBC and Education News Canada.

The professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering has advanced 3D printing technology by using sound waves, which can have applications in industries ranging from aerospace and maintenance to microfluidics. More importantly, it introduces the possibility of implementing non-invasive printing deep inside the body without the need for invasive surgery.

Farnoosh Naderkhani | Photo by David Ward

Improving industrial operations using AI

Farnoosh Naderkhani’s project centres on expanding the use of industrial AI and industrial internet of things. The assistant professor at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) aims to develop a novel pipeline to identify faults from sensor data for auto-diagnostics of failed components.

She also hopes to predict the remaining useful life of components to improve prognostic and health management of industrial assets.

Smiling man with very close cropped hair and glasses, wearing a dark, checkered shirt.

Nizar Bouguila | Photo by David Ward

Helping tourists explore new places

Nizar Bouguila, professor at the CIISE, seeks to develop personalized conversational agents to serve as historical virtual assistance for tourists. These agents are designed to conduct natural dialogue interactions with humans using text, speech, visual content and gestures to guide users on their journeys.

Using AI, Bouguila will research conversational agents that impersonate historical characters to engage in meaningful conversations with users. This will offer a higher degree of interactivity compared to traditional tourism tools like guidebooks, printed flyers and maps.

Mojtaba Kheiri | Photo by David Ward

Technology for better heart health

Mojtaba Kheiri, assistant professor of mechanical, industrial and aerospace engineering, is researching the development of a safer, more accurate and more versatile catheter-based technology to be used in cardiac surgery.

He aims to examine the modelling and robot-assisted control of surgical soft robots used during ablation procedures on patients suffering from atrial fibrillation.

The technology is minimally invasive and would cost significantly less than the current sensor-embedded ablation catheters.

The full list of winners

Muthukumaran Packirisamy, Professor, Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering
Zhibin Ye, Professor, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Ahmed Soliman, Associate Professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering
Yang Wang, Associate Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering
Wei-Ping, Zhu, Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Tse-Hsun (Peter), Chen, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering
Suryadipta Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Nizar Bouguila, Professor, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering
Mojtaba Kheiri, Assistant Professor, Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering
Yan, Liu, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Farnoosh Naderkhani, Assistant Professor, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering

Find out more about the winners of the Gina Cody Research and Innovation Fellowships at Concordia.

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