Post Doctoral Fellows

• Dr. Zahra Samadikhoshkho joined our group from July 2021 to September 2022 to continue her work on aerial manipulation, with an emphasis on dynamics of interactions for inspection and other contact tasks. She is now a Research Associate working on design and control of compliant mechanisms for satellite payloads and continuum robot applications.
• Dr. Andrew Chan worked on integrated diagnostics for the elderly using combinations of wearable technologies as well as non-intrusive camera systems. Other supervisors in Rehab Medicine are Prof Adriana Rios Rincon and Prof G. Gregson. He is now a Rehabilitation Research Engineer at the Glenrose and we continue to work on the project.

Ph.D.

• Uduak Akpan is investigating quality issues in regulatory processes for small modular nuclear reactors (co-supervised with Prof. Stan Karapetrovic).
• Trevor Harrington is developing advanced approaches to risk-based engineering project management practices. Trevor is a project manager with Graham.
• Hala Khalaf is developing a hybrid digital twin model  for performance and diagnostic modeling, with an application focus on diagnostics of underground electrical power cables.
• Gloria Leung is investigating how to optimize complex technology solutions by exploring factors that influence the integration, adoption, and ultimate success of those solutions involving process, technology, people, and organizations. Research avenues in systems engineering include the application of human factors engineering in the physical world to the human-computer interactions in the online world. Gloria is with AltaML.
• Tessa Ryan is investigating damage modes and reliability assessment methods for electrical power conductors that cannot be readily physically inspected, and modelling risk functions related to equipment observability for risk-based maintenance planning. Tessa works for Jersey Power.
• Jorge Villacres is characterizing an advanced method of amphibious propulsion and traction control between locomotion regimes for environmental monitoring in tailings and other applications.
• Montage Yeganejou is developing anomaly detection methods for fault detection in large, under-observed networks, with applications to underground power cable networks (co-supervised with Prof. Scott Dick).

M.Sc

• • • Odessa Bauer is developing a novel tomographic inspection method for turbo machinery (co-supervised with Prof. Steven Knudsen).
    • Sharyat Bhanwala is examining how new mechatronics systems can be designed to comply with regulatory requirements, with a focus on uncrewed aerial systems for novel applications beyond current Transport Canada approved use, particularly inspection requiring machine-vision-based perception.
    • Lucca Carrasco Filippo is conducting research into quantitative risk modeling, with applications to how safety culture evolves in regulated research environments (co-supervised with Prof. Lianne Lefsrud).
    • Manmeet Brar is investigating how to automate diagnostics using terrestrial robots, and application of techno-econometrics of novel methods of automated reclamation using robotic planting. Manmeet joined MDA in May 2022 and is now a manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing engineer for Canadarm3.
    • Shayan Meschian is modelling the dynamics of rotorcraft UAVs for experimental studies on aerial manipulation for control of tasks that involve interaction with the environment and manipulation of objects.
    • Steven Phan is developing wearable-sensor-based methods for detecting anomalous behaviour during manipulation, with applications to robotic manipulators and seniors aging in place.
    • Karim Valji is modeling how wind turbine systems can be controlled to optimize an objective function that comprises both economic and environmental variables.
    • Madison Warawa is developing lean methods for mechatronic product development.

  Undergraduate

  • • • In Summer 2024, Basia Ofovwe will develop a test apparatus for characterizing the mechanical performance of a novel compliant hinge for aerospace deployables.
      • In Summer 2024, Abhay Agnihotri is designing and constructing an environmental package for field deployment of a LIBS soil characterization system (co-supervised with Prof Amina Hussein).
      • In Summer 2023, Ben Harbarenko and Connor McNeill developed designs for cubesat structures and payloads for Ex-Alta 3. In Winter 2024, Ben and Brandon Martens worked on compliant mechanism designs  with Dean’s Research Awards. Ben continues to work on mechanical systems design for the Ex-Alta 3 cubesat (co-supervised with Prof Carlos Lange).

  Research Associates

  Elliot Saive is developing a field demonstration prototype of the vegetation sampling drone, with the intent to publish the design and control code as open-source. This work is partially supported by Dr Janice Cooke.

• Justin van Engelen is developing a boom deployment hinge for the magnetometers on the RADICALS space weather satellite (primary supervisor Dr. David Milling).