On February 7, 2017, 20 of Canada’s top researchers and engineers were honoured for their longstanding commitment to innovation at discovery during a ceremony at Rideau Hall with the Governor General, the Minister of Science and the President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Counil (NSERC).
On February 7, 2017, 20 of Canada’s top researchers and engineers were honoured for their longstanding commitment to innovation at discovery during a ceremony at Rideau Hall with the Governor General, the Minister of Science and the President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Counil (NSERC).
This year’s recipients included four engineers and an engineering graduate student. Guy Dumont, P.Eng., Maroun Massabki, ing., Marc-André Blais, ing., Patrick Orsini, ing. and Amir Abdi were recognized for their work.
Guy Dumont, P.Eng., of the University of British Columbia received the Synergy Award for Innovation in the Small and Medium-Sized Companies category.
Dumont and UBC partnered with Lionsgate Technologies to develop the Kenek 02, a small, easy-to-use diagnostic tool that connects to the audio part on your mobile device. Patients clip a sensor onto their finger and an app on the phone tests for signs of easily preventable diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis and pre-eclampsia. Currently, the sensor, a pulse oximeter, measures blood oxygen saturation and heart rate, but Dumont and Lionsgate Technologies have plans to improve their device to measure multiple vital signs including respiration, and—through the use of additional sensors—blood pressure and body temperature, greatly expanding the range of ailments it can diagnose.
Maroun Massabki, ing., along with Marc-André Blais, ing., Patrick Orsini, ing., Richard Lang and Erick Jarry of Cégep André-Laurendeau, won the Synergy Award for Innovation in the Colleges category.
Massabki led the Optech team at Cégep André-Laurendeau and partnered with Montréal-based Dental Wings to develop fast and precise new tools that help dentists and technicians gets their patients smiling. Since 2011, the partners have developed an intraoral scanner; optical metrology systems for a laser milling unit that cuts and crafts dental implants and prostethics with high-resolution detail; and a series of tabletop three-dimensional scanners that can scan impressions and design implants, crowns and bridges in under ten minutes.
Amir Abdi, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia, won the NSERC Gilles Brassard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.
Abdi is developing new ways to model and predict the outcomes of reconstructive jaw surgery. Using three-dimensional scanning, motion tracking, MRI and CT images, Abdi and his team examine the anatomy and movements involved in chewing and swallowing to create a personalized jaw model for patients to assess their treatment options and predict how well the reconstruction will function after surgery.
Congratulations to all of the 2017 honourees!
