Researcher Biographies

Dr. Hossein Rouhani is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta, specializing in musculoskeletal biomechanics; wearable systems for daily health monitoring, postural balance and risk of falling assessment, gait and movement disorder measurement, neuroprosthesis design, biomedical instrumentation design and biomedical data processing.

Dr. Dan Sameoto is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta and the CTO of ZiprPrint Inc.  He is an interdisciplinary researcher with degrees in mechanical engineering from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in Engineering Science from Simon Fraser University and his research program combines elements of mechanical, electrical and materials engineering in one lab.

Dr. Sameoto’s primary expertise is invention, making significant contributions in fields ranging from MEMS, microfabrication and microfluidics, to multi-material 3D printing, soft robotics, cube satellites and biomimetic smart materials.  

His current research areas include intelligent materials, with shape and stiffness switching in response to external stimuli, soft robotic technology for wearables, and stretchable electronics for cybernetic nervous system integration.  In addition to his work with the SMART Network, Dr. Sameoto is also working on 3D printing with recycled waste materials, new deployable systems for cube satellite instruments, and next generation waste water membrane filtration systems.

Dr. Lingzi Sang obtained her B.S. from Xiamen University and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Arizona. Prior to joining the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alberta, Dr. Sang conducted her postdoc research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Sang is an emerging independent investigator who seeks to advance materials and devices that convert and store energy harvested from sustainable resources. Dr. Sang’s research directly benefits Canada by discovering technologies that aid in the transition from a fossil fuel-based economy to a sustainable economy. Starting as an independent principal investigator at the U of A in September 2018, Dr. Sang is developing analytical tools that directly measure the molecular processes occurring at the interfaces of the electrochemical devices in operation.

 Dr. Shehata is an adjunct professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering. He joined the BLINC Lab in 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow and in 2021 continued his work with the lab as a research associate. In 2015, he pursued his doctoral studies at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Canada where he acquired his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2018.

His research interests include self-driving cars, smart biomedical devices, wearable technologies, health monitoring and personalized medicine, assistive robotics, automatic control methods, computational motor control for human-machine interfaces, and control and sensory feedback systems for prosthetic devices.

Dr. Shehata is a registered Member of the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS).

He enjoys long walks, playing soccer and table tennis, reading, and building autonomous aerial vehicles in his spare time.

Dr. Richard Sutton is a distinguished research scientist at DeepMind in Edmonton and a professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He has worked  half of his career in corporate research labs, including AT&T Labs and GTE Labs. His research interests center on the learning problems facing a decision-maker interacting with its environment, which he sees as central to intelligence. 

Dr. Sutton is a founder of the research startup Noggin AI.

Dr. Richard Thompson focuses on the development and translation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the clinical evaluation of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal disease and the understanding of disease mechanisms.

Dr. Kathryn Todd is Vice President, Provincial Clinical Excellence at Alberta Health Services (AHS). She is responsible for providing provincial leadership of the Strategic Clinical Networks TM, Health Innovation and Evidence, Data and Analytics and the provincial programs and services of Continuing Care and Senior's Health, Addictions and Mental Health, Indigenous Health, Population and Public Health and Enhancing Care in Community.

Dr. Todd is an active researcher at the University of Alberta, where she continues to investigate the central nervous system response to disease and injury with a focus on inflammation.

Dr. Amirali Toossi is the Director of Biomedical Engineering at Myant in Toronto and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta.

With over 10 years of R&D experience in industry and academia, focused on developing implantable and wearable medical devices, he is currently leading a team at Myant developing novel bidirectional smart textile interfaces with the human body and garments-as-medical-devices.

As a Vanier Scholar, Dr. Toossi's PhD research focused on the development of implantable neuroprostheses aimed at restoring standing and walking after paralysis.

Dr. Toossi's research interests include neural engineering, rehabilitation engineering, implantable and wearable medical devices, continuous multimodal remote health monitoring, and smart textile sensors and actuators.

Dr. Ross Tsuyuki is a Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), and Director, EPICORE Centre in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta. His interests include improving the care of patients with heart failure and hypertension, prevention of cardiovascular disease, pharmacy practice research, provision of support for other researchers and training the next generation of health researchers.

Dr. Richard Uwiera is a Professor within the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, a fully licensed veterinarian, and the University of Alberta (U of A) Veterinary Pathologist. He is also a Faculty member of Agricultural, Life and Nutritional Sciences with part-time secondment to the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.  

His research is focused on enhanced intestinal health and performance in livestock and understanding the pathophysiology of intestinal disease. Within the context of the SMART Network and in collaboration with Dr. Vivian Mushahwar, he explores the application of animal models to further scientific discovery. This includes the development of small and large animal surgical models and unique anesthetic and treatment protocols to investigate spinal cord and extra-spinal cord injury.  

Dr. Albert Vette is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta ( U of A), and a Research Scientist at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton. He also is a member of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI) and an affiliate within the Department of Biomedical Engineering, which are both at the (U of A).

Dr. Vette and Dr. Rouhani are the co-directors of the Neuromuscular Control & Biomechanics Laboratory Their goal is to enhance the quality of life of aging individuals and those affected by movement impairments.

Dr. Vette's current research activities include the identification of active and passive mechanisms involved in human postural control, characterizing the role of sensory noise in sensorimotor speed of processing, establishing quantitative techniques for effective evaluation of rehabilitation outcomes and developing advanced assistive technologies for postural control using functional electrical stimulation.

Dr. Lauren Welte is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She completed her BASc and PhD at Queen’s University where she used high-speed x-ray imaging to understand dynamic movement of the foot joints.  She then completed a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she developed new imaging techniques for assessing ligament and tendon loading. Her research broadly aims to quantify how soft tissue loading in the foot and ankle affects locomotor function.

Dr. Welte has expertise in various imaging modalities, including high-speed biplanar videoradiography, ultrasound, and computed tomography (CT).  Ultimately, by using advanced imaging to quantify healthy foot and ankle function, she aims to inform the rehabilitation of foot pathologies and the design of footwear and orthotic devices. 

Dr. Lindsey Westover is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She leads a multidisciplinary research group integrating experimental, analytical, and computational techniques across a broad spectrum of biomedical engineering applications. 

Dr. Westover’s research focuses in three main areas: (1) non-invasive evaluation of implant stability in osseointegrated implants, (2) tissue mechanics and musculoskeletal biomechanics, and (3) shape and geometry analysis in orthopaedic biomechanics.

Dr. Cynthia Wu is an Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology at the University of Alberta (U of A) Hospital. She completed her Medical School and Internal Medicine Residency at the U of A and then both a Hematology and a subsequent Thrombosis Fellowship at McMaster University. She returned to the UofA  in 2010 and has been part of the faculty since. 

Dr. Wu has a special interest in Venous Thromboembolism and has been the Local Principal Investigator for various multicenter clinical trials in Thrombosis.  She has also supervised multiple clinical and graduate student projects. She has been part of over 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts.  Dr. Wu is the Director of the Cancer Associated Thrombosis Clinic run out of the Kaye Edmonton Clinic as well as the Director of the Thrombosis Rotation for clinical trainees.

Dr. Roger Zemp is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an Adjunct professor of Biomedical Engineering. After obtaining his BSc in Physics from the University of Alberta in 1998, he went on to earn his MASc in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto in 2000. He earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of California, Davis in 2004 then joined the lab of Prof. Lihong Wang at Texas A&M University where he spent two years before moving with that lab to Washington University in St. Louis in 2006. He joined the faculty at the UofA in 2007. 

His research interests include biomedical ultrasonics, biomedical optics, micro- and nano-fabrication, image and signal processing and deep learning. 

Dr. Lexuan Zhong is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta. She is the director and founder of the Built Environment Technology Lab (BETLab). Her speciality areas include air cleaning and odor control, indoor air science, resilience and indoor environmental quality, the design of advanced HVAC systems and green buildings, smart sensors and controls, and health exposure assessment.

Dr. David Zygun is the Past Chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine and is currently seconded to Alberta Health Services in the role of Edmonton Zone Medical Director.

He trained at the University of Toronto (Internal Medicine) and University of Calgary (Critical Care Medicine, MSc Clinical Epidemiology) prior to completing a neurocritical care medicine fellowship at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge England.

Dr. Zygun has been funded by CIHR and Alberta Innovates: Health Solutions. Dr Zygun's main research interests have focused on the clinical, epidemiological and translational issues relating to neurocritical care, particularly traumatic central nervous system injury and infection. His focus now involves health services research as he completes his Masters of Health Economics, Policy and Management.

He has published 114 peer reviewed scientific articles. He is recognized nationally as a leader in neuro-critical care.