Discovery Grants support innovative research across Toronto Metropolitan University

Twenty-seven Toronto Metropolitan University researchers from across four faculties have received Discovery Grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to support projects examining topics such as building performance, medical imaging and quantum computing.  

Six of the successful applicants have also received additional, early career researcher support through NSERC’s Discovery Launch Supplement program. In total, these researchers have secured $4.65 million in funding over the next five years. 

“These grants enable the pioneering and diverse work being done across the university that drives significant research and student training opportunities to enhance Canada's natural sciences and engineering capacity,” said Steven N. Liss, TMU's vice-president, research and innovation. “Congratulations to all the members of our scholarly, research and creative community who secured this vital funding.”

The Discovery Grants were part of a recent announcement of an investment of more than $506 million by NSERC in research programs across the country (external link, opens in new window) . 

List of 2022 NSERC Discovery Grant recipients from Toronto Metropolitan University

Faculty of Arts

• Alexandra Fiocco: Listen and Relax: Evaluating the impact of acoustic listening on biomarkers of stress as a function of stressor type and timing

Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science

• Alagan Anpalagan: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) Empowered Future Wireless Networks 
• Anton de Ruiter: Autonomous On-Orbit Inspection, Servicing and Assembly
• Elsayed Elbeshbishy: Innovative approaches for volatile fatty acids recovery from wastes
• Ahmed El-Rabbany: Autonomous multi-sensor integration for seamless indoor/outdoor navigation and mobile sensing 
• John Enright: Advanced Optical Sensing for Aerospace Guidance, Navigation and Control
• Rasha Kashef: Towards Robust and Trustworthy Recommendation Systems
• Reza Kianoush: Towards a Rational Design Procedure for Concrete Liquid Containing Structures
• Mohamed Lachemi: 3D-AM Thermally Smart Composites for Highly Sustainable and Energy Efficient Building Design and Retrofitting 
• Guangjun Liu: Develop Intelligent Robot Systems for Efficient and Safe Robotic Manipulations in Unstructured Human and Space Environments
• Helen Stopps: Regional building stock performance: Identifying barriers to the design, construction, and operation of high-performing buildings
• Stephen Waldman: Metabolic control of cartilage growth and chondrogenesis
• Xianxun (Arnold) Yuan: Towards Robust Long-Term Infrastructure Asset Management Under Deep Uncertainty

Faculty of Science

• Catherine Beauchemin: Stochastic, discrete modelling of in vitro and in vivo virus infections
• Peter Danziger: Structure in Designs, Coverings and Decompositions
• Daniel Foucher: Tuneable, Protected and Processable Polystannanes from a Pincer Platform
• Konstantinos Georgiou: Combinatorial Search-Type Problems for Mobile Agents
• Michael Kolios: Fundamental studies and novel approaches enabling the generation and characterization of ultrasound and photoacoustic contrast to probe the structure and function of cells, biomaterials and biological systems
• Elodie Lugez: Algorithms for Motion-Tracking Using Magnetic Resonance Images
• Andriy Miranskyy: Improving Quality of Large-scale Software: Cloud-based and Quantum-computing-based Solutions 
• Pawel Pralat: Modelling and Mining Complex Networks
• Darius Rackus: Microfluidic platforms for measuring chemical phenotypes
• Jahangir (Jahan) Tavakkoli: Novel Nonlinear Ultrasound Methods in Thermometry and Imaging
• Isaac Woungang: Machine Learning-Aided Solutions for Efficient Planning, Design, Operation and Adaptation of Beyond 5G Wireless Networks
• Na Yu: Emergence dynamics under unequal coupling and asymmetric noise

Ted Rogers School of Management

• Amira Ghenai: The Effect of Online Harmful Content on People’s Attitudes 
• Zeinab Noorian: Early detection of information campaign in social systems

Related links: 

Ryerson researchers secure NSERC Discovery Grants (June 2021) 

NSERC Discovery Grants awarded to 52 Ryerson researchers (June 2020)