Engineering in Medicine and Biology

Friday May 24th, 2019 at 12:15 p.m. Prof. Zahra Moussavi, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Program at University of Manitoba and Canada Research Chair, will be presenting “Assessment of Egocentric Spatial Orientation using Virtual Reality for Diagnosis and Monitoring Alzheimer’s Disease”. Day & Time: Friday May 24th, 2019 12:15 p.m. ‐ 1:15 p.m. Speaker: Zahra Moussavi Director of the Biomedical Engineering Program Professor & Canada Research Chair Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Manitoba Organizers: IEEE Toronto WIE, IEEE Toronto, IEEE Toronto Engineering in Medicine and Biology Chapter, UHN Location: TRI-UC, Basement Lecture Theatre 550 University Ave., Toronto, M5G 2A2 GoToMeeting: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/543203653 Contact: Dr. Maryam Davoudpour Abstract: Memory and cognitive declines are associated with normal brain aging but are also precursors to dementia, in particular the so called the pandemic of the century, Alzheimer’s disease. While currently there is no cure or “vaccine” against dementia, based on brain’s plasticity, there are hopes to delay the onset or to slow the progression of disease. Alzheimer’s disease is multi-facet condition; thus, the key to its management is in multi- disciplinary approaches. The clinical diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders, in general, is based on an extensive evaluation of cognition and behavioral performance along with functional status, which provides a variable grade of accuracy especially at early stages of the disease. In this talk, I will review diagnostic objective methods that can assist Alzheimer’s diagnosis. In particular, I will elaborate on the application and research outcomes of virtual reality egocentric spatial assessment for and its potentials for a differential diagnosis of Alzheimer’s versus other types of dementia. Biography: Zahra Moussavi is a professor, a Canada Research Chair, and the founder and director of Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program at University of Manitoba. Her current research focuses are on medical devices instrumentation and signal analysis for sleep apnea management and Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment using virtual reality, rTMS and EVestG technologies. She is the recipient of several awards including the “Canada’s Most Powerful Women (Top 100)” and “Manitoba Distinguished Women” in 2014 and IEEE EMBS Distinguished Lecturer, 2014 and 2019. She has published more than 259 peer-reviewed papers in journals and conferences, and has given 94 invited talks/seminars including 2 Tedx Talks and 9 keynote speaker seminars at national and international conferences. Aside from academic work, on her spare time, she writes science articles for public; also has developed and offered memory fitness programs for aging population. Poster Link: Click here

Thursday February 28th, 2019 at 12:15 p.m. Prof. Shahram (Sean) Yousefi, Ph.D., P.Eng, Co-founder, President, and CEO of MESH Scheduling Inc will be presenting “Harmony: beyond win-win for an ailing healthcare system”. Day & Time: Thursday February 28th, 2019 12:15 p.m. ‐ 1:15 p.m. Speaker: Prof. Shahram (Sean) Yousefi, Ph.D., P.Eng Professor and Associate Dean, Corporate Relations, Queen’s University Co-founder, President, and CEO MESH Scheduling Inc Organizers: IEEE Toronto EMBS, and IEEE WIE Location: TRI-UC, Basement Lecture theatre 550 University Ave., Toronto, M5G 2A2 Contact: fboskovic@ridoutmaybee.com Abstract: Does Canada have a better healthcare system or the US? In this talk, we speak about some of the known as well as hidden issues in healthcare and workforce and provide some surprising comparative arguments. Humans, machines, and algorithms must learn important lessons and everything should come together from policy and strategy to processes and tools to save us! MESHAI.io has focused on helping reduce the largest component in healthcare cost by listening to the frontline providers and making sure they are well taken care of. Join us to hear about our point of view in this regard and on “Socially Intelligent Staff Scheduling” in healthcare. How can we do better? Where can you help? Biography: Prof. Shahram Yousefi is a passionate problem-solver with a strong belief that people are our biggest assets in every team. He believes a balanced approach towards learning, growth, and harmony is key to create success for the individuals as well as organizations.Prof. Yousefihas held positions at Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, Ecole Polytechnique Fédéralde Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, Jilin University, China, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA, and department of electrical and computer engineering of Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, where he is currently a tenured full professor and Associate Dean, Corporate Relations. Shahram also serves as the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Canadian journal of electrical and computer engineering. Prof. Shahram’sresearch interests lie in communications, cloud systems, big data, networks, information theory, signal processing, control, optimization, and algorithms in which he holds a number of patents. He has co-founded CanarmonyCorp., MESH Scheduling Inc., and OPTT Inc. to apply algorithms to make life better and more harmonious in healthcare and workforce management. One of Shahram’spatents in the area of data storage has recently been licensed to a Queen’s University startup to revolutionize a $500b solid state/cloud storage industry. Prof. Yousefi is an advisor to a number of technology, healthcare, and education startups