The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is set to invest over $64 million in research infrastructure funding towards universities across the country to spark discoveries that will drive our world forward.

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, announced this contribution through the John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) to help institutions competitively recruit and retain outstanding researchers by helping acquire the state-of-the-art labs, equipment and facilities they need to make discoveries that will have an impact on Canadians. The idea is to promote advances in a broad range of interdisciplinary realms, from Indigenous knowledge and climate change to cancer research and energy-saavy AI, whilst also creating careers and thriving economic systems.

“Canada is world-renowned for our state-of-the-art institutions and talented researchers. Through this Fund, our government is strengthening our leadership and competitive advantage by supporting Canadians to pursue discoveries, overcome challenges and innovate to make a more prosperous, equitable and sustainable future for all.” — The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne | Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry

Two SBME-based projects have been selected for this JELF funding, led by Assistant Professors Dr. Calvin Kuo and Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu.

Calvin Kuo
Dr. Calvin Kuo. Man standing in front of a blurred office background. He has longer dark hair that seems to be tied at the back. He is wearing dark framed glasses, a white button down shirt and a grey 3/4 zip sweater.

Assistant Professor | SBME

Dr. Calvin Kuo has been the helm of the Human Motion Biomechanics Laboratory (HuMBL) since joining SBME in 2020.

Calvin and his team are broadly interested in sensing human motion and understanding how humans make sense of their own motion through a combination of wearable technologies and stochastic modeling approaches.

HuMBL focuses on 5 core research areas:

  1. Sensorimotor Neutrophysiology
  2. Clinical Applications
  3. Wearable Sensing
  4. Musculoskeletal Modeling
  5. Resources

JELF-funded project: Wearable Systems to Characterize Sensorimotor Response to Impulsive Loads

Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu
Headshot of smiling man with short dark hair standing in front of plain white background. He is wearing a light grey button down shirt and has his arms crossed.

Assistant Professor | SBME and Radiology

Dr. Ilker Hacihaliloglu’s research is aimed at developing innovative machine learning methods for processing various medical image data. A core mission of his research is to drive innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) towards industrial and clinical services and products.

With a long-standing track record of working collaboratively with clinicians, Ilker’s research aims to diminish the gap between exploratory engineering research and clinical research and bring technologies from bench-to-bed-side.

JELF-funded project: Infrastructure for AI-integrated Point of Care Ultrasound Imaging for Decentralized Healthcare

Join us in congratulating Drs. Kuo and Hacihaliloglu on this landmark funding.