News

Zhou Wang, CBB member and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of Waterloo, has won an Engineering Emmy® Award for developing computational models that accurately and consistently predict how people view image and video quality.

The Engineering Emmy recognizes the team for its creation of Structural Similarity (SSIM), a mathematical formula and computer algorithm that is now widely used throughout the television industry.

The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) hosted the largest annual gathering of synthetic biologists this past weekend as thousands of university and high school students from around the world traveled to Boston to compete in the iGEM 2015 Giant Jamboree at the end of September.

CBB member, Zhou Wang and electrical and computer engineering professor is one of the new cohort of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. The 48 new members, who were nominated by 51 Canadian universities and the National Research Council, represent the emerging generation of scholarly, scientific and artistic leadership in Canada.

Congratulations to CBB members Drs. N. Chandrashekar, S. Acker, A. Laing, N. Jiang, J. Kofman, L. Giangregorio, and K. Grindrod in being awarded seed grant funding from the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact for the Chronic Disease Prevention Initiative (CDPI) competition for Spring 2015.

Kelly Grindrod and Catherine Burns were successful in the latest round of Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) grants from CIHR, receiving $121,000 for their proposal: “Playing Telephone: Medication reconciliation by pharmacists, physicians, and nurse practitioners”. 

Pu Chen, a chemical engineering professor, has been elected as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, recognized for his outstanding abilities.

The Ontario government awarded a prestigious Early Researcher Award (ERA) to the following CBB researchers and projects:

John McPhee heads the new $10 million Green and Intelligent Automotive (GAIA) research facility in the Faculty of Engineering with $1 million initial funding from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC). The Governments of Canada and Ontario are also providing $2.1 million each through the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund Research Infrastructure program.

Zoya Leonenko chair of the conference organizing committee, the Faculty of Science, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB) planned the three-day conference June 17-19 that brought industry and researchers together for the first Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society of Canada.

[Waterloo News]

CBB member Helen Chen and team wins Infoway Innovation Award at e-Health 2015. The winning idea aims to increase access to cardiac rehab and was recognized for its Tele-Cardiac Rehab idea, which would provide patients with tools to help them manage cardiac rehab remotely and on their own time. Tele-Cardiac Rehab would eliminate common barriers that hinder compliance with cardiac rehab including travel time and work demands.