Member

Fue-Sang Lien

Professor, Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering

Prof. Lien has 30 years of experience developing and systematically applying Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to a wide range of fluid mechanics and multi-physics problems, such as wind energy, urban flow and dispersion modeling, aerodynamics, aeroacoustics and aero-elasticity. His current research interests in wind energy include wind turbine wakes, wake-induced fatigue analysis, wind turbine pitch control, wind turbine noise prediction/reduction, micro-siting of a wind farm and AI-based wind power forecasting.

Kshirasagar (Sagar) Naik

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Sagar Naik’s research interests focus on: (i) monitoring of physical systems to ensure their safe operations using wireless sensor networks; (ii) monitoring of wireless devices in cyber-physical systems to detect their anomalous behavior; (iii) designing secure and efficient communication protocols for vehicular networks; (iv) designing energy harvesting sensor modules for sustainable communication in harsh communication environments; and (v) software testing and quality assurance. 

Yimin Wu

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering; Director, Materials Interfaces Foundry (MIF)

Yimin Wu is an assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology (WIN), Director of Materials Interfaces Foundry, at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Wu received his DPhil degree in Materials from the University of Oxford on 2D electronics in 2013. Then, he worked as a SinBeRise Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Jian Zhao

Assistant Professor, Cheriton School of Computer Science

Dr. Jian Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, where he directs the WatVis (Waterloo Visualization) research group. His research lies in the intersection of information visualization, human-computer interaction, and data science. He is dedicated to developing interactive visualizations that optimize the analytical workflow of solving complex real-world data problems. Dr. Zhao received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto. He is the recipient of many best paper or honorable mention paper awards at top-tier venues (e.g., IEEE VIS, ACM CHI, and MobileHCI). More information can be found on his website: www.jeffjianzhao.com.

Richard Kelly

Professor and Chair, Department of Geography & Environmental Management

Richard Kelly’s interests are in characterizing terrestrial cryospheric processes for advancing our understanding of climate change and water resource management. His research group focuses on the development and application of novel approaches to estimate and map snow accumulation and water storage on the Earth using satellite, airborne and ground-based microwave and visible-infrared remote sensing systems. 

Parsin Haji Reza

Assistant Professor, Systems Design Engineering (SYDE); Director, PhotoMedicine Labs (PML)

Dr. Parsin Haji Reza is an award-winning teacher, researcher, entrepreneur, published novelist, and inventor of photoacoustic remote sensing (PARS®) microscopy. His research explores designing and developing novel hardware and software methods for clinical and pre-clinical biomedical applications. These new technologies aim to provide clinicians and researchers with novel capabilities and information that is presently difficult to obtain with existing techniques. He invented and pioneered several new technologies/concepts including, Photoacoustic Remote Sensing (PARS®) microscopy, a novel absorption-based, non-contact, non-invasive, label-free imaging technique. He also is the co-founder of illumiSonics Inc., where he holds position of CTO and Chairman of the Board.

Nasser Lashgarian Azad

Associate Professor, Systems Design Engineering; Director, Automation and Intelligent Systems (ACE) Group

Dr. Azad’s primary research interests lie in: (i) intelligent controls and automation with applications to automotive systems as well as autonomous systems like automated vehicles and drones, and (ii) innovative applications of AI methods to solve complex modeling, optimization, control, and automation problems. He has over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals and received an Early Researcher Award in 2015 from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.

Javad Shafiee

Research Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering

Dr. Shafiee is an AI researcher; his research interest is mainly on machine learning models especially deep learning and graphical models with different applications in computer vision. He has extensive industrial research experience in leading many large-scale industrial and academic projects collaborating with companies like Microsoft and Intel. He has several best papers award on designing efficient, operational, and robust machine learning models.

Baris Fidan

Associate Professor, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Baris Fidan is a Professor in Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering, with cross appointment in System Design Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Clarence Woudsma

Associate Professor, School of Planning

My research program is primarily focused on issues related to freight transportation and logistics although I have a broad interest in transportation at all levels and geographies. I’m really intrigued by the flows of people and goods that underpin social and economic interactions and the complex impacts of those flows.