Meet our Graduate Students

MEET OUR SYDE FACULTY AND GRADUATE STUDENTS

What have our students accomplished?

Ellie Sanoubari (PhD)

Ellie Sanoubari

Ellie Sanoubari

Ellie completed her undergraduate program in Computer Hardware Engineering in Manitoba and during that time, she was also interested in autonomous vehicles and robots.

For her PhD research, Ellie is building a serious game called RE-Mind (Robots Empowering Minds) that uses techniques from applied drama to teach children how to stand up to the bullying of their peers.

The basics of the game include a child seeing three robots role-playing with one another. Two of them will engage in a conflict, and the child will control the third robot and witness the different scenarios that unfold based on their intervention.

Ellie mentioned that psychology literature suggests that peer intervention is a promising way to combat school bullying. Unfortunately, many students don’t engage in such a scenario for various reasons, one being that they lack the skills to step in. Thus, by using RE-Mind, the child will be removed from the reality of the situation and can openly explore options to stop the bullying.

RE-Mind is inspired by a theatrical technique called Forum Theatre by Augusto Boal that aims to combat social injustice. Ellie and her team applied this idea to modern day social robots and games to develop an engaging and playful educational tool for children.

“I think there's a lot of value in making something small that solves a problem in someone's life, no matter how minor it is. If someone tries RE-Mind out and later when the time is right, they remember something that they did with the robots and that inspires the positive action they take, I’d be very happy with that being the outcome of my research.”

Ryan Tennant (PhD)

Ryan Tennant

Ryan Tennant

Growing up in Kitchener, Ryan knew he wanted to attend a university close to home. During his undergrad at Waterloo, Ryan had the opportunity to worked with Dr. Catherine Burns and Dr. Kate Merceron his fourth-year capstone design project alongside his peers, which eventually extended into his master’s thesis. Later on, when he contemplated pursuing a PhD, his supervisors gave him the reassurance he needed to continue his learning.

Ryan is studying human factors engineering, specifically its application in healthcare and medicine in the context of the rise in machine learning and data-driven systems that may be the future of supporting clinical reasoning and decision-making.

Human factors engineering is the integration of knowledge about human capabilities, limitations, and characteristics into design. The overarching objective is to improve human performance in complex systems, thereby protecting the safety and wellbeing of the community, and minimizing the risks of major accidents or adverse events.

Ryan is specifically looking at paediatric sepsis, which is especially challenging to predict compared to sepsis in adults. There are severe long-term effects that can occur if sepsis is not identified early enough and the correct treatments are not given in a timely manner. This challenge poses a significant opportunity to use data to support sepsis recognition.

“If you are thinking about graduate school, seek out opportunities to engage deeper in the subjects that you are interested in while you are still in undergrad.  Whether that is through co-op, research assistantships, or even talking to a graduate student or faculty member who is working in the area you are interested in. If you take the step towards putting your foot in the door, you may find yourself stumbling into the perfect opportunity!”

Ben Ecclestone (PhD)

Ben Ecclestone

Ben Ecclestone

Ben completed his undergrad at the University of Guelph in Biomedical Engineering, and while completing his degree, he did a co-op work placement at Waterloo in the lab that he is currently working at. While working there, Ben grew fond of the research environment and the support that Waterloo gave to their students.

His current research topic is related to optical microscopy, where he and his lab group are designing a device that can image the light that is absorbed instead of the light that is reflected. He describes it as being able to see everything but the red in an apple. He wishes to apply this idea to view the structure of cells and tissues, and what they’re composed of.

Essentially, the technology they are testing will allow a doctor to perform surgery in a single trial, rather than waiting weeks for the cancer diagnosis results, and then bringing the patient back for another surgery. Being such an interdisciplinary project, Ben expressed how fortunate he is to be able to collaborate with experts within different fields, which he believes is unique to Waterloo.

“Doing things that have never been done before and the excitement of designing something that ends up working, that is just an unparalleled experience.... In the cancer imaging space, to get the information which we can capture instantaneously, it's a two-to-three-week process. So, we're taking something which is weeks down to minutes...We have a real opportunity to make a positive impact in the world if we can get this to work - there's a lot of people whose lives would be better with this in existence.”