Contacts
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Ewa Niechwiej-Szwedo
Director, Visuomotor Development and Learning Lab
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Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Childre, I joined the Department of Kinesiology & Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. My research program is grounded in systems neuroscience and focuses on discovering the fundamental mechanisms involved in the central nervous system control of eye and hand movements across the lifespan. My expertise falls in the area of visuomotor neuroscience, including gaze behaviour, hand-eye coordination, motor skill development and skill learning.
Sanduni Costa
PhD Candidate
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Sanduni Costa received a B.Sc. in Biomedical Sciences and M.Sc. in Public Health and Health Systems at the University of Waterloo. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate, and her research primarily focuses on investigating the changes in eye-hand coordination during motor sequence learning. This work will provide new insights into the role of binocular vision in motor learning in healthy adults, as well as individuals with amblyopia.
Claudia Martin Calderon
PhD Candidate (Aeronautics)
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Claudia is a PhD student in the Collaborative Aeronautics Program (CAP) at the University of Waterloo. Her research explores how gaze behavior evolves during early pilot training. She aims to identify objective measures of skill proficiency by applying eye-tracking technology within the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics flight simulator.
Claudia is also pursuing a Master of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MBET), gaining hands-on experience with local startups and exploring the commercialization potential of her research, bridging academia and industry innovation.
Samantha Bjelis
Graduate student
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Sam Bjelis completed a Bachelors in Kinesiology degree at the University of Waterloo. She is pursuing a Master's degree, specializing in Neuroscience. Her project is focused on investigating eye movement patterns associated with anxiety and stress. This research will establish whether eye movements could provide objective markers of an individual's mental state. Such information could be useful to augment clinical diagnosis of anxiety.
Shirley Wang
Graduate student
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Shirley Wang completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo and is pursuing a Master of Science in Kinesiology, specializing in neuroscience. Her thesis focuses on the effects of early visual deprivation on visuomotor control. To investigate this, she’s utilizing a Fitts' task to examine the relationship between eye and hand coordination and the speed-accuracy trade-off across various target sizes. This research will contribute to a deeper understanding of how sensory experiences shape the development of motor functions, with potential implications for rehabilitation and therapy.
Caitlyn Fan
Undergraduate student
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Caitlyn Fan is an undergraduate Kinesiology student completing her senior thesis (KIN 431/432). Her research focuses on visuomotor integration during copying tasks, with a particular emphasis on examining the role of eye movements in visually guided motor performance.
Ankita Sharma
Undergraduate student
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Ankita Sharma is completing her final year of Kinesiology (B.Sc.) at the University of Waterloo. She is enroled in an undergraduate research project (KIN 432). Her research focuses on investigating a tablet-based assessment to evaluate visuomotor control. This tool tests motor capacity, sensorimotor integration, and predictive control through interactive tasks such as navigating through ‘whack-a-mole’ figures, path tracing, and following a moving yellow dot, providing accessible and precise evaluations for analysis. Validating this tool in a lab is the first step towards implementing this tool in clinical assessments.