CEPS Researchers Awarded over $2 Million from NSERC

Researchers within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS) have received $2.285 million in multi-year funding from the Discovery Grants program, through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), to fund 13 new research projects over five years spanning Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics and Statistics. These grants focus on long-term research programs and promoting research excellence in sciences and engineering.

“We are thrilled to receive such substantial investment from the federal government to fund the CEPS research,” says Dr. Richard Zytner, interim dean, CEPS. “Among our college’s newly awarded include two of our early career researchers, demonstrating the excellent research strength among our faculty.”

Engineering professors Dr. Sheng Yang and Dr. Fattane Zarrinkalam both receive additional funding for their first year through the Discovery Launch Supplement. The Discovery Launch Supplement provides added resources to early career researchers to help them establish their Discovery Grant funded research program. Zarrikalam will investigate semantics-aware post-hoc explainability on social recommender systems. Yang will explore design methods and tools for mass personalization of smart wearable products.

The remaining 11 grants awarded to CEPS faculty cover research themes that include immunotherapeutics, nanomaterials and nanocomposites, mathematical modeling, wastewater treatment and climate research, among others:

Dr. France-Isabelle Auzanneau, Department of Chemistry: Chemical synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates towards novel immunotherapeutics.

Dr. Aicheng Chen, Department of Chemistry: Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical studies of functional nanomaterials and nanocomposites.

Dr. Jacek Lipkowski, Department of Chemistry: Surface spectroscopy and microscopy studies of functional molecular films at electrified interfaces.

Dr. David Flatla, School of Computer Science: Understanding, Modeling, and Overcoming 'Blind Spots'.

Dr. Bassim Abbassi, School of Engineering: Development of Ozone-Based Electrochemical Reactors for Treatment of Wastewater.

Dr. Fattane Zarrinkalam, School of Engineering: Semantics-aware Post-hoc Explainability on Social Recommender Systems.

Dr. Emily Chiang, Engineering: Engineering toolboxes to verify the fate mechanism and permanence of drawndown carbon.

Dr. Marwan Hassan, School of Engineering: Flow-Induced Vibrations of Tube Bundles.

Dr. Jana Levison, School of Engineering: Towards resilient rural groundwater systems in a climate emergency.

Dr. Sheng Yang, School of Engineering: Design methods and tools for mass personalization of smart wearable products.

Dr. Peter Kim, Department of Mathematics and Statistics: Exponential Models on Manifolds.

Dr. Rajesh Pereira, Department of Mathematics and Statistics: Functional Analytic Methods in Matrix Theory, Majorization and Quantum Information.

For a full list of recipients, visit NSERC’s website.