ALUMNI SPEAKER SERIES “How engineers can advance Canada’s health care through technology”

Gosia Brestovacki (mbrestov) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:59:49 +0000

ALUMNI SPEAKER SERIES “How engineers can advance Canada’s health care through technology” Gosia Brestova… Thu, 08/22/2024 - 13:59

Innovations in technology have advanced every aspect of our human lives — often with engineers at the helm. One such example is the intersection of health care and technology, as showcased by the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ’s Global Futures framework which highlights the importance of health tech in our future world.

There are many urgent and exciting opportunities for engineers to step in and help redesign health care systems, innovate solutions and develop new ways of solving problems for the good of society.

Join this live event in Toronto with a panel of engineers, researchers and health tech entrepreneurs who will discuss how — in our rapidly changing world, challenged by rising costs and lack of access — engineering can help advance health care through technology.

The conversation will focus on how engineers can work towards solutions for optimal health care, showcase innovative research, discuss strategies for retaining health tech startups in Canada, identify challenges, explore opportunities and propose actionable solutions to foster an innovative and thriving health tech ecosystem in the country.

Thank you to PointClickCare for generously hosting this event. Appetizers and refreshments will be provided and are included in the registration fee.

Please note that alumni and guests will be asked to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) when registering for the event.

Emcee:

Professor Mary A. Wells
Dean, Faculty of Engineering
University of ��ݮ��Ƶ

Mary Wells is Dean of Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ (since July 1, 2020), the ninth dean since the Faculty was founded in 1957. From 2017-2020, she was Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Guelph.

Prior to her time in Guelph, Wells was a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ for 10 years. She received awards for graduate supervision from both the Faculty and the University in 2017.

An accomplished materials engineer, Wells also served as the Associate Dean of Outreach for ��ݮ��Ƶ Engineering between 2008 and 2017, and chaired its Women in Engineering committee for many years. She chaired the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering from 2013 to 2018.

Wells began her academic career as a professor in materials engineering at the University of British Columbia from 1996 to 2007, and has worked in the steel industry in Canada and internationally.

The co-author of two books including one on Canadian women innovators and the second on Canadian women in materials, her research focuses on the relationship between processing, structure and properties for advanced metallic alloys used in the transportation sector.

Connect with Mary Wells on LinkedIn.

Moderator:

Armen Bakirtzian
BASc 2008, Mechatronics Engineering
Co-Founder and CEO
Intellijoint Surgical

Biography:
Armen Bakirtzian is the co-founder and CEO of Intellijoint Surgical, a Kitchener based medical device company focusing on improving patient outcomes in joint replacement surgery. Intellijoint Surgical is a spinoff of an engineering design project Armen and his co-founders completed as part of their Bachelor degrees in mechatronics engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. Upon graduation, Armen completed his Masters in biomedical engineering from the University of Toronto.

Intellijoint Surgical was then founded in 2010 to commercialize their technology, called intellijoint HIP™. Intellijoint Surgical now offers a suite of products to assist orthopedic surgeons and was awarded the #1 fastest growing tech company in Canada by Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 50™ Companies List. Armen has been selected to represent Canada at G20 Young Entrepreneur Alliance Summits and further, he was awarded with a Future Entrepreneurial Leader of Canada (FuEL) award. Armen also spearheaded the creation of MIX, Medical Innovation Xchange, Canada’s first industry-led innovative hub dedicated to helping medtech companies scale within Canada.

Connect with Armen Bakirtzian on LinkedIn.

Panel Speakers:

Elliot Fung
Executive Director
Medical Innovation Xchange (MIX)

Biography:
Elliot is a passionate supporter of the local technology ecosystem, and an experienced community leader. Over the past 20 years, Elliot has held various executive roles helping to advance the local ecosystem. He was Vice President, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Ontario Health and also held various strategic positions at BlackBerry, helping to adopt and commercialize enterprise-level technology to some of BlackBerry’s largest global partners. Elliot has also served two terms on municipal council in the Township of Wilmot and one term as the Vice Chairperson of the ��ݮ��Ƶ Regional School Board. Currently, Elliot is also a sessional instructor at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ in the Bio Medical Engineering program and serves on the Board of Directors for Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON). Elliot studied Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Connect with Elliot Fung on LinkedIn.

Michael Phillips
BASc 2017, Mechanical Engineering
Co-Founder and CEO
Vena Medical

Biography:
Michael Phillips graduated from University of ��ݮ��Ƶ with a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) focused in Mechanical Engineering with an Entrepreneurship Option. Michael co-founded Vena Medical during the final year of his undergraduate degree and went full-time immediately after graduating. He attended the TMCx Accelerator and Y Combinator in the year following. He's a published author in the Journal of Neuro-Interventional Surgery, American Journal of Neuroradiology and Stroke: Vascular and Interventional Neurology. He's the inventor on 5 granted patents and winner of numerous awards related to business and entrepreneurship while bringing two novel devices to the clinical setting.

Connect with Michael Phillips on LinkedIn.

Hamed Shahsavan, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of ��ݮ��Ƶ

Biography:
Hamed Shahsavan is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ. He obtained his PhD in chemical engineering and nanotechnology from the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ in 2017. In his graduate studies, Dr. Shahsavan's research was focused on the fabrication and characterization of bioinspired micro/nanostructured surfaces and their implications in fundamental studies of contact mechanics, and interfacial phenomena, such as adhesion, friction, and wetting. Fascinated by the rapidly growing fields of soft robotics and smart materials, he moved to Stuttgart in Germany, to embark on his postdoctoral research as an NSERC postdoctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. In this period, he mainly focused on the synthesis of different types of liquid crystalline elastomers, networks and gels to deploy them as shape-change programmable materials in soft robots and devices at millimeter to micrometer scale. During his PhD studies, Dr. Shahsavan was a visiting scholar in the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, OH, USA. He was also a visiting scientist in the Smart Photonic Materials (SPM) research group at the University of Tampere in Finland. His current research interests revolve around the development of a variety of soft, stimuli-responsive, and programmable materials, and different fabrication methods for the manufacturing of small-scale mobile robots and devices.

Connect with Hamed Shahsavan on LinkedIn.

Registration: There are no physical tickets for this event. Once your online registration is completed, you will be sent a registration confirmation by email and your name will be added to the event guest list. Please check in at the door when you arrive at the event.

Please note: This session will not be recorded. Past sessions of this series were virtual and have been posted to view on the Alumni Speaker Playlist on the ��ݮ��Ƶ Engineering YouTube Channel. Event participants do not have permission to record the session.

Want to learn more about this topic before you attend?

Here are resources to learn more about Canadian and global health problems and how engineers are addressing them:

Forbes magazine two-part series of articles

"Global Health is broken, but young people plan to repair it" (Forbes - March 24, 2022)
"Engineers are unsung heroes of global Health" (Forbes - May 22, 2022).

Research at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ

Chemical Engineering Professor Hamed Shahsavan’s micro-medical robotics research (YouTube)
"Canada needs a health-care transformation" (Opt Ed by Dr. Catherine Burns - January 9, 2023)
"At the intersection of health, society and technology" (��ݮ��Ƶ News, September 6, 2024)

Past session of the Alumni Speaker Series on this topic

Alumni Speaker Series "Engineering Solutions to Global Health Problems" (YouTube)

Global Spark Thought Leader Panel: Innovation in Global Health

Engineering Advancement Coop — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 19:28:18 +0000

Global Spark Thought Leader Panel: Innovation in Global Health Engineering Ad… Wed, 02/24/2021 - 14:28

We’re extremely excited to invite students to this year’s Global Spark Thought Leader Panel: Innovation in Global Health.

The panel will be held on March 6th at 11am EST, and will feature three phenomenal speakers: Dr. Andrew Trister, Head of Digital Health Innovation at The Gates Foundation, Jim Larson, Managing Director & Partner and Expert on Global Health at BCG, and Maureen Lewis, the CEO of Aceso Global and the former Chief Economist of Human Development at the World Bank. The panel will be moderated by Natasha Walji, a Director at Google Canada and one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women.

The pandemic has highlighted the importance and universal impact of Global Health challenges. However, there are crucial Global Health challenges beyond COVID that will be essential to address in the near future.

If you are interested in hearing from global leaders about the opportunities for innovation in solving pressing global health challenges and the role of different sectors in building truly impactful solutions, then sign-up for FREE!