Five 91ÑÇÉ« researchers will receive federal support through new and renewed Canada Research Chair (CRC) appointments, securing $3.8 million in funding to support groundbreaking research with impacts across technology, health and society.
, the appointments will advance research spanning AI, health technologies, Indigenous data sovereignty and human perception. The cohort includes four new Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs and one renewed Tier 1 Chair.
The CRC program attracts and retains some of the world's most accomplished and promising researchers, supporting leading-edge research that advances knowledge and delivers benefits for society, the economy and the environment.
"These Canada Research Chair appointments reflect the breadth and ambition of research underway at 91ÑÇÉ«," says Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. "By supporting researchers pursuing ambitious questions with potential for meaningful impact, this investment will help to advance new knowledge and strengthen 91ÑÇɫ’s research capacity across a diverse range of fields."
Ines Arous – Canada Research Chair in Human-Centered Generative Artificial Intelligence (Tier 2)
Arous is an assistant professor at 91ÑÇÉ«'s Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and director of the ARIN research lab specializing in human-AI collaboration, natural language processing (NLP) and generative AI.
Her research focuses on designing frameworks that leverage human intelligence to enhance NLP models and tailoring them for applications with significant societal impact.
Brittany Intzandt – Canada Research Chair in Health and Technology (Tier 2)
An assistant professor at 91ÑÇɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Intzandt's research focuses on sex- and gender-based analysis, exercise physiology and neurodegeneration.
Intzandt also received $80,000 through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund which supports research infrastructure projects through its partnership with the CRC program.
Shweta Mahajan – Canada Research Chair in Multimodal Generative AI (Tier 2)
Lassonde School of Engineering
Mahajan, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, studies computer vision and machine learning.
The aim of her research is to advance generative modelling, multimodal learning and visual inference through the development of statistical and machine-learning methods. Her work seeks to improve how AI systems synthesize data, understand complex scenes and learn from multiple forms of information, including images, video and text.
Danica Pawlick-Potts – Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Data Sovereignty (Tier 2)
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Pawlick-Potts is a research associate at 91ÑÇÉ«'s Department of Communication & Media Studies and a member of the Alexis Nakota Sioux First Nation, specializing in Indigenous data sovereignty.
Through her work with national Indigenous organizations and research collaborators, she supports the development of ethical approaches to data infrastructure and explores the implications of emerging technologies for Indigenous communities.
Nikolaus Troje – Canada Research Chair in Reality Research (Tier 1, renewal)
Faculty of Science
A professor in the Department of Biology, Troje is a leading researcher in human perception, computer vision and social interaction.
His research examines how people perceive and understand one another through movement, appearance and communication. Through behavioural, physiological and computational approaches, he investigates how the brain constructs representations of reality and how those processes shape human interaction in both face-to-face and virtual environments.