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Graduate Students

natasha alves-kotzev stefanie blain Andrea McCarthy joon lee brian leung memarian brian nhan sarah power Dana Zoratto
 jorge torres saba moghimi sheena luu Reza Javeheri stephanie liddle matthew chang jillian fairley Danine Ellis eva

Negar Memarian

PhD Candidate
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering
University of Toronto
Advisor: Dr. Tom Chau, Dr. A. N. Venetsanopoulos

E-mail: nmemarian[at]comm[dot]utoronto[dot]ca

Education & Training:
Negar Memarian holds a BASc (University of Tehran), and a MASc (Ryerson University), both in Electrical Engineering. During her undergrad Negar worked as a simulation and test engineer in Brock Solutions Inc. and accomplished her BASc thesis on simulation of the automated system for ventilation and station operations of Toronto subway (Sheppard line) with programmable logic controllers. For her MASc, she collaborated with Toronto Sick Kids Hospital and developed a computerized system for detection of lung nodules in computed tomography (CT) scans of children. Negar’s research interests lie in the areas of signal processing, image processing and machine learning.

Research Abstract:
For her PhD thesis, Negar is working on developing enhanced technologies that can help individuals with severe motor disabilities communicate and access their environment. She is developing a novel access pathway based on infrared thermography and consideration of context. In simple words, temperature changes due to voluntary mouth opening/closing of an individual with disability is captured with a thermal imaging camera and translated into switch activation through a computerized system. This system accounts for contextual factors such as user’s motion artifacts, motion in the background, and changes in ambient temperature and humidity.

As part of her interest in developing context-aware access solutions, Negar explores the impact of contextual factors on the performance of alternative access pathways. She suggests an information theoretic interpretation of the interface between a user and an access pathway, which can serve as an objective method of access pathway use assessment for people with disabilities.

Funding:
NSERC PGSD3

Other Interests
Negar’s main hobby is writing poetry, lyrics, and stories. She also enjoys music, reading and mentoring activities.