Find Academic Supervisors

• Algebraic Geometry
• Thermal Engineering
• Energy Efficiency
• +5 more

Xi Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistical Sciences at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Science. His research focuses on Algebraic Geometry and interdisciplinary applications in thermal engineering, energy efficiency, and sustainable building technologies. He collaborates with civil and mechanical engineering domains to advance building performance, energy systems, and smart home technologies. Research interests include mathematical modeling of thermal dynamics, optimization of heating/cooling systems, and sustainable construction materials. He explores robotics in construction, moisture/mold prevention in timber structures, and energy forecasting through machine learning. His work addresses cold-climate challenges in residential and commercial buildings, emphasizing net-zero energy solutions and infrastructure resilience. Recent studies analyze hybrid fuel heating systems, ventilated block walls, and airtightness evaluation of Canadian dwellings. He investigates the potential of tap water for space cooling and integrates transfer learning for energy consumption forecasting. Collaborations span engineering, computer science, and environmental fields. No scientific awards are listed. Advising details and grants are not provided in the text. His work contributes to labs and teams advancing sustainable building technologies and energy-efficient systems in cold regions.

• Macroeconomics
• Macroeconomic Forecasting
• Macroeconomic Policy
• +7 more

Chetan Dave is a Professor of Economics at the University of Alberta's Department of Economics within the Faculty of Arts. He holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, an MA from the University of British Columbia, and a BA (Hons.) from McGill University. His expertise spans macroeconomics, behavioral economics, and experimental economics, with a focus on macroeconomic forecasting, policy analysis, and structural econometrics. He served as an associate editor of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2011–2016) and has presented globally. Key awards include the 2018 EBES Best Paper Award for work on public goods and inequality aversion. His teaching includes undergraduate courses on money and graduate courses in macroeconomic theory and structural econometrics. Education: Bachelor’s in Economics (Hons.), McGill University Master’s in Economics, University of British Columbia PhD in Economics, University of Pittsburgh Research Interests: Macroeconomic modeling with fat tails Behavioral and experimental economics Public goods and policy design DSGE models and structural econometrics Advising & Grants: Supervised PhD students across institutions and secured grants including a $30K City of Edmonton grant (2021) and NSF awards. His work bridges theoretical macroeconomics with empirical and experimental applications.

• Labor Economics
• Education Economics
• Job Search
• +3 more

Andrew McGee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts. He is also a Research Fellow with the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). His academic background includes a BSFS from Georgetown University, an MA, and a PhD in Economics from Ohio State University. Before joining the University of Alberta in 2016, he served on the faculty at Simon Fraser University. Education: PhD in Economics, Ohio State University MA in Economics, Ohio State University BSFS, Georgetown University Research Interests: McGee’s research focuses on labor economics, with emphasis on education economics, job search behavior, and the intersection of psychology and economics. He employs both traditional econometric methods and laboratory experiments to explore topics such as employer demand for personality traits, gender disparities in labor markets, and incentive structures in workplaces. Recent Research Trends: His work has increasingly examined how personality traits influence labor market outcomes, including employer preferences, wage determination, and workplace incentives. Notable studies include analyses of gender differences in reservation wages and the role of peer effects in educational settings. Awards: No explicit awards mentioned in the provided texts. Teaching and Service: McGee teaches advanced microeconomic theory courses (ECON 281 and ECON 481) at the University of Alberta. His academic service includes contributions to institutional equity studies, such as analyzing compensation gaps among faculty members. Labs/Teams: Affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) as a Research Fellow, contributing to global labor economics research networks.

• Applied Electromagnetics
• Wireless Communications
• Antenna Design
• +5 more

Dr. Xingqi Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada. He holds adjunct professorships at University College Dublin (Ireland) and has held visiting positions at the University of Toronto and Queen Mary University of London. His research focuses on applied electromagnetics and wireless communications, emphasizing high-performance computational models for 5G/6G/THz systems, intelligent transportation, underwater communications, IoT, and biomedical applications. Education: B.Sc. (Honors) from Harbin Institute of Technology, M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Research interests include physics-based wireless channel modeling, radio wave propagation in diverse environments, multiphysics modeling for electromagnetic and biomedical systems, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), antenna design, and machine learning applications in communications. He leads a Horizon 2020-funded project on future wireless networks and collaborates with global academia and industry. Awards: ACES Early Career Award, RIA Charlemont Award, and multiple best paper awards. He serves as an associate editor for IEEE journals and technical committee roles in flagship conferences. Teaching: Currently teaches ECE 209A/B (Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering) in 2025 terms. His group oversees projects in channel modeling, integrated sensing/communication, and machine learning-based parametric modeling.

• Early Literacy Development
• Digital Literacy
• Drama Education
• +5 more

L Laidlaw is a Professor in the Faculty of Education's Elementary Education department at the University of Alberta, specializing in early literacy development, digital literacy, and curriculum theory. They hold a Ph.D. from York University (2001) with a dissertation on writing and human experience, and have extensive teaching experience in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Research focuses on: Educational technology's impact on young learners Ecological approaches to curriculum design Adoption studies in educational settings Drama-based literacy instruction Recent publications emphasize pandemic-era educational adaptations, digital divides, and teacher professional development in technology integration. Their work has been featured in media discussions about child tech usage and pandemic pedagogy innovations. Teaching contributions include courses like Early Literacy Development (taught 17 times across 2001-2015) and Literacy Development through Drama. Courses often incorporate blended or online modalities.

• Educational Measurement
• Psychological Testing
• Automatic Item Generation
• +5 more

Dr. Mark J. Gierl is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Education, holding the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Educational Measurement. His research focuses on automatic item generation (AIG), assessment engineering, and psychometric methods for evaluating test translation. He authored the 2021 book Advanced Methods in Automatic Item Generation , co-authored with Hollis Lai and Vasily Tanygin. His work integrates cognitive modeling, automated test assembly, and multilingual automated scoring systems. Education: PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (College of Education). Research interests include large language model applications in assessment, AIG for medical and science education, and cross-linguistic scoring frameworks. Key contributions include developing AIG systems for secure testing and validation frameworks for generated items across disciplines. Research highlights: Over 50 peer-reviewed articles on topics like neural semantic analysis for video assessment, automated bone loss measurement in dentistry, and LLM-driven reading comprehension item generation. His work emphasizes ethical AI integration in educational measurement, test security, and multilingual assessment equity. Awards: Holder of the prestigious Tier 1 Canada Research Chair since 2021. His work bridges advanced computational methods with foundational psychometric principles to revolutionize modern testing practices.

Marina GavrilovaView profile

Professor

• Machine Learning
• Biometric Security
• Image Processing
• +4 more

Marina Gavrilova is a Professor and Associate Head (Research and Strategic Planning) in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on biometric security, machine learning, pattern recognition, and interdisciplinary computational sciences. She is a co-founder of the Biometric Technologies Laboratory and the SPARCS laboratory, and serves as Founding Editor-in-Chief of Springer's Transactions on Computational Sciences. Her work spans ethical AI frameworks, multimodal biometric systems, and healthcare applications. Dr. Gavrilova holds Senior ACM and IEEE membership statuses and has received prestigious awards including the Canada Foundation for Innovation Grant and the University of Calgary’s U Make a Difference Award. Her editorial roles include positions with IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Sciences, IEEE Access, and multiple biometrics journals. Her research explores emotion-aware de-identification systems, trustworthy AI, and bias mitigation in healthcare machine learning. Key contributions include advancements in generative adversarial networks, fusion strategies for multimodal data, and computational methods for medical imaging. She advocates for ethical AI practices and interdisciplinary collaboration to address societal challenges in security and privacy. Lab affiliations include the Biometric Technologies Lab and SPARCS Lab, which focus on computational security and interdisciplinary research. Ongoing work emphasizes social behavioral biometrics, autonomous systems, and AI-driven healthcare solutions.

Usman AlimView profile

Associate Professor

• Computer Graphics
• Visualization Techniques
• Volume Rendering
• +6 more

Usman Alim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary, and Director of the Data Science Program. He holds a dual Bachelor's in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Rochester (2001), an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology (2007), and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University (2012). His research focuses on global illumination, physically-based modeling, and signal processing applications in computer graphics and visualization. He is particularly noted for innovations in volume visualization, VR interfaces, and haptic systems. Key research areas include: Interactive visualization systems for multivariate data Uncertainty visualization in geological and medical datasets Efficient rendering techniques for large-scale datasets Low-code frameworks for data workflow automation Notable achievements include winning the 2019 IEEE SciVis Contest's Best Report Cover and multiple awards in Compute Canada's Visualize This contest. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in fields like environmental science, healthcare, and urban analytics. Current initiatives include advancing haptic interaction design, developing cloud-deployable medical imaging pipelines, and exploring AI-driven solutions for oil sands analysis. He teaches graduate courses like DATA 601 (Data Visualization) and special topics in computer science, contributing to both academic research and applied data science education.

Tyler BonnellView profile

Assistant Professor

• Data Science
• ML/AI
• Agent-based models
• +3 more

Tyler Bonnell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Science. His research focuses on applying data science, machine learning, and agent-based modeling to study behavioral ecology and primatology, particularly the evolution and development of collective behavior in social animals. He investigates how social animals respond to environmental changes, such as landscape and climate shifts, using geospatial and statistical tools. His work emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, bridging computer science and ecology to address questions about group movement, social networks, and disease dynamics. Research interests include agent-based models for wildlife populations, social network analysis, and the impact of environmental factors on animal behavior. He has contributed to studies on vervet monkeys, beluga whales, and other species, exploring topics like maternal social position effects, disease transmission, and spatial mixing. His lab develops innovative tools to analyze complex ecological systems and advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration. Publications highlight his focus on statistical methodologies, network analysis, and computational models to understand animal behavior and ecological interactions. While no specific grants or awards are mentioned, his work reflects a commitment to advancing computational methods in ecological research.

Katie OvensView profile

Assistant Professor

• Biomedical Data Analysis
• Medical Image Analysis
• Computer Vision
• +4 more

Katie Ovens is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Science, and currently serves as Interim Assistant Head for Communications and Outreach. She holds a PhD (2020), MSc (2016), and BSc (2013) in Computer Science and Health Science from the University of Saskatchewan and University of Calgary. Her research focuses on biomedical data analysis, medical image analysis, computer vision, bioinformatics, and comparative transcriptomics, with emphasis on applications in healthcare and evolutionary biology. Dr. Ovens' work bridges computational methods with biological systems, including tumor segmentation algorithms, gene regulatory network analysis, and machine learning validation frameworks. Her contributions span reproducibility assessment in medical AI, generative models for agricultural imaging, and evolutionary comparisons of cartilage maturation processes. She actively contributes to open-source tools like Juxtapose for co-expression network analysis and Silver for dataset validation. Awards and grants are not explicitly listed in the provided information. She teaches courses in natural language processing, scalable data systems, and special topics in computer science. Her research outputs emphasize interdisciplinary solutions to complex biomedical and ecological challenges, leveraging both supervised and unsupervised machine learning paradigms.

Richard ZhaoView profile

Assistant Professor

• Serious Games
• Artificial Intelligence
• Immersive Technologies
• +3 more

Richard Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary. He leads the Serious Games Research Group , focusing on developing immersive technologies (e.g., VR, eye-tracking) and AI algorithms to enhance training, learning, and education through serious games. His work emphasizes adaptive experiences and automated content generation for educational applications. Research Interests: Serious Games for Education Artificial Intelligence in Virtual Environments Immersive Technologies (VR/AR) Collaborative Systems Procedural Content Generation Recent Work Trends: Recent publications highlight advancements in AI-driven poetry generation, VR interaction techniques, and collaborative problem-solving models. His work often bridges computational methods with human-centric design, particularly in manufacturing simulations and educational VR systems. Labs/Teams: He oversees the Serious Games Research Group, hosting projects like the Immersive Virtual School (IVS) and GEARS: Gearing up for Education . These initiatives integrate AI and VR to address real-world training challenges in engineering and education. Teaching: Teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Game AI, Game Development, and introductory computer science. Courses include CPSC 686 (Research in Game AI) and CPSC 586 (Game AI) .

Mindi SummersView profile

Teaching Professor

• Biology Education
• Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
• Biodiversity
• +4 more

Mindi Summers is an Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programs & Student Affairs) in the Faculty of Science and a Teaching Professor in Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. She holds a B.S. from Stanford University (2009), an M.S. (2011), and a Ph.D. (2014) from Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on biodiversity, urban pollinator conservation, and innovative teaching practices. She pioneered the University of Calgary’s designation as a Bee Campus (2020), collaborating with local communities to study and promote pollinator habitats. Key research areas include biology education, plant-pollinator interactions, and sustainable design. Dr. Summers has received multiple awards, including the Killam Undergraduate Mentorship Award (2022), Internationalization Early Career Award (2022), and several teaching excellence recognitions (2020–2021). Her work emphasizes experiential learning, community partnerships, and undergraduate research involvement. Publications span ecology, education, and taxonomy, with recent contributions on biodiversity conservation, teaching methodologies, and urban ecosystems. She collaborates widely, including on digital natural history collections and open educational resources.

• Horticultural Education
• Educational Technology
• Online Learning Strategies
• +3 more

Jeff Morton is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Plant, Food, and Environmental Sciences at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Agriculture. He teaches courses such as Landscape Horticulture I, Landscape Installation, Advanced Turfgrass Installation and Design, and Landscape Maintenance across Dalhousie and FAFU campuses. His scholarly activities focus on innovating horticultural education through mobile-based tools (e.g., GPS learning apps, flashcards) and adapting curricula for online delivery. He also studies cross-cultural teaching strategies for Western landscape horticulture in China. Professionally, he contributes to service roles including the FAFU 3+1 Coordinating Committee, Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Working Group, and Campus Sustainability Committee. His work bridges traditional horticultural practices with modern pedagogical methods, emphasizing accessibility and global relevance.

Steve ShirtliffeView profile

Professor

• Field crop agronomy
• Crop Phenotyping
• Crop Imaging
• +3 more

Steve Shirtliffe is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources. His research focuses on field crop agronomy, crop phenotyping, precision agriculture, and weed science. He holds a Ph.D., M.Sc., and B.Sc. from the University of Manitoba. Dr. Shirtliffe’s work integrates remote sensing, machine learning, and field experimentation to improve crop yields and agricultural sustainability. He has pioneered applications of UAV-based imaging for crop analysis, including canola yield prediction and weed management. His research emphasizes precision agriculture, crop lodging prediction, and mechanical weed control systems. He has received prominent awards including the ASA Professor of the Year (2008) and University of Saskatchewan’s Provost’s Outstanding Teaching Award (2011-12). Courses taught include PLSC 375 (Current Topics in Agronomy), PLSC 401 (Sustainable Crop Production), and PLSC 898 (Plant Population Biology). Recent research highlights include: Development of AI-driven field boundary delineation systems Integration of SAR and optical data for crop phenology mapping Optimized deep learning models for edge device yield prediction Long-term weed dynamics studies in organic/conventional systems His work addresses critical challenges in Prairie agriculture through innovative technology applications and systems-level crop management strategies.

Jutta GutberletView profile

Professor

• Waste Governance
• Climate Justice
• International Community-Based Development
• +4 more

Jutta Gutberlet is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Victoria and Director of the Community-Based Research Laboratory (CBRL). Her work focuses on International community-based development Waste governance and climate justice Qualitative research methodologies She has conducted extensive research across Brazil, Canada, and multiple Global South countries. Her research spans urban sustainability , community-led waste management , and grassroots innovations , particularly examining how informal waste pickers contribute to climate mitigation and social justice. She emphasizes Participatory action research Knowledge democracy Co-creation with marginalized communities Her recent publications analyze waste governance frameworks and youth-led sustainability initiatives. Key teaching areas include Geographies of Waste Global Development Studies Research Methods in Human Geography She collaborates with institutions in Brazil, Canada, and East Africa on projects related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Major initiatives include UNICATA : A university for waste pickers Youth Zero Waste : Grassroots engagement in Canada/Brazil Mapping Waste Governance : Global comparative analysis