FCS News

Dr. Srini Sampalli has been selected as one of three finalists for the Discovery Awards 2013 for Science and Technology.

The Discovery Awards, presented by the Discovery Centre, honours individuals and companies whose outstanding work has helped make Nova Scotia a leader in science and technology. 

Sampalli has been selected as a finalist in the Innovation category. The nomination comes on the heels of his new startup company, Wi4Tech Inc.  The company was born out of Sampalli’s current lab, MYTech Lab ("EMerging WIreless Technologies Lab) in the Faculty of Computer Science.

Wi4Tech.Inc. is co-founded by Sampalli, his graduate students Musfiq Rahman and Gaurav Sharma, and Bob Thomas, an entrepreneur and President and CEO of Progeny Software, who will be guiding the business aspects of the company.

In the past year, the MYTech Lab and Wi4Tech team have developed three new innovative mobile tools that use a secure and reliable platform that integrates smartphones, near field communications (NFC) technology and cloud computing.

The first is an NFC-based smartphone tool for drug allergy and drug interaction detection that can prevent medication errors before they occur (developed by graduate student of MYTech Lab, Maali Alabdalhafith).  The second is a social media network that has the potential to curb cyber-bullying. The third is a mobile tool that uses a wireless emergency locator for search and rescue operations. The second and third innovations are the result of the work by the Wi4Tech team.

The 11^th Annual Discovery Awards will take place on November 21^st at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront hotel.  Congratulations to Srini on being selected as this year’s finalist.