Dal researchers had a big night at the Discovery Awards Thursday night (November 21), winning in all major categories at the ceremony.

The awards, hosted by Halifax’s Discovery Centre, are an annual event that recognizes talented individuals and outstanding companies that have helped to make Nova Scotia a leader in science, technology and innovation. This year, the event was co-sponsored by Dalhousie and Saint Mary’s University. Dal’s Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine sponsored the youth award (presented to Om Agarwal from Citadel High School), and the Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation sponsored the Innovation Award.

Get to know our CS finalists

Stan Matwin
Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) at the Faculty of Computer Science, Director of the Institute for Big Data Analytics. Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, University of Ottawa.
Dr. Matwin’s research in Machine Learning – the area of “new AI” that brought about the recent breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence – has contributed to him becoming renowned internationally. In 2013, he founded the Institute for Big Data Analytics at Dalhousie with the aim of creating a globally recognized centre of excellence in big data. Over the past five years, the Institute has supported more than 30 industry partners in using big data to make an impact and attracted and trained the next generation of researchers and practitioners in this area.

MYTech (Srini Sampalli and Steve Dafer)
Dr. Srini Sampalli and Steve Dafe are co-leading breakthrough research in the Emerging Wireless Technologies (MYTech) Lab, an offshoot of the Faculty of Computer Science. Together they are investigating the commercial viability of a product called EMPWRD (Enhanced Modular Platform for People With Rigid Disabilities), a platform that effectively connects aspects of brain-computer interfacing Internet of Things, and natural language processing. The product has the potential to help people who are paralyzed or who have lost their ability to speak – from locked-in syndromes such as ALS  disease or coma cases.

Read the full story on Dal News.