Connected Minds

Proud of Professor Joshua Marshall! Appointed Chair of IEEE RAS Technical Committees Cluster on Field Robotics, he'll lead across aerial, autonomous vehicles, marine, space, and construction robotics. Supporting innovation and collaboration in field robotics worldwide! More info on: lnkd.in/gVGT7xCC

Exciting graduate opportunity! Join the IRIS Lab for a funded MASc (Sept 2026) developing AI-powered stroke rehabilitation robotics. Collaborative project with three Connected Minds-affiliated researchers at Ingenuity Labs. Domestic students with strong academics background are encouraged!

Ethical Considerations in Neurotech - NeuroTech Microcredential Program Examine the ethical issues that may emerge in the application of neurotechnology.

Great news from Centre for Neuroscience Studies at Queen's! Their new Neurotech Ethics Microcredential (<50 hrs, asynchronous) teaches core neurotechnology concepts and ethical frameworks through hands-on case studies. Navigate the evolving neurotech landscape
neurotechmicrocreds.com/courses/neur...

Exciting research from Dr. Winston published in Neuroimage! Using robotic technology and neuroimaging, they mapped how brain connectivity patterns relate to specific cognitive impairments in TLE. Novel insights for understanding epilepsy as a network disorder. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Excited to share that our lab attended the 2026 @connectedminds.bsky.social retreat @yorkuniversity.bsky.social.

We had an amazing time meeting so many wonderful people, learning about exciting new projects, sharing our own research, and making new connections!

Exciting team spotlight! Ingenuity Labs Racing unites graduate students from diverse backgrounds on one mission: solving the challenge of autonomous racing. Part of the international Roboracer community, they're pushing the limits! Check their achievements: ingenuitylabs.queensu.ca/research/stu...

ASMa: Asymmetric Spatio-temporal Masking for Skeleton Action Representation Learning Self-supervised learning (SSL) has shown remarkable success in skeleton-based action recognition by leveraging data augmentations to learn meaningful representations. However, existing SSL methods rel...

Congratulations to our PhD student Amir Eskandari on his TMLR publication! His ASMa framework addresses biases in skeleton action recognition through asymmetric masking, achieving competitive performance with lightweight, resource-efficient models. Great work! More on this: arxiv.org/abs/2602.06251

Exciting postdoc opportunity with Connected Minds member Prof. Joshua Marshall at Queen's University's Ingenuity Labs! Join the Offroad Robotics group and be part of a growing robotics and physical AI research community. Express your interest by completing this form: lnkd.in/gzzyxeSn.

We loved seeing Connected Minds trainees and investigators come together at Retreat for the Wireless Ambulatory EEG System for Personalised Epilepsy Care group meeting.
A big thank you to Dr. Gavin Winston for bringing this community together.

At the Connected Minds Retreat, Research Enhanced Hires Anne Sullivan, Nina Wang, Aimi Hamraie, Hannah Tarder-Stoll, and Shweta Mahajan explored how emerging technologies intersect with power, access, and lived experience to address inequities and real-world social needs.

At the Connected Minds Retreat, Dr. Elham Dolatabadi, Dr. Usman Khan, Dr. Kayrel Edwards, and Dr. Laleh Seyyed-Kalantari showcased their Seed Grant projects, highlighting how early design decisions, from framing problems to building the right partnerships, shape real-world impact.

A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Pina D'Agostino for her transformative leadership as Scientific Director. Effective March 1, we welcome Dr. Shayna Rosenbaum to the role. Together with Dr. Doug Crawford's founding vision, Connected Minds continues to grow.

Leadership Committee - Connected Minds Meet the Connected Minds Leadership Team!  Composed of Directors/Associate Directors from affiliated Research Centres, our core Leadership Team brings a wealth of experience and diverse perspectives t...

Proud to introduce the new Connected Minds Leadership Committee! Dr. Elham Dolatabadi leads Research, Dr. Murat Kristal Innovation and Commercialization, Dr. Sylvia Bawa Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Matthew Pan Knowledge Mobilization, and Dr. Natalie Coulter Training. www.yorku.ca/research/con...

Connected Minds member Dr. Gavin Winston is recruiting a Postdoc at Queen's University! The 2-year role focuses on neuroimaging to predict seizure recurrence risk in epilepsy. Full details and application at lnkd.in/gZshb6db

Today's Partner Spotlight at the Connected Minds Retreat highlighted projects built through sustained community collaboration, from the Biskaabiiyaang Indigenous Metaverse to Wireless EEG for Epilepsy Care. Meaningful impact starts with reciprocal partnerships.

At the Connected Minds Retreat, Research Associate Michelle Charette presented our Co-Creation Toolkit, highlighting why intentional, reciprocal partnerships are essential to ethical research. check out our Co-Creation Guide on the Connected Minds website: lnkd.in/g9zpP9xM

The Connected Minds 2026 Research Retreat is officially underway at York University! Over two days, our community is coming together to think collectively, exchange ideas, and reflect on the work shaping our program. Stay tuned for updates!

Connected Minds members Dr. Pouya Amiri and Dr. Matthew Pan are recruiting a Mitacs-funded Postdoc at Queen's University! The role focuses on VR-enabled robotic systems for balance training and fall prevention in older adults. Apply now! linkedin.com/in/pouya-amiri-4b8b6134/recent-activity/all/

Exciting opportunity! Dr. Pouya Amiri at Queen's University is seeking a funded MSc/PhD student in markerless motion capture and musculoskeletal modelling. Email Dr. Pouya Amiri at p.amiri@queensu.ca with: CV, statement of interest, transcripts. deadline:March 5,2026
www.linkedin.com/in/pouya-ami...

The effects of irradiation modes on the microstructure of graphene-copper heterostructure interconnects during laser direct writing Modern flexible electronics require precisely patterned conducting, insulating, and semiconducting interconnects with inherent durability and great el…

Congrats to Dr. Monika Snowdon and colleagues on their new publication! Their research develops a laser direct writing process that controls graphene-copper interconnect microstructures, improving durability and electrical performance for flexible electronics.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Congratulations to Dr. Amin Jalali and Dr. Ali Etemad on their new ICASSP 2026 publication! Their research tackles real-world AI challenges, evaluating how models adapt to cross-dataset distribution shifts in facial expression recognition.
More on this:
scholar.google.com/citations?vi...

On World Day of Social Justice, we celebrate Dr. Frederic Fu, whose research explores how housing instability and chronic stress drive neurological and mental health risks. Partnering with Indigenous and community organizations, his work advances equitable, rights-based housing solutions.

Barriers and Facilitators in Accessing Education in Mainstream Schools for Children with Disabilities in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Secondary Data Analysis Promoting access to mainstream schools for children with disabilities has been highlighted in national and international legislative and policy initiatives. However, children with disabilities’ acc...

Congratulations to Dr. Setareh Ghahari and Reshma Parvin Nuri on their new publication! Their research explores barriers and facilitators in school access for children with disabilities in Bangladesh, with key insights for inclusive education policy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We're proud to celebrate Connected Minds member Dr. Jamaica Cass, appointed to the Order of Ontario! Honoured for her transformative leadership in Indigenous health and medical education, she advances Truth and Reconciliation across Canada. Well-deserved!

Modeling Dynamic Computations in the Primate Ventral Visual Stream A major goal of computational neuroscience has been to explain how the primate ventral visual stream (VVS) transforms visual input into temporally evolving neural representations that support robust v...

Exciting research from Dr. Maren Wehrheim! Her work reviews modeling dynamic computations in the primate ventral visual stream, moving beyond static snapshots to understand how the brain processes real-world vision through intrinsic dynamics and active sensing.
arxiv.org/abs/2601.12258

Misspecified models create the appearance of adaptive control during value-based choice - Communications Psychology In a new computational analysis of previous work, this study shows that a control-free mechanism better accounts for value-based decisions than an account that assumes top-down control invigorating th...

New publication from Dr. Harrison Ritz! Published in Nature's Communications Psychology, this work challenges existing models of adaptive control in decision-making, revealing how misspecified models can create misleading findings. Important methodological insights
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Exciting PhD opportunities! Dr. Xiaodan Zhu (Connected Minds affiliated Prof) is recruiting for fully funded positions in Large Language Models, NLP, and Machine Learning at Queen's U.
Start date: Sept. 1, 2026 or Jan. 1, 2027
Contact: GROUP-taml-recruiting@queensu.ca
Application: lnkd.in/eDA-K5w4

Exciting PhD opportunity! Dr. Matthew Pan at Ingenuity Labs is recruiting for fully funded positions in Human-Robot Interaction & Assistive Robotics. Two projects: Expressive Robotics (Connected Minds-supported) & Intelligent Assistive Robotics. Deadline: Feb 28
Apply: matthew.pan@queensu.ca

Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Pan and the Ingenuity Labs team on their paper acceptance to IEEE ICRA, one of the premier conferences in robotics and automation! Proud of the groundbreaking research coming out of our affiliated labs. Exceptional achievement!

Celebrating Dr. Effie Pereira's ORF support! Her research uncovers how attention shifts over time using neurophysiological and computational tools, insights that impact how we process information in laboratory, real-world, and digital environments. Fascinating work!
Read more here: lnkd.in/ercZ_d89