CSCI-CITAC-CIP Annual Joint Meeting

Terry Pirovolakis embarks on an inspiring journey to save his son through the creation of a novel gene therapy for Spastic Paraplegia Type 50. The journey continues as his newly found company, Elpida Therapeutics, hopes to save the lives of many other children living with rare diseases.

Francine Buchanan, MLIS, PhD Candidate, is a mom and primary caregiver to an amazing little boy who is thriving with complex medical needs. When she isn’t watching or playing baseball with her family, she is a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto studying physician/patient communication. Francine’s passion is increasing parent participation in the health research process, and she holds the position of co-chair on the SickKids Research Family Advisory Committee.

Douglas Buller works at the Wilson Centre (Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto and the University Health Network). He makes slides. A lot of slides. And he has been making a lot of slides for a very long time. In fact when he started making slides, slides were actually physical, 35mm film-slides. Since then (and before anyone asked him to) he has been exploring ways to ensure that slides meaningfully contribute to a presentation's purpose and intention. To do this he draws on approaches from cognitive psychology, art theory, film theory, semiotics and graphic design.

Abhishek Moturu is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto affiliated with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, The Hospital for Sick Children, and the UHN KITE Research Institute. He also received his HBSc and MSc (graduated in 2021) from the University of Toronto. His doctoral research interests lie in the use of deep learning for healthcare and medicine - specifically in developing theory for example difficulty in health-related applications. He is currently under the supervision of Dr. Babak Taati and expected to complete his PhD in Jun 2025.

Armaan Malhotra is a fourth-year neurosurgery resident interested in clinical epidemiology, neurotrauma, pediatrics and spine surgery. He is currently pursuing doctorate studies through the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation supervised by Dr Jefferson Wilson and Dr Avery Nathens. His thesis involves quantifying and predicting outcomes for patients with traumatic brain injury using health administrative data.

Samantha is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, improving wearable devices for monitoring cardiovascular health to work well for all. She has previously conducted research in synthetic biology, electrical engineering, machine learning, and psychiatry. Samantha is passionate about the intersection between health technologies and society, and how to approach design in an ethical and equitable way.