Simulation & Digital Health at the NRC

From manufacturing simulation to surgical simulation to VR cognitive care

Speaker: Jordan Hovdebo & Robert DiRaddo

November 21st, 2018, 12:00pm

DFP Classroom: FSC 2300

The presentation is essentially an overview of our group’s journey in simulation R&D, highlighting the importance of being multidisciplinary, agile and working with collaborators. We start with an overview of current work in digital health, then describe our 3-phase model for undertaking R&D, from low to high TRL, including our approach to engage a group of early adopters in an iterative software development process. We show how we transitioned from manufacturing simulation to surgical simulation to VR cognitive care. Following this, we will highlight some recent technical advancements in the fields of remote care and VR cognitive care. This will include a description of our work to develop intelligent interaction interfaces for remote patient management systems and the creation of an in-game avatar coach to identify and help users in VR manage the effects of cybersickness.

Event directions

Once you are inside the Forestry Science building walk to the rear (south-east) of the building by passing through the large open study area and up the stairs to the 2nd level student (“treetop”) lounge area. Turn left, pass through the double doors, and room 2300 will be immediately to your right.

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DFP Seminar

About the speaker

Jordan Hovdebo & Robert DiRaddo

National Research Council of Canada

Dr. Jordan Hovdebo brings over 20 years of analysis and software development experience in both academic and industry-facing research and development. After obtaining his PhD at the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute applying analytical and numerical methods at the forefront of theoretical physics, Jordan undertook post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Manitoba and the National Research Council (NRC) focusing on supervised learning methods for magnetic resonance-derived biomarkers. Since joining the NRC in 2006, Jordan has gained extensive biomedical engineering experience developing market-ready software aligned with user needs in data-rich fields, winning both a Government of Canada Award for Innovation and an NRC award for bringing technologies to market. Jordan is currently responsible for building a team with experience in classical machine and deep learning in a biomedical context that is focused on the application of these skills in key research areas of the section, including decision support and autonomous agents.

Dr. Robert DiRaddo is Section Head of Simulation and Digital Health in the NRC’s Medical Devices Research Centre. He leads a staff of 30 employees working out of the Montreal and Winnipeg sites. Robert is a graduate of McGill University Engineering, with a PhD in polymer manufacturing. Prior to joining NRC, he worked in the private sector in the petrochemical industry. While at NRC, Robert has led teams working in polymer forming, manufacturing simulation, medical simulation and digital health. He has received numerous awards during his career, including the Government Of Canada Award for Excellence in Innovation for implementing a pan-Canadian research program in neurosurgical simulation. Robert currently holds an adjunct professor status at UBC and has also held adjunct professor status at McGill and University of Massachusetts.