We’re proud to welcome Inès Arous to Connected Minds. With a focus on human-centered natural language processing and explainable AI, Ines is helping shape the future of trustworthy, socially responsible technologies.

Grateful for last week’s unforgettable Neuroscience Leadership Training—insightful discussions on team management, AI tools, and advancing science. Huge thanks to Gunnar Blohm, Konrad Kording, the mentors, and the inspiring Neuro4Pro cohort!

We’re excited to welcome Danica Pawlick-Potts to Connected Minds as one of our newest Research-Enhanced Hires. www.yorku.ca/research/con...

Connected Minds 2025 Conference - Spotlight Session: Technologies for Remote Health and Embodiment 📅 October 6–8 | 📍York University, Toronto Early bird registration is open until August 24th: lnkd.in/gmefWbTU Abstract submissions is open until September 5th: lnkd.in/gFDXggs5

Connected Minds 2025 Conference - Spotlight Session: Mobility and Accessibility. 📅 October 6–8 | 📍York University, Toronto Early bird registration is open until August 10th: lnkd.in/gmefWbTU Abstract submissions now being accepted: lnkd.in/gFDXggs5

Connected Minds 2025 Conference - Spotlight Session: Brain-Computer Interface and Society 📅 October 6–8 | 📍York University, Toronto Early bird registration is open until August 10th: lnkd.in/gmefWbTU Abstract submissions now being accepted: lnkd.in/gFDXggs5

Connected Minds 2025 Conference - Spotlight Session: Social Robots in Health 📅 October 6–8 | 📍York University, Toronto Early bird registration is open until August 24th: lnkd.in/gmefWbTU Abstract submissions is open until September 5th: lnkd.in/gFDXggs5

Connected Minds 2025 Conference - Spotlight Session: Mobility and Accessibility 📅 October 6–8 | 📍York University, Toronto Early bird registration is open until August 10th: lnkd.in/gmefWbTU Abstract submissions now being accepted: lnkd.in/gFDXggs5

Congratulations to Dr. Alvine Boaye Belle, Ph.D. and Dr. Adeyemi Olusola, PhD on receiving York’s Black Research Seed Fund. www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Congratulations to Connected Minds members Dr. Jagdeep Walia, Dr. Karen Yeates, and Dr. Catherine Donnelly on earning major funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)supporting advances in patient care, health equity, and therapeutic innovation. www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

At Canada AI Day 2025, Connected Minds joined leaders in academia, industry, and policy to explore how we can make AI more transparent, equitable, and human-centered. To read more check the link: www.yorku.ca/research/con...

Congratulations to Dr. Joshua Marshall, professor at Queen's University, for being named one of CIM Magazine’s 2025 Names to Know! To read full article check the link: magazine.cim.org/en/voices/nt...

Congratulations to Amir Eskandari on his newly published paper at IEEE COMPSAC 2025! Read the paper here: ameskandari.github.io/sda-grin/

(1/6) Early Bird Registration is Now Open! Join us in Toronto for the Connected Minds Conference 2025 from October 6–8, 2025! www.yorku.ca/research/con... #ConnectedMinds2025 #BrainsMachinesSociety #InterdisciplinaryResearch #AI #Neuroscience #DigitalHealth #HumanTechnologyInteraction

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Amanada Bongers -Who has a voice? Listening to Students' Overlooked Experiences in the Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Michele Morningstar- Parents vs. Peers: Probing the Influence of Context on Social Information Processing in Adolescence www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Kate Harkness -Theory of Mind-linked Behaviors’: Predicting Success in Social Interaction Catherine Stinson- Eliza's Ghosts: Can Chatbots be Psychotherapists? www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Randy Flanagan -Coordination and Control of Gaze and Hand Movements in Goal-directed Action Tasks Samual Dahan -Exploring Human-AI Methods for Access to Justice www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Jianbing Ni -Security, Privacy, and Robustness in Machine Learning at the Network Edge Xiaodan Zhu -Exploring Robust Natural Language and Reasoning Models with Deployment in High-stakes Applications www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Farhana Zulkernine -Advancing Machine Perception for Situation-Aware Goal-Oriented Human Machine Interaction Pouya Amiri -Central and Peripheral Mechanisms of Human Balance Control www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Keyvan Hashtrudi-Zaad Fundamental Solutions for High-Fidelity Human Haptic Interaction Effie Pereira -Uncovering the Basic Mechanisms that Drive the Temporal Dynamics of Selective Attention www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Gunnar Blohm- Distributed Motor Planning and Control Il-Min Kim -Advancing Federated Edge Learning: A Secure and Adaptive Framework of Artificial Intelligence www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to CM Members for their recent funding awards! Qingguo Li- Next Generation Smart Personal Protective Equipment to Combat Heat, Load And Radiation Exposure in Clinical Environments Amy Wu -Breast Pump Designed with Ecological Breastfeeding in Mind www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Congratulations to Connected Minds trainee, Rupsha Mutsuddi, on receiving the prestigious SSHRC-CRSH – Doctoral (CGS-D) Award!

ER closures are rising. Can data help stop them? Dr. Salimur Choudhury from Queen’s University is using data to help predict and prevent them. Read more in “The Data-Driven Future of Healthcare Resource Planning” by Connected Minds trainee Erika Johannessen: www.queensu.ca/connected-mi...

Connected Minds has awarded $7.5 million to support five groundbreaking interdisciplinary research teams led by scholars at York and Queen’s Universities. To read more about this amazing research teams click link bellow www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Last week, Connected Minds trainees went behind the scenes to explore immersive storytelling in action. At BETASPACE, they experienced two powerful 360° films in the virtual dome: "Emerging from the Water" by Dr. Mary Bunch and "Inside the Chrysalis" by Dr. Taien Ng-Chan.

Our CM Kean B. offers a sharp critique of Canada's decision to cancel the digital services tax in his latest Toronto Star opinion piece: “Killing the digital services tax is a step backwards.” Read the piece here: www.thestar.com/best-of/

Connected Minds proudly congratulates Professor Shayna Rosenbaum on being named a 2025 Distinguished Research Professor at York, one of the institution’s highest honours.

Connected Minds is deepening its work in the co-creation space, and we’re excited to welcome Michelle Charette as a new Research Associate contributing to this effort.

Congratulations to Dr. Tracy Jenkin, Connected Minds member and faculty at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University, on receiving the Junior Scholar Paper Competition Award from the POMS College of Human Behaviour in Operations at this year’s conference in Atlanta.

Dr. Laura Levin is redefining graduate mentorship through global art residencies, cross-cultural field schools, and performance-based social justice work. Dr. Levin supervises students on a wide range of topics beyond international relations. www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

What if you could actually feel virtual reality? Our latest article, “Meta-Physical Theatre: Making Touch Real in Virtual Reality,” dives into the groundbreaking work of Dr. Pan and Dr. Wheeler written by Connected Minds trainee Jaspreet D. To read more click the link: www.queensu.ca/connected-mi...

Congratulations to Dr. Vedat Verter, Connected Minds member and leading voice in healthcare operations, on receiving the 2025 CORS Award of Merit, the highest honors from the Canadian Operational Research Society.

Congratulations to our Connected Minds researcher, Dr. Ian Stedman, on being named a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Law, Policy and Personalized Healthcare! Read more at the link below: www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Congratulations to our Connected Minds researcher, Dr. Shayna Rosenbaum, on being named a Tier 1 York Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory! Read more at the link below: www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Congratulations to our Connected Minds researcher, Dr. Jonathan Penney, on being named a Tier 2 York Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance and the Law! Read more at the link below: www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Congratulations to our Connected Minds researcher, Dr. Elham Dolatabadi , on being named a Tier 2 York Research Chair in in Safe AI for Health Equity! Read more at the link below: www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Congratulations to our Connected Minds researcher, Dr. Aijun An, on being named a Tier 1 York Research Chair in Reliable Artificial Intelligence! Read more at the link below: www.yorku.ca/yfile/2025/0...

Excited to share that Connected Minds PhD trainee Amir Eskandari and his supervisor Dr. Farhana Zulkernine have had their paper accepted at IEEE COMPSAC! To read more check the link: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Congratulation to Dr. Jennifer Flemming & Dr. Divya Sharma are part of a dynamic research team awarded nearly $2 million from CIHR to tackle inequities in liver transplant care through AI innovation. webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/decisions/p/...

Dr. Dr Teresa Purzner Neurosurgeon transforming brain tumor treatment path for Kingston patients www.thewhig.com/news/neurosu...

City Kingston organize Science Rendezvous . It is great to have a chance to inspire the next generation Robotics and AI researchers. Thanks to Ted Hsu and Mark Garretsen and some CM trainees for stopping by our booth to learn about Ingenuity Labs Research Institute Research.

Congratulations to Dr. Catherine Donnelly on being awarded the Muriel Driver Memorial Lectureship at the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT). A national leader in occupational therapy, education, and research her impact continues to shape the future of care.

We're proud to share Bridging Insight and Action to Support People Experiencing Homelessness, a new initiative led by our Postdoc Dr. Frederic Fu, in partnership with York University researchers and frontline shelter staff. The initiative aims up to improve homelessness support with a focus on EDI.

Happening now at the BCI Society meeting in the Jenny Belzberg Theatre. Connected Minds CFREF is proud to be the official sponsor of the Neuroethics Session exploring the timely issue of neurotech device abandonment.

Congratulation to Dr. Abeer Badawi, Ph.D., our Connected Minds postdoc, and Dr. Elham Dolatabadi, on the acceptance of their latest paper to ICML 2025, one of the world’s leading conferences in AI! Read the full paper here: arxiv.org/abs/2503.16456

Laura Levin, Jayna Mees, and Michael Wheeler co-authored an article in Canadian Theatre Review XR Performance exploring VR performance, political storytelling techniques, and expanding on the "Liveness Plus" concept from the FuturStage Manifesto (2020). Read more: utppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3...

Congratulations to Connected Minds researchers Dr. Amy Wu, Dr. Pouya Amiri, Dr. Jianbing Ni, and Dr. Parvin Mousavi for securing Ontario research funding to push the boundaries of what’s possible. To read more check on the link: www.queensu.ca/gazette/stor...

Come visit the Connected Minds team at the Canadian Association for Neuroscience in Toronto to learn about exciting opportunities through our CFREF-funded initiative at York University and Queen’s University and also about our Neurotech Micro-credentials Program.