THUNDER BAY – A pair of Lakehead University researchers have been awarded a combined $500,000 to continue their research work.
Dr. Zubair Fadlullah, an associate professor in computer science and a research chair at Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute, is getting $250,000 over two years to study the use of drones to address the lack of reliable internet access and health-care connectivity in Northern Ontario’s rural areas.
Dr. Maryam Ebrahimi, an assistant professor in chemistry and a Tier 2 Canada research chair in low-dimensional nanomaterials, is also getting $250,000 over two years to look into the enduring mystery of life’s origins in the cosmos.
The funding comes from the federal New Frontiers in Research Fund.
Fadullah’s research will look into the urban-rural digital and health-care divide.
“Connectivity is a key enabler for providing smart health care by monitoring and managing physical/mental health conditions and addiction trends,” Fadlullah wrote in his research proposal, which the university provided in a release issued on Thursday.
His work will study the use of a drone network, coupled with cost-effective device-to-device relays, as well as wearable technology employed in remote communities. The research will be conducted first at the university and later at a Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nation community.
Ebrahimi’s work will be a collaboration with partners at the Technical University of Munich and involves the study of peptide bonds formation from non-amino acid reactacts under ultra-high vacuum conditions resembling conditions found in outer space.
“If peptide bonds are formed from a non-amino acid pathway under controlled UHV conditions, can amino acids still be assigned as the unique evolutionary path of the origin of life?” Dr. Ebrahimi said.
