Carleton alumni Muhammad Arsalan and Atif Shamim have added yet another honour to their growing list of awards. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) announced Monday that they received an honourable mention and $1,500 as part of the 2010 Innovation Challenge Awards.
They won for their development of a wireless dosimeter that is capable of real-time monitoring of radiation dosages for cancer patients who are undergoing radiotherapy.
“I am very impressed with the high calibre of the proposals we received from universities across Canada,” said Dr. Suzanne Fortier, president of NSERC. “These young researchers understand that the ability to translate new knowledge into innovative products and services is an important factor for ensuring Canada’s prosperity.”
Earlier this year, Arsalan and Shamim won the 2010 Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI). In 2008, they also won the OCRI Student Researcher of the Year Award, making them the only students to have received both awards.
Before graduating with PhD degrees from Carleton last year, the pair conducted brilliant research that won a string of awards and led to the development of their own business. Both were students with the Department of Electronics.
Their company VSM Technologies is focused on creating a wearable medical patch which continuously measures vital signs like heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature and can communicate with medical authorities through Bluetooth and WiFi-enabled personal communication devices. This concept could improve patient safety and reduce the workload in hospital emergency and critical care departments. The patch employs a 3D package that enables wireless circuits to reduce power consumption and help extend battery life that can also be used for wireless devices such as cell phones, GPS and laptops.
The Innovation Challenge Award was launched in 2004 by NSERC and the Canadian Science and Technology Growth Fund. The program is currently sponsored by the Business Development Bank (BDC) of Canada and NSERC.
NSERC is a federal agency whose vision is to help make Canada a country of discoverers and innovators for the benefit of all Canadians. The agency supports some 28,000 university students and post-doctoral fellows in their advanced studies. NSERC promotes discovery by funding more than 11,800 university professors every year and fosters innovation by encouraging more than 1,500 Canadian companies to participate and invest in post-secondary research projects.
BDC is Canada’s business development bank. From more than 100 business centres across the country, BDC promotes entrepreneurship by providing highly tailored financing, venture capital and consulting services to entrepreneurs.
