MecE student's perseverance earns awards

Milad Nazarahari's work on biosensors has been recognized with several scholarships

26 July 2019

Mechanical Engineering PhD student, Milad Nazarahari, has added an Honorary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship to his collection of scholarships, which includes a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholatship, and a Sadler Graduate Scholarship from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Nazarahari attributes these successes to perseverance and a willingness to learn.

"I applied twice to Alberta Innovates and three times to the Killam," he says. "You learn from the applications that aren't funded and try again."

Nazarahari works with Dr. Hossein Rouhani developing wearable sensors for measuring movement in the lower limbs of patients living with spinal cord injuries of who have had a stroke.

"We are developing sensors that people can wear while they're doing rehabilitation training with their therapists," he explains. "Our sensors can provide feedback for the patient and the therapist that will contribute to their therapy and reduce their time in hospital and in therapy."

"The concept for the shoulder motion measurement is similar to the lower limb sensor. We want to measure differences between healthy people and people with a nerve injury called brachial plexus injury."

Nazarahari has always been interested in mechatronics and signal processing and his work with Dr. Rouhani allows him to combine these interests with an interest in biomedical engineering.

"During my MSc I worked on a technology to classify electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. I developed a signal processing technology that allows for the identification of 8 cardiac arrhythmias."

After his MSc, Nazarahari knew he wanted to come to the University of Alberta and work with Dr. Rouhani for his PhD.

"I had another offer at another school but I very much wanted to work with Dr. Rouhani because of his work on control technologies and their biomedical applications."

"The Killam is great recognition of this exceptional student and I look forward to seeing what his next achievements will be," says Rouhani.

For Milad Nazarahari, determination and perseverance have been the keys to his success.