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Dr. Alexander Ferworn | Lab Director  Dr. Ferworn coordinates the efforts of several faculty members and provide direction to a mixed team of a dozen doctoral and masters students and several post docs who perform applied research in the area of computational public safety—mostly related to USAR and the structural collapse of occupied buildings.

Rodney Yip | Strategic Advisor  Rodney has over 30 years of business continuity, disaster recovery and emergency management experience. Recently retired from IBM Canada, Rodney lends his skills to projects such as IMPACT 2030 which supports the United Nations Sustainable Development project and the Private Sector Partnership Working Group for United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Locally, Rodney is on the Advisory Committee of Canada’s Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (working under the auspices of Public Safety Canada) and also co-chairs the Private Sector Partnership Working Group therein. As an artificer, Rodney has prototyped devices for emergency management and disability management.

Fatima Hussain | Adjunct Professor, Senior Member, IEEE Fatima received the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada. She is an IEEE ComSoc distinguished speaker and has a diverse technical and professional background. She holds the position of Principal SaaS Security Architect at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Toronto, Canada. She is responsible for SaaS governance and security architecture, partnering closely with stakeholders in Enterprise Architecture, Cyber Security, and Cloud Risk. Prior to this role, she managed the User Behavior Analytics and Insider Threat Team, RBC, Toronto. She led the development and automation of AI models for applications to detect and remedy data loss from insider threats. She has vast practical experience in using AI, ML, NLP, and LLMs for anomaly detection, proactive monitoring, and data correlation services in the cyber security domain. She is the author of dozens of transaction papers and industrial patents. She was awarded with the title of “Cyber Inventor” in 2023 because of her contribution in Global Cyber Security in RBC. Her current research interests include machine learning and network security, user behavior analysis, SaaS security and governance, explainable and ethical artificial intelligence, and she has delivered several invited talks on these topics. She holds the editorship of the IEEE Newsletter Toronto Section for the last seven years and an associate editor of many prestigious IEEE journals, such as IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorial etc.. She serves as an Adjunct Professor and a Research Supervisor at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Her background include a number of distinguished professorships with TMU and University of Guelph, Guleph, ON, where she has been awarded for her research, teaching, and course development accomplishments within wireless Telecommunication and internet of Things. She has a proven track record of driving research initiatives, designing and deploying proof-of-concept pilots to solve business problems, and developing end-to-end solutions by leveraging cutting-edge technology.

Dalia Hanna | Post Doctoral Fellow Dalia is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the CPS Lab. AGE WELL National Agency funds her research work on developing a framework to locate lost persons with dementia using drones. She has a Ph.D. in Computer Science, M.Sc. in Instructional Design and Technology with a specialization in Online Learning and B.Sc. in Electronics and Communications Engineering. Among her certifications, she is a Professional engineer in Ontario (P.Eng.), a project management professional (PMP®), a certified facilitator and trainer for the Instructional Skills Workshops, and certified as an internal auditor for the ISO9000 quality standards. Dalia’s research interest in interdisciplinary programming, data analytics and algorithm design to locate missing persons using drones. Dalia’s published through national and international conferences. Dalia is currently an Associate Dean, School of Social and Life Sciences at Sheridan College. In this role, she provides academic leadership to faculty and staff in resource planning, management, academic excellence, and innovation in teaching and learning. She also develops and implements strategic plans to streamline the college’s academic planning process in coordination with the senior leadership team. Previously Dalia served as the Program Director, Community Services, Academic Coordinator, For the Certificate in Leadership and Community Development, and an Acting Director Community Engagement, Programs 50+ and Spanning the Gaps with The Chang School of Continuing Education. In these roles, she oversaw the development and management of community health, engagement, safety, and well-being programs. Her approach to community engagement focuses on prevalent concerns, including financial aid and post- graduation opportunities. As an instructor of information technology, project management professional communication at TMU and Westcliff University, she is dedicated to providing a learning environment that fosters equity, diversity and inclusion, an increasing demand in several communities.

David Chandross | Collaborator – Master of Digital Media Program David Chandross began his career as a neuroscientist working in the field of selective attention and cognitive science. After receiving his Ph.D. in curriculum and a second masters degree in medical education he went on to become an academic Dean and then held positions in senior administration across Canada in higher education. His work in gamification began in the 1990s and matured in at Ryerson University after which he accepted a position at the Simon Fraser University in the field of gamification under a 5-year, $3 million dollar simulation and advanced gaming environments federal grant. Currently, Dr. Chandross is a faculty member in the Masters Program In Digital Media at Ryerson University where his graduate students participates in research initiatives in gamification. He has served as the lead for the Game Design Unit for the World Health Organization Learning Academy  has recently completed a big video game project with the United Nations World Food Programme. Dr. Chandross is also the lead video game designer for a major television network in Canada, TFO. His current titles in use for training in health care include the video games Carthage, Hypatia, Symponia and other titles being delivered in the Canadian higher education system. He has ongoing collaborations with Baycrest Health Sciences, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Long Term Care and international tech startups.

Other Advisors

  • Vidal Chavannes | Associate Member of YSGS – Master of Digital Media Program
  • Elliot Coleshill | Adjunct Faculty Member
  • Eric Harley | Faculty Member
  • Vivian Hu | Faculty Member
  • Charles (Charlie) Mitchell | Field Expert/Advisor – SME CBRNe/EOD/IED
  • Salah Sharieh | Associate Member of YSGS – Master of Digital Media Program
  • Christopher Chan | Adjunct Faculty Member
  • Alan (Al) Thomas | Field Expert/Advisor – SME USAR, GSAR, SAR
  • Jimmy Tran | Post Doctoral Fellow
  • Alex Ufkes | MSc, Lab Manager
  • Hamza Hussain | Collaborator AI, Robotics and E-Health , William Beaumont School of Medicine, Oakland University
  • Steve Delaney | PhD Graduate from Computer Science at TMU

Doctoral Students

Masters Students

  • Liam Gregory | Masters Student
  • Murrium Zaheer | Masters Student – CPS Webmaster

Undergraduate Students

Noteworthy Alumni

  • Mehmet Demir | Graduated with PhD in Computer Science at Ryerson University
  • Christopher Chan | Graduated with PhD. and MSc. in Computer Science at Ryerson University
  • Cristina Ribeiro | Graduated with MSc. in Computer Science at Ryerson University
  • Katrina Hooper | Graduated with MSc. in Computer Science at Ryerson University
  • Naza Djafarova| Masters Student (ITM)
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