Short Bio

Ed Sykes, Ph.D. (Computer Science), Ph.D. (Education)

Ed Sykes was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He received an Honours B.Sc. (1992) in Mathematics and Computer Science (Summa Cum Laude) from McMaster University, a M.Sc. (2005) in Computer Science from McMaster University and a Ph.D. (2012) in Computer Science from the University of Guelph. He has a B.Ed. (1993) and Ontario Teaching Certificate (OTC) from the University of Western Ontario, a M.Ed. (1998) and the Ph.D. (2006) in Education (Cognition and Learning) from Brock University.

Ed is the Director of Sheridan College’s Centre for Mobile Innovation (CMI). The CMI is an internationally recognized research centre that focuses on Mobile Health (mHealth) and creates innovative solutions to healthcare problems in collaboration with our industry and community partners using mobile technologies, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning/Deep Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), Wearable Computing, and Augmented/Virtual Reality. To date, Ed has accumulated over $13 million in research funds. These funds have enabled the CMI to grow and become a world-class research centre. Ed conducts and directs research in the CMI, leads and collaborates with over a dozen faculty researchers, 25+ research students (in any given semester) and 12+ industry partners (e.g., Apple, Microsoft, IBM, healthcare companies, and community partners such as hospitals). Ed is a newly appointed Adjunct Associate Professor in the Computing and Software Department, Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University and involved in the supervision and mentoring of MSc and PhD students. Ed is also working closely with KITE at the University Health Network (UHN) at the University of Toronto.

Ed has an excellent research track record – one book chapter, 21 journal articles, 26 international conference proceeding papers, and over 40 invited talks and presentations. Ed has supervised over 20 undergraduate and graduate students, collaborated with many industry partners, and faculty researchers. Ed recently won the 2021 NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation ($100,000) and the Minister’s Award of Excellence (2020) Minister of Colleges and Universities, for contributions in the community during COVID-19.

Ed has 20+ years of university/college level teaching experience using leading-edge technologies and have developed curriculum for many courses for McMaster University, Brock University, and Sheridan.

Ed has held many leadership positions including: SHARCNET Research Chair, Curriculum Architect, and Program Coordinator of Computer Science. As a SHARCNET Research Chair (Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network), Ed conducted research in high performance computing, big data, and visualization and encouraged other researchers to use SHARCNET resources. As Curriculum Architect, Ed co-led the design and development of a new Honours Bachelor degree in Computer Science (Mobile Computing). From inception to ministerial consent, Ed collaborated with faculty members and 22 university colleagues from across Canada including several international universities, and 14 industry partners. Ed has also held several other administrative positions such as Academic Advisor for the School of Applied Computing and Chair of the SHARCNET Site Leaders.

Awards:

  • NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation (2021) (Mobile Health research) [$100,000 award]
  • Minister’s Award of Excellence (2020) Minister of Colleges and Universities, for contributions in the community during COVID-19. The award program was open to all 24 colleges and 22 universities in Canada. Out of the 200+ submissions, I was one of the 39 recipients selected. [19.5% success rate]
  • NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship (2011) (Ph.D. research).
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology (2011) (Ph.D. research).
  • Brock University PhD Fellowship (2004) (Ph.D. research)
  • Brock University M.Ed. Fellowship (1998)
  • Best Ph.D. Presentation Award (2003) (IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education)
  • Dr. R. A. Thompson Prize. (1990) (Awarded to the student with the highest cumulative area average in Mathematics and Computer Science).
  • Summa Cum Laude (B.Sc. from McMaster University)
  • Dean’s Honour List (Last 9 years of university).

Ed gratefully acknowledges NSERC, CFI, MITACS, OCI, ORF-RE  and SHARCNET for funding received to support research projects.