Riaan Oberholzer  (Postdoctoral Fellow)

During my current postdoc tenure at the University of Guelph, I am focusing on research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). My other publications and conference presentations focus mainly on research in the field of Artificial Intelligence, specifically concerning combinatorial optimization and data presentation.

The largest part of my industry experience centers around research and development in the Medical field, with a primary focus in High Frequency Ultrasound (HIFU) devices and treatments. These devices facilitate non-invasive surgeries, which means they can ablate metastasized bone tumors, fibroids, etc. without using a scalpel. Other devices I have worked on are used to ablate plac on the brain, the major cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The research and development involving these devices included collaboration with the Sunnybrook Research Institute, interacting with substantially large PACS image datasets, complex data visualizations (e.g., converting sets of 2D DICOMS to a single 3D voxel representation), intricate real-time data analyses (e.g., combining real-time streams of large hydrophone datasets and detecting cavitation, using GPU cores for multi-threaded analyses) and developing software to communicate with Siemens MRIs.

Kassidy is an undergraduate student pursuing a joint honors degree in Computer Science at the University of Guelph. She did a full-time URA in the summer of 2018 with Dr. Stacey Scott, where she conducted research on the emerging field of Precision Livestock Farming. Her research focused on technology for the monitoring of cattle in outdoor environments. Currently, Kassidy is working with Dr. Scott on a senior undergraduate project that will allow her to further investigate the technology she researched in the summer.