Get to know the 2026 Summer Research Program cohort
Now in its sixth year, T-CAIREM's annual flagship 2026 Summer Research Program recently hosted its welcome session. The program provides paid internships to emerging researchers from across Canada, and gives them the chance to develop their skills by working alongside top artificial intelligence (AI) in health experts from the T-CAIREM community for at least 10 weeks.
The program educates trainees about the opportunities of applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in healthcare. Since its inception in 2021, more than 100 trainees have participated in the program. In 2026, 53 trainees submitted applications for this year's placements.
During their summer placement, trainees are introduced to rigorous methods used in real-world medical research, attend weekly professional development sessions to enhance their technical skills, and expand their professional network by working with experienced researchers and peers.
Most importantly, the program provides hands-on training through a real-world research project, guided by an established mentor. In addition, trainees build confidence in communicating complex research quickly and concisely to a non-specialized audience and help established researchers make measurable progress on their complex projects.
Enzo Baracuhy (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Mamatha Bhat (Ajmera Transplant Centre, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology)
Research Project: Biologically Driven cfDNA Methylation and Clinical AI Models for Non-Invasive Diagnosis of MASH
Seyedeh-Samin Barakati (Western University)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Samir Sinha (National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University)
Research Project: Co-Creating AI Literacy Resources to Support Safe Use of Health AI Tools Among Older Adults
Andrew Chen (Queen's University)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Tina Felfeli (University of Toronto)
Co-supervisor: Efrem Mandelcorn
Research Project: Predicting Postoperative Macular Hole Functional and Anatomical Outcomes Using Machine Learning on Optical Coherence Tomography Images
Rukun Dou (McGill University)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Jefferson Wilson (St. Michael's Hospital)
Co-supervisor: Vishwathsen Karthikeyan
Research Project: Achieving Fair AI for Precision Child and Youth Mental Health
Hina Huang (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Bachelor of Science
Supervisor: Lianne Singer (University Health Network)
Co-supervisor: Aman Sidhu
Research Project: Cumulative deficits frailty index scoring from health records in organ transplant patients using machine learning
Syona Joshi (McMaster University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Nadia Minian (CAMH)
Research Project: Ethical considerations involved in the development of a rule-based conversational agent that supports varenicline adherence for smoking cessation.
Oluwatosin (Tosin) Kasumu (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Biology and Psychology
Supervisor: Marta Maslej (CAMH)
Co-supervisor: Laura Sikstrom
Research Project: Exploring AI Attitudes in Emergency Psychiatry: A Human–Computer Interaction Experiment
Noor Khan (Queen's University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Errol Colak (St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto)
Research Project: Safeguarding Clinical Expertise in AI-Augmented Medical Imaging: An Evidence Synthesis on Skill Acquisition, Maintenance, and Loss in Radiology Training
Raphael Kwok (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Science
Supervisor: Frank Rudzicz (Dalhousie University and Vector Institute)
Co-supervisor: Amin Madani
Research Project: Physics-informed Adversarial Imitation Learning for Adaptive Tissue Retraction in Surgical Simulation
Owen Lee (Western University)
Program of study: Physiology
Supervisor: Chung-Wai Chow (University Health Network)
Co-supervisor: Amin Madani
Research Project: Automated quantitative analysis of airway morphology from computed tomography chest imaging in interstitial lung diseases: structure-function correlations
Emilia Markovic (Queen's University)
Program of study: Computing
Supervisor: Cynthia Hawkins (The Hospital for Sick Children)
Research Project: Application of Deep Learning to CSF Liquid Biopsies for Tumour Detection and Stratification
Kashaf Masood (Western University)
Program of study: Biomedical Engineering
Supervisor: Maged Goubran (Sunnybrook Research Institute)
Research Project: Developing personalized AI models to predict brain effective connectivity in Alzheimer’s disease resilience
Jaden Paltoo (University of Waterloo)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Unni Narayanan (The Hospital for Sick Children)
Research Project: Developing an AI‑Driven Retrieval‑Augmented Chatbot Leveraging Patient‑Reported Outcomes for Pediatric Fracture Care
Brahmleen Papneja (Queen's University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Ervin Sejdic (University of Toronto)
Co-supervisor: Rohit Mohindra
Research Project: Enhancing Emergency Department Patient Experience with a Non‑Clinical FAQ Chatbot: A Quality Improvement Evaluation of Safety, Acceptability, and Impact on Staff Interruptions
Aidan Parvinchi (McMaster University)
Program of study: Biochemistry
Supervisor: Lusia Sepiashvili (The Hospital for Sick Children)
Research Project: Uncovering hidden disease-specific cytokine networks in hyperinflammatory syndromes through AI
Kaya Risch (University of Ottawa)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Girish Kulkarni (University Health Network )
Co-supervisor: Laura Rosella
Research Project: ProCanPoRT: An Equity-Driven AI Model for Precision Prostate Cancer Screening
Sina Sayyad (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Fok-Han Leung (University of Toronto)
Research Project: A Research Program Evaluating the Validity and Perceptibility of Synthetic AI-Generated ECGs in Multiple Choice Assessments for Family Medicine Residents
Amarpreet Singh (Queen's University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: José Zariffa (University Health Network)
Research Project: Egocentric Video Deep Learning Pipelines for At-Home Hand Function Assessment
Alexander Stavropoulos (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Olga Bougie (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Development and Evaluation of Machine Learning Models to Predict Hysterectomy Outcomes using National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Data
Dream Tuitt-Barnes (Queen's University)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Michael Colacci (Unity Health Toronto )
Research Project: Who Gets Counted: A scoping review of sociodemographic bias evaluations in clinical AI models
Bonnie Wen (McMaster University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Tania Tajirian (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health )
Research Project: Implementation and Evaluation of an AI Scribe in a Mental Health Setting
Daniel Xie (McMaster University)
Program of study: Biomedical Engineering
Supervisor: Divya Sharma (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Generative AI-Powered Reinforcement Learning for Fair Rare Cell Augmentation in Single-Cell Foundation Models
Barberry Yu (Queen's University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Karim Ladha (Women’s College Hospital Research and Innovation Institute)
Research Project: Developing a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Pipeline and Conducting Mixed-Methods Research to Refine CARIS - A Conversational Tool Supporting Lonely and Socially Isolated Older Adults Recovering from Outpatient Total Joint Replacement
Luke Zhang (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Computer Science
Supervisor: Houman Khosravani (Sunnybrook Research Institute)
Research Project: Deep Learning for Dysphagia Screening: Cross-Domain Generalization from Stroke to Palliative Care using Continuous Speech
Patricia Zhang (McMaster University)
Program of study: Health Sciences
Supervisor: Zihang Lu (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Novel Unsupervised Machine-Learning Approaches for Characterizing Physical Activity Patterns in High-Resolution Wearable Sensor Data
Leo Zhu (University of British Columbia)
Program of study: Science
Supervisor: Christopher Yao (University Health Network )
Research Project: AI-Assisted Surgical Planning for TORS-ability in Head and Neck Cancer