T-CAIREM announces 2025 cohort of summer research students

We are thrilled to introduce the 27 trainees participating in T-CAIREM's flagship 2025 Summer Research Program. This is the fifth year of the annual program, which lasts for 10 weeks. These paid internship opportunities provide emerging researchers from across Canada with an opportunity to develop their skills by working with leading artificial intelligence (AI) in health experts from the T-CAIREM community.

The Summer Research Program informs and educates trainees about the opportunities and challenges of applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to health. Since its inception in 2021, 93 trainees have participated in the program. In 2025, 53 applications were submitted for this year's available placements.

During their summer placement, trainees are introduced to the rigorous methods used in real-world medical research, attend weekly professional development sessions to enhance their technical skills, and expand their professional network to facilitate learning from experienced researchers and peers alike.

The aims of the program are to increase the knowledge of AI tools in medical applications among a diverse cohort of trainees by providing hands-on practical training with a real-world research project under the guidance of an established mentor. In addition, trainees develop their confidence in communicating complex research quickly and concisely to a non-specialized audience by observing presentations by other trainees and presenting their own projects to their peers. Finally, the program helps leading researchers make measurable progress on their complex projects by having an entry-level trainee assist with day-to-day activities such as accessing health datasets and developing algorithmic models.

Adan Amer (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Epidemiology
Supervisor: Nicholas Mitsakakis (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (CHEO-RI))
Co-supervisor: Kathleen Pajer
Research Project: Achieving Fair AI for Precision Child and Youth Mental Health

Adnan Ahmed (York University)
Program of study: Computer Science
Supervisor: Melanie Courtot (Ontario Institute for Cancer Research)
Research Project: Automating variant extraction and pathogenicity assessment from clinical texts using Large Language Models in the context of the Ontario Hereditary Cancer Research Network

Haaniya Ahmed (McMaster University)
Program of study: Biomedical and Mechatronics Engineering
Supervisor: Andrew Sage (UHN-University Health Network)
Research Project: Developing Digital Twins for Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion

Umar Azmi (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Milad Lankarany (UHN)
Research Project: Developing a Graph-based Foundational Model for Electroencephalography (EEG) for Patients with Epilepsy

Muhammad Enrizky Brillian (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Data Science & Machine Learning
Supervisor: Mamatha Bhat (University Health Network)
Co-supervisor: Divya Sharma
Research Project: Using Multimodal AI to Predict Histological Response in Liver Transplant Recipients with Rejection

Justin Chang (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Psychology, Cognitive Science 
Supervisor: Clement Zai (CAMH)
Research Project: Exploring Risk, Protective, and Genetic Factors for PTSD Among Canadian Older Adults

Junzi Chen (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Biostatistics
Supervisor: Depeng Jiang (University of Manitoba)
Co-supervisor: Philip St. John
Research Project: Development and validation of statistical and machine learning models for frailty in elders: Patient-oriented approach from the outcomes

Joshua Cheruvathur (McGill University)
Program of study: Physiology
Supervisor: Girish Kulkarni (University Health Network)
Co-supervisor: Laura Rosella
Research Project: Development and Validation of the Prostate Cancer Socially Optimized Assessment of Risk (PCa-SOAR) Algorithm.

Humza Iqbal (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Computer Science and Statistics
Supervisor: Christopher Sun (University of Ottawa Heart Institute)
Research Project: AI-Augmented ECG Analysis for Cardiac Diagnostics and Personalized Care

Yusuf Jaffer (Queen's University)
Program of study: Life Sciences
Supervisor: Shaf Keshavjee (Toronto General Hospital Research Institute)
Co-supervisor: Andrew Sage
Research Project: Optimizing the InsighTx Model for Ex Vivo Lung Transplants with Recipient Data to Improve Outcomes

Jingwen Ji (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Information Studies
Supervisor: Beyza Ciftci (Western University)
Research Project: Machine Learning for Personalized Risk Stratification and Treatment Optimization in Multiple Sclerosis

Jake Lance (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Computer Science and Cognitive Science
Supervisor: Houman Khosravani (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre)
Research Project: PAL-MASA (Palliative Care Assisted Learning - Machine Learning Assisted Swallowing Assessment)

Nicholas Li (Western University)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Robert Wu (UHN)
Research Project: Leveraging AI to Decode Cough Features Predictive of Acute Exacerbations in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Neil Lin (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Christopher Yao (UHN)
Research Project: Towards AI-Assisted Surgical Planning in Head and Neck Cancer

Lucas Makhlouf  (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Sociocultural and Linguistic and Medical Anthropology
Supervisor: Laura Sikstrom (CAMH-Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics)
Research Project: Developing a Knowledge-User Informed Ethical Framework to Guide Implementation for AI-enhanced Violence Risk Prediction in Acute Psychiatry

Mithun Manivannan (McMaster University)
Program of study: Kinesiology and Mathematical Data Science
Supervisor: Christopher Cheung
Research Project: Predicting Conduction Disturbances and Pacemaker Requirements After TAVI Using Machine Learning

David Mikhail (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Matthew Schlenker (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Semantic Segmentation of Surgical Instruments in Cataract Surgery Training: A Longitudinal Study

Shlok Panchal (McMaster University)
Program of study: Integrated Biomedical Engineering & Health Sciences
Supervisor: Alice Kam (University of Toronto)
Co-supervisor: Joseph Cafazzo
Research Project: Artificial Intelligence Objective Structured Clinical Examination (AI-OSCE) for Compassionate Care: A Pilot Study on AI-Human Concordance in Assessing Tacit Knowledge.

Skerdi Progri (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Physiology and Neuroscience
Supervisor: Kâmil Uludağ (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Leveraging deep learning to automatically segment the human claustrum in ultra-high field MRI

Archita Srivastava (Simon Fraser University)
Program of study: Computing Science
Supervisor: Anne Martel (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Improving Pre-Surgical Diagnosis in Breast Cancer: Leveraging Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training (CLIP) to Predict Upstaging in Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS)

Evan Su (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Computer Science 
Supervisor: Lena Palaniyappan (McGill University)
Co-supervisor: Alban Voppel
Research Project: Leveraging Large Language Models in Psychiatry: Evaluating AI’s Assessment Capabilities of Language Disorders

Mathew Szymanowski (Toronto Metropolitan University)
Program of study: Biomedical Engineering
Supervisor: José Zariffa (KITE Research Institute; Toronto Rehabilitation Institute; Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto)
Research Project: 3D hand pose estimation for use in an augmented reality system to support home-based rehabilitation after cervical spinal cord injury

Gimantha Tennakoon Mudiyansel (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Eric Benchimol (Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children)
Research Project: Predicting Mortality in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Population-Based Study to Inform Health System Planning

Nima Toussi (University of Saskatchewan)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Noah Crampton (University of Toronto)
Research Project: GUIDE-AI - Guidelines for Understanding and Implementing Documentation Education with AI

Chong Wan (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Computer Science, Bioinformatics
Supervisor: Chung-Wai Chow (University of Toronto)
Co-supervisor: Shahrokh Valaee
Research Project: Implementation of Machine Learning algorithm using common spirometry metrics to interpret lung function

Julia Wiercigroch (University of Toronto)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Christopher Witiw (University of Toronto)
Research Project: Automated Surgical Intervention Support Tool for Traumatic Brain Injury (ASIST-TBI)

Enoch Yu (Queen's University)
Program of study: Medicine
Supervisor: Farshad Nassiri (University of Toronto)
Co-supervisor: Leeor Yefet
Research Project: Real-Time Intraoperative Residual Brain Tumor Tissue Segmentation using Computer Vision on Endoscopic and Microscopic Surgical Video