Team

Research Team

Eric Kwabia, M.Sc., B.Sc.

Ph.D. Candidate

Eric Kwabia is a registered nurse by profession. He acquired his BSc Nursing degree from the University of Ghana in 2009 and completed his MSc in Telemedicine and eHealth at The Arctic University of Norway in 2015. Prior to moving to Regina, Eric worked with the Ministry of Health in Ghana as a Program coordinator for Telenursing and eHealth. Currently, he is completing a Master’s degree in Public Policy at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy and working as a Graduate Research Assistant at the DEPtH Lab. He is interested in health research interventions using the SMART Platform. Eric’s career objective is to become an eHealth policy expert and a renowned researcher in academia.

Ph.D. Candidate

Prasanna graduated with double degree masters in European Public Health from the United Kingdom and France. She also holds a MPhil degree in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work from India. Prasanna believes in transforming public health research into policy and action. This further motivated her to pursue a Ph.D. in Public Policy at Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy under the supervision of Dr. Katapally. Prior to that, she worked over a decade as a WHO Consultant with Central and State governments, and other non-profit organizations coordinating national health programs, behavioral interventions, population research and leading health program evaluations. She is passionate about community-based participatory research to promote physical and mental health and addressing substance use among children and youth using the innovative SMART platform.

Sarah Alakshar, M.Sc., B.Pharm

Ph.D. Candidate, Health Information Science

Sarah Alakshar has a master’s degree in Clinical Pharmacy from Ajman University in UAE. Her interest in Mental health led her to pursue addictions and mental health Diploma. She is passionate about establishing a career in Academia and Research. Her research interest is about the Mental Health of disadvantaged populations. Her previous research was mainly quantitative but she is interested in people’s perceptions and experiences, an aspect that she loves about qualitative research. She joined the DEPtH Lab to apply her diverse expertise and skills as well as collaborate with disadvantaged communities. As part of DEPtH Lab, Sarah aims to obtain training in cutting-edge digital citizen science to inform the development of equitable digital health platforms.She enjoys long walks, Arabic calligraphy and acrylic painting.

Sheriff Ibrahim, MA, B.Sc.

Ph.D. Candidate, Health Information Science

Sheriff brings his expertise in quantitative economics to DEPtH Lab by focusing on efficiencies in health care systems to improve the well-being of disadvantaged populations. Since early childhood, he had an aptitude for numbers, which led him to develop a passion towards coding. Sheriff is obtaining training at DEPtH Lab to build a career in data science and digital epidemiology. Joining the research team at the DEPtH Lab has enabled him to leverage big data ethically to contribute towards minimizing health inequities. His hobbies are coding, travelling and listening to music.

Nadine Elsahli

Lab Coordinator

Nadine Elsahli is an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. She is pursuing an Honours Specialization in Health Sciences and a Minor in Psychology. Nadine enjoys learning about the interdisciplinary nature of health studies, and recently joined the DEPtH Lab because of her shared interest in using digital health and innovation to promote health equity. She has experience in knowledge translation, community-engaged research, and social media content creation. Currently, she is coordinating a number of projects within the lab, including Active Healthy Kids India (AHKI) and Smart Indigenous Youth.

Development Team

Kushal Manvar, MSc

Research Associate (Computer Science)

Kushal Manvar is pursuing his Master’s in Applied Computing at the University of Windsor. Kushal identifies himself as a team player who enjoys a fast-paced work environment and interdisciplinary collaborations. Kushal’s expertise in software development and machine learning algorithms led him to obtain the Mitacs Accelerate Internship with the DEPtH Lab. Currently he is working under the supervision of Dr. Katapally to develop multiple digital health platforms.

Harshil Parikh, MS

Research Associate (Computer Science)

Harshil Parikh is currently pursuing his post graduate diploma in Web technologies. Having acquired his Masters in Software Engineering from California Baptist University, he is focusing on how his research could help shape the digital era in Healthcare industry. Harshil’s research interests are primarily in the areas of Biometrics, Artificial Intelligence and Software development. His passion to develop next generation digital health technologies led him to join the research and development team of the DEPtH Lab.

Niaz Chalabianloo, PhD

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Niaz Chalabianloo received his PhD degree in computer engineering from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. Previously, he worked as a researcher in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie H2020 European ITN project AffecTech (Personal Technologies For Affective Health) for three years. He also worked as an adjunct lecturer at the Azad University of Tabriz for two years. Niaz brings his expertise in Affective Computing, Wearable Computing, Digital Health, and Ubiquitous Computing to DEPtH Lab initiatives. As part of his postdoctoral fellowship, Niaz is developing an innovative digital epidemiological research program under the supervision of Dr. Katapally.

Jamin Patel

Undergraduate Trainee

Jamin Patel is an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University. He is pursuing an Honours Specialization in Health Sciences. He is passionate about using innovative technology such as mHealth to improve the wellbeing of disadvantaged populations. Previously, he led several health equity initiatives in partnership with local organizations in London, Ontario. Jamin started epidemiological training under Dr. Katapally’s supervision since May 2022 as part of Western University’s Undergraduate Summer Research Internship. His current skill set includes setting up community-based interventions, quantitative and qualitative methods, and designing of disease prevention strategies. Jamin is currently obtaining advanced training in quantitative methods, and digital epidemiological approaches.