The Xinova innovator team is brainstorming and testing truly innovative solutions to improve the timeliness, quality and visibility of data for the malaria supply chain in Northern Nigeria.
Joining our team is Dr. Pourang Irani.
Dr. Pourang Irani is a Computer Science professor and Canada Research Chair in Ubiquitous Analytics. He has been teaching computer science courses and working at the cutting edge of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research at the University of Manitoba since 2002, where he founded the HCI lab.
His work sits at the intersection of Mobile Computing and Data Visualization and is pioneering the field of Ubiquitous Analytics, which involves the development of interactive and visualization tools for sensemaking “anywhere” and “anytime”. He advises a dynamic group of post-doctoral fellows, PhD and MSc graduate students as well as undergraduate students, who work towards developing novel data analytics technologies on mobile platforms, including smartphones and head-worn displays.
Given the interdisciplinary nature of his research, his team includes members with very diverse backgrounds from Computer Science, Psychology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Graphic Design and Mathematics. He has published over 180 peer reviewed articles and filed over half-dozen patents. Along with his students and collaborators, he is the recipient of numerous awards for papers presented at some the most prestigious venues in his field.
He is on the editorial board for the leading journal in his field, the Transactions on Human Computer Interaction and has participated on review boards for national and international granting agencies. He has collaborated and published numerous articles with researchers at multi-national firms, including Microsoft Research, Autodesk Research and the Honda Research Institute.
Raised in Niger, West Africa, his participation on the project for Malaria Prevention with Data stems not only from his interest in applying his technical expertise to a challenging problem but also from his personal experiences with Malaria.
– Dr Pourang Irani
He views the data challenge as a unique opportunity to explore technical perspectives he has developed over the years, to a problem close to ‘home’. He left West Africa in 1991 to continue his higher education at the University of New Brunswick, in Canada.