Dr. Edward R Sykes

Ed Sykes, Ph.D. (Computer Science), Ph.D. (Education)
Director, Centre for Mobile Innovation

Ed Sykes was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He received an Honours B.Sc. (1992) in Mathematics and Computer Science (Summa Cum Laude) from McMaster University, the M.Sc. (2005) in Computer Science from McMaster University and in July 2012 defended his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Guelph University. He has the B.Ed. (1993) from the University of Western Ontario, the M.Ed. (1998) and the Ph.D. (2006) in Education (Cognition and Learning) from Brock University.

Ed is the Director for Sheridan’s new Centre for Mobile Innovation (CMI). The CMI's focus is on healthcare, creating innovative solutions to problems by using leading mobile technologies, such as, Internet of Things (IoT), Wearable Computing, Augmented/Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality (AR/VR/MR), and Machine Learning. Leading analysts predict that aging societies are intensifying pressures on health systems and are demanding new directions and innovations in healthcare delivery, especially in long-term care and chronic disease. mHealth (mobile health) offers significant potential to bring greater precision to predicting patient behaviour, assessment and monitoring, and detecting and diagnosing diseases, while at the same time offering these services in a cost-effective manner. The Centre has secured substantial funds to date which  enables a rich program of research in mHealth by leveraging the following:

• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Wearable Computing
• Augmented/Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality (AR/VR/MR)
• Machine Learning

Ed is also a Professor in the new Honours Bachelor of Computer Science (Mobile Computing) degree in the School of Applied Computing, in the Faculty of Applied Science and Technology at Sheridan College. This new Mobile Computing degree started in September 2014 for which he was coordinator from 2014-2015. Ed has conducted applied research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and machine learning algorithms. Ed's PhD in Computer Science thesis entitled "Determining when to Interact: The Interaction Algorithm" focused on a machine learning algorithm (using an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) and HCI. Ed has over 27 years of teaching and research experience at Sheridan. He was previously an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Computing and Software at McMaster University and taught undergraduate and graduate-level courses at McMaster University and Brock University.

Since 2014, Ed has been awarded or co-awarded numerous NSERC Engage grants (each valued at $25,000) and 2 NSERC Applied Research and Development (Level 2) grants ($225,000 over 3 years) all in the field of Mobile Computing.

Ed was the recipient of the first SHARCNET College Research Chair appointment. SHARCNET is the largest High Performance Computing (HPC) consortium in Ontario and the largest in Canada by number of partners, and second largest by number of users and range of disciplines supported – over 150 research areas, 4,000+ user accounts, and 1,000 research groups. SHARCNET has had a significant impact on teaching, learning, and Applied Research activities at Sheridan and its other 17 member institutions.

Ed gratefully acknowledges NSERC, CFI, MITACS, OCE, ORF  and SHARCNET for funding received to support research projects.