Our Team
SED Lab Director
Myrtede Alfred is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining University of Toronto, she served as a research assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina where she spent the past three years applying her expertise as a human factors engineer to improve the delivery of care through both research and practice. She obtained her PhD in industrial engineering from Clemson University (2017). During her tenure at Clemson, she held the SREB Dissertation Fellowship and Janine Bowen Graduate Fellowship and earned multiple awards for teaching and outreach including the College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Science’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant and MLK Jr. Excellence in Service Award. She is also the executive director of Marie's Kids STEAM education nonprofit.
Professor Alfred’s research examines the role of sociotechnical systems factors in supporting or hindering safety in clinical systems, with specific interests in surgical instrument reprocessing, robotic-assisted surgery, anesthesia medication delivery, and retained foreign objects. Complementing the social determinants of health framework, her research also leverage human factors and systems engineering to examine clinical systems contributions to healthcare disparities.
Matthew Chambers
Research Assistant
Matthew completed his undergraduate degree in International Development Studies from the University of Toronto Scarborough. Recognizing the emerging importance of sustainability-related Canadian commercial real estate solutions, he pursued a Master's degree in Sustainability Management at the University of Toronto Mississauga. During this time, he received the Alectra Graduate Fellowship Award for his academic performance and commitment to sustainability. Matthew also worked as a Sustainability Consultant at BOMA Canada and established Chambers Consulting Group to support underrepresented BIPOC groups within the Canadian commercial real estate industry. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. within the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Matthew’s research focuses on enhancing the flexibility and sustainability of intensive care units for future pandemic-like scenarios.
Nicole Hicks
Research Assistant
Nicole is a MASc student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She recently completed her BASc in Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto (2022). Within the SED lab, her research is focused on identifying data analysis approaches to uncover racial/ethnic inequities and process deviations in the maternal health process.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Deenar is an Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. She investigates macro-ergonomic methods used to analyze healthcare systems and patient safety.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lee Zheng is a 3rd year Computer Engineering student at the University of Toronto. His research focus in the SED lab is to assist in designing and conducting usability testing on the ML-empowered PSE reporting interface. Working with 2 other undergraduate researchers, he will help design the interface and assess various approaches for integrating the machine learning algorithm and explainability feature into the interface. Additionally, he will assist with conducting iterative usability testing with healthcare professionals.
Danne Mohamed
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Danne Mohamed is a second-year student at Queen's University, specializing in Computer Science and Math/Statistics. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Danne's research focuses on the impacts of obstetric unit closures in New York. Using skills in coding, data scraping, and statistical analysis, this summer she will analyse the socio-economic impact and effects on community health access caused by these closures. Additionally, she will work on developing models to predict future closures.
Celeste Moriana
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Celeste is a 2nd year Industrial Engineering Student at the University of Toronto (U of T). Throughout the 2024-25 summer, she will contribute to SEDLab, focusing on the Patient Journey Mapping Project. Her responsibilities will include creating patient journey maps and conducting data analysis. Additionally, Celeste will assist in the preparation of an abstract for the UnERD Conference at U of T, in addition to a conference submission for the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare.
Alicia Kho
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Alicia Kho is a second-year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. In the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, her research centers on developing, testing, and collecting data through surveys to create a comprehensive toolkit aimed at combating racism towards BIPOC in the healthcare system. Her responsibilities encompass conducting descriptive analysis of survey data, aiding in the coding of qualitative data, and offering graphic design support for the toolkit's development.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Max Bao is a 3rd year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Max’s research focuses on developing and testing a dashboard using historical maternal health data. She will create prototypes in visualization tools, represent the findings of the statistical and qualitative data analysis, conduct usability testing and iterative refinement.
Abdulaziz AlTelmissani
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Abdulaziz AlTelmissani is a 4nd year Medical laboratory sciences student at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Abdulaziz’s research focuses on developing and refining a maternal equity dashboard. He will help develop prototypes using visualization tools, present findings from statistical and qualitative data analyses, conduct usability tests, and make iterative improvements.  
Victoria Yeung
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Victoria is a 3rd year industrial engineering student at the University of Toronto. This summer, she is conducting usability testing on an interface that reports patient safety events (PSEs) using a machine learning algorithm and explainability feature. She will also be assisting with the data analysis and descriptive statistics associated with the results of usability testing.
Hongchen Liu
Research Assistant
Hongchen Liu has completed her bachelor's degree in the Specialist in Statistical Science: Method and Practice from the University of Toronto St. George campus. Currently, she is in her first year of the MEng program in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, specializing in Analytics. Her ongoing research project focuses on enhancing patient safety by investigating the root causes of underuse in transfer safety checklists. This involves conducting a comprehensive review, developing an interview guide, and analyzing findings to recommend solutions for improving checklist usability and integration in healthcare workflows.
Research Assistant
Tosin Akintunde is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She had her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Tosin is interested in applying human factor's engineering tools in improving maternal patient safety and equity in the healthcare system.
Huda Musa
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Huda is a second-year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. In the Safety, Equity, and Design Lab, she is exploring the use of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) feedback devices to improve survival rates among out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. Huda assists in conducting experiments, analyzing data, determining the efficacy of the feedback device, and making design improvements. Additionally, she is working on a secondary project involving systems analysis at a community health center and midwife clinic, building process maps, and performing task analyses. Huda is enthusiastic about showcasing the research at the Undergraduate Engineering Research Day (UNERD) hosted by the University of Toronto this August.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Seunghyun (Joe) Lee is an Industrial Engineering Student at University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, & Design (SED) lab, Joe’s research is focused on assisting with the design and usability testing on the AI-powered Patient Safety Event (PSE) reporting interface. His responsibilities include aiding in the interface design and evaluating different strategies for integrating the machine learning algorithm and explainability feature. Moreover, he will contribute to the iterative usability testing process with healthcare professionals.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Elena is a 1st year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. This summer in the SED lab, she will contribute to the Patient Journey Mapping project through testing study infrastructure, screening participants, and supporting data management and analysis. Furthermore, she will prepare an abstract for Undergraduate Engineering Research Day (UnERD) at the University and a conference submission for the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Healthcare.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Allan Zhou is a first-year Engineering Science student pursuing the Electrical and Computer Engineering specialization. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Allan is investigating the efficacy of a custom feedback device in supporting Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). Using his skills in conducting experiments, statistical data analysis, and data visualization, Allan will present his research at the Undergraduate Engineering Research Day (UnERD) as part of his First-Year Summer Research Fellowship.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Haeli Reynolds is a 1st year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Haeli's research focuses on survey development, testing, and data collection for the Anti-racism in Reproductive Care project. Her responsibilities include conducting descriptive analysis of the survey data, assisting with coding qualitative data and providing graphic design support for the toolkit development.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Audrey Tian is a 2nd year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. Within the Safety, Equity, and Design (SED) lab, Audrey’s research focuses on developing and refining a maternal equity dashboard. Audrey will assist in integrating automation processes and predictive analytics to enhance dashboard functionalities. She will also conduct usability tests and refine data visualizations.
Nigel Ma
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Nigel Ma is a 2nd year Engineering Science student at the University of Toronto. This summer his research will focus on refining a maternal health equity dashboard developed last year, specifically automating the data cleaning and linking processes and incorporating additional features. He will also conduct usability testing of the dashboard.