From reducing barriers for children with complex communication needs to exploring equity issues around public transit use, the 2021-22 graduate student scholarship recipients will endeavour to make a big impact on the lives of children living with disabilities and their families through research.

Aliaa Gouda

Kimel Family Graduate Student Scholarship in Paediatric Rehabilitation

Third-year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto

"I am honoured and very grateful to be one of the recipients of the 2021-2022 Kimel Graduate Student Scholarship in Paediatric Rehabilitation. This opportunity will greatly contribute to and support my research to advance the field of gait rehabilitation through wearable systems that can provide at-home gait training solutions for children and youth with lower-limb amputations."

Nicolas Ivanov

Kimel Family Graduate Student Scholarship in Paediatric Rehabilitation

Second-year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto

"It is an honour to be the recipient of this award and I am tremendously grateful to the Kimel Family for their generosity and contributions to pediatric rehabilitation research. The support of the Kimel Family and the Bloorview Research Institute drives me to continue aiming to improve assistive technologies for children with disabilities. 

The award will support my work that seeks to reduce barriers to the use of brain-computer interfaces for children with motor disabilities and complex communication needs. We hope to develop new methods to analyze brain signals and create improved user-training approaches for brain-computer interface that will create more opportunities for children with disabilities to meaningfully use and control these powerful devices."

Isabelle Caven

Kimel Family Graduate Student Scholarship in Pediatric Disability Research

Second-year MSc student, University of Toronto's Institute of Medical Science

"I am incredibly grateful to have received a Kimel Family Graduate Student Scholarship in Paediatric Disability Research and thank the Kimel family for their ongoing support of graduate students at Holland Bloorview.

This award will support me in exploring perspectives on the acceptability of various childhood autism therapies. It is my hope that by gaining a more comprehensive understanding of acceptability, this research will help families and clinicians navigate available autism services, following their specific needs and values. My previous experiences, both as a volunteer and employee, opened my eyes to the incredible community at Holland Bloorview. I feel incredibly privileged to pursue my graduate studies here."

Jae Moon

Whipper Watson Graduate Research Scholarship

Third-year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto

"As a recipient of the 2021-2022 Whipper-Watson Graduate Research Scholarship Award, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation. This award will empower me to continue my research in developing a user-friendly method of training a thought-decoding brain-computer interface to better meet the complex needs of children with communication disabilities."

Elyse Comeau

Kimel Family Graduate Student Scholarship in Pediatric Disability Research

First-year PhD Student in Planning, University of Toronto

"I am extremely grateful to the Kimel family, the Holland Bloorview Foundation, and the Bloorview Research Institute for their generous support. This support will allow me to explore the equity issues that children with disabilities and their families face when using public transit.

Throughout my award tenure, I will work to raise awareness of ableist practices and designs that shape our built environments and services in ways that do not adequately account for the presence, needs, and rights of children and youth with disabilities.

My hope is that my research will contribute to the removal and prevention of physical, social, and temporal barriers that hinder public transit access, and to the advancement of inclusive transit planning processes."