Our Team

Robert Poisson retired from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as a Lieutenant Colonel in January 2017, after 33 years of service as a Biological Science Officer. During his career, Robert held numerous management and training positions, developing deep experience in operational medicine and personnel readiness.

In his last eight years of service, Robert served as the head of science and technology for the Surgeon General, where he established a viable and sustainable national operational medicine research and technology program for the CAF. His efforts focused on trauma, occupational health, mental health, rehabilitation, and chemical and biological prophylaxis. Robert was instrumental in creating the Canadian Institute for Military and Veterans Health Research, a national network of universities and researchers dedicated to improving health outcomes for military members, veterans and their families.

Previously, Robert served as the acting Director of Science and Technology (Human Performance), responsible to the Canadian Armed Forces and Defence Research and Development Canada senior management for formulating the Human Performance R&D Program. Robert was also the executive officer on the NATO/AGARD Aerospace Medical Panel, where he helped formulate and manage the international aerospace medicine program, and earlier was Chief Aeromedical Training Instructor, leading a school that trained over 1,000 aircrew annually.

Robert participated in numerous intergovernmental meetings and working groups — including service as deputy chairman for the NATO Research and Technology Human Factors and Medicine Panel. Robert chaired the Technical Cooperation Panel and Technical Panel 12 on Military Medicine and helped secure parliamentary approval for the Counter Terrorism Technology Centre at DRDC Suffield. Robert was the departmental manager and primary advocate for the Human Systems Integration Initiative, which contributed to transforming DND’s acquisition process from technology-centred to human-technology-centred.

Robert holds a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Guelph, an advanced certificate in aerospace physiology from the United States Air Force, and a postgraduate diploma in occupational health and safety from McMaster University. Robert was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada.

Prof. Stergiopoulos received a BSc (Hon.) from the University of Athens in 1976. He earned the MSc in Physics in 1977 and the PhD in Physics in 1982 from York University in Toronto, Canada.

He retired from Defence R&D Canada in February 2020 while serving as Chief Scientist at DRDC Toronto. He has been appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto and at Western University in London, Ontario.

He is the innovator of DRDC’s 3D advanced beamforming technologies for antisubmarine warfare sonar systems. His medical diagnostic work spans non-invasive 3D imaging, including cardiac 3D CT and portable 3D/4D ultrasound, along with vital-signs monitoring such as motion- and noise-tolerant automated blood pressure and intracranial dispersive ultrasound.

Dr. Stergiopoulos raised approximately 16 million dollars through Canadian and European Commission programs. He served as technical manager for numerous European Commission projects with partners including Siemens, Philips, and Fraunhofer Institutes.

He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a Senior Member of the IEEE.

• Elected Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, Nov. 1993
• Elected Senior Member of the IEEE, May 1992
• U.S. NRC Research Fellowship for U.S.Army Ballistic Research Lab, July 1999

• Member of NSERC’s selection committee for Industrial Chair, McMaster University, April-1999.
• Associate Editor, IEEE J. Oceanic Engineering, Jan. 1996 – Apr. 1998.
• Organizer of the FOURIER Euroworkshop International Meeting in Corfu-Greece, April 2000, supported by European-Commission, DG-XII, Euroworkshops Program.
• Organizer and Chair of Sessions at the EAA/137th, and 136th Acoustical Society of America International Meetings.
• Organizer and Chair Sessions at 3rd European Conference on Underwater Acoustics, FORTH-IACM, Heraklion-Crete.

Prof. Plataniotis received the BEng in Computer Engineering from the University of Patras in Greece. He earned the MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida.

He is a Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he directs the Multimedia Laboratory. He also serves as Director of the Machine Intelligence Major in the Engineering Science Program. He has held the Bell Canada Endowed Chair in Multimedia since 2014.

Prof. Plataniotis is a registered professional engineer in Ontario and a Fellow of the IEEE, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He served as General Chair for IEEE GlobalSIP 2017, IEEE ICIP 2018, and IEEE ICASSP 2021. He has been Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Signal Processing Letters and Guest Editor for IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. He is currently President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, representing more than twenty-three thousand members.

His research focuses on image and signal processing, machine learning, adaptive learning systems, visual data analysis, human-machine teaming, and autonomous systems.

Mahdi Marsousi currently works EPSON-Edge Canada, working on Robotic Vision. He also collaborates with Multimedia Lab at Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto. Mahdi does research in Artificial Intelligence, Computing in Mathematics, Natural Science, Engineering and Medicine and Computer Graphics.