The Office of AVP Research and Innovation held its second Research Showcase event at the KPU Surrey Conference Centre on May 13th, 2025.
There was an outstanding attendance from across KPU, consisting of students, faculty, and staff. During the all-day event, there were numerous engaging presentations and lots of networking opportunities.
The theme was Generative AI in Research, and we were honoured to have Dr. Mohammad Keyhani from the University of Calgary present an insightful keynote presentation. The following panel with KPU faculty members broadened the conversation to AI in research, scholarship, and teaching - bringing a valuable breadth of perspectives from across departments. Midday, we had over 25 student posters displayed, and attendees circulated to chat with the students about their great work. In the afternoon, we did a networking game and hosted several departmental booths to deepen knowledge and resource sharing.
This was truly a team effort - we'd like to thank all the folks that made it happen. This is a major forum for KPU to increase internal awareness about research and innovation activities, and foster future collaborations and scholarship. See you next year!
Keynote presentation
We were honoured to welcome Dr. Mohammad Keyhani from the University of Calgary to present his talk, "How Generative AI is Changing You and Your Research".
About the speaker: Mohammad Keyhani is an Associate Professor at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, where he directs the DBA program and teaches courses on generative AI and no-code technology for entrepreneurs. Mohammad's research has been published in leading journals and presented in international conferences where he has received multiple best paper and best reviewer awards. Mohammad is co-founder of HoneybeeLogic.com, maker of Lstr.cc, advisor to multiple startups, and has held roles as Lab Strategist at the Creative Destruction Lab Rockies, and David Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission. He holds a doctorate in strategic management from York University, and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from the University of Tehran. His blog and projects can be found at DigitVibe.com.
About the keynote: In this presentation Dr. Keyhani discussed the various ways in which generative AI technology, with the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs), is changing us as humans and as scholars. We considered the significance of LLMs as a technology of thought and knowledge accumulation. We will review a variety of AI-powered tools that have recently become available to researchers, and showcase a number of research projects that have taken advantage of recent AI advances at the leading edge.
Panel Discussion
Title: AI in Research and Practice: From Computation to Creativity
Panelists:
- Daniel Anvari, Mathematics
- Zahia Marzouk, Educational Studies
- Carley Hodgkinson, Graphic Design for Marketing
- Moderated by: Deepak Gupta, Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation
Student research poster showcase
We had over 25 student posters displayed at the event, and lots of great knowledge sharing. Congrats to our winners:
- Winner: "How to improve the fit and performance of women’s personal protective clothing (PPC) for Adventure Motorcycle Riding?" by Emma Juhala
- First runner up: “Genomic Tools for Analyzing the Antibacterial Properties of Hop Extracts in Bee Colony Health” by Jackson Kereliuk et al.
- Second runner up: 'Understanding how cells recover from periods of high stress using the model organism C. elegans" by Isbah Mahmood et al.
Interactive booths
We were grateful to have booths from the Lifespan Cognition Lab, Teaching & Learning, Applied Genomics Centre, Faculty of Science, Wilson School of Design, Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, ENTA, and ORS.
Lightning Talks
| Title | Presenters |
|---|---|
| Watershed Toxicity Testing in Coquitlam River - Partnership with kʷikʷəƛ̓əm First Nation | Layne Myhre |
| KPU’s Applied Genomics Centre: Faculty and Student Engagement in Driving Innovation in BC’s Agriculture and Biotech Sectors | Paul Adams, Taylor Chin |
| Harnessing Genomic Toolkits for Accurate Pathogen Detection in Salmon | Abhinaya Venkatesan |
| Resilient and Thriving, Vancouver Island Food Future | Victor Martinez |
| VFX & Animation Sustainability Project: Project Shadow | Diego De la Rocha, Varsha Vijayakumar, Jonathan Estrella Vazquez |
| Wildfire Suppression: From Machine Learning Prediction of Behaviour to Efficient Targeting of Fire Suppression | Kianoosh Tahani |
| The Smart Greenhouse of the future | Deborah Henderson |
| Ebolavirus evolution and emergence are associated with land use change | Christian Lange |
| Like goes with like: Congruency as a source of bias in investigation | Carla MacLean |
| Rapid detection of specific bacteria in drinking water using surface imprinted polymers and surface plasmons. | James Hoyland |
