Education

PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Western University
MSc, Electrical Control Engineering, University of Tabriz
BSc, Electrical Engineering, Urmia University

Biography

Ali Tavallaei, PhD’15 grew up in Iran, surrounded by military conflict, giving him a very unique perspective on the world.

“I certainly do have a different background. When I was growing up I experienced wars and I was playing with bullets when I was a kid,” he said. “It makes you value things in a different way.”

Tavallaei came to Canada in 2009 having completed his master’s and undergraduate studies at home. The next six years would involve working as a research assistant first at Ryerson University and later conducting research in the lab of Robarts scientist Maria Drangova, PhD’93. He would focus his efforts on developing robots for image-guided surgery that can function within an MRI bore. Not only would he acquire patents on two of his innovations but he also launched a medical technology startup called ViTAL Biomedical Technologies Inc. In his capacity as a startup founder he has managed production, sales, research and development while also securing funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence.

While a Medical Innovation Fellow at Western, Tavallaei would team up with Lawson’s Dr. Nicholas Power and his peer medical innovation fellows in the Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust (FACIT)’s annual competition. One invention submitted by the trio would go on to win the $50,000 grand prize, taking both the inaugural Ernsting Entrepreneurship Award and the Audience Choice Award. After completing the MIF program, Tavallaei would go on to a postdoctoral fellowship with Sunnybrook Health Science Centre in Toronto.

Tavallaei is now a Canada Research Chair in Systems and Devices for Cardiovascular Interventions at Ryerson University and is President and Co-Founder of Magellan Biomedical Inc.

Publications

Tavallaei, Mohammad & Atashzar, Seyed Farokh & Drangova, Maria. (2015). Robust Motion Control of Ultrasonic Motors Under Temperature Disturbance. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. 63. 1-1. 10.1109/TIE.2015.2499723.

Patrick, J & Tavallaei, Mohammad & Thompson, R & Stodilka, R & Drangova, M & Gaede, Stew. (2016). SU-F-I-58: Image Quality Comparisons of Different Motion Magnitudes and TR Values in MR-PET. Medical Physics. 43. 3400-3400. 10.1118/1.4955886.

Johnson, Patricia & Liu, Junmin & Wade, Trevor & Tavallaei, Mohammad & Drangova, Maria. (2016). Retrospective 3D Motion Correction Using Spherical Navigator Echoes. Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 34. . 10.1016/j.mri.2016.06.006.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & Tousi, Behrouz. (2008). Closed Form Solution to an Optimal Control Problem by Orthogonal Polynomial Expansion. American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences. 1. . 10.3844/ajeassp.2008.104.109.

Poria, Fajri & Saeed, Afsharnia & Daryoush, Nazarpour & Tavallaei, Mohammad. (2008). Modeling, Simulation and Group Control of Distributed Static Series Compensators. American Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences. 1. . 10.3844/ajeassp.2008.347.357.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & Khanmohammadi, S & Hasanzadeh, I. (2008). A fuzzy behavior based microscopic traffic model. 1-6. 10.1109/ISMA.2008.4648850.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & J. Zhou, James & Roy, Trisha & D. Dueck, Andrew & A. Wright, Graham. (2017). Performance Assessment of a Radiofrequency-Powered Guidewire for Crossing Peripheral Arterial Occlusions Based on Lesion Morphology. Journal of Vascular Surgery. 66. e69-e70. 10.1016/j.jvs.2017.07.021.

Campbell-Washburn, Adrienne & Tavallaei, Mohammad & Pop, Mihaela & K Grant, Elena & Chubb, Henry & Rhode, Kawal & A Wright, Graham. (2017). Real-time MRI guidance of cardiac interventions. Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI. . 10.1002/jmri.25749.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & M. Johnson, Patricia & Liu, Junmin & Drangova, Maria. (2016). Design and evaluation of an MRI-compatible linear motion stage. Medical Physics. 43. 62-71. 10.1118/1.4937780.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & Gelman, Daniel & Lavdas, Michael & C Skanes, Allan & Jones, Douglas & S Bax, Jeffrey & Drangova, Maria. (2015). Design, development and evaluation of a compact telerobotic catheter navigation system. The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS. 12. . 10.1002/rcs.1711.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & Lavdas, Michael & Gelman, Daniel & Drangova, M. (2015). Magnetic resonance imaging compatible remote catheter navigation system with 3 degrees of freedom. International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery. 11. . 10.1007/s11548-015-1337-4.

Gelman, Daniel & C. Skanes, Allan & Tavallaei, Mohammad & Drangova, Maria. (2016). Design and Evaluation of a Catheter Contact- Force Controller for Cardiac Ablation Therapy. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. 63. 1-1. 10.1109/TBME.2016.2525929.

Tavallaei, Mohammad & Thakur, Yogesh & Haider, Syed & Drangova, Maria. (2013). A Magnetic-Resonance-Imaging-Compatible Remote Catheter Navigation System. Biomedical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on. 60. 899-905. 10.1109/TBME.2012.2229709.