Professional Profile

Although music has a very important place in their lives, Ashwin and Rohin are also engineers by profession and are both equally passionate about research in their respective fields of study. A few points on their research are detailed below.

Reflecting on Refraction

Ashwin is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta.

His research involves synthesizing materials that exhibit properties not found in nature, so called “metamaterials” that refract light in unique and incredible new ways.

Such materials have tremendous potential for practical applications, such as: the ability to make lenses that are able to print smaller and faster microchips, increase the storage of CDs and DVDs by hundreds of times, and image tumours in the body with unprecedented resolution. As reported recently in the news, such materials can also be designed to render objects invisible, and are being investigated for cloaking technologies.

Cutting Edge Stem-cell Research

Rohin completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering and is currently employed as a Research Scientist at Tissue Regeneration Therapeutics Inc.in Toronto, ON. His research interests are in tissue engineering and stem-cell bioengineering.

Rohin is currently involved in conducting genomics work as well as pre-clinical characterization and testing of mesenchymal stem cells for development of clinical therapeutics. He hopes to combine his knowledge of tissue engineering with his interest in stem cell biology to aid in creating therapies for a wide range of inflammatory conditions including osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease.