Stephen Czarnuch

B.Eng. & Mgmt., MASc (McMaster), PhD (Toronto)

• Joint Appointment

Contact Information

Ph: 709-864-7850
Em: sczarnuch[at]mun.ca
Office: EN3030

Personal Profile

After completing my undergraduate training and concurrent with my pursuit of a Master’s degree, I worked for approximately 10 years in industry as a research-based electrical and control systems engineer, most notably implementing novel human tracking and error-proofing systems for manufacturing processes. I then completed my PhD at the University of Toronto with a focus on human tracking, ambient intelligence and automated task assistance systems (an extension of my industry experience), designing systems to support the loss of cognition associated with dementia in a real-world, home environment. Following my PhD, I worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Memorial University continuing my work on human motion tracking and automated assessment, funded by the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada.

In 2015, I joined Memorial University as an assistant professor, jointly appointed to the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Discipline of Emergency Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine.

Research Highlights

Two areas of interest—human motion tracking and automated planning—have formed the foundation of my research which is situated at the intersection of engineering, computer science, medicine, gerontology and rehabilitation science. My work is focused on human motion tracking with three main applied research goals:

1. To develop medical devices (i.e., ambient, intelligent, contextually aware and adaptive devices) that can support people suffering from the loss of cognition associated with dementia;
2. To objectively assess the efficacy of medical treatments, interventions, and rehabilitation (e.g., in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Stroke); and
3. To unobtrusively track the activities of patients during exercise interventions in order to automatically detect the presence of unsafe conditions (e.g., the rapid onset of fatigue in people with MS).