Sarah Power

Assistant Professor, Ph.D., P.Eng. B.Eng., Memorial University of Newfoundland MaSc., University of Toronto Ph.D., University of Toronto

Community Health and Humanities


What brought me to MUN? What keeps me at MUN?:

After graduating from Memorial in 2006 with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, I spent 8 years at the University of Toronto completing graduate studies. As much as I loved Toronto and U of T, I always knew I’d like to return to Memorial University. Besides having family nearby, I knew Memorial to be a great school with excellent faculty and students, and I knew it was the type of environment in which I would be happy building a career. Also, as an undergrad in electrical engineering with a strong interest in health and medicine, I always wished there were opportunities here at Memorial to pursue biomedical engineering. Now, being able to return and be part of a fantastic new initiative between the Faculties of Medicine and Engineering to build educational and research capacity in this area is incredibly exciting.


Education:

B.Eng., Memorial University of Newfoundland
MaSc., University of Toronto
Ph.D., University of Toronto

Training:

I am always looking for qualified and motivated undergraduate and graduate students interested in biomedical engineering. Please contact me directly if you’d like to discuss upcoming opportunities.

Research/Teaching Summary:

My research interests and expertise lie in physiological signal processing and pattern recognition, and specifically in brain-computer interface (BCI) research. I am working to grow a research program in the development of non-invasive passive brain-computer interfaces and mental state monitoring technologies based on electroencephalography (EEG), and my focus right now is on applications to increase safety in high-risk work environments (e.g., cognitive load/stress monitoring during real-time operation, monitoring of expertise development during training).

My teaching activities to date have been largely in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in analog and digital signal processing.

Awards:

NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (Doctoral) – 2008-2011
NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship (Master’s) – 2007-2008

Publications:

1. Schudlo L.C., Power S.D. and Chau T. (2013), Dynamic topographical pattern classification of multichannel prefrontal NIRS signals, Journal of Neural Engineering, 10(4):046018 (14pp).
2. Power S.D. and Chau T. (2013), Automatic single-trial classification of prefrontal hemodynamic activity in an individual with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 16(1):67-72.
3. Power S.D., Kushki A. and Chau T. (2012), Intersession consistency of single-trial classification of the prefrontal response to mental arithmetic and the no-control state by NIRS, PLoS ONE, 7(7): e37791.
4. Power S.D., Kushki A. and Chau T. (2012), Automatic single-trial discrimination of mental arithmetic, mental singing and the no-control state from prefrontal activity: Toward a three-state NIRS-BCI, BMC Research Notes, 5:141.
5. Moghimi S., Kushki A., Power S., Guerguerian A-M. and Chau T. (2012), Automatic detection of a prefrontal cortical response to emotionally rated music using multi-channel near-infrared spectroscopy, Journal of Neural Engineering, 9(2):026022.
6. Kushki A., Andrews A.J., Power S.D., King G. and Chau T. (2012), Classification of activity engagement in individuals with severe physical disabilities using signals of the peripheral nervous system, PLoS ONE, 7(2):e30373.
7. Chan J., Power S. and Chau T. (2012), Investigating the need for modeling temporal dependencies in a brain–computer interface with real-time feedback based on near infrared spectra, Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy, 20(1):107–116.
8. Power S.D., Kushki A. and Chau T. (2011), Towards a system-paced near-infrared spectroscopy brain-computer interface: Differentiating prefrontal activity due to mental arithmetic and mental singing from the no-control state, Journal of Neural Engineering, 8(6):066004 (14pp).
9. Gane L., Power S., Kushki A. and Chau T. (2011), Thermal imaging of the periorbital regions during the presentation of an auditory startle stimulus, PLoS ONE, 6(11): e27268.
10. Falk T. H., Guirgis M., Power S. and Chau T. (2011), Taking NIRS-BCIs outside the lab: Towards achieving robustness against environment noise, IEEE Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 19(2):136-146.
11. Power S.D., Falk T. and Chau T. (2010), Classification of prefrontal activity due to mental arithmetic and music imagery using Hidden Markov Models and frequency domain near-infrared spectroscopy, Journal of Neural Engineering, 7(2):026002 (9pp).
12. Falk T., Guirgis M., Power S., Blain S. and Chau T. (2010), On the use of peripheral autonomic signals for body-machine interface control, Physiological Measurement, 31:1411-1422.
13. Blain S., Power S., Sejdic E., Mihailidis A. and Chau T. (2010), A cardiorespiratory classifier of voluntary and involuntary electrodermal activity, Biomedical Engineering Online, 9:11.