Our Team
SED Lab Director
Myrtede Alfred is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining University of Toronto, she served as a research assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina where she spent the past three years applying her expertise as a human factors engineer to improve the delivery of care through both research and practice. She obtained her PhD in industrial engineering from Clemson University (2017). During her tenure at Clemson, she held the SREB Dissertation Fellowship and Janine Bowen Graduate Fellowship and earned multiple awards for teaching and outreach including the College of Engineering, Computing, and Applied Science’s Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant and MLK Jr. Excellence in Service Award. She is also the executive director of Marie's Kids STEAM education nonprofit.
Professor Alfred’s research examines the role of sociotechnical systems factors in supporting or hindering safety in clinical systems, with specific interests in surgical instrument reprocessing, robotic-assisted surgery, anesthesia medication delivery, and retained foreign objects. Complementing the social determinants of health framework, her research also leverage human factors and systems engineering to examine clinical systems contributions to healthcare disparities.
Reem
Research Assistant
Reem is an MSc student in Health Systems Research and holds an HBSc in Bio-Medical Science from the University of Guelph. Alongside her lived experiences, her academic and research experiences have fostered a longstanding interest in health equity and the social and structural factors shaping health outcomes. Reem is dedicated to advancing health equity and supporting underserved communities, with particular commitments to Black and Muslim communities, women, and paediatric populations. Her research interests include health systems and policy, health equity, social determinants of health, equitable access to healthcare, chronic illness, mental health, and knowledge translation. She is particularly interested in understanding how healthcare systems and interventions can better address disparities in care and improve patient-centred outcomes.
Hongchen Liu
Research Assistant
Hongchen Liu holds a Bachelor’s degree in Statistical Science (Specialist in Methods and Practice) from the University of Toronto (St. George campus). She has completed a Master’s degree in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and is currently involved in healthcare systems research, focusing on improving perioperative workflows and operational efficiency.
Her work integrates data analytics and human factors approaches to identify system-level challenges and develop practical, evidence-based solutions.
Research Assistant
Tosin Akintunde is a PhD student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. She had her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Tosin is interested in applying human factor's engineering tools in improving maternal patient safety and equity in the healthcare system.
Research Assistant
Myesha is a PhD candidate who is pursuing research that focuses on equitable mental healthcare systems and technology design. More specifically, Myesha is interested in exploring how we can leverage equity oriented design and evaluation methods to improve mental healthcare systems and adjacent digital mental health technologies to produce more equitable outcomes for marginalized communities. Myesha has a background in psychology and healthcare, with a passion for advocacy within these spaces.
Rango Lee-Fu
Undergraduate Lab Coordinator and Research Assistant
Rango (he/she) is a 2nd year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. He is interested in human-AI interaction, especially in the contexts of healthcare and equity. In the SEDLab, he assists in coordinating lab activities, various backend work, and research projects.
Research Assistant
Deenar is currently pursuing her MASc in Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. She investigates macro-ergonomic methods used to analyze healthcare systems and patient safety.
Research Assistant
Paneet is a MASc student in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Her research interests include equity in healthcare settings, and her current project focuses on designing resilient material management strategies to improve efficiency and sustainability in healthcare systems.
Research Assistant
Eleanor is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, where she previously completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering, specializing in Human Factors Engineering. Her research focuses on perinatal bereavement and patient-centered care, examining how bereaved families from diverse cultural backgrounds experience and respond to hospital-based perinatal bereavement processes. Drawing on human factors approaches, Eleanor aims to translate research insights into actionable, evidence-based recommendations to enhance healthcare experiences for bereaved families.