Guy Dumont

Professor

PhD, McGill University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Guy Dumont is an expert in Process Control Engineering who developed and implemented one of the first successful industrial adaptive control schemes in the world in 1976. Several of his technologies have been successfully transferred to industry over the years. Motivated by a Wall Exploratory Workshop he co-directed in 2002, Dr. Dumont switched his interests to the field of biomedical engineering, where he researches physiological monitoring and control in critical care, most especially anesthesiology.

Dr. Dumont took his engineering diploma at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Paris. He obtained his doctorate in Electrical Engineering at McGill University in 1977 and then spent 12 years in private industry before being recruited to UBC in 1989. From 1989 to 1999, he held the senior Paprican/NSERC Industrial Chair in Industrial Process Control and worked closely with pulp and paper companies and suppliers. From 2006-2010 he served as Director of the Pulp and Paper Centre at UBC. He is also Associate Member of the UBC Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics as well as a Principal Investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. In 2011-12, he was a PWIAS Distinguished Scholar in Residence. He is an elected fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the IEEE, IFAC and the Royal Society of Canada, co-winner of the 2010 NSERC Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research and a three-time winner of the NSERC Synergy Award.

Primary Recipient Awards

Wall Colloquia Abroad, Guy Dumont, 2019

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Wall Colloquia Abroad

Impact Now: Improving maternal and child mortality through affordable technology 

Impact Now will be a collaborative colloquium on innovations to advance maternal, newborn and child health with a target audience of 150 people working with UBC in resource limited settings. The primary objective of this colloquium will be to identify the gaps in maternal and newborn care and potential technological opportunities to fill these gaps, ultimately to move forward progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3. We have identified global leaders in maternal and newborn health as well as technology innovators from developed and developing countries to convene and develop robust, cutting edge solutions to tackle some of the world’s greatest health challenges. Previous colloquiums will help galvanize greater participation in order to provoke thorough discussion ensuring a more sizeable impact. Impact Now presents as a prime opportunity for UBC to continue to advance global relationships and collaborations in maternal, newborn and child health.

Wall Scholars, Guy Dumont, 2018

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Wall Scholars

While in residence at Peter Wall Institute, Guy Dumont will initiate the development of BrainSteer, a novel closed-loop transcranial electrical stimulation system with integrated sensors for feedback from personalized biomarkers of response to help personalize treatment for patients suffering from major depressive disorder.

Wall Colloquia Abroad, Guy Dumont, 2017

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Wall Colloquia Abroad

MNCH Tech: A Workshop on Technology for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

Principal Investigator, Dr. Guy Dumont, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC.

Wall Solutions, Guy Dumont, 2014

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Wall Solutions

MobileKids - A smart game for keeping kids active

Principal Investigator: Dr. Guy Dumont, Faculty of Applied Science, UBC

Partner(s): Dr. J.P. Chanoine, Center for Healthy Weights Program, Shapedown BC project, BC Children’s Hospital

Physical inactivity is increasing among children around the world. This is directly linked to many health problems. MobileKids is a smart, mobile game that utilizes children’s interest in mobile technology and gaming, to increase physical activity. This game was developed by researchers at the University of British Columbia, and Ayogo Health Inc., with input from children and funding from the Peter Wall Solutions Initiative. The player can only play the game if s/he has earned points by being active. The game communicates wirelessly with a comfortably wearable activity monitor that records every step taken by the player at all times and transfers this information to the game, which converts steps into playtime and reward points. Preliminary testing has shown the effectiveness of this approach and the developers are now proposing to scale-up this game in select Vancouver schools and distribute it widely among children across British Columbia.

Wall Solutions, Guy Dumont, 2013

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Wall Solutions

KidsCan: Involving Youth in Research to create mHealth solutions for improved youth health

Principal Investigator: Guy Dumont, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC

Partner Organization(s): Centre for Healthy Weights Program, BC Children's Hospital, Children and Family Research Institute

Canadian youth are the fastest growing end-user group of mobile technology, yet their involvement in research and development of this technology is limited. This project will establish a youth engagement initiative (KidsCan) that directly involves youth as advisors and partners in the research and development of innovative mobile based solutions to health problems that face today's youth. To showcase this novel idea we address the problem of childhood obesity, a major issue affecting our youth and society. With direct involvement of our youth partners in the design and evaluation processes, we are developing a smart phone application (MobileKids) that will help promote voluntary physical activity and healthy eating habits among youth. Along with interesting activities that require physical effort, the MobileKids application will include readily available nutritional information and interesting physiological data like heart and respiratory rates that can be used to generate peer support and interpersonal competition among young users to develop and adhere to healthy habits. In the long term, the KidsCan initiative will serve as a platform for development of more innovative solutions like MobileKids, while getting youth excited about science and research.

Distinguished Scholars in Residence, Guy Dumont, 2011

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Distinguished Scholars in Residence

During his year at the Wall Institute, Dr. Dumont is focusing on global health, particularly on affordable technology for mobile health based on mobile phones for underdeveloped countries. Toward this goal, he and his collaborator at the BC Children’s Hospital have contributed $250,000 of their recently-awarded Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research In Science and Engineering to developing the Phone Oximeter. This device is a smartphone-based pulse oximeter for respiratory disease and management in the developing world. His aim is to make the Phone Oximeter universally available.

Exploratory Workshops, Guy Dumont, 2001

Primary Recipient Guy Dumont

Program Exploratory Workshops

There is increasing recognition of the positive role that technology can play in improving the efficiency and reliability of health care delivery, particularly in the operating room. The impact of computer-integrated surgery will offer the surgeon the ability to carry out surgical intervention in a more accurate and less invasive manner. In a similar manner, automatic drug delivery systems based on accurate patient-specific models will allow anaesthesia with minimal drug usage and patient recovery time. Success will require fundamental understanding of physiological mechanisms, electro-physiology, biomechanics, and significant progress in robotics, signal processing and automation.

Prominent experts from automation, robotics and medicine, from North America and Europe, will be brought together to assess the research opportunities in the areas of medical devices fro general anaesthesia and surgical haptic interfaces. The challenges currently faced will be used as a basis for the preparation of a broadly based research proposal geared towards efficient and safe health care delivery.