Supporting Research That Moves Us Forward: 2026 Connected Minds Seed Grant Recipients

The Project: Mental health challenges among post-secondary students are increasing, particularly among those from marginalized communities, yet existing approaches to identifying and supporting students in distress often rely on limited data and can miss early signs of risk. Led by early career researcher Dr. Achala Rodrigo, this project explores whether a low-cost, accessible machine learning approach that integrates behavioural and brain-based data can help support earlier and more equitable responses within post-secondary settings. A core element of the work is collaboration with students, clinicians, and institutional decision-makers to ensure findings are interpreted and applied in ways that reflect real-world contexts and needs. 

The Impact: This project will improve early identification and more equitable responses to mental health and addiction risk among post-secondary students by developing a low-cost, scalable, and neuroscience-informed machine learning approach. By improving accuracy and accessibility, the work aims to reduce gaps in access to timely mental health supports for underserved students and advances Connected Minds’ commitment to building intelligent systems that contribute to a more just techno-social future.  

The Project: Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how individuals move, communicate, and interact socially, yet current diagnostic approaches often rely on subjective and time-intensive methods that can delay identification. Led by Dr. Erez Freud, this project investigates whether subtle movement patterns captured during naturalistic tasks can reveal reliable markers of autism using camera-based motion tracking and AI. By examining movement during hands-on construction tasks and real-time social interactions, the research explores both individual motor signatures and social coordination using a markerless system that allows participants to engage naturally. Drawing on expertise in neuroscience, psychology, and AI, and working alongside clinicians and neurodivergent communities, the project aims to support more accessible approaches to autism identification. 

The Impact: This project advances earlier and more equitable autism identification by using AI to analyze natural movement patterns during everyday activities. By relying on everyday tasks and camera-based observation, the work supports the development of diagnostic approaches that are more accessible, less burdensome, and better aligned with lived experiences. This project aligns with Connected Minds’ commitment to inclusive and socially responsible technologies.

The Project: Led by Dr. Hossein Kassiri, this project focuses on how brain stimulation therapies can become adaptive, personalized, and safe in real time. The team is developing Predictive Adaptive Neurostimulation (PAN), an intelligent system that learns how an individual’s brain responds to stimulation and adjusts therapy accordingly. Central to PAN is a personalized “digital twin” that runs rapid simulations to identify stimulation patterns most likely to be effective at a given moment, while built-in safety and transparency mechanisms ensure clinical oversight and accountability. Questions of safety, accountability, and clinical use are addressed at the design stage, with governance mechanisms embedded directly into the system’s architecture. Initially targeting drug-resistant epilepsy, PAN lays the groundwork for more responsive neurostimulation therapies that could extend to stroke rehabilitation, chronic pain, and mood disorders. 

The Impact: Faster personalization of brain stimulation can mean fewer seizures, fewer hospital visits, and less disruption to daily life. This project enables that shift by embedding predictive learning and transparent safety-aware decision-making directly into neurostimulation systems. Aligned with Connected Minds’ mission, the work demonstrates how intelligent technologies can earn clinical trust while reducing burden on patients, families, and health systems. 

The Project: How the brain learns new skills, and how those learning processes unfold over time, remains one of the central unanswered questions in neuroscience. Led by early career researcher Dr. Jonathan Michaels, this project focuses on capturing the brain’s own learning signals as they emerge during natural behaviour, with the goal of informing the next generation of adaptive brain-computer interfaces. The research centres on the development of a wireless neural implant capable of recording activity from thousands of neurons across multiple brain regions over weeks to months. This technology enables continuous observation of how neural circuits reorganize as new skills are acquired, overcoming key limitations of existing recording approaches. Beyond advancing fundamental understanding, the work lays important groundwork for more responsive neurotechnologies, with future applications in epilepsy monitoring, deep brain stimulation, and neuroprosthetics. 

The Impact: This project will enable scientists to observe how the brain changes as new skills are learned over long periods of time, something current tools cannot do. By creating a stable, wireless neural implant, the work will uncover how learning unfolds across multiple brain regions and support the development of more adaptive brain-computer interfaces. The project contributes to Connected Minds by advancing shared research infrastructure and knowledge that strengthen future neuroscience and neurotechnology research. 

The Project: For people who experience cryptocurrency fraud, the harm often extends well beyond financial loss. Feelings of shame, anxiety, isolation, and betrayal can linger long after the fraud itself, yet these impacts are rarely acknowledged in legal or regulatory responses. Led by Dr. Poonam Puri, this project brings a mental health lens to the study of crypto fraud in Canada by centring the experiences of those who have been affected. Working with individuals who have experienced crypto fraud firsthand, the research documents how these events shape well-being, access to support, and recovery. Combining perspectives from law, psychology, health, and behavioural finance, the project will generate evidence to inform prevention strategies, investor education, and policy responses that better reflect the human consequences of emerging financial technologies.  

The Impact: This project reframes cryptocurrency fraud as both a financial and mental health issue, generating the first Canadian evidence linking digital financial harm to psychological well-being and recovery. Its findings will directly inform investor education, regulatory strategies, and access to support services that better reflect the human consequences of emerging financial technologies. The project reflects the type of cross-sector work fostered through Connected Minds, where legal, technological, and health perspectives come together to address emerging digital harms. 

The Project: Digital access is often assumed to be universal, yet for people experiencing homelessness it is frequently unstable, shared, or absent, shaping how digital platforms affect mental health in uneven and often hidden ways. This project examines how digital environments intersect with mental well-being among people experiencing homelessness in Canada, with particular attention to Indigenous and other marginalized communities. Bringing together large-scale administrative datasets and community-informed surveys, the research combines epidemiological modeling with AI-based analysis of lived experience narratives to surface patterns that conventional approaches often miss. Under the direction of Dr. Vijay Mago, the work is co-created with service providers, Indigenous organizations, and people with lived experience to ensure findings are culturally grounded and practically relevant. The project aims to translate evidence into actionable insights for policymakers, service systems, and digital designers, supporting more inclusive approaches to digital mental health and care. 

The Impact: This project will improve how mental health systems, digital platforms, and public policy respond to the realities of people experiencing homelessness. By generating culturally grounded evidence and co-created strategies, the work will inform more inclusive digital design, better-targeted services, and resource allocation that reflects lived experience. The project strengthens Connected Minds’ role in supporting research that links data, community knowledge, and action to address complex social and digital challenges.