Dr. Kouhyar Tavakolian (PhD, SFU): Assistant professor, University of North Dakota. Dr. Tavakolina joined the Electrical Engineering department at University of North Dakota in 2014. Adjunct Professor,Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, SFU, 2015. Prior to joining UND he was a postdoctoral fellow at ECE department at University of British Columbia, Vancouver Canada for two years. He received his BSc is Biomedical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic in 2000, Msc degree in Bioelectrical Engineering from Electrical Engineering department at University of Tehran in 2003 and another MSc degree in computer science from University of Northern British Columbia, Canada in 2005. He defended his PhD thesis in 2010 at Simon Fraser University, Canada. He has been a collaborator to Aerospace Physiology Lab since 2008, where he started with implementing the Ultra Low-Frequency Ballistocardiograph bed.  

He is a researcher with proven ability to cultivate ideas and conduct international collaborative research in biomedical engineering. His particular interest are in biological signal processing, biomedical instrumentation, noninvasive cardiology technologies, and EEG-based brain-computer interfaces and he has published more than 100 journal, conference proceedings, patents and book chapters in these fields. Kouhyar is a scientist with entrepreneurial interest and experience in knowledge transfer to industry. Kouhyar is currently the co-director for Biomedical Engineering Research Complex (BERC) lab at UND.  

Dr. Erik Seedhouse: assistant professor in Commercial Space Operations at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach. He is also the Manager of the suborbital spaceflight simulator and astronaut instructor for Project PoSSUM. Between 2008 and 2013 he was director of Canada’s manned centrifuge operations and managed the hypobaric facility at DRDC Toronto. He is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society and a member of the Space Medical Association. In 2009 he was one of the final 30 candidates in the Canadian Space Agency’s Astronaut Recruitment Campaign. Erik is the Editor-in-Chief for the Handbook of Life Support Systems for Spacecraft and a published author, with more than 20 books to his name. 

Dr. Laura Miller McPherson, (PT, DPT, PhD): Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy Faculty, Florida International University. Dr. McPherson's research interests are in Altered coupling between cardiovascular and motor systems during postural control following stroke. Deficits in balance and postural control are a persistent health concern in stroke survivors, even after intensive physiotherapy, because they limit functional recovery and are predictive of falls. These deficits are often attributed to the myriad of motor and sensory deficits that occur post-stroke. However, altered interactions between physiological systems (e.g., the cardio-postural relationship) may contribute as well. Dr. McPherson is examining the relationships among blood pressure, muscle activation, motor unit discharge, and postural sway to differentiate between baroreflex-mediated activation of postural muscles for return of blood and posturally-mediated activation of postural muscles for maintenance of balance.