CMBES 2023 Awards Recipients

Congratulations to these outstanding and inspiring individuals who were presented the CMBES 2023 awards at CMBEC45!


Early Achievement Award - Alanna Bateman

Alanna joined Lower Mainland Biomedical Engineering (LMBME) in BC in June 2021 as a Regional Clinical Engineer and provides support to 27 hospitals and additional smaller facilities. She is the Lower Mainland's Lead Engineer for supporting the management of BC's Provincial pandemic fleet, and a leader on the BC's Provincial Preventative Maintenance Program.

Alanna has reported findings from local incident investigations that have resulted in ECRI alerts that have had a direct impact for improving patient safety. She has also been leading a complex remediation project for infusion pumps across all LMBME sites with great success. Alanna demonstrates exceptional leadership qualities, and she approaches all of her work with kindness, compassion, and confidence. She is very collaborative and respectful, and she's helped strengthen LMBME's reputation among our clinical partners. Overall, Alanna is very talented Engineer, and a role model for others both inside and outside LMBME.


Early Achievement Award - Dr. Fateme Rajabiyazdi

Dr. Fateme Rajabiyazdi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, where she has established the first research center on Futuristic Health Data Visualization. In her lab, she currently has 11 students under her supervision.

Over the past five years, she has published one book chapter on patient-centered outcomes metrics for abdominal surgery, 16 journal papers, 3 peer reviewed conference papers in computer science fields, and over 25 abstracts, workshops, and posters in Computer Science, and Engineering conferences. She is also active in the academic communities. Dr. Rajabiyazdi is a highly skilled, talented, and dedicated individual whose work has made significant contributions to the health care industry, with her research having the potential to positively impact the lives of many patients worldwide.


Outstanding Canadian BMET - Aimee Riggs-Willey

Aimee Riggs-Willey is a Certified Biomedical Engineering Technologist who holds  senior position into CHEO's Regional Program at Queensway Carleton in Clinical Engineering. Her servitude in the past 20 years as a BMET in Dialysis and supporting critical care ventilators and the neonatal transport incubator and pediatric transport stretcher is unmatched.

Aimee has also been a key presenter for a number of years at the CHEO Open Houses for University of Ottawa and Carleton Biomedical Engineering students. She loves to inspire the next generation of biomed students by participating in creating tours for university students in ICU or presenting them health technology challenges that biomed faces every day. Aimee participated in a visit to successfully expand dialysis services Haiti. She co-authored a paper on this initiative that was presented at the 2019 ICETHMC conference in Rome. Aimee is an inspiration to her colleagues, family, her children's teammates, and other athletes.


Fellow of the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society (FCMBES) - Kelly Kobe

Kelly Kobe is the Director of Clinical Engineering for the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services. He has been contributing to the Biomedical/Clinical Engineering profession and CMBES since staring at the Calgary Health Authority in 1994. Kelly is a strong advocate for certification. He served on the Canadian Board of Examiners for Biomedical Engineering Technologists, as well as being a subject matter expert and file reviewer for the Association of Science & Engineering Technology Professionals of Alberta (ASET).

Volunteering and contributing are key parts of Kelly's character. He has been a volunteer mentor for biomedical engineering technologists for ASET, and servered on the advisory committees for NAIT and BCIT. Kelly has been on the CMBES Executive since 2016. Kelly's contributions to the profession through supporting CMBES, as well as his work with ASET and CBET certification, have worked to further the profession of Biomedical Engineering in Canada.

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