The contributions to technology by a UWindsor medical physics undergraduate have caught the attention of Canadian technology company Telus.

Jordyn Matthews won Telus’ 2022 Diversity in Technology scholarship. The $5,000 award recognizes women and minorities in technology.

Matthews has been busy working in campus research labs since her second year, when she joined physics assistant professor Dan Xiao’s lab.

“Dr. Xiao is working on building a small portable MRI device that could be used onsite or in the field and I worked on novel designs for gradient coils,” says Matthews.

More recently, the fourth-year student has been working with physics professor Roman Maev in his Institute for Diagnostic Imaging Research.

“Dr. Maev has a project to build a trans cranial ultrasound brain imaging device so that ultrasounds could detect hemorrhages in the brain and I’m working on measuring the field characterization of the new probe that they have,” she says.

“I get to work on a lot of hands-on things.  For our current testing, I insert a hematoma, or pool of clotted blood, into a sheep skull and we obtain an image then measures the accuracy of our device.”

She also channeled her creative side as a member of the Science Meets Art (SMArt) team, producing various digital software designs, including outreach material for high school students interested in medical physics.

Steven Rehse, head of the Department of Physics, says Matthews took a critical leadership role in the department and as co-president of the Physics Club.

“Jordyn has also been trusted as a teaching assistant in our first-year labs and I also was able to obtain an Ignite grant in the summer of 2022 to employ Jordyn to conduct interviews with former students of our medical physics program to highlight the successes they have had in their field as a result of our program,” says Dr. Rehse

“All in all, she is a highly impressive young scientist, a fantastic student-scholar, and a tremendous ambassador for the Faculty of Science and the Department of Physics.”

Matthews says this scholarship is important because it encourages women and minorities to pursue studies and careers in STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and math.

“Science is a competitive industry, so I try to put my best foot forward to represent the women within my field,” she says.

—Sara Elliott