21 awarded grants. $397,600+ secured.
Every funded project trains students and produces open outputs. The table below lists awarded research grants; team-level program funding is noted separately.
Active & completed funded projects
| Year | Project | Funder | Amount | Role | Pillar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | AI for Health and Healing — HorAIzon Presidential Initiative (team of three leads) | Thompson Rivers University | $130,000 | PI / Lead | Health |
| 2026 | Three international research internships in AI, LLMs, Data Science, IoT & Computer Vision | Mitacs Globalink (GRI) | ≈$27,000 | PI | Cross-pillar |
| 2026 | Optimization-Driven Deep Learning for Skin Cancer Detection & Classification | TRU Internal Research Fund | $5,000 | PI | Health |
| 2026 | Intelligent Wildfire Management System: Data Collection, Prediction & Response | TRU GRA Grant | $5,000 | PI | Defence & Security |
| 2026 | Garbage Classification System using Deep Learning & IoT | TRU UREAP Award | $7,000 | Supervisor | Applied AI |
| 2026 | AI for Digital Preservation & Revitalization of Indigenous Languages in Canada | TRU UREAP Award | $7,000 | Supervisor | Indigenous |
| 2026 | Comparative Evaluation of Retrieval-Augmented Generation Pipelines across Domains & LLMs | TRU UREAP Award | $7,000 | Supervisor | Assistive / Education |
| 2026 | Advancing Inclusive Education through AI & IoT: Braille Learning Knowledge Exchange in Canada | TRU Research Accelerate | $3,000 | PI | Assistive |
| 2026 | Global Context-Aware Deep Learning Model for Automated Plant Disease Diagnosis | TRU Open Access Grant | $3,000 | PI | Applied AI |
| 2026 | AI-Powered Wildfire Risk, Air Quality & Community Preparedness Platform, Thompson-Okanagan | TRU Sustainability Grant | $2,500 | PI | Defence & Security |
| 2026 | AI-Driven Wildfire Management: Post-Fire Reforestation Analysis | TRU Sustainability Grant | $2,500 | PI | Defence & Security |
| 2025 | Local LLM for TRU: Privacy-Preserving Student Support & Mental Health Navigation | TRU UREAP Award | $7,000 | Supervisor | Health |
| 2025 | Diabetic Retinopathy Detection & Classification from Fundus Images with Optimized Deep Learning | TRU UREAP Award | $7,000 | Supervisor | Health |
| 2025 | AISimSpeak: AI-Powered Simulation Platform for Nursing Education | CAN-Sim Research & Innovation Grant | $2,500 | Co-PI | Health |
| 2023 | Multilevel Medical Image Steganography: Secured Health Records without Quality Loss | PMU Cybersecurity Grants | $8,500 | PI | Health / Security |
| 2023 | Innovative Education System for the Blind: AI-based Arabic Braille Language System | PMFCFS / World Futures Studies Federation | $7,000 | PI | Assistive |
| 2021 | Fast Diagnosis of COVID-19 using Convolutional Neural Networks | Qassim University / Ministry of Higher Education (KSA) | $34,000 | Team member | Health |
| 2020 | Medical Image Processing: Brain Tumor, Skin Cancer & Retinopathy Detection | PMU Deanship of Research | $10,300 | PI | Health |
| 2020 | Arabic Sign Language Recognition | PMU Deanship of Research | $18,000 | Co-PI | Assistive |
| 2020 | Evaluation of ML Techniques for Enhanced Image Understanding in Several Domains | PMU Deanship of Research | $7,700 | Co-PI | Applied AI |
| 2017 | A Study on Confused Handwritten Indian (Arabic) Numerical Images | PMU Deanship of Research | $21,300 | Co-PI | Applied AI |
Program-level funding: Dr. Latif was a funded team member of the $381,000 FRQNT program on AI-based mineral recognition at Université du Québec (2021–2023), which underpins the lab's earth-science research line.
What the funding builds
Wellness Hub
The flagship of AI for Health & Healing: an AI-supported wellness platform, demonstrated live to BC's Minister of State for AI and New Technologies and his delegation.
Wildfire intelligence suite
Three connected projects covering prediction and response, community air-quality preparedness, and post-fire reforestation analysis for the Thompson-Okanagan region.
Braille learning ecosystem
From the patented deep-learning Braille reader to a national knowledge-exchange initiative for inclusive education across Canada.
Have a funding opportunity or partnership in mind?
AIRL actively collaborates through Mitacs, tri-council programs, and industry projects.