Alberta Heart logo

The Team

Five teams, one heart.

Alberta Heart is organized into focused teams, each owning a piece of the Total Artificial Heart: from the pump and its electronics to the software and clinical work that hold the whole effort together.

Project Leadership

Portrait of Aryka Gordon, Project Manager

Aryka Gordon

Project Manager

Portrait of Henju Duvenhage, Project Advisor

Henju Duvenhage

Project Advisor

01

Infrastructure & Intelligence

Electrical and Embedded Systems

Develops the sensing, control, power, and communication infrastructure required to keep the Total Artificial Heart running reliably under physiological conditions.

  • Design & Programming: Electronics, circuits, sensors, microcontrollers, and wireless energy transfer.
  • System Integration: Actuators, power supplies, and real-time monitoring tools.
  • Safety & Control: Feedback-based control systems, power management, and safety redundancy.
  • Cross-Team Collaboration: Works closely with mechanical, simulation, and testing teams.

Team Lead

Portrait of Matthew Pierce, Electrical Team Lead

Matthew Pierce

02

Architecture & Fluid Dynamics

Pumping Mechanism

Designs, develops, and fabricates the core physical components of the heart, ensuring optimal fluid dynamics and structural integrity.

  • Core Mechanics: Component design for chambers, valves, and actuation architecture.
  • Analysis & Modeling: CAD modeling, stress analysis, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to optimize washout.
  • Fabrication: Prototype manufacturing and integration with biocompatible materials and sensors.

Team Lead

Portrait of Mattea Krug, Pumping Mechanism Team Lead

Mattea Krug

03

Testing & Validation

Mock Circulatory Loop

Builds and runs the mock circulatory loop, a benchtop platform that mimics human circulation, to test and validate the pump under realistic physiological conditions.

  • Loop Design: Builds and maintains the benchtop circulatory loop used to simulate physiological flow.
  • Validation: Runs pump prototypes through the loop to validate performance against design targets.
  • Data Acquisition: Collects and analyzes pressure, flow, and washout data from test runs.

Team Leads

Portrait of Zohan Chan, Mock Circulatory Loop Team Lead

Zohan Chan

Portrait of Daniel Morozov, Mock Circulatory Loop Team Lead

Daniel Morozov

04

Software & Automation

Alberta Heart Bot

Builds the internal software tools and automation pipelines that streamline operations and accelerate innovation across the entire club.

  • Automation: Eliminates manual effort by building workflow management tools and internal utilities.
  • Data Systems: Creates data-processing pipelines to handle testing and project data.
  • Club Support: Acts as a universal support team, optimizing processes for every other department.

Team Lead

Portrait of Cohen Chan, Alberta Bot Team Lead

Cohen Chan

05

Safety, Compliance & Patient Focus

Clinical Assurance

Translates complex medical needs and anatomical constraints into engineering requirements, ensuring the device remains safe and clinically relevant.

  • Design Inputs: Defines physiological limits, anatomical space constraints, and surgical requirements.
  • Risk Management: Maintains the clinical risk profile, risk matrix, Clinical Interface Log, and failsafe requirements.
  • Human Factors: Oversees human-factors engineering, regulatory awareness, and validation criteria.
  • Bridging the Gap: Leads cross-team communication to keep engineering decisions grounded in patient safety.

Team Leads

Portrait of Natalie Hu, Clinical Assurance Team Lead

Natalie Hu

Portrait of Krish Chahal, Clinical Assurance Team Lead

Krish Chahal

Want to join the team? Reach out to us!