Dmitry O. Gorodnichy

Popular:
- www.whocantellmethetruth.ca
- www.IVIM.ca

Web Apps:
- Open Canada Deaths Tracker
- Border Wait Time Prediction and Analysis
- Public Service Employee Survey results tracker

Data Science tutorials:
- The R4GC Book
- Learn Physics with R
- Learn Statistics with R
- "Data Engineering Challenges and Solutions" workshop

Technical reports:
- "Design and Evaluation of Automated Lie Detection systems"
- "Optimizing Border Wait Time using Artificial Intelligence"
- "Analysis of the effect of ageing on iris recognition performance"
- "Recognizing people and their activities in surveillance video"

Music, Poetry, Art:
- Christmas carols: multi-lingual, with chords, analyzed using Data Science
- «Shri Jobim»: classic bossa-nova re-interpreted

FR | UA | RU

Greetings, Bonjour, Вітаю, День Добрый !

Professional:
I'm a Senior Data Scientist with 23+ years of experience working with the Canadian Government on problems related to public safety and security. I worked at the National Research Council of Canada, where I was developing video tracking solutions for the Canadarm and where I started the development of one of Canada's first Video Recognition Systems. Subsequently, I worked at the Canada Border Services Agency as a Principal Investigator as well as a Manager (bilingual position, for 5 years) responsible for designing and evaluating commercial and prototype systems for Automated Border Control applications, in particular, those using Biometrics and Artificial Intelligence.

Academic:
I studied Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics, Dimploma Cum Laude), the Glushkov's Institute of Cybernetics of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (Ph.D. in Mathematics) and the University of Alberta (Ph.D. in Computing Science). I’ve been Adjunct Professor at University of Ottawa (School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Department of Mathematics and Statistics), École de technologie supérieure d'Université du Québec (Laboratoire d’imagerie, de vision et d’intelligence artificielle), University of Dalhousie (Computer Science Department).

Impact:
I am one of the most published and cited Government of Canada researchers in the field of video analytics and biometrics. I supervised over 30 undergraduate and graduate students. My work was featured several times in the success stories of the institutions I worked with. I've authored several award-winning scientific papers and inventions, including the Nouse® (Nose as Mouse) Intelligent Vision Interface, which was featured world-wide and acquired as an artefact by the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. I received several Academic and Government awards, including "Outstanding Scientific Achievement" award from the National Research Council of Canada, "Young Investigator Award" from the Canadian Image Processing and Pattern Recognition Society, and the "Cultural Diversity Leadership" award from the University of Alberta. I've been nominated the "Leader of Tomorrow" by the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Canada.

Extracurricular:
Apart from my professional work, I have pursued various interests and hobbies. I was once a member of the Ukrainian national junior gymnastics team, and continue doing competitive-level gymnastics, also coaching it. I play in local soccer leagues. I have a passion for creativity and have composed music and tales. My love for languages extends to translating poetry and songs. I possess skills in tuning pianos and enjoy creating my own interpretations of bossa-nova classics. I have conducted workshops on musical accompaniment and guitar playing, performed at my children's school fairs. I am a father of four daughters, two of whom graduated from high school with the Governor General's Academic Medals, which is the highest Academic Excellence Award in Canada. Their names are now listed on the Governor General website: here and here.

New developments since 2021:
I was one of the first Canadians to get vaccinated "to protect myself and the community". As a data scientist trained in the performance evaluation of commercial products, I was eager to quantitatively provide evidence on the efficacy and safety of the innovative vaccines as soon as the post-marketing data for these vaccines became available on official government websites in the Fall of 2021. What I saw, however, shook my understanding of what was happening in Canada and worldwide:

First, the Open Canada Deaths Tracker App, which was developed with my colleagues during one of our Lunch and Learn sessions, showed a significant increase of deaths among Canadians, in particularly among children, starting from the end 2021 (which is when Omicron was active and vaccines were mandated). This looked very strange and worrisome assuming that these vaccines and other measures were designed to reduce total mortality, which apparently was not the case. Closer look into these statistics have exposed a number of other "anomalies", as discussed in this paper co-authored on my own time with my university colleagues during the Christmas break of 2021.
Second, the 'Cases following vaccination' statistics, which also became available at that time, did not show any significant improvement for vaccinated individuals, but rather showed the opposite - a noticeable increase of Cases among vaccinated compared to unvaccinated also starting from the end of 2021. This looked even more strange and worrisome knowing that normally vaccines are expected to reduce the number of cases, which again did seem to be the case.
What troubled me most was the fact that these post-marketing data were seemingly published using "winning communication strategies"in such as a way as to "avoid undermining the public confidence" (quoted from the Privy Council Office memo), aimed at concealing the inconvenient truth from Canadians, and there was no open debate anywhere about it and there was no open debate anywhere about these data.

This prompted me to become a truth seeker and an advocate for open discussions about these very concerning silenced issues and their relationshion to the War in Ukraine, the country where I was born and grew up. This is when I started writing my blogs on Substack (IVIM Newsletter) and turned to alternative media sources to seek the truth. This is also when I started expressing my concerns and emotions through alternative means such as music and art. One outcome of this was a song I wrote titled "Who can tell me the truth? (An Anthem for the New Generation)" which was subsequently used on a dedicated portal to raise awareness about the tragic increase in sudden deaths among young Canadians since January 2022.

Contacts:
I can be reached at [name]@gorodnichy.ca or [name]@ivim.ca.

About IVIM:
IVIM is the company that we've founded with my wife in 2007 to support the Nouse technology. Later it has become a platform for community outreach projects, including the Web Apps that I've built, the songs that I've composed, and other contributions to my community, some of which have been featured on CBC (e.g., ice-water dipping and helping people with disabilities).

Printout from “Leaders of Tomorrow” brochure