C4 students turn gaze toward York University Libraries, SDGs

September 21, 2023

tablet united nations sustainability goals unsdgs

By Elaine Smith

Summer 2023 saw the C4 (Cross-Campus Capstone Course) team turn its gaze to a challenge issued by York University Libraries (YUL).

The C4 course, inaugurated in 2019 by co-founding faculty members Franz Newland (Lassonde) and Danielle Robinson (School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design), provides students with an opportunity to work effectively in interdisciplinary teams on real-world challenges with social impact. Since C4’s inception, YUL faculty have collaborated on the design and development of this initiative, offering important interdisciplinary wisdom and insights along the way.

The relationship changed this summer as YUL became a C4 project partner for an entire class of C4 students, searching for insights into how its own programs could more directly support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). After four years of contributing to the C4 initiative, Dana Craig, director of student learning and academic success for YUL, was seconded to the C4 leadership team in 2022-23. In this new role, she began to explore new and deeper ways that C4 and YUL could collaborate. She pitched a challenge to C4 students that focused on SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals): how can a university library be reimagined as a platform for local and global community engagement, knowledge mobility and sharing economies?

“The question was perfectly aligned with both our Keele Campus and our Casita Azul library project on the Las Nubes Campus in Costa Rica,” said Craig, “but that’s the beauty of C4. The students take a look and break the question down into what they think it’s all about. These students – five groups of 10 – wanted to apply the question in a variety of spaces.

“It became a beautiful opportunity to get students to shake us up a bit by telling us what they need and how they want us to operate. The library should not just be viewed as a support – we are constantly innovating in different ways, too. What else can we do to benefit students and our communities?”

Each of the groups decided on a topic to explore. They were also required to establish a budget, do research, determine how to promote their idea and think about how to make it sustainable. Craig connected them to the library personnel and resources most suited to their research. She also introduced them to the Media Creation Lab, where they could work with digital technology to create a podcast, borrow a 360-degree camera or learn how to edit a video, among other possibilities.

The student teams presented their solutions to the leadership team. One group suggested connecting with the community by offering skills workshops that focused on topics that would appeal to 18-to-25-year-olds, such as financial literacy or how to assess the validity of online information. A second team reimagined the library’s website, designing a simpler gateway to make it more user-friendly. A third group created an artificial intelligence (AI) bot to make it easier to search for open-access resources in any language. A fourth team envisioned a platform where authors could publish open-source material and converse with other authors on the same topic, while the final group designed a book exchange where students could bring a book and take a book in return.

“I could see every single one of these projects being explored by the library, with us working towards some implementation based on the students’ final projects,” Craig said.

Robinson was delighted to have YUL take a project partnership role this summer.

“York University Libraries have been a strong partner of C4 from the very beginning,” Robinson said. “Libraries foster vital interdisciplinary spaces on campus, just like C4, so our values are in direct alignment and energize our collaboration. I am glad the project partnership this summer gave us a chance to give back to the libraries.

“Now, Dana has a 360-degree view of C4 – she has supported students in the classroom and as a member of our leadership team. She has seen, close up, what the students can do and their extraordinarily creative problem solving. Being inside C4 in this way provides a unique perspective; it allows you to see the power of a York degree in action and the unique talents our students bring to the challenges the world is facing.”

For her part, Craig had nothing but compliments for the C4 course and its impact.

“I’m quite impressed by C4’s way of teaching and involving students,” Craig said. “Students love it, and I can see them learning to apply skills, such as compromises about work and having respectful conversations. They are learning through doing and it’s a fantastic experiential education opportunity.”

She was also pleased to have the students brainstorm ideas for the library to consider.

“We don’t know what we don’t know, and additional lenses on how students see and experience their learning and research environments are always valuable and welcome as additional avenues for us to explore.”

Program helps students build English-language confidence

September 20, 2023

Two York University students sitting outside at a picnic table and laughing on the Keele Campus.

By Lindsay MacAdam, communications officer, YFile

This fall, York International is launching a pilot program to help the University’s international student population build their English-language confidence as they navigate a new academic landscape.

The volunteer-based English Conversation Partners Program pairs “conversation partners,” who are fluent English speakers, with “student peers,” who have English as an additional language, to conduct one-on-one discussions for at least one hour every week for the duration of the program

In its pilot phase, the program is six weeks in length, including a kickoff event and a closing event meant for participant socializing in a larger group setting. The one-on-one conversation time between student pairs spans the four weeks in between. For each weekly session, students are provided with a facilitation guide via eClass that includes discussion topics and prompts, questions and a video tutorial with example interactions. Participants have the flexibility to arrange their meetups for times and places that are convenient to them.

Screenshot of the English Conversation Partners Program home page on eClass — A screenshot of the English Conversation Partners Program home page on eClass

In development since early this year, the program was spearheaded by Nikitia Cruz, international student experience coordinator at York International. According to Cruz, development involved researching what other universities were offering and speaking to international students to learn about the challenges they face. “I was a former international student,” says Cruz. “Although I did not experience many challenges having English as a second language, I recognize that York University’s international students come from all around the world, have varied educational backgrounds and experiences. I wanted to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to share their culture and knowledge of other languages in a fun and engaging way.”

Coincidentally, shortly after York International started the research and planning process for the program, a student reached out suggesting something similar. “That was a really great opportunity for student leadership development,” says Nethmi Kulatilake, manager of international student experience at York International. “So we connected the student with Nikita, and they ended up being one of the folks who supported the program development, too.”

The York International team is planning to evaluate the results of this program through testimonials, feedback surveys and, appropriately, through conversations with participants. “We’re planning to send surveys out to both the conversation partners and the student peers to get their insight on how the program is going, whether they are noticing the benefits of participating in it and if they would recommend the program to someone else,” says Cruz.

Then, the team will review all the feedback and decide if and where adjustments need to be made.

Fall 2023 participants in the English Conversation Partners Program gathered on York University's Keele Campus — The Fall 2023 English Conversation Partners Program participants gathered Sept. 20 for a kickoff event

Benefits for student participants in the program include developing friendships and expanding social networks, enhancing cultural awareness, expanding perspectives, and improving soft skills like problem solving, active listening and critical thinking.

Beyond the individual impact, York International hopes to use this program as a tool to support the Internationalization and Global Engagement Strategy at York. “One of the pillars of this strategy is to enhance the international student experience,” explains Kulatilake, “but within that, it talks about building dialogue opportunities between domestic students and international students, and building that intercultural knowledge across the University.”

In addition, Kulatilake hopes this program can support international student retention at York. “If it becomes a helpful tool for an international student in their first term, it can help them navigate their classes a little bit easier, their social environments, their overall confidence to navigate this transition, which ultimately could be one of the reasons they continue on into their second year, third year, fourth year and eventually graduate.”

To apply to be a conversation partner in the Winter 2024 term, visit yorkinternational.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=760267. To apply to be a student peer in the Winter 2024 term, visit yorkinternational.apps01.yorku.ca/machform/view.php?id=760823. For more information about York International’s English Conversation Partners Program, visit yorkinternational.yorku.ca/english-conversations-partners-program.

Researchers verify Einstein’s theory of general relativity

September 20, 2023

Research, led by York University PhD student Nelson Nunes and supervised by Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar Nobert Bartel, verified Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity and the Einstein equivalence principle (EEP) by measuring gravitational redshift – a change in the frequency of a lightwave – and the slowing of time over distances as far as the moon, of about 350,000 kilometres.

The EEP is a cornerstone of general relativity and predicts the existence of gravitational redshift. The EEP states that the gravitational mass of an object is equal to inertial mass. For instance, standing on Earth and experiencing weight is equivalent to being accelerated in a spacecraft far away from Earth without the influence of gravity.

“Testing the EEP is thought to be decisive to test gravitational theories, including Einstein’s general relativity,” said Bartel. “Finding inconsistencies could perhaps help with generating new ideas on how to combine gravitational theories with the other pillar of our modern understanding of the physical world, which is quantum theory.”

The international group of astrophysicists involved in the project, which included York Senior Research Associate Michael Bietenholz and scientists from Russia, the Netherlands and Australia, used a highly accurate clock on a spacecraft named RadioAstron, which was launched in 2011 in an elliptical orbit around Earth, to obtain the measurements.

Their measurements – published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity – showed that time on Earth flows slower by 0.7 times a billionth of what it is on the spacecraft far away from Earth – which adds up to a 20-millisecond difference in one whole year. Although the difference is miniscule, the change in time verifies the EEP, the overarching focus of the research.

One consequence of the EEP is the changing flow of time in a gravitational field and, closely related, the gravitational redshift. Gravitational redshift has the effect of shifting waves to lower frequencies; with light, this means a shift to red. With respect to time, gravitational redshift should cause time to slow down.

norbert pic resized — Illustration of the York team’s experiment: a radio satellite in very elliptical orbit around Earth extending to the distance of the moon. Clocks showing slowed-down time near Earth in comparison to time far away are indicated. Courtesy of Norbert Bartel

“All clocks are based on oscillators and tick according to how fast they oscillate,” said Nunes. “So the gravitational redshift has fundamental repercussions on the flow of time in a gravitational field. In other words, if we are far away from Earth in space and let our clock fall toward Earth, we should be able to measure the clock ticking slower and slower the more it approaches Earth. In the extreme case, were our clock to fall towards the event horizon of a black hole, a place of no return, we would expect to see time slowing down so much that at some point it would stop altogether.”

Although the team’s results are about 10 times less accurate than previous measurements reported in 2018 by a separate team using European Galileo navigation satellites, their experiment covers a much larger distance. Whereas the 2018 study measured gravitational redshift as far as about 25,000 kilometres from Earth, Nunes’ measurements went as far as 350,000 kilometres from Earth. The York team says the measurements could be improved further and with future similar space missions, could reach 1,000 times higher accuracies.

Exceptional scholars earn Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarships

September 19, 2023

Ten scholars will advance York University’s growing global health research community as recipients of the 2023-24 Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarship.

The program was created to support graduate research and related scholarly and creative activities in line with the three themes of the Dahdaleh Institute: planetary health; global health and humanitarianism; and global health foresighting. The scholarship is granted annually to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in global health research.

This year, the Dahdaleh Institute renews seven exceptional scholars and welcomes three new graduate students from the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Lassonde School of Engineering and Osgoode Hall Law School.

2023-2024 Dahdaleh graduate scholarship recipients — 2023-24 Dahdaleh graduate scholarship recipients

This year’s new recipients are:

Alexandra Scott – The Myth of “Good Enough”: Law, Engineering, and Autonomous Weapons Systems

Scott is a PhD student, Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholar, and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council doctoral Fellow at the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. Scott’s work explores the development and deployment of autonomous weapon systems (also known as “killer robots”) under international law and the role that engineers play in both.

“Beyond providing me with the financial means to pursue my PhD studies, my involvement with the Dahdaleh Institute has already allowed me to not only collaborate with and learn from esteemed academics, but become involved with research areas I had long hoped to delve into but could never quite figure out how,” says Scott. “The Dahdaleh Institute has already opened several doors to me and I am thankful to be part of such a welcoming and supportive program.”

Caroline Duncan – Optimizing Water Safety in Cambridge Bay Using Participatory System Dynamics

Duncan is a PhD candidate in civil engineering with a strong focus on optimizing drinking water in the Arctic using participatory approaches to system dynamics modelling. As part of the Lassonde School of Engineering, and under the guidance of Professor Stephanie Gora, her research seeks to understand the complex factors that affect the quality and accessibility of drinking water in the Arctic using an interdisciplinary and participatory approach.

Through her research, Duncan will work closely with the Municipality of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, collaborating with community members, government and non-governmental organization stakeholders involved with drinking water from source to tap. Through this collaboration, a model will be developed to test treatment and policy interventions to optimize drinking water safety.

Eyram Agbe – Digital deprivation: ICT education and social vulnerability in Ghana

Agbe is a master’s student in the Development Studies program. Her research seeks to understand the diverse psychosocial impacts of COVID-19 on basic school teachers in Accra, Ghana, and how these factors affect their ability to support new curriculum implementation as schools have returned to in-person classes. This study seeks to centre the critical role that social vulnerability plays in education, specifically how teachers’ health outcomes are situated within contentions over techno-political visions by stakeholders.

With the commencement of a new school year, the Dahdaleh Institute is excited to see the continued excellence and remarkable research of all the Dahdaleh Graduate Scholars. Those renewed will be exploring the following research areas:

Hillary Birch – More than Access: The urban governance of water quality in Lusaka, Zambia;
Michael De Santi – Improving Water Safety in Humanitarian Response with a Novel AI-Enabled Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Model;
Nawang Yanga – Tuberculosis in Tibetan Refugee Settlements in India: Insights into Lived Experiences;
Nilanjana Ganguli – Assessing community resilience to the gendered health impacts of climate change in Malawi’s Lake Chilwa Basin;
Raphael Aguiar – Urban Political Ecologies of AMR and other interdependent threats;
Sukriti Singh – Building a Model of Global Mental Health Governance to Support the Mental Health of Health Professionals; and
Yuliya Chorna – Anthropology of global health policy-making and financing of Tuberculosis response.

To learn more about the research projects graduate student scholars are undertaking, visit yorku.ca/dighr/ten-exceptional-scholars-awarded-2023-2024-dahdaleh-global-health-graduate-scholarships.

York program funds 16 Global South health-care hubs

September 13, 2023

A York University-led program is helping bolster health care with artificial intelligence (AI) solutions throughout the Global South by providing more than $5.8 million in funding for 16 projects in as many countries. The projects aim to combat infectious diseases, including polio surveillance in Ethiopia and helping Indigenous communities in the Philippines.

“We have led the call to strengthen the health-care system in low- and medium-income countries (LMIC) in the Global South for more than a year now,” says Assistant Professor Jude Kong, executive director of the Global South Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Network (AI4PEP), which received $7.25 million in funding from the International Development Research Centre in 2022 to develop a multi-regional, interdisciplinary network to use AI and big data to improve public health preparedness and response, and promote equitable and ethical solutions.

Originally from Cameroon, Kong understands the strains faced by health-care systems in LMIC and the importance of southern-led solutions. “Funding these projects will help strengthen capacity and support prevention, early detection, preparedness, mitigation and control of emerging or re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks in LMIC countries in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East, which, as we know, can make their way to every country in the world.” Incidents of disease outbreaks are expected to increase in severity and frequency as more viruses, bacteria and parasites jump from animals to people.

After a recent call for project proposals, the AI4PEP team received 221 submissions from 47 countries, with 142 of them from Africa, 40 from Asia and 26 from Latin America. The overall program framework centres around a gender, equity, inclusion and decolonization lens.

Vinitha_Gingatharan — Vinitha Gingatharan

“AI4PEP at York University is deepening the understanding of how equitable and responsibly designed artificial intelligence can lead to southern-led solutions to strengthen public health-care systems in the Global South,” says Vinitha Gengatharan, assistant vice-president, global engagement and partnerships. “This is just the start of a growing, multi-regional network to improve and strengthen public health preparedness and response to disease outbreaks that can make a real difference in the lives of people.”

The projects are led by universities in collaboration with health-care system stakeholders in 16 regions of the Global South. They include – among others – AI and modelling for community-based detection of zoonotic disease with increasing climate change in Senegal; a Foundation for Medical Research-University of Mumbai project; an AI-powered early detection system for communicable respiratory diseases based on integrated data sets at Wits University in South Africa; an Al-Quds University project; and an AI and eco-epidemiology-based early warning systems to improve public health response to mosquito-borne viruses in the Dominican Republic.

As diseases increasingly spread from animals to people with continued human encroachment into natural landscapes, AI4PEP’s One Health concept is designed to recognize and respond to the reality that human health is interdependent with the health of animals and the environment. Climate change is another huge factor.

“Climate change is exacerbating existing health and social inequities by increasing the vulnerability of climate hotspots to the emergence and re-emergence of many infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever and Zika,” says Associate Professor Ali Asgary of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. “This is a huge initiative, but with the support of many of York’s research institutes, including the York Emergency Mitigation, Engagement, Response and Governance Institute directed by Distinguished Research Professor Jianhong Wu, as well as CIFAL and the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, I believe we can all collaborate with this exceptional global network to respond to the increasing threat of infectious diseases.”

AI solutions and data science approaches are increasingly being used across the globe to identify risks, conduct predictive modelling and provide evidence-based recommendations for public health policy and action.

“Responding to the complex nature of these interactions in a timely way requires the ability to analyze large data sets across multiple sectors,” says Kong, who is also director of the Africa-Canada Artificial Intelligence and Data Innovation Consortium.

But even with the promised good of these innovative tools to improve public health outcomes, the team recognizes there are important ethical, legal and social implications that, if not appropriately managed and governed, can translate into significant risks to individuals and populations. AI4PEP intends to deepen the understanding of designing responsible AI solutions.

“Responsible AI entails intentional design to enhance health equity and gender equality and avoid amplifying existing inequalities and biases. We are working toward the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; in particular, three and five – good health and well-being, and gender equality,” says Kong. “Colonialism and gendered oppression have enduring effects, disproportionately impacting the health and quality of life of formerly colonized people and vulnerable groups, including women, gender non-conforming people, people with disabilities, rural communities and low-income households.”

Projects within the initiative will work closely with governments, public health agencies, civil society and others to generate new knowledge and collaborations to inform practice and policies at subnational, national, regional and global levels.

Learn more at News @ York.

Lassonde students place fourth at international unmanned aircraft competition

September 8, 2023

This summer, a team of graduate students from York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, in Professor Jinjun Shan’s research group, placed fourth at an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) competition at the 2023 International Conference of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS) in Warsaw, Poland.

Pictured, left to right: Professor Jinjun Shan, Ingredy Gabriela Gomes Carmo and Hunter Schofield. Mingfeng Yuan on laptop screen

The competition, designed to mimic challenges faced by UAVs performing infrastructure inspections in unknown environments, required teams to program a UAV with the ability to navigate an obstacle course safely and autonomously while identifying defects in the course infrastructure.

The Lassonde students, Hunter Schofield and Mingfeng Yuan (both PhD candidates), together with Ingredy Gabriela Gomes Carmo (MASc candidate), formed a team and spent months preparing and qualifying for the ICUAS UAV competition. The team adopted the name SDCN Lab, after Shan’s Spacecraft Dynamics Control and Navigation (SDCN) Lab at Lassonde.

“The initial event was the qualification round,” says Schofield. “We had to compete in a challenge against 39 international teams to navigate our UAV around a simulated environment and identify any defects at different points of interest.”

After successfully placing among the top five teams, the SDCN Lab team was off to Poland to compete against other top contenders.

In preparation for the final competition, the team combined their expertise in object detection, machine learning, control design, decision-making for autonomous vehicles and more, to develop and implement a code for their UAV. The code was designed to help the UAV achieve the required benchmarks in the final competition – exploration, perception and pose estimation. Exploration allows the UAV to safely navigate the obstacle course and find defects in infrastructure; perception is used to identify and classify defects; and pose estimation helps the UAV evaluate its position and trajectory in a given environment. The team also had the opportunity to work with industry professionals from Quanser Consulting, who provided technical support and practice facilities.

“Preparing for the competition in Poland was a steep learning curve, and we had to collaborate with each other a lot for each benchmark,” says Schofield. “None of us are experts on pose estimation, so we had to work with other lab members to figure it out. It was good experience because it allowed us all to learn something new.”

At the final UAV competition, the team’s drone autonomously navigated and inspected the challenging obstacle course. After each of the teams’ drones made their way through the competition arena, scores were given based on their performance quality. The Lassonde students ultimately finished in fourth place – only 0.5 points behind the third-place team.

“The competition was really difficult, but it was a great experience to collaborate with my team and see the work done by other students,” says Carmo. “I also liked travelling to a new country.”

This opportunity allowed the students to network and collaborate with other international teams at the competition, share interests, build relationships and discuss different approaches and strategies used throughout the competition.

“Professor Shan gave us a great opportunity with this conference and through the partnership with Quanser. We’ve now learned how we can put all our knowledge together to create solutions for real-world problems,” says Yuan.

York welcomes international students

September 6, 2023

A group of five York University students walking down York Boulevard in the fall

By Elaine Smith

This fall, York University welcomes to its campuses more than 2,000 new international students who bring their unique experiences, perspectives, talents and skills to the University and to Canada.

Home to more than 10,000 international students from 178 countries, York is a community of diverse experiences, languages, cultures and viewpoints, notes Vinitha Gengatharan, assistant vice-president, global engagement and partnerships.

“This is a privilege we don’t take lightly,” she says. “We know that each journey to Canada began well before a plane, train or car ride to Toronto. We appreciate the trust placed in choosing York and the years of hard work that our international students and their families have put in to make studying at York University, far from home, possible.”

Gengatharan says the University is well-equipped to help steer international students through the challenges they may face, such as housing, finances and adjusting to a new culture, through supports and resources offered through York International (YI).

“We know how important international students are to our community and how much strength and value they bring to York and to Canada. York is committed to continuing to advocate with our municipal, provincial and federal governments to improve services, resources and processes that impact international students.”

First impressions

Nargis Rafie grew up in Afghanistan and came to Canada as a refugee. She transferred to York this fall to study computer science and is living off campus. After attending YI’s orientation for international and exchange students, as well as a shopping expedition to help students buy essentials, she shared her first impressions of the University.

“The campus is beautiful and the staff is very friendly, helpful and quick to respond,” Rafie said.

Orientation, she said, helped her become familiar with campus and with the resources she needed to set up her new life. It also helped her meet other international students who she plans to stay in touch with.

Nigerian computer science student Fatima Yusuf transferred to York for her second year after attending another Ontario university.

“I wanted a school that had a co-op program and I wanted to be exposed to a more diverse group of people,” she said. “I volunteered at York’s orientation for international and exchange students, checking people at the registration desk. It was nice meeting different people, even briefly, and it was a diverse group.

Her twin sister, Khadija Yusuf, also transferred to York and will be studying commerce with an eye toward becoming an accountant. She jumped right into action, volunteering at orientation and attending a special session for students in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. She is already planning to join the accounting association and will see if her schedule permits other activities.

“I felt that York had better opportunities: more people, more resources and more activities,” said Khadija.

Commitment to international students

Welcoming international students is part of York University’s commitment to advancing global engagement, as stated in the University Academic Plan and York’s new Internationalization and Global Engagement Strategy.

Sarah Bay-Cheng, dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, is aware of the value international students contribute to the learning experience.

“Knowledge doesn’t stay in one place, but relies on the vital movement and exchange of ideas around the world,” says Bay-Cheng. “Global networks are, therefore, essential to the success of researchers, creatives and students everywhere.”

York International works closely with the Office of the Vice-Provost, Students and Faculties to design and deliver programs and services to ensure international students succeed and feel at home on campus. It serves as a central hub for international students, offering immigration advising, health insurance, orientation, social events, workshops, academic and career supports, and more.

“We are proud to provide so many excellent students from other countries with a home-away-from-home, and we are committed to ensuring their experience is a fulfilling one, academically, socially and developmentally,” says Woo Kim, director of international scholar and student services for York International.

“We work closely with university partners and Faculties to support students and provide an excellent experience for international students.”

For example, York International offers a Global Peer Program to support prospective and incoming first-year students, keeping them active and engaged as soon as they’ve received their offer to York, to better help them navigate their student journey. Current upper-year students remain connected with newly admitted students through monthly check-ins, virtual group connections and ongoing virtual support. This summer, 112 students completed the program.

Once international students arrive on campus, they are invited to an orientation program geared specifically toward their needs. They receive immigration guidance, are introduced to local community resources, such as banks and cellphone providers, and have the opportunity to network with other incoming students. They also engage in academic orientation delivered by the Faculties.

YI and the Faculties also assist international students with their needs, either through one-one-one guidance, career workshops or social opportunities.

“Our goal is to support international students achieve success, in whatever way they define it, whichever path they choose,” said Gengatharan. “When international students succeed, it is a win for everyone at York and in Canada. “And, to our international students – you belong here, you bring so much to our community and we’re so glad you’ve chosen us.”

Global Perspectives program supports international knowledge exchange

September 5, 2023

Since 2022, over 300 students from 28 Chinese universities have benefited from the Global Perspectives program, a partnership between York University’s Asian Business and Management Program (ABMP) and the Faculty of Science.

Established in 2022, the Global Perspectives program offers a series of impactful online, non-degree courses that cater to various academic interests and career aspirations by providing students with cutting-edge knowledge and in-demand practical skills, and fostering international insights in Chinese university undergraduates.

“Through this initiative, we are fostering global knowledge exchange and empowering students to make a positive impact on the world. The programs are also designed to drive positive change by aligning closely with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to address critical global challenges and promote sustainable development,” says Hugo Chen, director of international collaborations and partnerships at the Faculty of Science.

The Global Perspectives programs – which cover areas like data visualization, water and wastewater treatment, scientific literacy and more – are an adjunct to Chinese students’ core academic curriculum, delivering an immersive experience led by experienced university instructors and industry practitioners. They provide both a theoretical understanding and industry-ready practical skills, preparing students to tackle real-world challenges. English-language tutoring is integrated into the program, ensuring that students also develop the essential technical language and communication skills necessary for thriving in a global academic and professional environment.

Looking to the future, ABMP Program Director Elena Caprioni aims to provide an even greater number of Chinese undergraduates with enriching experiences and invaluable international exposure through these transformative opportunities, helping students gain unique insights and capabilities that enable them to thrive in a globalized world. “While the focus remains on empowering students for a globalized world, the collaboration between York and Chinese universities seeks to create a powerful impact that transcends borders and helps build a more interconnected, sustainable and prosperous world for all,” says Caprioni.

Professors consider long-term health impact of wildfires

August 23, 2023

Emilie Roudier and Olivier Birot, professors with York University’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health, have published research calling for a rethinking of the potential long-term health risks of wildfires.

The paper, titled “Wildland fire, air pollution and cardiovascular health: is it time to focus on the microvasculature as a risk assessment tool?,” considers how our current understanding of potential long-term health risks from particulate matter (PM) exposure is limited and mostly ignores the microvascular system, a network of tiny arterioles and capillaries that may be just as important as the heart, lungs and arteries when it comes to understanding the health dangers of PM resulting from forest fires.

“While it’s understandable that initial attention focuses on the immediate impacts of losses and casualties after a wildfire, we know that there are also longer-term impacts from exposure to particulate matter pollution,” says Roudier, who is leading the research project, which involved spending a portion of the summer on the French island of Corsica in the Mediterranean, where summer wildfires are common. There, a partnership was created with the CNRS Wildland Forest Unit at the University of Corsica Pasquale Paoli (UCPP) and the Corsican fire authorities to further research efforts.

“Firefighters think about lung cancer, because they breathe the smoke, but because the fires are getting higher in temperature, the particulate matter is getting really small, so small that some can reach the bloodstream,” continues Roudier. “The PM are then in the cardiovascular system and travelling through our blood vessels. We are questioning whether we are using the right measurements to assess the risk posed to firefighters and the affected population. Having better tools, or additional tools, could hopefully lead to better solutions to mitigate risks.”

The paper notes that in North America, the length of the wildfire season has increased by nearly a fifth in the past 35 years, making the need to answer these questions more pressing. Population growth and development has increased human exposure to wildfire areas, growing the likelihood of both accidental ignition and fire-suppression policies that can lead to an accumulation of biomass fuels. While there is a clear link in the literature between PM pollution and cardiovascular disease, linking this to wildfires has been harder to show, given the complexities of studying this on a population level.

Birot, an associate professor who worked as a volunteer firefighter for seven years during his undergraduate and postgraduate studies, teaches a course at York that looks at extreme environments and their effects on health, including PM exposure and exercise.

“This microcirculation is not only important for delivering oxygen and nutrients to our tissues – it is also key for communication exchanges between organs, for example, between the working muscle and the brain. And it is also this microcirculation that’s key to dissipate excess body heat, moving heat from the core of the body to the peripheral skin. So think about wildland firefighters who are engaging in long periods of intense physical activity in a context where they’re going to produce heat because of their activity, and they are doing that in an environment that is polluted and extremely hot. So you’re combining a lot of stressors,” he says.

The two researchers have obtained samples of PM from wildland fires in Corsica and have started to analyze them back in their lab at York to test their effect on human endothelial cells, which line the inner layer of blood vessels. They are looking for epigenetic biomarkers that could act as early warning systems for those who might be more vulnerable.

A delegation from the UCPP will be coming to York in October, and Roudier and Birot will head back to Corsica in December to do more field work – collecting new PM samples from controlled biomass burning – and to expand their collaboration with Corsican fire authorities.

Watch a video of Roudier and Birot explaining their research:

See more ways York University is making headlines at News @ York.

AMPD students experience multi-national theatre production

August 18, 2023

Students from the Department of Theatre at York University travelled to Budapest to collaborate with the Hungarian National Theatre on a multi-national production of The Tragedy of Man, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian writer, Imre Madách.

The University of Theatre and Film Arts in Budapest invited several foreign theatre programs to participate in the play, which tells the story of Adam and Eve who, after being expelled from Paradise, travel the world guided by Lucifer, in search of humanity’s purpose on Earth.

The play is divided into 15 different scenes, and for the production each scene was performed by theatre students from a different country, with their own imagined set decorations, costumes and in their native language. Among the 11 countries invited to Budapest, the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) York University cohort was the only North American program included.

Prof. Tereza Barta, Kate Counsel, Mercedes Clunie, & Stéphane Arcand — Tereza Barta, Kate Counsel, Mercedes Clunie, & Stéphane Arcand

When Tereza Barta, a film production professor in the Department of Cinema & Media Arts, was approached by two representatives of the University of Theatre and Film Arts from Budapest at a conference and asked about York undergraduate students participating, she didn’t hesitate. “I thought it would be an absolutely incredible opportunity for the students,” she says and accepted the offer to direct “The Space” scene, which had been assigned to York. The rehearsals lasted for almost a month with York student Mercedes Clunie in the role of Lucifer, Stéphane Arcand in the role of Adam and Kate Counsel cast as The Voice of Earth’s Spirit.

Each country prepared their assigned scene in advance, in their own country, and on June 8, the cast of almost 200 students and 22 faculty members met in Budapest in the Eiffel Art Studios (Hungarian State Opera) to present their work. For the next two weeks, the Hungarian theatre director Attila Vidnyánszky worked with the multi-national cast to weave the scenes into one homogeneous show, with students often rehearing for 12-hour stretches. “There was an absolutely incredible commitment,” Barta says.

During that time, the students were afforded unique experiential opportunities. For one, Vidnyánszky is a celebrated theatre director in Europe, and many of the York students made the most of working with him. “They would try to absorb as much as possible form his direction and methods,” says Barta. “The common denominator that they all had, was this burning passion for this art.”

Rehearsal of "The Space" scene in the The Tragedy of Man mounted at Eiffel Art Studios in Budapest. — Rehearsal of “The Space” scene in the The Tragedy of Man mounted at Eiffel Art Studios in Budapest.

The multi-national nature of the production also meant the York AMPD students met and collaborated with colleagues from outside Canada, gaining experience with different perspectives and approaches to the craft. “Openness, exposure to other stage concepts, more availability for empathy, understanding various cultures more deeply,” Barta says were outcomes she hoped for the students when she agreed to take part in the project, and she was pleased to see her expectations met. “There was a lot of exchanging points of view about the world about, about the meaning of their art, about the meaning of their lives,” Barta says. “It was quite enriching.”

The play – which lasted over seven hours – was performed live in Budapest on June 23, but plans are in place to allow others to screen it later this year and allow others to see the result of the experiential experience the AMPD students participated in.

Stéphane Arcand as Adam & Mercedes Clunie as Lucifer

“This whole theatrical experiment brought us the certainty that the ardour and dynamism with which creators devote themselves to artistic expression is irreplaceable. And on the same occasion, Europe also learned that the future of Canadian theatre remains steadfastly in the hands of the talented and passionate,” says Barta.