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Lassonde undergrads earn awards for SDG research projects

Lassonde School of Engineering contest

Eight York University undergraduate students received awards at Lassonde’s Undergraduate Summer Research Conference in recognition of summer projects that aimed to address the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The projects received funding from the Lassonde Undergraduate Research Awards (LURA), an initiative that promotes experiential learning, skill building and professional development through funded research opportunities, and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council Undergraduate Student Research Awards (NSERC USRA). This year, over 70 undergraduate students worked on research projects alongside faculty members and graduate students, and addressed SDGs like sustainable cities and communities (UN SDG 11), as well as industry, innovation and infrastructure (UN SDG 9).

“Our LURA program was designed to meet the demand for experiential learning and expose students to hands-on research,” says Paulina Karwowska-Desaulniers, director of research priorities and partnerships at Lassonde. “Over the years, the program has enabled hundreds of students to undertake research projects and spark their curiosity with new passions they didn’t even know they had.”

lassonde student poster presentation
A student presenting a research poster.

In August, Lassonde’s Undergraduate Summer Research Conference brought together students, faculty and staff across the school, so undergraduate program participants could give oral and poster presentations highlighting the innovative research projects they conducted over the summer.

There, too, projects were evaluated for LURA consideration by a panel of faculty judges as well as student attendees.

The following students received LURAs for their poster presentations:

  • Prachurya Deepta Adhikary, a student in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and their project “Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method for Generating Naturalistic Shapes” won first place;
  • Ammar Mohamed Mohieldin Ahmed Abouelmaati, a student in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and their project “Optimal Spectrum Partitioning and Power Allocation in Semi-Integrated Sensing and Communications System” won second place; and
  • Haydar Isa Senturk, a student in Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, won third place for the project “Design and Optimization of Micro-Coils for Efficient Power Transfer to Brain-Implanted Medical Devices.”

The following students received LURAs for their oral presentations:

  • Alice Fours, a student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and their project “Vascularization in Tissue Engineering: Engineering Functional Blood Vessels in 3D-Printed Biomaterials for Enhanced Transplantation Outcomes” won first place;
  • Sharon Musa, a student in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and their project “Audio-Video Scene Recognition” won second place; and
  • Tyler Chung, a student in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, won third place for the project “Development of a Remote 2-D Imaging Fabry-Pérot Spectrometer for Climate Change Sensing and Monitoring.”

The following undergraduates received Student Choice Awards for presentations:

  • Kumar Vaibhav Jha, a student in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and their project “Graph Based Multi-Object Tracking for Traffic Intersection Analytics” won best poster presentation; and
  • Stefan de Lasa, a student in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, won best oral presentation for their project, “Using Semantics and Geometry to Scale Monocular Depth Estimation Models.”

“At Lassonde, we strive to empower our community of student creators to cultivate new ideas and knowledge,” says Jane Goodyer, dean of Lassonde. “It’s our interdisciplinary approach to research that truly sparks creativity and innovation needed to address global issues.”

Watch the journey of four undergraduate students in the summer research program on YouTube.

Lassonde faculty receive $3M in NSERC grants to tackle global issues

Brain and AI technology

Thirteen faculty members from York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering were awarded Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grants, totalling $2.73 million in funding to support new and ongoing research. Two other faculty members received NSERC Research Tools & Instruments grants totalling a combined $300,000.

The programs that received funding this year aim to tackle emerging global issues and complex challenges in engineering and science, with many programs exploring the diverse applications of artificial intelligence (AI) methods, extending research to flood forecasting, medical devices and digital cameras, to name a few examples.

NSERC Discovery Grants are especially important for early career researchers, allowing them to independently pioneer long-term research programs and bring their creative vision to life – a first-time opportunity for many – while accelerating innovative research activities, diverse partnerships and interdisciplinary collaborations.

This year the NSERC Discovery Grant recipients, and their funded research programs, are:

Alidad Amirfazli, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for “Surface Droplet Interactions for Complex Systems: Fundamentals and Applications.”

Michael Brown, professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Next Generation AI-Based Camera Pipelines.”

Andrew Eckford, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Towards Advanced Molecular Communication Systems.”

Moshe Gabel, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Efficient, General, and Accessible Distributed Stream Processing.”

Hossein Kassiri, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Patient-Optimized Highly-Scalable Multi-Modal Implantable Brain Computer Interfaces.”

Usman Khan, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, for “Harnessing the power of AI to develop a Canada-wide flood forecasting system.”

Sana Maqsood, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Developing interactive systems to improve users’ security and privacy.”

Kiemute Oyibo, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Using Persuasive Technology and Machine Learning Models to Address Digital Inequity.”

Katerina Papoulia, adjunct associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, for “Multiscale methods for failure analysis of concrete materials.”

Aditya Potukuchi, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Polymer methods for Markov Random Fields.”

Razieh Salahandish, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Integrated wearable platforms for self-monitoring of complex biomarkers.”

Haley Sapers, adjunct professor in the Department of Earth & Space Sciences & Engineering, for “Biogeochemisty of Impact Craters.”

Laleh Seyyed-Kalantari, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, for “Mitigating the unfairness of AI-based medical image diagnostic tools.”

This year the NSERC Research Tools & Instruments recipients, and their funded research programs, are:

Aleksander Czekanski, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for “In-Situ Complex-Geometry Autonomous 3D Printing System for Heterogeneous Soft Tissue Structures.”

Terry Sachlos, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, for “X-ray Irradiator for Tissue Engineering Applications.”

VR, immersive teaching strengthens York’s partnership with Bauhaus

child using virtual reality goggles

By Elaine Smith

The 20-year institutional partnership between York University and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in Germany has been re-energized by a recent collaboration on advancing immersive teaching through gamification and virtual reality (VR).

When researchers at Bauhaus wanted to share their work in immersive, multi-user VR with colleagues outside of Germany earlier this year, they turned to York University, an institutional partner for more than 20 years.

Jadidi with VR
Mojgan Jadidi with VR equipment.

Mojgan Jadidi, an associate professor of civil engineering who works with extended reality (XR) tools in her GeoVA Lab, was intrigued when teaching and learning colleagues at the Lassonde School of Engineering referred the inquiry to her, given her own work with VR. She invited Anton Lammert and Tony Zöppig, researchers working for the head of the Virtual Reality and Visualization Research Group at Bauhaus, to spend a week at York and present a public workshop focused on immersive teaching and virtual reality.

“We discussed different educational applications for immersive, multi-user virtual reality,” said Lammert. “We focused on lecture scenarios, as well as guided tour scenarios, and discussed how immersive recordings (recordings of all interactions that happened in virtual reality) could be used for research and educational purposes.”

The discussion led several interested undergraduate students to approach Jadidi afterward and, as a result, she has recruited new research assistants. At the same time, the Bauhaus researchers also made some new connections at York and revitalized their relationship with York International.

Outside of the lecture, the German team spent time collaborating and exchanging ideas with Jadidi’s lab team. “The visit was a stepping stone for broader collaboration between our labs,” said Jadidi. “We’re aiming to implement their algorithm and concepts in game development to enhance our games for multi-players. There was a lot of knowledge exchanged; they are teaching VR using a VR platform and I teach engineering through VR, so this enriches us both.

“Researchers from other universities bring a different mindset with them, and it re-energizes our students and faculty.”

The new connection prompted Jadidi to encourage one of her research assistants, Alexandro Di Nunzio, to apply for a scholarship to study at Bauhaus this fall, so he’s preparing to leave for Weimar, Germany in September.

Di Nunzio, who is also a master’s candidate in digital media, met the visiting researchers and was impressed by their work.

“Once I met them, I became interested in their work on multi-player VR applications,” said Di Nunzio, “and then I learned that they’re teaching a class about developing virtual reality applications using their multi-player VR framework. We did a little work together while they were here, and when they voiced interest in having me come to Bauhaus, I hastily applied for the scholarship.”

Di Nunzio will study at Bauhaus from October to February, taking the course taught by Lammert and Zöppig, and will incorporate his new knowledge into his master’s research project. He is working on finding a way to implement his current research on real-time audio analysis and music visualization into a multi-player virtual reality setting.

“My main goal while abroad is to become very familiar with VR development,” he said.

Jadidi is pleased that Di Nunzio is taking advantage of an existing partnership – which epitomizes York University’s Internationalization and Global Engagement Strategy – to enhance his own skills and knowledge, as is Lammert.

“The framework exists, so why not use it?” Jadidi said.

Lammert agreed. “Through this exchange, we hope that the student exchange between our two universities will be strengthened,” he said.

Professors earn award for bringing comic art to classrooms

comic_art

Kai Zhuang, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and Mojgan Jadidi, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, were honoured with a Best Paper Award at the 2023 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference for a paper titled, “Visual Verbal Integrated (VIVID) Comics – A pedagogy for teaching.”

Comic art of Professors Jadidi (left) and Zhuang (right)
Comic art of professors Mojgan Jadidi (left) and Kai Zhuang (right)

The honoured paper reflects the professors’ ongoing efforts to develop innovative teaching methods, which are inspired by visual arts and practices such as games, music and comic art.

“Engineering language creates learning barriers,” says Zhuang. “We want to increase understanding of materials in more efficient ways – through approachable, accessible and inclusive methods. Art-inspired pedagogy combines rationale with creativity for a more engaged student-learning experience.”

Zhuang and Jadidi’s work especially stresses the use of comics to teach humanistic skills such as ethical leadership to engineering students, as they are crucial for professional success. However, students often find these skills difficult to grasp due to their focus on technical concepts.

Comic art describing the concept of VIVID thinking.
Comic art describing the concept of VIVID thinking

Summarized in their awarded paper, Zhuang and Jadidi are developing and piloting a pedagogy called Visual Verbal Integrated (VIVID) Storytelling, which aims to address the challenges associated with teaching humanistic skills to engineering students.

The method combines aspects of VIVID thinking, which integrates visual and verbal elements to improve communication and drive ideation, as well as storytelling aspects of comic art, to help increase student engagement. The method also incorporates elements of sketchnoting, such as the use of simple visuals, to reduce the level of expertise needed to apply VIVID Storytelling in academic settings. By combining these elements, Zhuang and Jadidi established a user-friendly and engaging teaching method that promotes creativity and associative thinking to help students understand complex or unfamiliar ideas.

Excerpt from comic art material used to teach students about computational thinking.
Excerpt from comic art material used to teach students about computational thinking

To test the effectiveness of VIVID Storytelling, the method was used in different student workshops to teach skills ranging from self-directed learning to computational thinking. Not only was the method capable of teaching various skills and topics in an engaging manner, but it also provided students with reference material for future study.

In addition, VIVID Storytelling can be used to make complex concepts more accessible for students who face various barriers in academic settings, thereby supporting decolonization, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts. For example, the method offers an alternative to academic language that may be daunting for students. VIVID Storytelling also helps create an inclusive learning environment for students of different educational and linguistic backgrounds.

Jadidi and Zhuang are also conducting a project through York University’s Academic Innovation Fund titled “Developing PAN-Lassonde Inclusive, Immersive, Accessible, and Affordable Learning Environments for Engineering Education using Augmented/Virtual Reality, Gamification, & Educational Comics.” Involving more than a dozen professors across Lassonde, the project aims to address challenges in engineering education and improve learning experiences with a library of teaching methods inspired by visual arts and practices.

“The Academic Innovation Fund is a stepping stone,” says Jadidi. “If we can continue to get more grants, we can involve more faculty members and start implementing these methods in our courses. Together, we can create a safe, accessible and inclusive teaching culture.”

Teaching with an assist from technology 

man using tablet with graphic image of lightbulb

By Elaine Smith

After returning to in-person teaching following the COVID-19 pandemic, some faculty at York University have continued to embrace technology as a useful and interesting adjunct to their courses. Alejandro Zamora, Mojgan Jadidi and Damilola Adebayo teach disparate topics, but each has decided that technology-enhanced learning benefits their students. 

Zamora, an associate professor of Hispanic studies at Glendon College, first used digital technology in a Hispanic Geopoetics course in 2018. The class was studying the work of Luis Cernuda, a poet from Seville, Spain, and he led them on a field trip to explore the spatial memory of a place recreated in his poetry throughout a life of exile. Afterward, he had students collaborate on a web-based multimedia project about the poet and about their field experience.

Zamora
Alejandro Zamora
Jadidi with VR
Mojgan Jadidi with virtual reality
Damilola Adebayo
Damilola Adebayo

“I liked how these projects made students collaborate and engage with the community,” Zamora said. “They learned to create, analyze, synthesize and collaborate. I loved the pedagogic power of digital humanities courses.” 

He now incorporates digital projects into all his courses that have field components, such as the summer courses he teaches at the University’s Las Nubes Campus in Costa Rica. Some of the courses have established projects to which students contribute, while in others, the class conceptualizes and creates a project from scratch. He is open to students who propose digital projects in his other courses, too, such as blogs or videos as assignments. 

“Literature is often text-based, so students limit their experience to textual analysis and discursive thinking,” Zamora said. “These projects make the students think visually, so they help me enhance their learning experience. The course immediately becomes experiential, because the students realize that they can put what they have learned to work in practical ways and that they can mobilize knowledge.” 

He has also turned to globally networked learning to bring together students from Glendon with their counterparts in Colombia, virtually, for joint sessions about Gabriel García Márquez’ novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. 

“This was the first time we had a globally networked learning component as part of the [Hispanic Geopoetics] course and it was fantastic,” Zamora said. 

Jadidi, an associate professor of civil engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering, uses gaming and virtual reality tools to assist her students in learning engineering and surveying principles. Previously, she created an extended reality sandbox (XR Sandbox) teaching tool that builds on an augmented reality physical sandbox (AR Sandbox) devised by faculty at the University of California, Davis. It allows students to mimic climate conditions online, such as floods, to see their impact on roads and bridges, for example.   

“The XR Sandbox is an inclusive, diverse learning environment that helps students to retain information,” she said.  

Recently, Jadidi and 11 colleagues received an Academic Innovation Fund (AIF) grant to develop gaming and XR tools that will assist students in learning complex engineering concepts. To do so, they will employ XR and gaming technologies, as well as Visual Verbal Integrated (VIVID) storytelling technology.  

“We have observed that engineering students become more disengaged from their learning, particularly when learning contents that are complex, theory heavy, nuanced and unfamiliar,” said Jadidi. “Technology is advancing very quickly and students are comfortable using it, so we want to give them tools to see different dimensions of engineering problems and enjoy learning in a different way.” 

For example, one of the tools will allow the students to virtually fly drones over a 3D model of the York University campus so they can understand a drone’s movement and rotation. They’ll be learning about drone assembly, system co-ordination, testing and flight, all within a virtual space.  

“It’s all about providing students more opportunities for learning,” said Jadidi. “They’ll be able to learn independently, too; they won’t be limited by time.” 

Adebayo’s first opportunity to teach a course occurred in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a PhD student at Cambridge, teaching wasn’t required, so he was forced to acclimate simultaneously to teaching and the virtual environment. 

“I was plunged into the deep end,” said Adebayo, an assistant professor and historian of anglophone West Africa.  

Luckily, having grown up with technology, Adebayo quickly found his feet.  

At York, he started off teaching HIST 2750 (African History from 1800 to the Present) in a HyFlex classroom that is designed to provide remote learners with the same classroom experience as those present in person, and is also recorded for reviewing. It required some tinkering with technology to provide an equivalent experience.  

For example, Adebayo is learning to use a tool that allows him to embed quizzes into lectures so that anyone watching virtually can’t continue unless they participate; the video simply stops.  

An AIF grant has allowed him to purchase a professional camera and a green screen so he can improve the video quality of lectures, no matter the platform a student is using to view it. He has also learned to add closed captioning that is synchronized with the lecture. 

“I believe in access, so the easier it is for my students, the better,” Adebayo said. “I want lectures for students to be mobile-friendly so students can participate on their computers or mobile devices.” 

Since the course will be delivered remotely this year, Adebayo has also sought out a means to prevent students from using chat bots to do their assignments. 

“I assign short presentations to the students, that they record and send to me; then we meet and discuss the substance of the presentation,” he said. “Even if they’re employing AI tools, they still need to know the content.”  

The pandemic opened many eyes to the possibilities of technology in the classroom and, as illustrated, the students benefit. 

Research asks: do online educational platforms violate privacy expectations?

student on video chat

Yan Shvartzshnaider, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering, is part of a collaborative project that has received $291,971 in funding from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to analyze the functionality and information handling of online educational platforms to determine if their practices align with user expectations and privacy regulations.

Yan Shvartzshnaider
Yan Shvartzshnaider

As online educational platforms quickly became the de facto standard alternative to in-person teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgent transition left many unanswered questions about potential privacy concerns. Through features such as location-based tracking to confirm student attendance and video conferences that can reveal socio-economic indicators in users’ homes, online educational platforms have access to an abundance of highly sensitive information, raising the question: do online educational platforms violate our privacy expectations?

“Everyone has gotten used to this new normal, but no one is asking if these platforms respect established privacy norms,” says Shvartzshnaider. “We want to understand how these educational systems actually work and if they deviate from our privacy expectations.”

In collaboration with researchers from Colgate University, New York University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois and Cornell Tech, this project will involve extensive review of information governance practices put in place by schools to protect students, staff and parents. The research team will also explore the ways in which the pandemic has changed information handling practices, and if these practices contribute to educational values and purposes or violate them.  

Knowledge gained from this work will be used for informative guidance, providing relevant stakeholders with useful tools and methodologies so they can better design online educational platforms that prioritize user safety and privacy.

The SSHRC grant represents a unique achievement for a Lassonde professor, highlighting the diverse applications of engineering research, bringing Lassonde and Canada into the international conversation of online classroom privacy, and providing unique learning opportunities for Lassonde students, allowing them to become a part of interdisciplinary research that blends computer science and information technology with social sciences and humanities.

“I’m really excited for this project, which will bring together multiple disciplines,” Shvartzshnaider says. “This SSHRC funding will allow us to get lots of students involved in this important and timely project.”

In prospective work, he will explore the use of learning model systems and virtual reality, aiming to elevate the future of online classrooms, while prioritizing safety and privacy. He will also continue to work alongside Lassonde students and international partners, to collaboratively achieve a unified goal of creating safer, more informed spaces for online teaching.

Lassonde researchers pursue sustainable change

Aspire lightbulb idea innovation research

Researchers from the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University are gearing up for new interdisciplinary research projects that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with support from the Lassonde Innovation Fund (LIF), an initiative that provides faculty members with financial support.

This year’s projects aim to find innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, access to clean drinking water, issues in health diagnostics and more. Nearly 80 per cent of this year’s LIF projects involve interdisciplinary work, 50 per cent are led by women and six per cent address multiple SDGs.

Learn more about this year’s LIF projects below.

Project: “Smart contact lenses (SCL) as promising alternatives to invasive vitreous sample analysis for in-situ eye disease studies” by Razieh Salahandish and Pouya Rezai

Razieh Salahandish
Razieh Salahandish

Salahandish from the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at Lassonde is collaborating with Mechanical Engineering Professor and Department Chair Rezai along with Dr. Tina Felfeli, a physician at the University Health Network, on an initiative aimed at fabricating smart contact lens (SCL) systems as a non-invasive tool that can detect and analyze disease-indicating biomarkers in human tears. For clinicians, examining biomarkers is an important part of monitoring eye health that can help improve disease detection and patient outcomes.

Pouya Rezai
Pouya Rezai

The SCL systems will be designed to examine two clinically relevant eye condition biomarkers, vascular endothelial growth factor and tumour necrosis factor-alpha. Typically, these biomarkers are isolated from gel-like tissue in the eye, also known as vitreous fluid, using invasive surgical methods. This LIF project poses a convenient alternative that is less complex for medical professionals and more manageable for patients. It also sets a strong foundation for future investigations in this unexplored field.

Project: “Electric gene sensor for disease diagnostics purposes” by Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh

Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh
Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are considered the gold standard for detecting genes associated with diseases and were widely used throughout the COVID-19 pandemic for diagnostic purposes; however, PCR tests lack portability and cost-effectiveness, so there is a need for more accessible options.

To address this issue, Ghafar-Zadeh, associate professor in Lassonde’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, is developing a novel PCR-like mechanism, which offers several advantages for detecting existent and emerging diseases over traditional detection methods. Advantages include low cost, high sensitivity and user friendliness.

With support from the LIF, Ghafar-Zadeh will explore the use of innovative electronic sensors to detect genes associated with different viruses. Substantial preliminary work shows the sensors’ output is significantly affected by the presence of a virus gene, thereby indicating its corresponding disease. Building on this discovery, experiments will be conducted using known genes to develop electronic software and hardware that can prove the presence of a specific virus gene and its respective disease.

Through successful research outcomes, Ghafar-Zadeh aims to secure future funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to support the implementation of this technology in clinical settings.

Project: “Controlling biofilm formation and microbial recontamination in secondary water storage containers with UV light emitting diodes and targeted cleaning procedures” by Stephanie Gora, Ahmed El Dyasti and Syed Imran Ali

Ahmed El Dyasti
Ahmed El Dyasti
Stephanie Gora
Stephanie Gora

Continuous access to clean running water is a privilege that many global communities do not have. In areas such as refugee and internally displaced persons (IDP) settlements, as well as rural and underserved regions in Canada, community members must collect water from public distribution points and store it in secondary containers for future use.

This stored water is highly susceptible to recontamination by various microbial species, including biofilm-forming bacteria, which are microbial colonies that are extremely resistant to destruction.

Syed Imran Ali
Syed Imran Ali

Ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are a promising, yet underexplored, method that can be used to inactivate microbial colonies in biofilms and prevent their formation. Civil engineering rofessors Gora and El Dyasti have teamed up with Ali, a research Fellow in global health and humanitarianism at York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, on a solutions-driven project to improve water quality in underserved communities using UV LEDs and targeted container-cleaning procedures.

With support from the LIF, the research team will design and develop UV LED-equipped storage containers and analyze their ability to disinfect water in containers with biofilms. Experiments will also be performed to examine the potential benefits of combining UV LEDs with targeted container-cleaning procedures.

Successful results from this project may help ensure clean and safe water for refugee and IDP communities, as well as other underserved regions.

Project: “Smart vibration suppression system for micromobility in-wheel-motor electric vehicles for urban transportation” by George Zhu

George Zhu
George Zhu

Traffic congestion is not only a nuisance for road users, but it also causes excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Recent advances in electric vehicle (EV) technology have found that microvehicles, which are lightweight and drive at speeds up to 35 miles per hour, are a sustainable and convenient alternative to many traditional modes of transportation.

Specifically, micromobility EVs using in-wheel motors (IWMs) are becoming increasingly popular considering their benefits such as high energy efficiency and roomy passenger space. However, these vehicles are susceptible to unwanted vibration and tire jumping, which compromise driving safety and user comfort.

Through his LIF project, Zhu, from Lassonde’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, will design and develop a novel vibration-control technology for micromobility EVs with IWMs. The project will use a SARIT EV to test a smart suspension system, which includes active and passive vibration suppression and absorption systems. This work aims to develop new vibration-control technology, improve user experience and address deficiencies of micromobility IWM EVs. Zhu, who is a co-founding director of the Manufacturing Technology Entrepreneurship Centre, will also use this work to leverage Lassonde’s ongoing collaboration with Stronach International on the SARIT EV project.

Project: “Multifunctional building envelopes with integrated carbon capture” by Paul O’Brien and Ronald Hanson

Paul O’Brien
Paul O’Brien

Global warming is, in part, caused by the energy consumption and generation needed to support daily life, including the operation of buildings. In fact, the building sector accounts for 30 per cent of global energy consumption.

To help reduce greenhouse gas emission from building operations, mechanical engineering professors O’Brien and Hanson are developing and testing energy-efficient building envelopes using Trombe walls.

Ronald Hanson
Ronald Hanson

Trombe walls are a unique technology that can utilize solar energy to provide buildings with passive heat, thereby reducing heating energy consumption of buildings by up to 30 per cent. Inspired by previously conducted studies, this LIF project will explore the multifunctionality of a modified Trombe wall with water-based thermal energy storage, which demonstrates the potential to provide indoor lighting, heated air, heated water and building-integrated carbon capture.

Exceptional scholars earn Dahdaleh Global Health Graduate Scholarships

Global health

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.

Welcome to YFile’s 2023 New Faces feature issue

apple on teachers desk

In this special issue, YFile introduces new faculty members joining the York University community and highlights those with new appointments.

This fall, York welcomes new faculty members in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design; the Faculty of Education; the Faculty of Health; the Lassonde School of Engineering; the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies; the Faculty of Science; the Schulich School of Business; and Glendon College.

Liberal Arts & Professional Studies welcomes 34 new faculty members

Faculty of Health professors bring new perspectives on well-being

New Faculty of Science members to further York’s scientific innovation, impact

AMPD professors to shape the future of art

Schulich welcomes four new faculty members

New Lassonde faculty to advance cybersecurity, artificial intelligence

Faculty of Education’s new faces to shape future of teaching, learning

Glendon welcomes faculty member focused on translation studies

New Lassonde faculty to advance cybersecurity, artificial intelligence

computer code colorful

This story is published in YFile’s New Faces feature issue 2023. Every September, YFile introduces and welcomes those joining the York University community, and those with new appointments.

The Lassonde School of Engineering is welcoming two new faculty members for the Fall term.

“I am delighted to extend a warm welcome to our newest faculty members,” said Jane Goodyer, dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering. “To tackle local and global challenges, we must enrich our community with people who have different experiences and perspectives. Our newest faculty members will undoubtedly contribute to our commitment to creating solutions for a just and sustainable world through their teaching and research pursuits.”

Ruba Al Omari
Ruba Al Omari

Ruba Al Omari
Al Omari is an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Department. Her teaching and research interests include cybersecurity, attack and defence, pen testing, operating systems and machine learning. Her published work includes areas of brain-computer interfaces, human factors (e.g. usability) and security.

Al Omari received her PhD in computer science and Master’s of Information Technology Security from OntarioTech University, where she was the recipient of the Doctoral Excellence Award. At OntarioTech, Al Omari was also appointed as an adjunct professor and associate graduate faculty for the Master of Information Technology Security program.

Prior to joining York University, Al Omari taught at both Durham College and OntarioTech. She was the program co-ordinator for the Artificial Intelligence – Honours Bachelor program at Durham College. Before working in academia, Al Omari had over 15 years of experience in the information technology industry, in a variety of roles, including user support, network management and security.

Gias Uddin
Gias Uddin

Gias Uddin
Gias Uddin is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science. Uddin’s research lies at the intersection of three areas in computer science: software systems engineering, human-computer interaction and machine learning.

Software engineering, data science and cybersecurity engineering skills are becoming indispensable for many professions; however, quality tools and resources are often lacking to complete tasks in these three domains. Uddin focuses on the design of usable and trustworthy artificial intelligence-assisted techniques that can improve task completions by professionals.

Uddin received his PhD from McGill University in 2018. Prior to joining Lassonde, Uddin was an assistant professor at the University of Calgary (2020-23). His previous positions include senior data scientist at the Bank of Canada, data scientist at Apption, and researcher and software developer at IBM Canada, Watson Analytics.