Working toward treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

February 10, 2022

Faculty of Health Professor Ali Abdul-Sater’s passion for understanding the body’s immune response has led him to a discovery that he hopes will eventually relieve the suffering of people with rheumatoid arthritis.

By Elaine Smith

Research by Ali Abdul-Sater, a York Research Chair in the Regulatory Mechanisms of Inflammation, and an assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health, has determined that a specific protein, TRAF1, holds the key to controlling inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis and a specific mutation to the protein can reduce the amount of inflammation the joints experience. With funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Arthritis Foundation and York University, Abdul-Sater and his research team are currently testing their findings in mice and hope the results will eventually translate to humans.

“We are planning to use TRAF1 to develop new therapy for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases,” Abdul-Sater says. “I wouldn’t wish rheumatoid arthritis on anyone; it is one of the most painful chronic diseases and it becomes progressively worse. For some sufferers, it can take hours just to get their joints moving each morning.”

Abdul-Sater calls TRAF1 “the Swiss army knife of proteins” because it serves different functions in different immune cells. He discovered that TRAF1 can control or limit inflammation by preventing certain immune cells (macrophages) from producing too many cytokines that destroy the joints; on the other hand, previous research indicated that TRAF1 is also known to activate other immune cells (lymphocytes) and enhance their ability to produce antibodies or cytokines that damage the joints. The key is to find a way to stop TRAF1 from activating lymphocytes while preserving its ability to limit inflammation and cytokine production.

It turns out that TRAF1 is a scaffold, or a platform, from which these signals are sent out. Abdul-Sater found that each of its functions used a different type of scaffold, so he was able to disrupt one function while leaving the other intact. In fact, he discovered a specific genetic mutation that does just that: it prevents immune cells from overproducing antibodies while suppressing its joint-destroying cytokine production, thus reducing inflammation and keeping the joint intact.

Using the CRISPR genetic engineering tool that allows scientists to modify the genes of a living organism, Abdul-Sater and his team are currently creating this mutation in mice to determine whether they are protected from rheumatoid arthritis. If they are, he hopes to move forward toward using this discovery to create therapeutics for people currently living with rheumatoid arthritis.

“We’re not ready yet for interventions in humans,” he says. “Our next step would be to collaborate with medicinal chemists to develop a small molecule that can be taken as a drug and then, hopefully, move on to clinical trials. Drug formulation is a long process. We started from the ground up in finding a way to target this key protein.”

Abdul-Sater says research of this nature requires a real love for the work.

“To stick it out, you have to have passion,” he says. “There are lots of setbacks and long hours, but the reward is the joy of discovering something new and seeing it make a difference in the world.

“I have had excellent support from my department and my Faculty, and I feel lucky to get paid for doing something I love,” he adds.

A collaboration with a York researcher is changing the ‘forever’ of tattoos

February 10, 2022

Faculty of Science Professor Chris Caputo FEATURED image for BRAINSTORM YFile Feb 2022

What is the science behind semi-permanent tattoo technology? Faculty of Science chemistry Professor Chris Caputo’s research is revolutionizing this form of personal expression in new and interesting ways for a Canadian startup.

By Krista Davidson

A York University research team is collaborating with Inkbox, a Toronto-based startup that uses semi-permanent tattoo technology, to better understand the science behind their revolutionary tattoo technology. The science could support the development of semi-permanent tattoos with different colours. Inkbox was acquired by Bic in January 2022 for U.S. $65 million.

Chris Caputo is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Metal-Free Materials for Catalysis. His research focuses on developing greener and more sustainable chemistry by eliminating the need to use expensive and toxic transition metals.

In 2015, Caputo met the Inkbox CEO and co-founder, Tyler Handley, and later became the company’s director of research and development before joining York University, where he continued to work with the company to develop their technology with the help of York’s Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI).

Inkbox’s revolutionary technology is different than a normal tattoo because it is a fruit-based extract that stains the epidermis layer of skin instead of being injected into the dermis layer, allowing the dyed skin to slough over time and enable the disappearance of the tattoo.

Faculty of Science Professor Chris Caputo — Faculty of Science chemistry Professor Chris Caputo in his lab

“We really wanted to understand the mechanism of how and why this fruit extract turns your skin dark blue when applied, so we could take that development a step further towards new colours,” says Caputo. “Our research at York has been fundamental to identifying the chemistry behind the process of developing new colours and helping Inkbox expand their R&D pipeline.”

Caputo was able to hire a team of researchers, one of which is now employed at Inkbox, and avail of the University’s state-of-the-art synthetic chemistry wet lab.

“A collaboration with Chris’s group, funded by Mitacs and NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Collaborative Research & Development grants, has allowed Inkbox to do molecular-level research that would otherwise have been impossible with the budget of a startup company,” said Ian Mallov, manager, Formulation & Regulatory Affairs at Inkbox Tattoos.

“We were dealing with a blank canvas because nobody in the world has ever looked at this challenge before. It’s been a wonderful and exploratory project where we could take the time to refine our hypothesis and reach our goal towards achieving different colours,” said Caputo.

To date, Inkbox has filed several patents on the research undertaken through this collaboration. Caputo continues to collaborate with Inkbox and a small team of researchers, led by Sanjay Manhas, Charley Garrard and Nico Bonanno, who are currently working on projects at York. With the new Bic acquisition, Inkbox can expand its revolutionary technology to broader markets with new offerings.

“Chris has guided this research toward developing new tattoo ink dyes and understanding the mechanism of action of the current active dye. This has contributed significant value in terms of intellectual property for the company,” said Mallov.

Caputo’s research, which includes developing efficient synthetic strategies, is supporting sustainability for Inkbox by finding ways to significantly reduce waste materials and energy needed to produce new dyes. This work supports the University’s goals in elevating York’s contributions to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 12 which calls for sustainably managing natural resources, reducing and managing waste better, and promoting sustainable lifestyles and company practices.

The experience has been particularly eye-opening for Caputo and his team about the possibility of modifying molecules and manipulating dyes to support sustainability for other commercial products.

“We’ve potentially unlocked new properties for a natural product by taking a systematic synthetic chemistry approach. It has made me think about what other naturally occurring feedstocks we can apply this to for the generation of more sustainable dyes in the future,” said Caputo.

Researchers help Canada’s largest police services eliminate racial profiling in policing

February 10, 2022

Police cruiser

Lorne Foster and Les Jacobs have turned their expertise in human rights and research into a powerful force for equity.

By Krista Davidson

For the last decade, human rights experts Lorne Foster and Les Jacobs have been central figures in helping, through their research, to address systemic racism within some of Canada’s largest police departments. Recently, the pair announced they are joining forces with the Waterloo Regional Police Service to collect and analyze race-based data to further their research on anti-racism in policing.

The multi-year collaboration with the Waterloo Regional Police will develop an extensive data collection system across all police-citizen interactions, including the use of force, stop and question, traffic stops, charges, arrests and releases to support a more holistic approach to addressing instances of systemic racism within the service.

“The Waterloo Regional Police Service are thinking ahead. They want to better understand how to collect and use race-related data and analyze it to identify concrete measures for addressing systemic racism,” says Jacobs, a professor emeritus at York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) and the York Research Chair in Human Rights and Access to Justice. Jacobs is also vice-president of research and innovation at Ontario Tech University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

With Foster, a professor in the School of Public Policy & Administration at LA&PS, director of the Institute for Social Research and the York Research Chair in Black Canadian Studies & Human Rights, the duo is more than equipped to support the Waterloo police. They are the principal architects behind the 2017 Ontario Anti-Racism Act, which aims to identify and monitor systemic racism and racial disparities within the public sector. The act outlines what race-related data can be collected and how it can be used. It is the first and only race data standard in Canada.

The act continues to serve as an important milestone in Canada because it emphasizes the importance of disaggregating data to identify patterns of systemic racial disparities. It has significance for many public sectors but has relevance for the justice sector, including police services in Ontario.

The first major project by Foster and Jacobs was a comparative research analysis with police forces in Ottawa and this created a landmark racial profiling study, which took place from 2013 to 2015. This was followed by a second study from 2016 to 2019, with each study collecting about 125,000 traffic stops for a combined data set of 250,000. The dataset has since increased multifold and continues to grow.

They have also worked with the Toronto Police Services on a project focused exclusively on racial disparities in the use of force incidents. Their Waterloo, York and Peel police service collaborations went beyond the use of force to examine racial disparities and bias across all police-civilian interactions to better understand how race data research could be used to find concrete measures for addressing systemic racism.

“Before these collaborations, police services didn’t systematically collect race data, so their findings were colour blind. Groups, particularly those in government, begin to recognize that if they truly wanted to eliminate systemic racism in society, they needed to collect data that could help them to advance racial equity,” says Foster.

The disaggregated race data provides a starting point for police services to look constructively from an evidentiary perspective. Foster and Jacobs take a two-pronged approach to their research collaborations with the police departments.

“Our research methodologies are distinctive because we’re very committed to the idea that if race data is collected, it has to be made public. Secondly, it is important to involve racialized communities and to talk to them about what they want from the research project so we can better address what the community needs,” says Jacobs. “It’s not replaying the past and laying blame, but about figuring out how to make the future better.”

“Our research points to a baseline that enables people to have a constructive rather than polemical dialogue,” adds Foster.

While each police service in Ontario is different, Foster and Jacobs have identified similarities, particularly with recommendations on specific training and other strategies that will benefit the departments, including the use of early warning technology – a data-based police management tool that detects officers who display problematic behaviour, body-worn cameras and targets for reducing racial profiling in traffic stops.

“One recommendation we made for Ottawa, which had a disproportionately high number of traffic stops among Black and Middle-Eastern males, ages 16 to 24, was to create a target to bring down traffic stops for those groups by 20 per cent per year,” explains Foster.

Their key recommendation, however, is police departments should continue to collect and analyze race data in the future.

“I’m really proud of the progress that Les and I have made with police forces in Ontario. It is not an insignificant change. In the end, our research will make our society a little more inclusive and bring the justice sector closer to eliminating systemic racism and discrimination, and advancing racial equity,” says Foster.

YSpace helps startups ease into the Canadian marketplace

February 10, 2022

York University’s flourishing entrepreneurship hub, YSpace, is drawing the attention of many international companies seeking a market foothold in Canada.

By Elaine Smith

As York University’s hub for entrepreneurs and startups, YSpace is committed to fostering innovation in its many forms and stages.

“We develop programs to help companies get launched and develop traction,” says Nafis Ahmed, entrepreneurship manager for YSpace, which, to date, has supported 410 ventures that have generated $33.8 million in revenue and created 606 jobs. “We have credibility and a network of relationships that we’ve been building for five years that can assist. Once a company joins YSpace, they are part of a select community and can connect with each other and with mentors at any time.”

Increasingly, YSpace programs draw international companies seeking a foothold in Canada in food service, technology and other sectors.

“Given Toronto’s diversity of cultures and the Greater Toronto Area’s growing reputation as the leading Canadian entrepreneurial hub, it is an extremely attractive proposition for international businesses interested in breaking into the North American marketplace,” says Amir Asif, York’s vice-president of research and innovation.

Enhancing internationalization is a major priority and a multipronged effort at the University.

“Internationalization and global engagement include supporting global entrepreneurship. YSpace is a perfect vehicle for making that happen,” adds Vinitha Gengatharan, executive director of York International, the University’s globalization arm.

YSpace began its international outreach in 2020 with an accelerator program for Chilean food and beverage companies eager for an introduction to the Canadian marketplace. YSpace worked with the Pro-Chile Trade Commission to mentor startups entering the United States about the differences in marketing their products in Canada.

“The companies said they wished they had received similar guidance when they were trying to get traction in the United States,” says Judy Chang, YSpace program adviser. “Understanding the cultural nuances and different regulations is invaluable.

“As we helped the Chilean companies, we realized we could apply this knowledge to other countries by offering similar workshops, mentorship and a networking-cum-pitch opportunity.”

YSpace tailors its approach to working with newcomers – whether they are startups or mature small enterprises – to their needs. The hub’s recent work with Korean companies, for instance, grew out of an inquiry from an entrepreneur with a Korean background who connected YSpace with the Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA)

KOTRA asked YSpace to put together a 12-week program focusing on assisting Korean companies to validate an approach to the Canadian marketplace, engage in conversations with potential investors and understand the appropriate way to sell products to local consumers. The program also included a mentorship component, giving each company the opportunity to work one-to-one with a successful entrepreneur who could review their plans.

“The ultimate goals we set for them were to determine if Canada was a good market for them and what they could bring to Canada was unique,” says Ahmed. “Once they decided it would be viable, we wanted them to create a pilot for building a customer base.”

Ellen Kim, research analyst and project associate at KOTRA Toronto, says, “We developed a great partnership with YSpace by co-hosting the 2021 Canada Acceleration Program for Korean startups. The YSpace team and community have actively offered amazing support to the Korean startups so they can have better ideas about entering the Canadian market. Mentors from YSpace have built such a meaningful relationship with each Korean startup, which contributed a lot to the success of our three-month program. Unlimeat and HeyIam – two promising Korean startups – found great partners and business connections in Canada by joining this program.

“We hope our partnership strengthens the bilateral ties between Korea and Canada,” adds Kim.

The KOTRA program culminated in a pitch evening for five companies – one food services company and four technology businesses – that offered them the opportunity to test their offerings and their newly acquired understanding of the Canadian business milieu with investors. Now, these companies are fine-tuning their offerings based on the feedback they received and deciding when or if they will enter the Canadian marketplace.

“It was a great opportunity for KOTRA to co-operate with YSpace in 2021,” says Sunjoon Mun, manager of KOTRA Toronto. “We hope many Korean startups find their business opportunities in Canada with the continuous support of YSpace.”

The team at YSpace encourages international startups to take advantage of their offerings.

“By working with us, startups new to the Canadian market gain access to reliable resources and a vetted network of mentors and supporters,” says David Kwok, director of YSpace. “We have an exclusive perk portal with over 30 different offerings unique to our members.

“Our roster of experts and seasoned entrepreneurs comprises people who are community driven. These vetted networks will provide pro-bono support. Meanwhile, working with the University provides companies new to the Canadian marketplace a level of credibility with potential partners and access to top talent,” says Kwok.

Kwok says that in addition to its training programs, YSpace can connect startups with policymakers or government for additional insight on procurement processes and also put them in touch with a steady stream of York talent from more than 100 countries, pursuing a wide range of professional or research-oriented programs, and at various stages in their careers.

“We continue to refine and tune our own systems and strategies to help international companies better in the long run,” adds Kwok.

YSpace is York’s entrepreneurship hub at Innovation York in the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. Innovation York facilitates and maximizes the commercial, economic and social impacts of research and innovation, and creates a culture of engaged scholarship and experiential learning. Visit Innovation York to learn more.

Welcome to the January 2022 issue of Brainstorm

January 13, 2022

Brainstorm special research edition featured image

“Brainstorm,” a special edition of YFile publishing on select Fridays during the academic year, showcases research and innovation at York University. It offers compelling and accessible stories about the world-leading and policy-relevant work of changemakers in all Faculties and professional schools across York and encompasses both discovery and applied research.

In the January 2022 issue

Instagrammable you: women and body image online
Do self-disclaimer captions on Instagram photos featuring “thin-ideal” images work to mitigate negative shifts in body image and mood among young women? Faculty of Health Associate Professor Jennifer Mills and graduate students Sarah McComb and Keisha Gobin decided to find out.

Research will help determine the safety of chronic fluoride exposure in developing brains
Emerging research from York University aims to address rising concerns about the safety of early life exposure to fluoride, and whether chronic exposure to fluoride at current population levels could contribute to lower IQ and behavioral problems in children.

Lassonde researcher aims to make VR a reality
Gene Cheung, an associate professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering, is working to advance augmented reality and virtual reality through signal processing tools for point clouds that are relevant to rendering everyday objects in 3D spaces.

Postmemory and the complexities of multilingual language instruction
York researchers Anwar Ahmed and Brian Morgan investigate the role of memories that are passed down through generations and use of duoethnography to gain insight into pedagogical approaches to language instruction.

Emeritus doesn’t translate to retired for ecological economist
Retirement is not slowing growth for Professor Emeritus Peter Victor, in fact, the ecological economist who is best known for his influential book Managing Without Growth, is busier than ever with a new book on economist Herman Daly and an active research agenda.

Launched in January 2017, “Brainstorm” is produced out of the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Communications & Public Affairs; overseen by Krista Davidson, senior manager, research communications; and edited by Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor, Ashley Goodfellow Craig, YFile deputy editor, and Alysia Burdi, YFile communications officer.

Podcast or Perish

How do neurosurgeons make intraoperative decisions? What have we learned from distance learning during the pandemic? How do we eliminate hazardous contaminants from wastewater?

Podcast or Perish is a podcast about academic research and why it matters. Join podcast host Cameron Graham, professor of accounting at the Schulich School of Business, for a special 10-part series featuring extraordinary researchers and creators at York University and their innovative methodologies and approaches. A new episode is launched every month.

Podcast or Perish is supported by York University’s Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Schulich School of Business.

Instagrammable you: women and body image online

January 13, 2022

Do self-disclaimer captions on Instagram photos featuring “thin-ideal” images work to mitigate negative shifts in body image and mood among young women? Faculty of Health Associate Professor Jennifer Mills and graduate students Sarah McComb and Keisha Gobin decided to find out.

By Elaine Smith

Jennifer Mills began her research career 20 years ago studying the impact idealized body images had on young women; today, the work continues, but the medium has changed.

“Back then, I was looking at women’s reactions to the idealized body images they saw in fashion magazines,” says Mills, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at York University. “Many women had an intense drive to compare themselves to these images.”

Then came social media and camera phones and the proliferation of selfies. When Instagram came onto the scene, body checking against idealized images accelerated.

“These images of women now appeared, not only in fashion magazines, but online and on phones, all day, every day,” says Mills, who also serves as director of clinical training for the clinical psychology program. “I began to look at the causal effects of social media on body image and mental health. The same theories about social comparisons and body checking are relevant.”

Online photos and disclaimers

Mills’ most recent study, done in conjunction with graduate students Sarah McComb and Keisha Gobin and published online in Body Image, explores whether self-disclaimer captions on thin-ideal Instagram photos, written with the intention of being transparent and considerate of the Instagram viewer’s well-being, would mitigate negative shifts in body image and mood among young women.  The study investigated personalized and positive self-disclaimers in a study that involved 311 undergraduate students at York between the ages of 18 and 25.

The young women were randomly assigned to one of four groups in the study and they all began by having their current mood and feelings about their body image measured. Next, each group was shown 12 Instagram photos of an attractive, thin-ideal woman. One group saw only the photos; the other three groups each saw one type of disclaimer: containing a generic message that the photo had been altered; a specific message about the alterations made to the photo; or a kind warning about the harm done by social comparisons. They were asked to look at and rate each of the photos – on a scale of one to five – according to a number of dimensions, such as how visually appealing it was.

Afterward, the participants were again assessed for current mood and feelings about their own body image, as well as for their own use of photo editing/manipulation.

Thin ideal isn’t truly ideal

There were three main conclusions drawn from the study, all contributing to the body of knowledge about body image and self-comparison. The results demonstrated that exposure to thin-ideal images showing extremely thin young women on Instagram was associated with decreased body satisfaction, happiness and confidence, and a reduced likelihood of comparing one’s body to another’s. This is consistent with past research from Mills’ lab and others.

Second, contrary to predictions, disclaimers were not harmful to mood or body image, but were also not protective to the average participant.

Finally, the specific self-disclaimer had a protective effect for those who frequently alter their own photos, compared to the image only, generic, and warning self-disclaimer conditions. 

“Generally, exposure to images of peers is more damaging than celebrities or models because they are more realistic comparison targets,” Mills says. “Comparing yourself to a supermodel isn’t as upsetting because you can’t necessarily live up to that standard.”

Clicking into the danger zone

And while it’s difficult to trace causality or long-term effects of regular exposure and comparisons, Mills says, “All the evidence points to social media being a contributing factor to eating disorders and body preoccupation.”

Since Mills treats eating disorder sufferers in a clinical setting, all of these insights add to her understanding of treatment options. Her research lab, the EASE Lab (Eating, Affect and Self-Evaluation), focuses on eating and body image, issues that are “universally relatable” to women.

“It’s an exciting time,” she says. “Our research is really taking off, which is wonderful, because people often minimize the seriousness of eating disorders, even though they are life-threatening diseases.”

Research will help determine the safety of chronic fluoride exposure in developing brains

January 13, 2022

Emerging research from York University aims to address rising concerns about the safety of early-life exposure to fluoride, and whether chronic exposure to fluoride at current population levels could contribute to lower IQ and behavioural problems in children.

By Krista Davidson

Christine Till

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health, Christine Till, and her team, are collaborating with Professor Bruce Lanphear at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences and the Manish Arora at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, to measure fluoride exposure levels using baby teeth collected in a Canadian birth cohort. Tooth dentin – the tissue that lies beneath enamel – forms between 16 weeks’ gestation up to 2.5 years of age. As teeth mineralize, they accumulate chemicals that have been ingested, including fluoride from drinking water. Using modern techniques, the team will extract a historical record of exposure by measuring fluoride in layers of hydroxyapatite, similar to how tree rings accumulate to indicate the passage of time.

“Sampling tooth layers that correspond to specific life stages will provide critical information for when exposure occurred and how much reached the developing brain,” explains Till.

“Most toxic chemicals, like lead and pesticides, are promoted by industry. Fluoride is promoted by health agencies, so it is imperative to verify if fluoride is toxic to the developing brain,” says Lanphear.

The research, which received close to $2 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, builds on the findings of an earlier study published by Till’s team, including York graduate student, Rivka Green, in JAMA Pediatrics in 2019. This study examined 512 mother-child pairs from six cities in Canada using data from the Maternal Infant Research on Environment Chemicals (MIREC). The researchers found that higher fluoride exposure in pregnancy was associated with lower IQ in children. The study was the first of its kind to be conducted in children and women living in communities where fluoride is intentionally added to drinking water or not.

“Our earlier research measured urinary fluoride levels in pregnant women, which does not tell us how much fluoride reached the fetus and when,” says Till. “The tooth dentin is an optimal biomarker because it will provide evidence that fluoride crosses the placenta. This will give a better understanding of the critical window of when exposure becomes harmful to the developing brain.”

In addition to assessing the neurotoxicity of early-life exposure to fluoride using teeth, the team is assessing the thyroid-disrupting effects of fluoride in pregnancy. This work will shed light on potential mechanisms of fluoride neurotoxicity.

Till and her team, together with researchers in Toronto and Mexico, have contributed some of the key studies related to fluoride neurotoxicity in the prenatal and early postnatal period. Still, more research is needed to fully understand the impact of low-level exposure to fluoride on cognitive development.

“The question is whether fluoride ingestion is safe for everyone, including fetuses and young infants, and this research aims to develop a solid understanding to support evidence-based decision-making around the safety of fluoride,” says Till.

Lassonde researcher aims to make VR a reality

January 13, 2022

Gene Cheung, an associate professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering, is working to advance augmented reality and virtual reality through signal processing tools for point clouds that are relevant to rendering everyday objects in 3D spaces.

By Krista Davidson

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have the potential to help us see the world in a whole new way; it could revolutionize health care, education, urban planning and even tourism. An associate professor in the Lassonde School of Engineering, Gene Cheung, is advancing our understanding of AR and VR through 3D image processing.

Working with industry partners such as InterDigital and Google, Cheung is building signal processing tools for point clouds, which are datasets comprised of discrete points in 3D space that represent geometric shapes of everyday physical objects like chairs, tables and human beings. The work is critical in advancing the field of VR because truly immersive 3D imaging remains unrealized.

“We haven’t seen high-quality 3D imaging yet,” says Cheung. “But advances in point cloud processing is one of the main missing pieces, and if we can solve that challenge it will bring us much closer.”

He explains that TVs and movie screens are often marketed as 3D, but they are actually rendered in 2.5D. The way 2.5D works is by providing a stereoscopic view, where the left and right eyes observe slightly different viewpoints, giving an impression of 3D. However, the technology behind 2.5D imaging lacks motion parallax, a depth-perceptual cue where objects close to the observer move more in the observation view than the background as one shifts his or her head.

Graph signal processing, one of Cheung’s areas of expertise, offers a solution for processing 3D images. Modern cameras collect a large amount of rich data, including information about scene depth and the distance between the camera and observed objects. This data provides information that can be used to render an object from various viewpoints. However, data acquired from a camera also tends to be noisy and incomplete due to sparse and unreliable point sampling. Leveraging graph spectral theory, Cheung and his team are designing fast graph filtering algorithms to reduce noise, super-resolve and inpaint (a graphics software for retouching photos and removing unwanted objects) point clouds.

The research, which began in 2010, is already demonstrating significant improvement over competing algorithms for restoring point clouds. While there are still ways to go in advancing AR and VR technology, Cheung envisions it will have a positive impact on society.

“The potential for 3D in AR and VR is significant,” explains Cheung. “You can imagine so many applications from remote education to health care. How different would remote education be for students during the pandemic if they were able to put on AR headsets and experience learning as if they were physically in a real classroom with their instructors and friends?”

The potential for health care is also important and Cheung’s research could be a game changer for remote communities with little to no access to services.

“I have friends in Australia who are doctors and have to travel for hours to rural areas to treat patients because some communities don’t have access to specialists,” he says. “VR could provide more equitable access to services, and enable doctors to diagnose, and even perform surgery.”

He says his collaborations with industrial partners are important to bridge the gap between theory and practice.

“Quite often I work with people who are domain experts in a particular area and would never think of using graph signal processing theory. You need people with different areas of expertise to make good research happen,” he says.

Cheung, who considers himself an applied mathematician, finds inspiration in the beauty behind math and the mathematical derivation of theorems.

“In my experience, the best solution tends to be the simplest, most elegant one. The beauty in math is that you cannot really invent it – you uncover it as if it has always been there all along, waiting to be discovered,” he says.

Cheung joined York University in August 2018 and is a core member of Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA), York’s revolutionary vision science program. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in January 2021. Prior to joining York, Cheung was a senior researcher in Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Japan and an associate professor at the National Institute for Informatics in Japan. He obtained his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2000.

Emeritus doesn’t translate to retired for ecological economist

January 13, 2022

Retirement is not slowing growth for Professor Emeritus Peter Victor; in fact, the ecological economist who is best known for his influential book Managing Without Growth, is busier than ever with a new book on economist Herman Daly and an active research agenda.

By Elaine Smith

Peter Victor may have stepped down from his academic responsibilities at York University, but the professor emeritus and former dean of the Faculty of the Environmental Studies (now Environmental and Urban Change, or EUC) is still busy with writing and research. Late November 2021 saw him launching his latest book, Herman Daly’s Economics for a Full World: His Life and Ideas (Routledge, 2022), and he regularly publishes research papers with colleague Tim Jackson, director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom.

Homage to an innovator

His new book grows out of the great respect he has for his subject as an innovator in economics. Daly, a professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, is known for establishing ecological economics – Victor’s field of study – as a discipline, although one that had to fight for recognition, because, unlike most other strains of economics, it doesn’t mandate growth. In essence, it is a stream of economic thought that emphasizes the value of natural capital, recognizing the limits of natural resources. Proponents believe that economic prosperity can be gained through improving the quality of life, rather than just pure market growth.

“I knew Daly’s work quite well,” says Victor. “I kept telling my wife that someone should write a biography of Herman Daly, given his influence on economics, and she said, ‘You should do it.’ I have learned over the years that it’s worth listening to her suggestions. I contacted Herman and he agreed, as long as I placed the emphasis on his ideas and debates about economics.”

Before putting pen to paper, Victor spent a week interviewing Daly at his home in Virginia and another 18 months going through the economics literature to review Daly’s work and what others had to say about it. Finally, he spent the spring and summer of 2020 “writing the biography sitting on my front porch.”

“Ecological economists question how economies can keep growing if the world is not,” says Victor. “The uptake of our theories has been disappointingly slow. Challenging economic growth doesn’t make you popular with mainstream economists. Most of the teaching and research in this field is done outside economics departments – at York’s EUC, for example.

“One of the reasons I wrote the Daly biography is to get people engaged with the ideas and a different world view. It’s exciting stuff.”

Much of Victor’s research revolves around economic modelling, which isn’t easily understood by the layperson. However, the Daly biography is different.

“Vibrant, timely and thoroughly accessible, Peter Victor’s elegant new biography charts the life and work of a genuine radical,” notes CUSP’s Jackson in praising the work. “Daly’s steady-state economics marked a turning point in economic thinking with revolutionary implications. From polio survivor to World Bank advisor, Victor paints a sympathetic and long overdue portrait of an extraordinary man with extraordinary ideas.”

Slow growth no disaster

It’s not Victor’s first foray into authoring a book, although it is his first biography. He is also well known for his seminal work in ecological economics, Managing Without Growth: Slow by Design, not Disaster, which he has recently updated for a second edition. It grew out of a series of discussions he had with his former PhD supervisor about economic growth. If endless economic growth is infeasible and, in advanced economies, also undesirable, what are the possibilities for living well without relying on growth?

Cover of Peter Victor's book on Herman Daly, used with permission — Cover of Peter Victor’s book on Herman Daly

“You can’t produce unless you take energy and materials from nature and create waste,” says Victor. “If we are going to reduce our impact in physical terms, economies cannot grow without limit despite the fact that growth of the economy is usually measured in terms of money. However, even without growth, inequality can be reduced, high levels of employment can be maintained, and technology can improve, allowing people to work less and live better.

“I wrote the book because human impacts on the planet have become excessive, and I used a lot of data, so it wasn’t just about abstract ideas. I built a simulation of the Canadian economy so people could explore their own scenarios. I wrote the book because it was interesting. However, I had no idea what would come of the book.”

Serendipitously, it was released just as the 2008 recession struck and, suddenly, Victor was invited to speak about his ideas all over the globe. “Otherwise, it might have been obscure,” he said.

For someone whose varied career has seen him successfully as a consultant, an assistant deputy minister, an educational administrator and a professor, perhaps it’s not surprising to find that whatever endeavour Victor undertakes, acclaim and knowledge follow. Especially with the shadow of climate change becoming larger each day, don’t expect him to stop contributing to our understanding of the natural world.

Students take on sustainability challenges at UNHack weekend

December 1, 2021

Bergeron-Centre-for-Engineering-Excellence-FEATURED

Lassonde’s Bergeron Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (BEST) program hosted UNHack 2021 from Nov. 19 to 21. The weekend of experiential learning brought undergraduate students from various post-secondary institutions together to work in teams with high school students from grades 11 and 12. Each team worked on solutions to issues centred around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Chart shows 17 UNSDG goals — The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

“It was truly inspiring to see over 400 students develop creative solutions to local problems that are related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Lassonde engineering Professor Andrew Maxwell, who is the Bergeron Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship. “I cannot wait to see some of these projects come to life.”

The students were united by a common passion to make a difference and create a better world. Using the design sprint methodology, the students identified local and global problems, brainstormed an impactful solution and built a feasible implementation plan. Teams met for the first time on Friday, began ideating and building their solution on Saturday and presented their solutions to a panel of expert judges on Sunday.

Participants chose a challenge that aligned with a UN SDG, encompassing a variety of themes including good health and wellbeing (SDG #3), quality education (SDG #4) and sustainable cities and communities (SDG #11). Many challenges focused on solutions to enhance sustainability at York University, such as improving access to healthy food options on campus or keeping students engaged with mental health and well-being supports. These challenges allowed students to see how their ideas can impact the world and make a positive change, even when starting from a local level.

UNHack is more than just a traditional hackathon, it helps students recognize their own potential. The solutions developed included visuals, drawings and other creative expressions that were not limited to technology. In addition, the experience allowed participants to make friendships, build a professional network and gain crucial soft skills like teamwork, leadership and problem-solving.

“I often tend to shy away from collaborative work, however this experience allowed me to experience the benefits of brainstorming as a group and learning how to listen to group members,” said Maria Flores, second-year mechanical engineering student. “A big part of engineering is collaborating with others, and I think this experience will benefit me in my future career.”

In total, 72 projects made it to the preliminary judging round on Sunday morning with the top nine teams making their way to the final judging round.

A Zoom screen capture of participants in the Opening Ceremony for the UNHack event — Participants in the UNHack opening ceremony

2021 Winning Teams:

First Place – Team #99: EcoYork (Atmiya Jadvani, Saimanoj Yarasi, Jiafeng Wang)

Team #99’s addressed SDG #13: Climate Action by developing a solution to reduce the carbon footprint at student residences. They created an application called EcoYork that would encourage students to reduce their eco-footprint through weekly tasks, sustainable challenges and incentives on campus.

Second Place – Team #11: Food (Justin Chan, Vanessa Ammirante, Crystal Chang, Ananya Manikandan, Mihn Yu)

Team #11 addressed SDG #2: Zero Hunger by creating a solution to help York University students facing food insecurity. The team developed a Farm-to-Table initiative, which involved partnering with local farms to provide healthy and affordable meals to students on campus.

Third Place – Team #58: Spiteful Donkeys (Connor Humphries, Isaiah Chun, Deep Panchal, Rebecca John, Ava Yunus)

Team #58’s addressed SDG #7: Affordable and Clean Energy by pitching a way to make homes more sustainable and energy efficient. The team presented the idea of moulded pulp for envelope insulation (an environmentally friendly way to insulate homes), which promotes low waste and less energy generation.

People’s Choice Award – Team #71: C1M4 (Eugene Park, Brigette Eleuteri, Maria Flores, Maranath Hormiz, Mehrab Rizwan)

Team #71 addressed SDG#11: Sustainable Cities and Communitiesby creating a YorkU Nav-E, a user-friendly and accessible application to help students, especially those who are new to the University, to navigate the campus and help ease their transition to in-person studies.

“It was amazing to see how our students came together to design and create solutions fo sustainability challenges within our community and beyond,” said Maedeh Sadaghat, program officer at BEST. “The UNHack experience has provided our students with an opportunity to develop critical skills that will help them create a more sustainable future.”

Organizers of UNHack received support from the following external event sponsors: KPM Power, Scotiabank and Summerfresh. University partners supporting the event were: YorkU Sustainability Office, K2I Academy, NSTAMP, SDG Hub, the Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion, Student Counselling, Health and Well-being as well as from Lassonde Professor Magdalena Krol, Lassonde mentors and the organizing team.

Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change Dean Alice Hovorka and Nicole Arsenault, program director, Sustainability, provided opening remarks at the event. 

Elliott Atkins, Karen Lai, Subashini Kangesan, Nicole Arsenault, Lassonde Professor Usman Khan and Keith Loo served as expert judges.  

YFile
Newsletter

Tag: Brainstorm

Working toward treatment for rheumatoid arthritis

Faculty of Health Professor Ali Abdul-Sater’s passion for understanding the body’s immune response has led him to a discovery that he hopes will eventually relieve the suffering of people with rheumatoid arthritis.

A collaboration with a York researcher is changing the ‘forever’ of tattoos

What is the science behind semi-permanent tattoo technology? Faculty of Science chemistry Professor Chris Caputo’s research is revolutionizing this form of personal expression in new and interesting ways for a Canadian startup.

Researchers help Canada’s largest police services eliminate racial profiling in policing

Lorne Foster and Les Jacobs have turned their expertise in human rights and research into a powerful force for equity.

YSpace helps startups ease into the Canadian marketplace

York University’s flourishing entrepreneurship hub, YSpace, is drawing the attention of many international companies seeking a market foothold in Canada.