The Lassonde School of Engineering at York University is offering an innovative new summer camp program for students interested in expanding their understanding of leading edge engineering trends.
The camps are open to secondary school students. There are three summer program options covering a variety of skills, including 3D printing, sustainability, coding workshops, game development, design thinking and engineering for human needs.
Participants can connect with a diverse group of engaged students and practice the skills necessary to plan, design, communicate and implement ideas.
This summer camp is an opportunity to explore the diverse array of program options available at York University and more specifically, the Lassonde School of Engineering. As well, the camps offer many different options, give camp participants an opportunity to test start-up ideas, and have fun building and breaking things this summer.
The following camps are now accepting registrations:
Game Development: July 9 to 13
Design Thinking: July 16 to 27
Engineering for People: August 7 to 10
All camps will take place in the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence on York University’s Keele Campus, which offers open collaborative spaces, creative tools, technical equipment and the resources to turn ideas into reality.
Members of the York University community can register using a Discount Code: “cmplse18” for 10 per cent off the camp fee.
Research day connects Lassonde researchers with industry leaders
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The first annual Lassonde Research Day took place at the Bergeron Centre on Thursday, June 14.
Guests at Lassonde’s research day learned about the Lassonde School of Engineering’s research facilities
The event was co-sponsored by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation, and the Lassonde School of Engineering. More than 60 industry partners, 230 attendees and seven representatives from government funding agencies and partners took part in the event.
After opening remarks by Lassonde School of Engineering Interim Dean Richard Hornsey, researchers from a wide range of disciplines presented their work. The agenda was varied and featured a combination of interactive presentations and posters of projects. The projects addressed a number of research areas in the engineering school, including sustainability, machine learning and data science, space engineering, materials testing and more.
Researchers also had an opportunity to connect with industry partners to discuss how their current research projects can solve existing and future problems, and how they could work together in the future to commercialize solutions.
Lassonde researchers and graduate students then offered tours of labs and other Bergeron research facilities to guests.
In addition, 46 research posters were presented by Lassonde graduate students and faculty members.
Forty-six research posters were presented by Lassonde graduate students and researchers
To read all abstracts of the projects, click here. For a full photo gallery, visit the Lassonde School of Engineering’s Facebook page.
New dean appointed to the Lassonde School of Engineering
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President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton has issued the following message to the York University community:
I am very pleased to inform you that the search for dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering (LSE) has reached a successful conclusion.
Last fall, I established a search committee comprising members of the Lassonde community, including faculty, staff and students, which was chaired by the interim vice-president academic and provost and charged with undertaking a search for the next dean. This is a pivotal time in the school’s development as it evolves from a new Faculty to an established engineering school and seeks to broaden its range of innovative programming and enhance its national and international profile.
Jane Goodyer
Following an extensive national and international search, which attracted outstanding candidates, I am pleased to announce that the search committee recommended the appointment of Professor Jane Goodyer to the position of dean, for a five-year term. On my recommendation, on June 12, the Board of Governors Executive Committee, on behalf of the board, concurred with the recommendation for the appointment.
Professor Goodyer will join York University on Oct. 1 to take up the position. She is arriving from Massey University in New Zealand, where she is a professor and, since 2017, has served as head of school in the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology. In this position, she has been a member of the College of Sciences’ executive team. She has led strategic planning to reposition organizational structures and teaching and research in the school, increase enrolments and build stronger international collaborations. Prior to this appointment, she served as the school’s associate dean for undergraduate teaching and learning, with responsibility for curriculum and student success and welfare, where she led a redesign of the curriculum, incorporating blended learning and project-based learning, resulting in improved student satisfaction and retention. Before her appointment at Massey University in 2006, she held an appointment at Coventry University in the U.K., where she was part of a research centre working with automotive businesses to apply cutting-edge research in advanced joining technologies for body-in-white manufacture.
Professor Goodyer holds a BEng (Hons.) in production engineering from Coventry Polytechnic and a PhD in manufacturing systems design engineering from Coventry University. Her research has evolved from a focus on manufacturing engineering to an interest in influencing change in engineering education at a national level in New Zealand, bringing academia and industry closer through employer-led degree apprenticeships. She is currently leading a new initiative in this area for the government’s Tertiary Education Commission. She has been closely involved in university-industry partnerships throughout her career in both New Zealand and the U.K.
Professor Goodyer is dedicated to the advancement of women in engineering and encouraging girls to consider a career in engineering. To this end, she recently launched a national humanitarian engineering outreach program for 10- to 14-year-old girls. She has also been active with New Zealand’s accrediting body (EngNZ) and its higher education funding body (Tertiary Education Commission), as an adviser on key issues such as the national technology curriculum.
I would like to thank Professor Richard Hornsey for his outstanding leadership as interim dean and his commitment to the school and the University, and for generously agreeing to extend his term to Sept. 30 in order to bridge to Professor Goodyer’s arrival on Oct. 1. I would also like to thank the members of the Search Committee for the Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering for their contributions to this important process.
We look forward to welcoming Professor Goodyer to York University as dean of LSE and to working together in the coming years as she undertakes this important leadership role. I know that all members of the school and the University will join me in congratulating and welcoming her.
Lassonde engineering student’s paper garners CSME recognition
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Lassonde mechanical engineering masters student Diego de Moraes, who is completing his studies under supervision of Professor Alex Czekanski, won third place in Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) Student Best Paper Competition during the 2018 CSME International Congress, which took place May 27 to 30, at Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence.
de Moraes’ project is on computational modeling of metal additive manufacturing processes. The title of his paper is “The Influence of Powder Size and Packing Density on the Temperature Distribution in Selective Laser Melting.”
His paper was selected from more than 100 papers by other researchers. Only 10 of which were presented at the CSME Congress.
2018 President’s University-Wide Teaching Award recipients announced
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Five outstanding faculty members who have demonstrated innovative approaches to teaching will be honoured during the 2018 Spring Convocation Ceremonies with President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards.
This year’s recipients are: Professor Dan Palermo in the Lassonde School of Engineering; Professor Ruth Koleszar-Green in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS); Bridget Cauthery, a contract faculty member in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD); Minha Ha, a teaching assistant in the Lassonde School of Engineering; and Reena Shadaan, a teaching assistant in LA&PS. They were selected by the Senate Committee on Awards for their imaginative and significant contributions to enhancing the quality of learning for students enrolled at York University.
“We are delighted to recognize this year’s recipients for the innovative teaching practices, creativity and commitment they bring to providing the best possible learning experiences for our students,” said York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “We are grateful to these academic leaders in our community not only for their dedication to our students, but also for their vital contributions to creating a culture of teaching and learning excellence that makes York one of Canada’s leading progressive and engaged universities.”
Each of the recipients will receive $3,000. Their names will be engraved on the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards plaque in Vari Hall.
Dan Palermo
Dan Palermo, a professor in the Civil Engineering Program in the Lassonde School of Engineering, will receive the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award in the Full-Time Senior Faculty category. Palermo was the first faculty member to join Lassonde’s Civil Engineering program when it was established in 2013. He was instrumental in setting up both the undergraduate and graduate programs.
In their letters of support for Palermo’s nomination, students commented on his enthusiasm, clarity and approachability, his ability to connect theoretical with practical knowledge, and his ability to consistently offer real-world examples of theoretical practices in action. “Dr. Palermo looked for any chance to present real-world examples of lecture material… giving a deeper connection between the concepts and their role in my future career,” wrote one of his undergraduate student nominators. A proponent of experiential learning, Palermo is an avid supporter of involving undergraduate students in research and actively seeks research opportunities for them. His service extends beyond the University and he has hosted and trained MITACS Globalink Research interns in his laboratory. In 2009, Palermo received the Dean’s Teaching Commendation for his graduate course in seismic analysis and design for reinforced concrete structures.
Ruth Koleszar-Green
Professor Ruth Koleszar-Green in the School of Social Work in LA&PS is the University’s inaugural Special Adviser on Indigenous Initiatives to the Office of the President. She is also the co-chair of the York University Indigenous Council, an advisory body on Indigenous education. Koleszar-Green will receive the President’s University-Wide Teaching award in the Full-Time Faculty category. Koleszar-Green, who identifies as an urban Indigenous person, is a citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. She is from the Mohawk Nation and is a member of the Turtle Clan. Koleszar-Green is an expert in Indigenous education and social issues that impact Indigenous communities, as well as anti-racist education and income security reform.
In their letters of support, Koleszar-Green’s nominators consistently praised her teaching and knowledge of Indigenous peoples in Canada and for her approach to creating an inclusive environment. “Professor Koleszar-Green always motivated the ongoing development of learning processes inside and outside the classroom through disruptive, creative and Indigenous ways of knowledge production,” writes one of her nominators. She has led the way in Indigenizing institutional research and teaching structures at York University, receiving accolades from one nominator, who writes: “Her incredible skill as a knowledge keeper for our community continues to inspire and encourage us to believe that change is not only possible but, under her leadership, it is inevitable.”
Bridget Cauthery
As a contract faculty member in AMPD since 2008, Bridget Cauthery teaches in the Department of Dance. She is being recognized with a President’s University-Wide Teaching Award in the Contract and Adjunct Faculty category. Her nominators praised Cauthery for her imaginative use and command of technology enhanced learning and creative course development. She is a proponent for the use of video both as a teaching aid and as a method for students to submit videos of their original choreography. She has been an invited speaker on effective blended learning strategies to members of AMPD through the school’s lunch and learn sessions and focus groups.
Her investment in evaluating effective e-Learning strategies led her to complete the Teaching Commons’ EduCATE! Education, Curriculum and Teaching Excellence one-year program in 2015-16. She has researched the impact of innovative teaching methods on undergraduate students and will use her findings to inform future iterations of her courses. Her nominators referred to her outstanding ability to engage undergraduate students in their learning (for example, she addresses 250 students in one class each by name). She is a respected mentor and actively promotes the work of her graduate students. Under her leadership, one student writes: “I had the opportunity to benefit from her caring and attentive manner, her skillful maneuvering through a variety of different learning platforms and information sources, and her ability to draw all of these together as a coherent whole in a way which resonated with students’ immediate experiences.”
Minha Ha
Minha Ha is a mechanical engineering doctoral student in the Lassonde School of Engineering. She will receive a President’s University-Wide Teaching Award in the Teaching Assistant category. Her nominators refer to her demonstrated leadership and contributions to the scholarship of teaching. “Students highlight the compassion, empathy, enthusiasm and engagement that Minha demonstrates in her teaching,” writes her primary nominator. “Ms. Ha is a teaching assistant who truly cares about her students and will go above and beyond normal expectations in order to see her students succeed.”
Ha received praise for her work as a teaching assistant coordinator and is described as someone who cares about her colleagues and mentors, and promotes their success in teaching. In her courses, she strives to include the historical narrative of concepts so as to situate students’ learning, she also invests in a genuine relational experience of mutual recognition and incorporates a firsthand experience of success. Inquiry learning is a large part of her teaching approach and Ha endeavours to make students’ learning visible as an important part of responding to their needs.
Reena Shadaan
Reena Shadaan is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. Shadaan is a teaching assistant in the Business & Society Program in the Department of Social Science in LA&PS. She will receive the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award in the Teaching Assistant category. Shadaan is an interdisciplinary researcher and the recipient of the 2017 Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship established to honour Nelson Mandela. “Reena is in a league of her own when it comes to TAing because she goes beyond what is expected and she strives to give her students the very best academic experience,” writes one of her nominators.
As a TA for SOSC 1341, Shadaan works with more than 200 students, (35 of them are taking the course remotely in Kenya). The course is in partnership with the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program, which provides online access to postsecondary education for refugees in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps in Kenya. (The course is challenging as it is delivered remotely to the students in Kenya.) Shadaan is praised by students in Canada and Kenya for her use of technologies such as email, Skype, Camtasia, Moodle discussion forums and WhatsApp, to make the pedagogy work for the African students. She uses a Freirean inspired, problem-posing method in her tutorials. She is described as being especially good at teaching students how to think critically about what they are reading and to think creatively about how to formulate and express their own ideas in class discussions and in written assignments.
The purpose of the President’s University-Wide Teaching Awards is to provide significant recognition for excellence in teaching, to encourage its pursuit, to publicize such excellence when achieved across the University and in the wider community, and to promote informed discussion of teaching and its improvement. The awards demonstrate the value York University attaches to teaching.
Lassonde hosts 2018 CSME International Congress
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The 2018 CSME International Congress hosted by the Lassonde School of Engineering will take place at the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence at York University’s Keele Campus. The congress, which began May 27, will continue until May 30.
The CSME International Congress will take place at the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence at York University
The CSME International Congress is the flagship gathering of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering. The purpose of the congress is to facilitate networking, as well as to disseminate research results and new technologies among universities, industry, government agencies and R&D laboratories.
The four-day conference features an extensive technical program with 12 symposiums. Nearly 230 papers will be presented demonstrating the scope of today’s mechanical engineering research.
The conference program features a number of distinguished plenary speakers: Professor Erasmo Carrera, Politecnico di Torino; Professor James Riley, University of Washington; Professor Catharine C. Marsden, Concordia University; Professor David Sinton, University of Toronto; Cari Whyne, senior scientist, physical sciences, Holland Musculoskeletal Research Program, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; and Professor George Zhu, York University.
In addition, there are five symposia keynote speakers: Professor Marc Rosen, University of Ontario Institute of Technology; Professor Jörg Worlitschek, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Arts, Switzerland; Professor Jianbo Zhang, Tsinghua University; Professor Zengtao Chen, University of Alberta; and Professor Dominik Barz, Queen’s University.
Other technical activities include the NSERC Information Session and Workshop, various sponsor presentations, the CSME Student Design Competition, and the CSME Student Paper Competition.
Two special panel presentations will focus on “Celebrating Women’s Leadership in Mechanical Engineering” and “Towards Mechanical Engineering as the Leader in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).”
York U space technology team to participate in new Canadian Space Agency initiative
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Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Astronaut Jennifer Sidey unveiled the research teams selected to take part in the CSA Canadian CubeSat Project at an event hosted by the University of Manitoba, May 4.
A team of researchers from York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering led by Professor George Zhu is among 15 teams from across Canada selected to participate in the initiative.
Research Chair in Space Technology at York University, George Z.H. Zhu and team
Zhu is a York University Research Chair in Space Technology and has been awarded a $200,000 grant to support the project, which will be used to test a Canadian-developed wide-angle camera that observes snow and ice coverage in Northern Canada. The satellite will be sent to the International Space Station in 2020 and then ejected into orbit approximately 400 kilometres above Earth.
Data collected is expected to help map the thawing of Arctic ice and permafrost and give a better picture of the impacts of climate change.
Zhu’s team will operate the satellite from the ground station at York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering.
“Our mission could provide a means to conduct earth observation at a much lower cost and higher frequency,” said Zhu, “It will also provide a real flight opportunity for students to design, build and operate a satellite, which has not been possible in the past.”
An infographic showing the CubeSat project
As part of the project, the York University engineering students will have the opportunity to experience operating satellites and to conduct science experiments in space.
“York is a Canadian leader in space engineering and technology, and we continue to build this area of strength, including through the innovative research led by Professor Zhu,” said York University’s President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton. “This grant from the CSA will further enhance our students’ experiential learning opportunities, while supporting Canada’s space mission aimed at better understanding the impacts of climate change.”
York University gains four new Canada Research Chairs and two renewed appointments
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Four new Canada Research Chairs (CRC), who will study topics ranging from the impact of government policy on migrant workers to how to improve camera images used for scientific tasks, have been appointed at York University.
The Government of Canada announced the CRC recipients late last week. Researchers at postsecondary institutions across Canada will receive $158.7 million in funding under the CRC program; for each Tier 1 appointment the university receives $200,000 annually for seven years, while for Tier 2 CRCs it will receive $100,000 annually for five years. The CRCs are also supported with $8.3 million in research infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
CRC appointments at York University are: Professors Regina Rini, Michael Brown, Kate Tilleczek and Ethel Tungohan. The announcement also included CRC renewals for Professors Gordon Flett and John Tsotsos.
“The CRC program supports some of the most important and exciting research being done at York,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation at York University. “We are particularly proud that the four CRCs announced, and the successful renewals of two more, represent research across the University, from the Lassonde School of Engineering to the Faculty of Education, and the Faculty of Health to the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.”
The new Canada Research Chairs
Regina Rini
Regina Rini, Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Moral and Social Cognition (Tier 2) Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Rini’s research focuses on how people in democratic societies justify their social beliefs to one another. Her work analyzes research from the social sciences, especially cognitive science and sociology, to draw conclusions about how public debate currently works. She also investigates philosophical questions about what it means to improve public debate. How can we take deep moral and political difference seriously while remaining respectful in a diverse society? Rini’s central answer is a connection between public discourse and personal moral agency. She argues that we cannot understand our individual moral and political decisions without also understanding how we relate to those of others.
Michael Brown
Michael Brown, Canada Research Chair in Computer Vision (Tier 1) Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering
Brown’s research aims to improve the understanding of the physical world through camera images by: investigating image formation models that describe how incoming light (i.e., physical scene irradiance) is converted to camera sensor responses under different imaging scenarios; and designing novel in-camera imaging pipelines that produce image outputs suitable for both photographic and scientific tasks. His program is strongly aligned with York University’s $33.3 million Canada First Research Excellence Fund program, Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA), which focuses on research in biological and computational computer vision.
Kate Tilleczek
Kate Tilleczek, Canada Research Chair in Young Lives, Education and Global Good (Tier 1) Professor, Faculty of Education (commencing July 1)
Tilleczek’s research examines how education can better assist more young people and provides unique national and international data on critical risk and protective situations encountered by contemporary youth. Her work documents how marginal youth are affected by shifting global and local contexts such as digital technology and mental health challenges. It unearths the positive and resilient aspects of young lives and provides longitudinal and cross-cultural comparisons in Canada and beyond. Her research is mobilized to the academy, communities, and decision makers who are in positions to better support youth. The Chair also builds new global youth partnerships, linking young people across countries and cultures to develop social innovations for the greatest challenges they face.
Ethel Tungohan
Ethel Tungohan, Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism (Tier 2) Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Tungohan will undertake an analysis of discourses that have underpinned the Canadian government’s policies towards temporary foreign workers from 1973 until 2017 and the nature of these policies and their effects on different groups of temporary foreign workers. She will also examine the range of migrant workers’ social movement activities that have emerged as a response, in particular, to anti-migrant discourses and policies.
The renewed Canada Research Chairs
Gordon Flett
Gordon Flett, Canada Research Chair in Personality and Health (Tier 1) Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
Flett’s past research on perfectionism and its consequences has established that the perfectionism construct is complex and multi-faceted and associated with numerous costs and consequences. His research will now further increase understanding of the vulnerability inherent in dysfunctional perfectionism. A series of investigations will evaluate a failure orientation theory and test unique conceptualizations of the cognitive and motivational aspects of perfectionism. Research will also elaborate the developmental roots of perfectionism in children and adolescents. Finally, his research will assess conceptual models linking
John Tsotsos
perfectionism with health problems.
John Tsotsos, Canada Research Chair in Computational Vision (Tier 1) Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering &Computer Science, Lassonde School of Engineering
Tsotsos’ research focuses on two main goals: to further understanding of how vision can be the primary sense that guides human behavior, and to use this understanding to build active agents that purposely behave in real environments. Using human experimental studies and the full spectrum of computational methods, Tsotsos will extend his model of visual attention to support visual reasoning and task execution in dynamic environments. These require interactions with memory, control, sensor sub-systems, and joint attention for interactions with other agents. The research is relevant for applications to autonomous driving, companion robots for the elderly and robots in manufacturing.
Lassonde Professor Hossein Kassiri receives prestigious award from the IEEE
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Lassonde Professor Hossein Kassiri recently attended the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) conference. Titled, the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), Kassiri was there to accept an award of excellence for his recent paper.
Hossein Kassiri
Kassiri was the recipient of the “IEEE ISSCC 2017 Jack Kilby Award for Outstanding Student Paper,” and is the first academic from a Canadian university to win the award.Previous recipients came from MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.
Kassiri’s paper addresses the demand for accurate capture and control of neurological disorders such as epileptic seizures.
Ten York University professors awarded prestigious CFI research awards
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Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background
Ten professors at York University are among a national class of researchers to receive funding through the Canadian Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). The infrastructure funding will enable to the researchers to pursue their research.
The funding announcement was made April 11 by Kirsty Duncan, federal minister of science and minister of sport and persons with disabilities. More than $42 million in research funding was awarded to 37 Canadian universities to support 186 new research infrastructure projects.
At York University, Professors Ali Abdul Sater, Caitlin Fisher, John Gales, Lyndsay Hayhurst, Ryan Hili, Ali Hooshyar, John McDermott, Gary Sweeney, Zheng Hong (George) Zhu and Cora Young will receive funding totalling $1,373,745 for their projects.
“York is delighted to have 10 professors from the Faculties of Science and Health, the Lassonde School of Engineering and the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design receive the John R. Evans Leaders Fund from CFI,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché. “A critical strategic investment tool, this funding helps institutions in attracting and retaining the very best researchers who are undertaking innovative and cutting-edge work.”
JELF plays an important research support role for Canadian universities, helping them to attract and retain top talent – particularly early-career researchers – with the state-of-the-art equipment they need to excel in their field.
The funded projects at York University are as follows:
Ali Abdul-Sater (Faculty of Health) – A Molecular Immunology Laboratory to Elucidate the Mechanisms of Immune Regulation Following Exercise ($135,000)
Ali Abdul-Sater
Studies have shown that various exercise activities affect our ability to fight infections and defend ourselves against diseases. Moderate exercise can boost our immune system, which protects us from bacterial and viral infections, whereas prolonged and intensive exercise has the opposite effect. How and why this happens remains unclear. Abdul-Sater’s research looks to answer these two questions and the infrastructure funding will help him determine which guidelines should be recommended to boost the immune system while reducing the incidence and severity of unwanted inflammation, and those that help lower infection risks. His research has important implications for Canadian athletes, who engage in intensive exercises, and consequently suffer from infections that affect their performance, as well as for the general Canadian population.
Caitlin Fisher (School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design) – Immersive Storytelling Lab ($136, 575)
Caitlin Fisher wears an AR headset
The Immersive Storytelling Lab supports globally relevant content creation and technology innovation at the intersection of augmented reality and the moving image, enhancing Canada’s global presence in immersive digital storytelling. Located at York’s Cinespace Studio facility, the infrastructure supports innovative research-creation and technology development to advance best practices for content creation for immersive experiences, pioneer the ways to see the stories in which we are all already immersed and solidify Canada as a central player in conversations around the social implications of augmented reality. The lab is situated alongside a commercial film studio where researchers and their students can work and train across boundaries of art and engineering, promoting innovation and Canadian leadership in Augmented Reality.
John Gales (Lassonde School of Engineering) – Facility for Assessing the Fire Resiliency of Building Materials ($118,135)
Canada’s fire problem has worsened in recent years with several severe fires, including Lac Megantic, L’isle Verte, Fort MacMurray, and the Kingston Conflagration. Important construction material issues were identified during these fires, leading to increased uncertainty about how existing and future infrastructure responds to and recovers from fires. Gales will establish a laboratory at York University that will focus on developing fire safe, novel and sustainable materials for use in our built environment. The overall vision is for York University to become a national leader in structural fire resilience. The facility and Gales’s research will improve material manufacturing, the construction economy, building codes, designers and above al,l benefit Canadians with fire safe and sustainable infrastructure.
Lyndsay Hayhurst (Faculty of Health) – Digital Participatory Research & Physical Cultures Lab ($49,664)
Lyndsay Hayhurst
The Digital Participatory Research and Physical Cultures Lab (DPRPCL) will engage and coordinate stakeholders from across the globe in DPR around physical cultural studies, sport for social justice, health and human rights. Hayhurst’s research uses DPR to explore the ways organizations, communities and marginalized individuals experience sport for development (SFD) initiatives – or the growing use of sport to achieve development objectives such as alleviating poverty and promoting gender equality. Her research program aims to use DPR to extend current SFD studies to re-envision new, more community-oriented and socially just approaches to SFD initiatives. Her research will investigate the role of non-human objects (such as the bicycle) in development initiatives and explore how structural inequalities are exacerbated by global neoliberalism as it is facilitated through corporate-funded SFD programs in Indigenous communities in Canada.
Ryan Hili (Faculty of Science) – Expanding the Chemistry of DNA ($114,626)
Professor Ryan Hili
Hili’s research focuses on technologies that harness the replicative and encoding power of DNA toward the evolution and discovery of novel molecules capable of serving a range of functions, including artificial antibodies for biomedical research and small molecule catalyst for synthesis of fine chemicals. The infrastructure funding will provide equipment that will enable rapid custom synthesis of DNA, the rapid purification of DNA, monitor the evolution and study the results. Artificial antibodies generated through his research will be used to elucidate protein and carbohydrate function in disease, and implemented in diagnostics screens for biomarkers implicated in human disease; this will directly benefit the health of Canadians and maintain Canada’s competitiveness in biomedical research. The proposed research will also serve to develop new green screening technologies for discovery of catalysts, which can be used to bring fine chemicals to Canadian markets at lower cost and with decreased environmental impact.
Ali Hooshyar (Lassonde School of Engineering) – A real-time digital simulator to develop resilience-oriented protection systems for power grids ($150,000)
Ali Hooshyar
There is increasing severity, frequency and diversity of large-scale disturbances that can disrupt normal operation of power systems. The number of major climate disasters has risen substantially, and the grid has been exposed to cyber-attacks due to the expansion of communication-dependent technologies. Geomagnetic disturbances (GMDs) are causing growing concerns for utilities and regulators. Hooshyar’s research will gather the expertise and resources required for developing the next-generation digital protection methods to advance grid resilience. In the short-term, the research will focus on microgrid protection, the effects of GMDs on protection systems and cyber-security of communication-assisted protection systems. The protection methods developed will reduce the likelihood of power outages, provide Canadian relay manufacturers with resilience-oriented protection technologies and contribute to the development of 100 per cent renewable energy systems for Canadian remote communities.
John McDermott (Faculty of Science) – Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting for Muscle Cell Characterization and Purification ($200,920)
John McDermott
Aging primarily concerns organ function, where degenerative changes in organ systems can lead to diseases that limit both the quality and span of life. Heart disease is a major cause of death in Canada and globally. Muscle loss due to cancer drains patients of their energy, quality of life and independence due to a loss of functional muscle mass and mobility. McDermott will receive funding for a fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) system to support research related to muscle development, skeletal muscle loss associated with aging and cancer, and heart disease. He will investigate the role of specific proteins, known as transcription factors, that precisely control gene regulation of skeletal muscle and heart development. The FACS system will yield high quality, purified heart and skeletal muscle cells. The research will provide new knowledge into how heart and skeletal muscle cells grow and mature, treat heart and skeletal muscle diseases and lead to novel strategies to engineer new tissue or drug treatments.
Gary Sweeney (Faculty of Science) – Investigation of mechanisms responsible for diabetes and heart health ($180,270)
Gary Sweeney
There is an established correlation between obesity and metabolic complications in skeletal muscle leading to diabetes and in the heart leading to heart failure. Muscle is the most important tissue in the body for dealing with ingested glucose and if it does not properly contribute to glucose control, then diabetes will develop. The heart must metabolize nutritional fuels to maintain pumping. Previous studies have shown that inflammation is involved in causing dysfunction of muscle and heart, but the mechanisms responsible for regulating these changes have yet to be fully determined. Sweeney’s research focuses on a cellular process called autophagy believed to be required for good housekeeping in muscle and the heart. This project will examine the interaction between innate immunity and autophagy to unravel new pathways via which metabolic dysfunction occurs in obesity to provide new knowledge on mechanisms of obesity-related, immune-metabolic dysfunction.
Cora Young (Faculty of Science) – Adaptable liquid chromatography system for online and offline analysis of trace atmospheric water-soluble compounds ($138,555)
Professor Cora Young
Better understanding of environmental problems caused by pollution, including pollutant fate, air quality, and climate change, are necessary to protect human and environmental health. Study of these problems is limited by the measurements possible with existing methods. The requested unique, state-of-the-science instrumentation will allow development of new measurement methods for several pollutants that harm the environment. These new methods will be used to address gaps in our knowledge of the fate and transport of endocrine disrupting chemicals, sources of air pollution, and drivers of climate change through a combination of laboratory experiments and environmental measurements. The information gained from these studies will allow Canadian policy makers to better understand and predict the negative impacts of pollution and provide the basis for improved regulation.
Zheng Hong (George) Zhu (Lassonde School of Engineering) – Nanotechnology Enhanced Multifunctional Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Space Structures ($150,000)
George Zhu
The driving force of space sector is mass reduction at launch. Zhu’s project will use the JELF infrastructure funding to develop the first manufacturing lab for Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite materials for spacecraft at York University. CFRP’s high strength-to-mass ratio and superior conformability to complex shapes has led to increasing adaptation of CFRPs in spacecraft to substitute metal parts or replace structures made from several parts with a single CFRP component. CFRPs are typically made of carbon fibre sheets with pre-impregnated polymers called prepregs. Prepregs are layered up as required and cured into a part at high pressure and temperature. A recent paradigm shift in mass saving in space sector is multifunctional CFRPs that integrate non-structural properties by adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, it is not economically viable to pre-impregnate fibres with various CNT-polymer combinations to meet diverse end user requirements. The research seeks to develop a cost-efficient alternative to make multifunctional CFRPs with regular prepregs and CNTs using existing CFRP manufacturing processes. This innovative technology will allow great freedoms in making custom multifunctional CFRPs. The infrastructure will enable the new technology development and speedup its transfer from lab to industry.
