A total of 75 participants imagined and programmed their ideas over two days to come up with a new product during the 2016 Steacie Library Dungeon Hackfest, held Feb. 17 and 18.

Team projects used data to create product that save time, find study space and find nibbles at this event, themed “Making a Difference with Data”.

Samples of the projects coming out of the annual Hackfest include:

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  a project that provides next bus notifications to the Pebble smartwatch, using Real-Time Next Vehicle Arrival (NVAS) Data available from the TTC;

• an app to find study partners, and another app to discover the closest available study space;
• an app to provide simultaneous translation of text messages into different languages; and
• an app that uses filters to ensure that the right text message is sent to the right person (and not the wrong one!).

These ideas and more were conceived, pitched and realized over the Thursday and Friday of Reading Week.

Jacquie Grindrod, a student in Research Directions in Computing (EECS1001), acknowledges “it’s challenging to only have two days to build from the ground up and it really tests our knowledge as well as gives us a more real-world application.”

Overall, 14 teams presented their final product at the closing celebration on Thursday, many with working prototypes. An engaged audience from across campus came to see the end results and ask probing questions about the projects.

“People seemed to really enjoy the teamwork and challenging themselves with fun projects,” said John Dupuis, engineering librarian at the Steacie Science and Engineering Library, and Chair of the 2016 organizing committee.

Dupuis said he is often asked by first-year students, who are unsure of their programming skills, whether they should register for Hackfest.

“I always say absolutely you should register,” he said. “Hackfest doesn’t carry an evaluation component, and there are no prizes – it’s purely a learning experience to allow students to stretch their expertise. It’s perfect for first-year students.”

Grindrod agrees, and says “As a student, I found Hackfest to be a great opportunity to put together the concepts I’ve studied in class so far. It’s invaluable as an opportunity because it gives us the chance to be creative and to try something new without facing possible real-world consequences, such as harming our GPA or losing money and time.”

The Libraries enrich the Hackfest experience by engaging participants in critical thinking about data. They created Hackfest’s resources page that has a wealth of knowledge on subjects such as coding, graphic user interface design, and mobile applications; that is linked to Open Data sets; and features the Library’s Data Research Guide.

The guide’s creator, Librarian Walter Giesbrecht, provided an Introduction to Data workshop for the group, and Librarian Bill Denton gave a session on his data sonification project (putting data to music).

This year, the Libraries expanded Hackfest’s engagement with credit courses such as EECS 1001, ENG 1102, and MBAN 6100 (Schulich data science), and featured teams from biology and psychology as well.   Librarians’ interdisciplinary understanding, based on their reach throughout the departments, served them well in coaching the diverse teams on their projects.

Hackfest is a partnership between York University Libraries, LaunchYU, UIT, MaRS Innovation, and the Lassonde School of Engineering.

“I see Hackfest as a stunning example of a coordinated experiential learning model with partners bringing their expertise to support curricular events,” says Joy Kirchner, University librarian. “I applaud the mentors from across the York community, for taking the time to share their expertise, and our campus partners, for creating such a rich and vibrant atmosphere for learning.”

York University’s Entrepreneurship Manager at LaunchYU, Nilay Goyal, said “York U Libraries have been doing an amazing job of contributing to experiential learning and encouraging entrepreneurship at York University, and Hackfest is one fantastic example. I love the spirit and energy of the Hackfest that focusses on learning through implementation, a key factor that many entrepreneurs often miss out.”

There are multiple teams from this Hackfest who have shown interest in taking their projects forward and creating new startups, said Goyal.

“We (at LaunchYU) look forward to working with the Hackfest participants to help them build, launch and scale their startups,” she said.

Group presentations were recorded and will be posted to the Hackfest page.

York’s fourth annual multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Fair, organized by a team of faculty, librarians and students, took place in the Scott Library Collaboratory on Feb. 24.  More than 500 University community members braved the snowy weather to celebrate the work of 69 students, who presented their research projects in the form of poster sessions, animated with enthusiasm and commitment.

The presenters were drawn from all Faculties and both campuses, and the 56 posters covered a wide range of topics. Some of the presentations were: Dance the private tango; Safe Space at York University; Hearing the forest through the trees;  Let’s talk about sex: Black women authoring their own sexuality; No one is illegal: Is this grassroots migrant justice group effective?; and Can you afford opportunity? Documenting the cost of subsidized housing – to name but a few of the many topics covered.

A trio of musicians from the Department of Music – Paul Ross (bass), Taylor Douma (alto sax), and Geoff MacFarlane (guitar) provided a klezmer music interlude, while two student photographers (Ashley Elliott, John Jacques) from the School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) recorded the event, attended by friends and families, students, faculty, staff and York administrators including York University President and Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri and Vice-President Academic and Provost Rhonda Lenton.

University Librarian Joy Kirchner welcomed students and congratulated them on being selected to participate in this juried event. She noted that, by attending an intensive fair preparation workshop and gaining experience designing and presenting a scholarly poster session, the students were building skills in the academic literacies and participating in the cycle of knowledge production and dissemination. She noted that the York Libraries staff and faculty were thrilled to offer this opportunity for students to share their research outside the classroom in a cross-curricular environment.

York University’s Vice-President Research and Innovation Robert Haché and co-sponsor of the fair, congratulated all of the students who participated and said he was delighted to see the depth of research undertaken. The projects on display showcased a wide spectrum of innovative and engaging work. Haché underlined the University’s commitment to ensuring that undergraduates have opportunities to engage in cutting edge and interdisciplinary research.  “It is events like this one,” he said, “that help to showcase the vibrant, dynamic and collaborative research community at York.”

Students themselves commented enthusiastically on the Undergraduate Research Fair experience, noting that it was “an invigorating experience to talk to faculty, parents and local community members about research.”  Others called the experience “fantastic” and “one-of-a-kind,” and wished they had a chance to do it all again. Several remarked that they appreciated learning about other people’s work and seeing the research that happened in other disciplines, and found presenting at the fair both rewarding and fun.

New at this year’s Undergraduate Research Fair was an opportunity to submit artwork created for any 2015 credit course. Submissions are currently on exhibit in the Scott Library’s Art Walk (second floor). Two pieces were selected for the front cover of upcoming issues of the new refereed e-journal Revue YOUR Review (York Online Undergraduate Research) associated with the  Undergraduate Research Fair.

All presenters will receive an invitation to attend a Writing for Publication workshop organized for them by Writing Department Chair Ron Sheese. Interested students can rework their Undergraduate Research Fair project for consideration for publication in Revue YOUR Review. The abstracts and posters of participants will be published in a separate section of the journal (YOURreview.journals.yorku.ca).

The numerous, high-calibre presentations made it very difficult for adjudication teams to select the first and second prizewinners of the following eight awards, presented at the Undergraduate Research Fair:

Best lower-year projects – Dr. James Wu Prize 

• First prize: Laura Galin-Corini & Ana Janic, The Multilingual Brain: How Much Power Does It Hold? (GL/PSYC 2520)
• Second prize: Lindsey Swartzman. From Eritrea to the EU: Driven to Security. (AP/GEOG 2310)

Best upper-year projects – Dr. James Wu Prize

• First prize: Marissa Chase, In the Aftermath: Detecting Change from Natural Disasters Using Satellite Imagery. (AP/GEOG 4440)
• Second prize: Michelle Short & Kari Martin. Do I Belong? Power, Inclusion, Representation and Activism in an LGBTQ Spiritual Community. (AP/SOWK 3070)

Best honours thesis/MRP projects – Dr. James Wu Prize

• First prize: Maansi Malhotra, The Effect of Statins on Mitochondrial Respiration in Pancreatic Insulin Secreting MIN6 Clonal Cells. (SC/BIOL 4000)
• Second prize: Christine Paputsis,  Cell-Specific Localization of CAPA mRNA in the Central Nervous System and Midgut of the Mosquito, Aedes Aegypti. (SC/BIOL 4000)

Best group projects

• First prize: Shulamit Diena, Stephanie Bergman, Carla FIorella Perez, Talia Silver, Muscular Dystrophy on the Fly: A Proposed Role for Drosophila Gene CG7845. I (SC/BIOL 4410)
• Second prize: Melvin Lui & Jamesan Poothapillai, Branch-Chained Amino Acids: Is Your Recovery Missing These Essentials? (HH/KINE 4120)

Best posters & presentations

• First prize:  Alexander Gordon, What Does a Bully Think? Motives, Conceptions, and Managerial Strategies in TDSB’s Anti-Bullying Policy. (AP/EN 4000)           
• Second prize:  Michelle Binczyk, What Is the Effect of Herbivore Saliva on the Toxicity of Fungal Endophytes? (SC/BIOL 4000)

Information Literacy awards 

• First prize:  Khalidha Nasiri,  Not Nature Nor Nurture: Doing Good Is in Your Genes, Environment, and Personality. (HH/PSYC 4000)
• Second prize:  Nick Zabara. Parent Anxiety: Implications for Child Pain. (HH/PSYC 4000)

People’s Choice award

• Lu Li, Maze: User Interface for Role Playing Game in Virtual Environment. (LE/EECS 4700)

Artwork awards

• Juliana Giancola, Feathers (FA/VISA 3024)
• Si Qi Zhou, Venus in Chrome (FA/VISA 2024)

Awards were presented by York University’s Associate Vice-President Research Celia Haig-Brown, Faculty of Health Dean Harvey Skinner, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Associate Dean Naomi Adelson, Theatre Professor Ian Garrett (AMPD), Associate University Librarian Mark Robertson, Librarian Norda Majekodunmi, and students Emylee Kahr and Nicole Yanqui. Bronfman Librarian Sophie Bury presented the Information Literacy award and those who attended the Undergraduate Research Fair selected a People’s Choice winner.

Fair organizers agree that all presenters at the 2016 Undergraduate Research Fair were winners.

The Libraries are pleased to announce that faculty and graduate students may now select from one of four campus libraries to pick up and drop off Sound and Moving Image Library (SMIL) videos pre-reserved for classroom showings.

Classroom videos may now be picked up and dropped off at the Bronfman Business Library, Steacie Science & Engineering Library, and the Frost Library (Glendon), in addition to SMIL, which is located on the first floor of the Scott Library.

More information about this service enhancement is available on the Classroom Video Reservation Form.

Please note that many titles are now available through online video streaming direct from the classroom. SMIL now offers online access to tens of thousands of streaming videos through online collections such as Criterion on Demand and Kanopy.

Also be reminded that direct deliveries to classrooms have been discontinued as of September 2015 due to changes in UIT classroom technology services. There are a number of ways the Libraries may be able to accommodate your needs. For questions relating to accommodation needs, please contact the Sound and Moving Image Library.

York University Libraries will present the fourth annual Steacie Library Hackfest in association with LaunchYU, with a theme this year of “Make a Difference with Data”.

The event takes place over two days, running Feb. 17 and 18.

What is a Hackfest? It is about spending two days collaborating with fellow students on a particular project, and bringing the project to reality. Students from disciplines, including computer science and engineering, fine arts, business, digital media and health will work together to share ideas and create solutions. Breakfast, lunch and caffeine will be provided.

The Hackfest is for people who love crunching data and creating breathtaking visualizations, or individuals who want to learn how to do those things. It’s also for people who are not necessarily programmers, but who have a brilliant business-involving-data idea that they aren’t sure how to build. Maybe there’s some wisdom hidden in someone else’s data that can help us understand the world better.

Hackfest is looking for go-getters who will hack their way to their goals.

Making a Difference with Data is about finding an existing dataset somewhere out there (or creating one) and somehow using that data to build a product or service or create an analysis or visualization that will make a difference in the world.

In addition to collaboration, Hackfest will offer unique learning opportunities, with Librarians Walter Giesbrecht and William Denton presenting on data projects. If you’ve never heard statistics sing, then check out Denton’s Sonification project, which puts statistical data to music.

Hackfest also features a workshop by Justin Cuaresma and Ethan Nguyen from York startup Bitnobi. They have offered to provide their new data tool, Bitnobi, for teams to use during Hackfest for data crunching and visualization. Cuaresma was the lead on a Hackfest team back in 2014, and during the event made a connection to this startup opportunity by meeting local entrepreneurs – a testament to Hackfest being a great place to network.

Organizers expect approximately 75 students to join this year’s Hackfest, and mentors will be on hand to offer advice to teams. The first-year computer science course, EECS 1001, has been integrated into the Hackfest as well, with participating students earning credit toward their course work.

Archived videos of the project presentations from Hackfest 2015 can be viewed here.

To register for Hackfest, visit hackfest.library.yorku.ca/2016/.