Learning Management Systems (LMSs) enable schools to offer education online. This is helpful during the current COVID times. It is important that every learner is able to participate in the online learning experience. For this, the needs of learners with disabilities must be supported. Many of these are cognitive needs; they involve thinking, feeling, focusing, and understanding. Such needs are not understood as much as the needs around seeing, hearing, and operating a computer.

Housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable in Canadian cities and tenants are struggling. Financialized landlords and other investment companies are depleting the affordable rental stock in the private market much faster than new social rental units are being created. One solution is for tenants to have the opportunity to collectively purchase their own buildings when landlords decide to sell. Tenants could convert buildings to limited-equity housing cooperatives leased from a land trust for the long term.

The idea of airships to have blimps carry heavy loads into remote areas, has been discussed for years in Canada. Such a futuristic concept has recently been brought into reality by Sceye Inc. which created a new class of airship capable of flying the unchartered stratosphere. However, Zylon (PBO) fibers, the main component of airship envelope, typically suffer from environmental degradation when exposed to high humidity, ultraviolet (UV), and ozone in the harsh operation environment.

Emerald ash borer (EAB) is an invasive insect from Asia that was detected in Ontario in 2002 and has caused severe declines in ash trees. EAB is able to kill a healthy ash tree in 3-4 years and has caused declines of up to 99% in some areas 8-10 years after arriving. Although there is substantial research on EAB and its impacts, there is not a lot of research on the aftermath of EAB. Credit Valley Conservation, a conservation authority in Ontario, has noticed an abundance of invasive plants and ash regeneration in areas impacted by EAB.

Old growth forests provide important ecological services including carbon storage and habitats for a diverse array of species, yet they are often rare across the landscape. These forests are often challenging to identify due to the lack of concrete definitions of what constitutes old growth, as well as the lack of understanding of the typical features of old growth forests.

In this project the intern will preform detailed geological mapping and where available drill core logging at a series of sites of known highly metalliferous shales in the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories. This will be followed by detailed reflected and transmitted light optical microscopy. Select samples will be further analysed using scanning electron microscope. This will allow comparisons of these less well understood occurrences (Rod, Van, Harvest, Harlot, and Harlow properties) with the better understood occurrences elsewhere in Yukon and China.

Introduced Phragmites australis (common reed) is one of the most invasive plants in North America. Existing management is costly, can negatively affect other species, and is often only effective for small infestations. Classical biological control (i.e., introducing herbivores from the weed’s native range) is a promising tool for P. australis management that can contribute to a broader program of integrated pest management (IPM). Our goal is to partner with Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) to implement biological control of introduced P. australis in southern Ontario.

The proposed research will take place in the City of Mississauga. A recent study by Gro?mann et al. concluded that heavy levels of tree pruning leads to an increased number of microhabitats, compared to trees pruned less often (2020). These trees are often called ‘veteran trees’ in North America, and are very important for urban biodiversity (CITE). They provide homes, food, and other resources to many plants, mammals, birds, and reptiles (CITE). Unfortunately, trees with these microhabitats are often considered a risk by the municipality to keep standing, despite their importance.

Industries using fossil fuels as their energy source are contributing to global warming as the required energy for their processes is supplied by combusting fossil fuels. CO2, a greenhouse gas, is a products of combustion. Using electricity generated by hydropower as the heat source may eliminate CO2 emission. One of the commercially available electric heaters is the direct-current plasma torch, where the gas is heated to high temperatures. Because air is readily available and free, it is used as the primary plasma forming gas.

The goal of our project titled Investing in Recovery: Strengthening Employer and Policy Roles in Labour Market Integration of Canada’s Immigrant Women in STEM will be to produce new research rooted in a power analysis around the specific challenges that Canada’s immigrant women in STEM face, including the perspective of STEM employers on the opportunity costs for their growth if these barriers are not addressed (particularly in a time of pandemic recovery) as well as exploring and documenting the various kinds of support employers may need in order to sustainably improve the labour market outc