Innovative Projects Realized

No pierden el humor: Post-disaster humor in Mexico

The formal study of humor in education is commonly centred around its therapeutic impact or as educational tool to bring about positive learning outcomes. Rarely is humor understood as a lens through which people might learn. In this research, I advance the idea that humor has great pedagogic potential that people might use to create meaning of and in natural disasters.
This understanding of meaning-making is grounded in a view that knowledge can be acquired in non-formal ways through collaborative and innovative engagement. For this project, a four-week online, non-formal activity is planned at CUAED in Mexico City. Students are invited to explore humor production as a cultural expression in the Mexican context and to connect it to disasters such as the 2017 earthquakes. Research data will be gathered through informal interviews with students and through analyzing their collections of humor. TO BE CONT’D

Linking participatory mapping in local risk mapping to strengthen resilience: a pilot study in Mexico

Incorporating community members in participatory mapping enables local knowledge and community narratives to be captured and represented in spatial form. This participatory method is useful in community mapping of vulnerabilities and capacities in relation to disaster risk. Low-cost technologies, such as free mapping software and smart phone applications make it easier for community members to perform mapping in a standard that is interoperable with traditional risk mapping frameworks. In Mexico, local level risk mapping is mandated under its Civil Protection law. Integrating community mapping methods in Mexico’s mapping framework could provide further insight in understanding risk. TO BE CONT’D

Integrating the Community Perspective: An exploration of Prospect Theory as a tool to derive benefits in negotiated mining agreements

This research proposes a strategy to derive compensation for risks incurred from extractive development, particularly with regards to water security risks of communities in Baja California Sur where mining activity is taking place. I propose the application of negotiated agreements between industry and community as both a forum on which to discuss concerns associated with mining and as a payment mechanism for the transfer of compensation funds. Within this framework, I will carry out a survey to compare two measures of changes in welfare used in valuation studies to obtain measures of compensation. The first measure is widely used and has roots in standard economic theory. The alternative is assumed equivalent and according to the behavioural economics literature is better suited where negative changes in welfare are concerned, such as those imposed by mining activity. TO BE CONT’D

Investigating How Teachers Learn and Customize Digital Classroom Tools II

Our proposed research investigates how K-12 teachers learn and customize digital classroom tools and learning management systems and how they share this information with each other. In particular, we will be working with our partner Microsoft to investigate the use and customization of the recently developed OneNote Class Notebooks software that is increasingly being used by teachers for various content delivery and content management tasks. We will carry out semi-structured interviews with K-12 teachers and do content analysis of online forums and blogs to synthesize gaps in retrieving and applying community-created customizations and how the customization-sharing process could be improved. We expect these findings to help inform the design of new tools that can, for example, help a teacher who is new to using an application such as the Class Notebooks accelerate her course set-up process by using a customization created and shared by another instructor teaching a similar course.

Integration of Compiler Tools for Rapid Text Processing(error)

International Characters has developed a variety of software tools that, when used together, can produce very?high?speed

and high?quality text processing programs. These tools are usable only by specialist experts: they are not robust, easy to

use, or easy to extend. The goal of this project is to bring these tools together into a single application, and improving the

usability and extensibility of this application. The research involves designing a general program structure and fitting the

rewritten individual software components into it. The structure will be based on a widely?used and publicly?available

compiler framework known as LLVM. We will determine what extensions and moifications will be necessary to LLVM, and

how then to fit International Characters’ technology to it. We will pay particular attention to one such technology, called

IDISA, for Inductive Doubling Instruction Set Architecture. This is a technology that International Characters uses to

support SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) programming on different computer systems, each of which….

A filter cartridge for removal of drugs and estrogens from drinking water

The research problem to be addressed in this project concerns the need for advanced water filtering systems that will remove traces of pharmaceuticals and estrogen hormones from drinking water. This problem is significant because these contaminants, that enter water as a result of human use, have been found in river water, treatment plant effluents and drinking water worldwide and, despite their presence at very low concentrations, may contribute to adverse health effects. The focus of the project is the use of a form of nano-scale cellulose in filters that will bind and remove the contaminants. The project is a collaborative effort between two groups at the University of British Columbia and ALPAC, a nanocellulose manufacturer in Alberta.

Condom Negotiation Among Gay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men

The aim of The Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) is to help combat the spread of HIV by supporting, conducting, and sharing the best research possible. This project will involve a novel analysis examining aspects of condom negotiation among gay and bisexual men who have sex with men (GBMSM). This work is needed because the HIV prevention methods that involve drug regimens are not available to all GBMSM and do not protect against the transmission of bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STIs). Despite the broader protective benefits of using condoms, this practice is becoming less and less popular, thus we propose to examine how interpersonal elements in condom negotiation, like the use of condom insistence and condom resistance tactics, may interact with psychosocial factors, like perceived relationship power, depression, condom attitude, and others, to influence actual condom use among GBMSM. TO BE CONT’D

Understanding the Impact of Legal Cannabis Access on Health: A Large, Prospective Cohort Study of Canadians Obtaining Medical Cannabis Authorization

Although legal access to medical cannabis has been available in Canada for many years, our society has yet to fully understand the important health implications surrounding the use of medical cannabis or recreational users. However, the current availability of medical cannabis in Canada means that researchers have access to a large number of individuals who are cannabis users. This is an important group of people as understanding their health outcomes can help identify future health concerns and guide the implementation of policies, programs, practices, and/or resource distribution that would be needed to address potential health arising amongst non-medical cannabis users. The urgency of obtaining this information is emphasized by the proposal to legalize cannabis in Canada and the subsequent projected increase in cannabis users to as high as 7 million by 2021. TO BE CONT’D

Dymedso FrequencerTM technology optimization

Dymedso is willing to introduce a new technology for sound-wave generation therapy that addresses some issues identified by patients and caregivers over the past years of use in clinical practice. The identified issues involve ergonomic and
performance limitations. For instance, the current version of the device is still cumbersome for patient use. Thus, for more practical and effective use, the device needs to be optimized in terms of size, weight, and overall performance. We will carefully analyze each of the modules composing The FrequencerTM including the sound-wave generator, the transducer, and the communication system to propose improvements for each of them. In addition, different types of sensors and feedback interfaces will be investigated for the new version in order to improve the effectiveness of this device.

Modelling the effects of industrial disturbance and predation risk on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) seasonal habitat selection in the boreal forest of Alberta, Canada

My master’s project in partnership with InnoTech Alberta will be assessing potential effects of industrial activity from in-situ oil and gas extraction on carnivore and white-tailed deer populations in northeastern Alberta. Deer populations have been increasing for the past fifty years and two of the leading causes are attributed to climate change and human disturbance. Our objectives are to determine which industrial activities are important for deer populations and to provide management recommendations for the population in the interest of the protection of woodland caribou, a threatened species. Current management approaches include predator control as a method of reducing predation pressure on caribou; however, deer are the primary prey for wolves in this region and are an important management consideration for future caribou recovery strategies. InnoTech Alberta is a leader in wildlife modelling and will benefit from this partnership by providing informative results and management recommendations to funding agencies and to the Government of Alberta.

Visualizing data for Fraser River salmon stocks: Developing tools to promote insight and understanding

For this project, we propose to integrate the data about Fraser River salmon populations into a multi-species, multi-population database, and develop an interactive data visualization tool that allows fisheries scientists and managers to explore this data at different spatial and temporal scales. The objective of this project is to provide fisheries scientists and managers with the tools to easily and comprehensively track annual trends in salmon data, and explore these trends for their possible drivers. The development of the data visualizations will be guided by methodology from design studies and psychology to quantifies the visualizations’ ability to promote insight and understanding of this complex dataset. This understanding of variation in Fraser River salmon abundances will in turn lead to more effectively managed fisheries.

The effect of increased levels of converter based power generation on the voltage stability of a power system

As a result of the advancement of renewable energy and power electronic (PE) converter technologies, renewable energy sources are increasingly interfaced to the grid through PE based interconnections such as Voltage Sourced Converters (VSC) and Modular Multi-level Converters (MMC). It is essential to model and predict the behavior and effects of these components in the power system for safe and reliable operation. This proposed research project will focus on how renewable sources connected to the grid through PE converters, affect the stability power transmission system. In the first stage, Real Time Digital Simulation (RTDS) models will be developed for the case studies. Both theoretical analysis and simulations will be used to understand and demonstrate the effect of PE converters in power transmission system. In the second stage, studies will be extended to a meshed network and frequency stability of the system due to increased levels of PE converters will also be considered.