Innovative Projects Realized

TimelyGrader BSI (McGill) – Improving formative learning and feedback for written assignments in the university classroom

This BSI project aims to determine the effectiveness of using GenAI tools to provide students with formative feedback as compared to traditional methods of instructor feedback and peer to peer feedback. Proving the effectiveness will allow educators more ways to provide their students with formative learning opportunities.

Visiting Graduate Student at UCSD- Rady School of Management

Our research leverages large language models (LLMs) to analyze text data from Reddit and StockTwits, exploring differences in investing styles between Republican and Democrat retail investors. Building on Cookson et al. (2020), we will use advanced LLM techniques to classify political affiliations based on language patterns and analyze retail investor sentiment from 2010 onwards. Cookson et al. revealed partisan Republicans’ relative optimism about the stock market during the pandemic, showing specific biases in stock preferences. We expand this by incorporating broader social media data, capturing a wider spectrum of sentiment and political discourse.

Literature on partisanship and belief formation (Milner and Judkins, 2004; Gaines et al., 2007) and studies by Gentzkow et al. (2019) and Kaplan et al. (2019) highlight political identity’s impact on economic perceptions. Our study examines how partisan-driven narratives influence retail investors, particularly during uncertainty, using frameworks like motivated reasoning (Brunnermeier and Parker, 2005; Benabou, 2015) and uncertainty identity theory (Hogg, 2007).

By analyzing sentiment in user-generated content, we aim to identify belief divergences between Republicans and Democrats, providing insights into the intersection of political identity and market behavior. This research contributes to behavioral finance and political economy, offering practical insights for policymakers and financial analysts.

Dutch Neo-Calvinist Herman Bavinck’s Reception of Protestant Reformer John Calvin within the Doctrine of Christ’s Descent into Hell

This research project aims to explore the Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck’s reception of Protestant reformer
John Calvin’s theology within the Christian creedal doctrine of Christ’s descent into hell. Following Calvin and other Reformed theologians, Bavinck saw Christ’s descent into hell as an expression of the spiritual agony which he endured on the cross, and thus an indispensable aspect of the Christian theology of Christ’s atoning work. This project aims to contribute to scholarship on John Calvin’s theology, which remains indispensable to ongoing research on the Protestant Reformation (research which is taking place both at McGill University and at the University of Edinburgh). Additionally, this project seeks to join in a renewed wave of research on Herman Bavinck, a central figure in the Neo-Calvinism of the nineteenth to twentieth centuries (an area of research on which the University of Edinburgh has produced outstanding scholarship of late). More broadly, this research informs continuing scholarship on the history of the Reformed Protestant Church and the development of its view of the purpose of Christ’s death.

BC Camper’s Code

The demand across British Columbia (and Canada) for access to outdoor spaces and outdoor recreation opportunities has skyrocketed. As a result of recreation-related impacts and the increase in visitation nature-based recreation managers have looked for new and innovative communication interventions to support responsible recreation practices. Specifically, the use of pledges has recently increased across the nature-based tourism and recreation sectors. However, to date, there lacks a substantial body of evidence supporting the efficacy of these pledges or a clear understanding of the mechanisms of success. It is therefore the purpose of this research to target the use of the “BC Camper’s Code” pledge and multi-media communications campaign delivered through the BC Camper’s Code coalition in British Columbia. This research will evaluate the effectiveness of pledges/commitments in influencing behaviours of outdoor recreationists, specifically those who camp overnight for at least 1 night in British Columbia parks and or campgrounds. Visitors will be shown a multi-media (video) outlining the ethical, social, and environmental rationale behind the BC Camper’s Code with a commitment action (online pledge) and written communication regarding the code with a commitment action (online pledge). The findings of this research will increase our understanding of innovative environmental communication techniques.

Conception d’un robot conversationnel de recommendation de contenus musicaux francophones sur les plateformes numériques d’écoute en ligne (PNEL)

Ce projet de recherche consiste à créer un robot conversationnel qui peut interagir avec les gens et leur recommander de la musique enregistrée en français. L’idée est que ce robot interroge des bases de données de musique en ligne pour suggérer des oeuvres musicales adaptées à chaque personne. Dans un monde où beaucoup de gens écoutent de la musique en ligne, ce genre de robot conversationnel peut changer la façon dont nous découvrons et consommons de la musique. Ce projet se concentre spécialement sur la musique francophone car elle n’est pas d’emblée mise de l’avant sur les grandes plateformes de musique en ligne où la musique anglophone domine. L’objectif est de favoriser la découvrabilité de contenu culturel francophone, plus précisément des oeuvres musicales francophones et encourager la diversité des expressions culturelles. Le robot pourrait être utilisé comme une extension dans un navigateur web, ce qui signifie que les utilisateurs pourraient simplement l’activer sur leur plateforme de musique en ligne et demander des recommandations de musique francophone.

The Connected Workplace Project: Factors affecting the uptake of wireless technology in Canadian Business

The workplace remains a largely underdeveloped market for wireless service providers. This project will focus on the use of wireless technologies in the Canadian work environment. The overall purpose is to better understand the obstacles to technology adoption in the workplace, and offer actionable recommendations on how to mitigate them. The work will be done in conjunction with a team from Rogers Communication. The student intern will be charged with conducting a literature review of this field, and drafting a report that will be delivered to Rogers. Working with the Rogers team, the intern will explore why previous efforts to expand wireless adoption in the workplace have fallen short, and offer best practices suggestions based upon contemporary literature. The partner organization will gain valuable insight to expanding market share in the Canadian workplace.

L2M – VoltVerify

Lithium-ion batteries are becoming increasingly common as the demand for energy storage in vital sectors like automotive and grid storage is on the rise. Each year, lithium-ion battery manufacturers dispose of 2% to 10% of their products, leading to financial losses of up to billions of dollars. Our research group recently found that inactive components in commercial lithium-ion cells can substantially impact their performance. However, there are no companies offering a service to test these inactive components, and most battery OEMs need more knowledge to test them. Introducing rapid and cost-effective initial testing for these cell components could potentially greatly reduce scrap rates and the associated costs for battery manufacturers. This proposal aims to gauge the interest of lithium-ion battery OEMs in such testing and explore the potential for a business case. The partner organization’s (Springboard Atlantic) mission is to translate research into business, making this project mutually beneficial for the partner institution and the project team.

DIY Air Cleaner Project

Periods of extreme heat and firesmoke are becoming more frequent in British Columbia with devastating consequences. People living at the intersections of poverty, medical vulnerability and low quality housing are often disproportionately impacted by these events. Our research seeks to answer the following questions: 1) How do communities currently navigate these exposures, 2) How can we best provide education and tools at the community level to people most at risk from fire smoke and/or extreme heat? 3) What recommendations can we provide to local governments and community service providers to support resilience around extreme smoke and heat for priority populations?
For more than 110 years, BC Lung has been a leader in the fight for healthy lungs and healthy air.This proposal builds off of work done in 2023 where an in-person workshop template was created at BC Lung Foundation that teaches people how to help themselves during periods of extreme smoke and heat. The workshop pilots were done with seniors, families of children with asthma and those living with lung disease in the Fraser Valley. The goal of this year’s (2024) summer project is to expand the program to include priority populations in Metro Vancouver and ensure that the workshop model is adapted for and responsive to the needs of people living at the intersections of poverty, medical vulnerability and poor quality housing.
The data generated by this research will be mobilized to policy makers, public health officials, and governments with the aim of developing policies and practices to reduce the mortality and morbidity from extreme climate events in the Metro Vancouver region.

Affordability and Climate with BC Climate Emergency Campaign

The Climate Emergency Unit (CEU), in collaboration with the BC Climate Emergency Campaign, seeks to understand how politicians, media, and civil society organizations in British Columbia frame the connection between affordability and the climate crisis, aiming to shift public perception towards viewing climate spending as an investment in the future. By exploring successful framing strategies used elsewhere, the research intends to inform election strategies and enhance the narrative surrounding climate action in the upcoming provincial election. Methods might involve reviewing the literature (whether academic or grey literature) to see whether other places have done work in this area, as well as climate campaigns and platforms of successful climate champions (i.e. Green New Deal work in the United States). The results will be disseminated to affiliated groups, including approximately 50 organizations in the Full Table of the BC Climate Emergency Campaign and a wider list of 570 organizational signatories, to shape future communications and events, ultimately strengthening the mobilization efforts around climate change awareness and action.

Comparative international jurisdiction scan of business continuity planning statutes and regulations

DRI Canada is a non-profit association of private and public sector employees, dedicated to business continuity, disaster recovery and emergency management. DRI Canada provides graduated training and certification in business continuity planning, emergency management, risk management, disaster response, crisis management and resilience, as well as two specialized certificates in business continuity for healthcare and cyber resilience. DRI Canada’s board and I ask: what are the government-mandated business continuity and business continuity planning requirements in Canada, and how do these mandates compare to other jurisdictions?

There is a growing number of business continuity planning professionals – many of them are associated with DRI Canada or its sister branches in other countries. DRI Canada’s board has noted a key knowledge gap within their membership: business continuity professionals do not have a clear understanding of government-mandated business continuity requirements in Canada. As a professional association, they also want to get a benchmark assessment of where Canada ranks in this area in relation to other countries – are we leaders, stragglers, or followers?

Inferring 2D exsitu distribution of galaxies with AI

The proposed research project aims to gain crucial insights into the stellar assembly of galaxies using advanced machine learning techniques. Most galaxies in the Universe are not isolated systems; they grow primarily through interactions and mergers with other galaxies. While we know that mergers significantly impact galaxy evolution, quantifying the contribution of accretion to a galaxy’s total stellar mass remains a challenge. By training state-of-the-art machine learning models, such as diffusion models, on cosmological simulations, we aim to infer properties of galaxies that are not directly observable from their observational features. Specifically, we seek to predict for the first time the distribution of ex-situ versus in-situ stellar mass in nearby galaxies, providing a detailed 2D projection of these components. This project, which is part of the intern’s PhD thesis, will leverage machine learning to uncover hidden aspects of galaxy evolution. The project will offer a unique perspective on the merging history of galaxies and demonstrate the potential of simulation-based inference in astrophysical research. The insights gained are expected to significantly enhance our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution, with the potential to lead to a scientific publication.

Building locally led community health program to optimize health equity and ensure sustainable and resilient community health system in Africa: Lesson from IFRC global community health program

The continued health disparities and the recent public health challenges including COVID-19 pandemic and epidemics have highlighted for the need of more resilient community-based health system in Africa and beyond. Robust evidence is crucial by examining the lessons learned during practice of community-based health programs to build locally led better community health systems in Africa. We will organize evidence using the experience of International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and National societies (NS)in community health program in Africa. We will conduct a Key Informant Interviews (KII) with a total of twenty public health experts from the five African CDC regions and review of existing documents of community program reports. Thematic analysis will be conducted. Expected result include key results of community-based health program; the barriers to and facilitators of effective and localized community-based health programs; the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the program; and key lessons and recommendations to date from the program. The result will be disseminated in multiple ways including presentation and publication. This study will contribute to the effort to build locally led better community health systems in Africa to address the current health gaps and future pandemics. This study will inform CRC’s and IFRC’s work to support NS engagement for more localized and effective community-based health program. This project will enhance the knowledge and the skill of the poste doctoral fellow.