Tag: research

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News

Simply Scientific: Cultivating plants by farming fish

Imagine cultivating plants with endless sources of natural fertilizer. Considering Earth’s current state, such a process would answer many of our problems regarding food production and the viability of the soil.

Yet, such a sustainable system broke from the imaginary and is now known as aquaponics.

Historically practiced by Aztec and Chinese populations, aquaponics is a combination of fish farming (aquaculture) and soilless farming (hydroponics). Yielding as much as 12 times the amount of crops produced in soil per square foot, aquaponics successfully addresses farming in resource-scarce areas.

But how does it work?

The three main components of aquaponics are plants, fish, and bacteria.

Fish excrete high amounts of ammonia, increasing the toxicity of their environment. That water is then transferred to another tank, where bacteria (Nitrosomonas) break down the ammonia into nitrate. Pumped to the last tank, the nitrate-concentrated water will be utilized as nutrients for the plants. The water, now purified by the plants, is redirected to the fish tank for the process to be repeated.

Some companies in Canada have started using this farming technique. AquaGrow Farms is an aquaponics company and one of its operations runs at The Mississauga Food Bank to provide fresh food to people in need. Around 900,000 Canadians make use of food banks every month, on average.

Aquaponics has incredible potential because of its low need for resources. This helps lower any environmental impact while producing quality goods that are in high demand.

Categories
Arts

Interdisciplinary exploration through collective knowledge

Participants in Volny’s workshops come from all over the world, and specialize in a variety of disciplines. Photo courtesy of Sandra Volny.

Concordia alumna Sandra Volny speaks about her latest project

Concordia graduate Sandra Volny explores concepts of sound and space through forms of collective knowledge and shared skills in her recent project, Sound and Space Research.

Volny is a multidisciplinary artist who splits her time between Paris, France and Montreal. A MFA graduate from Concordia University, she recently completed her PhD at La Sorbonne in Paris this past December. Through her work and research, Volny focuses on exploring concepts of sound and space, as well as their dualities and complexities. This can be seen in her video installation, where does sound go, where does it come from, which was exhibited at Concordia’s FOFA Gallery last fall.

Sound and Space Research continues Volny’s investigation of aural and spatial awareness, with the added component of collective knowledge and concepts of shared intelligence. This is done through the collaboration of interdisciplinary forms and shared learning experiences. Throughout her career, Volny has collaborated with other artists of various disciplines, each participating and bringing their specific expertise to a project and to their collective work.

Where does sound go, where does it come from, which focuses on the use of sound, specifically sonar in small fishing villages in Chile, was a collaboration through Volny’s collective, Triangular Project. Volny and two fellow artists, Florine Leoni and Macarena Ruiz-Tagle, traveled around Chile together and worked in tandem on their specific focuses and artistic practices within the theme of aural and spatial awareness.

Sandra Volny’s where does the sound go, where does it come from (2016). Photo by Richard-Max Tremblay.

It was with Triangular Project that Sound and Space Research first came to fruition in 2017. The project, in collaboration with the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture in Greece, is an artistic research platform for participants of all expertise and disciplines.

Sound and Space Research is a week-long experience. Each day involves diverse activities and exercises, providing participants with a range of mediums to practice and explore. As part of the focus on shared knowledge, participants practice a wide range of primarily fine arts-based disciplines, including dance, music and visual arts, as well as architecture, wellness professions and anthropology. The project is not focused on participants’ previous accomplishments, but rather encourages and facilitates further growth on a personal and collective level. Participants come from all over the world, and do not require a particular level of education or experience to participate. Last year, however, about 60 per cent of participants were Concordia students or alumni, according to Volny.

Sound and Space Research is a very intense experience, with all of the participants living together, working together and sharing the same spaces. According to Volny, this intensity encourages and creates something special. Participants have to push themselves; each day consists of different activities in different forms and disciplines. This aspect ties into Volny’s own work process, in which she immerses herself in new environments and works in collaboration with other artists, such as her travels in Chile for where does sound go, where does it come from. This was a very intense experience for Volny, because she was meeting new people and exploring different facets of her research in a new environment, while also creating new work born from these experiences and interactions.

At the end of the program, there is a collective exhibition for the participants to showcase work they have created during the week. This final showcase is open to the public, as a component of the partnership with the Ionion Center, to encourage interaction between the artists and the community. This accessibility is important to Volny and for the participants, as it allows further connection with the community.

In mid-May, Sound and Space Research will once again take place in collaboration with the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture. It will be organized by Volny, alongside sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard, who will work as a mentor in the program.
Sound and Space Research works outside of academic institutions, and a university degree or a specific level of expertise is not required to participate in this project. The project does have connections with academic spaces, though, and Volny said there are plans to expand it internationally, and eventually to Montreal.

More information about the Sound and Space Research project, including how to apply to this year’s session, is available on its website.

Feature photo courtesy of Sandra Volny

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News

Research through video game design

Pippin Barr, co-director of TAG, at the small DIY 3D printer workshop. Photo by Olivier Sylvestre

Concordia’s Technoculture, Art and Games research lab brings new ideas to digital life

It is as if you were doing work is a video game that starts on a retro, Windows-like desktop computer interface. It asks you to write a bunch of seemingly productive emails and accomplish easy tasks. As you complete them, you earn points and eventually get promoted. Inspirational work-related stock photographs pop up every few minutes. It can go on forever or until you, the player, die.

This video game is a work of speculative design, a field of academia where researchers design hypothetical futures, explained Pippin Barr, the game’s creator. Barr is also the co-director of the Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) research lab at Concordia, a place for researchers, professors and eligible graduate students from diverse faculties to research video games and design them collaboratively.

According to Barr, in an automated future, computers would replace workers, and humans would be free to do whatever they please. He was left wondering: What would we be doing if we didn’t have to work anymore? Maybe we’d always be “Netflix and chilling” or spending our time creating art?

What Barr speculated, however, was that we might feel the need to play a video game where we accomplish work to feel productive again. Instead of writing an essay about the idea, he designed and programmed a game around it.

The TAG lab hosts 57 students—13 of whom joined in 2017—and 21 faculty members. But when Barr and I met on a Thursday morning, the lab was empty.

“Ten in the morning is a bit early for graduate students,” he explained. “But I’d say, on average, you might see at least 10 or 15 or 20 people in here. There is always a nice buzz around.”

Located on the 11th floor of Concordia’s EV building, the lab is a large, open, well-lit space with computer stations lining three of its four walls. A chalkboard bears the marks of a past brainstorming session, and there’s a small DIY workshop bench with a 3D printer.

In the lab’s entrance, various gaming machines are plugged into a TV. There’s even a fake fireplace to gather around. “We make games and playful things,” Barr said.

“In Quebec [and Canada], there is a thing called research creation,” said, “which is the idea that creative or artistic practice—so for instance making a videogame—can be a form of research and knowledge production. That’s a very big part of what TAG does.”

As Barr explained it, research creation involves developing ideas about the future, but “rather than writing an essay about it, […] you can convey the actual experience of that future by creating a game.”

Another game produced in the lab is a game called rustle your leaves to me softly. Created by PhD students and TAG members Jess Marcotte and Dietrich Squinkifer, the game asks players get to know a fellow living creature: a live plant. When the player touches a real plant connected to a computer through sensors and wires, the plant responds with soothing sounds and poetry. It is an attempt to let a plant communicate.

“We also have completely just straight-up scholars [in our faculty] who write these amazing books, like Mia Consalvo, for instance,” Barr said. “She is extremely well-known in the field of game studies.”

Consalvo is a professor and the research chair in game studies and design at Concordia. Her latest book, Atari to Zelda: Japan’s Videogames in Global Contexts, studies Japan’s video game scene and the aesthetics of Japanese video games. “She writes in this extremely scholarly mode,” Barr said.

So how can graduate students become members of the lab? According to Barr, “students who are planning on doing a graduate degree […] have to choose a supervisor, who is going to be the main person who advises them in their process. If that supervisor is a member of TAG, then as an added bonus, they become a member of the lab if they want to.”

The lab does try to make exceptions for students with special projects, Barr Said. “If it seems that being at TAG would be really good for that project and they could contribute back to TAG, then they can propose it to us.” But access is limited. “We try to have as many people as we can without accidentally completely overstraining our resources.”

Photo by Olivier Sylvestre

Categories
Sports

How to diagnose concussions earlier

By Alexa Hawksworth

Emerging technology aims to prevent athletes returning to the field too soon

“On average, there are eight concussions per team per year,” according to Dr. Alain Ptito,  a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at McGill University.

Those eight concussions per team refer to both the McGill varsity football and hockey teams. He has worked with them in his research to help determine a way to diagnose concussions more efficiently.

Emerging technology is improving the way researchers analyze injured athletes in sports such as hockey, football, soccer, basketball and rugby. According to a 2007 study by Ptito, concussions had become such a problem that “improved approaches to diagnosis, investigation and management are urgent.”

In an interview with The Concordian, Ptito talked about the introduction of new technologies being used in the diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injuries, otherwise known as concussions. He said he hopes more sports teams, both professional and collegiate, will begin using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to provide a baseline brain scan to test athletes who may have a concussion.

“We’ve been interested in concussions for a while,” he said. Despite the presence of a concussion, some brain imaging technology cannot accurately diagnose the injury. “When you do a conventional test of imaging, such as a CT [computed tomography], or an MRI, almost 100 per cent of the time, they come up normal [despite the presence of a concussion].”

Ptito noted that an fMRI is significantly more accurate at diagnosing concussions than MRI or CT scans. The fMRI is able to detect activation in targeted areas of the brain when the subject is carrying out a task that will stimulate the specific region of the brain.

According to Ptito, when a certain region of the brain is stimulated, it requires more oxygen and blood. That stimulation of blood and oxygen is what the fMRI picks up, and is known as brain activation. The fMRI can capture a concussion by scanning certain regions of the brain to see how much they activate. When symptoms are severe, targeted regions of the brain will activate less or not at all.

In his research, Ptito worked with the McGill varsity football and hockey teams. Before the season began, he tested the athletes using the fMRI to get baseline results. During the season, if an athlete suspected they had concussion, they would go see Ptito to retake the test within 72 hours of the head trauma. Ptito would then compare their results to their baseline results to diagnose whether the athlete has a concussion.

Ptito explained how comparing athletes to a general baseline result is the “second-best option,” while the best option is using an athlete’s own baseline test to diagnose concussions.

“It’s great when you can compare to an athlete’s own baseline test,” he said.

Concordia’s own PERFORM Centre, located on the Loyola campus, has been conducting similar baseline testing. The centre works closely with Concordia athletes from the football, hockey and rugby teams, and has implemented its own concussion research.

In an interview with The Concordian, Deborah Cross, the manager of community and education programs, and Lee Ann Papula, the head athletic therapy internship instructor, explained some of their concussion diagnosis methods.

“We use the ImPACT (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing),” Papula said. “On the field, the athletic therapists use a Standardized Concussion Assessment Test (SCAT). That’s the major tool used in on-field scenarios. The ImPACT test was developed more clinically.”

This test is much like a computer game, with participants receiving a numerical score at the end. The athletes come in at the beginning of the season in order to obtain a baseline score. The athletes are asked questions that assess non-verbal problem solving, reaction time, memory and attention span.

“It’s known, in North America, if not the world, as one of the top tests. It’s backed by a ton of research,” Papula said. “I can say that 99.9 per cent of schools that have a certified athletic therapist go through SCAT and follow the protocols from the consensus of SCAT.”

“Do all the schools do ImPACT testing? We were probably one of the first. We started about four years ago,” she said. “More and more schools are using it, but I definitely don’t think all of them are.”

Stingers athletes who have been diagnosed with a concussion using the on-field SCAT test will go to the PERFORM Centre to retake an ImPACT test. Papula said they may take the ImPACT test multiple times after a concussion, and must return to their baseline results before being cleared to play.

The PERFORM Centre boasts an impressive array of top-of-the-line technology, and Cross discussed another reliable way of diagnosing concussions.

“We’ve just started using the NeuroCom, which is a balance assessment tool for, obviously balance, but also to look at any kind of vestibular disturbances (inner ear imbalances) if you had had a concussion,” she said.

The machine was accurately described by Cross as resembling a climbing wall. The subject is placed on a metal balance board and strapped into a harness attached to the ceiling while facing the colourful wall of the machine. The technician will then instruct the subject on whether or not to keep their eyes open or closed. While the subject’s eyes are either open or closed, the machine will begin to move and sway, and the subject will attempt to stay balanced.

According to the developer, Natus Medical Incorporated, a medical device and software provider, the NeuroCom uses the “vertical force exerted through the patient’s feet to measure centre of gravity and postural control.” Cross added that the PERFORM Centre was one of the first university centres to use the NeuroCom test.

Cross and Papula both explained how this, combined with eye-tracking technology, can accurately diagnose a concussion. As well, the NeuroCom can theoretically be used as a training mechanism for those recovering from concussions as a way to work on regaining balance.

With the ImPACT test, as well as the addition of the NeuroCom balance test, it’s difficult for athletes to conceal their symptoms in order to return to the field quicker. The on-field SCAT test alone leaves the possibility open for athletes to hide symptoms, according to both Cross and Ptito.

“Athletes have a tendency to minimize their symptoms,” Ptito said.

Cross and Papula agreed the fMRI is even more accurate than the ImPACT, SCAT or NeuroCom, but the cost of the fMRI is simply too high for many universities. For reference, Canadian Magnetic Imaging in Vancouver charges $1,245 for scans of mild traumatic brain injuries, while the ImPACT test provided at the PERFORM Centre costs only $25.

The PERFORM Centre’s technology and medical capabilities have drawn interest outside of the Concordia Stingers as well. The centre is currently working with French soccer powerhouse Paris St-Germain’s Canadian academy, as well as Collège Montmorency’s basketball team, to provide baseline concussion testing.

Despite the progress in concussion testing, Ptito said there are still many questions about the injury that he wonders about. “Eighty per cent of athletes recovered in three months. For 20 per cent, symptoms linger,” he said. “We’re asking ourselves now: are there genetic aspects that we haven’t found yet?”

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth

Categories
News

Part-time faculty spearheads workshops

CUPFA’s Microlink workshops give part-time faculty a chance to present their research. Photo by Ana Hernandez.

CUPFA workshop discusses research by part-time faculty and the challenges they face

Six Concordia part-time faculty members discussed their research, projects and experience as educators in Reframing Pedagogy, the first of six Microlink workshops on Friday, Oct. 29.

The workshops, held at Concordia’s Sir George Williams campus and hosted by the Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA), are meant to encourage dialogue and feedback between faculties.

The speakers included French studies instructor Louise-Marie Bouchard; Yosra Dali, Sonia Di Maulo and Pamela Gunning and Jesse Hunter from the department of education; and Francine Tremblay, from the department of sociology. There was a small audience of Concordia instructors. After each presentation, the speakers welcomed spirited discussion..

Some of the work shared included Bouchard’s recently published book, L’art de la pensée, which challenges common perceptions of creative thinking, and Gunning’s research on ESL education and collaboration between teachers in Quebec schools. Hunter’s research on creative thought was also discussed, as well as Tremblay’s study on millennial students and disengagement.

Photo by Ana Hernandez.

While the workshop focused on topics pertaining to education and pedagogy, both presenters and attendees did not shy away from discussing the controversies surrounding part-time work at Concordia and other post-secondary institutions. Dali shared the results of her case study of three part-time staff members outside of Concordia, each of whom had experienced feelings of isolation and a lack of organization from an administrative standpoint. She also described the fear her study’s participants felt regarding job security.

“[A study participant] was asking, ‘Am I going to have a session next year?… Will I have to go back to teaching at the high school level? Will I have to go back to telemarketing?’ [These instructors] are living from session to session,” Dali said.

Dali’s findings prompted conversation with the audience, with some members agreeing that part-time staff members do face administrative difficulties, while others felt isolation wasn’t a problem at Concordia, since there is a relatively high number of part-time faculty members. “It’s different [at Concordia],” said Hunter. “Part-time staff [are] the lifeblood of the university.”

Photo by Ana Hernandez.

Tremblay’s presentation on millennial students and disengagement in post-secondary studies also prompted an engaged conversation among attendees. At the beginning of her study, Tremblay had expected to find that technology was a major factor in “disengagement,” but she later concluded that this was misrepresenting the problem. She found that many students are disengaged because they are extremely stressed and facing a competitive job market after graduation. Students understand that they will likely need further education after a bachelor’s degree, and as a result they are less in engaged in subject matter and more focused on passing, graduating and finding a job as quickly as possible. “Students today are extremely stressed and extremely anxious,” she said. “They cannot project themselves in the future, and the competition today is fierce.”

Many professors in attendance agreed with this sentiment, voicing both sympathy for students and frustration with their lack of engagement in recent years.

CUPFA is hoping this enthusiastic, engaging dialogue will continue at its upcoming workshops, scheduled once a month between November and March.

Categories
News

Short on time, but full of contribution

2014 MicroTalks fit Concordia professors’ contributions in 6-minute talks

The second annual Concordia MicroTalks event is about to get underway and bring together a whole array of Concordia’s part-time faculty to discuss their research by way of short, individual 6-minute presentations.

Run by the Concordia’s University Part-time Faculty Association (CUPFA), MicroTalks will once again draw from the the PechaKucha method. Developed in Japan, PechaKucha is a presentation style where 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, leading to a concise, purposeful experience that avoids the perils of lengthy powerpoint presentations. The brevity of the talks encourages fast-paced and energetic discussion periods.

“It’s good for speaking to a non-specialist community,” said Alison Reiko Loader, a presenter at this year’s event with a project using forest tent caterpillars  to create living paintings, and one of last year’s organizers. “If you get ten people talking in a row, you can cover this huge diverse area where [you’re] much more likely for someone to find something they’re interested in.”

This year’s theme, Equity and Engagement, was chosen to coincide with Campus Equity Week, which seeks to highlight part-time faculty contributions. As CUPFA Vice President and MicroTalks organizer Lorraine Oades explains, part-time or not, members are heavily involved in making the university what it is. This is one way of getting the word out there.

“Everything the association does essentially helps to create greater visibility for our members in order to have our voices heard at every level of the university,” said Oades.

Though part-time faculty operates under a reduced load, they represent Concordia nationally and internationally at all manner of conferences, exhibitions, performance events, and workshops.

“We hold positions on administrative committees, on every hiring committee, on the Board of Governors, Senate, on faculty councils and departmental councils,” she continued.

There will be 10 lecturers at this year’s event, with such titles as “Cinderella and Chinese Foot-binding” and “Real-time Motion-Based Graphics on Stage with the ISS.”

“Part-time faculty teach in every area of the university, so this means there is a lot of ground to cover in terms of ideas. While six minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, you’d be surprised at just how much can be done in such a short period of time,” said Oades. “Being integrated into the fabric of the university allows us to share our ideas and experiences, which overlap but are also distinct from full-time faculty.”

Concordia’s 2014 MicroTalks will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 29, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 1515 Ste. Catherine St. West, EV 6.720. The event is free.

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News

Outside the box research on display

A varied mix of student biologists, designers, artists and the occasional performative gastronomists showcased unique research last Wednesday at the first-ever Individualized Program research exposition (INDI).

Six master’s students and 11 PhD students were selected to present their work to the Concordia community, with such titles as “The Performative Cocktail: Food Making as Representation Methodology.”

“I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it turned out,” Dr. Ketra Schmitt, director of the INDI program, said. “We were able to get support from all over the university.”

The program, which has existed for over 20 years, supports graduate students working towards earning a master’s or PhD via unusual interdisciplinary research.

“The majority of students who come to us have an idea that is just so weird that it won’t fit anywhere else,” Schmitt said.

Take Adam van Sertima’s PhD work, which uses the Microsoft Kinect technology of motion-sensors on determining whether there is an actual person on the other side of a contest of tug-of-war.

“I spent a lot of my life pulling stumps out of the ground,” van Sertima said. “You try pulling a stump out and you say, ‘Oh, I got it,’ and then the stump pulls back! We anthropomorphize everything.”

Van Sertima hopes to develop a toolkit for game developers to use to address these kinds of problems, but that they aren’t necessarily the point behind the project. “The interesting stuff that I’m doing is not just the end product, but the methodology, because nobody is doing this,” he said.

The ability to work outside of disciplinary borders is exactly why Shea Wood applied to the program. Wood, a drama therapist and PhD student, is researching how performance art married with focus groups can help viewers understand different family life experiences.

Her performances are based on real experiences, which she believes may influence how viewers perceive performances.

“When I applied, I was having a hard time finding a place where my research fit because it’s not in a box,” she said. “I needed somewhere to go that I actually would feel like I actually fit in, and INDI is that place.”

It is also a place for students who want to do research in an area that Concordia does not yet offer, and may just lead to a new branch of inquiry. Concordia’s PhD programs in biology and math are the results of the INDI program, according to INDI program coordinator Darlene Dubiel.

There’s even a home for linguistics here. Ivanna Richardson is currently doing her master’s degree in the INDI program with a Farsi linguistics project when it came to certain grammatical constructs.

Richardson hopes her work will show that existing parameters in syntactic theory are not specific enough to account for Farsi’s flexibility.

“INDI can only exist with incredible institutional support,” Schmitt said of the challenges behind the triumphs. The Faculties of Engineering and Computer Science, Arts and Science, and Fine Arts all contributed to the research exposition, as well as the Office of the Vice President, Research and Graduate Studies and several research centres. Schmitt also underscored the ‘incredible’ staff support needed to make things happen.

Students in the INDI program have also received support and grants from external organizations such as the Canada Council for the Arts.

Five prizes were awarded during the exposition – two each for the master’s and PhD students and one for the People’s Choice.

Qian Qian Zhou won first place for the master’s students for a presentation focusing on how a difficult childhood can modify oxytocin receptor genes, while Nikolaos Chandolias was the master’s runner-up for his project on orbital resonance.

The first place prize for PhD students was given to Morgan Raucher, who researches how machines influence the way we work with and interact with materials while creating sculptures. The runner-up prize was awarded to Erin O’Loughlin who studied how young adults use exercise-oriented video games.

For more information on INDI, visit concordia.ca/offices/sgs/individualized.html.

Categories
News

Concordia profs get $5.4M to lead projects

Photo by robWall on Flickr

Seven-year projects will look at aging and technology & northern and rural communities

In late August, the announcement was made that two Concordia professors had received $5.49 million in funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to lead a pair of massively collaborative projects on social change.

Mapping cross-generational attitudes towards technology

Technological progressivism has taught us that technological progress is equated with improvement. Yet the only individuals who have come through the technological revolution – those decades of breathtaking change between room-sized computing machines to ubiquitous apps – are the baby boomers and their immediate predecessors, and what their attitudes and experiences have to teach us is what Concordia Communications professor Kim Sawchuk’s 7-year, $2.99m grant will be looking for.

“I’ve been working on issues of digital technology for the past 20-25 years,” said Sawchuk of the Ageing, Communication, Technologies (ACT) initiative. Sawchuk’s career, as well as her experience as a feminist media scholar and collaborator in community-based learning projects, will help her in her work. “This project to a certain extent is an extension of that kind of impetus but as well is taking into account two really large megatrends in our society,” she said of her passionate curiosity on the effects of the circuit on the modern man.

Like Reimer, Sawchuk’s project will cross international boundaries and include dozens of fellow researchers in opening up the discussion on how older adults use technology in a rapidly aging society with an increasing predominance towards mobile and digital communication.

A good part of the research will be gathering data and dispelling stereotypes. Sawchuk is keen to clear up misconceptions tied to digital ageism. (Or, as she puts it, the idea  “that young people are just born knowing computers and digital media and older people aren’t.”)

Take for example the notion that all seniors past a certain cutoff like retirement – what she calls the ‘grey zone’ – are homogenous without taking into effect their sometimes widely different experiences with gadgetry. By carefully untangling concepts and analyzing them, the researchers aim to explore the shifting and fluid concept of age under  various cultural, national, and urban/rural contexts.

“The whole question is not to just accept age as a demographic variable [but] to really ask the question: how do we age well, and [about] the art of aging given our new media environment,” she said.

“We’re asking questions on how we can set up intergenerational connections between different types of users of technology and within media studies [and] trying to shift the focus away from a preoccupation on young people,” she said on the importance of giving the experiences of older adults proper weight.

She’s quick to point out that contrary to popular beliefs, plenty of studies show septuagenarians, octogenarians, and beyond taking up computers – and others show them choosing to consciously opt-out. By finding out how seniors are integrated into network societies, and how they are not policies and strategies, could be developed in increasing their inclusion at a time given when the digital landscape forces certain exigencies forced on them.

“You can say they’re cynical [about modern technology] but what it is is that they’re realistic about what it will do for them. Older people don’t tend to care about cool, they tend to care about whether or not it is useful for them to maintain connections and to get what they need to get done done,” she said. Yet sometimes this leaves them behind the curve; for example as when care facilities relying on landlines to keep families in touch while communicating with the families themselves have shifted to Skype and webcams.

“It is asking the question of what it is they actually do know that may have to teach us about the present technologically-saturated world we live in.”

RPLC: The importance of Rural and Northern communities

Retired Concordia sociology professor William Reimer, meanwhile, will be using his 40+ years of experience with Canada’s northern and rural communities to begin work on systemizing and exploring the complex workings of such communities and their relationship with urban centres for the sake of better, more informed policy formulation.

Photo by robWall on Flickr

Reimer said the $2.5 million received for his project, called the Rural Police Learning Commons (RPLC), won’t be so much for research purposes as for the fostering of partnerships with other organizations and individuals.

His research over the years has pointed to a decline in small communities (a wide definition that, albeit roughly, encompasses small and oftentimes unique population centers outside the commuting sheds of metropolitan areas) far from cities – save those tied to mining, oil, or special touristic advantages like Banff. The amenities of rural communities rely much more on the delicate balance of  social services pooled from their limited population. Should these shrink, a domino effect takes hold. “That whole package of services starts to shrink and gets into a kind of a cycle whereby that makes the place less attractive and in turn more people move out – [it becomes] a cycle of decline which can be very problematic for [their] sustainability,” Reimer said.

Meanwhile rural areas adjoining urban centres are facing the opposite problem, as a population eager to leave the cities stream in a move that alters their fundamental identities as rural areas.

Seeing as these regions serve as crucial intermediaries for Canada’s food production and resource extraction, understanding the reasons behind the changes and better understanding northern and rural groups are of critical importance.

Reimer says his experience working with large networks will aid in increasing cohesion between the approximately 30 institutional participants and 60 individual partners. As he describes it, his job will be figuring out how to operate under such circumstances.

“The problems of simply coordinating and communicating become extremely difficult, but on the other hand there are tremendous advantages because it means we get the opportunity to find out what’s happening in Norway or Italy or the U.S. and so on, and what they’ve done that have ameliorated some of the challenges we’re facing here and vice versa.”

To build and maintain connections, Reimer and those working with him plan to attend many conferences and events and videoconferencing when physical presence is impossible. He calls the project a tremendous opportunity for students and participating faculty, and says the efforts will be very interdisciplinary. Not only sociologists will be present, but social workers, economists, those in the health and environmental sciences, and geographers, among others.

“A lot of these types of analysis require perspectives from these many different disciplines,” he said, highlighting the special role of both Canadian and Quebecois participation..

“From a research point of view it’s a fantastic blessing,” he said of our geographical breadth. Canada’s sheer size means “you can’t have a one-size-fits-all type of policy, because of variation”

Quebec, aside from its colourful range of unique rural communities, is also the only province with a rural policy governing the political and economic relationship between government and non-metropolitan regions.

“There’s plenty that’s going on in Canada, and particularly in Quebec, that’s of great interest to other countries.”

The project’s seven-year lifespan may seem like a long time, but it’s really just the beginning.

“If we’re looking at the long term consequences, our objective would be to establish a robust partnership network that will go on beyond the seven years. We don’t know what the pressing issues are going to be in seven years. We can’t set up a mechanism to address them all but what we can do is set up a mechanism whereby the people who are most likely to be informed and the people we want to train for this uncertain future are well equipped,” he said.

“Our objective is to make sure there’s a strong, well connected, informative, collaborative network established by the time our seven years are up.”

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News

National Geographic to visit McGill University

National Geographic will hold a workshop at McGill University Saturday, Sept. 29 to promote their new Young Explorers Grants in the hopes of discovering young talent and innovative research.

“The idea is really simple,” said Dr. Colin Chapman, who is part of National Geographic’s Committee for Research and Exploration. “It’s to get young people out in the field doing exciting things, doing exploration that National Geographic believes in, and getting them started.”

The Young Explorers Grants look to support individuals between the ages of 18 to 25 in their research, exploration, and field-based projects. Candidates do not have to be students and their work does not have to be within the fields of biology or ecology but can be focused in journalism, photography, music, and a wide array of other fields.

“It’s also nice because it feels attainable,” said Johanna Bleecker, an organizer of the event and a recent McGill graduate.

“Not being a student, it shuts off a lot of sources of funding for me if I would want to pursue independent research,” explained Bleecker. “So it’s nice to see such an inclusive grant.”

This is the third workshop for the Young Explorers Grants and the first in Canada. The event will begin with a presentation about National Geographic and the grant, as well as a presentation from three previous grant winners. National Geographic staff members, researchers, and scientists will then have different discussion groups to answer questions about the grant and how to apply for a grant in general.

“I’m really excited about it,” said Andrea Reid, last year’s Young Explorers Grants winner for her research on fish in the Lake Victoria basin of East Africa. “Because National Geographic is so high profile, it’s a really great way to get attention for issues that we think are important.”

“By presenting my work I’m going to reach a really broad audience which I think is the biggest benefit more so than the money,” added Reid.

This free workshop will take place between 9:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. in room 132 of the Leacock Building at McGill University. The workshop is open to people of all ages; however, individuals must register online beforehand and space is limited. At 7:30 p.m., there will be another free presentation given by two National Geographic explorers which is open to the public on a first come, first serve basis.

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Quebec receives a chunk of Canadian research grants

Senator Larry Smith was on hand Wednesday at Concordia University to announce that Quebec universities will receive 50 research grants from the federal governmment.
Senator Larry Smith was on hand Wednesday at Concordia University to announce that Quebec universities will receive 50 research grants from the federal governmment. Photo by writer

Quebec universities are the recipients of 50 new Canada Research Chairs, a sizable chunk of the 253 federally-sponsored research grants awarded across the country. The total cost of the funding is just under $204 million, of which Quebec will get 30 per cent.

Concordia University played host to the announcement on Oct. 12, with Conservative senator and former Alouettes president Larry Smith and Chad Gaffield, chair of the CRC program steering committee, speaking on the 11th floor of the EV building.

“Over the past 11 years, the Canada Research Chair program has become a cornerstone of national strategy to make Canada one of the world’s top countries in research and development. It has given an incredible boost to researchers at every part of this country,” said Concordia president Frederick Lowy.

Concordia was awarded seven CRCs, with McGill winning 24, Université de Montréal receiving 12, Université du Québec à Montréal receiving six, and École Polytechnique receiving one.

After researchers are nominated, experts from around the world consider each one.

The new CRCs at Concordia cover a variety of research topics, running the gamut from investigating how players react to video games, to creating new tools to treat cancer, to better understanding the autism spectrum.

One of the CRCs awarded to Concordia went to Zachary Patterson, a professor in the geography and planning department. His focus is on how transportation can shape how we use land.

“We’re pretty conscious of the important relationships between transportation and land use, how transportation structures land use, and there are many different levels to that in terms of sustainability,” he said after the announcement.

Patterson and his students are also examining the relationship of the implementation of metros, and the gentrification of neighbourhoods.

Marta Cerruti, an engineering researcher at McGill, received the CRC in bio-synthetic interfaces. Her research will hopefully lead to a better way for implants to interact with peoples’ bodies. It could benefit people with tumours or bone fractures, she said.

“Scaffolds are implants that can be used to seed and house cells. And then the idea of the scaffolds is that we modify the surface of this material so that they can speak the same language of the body,” explained Cerruti after the announcement.

“And then the idea is that this kind of interactive interface makes the body regenerate itself, and finally, hopefully, once this has happened, the material will degrade.”

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