Ascend 2023

2023

Uncovering racial bias in AI

OneWATER rides wave of early success, impact

Tackling gender-based violence with two wheels

the fairness of artificial

A new Organized Research Unit

Health researcher brings

intelligence in healthcare and

(ORU) is in its infancy but is

trauma-informed lens to use

imaging diagnostics

already driving positive change

sport & bicycling for good

Computer scientist investigates

Ascend R ESEA RC H & I N N OVATIO N | YO R K UNIVE R S IT Y

Connected Minds York University leads ground-breaking $318M+ research program to ensure technology revolution leaves no one behind

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT, YORK UNIVERSITY, AND THE VICE-PRESIDENT RESEARCH & INNOVATION, YORK UNIVERSITY

07 Rhonda L. Lenton President & Vice-Chancellor Présidente et vice-chancelière

Amir Asif Vice-President Research & Innovation Vice-président de la recherche et de l’innovation

Welcome to York University’s magazine dedicated to research & innovation

research and innovation to the next level. This multidisciplinary research program aims to advance artificial intelligence in socially responsible ways and contribute to our understanding of the impacts on Indigenous and other equity-deserving groups in implementation.

The name of this magazine – Ascend – aptly describes the remarkable rise in York University’s research and innovation enterprise over the last year.

Funding from the three federal granting councils (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research), as well as York’s externally sponsored research income, reached historic heights.

Scholarly output was also higher than ever with York researchers authoring more than 3000 publications in 2022 alone.

AMIR ASIF PHOTO CREDIT: SOFIE KIRK

Our purposeful research is attracting global recognition. In the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, York ranked 40th out of more than 1500 universities, recognized for our global leadership in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and as a driving force for positive change.

This ascent is made possible by our community of creative and committed changemakers, many of whom will you meet in the stories contained in this issue. On p. 5, you will meet the brilliant team behind Connected Minds, the largest York-led research program in the University’s history. Connected Minds is funded in part by the largest single federal grant ever awarded to York ($105.7 million) through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF), taking 1

Research & Innovation / York University

UNCOVERING RACIAL BIAS IN AI

Computer scientist investigates the fairness of artificial intelligence in healthcare and imaging diagnostics, to surprising results Connected Minds York University leads ground-breaking research program to ensure technology revolution leaves no one behind

A growth in community partnerships, entrepreneurship and commercialization enhances York’s ability to innovate. On p.

10-12, learn how the University supports women-led businesses in the community and how YSpace – York’s entrepreneurship hub, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year – plans to take a unique accelerator program national.

2022-23 York research & innovation highlights

From investigating the fairness of AI to influencing water management policy to understanding Indigenous rights – to mention a few more stories in this issue – our faculty’s work towards a more equitable, sustainable, and innovative world supports York’s contributions to the SDGs and the University’s mission to right the future.

Fostering a community of innovators, entrepreneurs and changemakers since 2018

The opening of the Markham Campus in 2024 and our proposal for a School of Medicine and Health Precinct in Vaughan will further contribute to the exponential growth of York’s research and professional contributions over the next decade, and beyond.

Thank you for your interest and support in research and innovation at York. As a community member or stakeholder, we welcome the opportunity to connect, collaborate and hear from you.

Happy reading. 

Appointments, new funding, partnerships, and research excellence At YSpace, women entrepreneurs hit the accelerator toward success

05 08 09

York’s entrepreneurship hub takes its ELLA program national YSpace celebrates five years of innovation and growth

Meet York University’s latest commercialization Fellows

12 13

Four budding researchers aim to bring innovative products to market York receives $300K from provincial agency to advance research commercialization and Ontario-made IP

15

IPON funding will enhance intellectual property and commercialization services for York researchers Schulich research suggests link between financial literacy and IPO underpricing

16

Novel study highlights role of investment smarts in mitigating capital market inefficiencies OneWATER rides wave of early success, impact A new Organized Research Unit (ORU) in its infancy but is already driving positive change

17

MESSAGE DE LA PRÉSIDENTE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ YORK ET DU VICE-PRÉSIDENT DE LA RECHERCHE ET DE L’INNOVATION

York health researcher brings a trauma-informed lens to use sport for good

19

How women find empowerment and independence on two wheels York engineers develop mobile app to improve safety of city cycling

20

Using tech to help take the yikes out of bikes York mathematician receives federal grant to advance mpox research in Canada

21

Research project will use CIHR funds to better predict and assess future disease outbreaks Education professor receives funding to pursue equity in regenerative medicine

22

Research project aims to build trust with African, Caribbean and Black communities Sculpture by York professor debuts at Keele and Finch

23

New 41-foot “The Heights” explores relationship between time and memory York researchers bring exhibit on conjugal slavery to Sierra Leone

25

Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War shares harrowing journey of survival & freedom Glendon Campus celebrates its research excellence with annual festival

26

York’s bilingual campus hosts three-day showcase Osgoode professor probes the right to housing, homelessness and Indigenous land rights

27

Property law expert tackles fundamental issues with her research and teaching New book by York geographer rethinks concept of land claims in B.C.

28

A Q&A with the author of Unstable Properties: Aboriginal Title and the Claim of British Columbia York funds $4.05M to support interdisciplinary research for the UN SDGs

29

Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (CIRC) program invests in York excellence York Research Chairs Internal counterpart to Canada Research Chairs program recognizes York’s outstanding faculty

30

Bienvenue dans la revue de l’Université York consacrée à la recherche et à l’innovation.

Son nom, Ascend, décrit bien l’essor remarquable de la recherche et de l’innovation à l’Université York au cours de cette année.

Le financement des trois conseils subventionnaires fédéraux (Conseil de recherche en sciences humaines, Conseil de recherche en sciences naturelles et en génie et Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada) et les revenus de la recherche commanditée à York ont atteint des sommets historiques. Le rendement scientifique a également été plus important que jamais, les chercheurs de York ayant rédigé plus de 3 000 publications rien qu’en 2022.

Nos recherches ciblées attirent l’attention du monde entier.

Dans le dernier palmarès Times Higher Education Impact, York s’est classée 40e sur plus de 1 500 universités, et a été reconnue pour son leadership mondial dans la promotion des objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies et comme un moteur de changement positif.

Cette ascension est rendue possible par notre communauté d’artisanes et artisans du changement créatifs et engagés; vous en rencontrerez un grand nombre dans ce numéro. À la page 5, découvrez la brillante équipe à l’origine de Connected Minds, le plus grand programme de recherche dirigé par York dans l’histoire de l’Université.

Connected Minds est financé en partie par la plus importante subvention fédérale jamais accordée à York (105,7 millions $) grâce au Fonds d’excellence en recherche Apogée du Canada (FERAC), permettant à la

recherche et à l’innovation de passer à la vitesse supérieure.

Ce programme de recherche multidisciplinaire vise à faire progresser l’intelligence artificielle (IA) de manière socialement responsable et à améliorer notre compréhension de son impact sur les populations autochtones et les autres groupes en quête d’équité.

Le développement des partenariats communautaires, de l’esprit d’entreprise et de la commercialisation renforce la capacité d’innovation de York.

Aux pages 10 à 12, découvrez comment l’Université soutient les entreprises dirigées par des femmes dans la communauté et comment YSpace, le centre d’entrepreneuriat de York, qui fête son cinquième anniversaire cette année, prévoit de mettre en place un programme d’accélérateur unique à l’échelle nationale.

Qu’il s’agisse d’étudier l’équité de l’IA, d’influencer la politique de gestion de l’eau ou de comprendre les droits des Autochtones – d’autres articles de ce numéro – le travail de notre corps professoral en faveur d’un monde plus équitable, durable et innovant soutient les contributions de York aux ODD et la mission de l’Université qui consiste à être présents pour l’avenir.

L’ouverture du campus Markham en 2024 et notre proposition d’école de médecine et d’espace de soins de santé à Vaughan contribueront à la croissance exponentielle de la recherche et des contributions professionnelles de York au cours de la prochaine décennie et au-delà.

Nous vous remercions de l’intérêt et du soutien que vous portez à la recherche et à l’innovation à York. En tant que membre de la communauté ou partie prenante, nous nous réjouissons de cette occasion de prendre contact, de collaborer et de vous entendre.

Bonne lecture. 

ASCEND 2023

2

Challenge yourself to build a sustainable future

Take the free Microlecture Series in Sustainable Living.

Earn the badge. Become a Sustainable Living Ambassador.

SCAN ME

Join us in creating positive change. yorku.ca/sustainableliving

Ascend Magazine / 2023 Issue

Editor in Chief / Editorial Director / Writer Corey Allen, York University Contributors Alexander Huls, York University Danielle Legault, York University Paul Pivato, York University John Schofield, York University Jessica Werb Art Direction & Design spark, sparkbranding.ca Printing RJM Print Group, rjmprintgroup.com

Special thanks to

Office of the President:

Communications & Public Affairs at York University:

Rhonda Lenton, President and Vice-Chancellor

Robin Edmison

Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation:

Ashley Goodfellow Craig Grace Gravina Jacqueline Janelle Barbara Joy Susan Webb Glendon Campus Translation Team Research & Innovation at York University: Barbara Edwards David Kwok Office of the President at York University: Krista Davidson

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Amir Asif, Vice-President Research & Innovation Jennifer Hyndman, Associate Vice-President Research Jennifer MacLean, Assistant Vice-President Innovation & Research Partnerships Felix Moses, Senior Executive Officer David Phipps, Assistant Vice-President Research Strategy & Impact Jennifer Steeves, Associate Vice-President Research York University Faculty Leadership: Sarah Bay-Cheng, Dean, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design Mary Condon, Dean, Osgoode Hall Law School Marco Fiola, Principal, Glendon Campus

York is a modern, multi-campus, researchintensive University located in Toronto, Canada.

York University conducts purposeful research that advances knowledge and creates positive change.

Informed by a strong commitment to shared values, including the promotion of social justice, diversity, and the public good, we aspire through our research to better understand the human condition and the world around us and to employ the knowledge we gain in the service of society. ogether we are making things right for our communities, T our planet and our future.

Jane Goodyer, Dean, Lassonde School of Engineering Alice Hovorka, Dean, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change Thomas Loebel, Dean, Gradaute Studies John-Justin McMurtry, Dean, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies David Peters, Dean, Faculty of Health Robert Savage, Dean, Faculty of Education Rui Wang, Dean, Faculty of Science Detlev Zwick, Dean, Schulich School of Business

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

York University recognizes that many Indigenous Nations have longstanding relationships with the territories upon which York University campuses are located that precede the establishment of York University. York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Huron-Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities.

We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

This territory is subject of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.

FOLLOW US

 YUResearch VISIT US yorku.ca/research

ASCEND 2023

4

York University leads ground-breaking research to ensure technology revolution leaves no one behind

A massive seven-year interdisciplinary research initiative led by York University – backed by substantial federal research funding — is setting out to tame the unruly world of AI and other disruptive technologies, so humans can benefit equitably from advances in a machine-driven world.

↑ Connected Minds Scientific Director Doug Crawford speaks to the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry at the CFREF announcement in Montreal. From left to right: Minister Champagne, VP Research & Innovation Amir Asif, Doug Crawford.

5

Research & Innovation / York University

Along with marvellous innovations in medicine, education and entertainment, rapidly emerging technological advancements are also delivering unintended consequences, and some communities are being left behind. Making sure everyone benefits from the technological boom reflects York’s signature mission to create positive change in the world, both locally and globally.

→ The Connected Minds leadership team with Queen’s Assistant Vice Principal Partnerships & Innovation Jim Banting, York University President Rhonda Lenton, and Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif.

Left to right: Gunnar Blohm (Queen’s), Pina D’Agostino, Banting, Lenton, Asif, Doug Crawford, and Sean Hillier.

“We don’t want to slow progress in technology, but rather, work together to be more thoughtful about the consequences – and try to mitigate the negative outcomes and optimize the positive ones,” says Doug Crawford, a York University Distinguished Research Professor in Neuroscience who is the inaugural scientific director of the first-of-itskind enterprise.

The Connected Minds program will bring together experts from York University and Queen’s University who are working across many different fields including liberal arts, engineering, health, law, life sciences, and the arts to develop a framework to guide future innovations in technology with a focus on inclusivity.

“Receiving this second CFREF award in the last two competitions reflects York’s leadership as a research-intensive university that from its inception has understood the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in tackling complex, global problems. Connected Minds is particularly timely as we consider the implications of AI for creating a more equitable and inclusive world,” says York president and vice-chancellor Rhonda Lenton.

The researchers say putting some parameters around technological disruption would avoid the type of headline-grabbing pitfalls experienced by the AI text generator ChatGPT, almost as soon as it hit the market. Guidelines would also ensure underrepresented groups could enjoy the benefits of our shifting and evolving technologies and play a role in their creation.

“York is an international leader in interdisciplinary research. The federal government’s substantial investment will unite York’s incredible strengths with Queen’s health specialties to chart new territory in socially responsible research for a rapidly changing digital world,” says Amir Asif, York University’s vice-president research and innovation.

“We’re seeing a changing society with increasing intermingling between humans and machines and a host of different technologies,” says Pina D’Agostino, vice director and founder

$318-million+

Connected Minds research program to bring equity and inclusion to murky waters of AI

of York University’s IP Innovation Clinic at Osgoode Hall Law School and vice-director of Connected Minds. “The social framework – the law – hasn’t kept pace. What we’re trying to do is develop technologies and frameworks that are socially responsible before they are disseminated in society, so we get ahead of the biases that may arise. That way underrepresented communities don’t get sidelined as technologies progress.”

The initiative’s equity focus will be applied to many projects that are already underway at the two universities, and also to the issue of Indigenous data sovereignty. Through an Indigenous Advisory Circle and partners, researchers hope to explore a framework for use of Indigenous Peoples’ data in a digital environment.

“Our work will seek to address the unexpected consequences of technological innovation, like the growing digital divide between broader society and Indigenous Peoples in terms of access to internet and also the colonization of it as well,” says Sean Hillier, associate director of York University’s Centre for Indigenous Knowledges & Language and associate director of Connected Minds.

“ We continue to see researchers in Indigenous communities saying, ‘how do we implement ownership, access, control and possession of our knowledge in a virtual world?’ We don’t have the capacity to do so.”

Already, more than 50 community groups are stepping up to engage in the research, a signal that the initiative is tapping into a recognized need. The City of Vaughan, for example, has contributed $36 million in land. Mitacs, which funds research and innovation, has contributed $1 million for internships and trainees. The Baycrest Health Centre – Rotman Research Institute, which studies aging and the human brain, is giving $2 million.

Potential projects include explorations into a more inclusive metaverse, virtual reality and community organizing, technologies

for healthy aging and how the human brain functions when people interact with AI versus each other.

“We’re trying to figure out the way machines work, but we also need to understand the way the human brain works,” explains D’Agostino.

“That’s the secret sauce in the machines and the technology. As we try and blossom machines, we have to link them up to the way we think.

Something like empathy, for instance, will they ever have that?”

Another project is an Indigenous online gaming metaverse in which Indigenous Peoples can learn traditional language and gaming at the same time by engaging in land-based learning that recognizes the physical, mental, and spiritual connection to the land that is part of Indigenous identity.

“We hope that with our checklist, anytime someone innovates they won’t only think from a mainstream perspective,” says D’Agostino.

Technological disruption is only going to grow, adds Crawford, and it’s not too late to create guidelines to shape the future in a way that incorporates the values of equity, diversity and inclusivity.

“Here at York and at Queen’s, we have engineers and scientists involved in a number of technologies, some of them related to health, transportation, communications and computer vision,” Crawford notes.

“We hope to bring this new perspective to that.

The other part is developing the paradigm. If we are successful in that approach, then the aim is to beta test here at York and Queen’s and have a broader effect on the way research is done in Canada and the world,” he concludes.

T he CFREF grant of $105.6 million dollars when combined with the contributions from multi-sector partners, municipal governments, and collaborating partners is valued at $318.4 million, making Connected Minds the biggest York-led research program in the University’s history.

Connected Minds will also expand Canada’s research power and create opportunities for early career up-and-comers. 

ASCEND 2023

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FACULTY Laleh Seyyed-Kalantari, Lassonde School of Engineering

Uncovering racial bias in AI Computer scientist investigates fairness in healthcare and imaging diagnostics

F

BY JESSICA WERB

OR LALEH SEYYED-KALANTARI,

assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Lassonde School of Engineering, conducting research on the fairness of AI in healthcare and imaging diagnostics is personal.

While working on research in developing optimization algorithms, Seyyed-Kalantari’s life was derailed by a medical misdiagnosis that took two years to resolve. It was an agonizing experience, but it also inspired her to find a way to prevent the same thing from happening to others.

“I saw the impact of having an underdiagnosis in my personal life,” she says.

“I remember wishing that my research could help patients reduce pain.”

Seyyed-Kalantari found a way to do just that during her post-doctoral fellowships at the Vector Institute and the University of Toronto, where she began investigating inaccuracies in AI diagnostics—work that she continues to pursue at York.

And she’s uncovered some troubling findings that have caught even her by surprise.

In a paper published in Nature Medicine, Seyyed-Kalantari, as the lead author, examined data from multiple sources in the U.S. and discovered that AI-driven screening tools of chest X-rays had a concerning rate of under-diagnosis among underserved patient populations.

“ Historically vulnerable subpopulations—for example, Black, Hispanic, female and low-income patients—are suffering more from AI mistakes in these algorithms compared to other sub-populations,” she explains, noting that under-diagnoses are particularly harmful. “Upon deployment of such AI models, these patients were wrongly diagnosed as healthy. That means they may not have received any treatment in a timely manner and were sent home without further assessments.”

Even radiologists were taken aback, she added. “They said that when reviewing patient results, they don’t know anything about the patient’s race. They are sitting in a dark room reviewing the images and asking themselves ‘How can we be unfair to a patient that we have never seen?’”

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Research & Innovation / York University

So, Seyyed-Kalantari and her multidisciplinary, multi-institutional team delved further, looking into whether AI could determine the race of a patient from X-rays, CT scans and mammographic images alone. The results, published in The Lancet Digital Health, were astonishing.

“ With a very high accuracy, AI models can determine the race of the patient by just looking at medical images,” says Seyyed-Kalantari. “Everybody was surprised, and it was alarming. We don't know what AI is doing with this information. While we find that AI models can detect the race of patients, we find at the same time that AI is behaving against some races.”

The question now is: how is it happening? And what are the repercussions?

Seyyed-Kalantari is actively looking for answers as she delves deeper into her work at Lassonde. In the meantime, she urges caution in embedding AI into healthcare.

“ Some AI algorithms have received FDA approval in the U.S. for applications in radiology. But to the best of my knowledge, they haven’t proven that the algorithms are fair,” she warns.

“If we’re deploying these algorithms and using them for disease diagnoses -and we’re not sure if they’re fair or not -this could harm some groups in our society.”

This concern underscores why research like Seyyed-Kalantari’s is so important, and how further research in this field can help ensure that the healthcare of tomorrow is truly fair and equitable. 

2022-23 York research highlights APPOINTMENTS

York U’s Board of Governors appoints Kathleen Taylor as Chancellor Kathleen Taylor began her three-year term as York’s 14th Chancellor on January 1, 2023.

An accomplished York alumna and business executive, Chancellor Taylor holds a Master of Business Administration from Schulich School of Business and a Juris Doctor (JD) from Osgoode Hall Law School. She was the first woman to chair the board of a major Canadian bank and is the first woman to serve as York Chancellor.

York U appoints Mike Layton as inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer Mike Layton joined York University in March 2023 as its first Chief Sustainability Officer. The former Toronto City Councillor is a York alumnus and holds a Master of Environmental Studies. Layton will lead York’s Office of Sustainability, play a key role in the development of the University’s new Sustainability Strategy, and drive new initiatives through the University’s Sustainability Innovation Fund. The Chief Sustainability Officer advances York’s contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

York U appoints Alice Pitt as Interim VP Equity, People, and Culture Alice Pitt, a long-serving York community member, was appointed interim vice president equity, people and culture on April 1 for a term ending on December 31, 2023. Pitt first joined York in 1995 in the Faculty of Education where she became dean, and then served as vice-provost academic from 2012 to 2020. Equity, People and Culture is a recently formed division at York and includes

Human Resources, Labour Relations including Employee Relations and York University’s Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion.

FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENTS

York U awarded $1.65M NSERC grant to develop future pharmaceutical technology In April 2023, a York research team led by Distinguished Research Professor Sergey Krylov received $1.65 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

The Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant funds the TechnologyEnhance Pharmaceutical Discovery (TEPD) program, which will mentor and train graduate students to become highly qualified personnel and enhance Canada’s global competitiveness by fueling innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Students will graduate with industrial and academic research expertise, ready to be leaders in Canadian pharmaceutical research and development.

New professorship in Modern Spanish History funded with $1M donation A $1 million donation announced in March 2023 from the Mackenzie-Papineau Memorial Fund establishes an endowed professorship that supports scholarship, research and teaching in Modern Spanish History. Officially named the Mackenzie-Papineau Memorial Professorship in Modern Spanish History, the professorship helps York continue its long-standing scholarship and instruction on the role the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion played in the Spanish civil war. The new faculty position is scheduled to be in place by mid-2024.

Markham Campus receives $5M from York alumnus In February 2023, the building’s frame for York’s Markham Campus was completed with a “topping-off” ceremony and the announcement of a $5 million donation for capital construction costs from Metropia, a real estate development company founded by York alumnus Howard Sokolowski.

In honour of Sokolowski’s generous gift, the first and second floors of the new building will be named the Metropia Student Success Centre. Markham Campus will offer academic programs and conduct research related to technology and entrepreneurship.

The campus is slated to open in spring 2024.

break down barriers and creates a pathway for CBCC members to fast-track applications in York’s first-of-its-kind Social Procurement Vendor Portal.

The portal supports York’s commitment to community economic development, vendor diversity, and the innovative drive to change how the University buys goods and services. York was the first university in Ontario to open its procurement process to non-third party certified diverse vendors and social enterprises.

RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS

York U named academic lead for UN’s new global Water Academy York University, in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), announced the launch of the Water Academy at the UN Water Conference in March 2023. The Water Academy will bring together several academic institutions and business executives from the five largest beverage companies in the world and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

As an education platform, the academy will deliver innovative training on pressing water-related issues, develop scientifically based water solutions to inform water policies and programmes, and forge skills, knowledge, and awareness for sustainable water management.

York U partners with Canadian Black Chamber of Commerce to support economic growth for Black-owned businesses and social enterprises In March 2023, York University signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Black Chamber of Conference to boost economic opportunities for Black-owned businesses and social enterprises. The MOU commits both organizations to share knowledge and best practices with one another to help

↑ Dr. Jamila Aman, Executive Director of the Black Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and York University President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton, sign the MOU.

York U signs five-year MOU with Town of Newmarket to create positive change In September 2022, York University signed a memorandum of understanding with the Town of Newmarket, located a half hour drive away from Keele campus.

The MOU is a five-year agreement that formalizes the partnership and focuses on three main areas: exploring new opportunities for the Town of Newmarket to host or develop programming, experiential learning opportunities for York students in the town of Newmarket, and research collaborations and community education opportunities between both parties. 

ASCEND 2023

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AT YSPACE, WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

hit the accelerator toward success

BY JESSICA WERB

Entrepreneurship is often described as a lonely endeavour and it’s even more lonely for entrepreneurs who lack representation in the start-up world.

IN 2019, YSPACE – York’s pan-university entrepreneur and innovation hub decided to change that with the launch of ELLA, Ontario’s first accelerator program focused on supporting women-led product and service-based businesses.

ELLA includes three programs:

Altitude, four-month Businesses preparing to scale up nationally or internationally.

N ow, with $3 million in support from the federal government’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy program, ELLA is going nationwide, setting up localized hubs and opening its programs to participants across the country.

“What I think York has done, really uniquely, is increased access,” says David Kwok, associate director, entrepreneurship. He notes that while there are other women-focused accelerator programs, ELLA is unique in a few different ways.

“More traditional incubator accelerator programs are often very student-focused or very tech-focused.

Our differentiator is that we do support students, but we also support the external community, so anyone can join,” says Kwok. “And we're not only doing tech. We’re going into sectors that typically other organizations are not really as focused on.”

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Express, self-paced Early entrepreneurs needing foundational skills to grow Ascend, four-month Early-stage businesses setting the stage for growth

Participants in Ascend and Altitude gain access to one-on-one mentorship, a team to help them develop their strategic plans for growth, and a cohort of peers with whom they can create a trusting, supportive community.

“I think it is a really unique model that’s open and accessible and encourages women to jump in, stay in, and continue to grow,” says Jennifer MacLean, vice-president of innovation and research partnerships. “There are no barriers that were put in place.

The team just provides validation and encouragement regardless of where you are. I think that's really a magical thing.”

Ascend spoke with three YSpace alumni about their experiences and their startups.

Garima Gupta Artha Learning, Inc. Toronto, ON

A former software engineer with a passion for education, Garima Gupta put her career on hold when her kids were little. But after a few years, she realized it was time to show her two children, and herself, what she could accomplish.

In 2017, she dove into an online masters in adult education, at the same time launching her business, Artha Learning—an eLearning strategy, design and development firm.

Two years later, Gupta successfully applied to ELLA’s Ascend program, and went on to join the Altitude program as well. “I'm a rather resourceful kind of person, but the problem with running a business is that you don't know what you don't know,” she explains.

“Going in, my attitude was wanting to expose myself to other people's challenges, and to understand what things I should think about while trying to scale.”

With the mentorship she received from the faculty and the support of her cohort, Gupta gained the skills and confidence to take Artha Learning to the next level. “The biggest change was a shift in my mindset from being a solopreneur,” she shares. “I went from wondering whether or not I could build something bigger to actually building it, and realizing at the same time I can do more. That allowed me to attract more opportunities. You have to believe in yourself before somebody else can.”

Today, Artha Learning employs 12 full-time staff, and counts corporations, governments, NGOs and universities (including York) among its clients.

It has also racked up numerous awards—including Canadian Small Business Of The Year in 2021.

Even so, Gupta remains connected to ELLA, keeping in touch with her mentors and dropping in to speak with current participants.

“ With programs like ELLA, you never really graduate,” she says. “This journey just continues.”

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The endeavour quickly snowballed into something much bigger.

Jannine Rane Zing Pantry Shortcuts Toronto, ON

At home during the pandemic, Jannine Rane and her partner, Anush Sachdeva, found themselves craving some variety.

“A lot of people, ourselves included, were stuck at home eating the same chicken breast recipe two or three times a week. We asked ourselves, how do restaurants do it? How can people shake it up and do things differently at home?”

Rane recalls.

Realizing they weren’t the only ones experiencing culinary ennui, Rane and Sachdeva turned to their friend and future business partner, chef Kiran Singh. Together, the trio launched a website for Zing Pantry Shortcuts in September 2020, developing “pantry shortcuts” that elevate home cooking with flavourful blends of ingredients.

“We had a lot of excitement from early customers, food critics and media who blew up our brand very quickly,” she says. “It turned from this fun little project into a full-blown CPG (consumer packaged goods) company.”

In 2021, Rane and her partners joined the five-month Food Accelerator at YSpace, gaining the skills to meet the growing demand for their products.

“When we started at YSpace, we knew nothing—we didn't even understand bar coding and distribution,” says Rane.

At the time, Zing was mainly a direct-to-consumer enterprise, with a handful of independent grocers in Toronto carrying their products. Now it’s on track to be in 400 stores across the country, including Whole Foods and Fortinos, by the summer.

“The program was instrumental in helping us,” Rane says. “We were able to avoid a lot of potential mistakes and mishaps in a safe space where we could ask questions. We also learned “It started as a side hustle, very tangible pieces of business to help us find some productivity and how things work in the and joy in the mundaneness industry—which we would have of the pandemic,” says Rane, had to learn the hard way.” a marketing and branding professional.

11

Julie Klukas

adding that she appreciated being able to join a larger entrepreneurial community while living and working in a small rural town.

Through the program, Klukas was able to gain the skills and confidence to grow Shy Wolf When volunteer firefighter Julie from a one-woman operation run Klukas quietly started creating out of her home into a company with its own studio and a staff of and selling custom-scented seven. The brand has cultivated candles online in the fall of a devoted following for its unique 2019, her male colleagues at proprietary blends of scents the fire hall didn’t fully grasp inspired by 70’s rock’n’roll, tarot the scale of her operation. cards and new-age spirituality, “The guys kind of thought, and has sold around 75,000 ‘She's making candles, that's candles, distributing them online cute,’” Klukas shares. “They and in 500 stores worldwide. didn't see it as a business until “ELLA’s leadership training we had passed a million in revenue. All of sudden they were really helped me,” says Klukas.

“When you start by pouring like, ‘Oh, you're not just playing candles in your kitchen, you hobby wife in the kitchen!’” never imagine that you're going That sort of reaction was to be a team leader for all part of why Klukas joined the these different staff. It’s a very Ascend and Altitude programs different skill set." at ELLA. “It was really nice to “It really helped me with be surrounded by other women who understand the challenges my leadership skills and with of being a female entrepreneur— just feeling more confident in myself—not just as an whether that's not being entrepreneur, but as somebody taken seriously or just going to who is now hiring and bringing business events and being one people together.” of only few women,” she says, Shy Wolf Candles Grey Highlands, ON

In addition to ELLA, YSpace also offers one of the few accelerator programs for food and beverage start-ups, and is a co-creator of the Black Entrepreneurship Alliance in partnership with the Black Creek Community Health Centre, TD Community Engagement Centre, and Schulich Executive Education Centre. 

YSPACE

YSpace celebrates five years of innovation and growth Over the last five years, YSpace has supported hundreds of startups from ideation to incubation to scale, through accelerator programs, educational workshops, mentorship, and more.

By fostering a community of changemakers, YSpace supports York University’s mission for local and global impact.

As YSpace celebrates its fifth anniversary in 2023, we took stock of some of YSpace’s biggest milestones so far.

YSpace champions Black entrepreneurship through Black Entrepreneurship Alliance In summer 2021, the federal government invested close to $3 million for the Black Creek Community Health Centre, in partnership with YSpace, Schulich Executive Education Centre, and TD-Community Engagement Centre. The funding supports Black Canadian businesses in Humber River-Black Creek and resulted in the creation of the Black Entrepreneurship Alliance (BEA), co-designed by YSpace. BEA offers a full spectrum of education, mentorship and acceleration supports to more than 350 Black entrepreneurs seeking to establish or grow agri-food businesses. Since BEA’s creation, YSpace has supported 178 ventures – 89% of which are women-led - and have generated over $2 million in revenue.

↑ The Black Entrepreneurship Alliance team. Left to right: Mary Olabanwo, Bookie Adekanye, Kanishia Mensah, and Olu Villasa.

YSpace expands, opening hub in Georgina In late 2022, York University opened a new YSpace location in northern York Region, in partnership with the Towns of Georgina and East Gwillimbury.

The hub initially supported local start-ups and existing businesses during the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its launch, YSpace Northern Entrepreneurship Hub has supported hundreds of local ventures and offers customized resources to entrepreneurs in the region. ↑ From top to bottom: York University leadership and community partners celebrate YSpace opening in Georgina.

Bottom: VP Research & Innovation Amir Asif delivers remarks.

YSpace partners with UCalgary hub for entrepreneurial thinking placements In 2021, YSpace partnered with the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary for Experience Ventures, a federally funded program for college and university students that offers paid entrepreneurial thinking placements at Canadian companies. Students work to create innovative solutions for startups and social ventures, applying entrepreneurial thinking skills to make them future ready.

So far, YSpace has overseen 800 placements for York students.

YSpace pursues internationalization, partners with Korean Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) YSpace collaborated with KOTRA to host the 2021 Canada Acceleration Program for Korean startups. YSpace provided mentorship and support for Korean businesses interested in gaining a market foothold in Canada. The partnership with KOTRA built on previous international outreach for YSpace, which worked with Chilean food and beverage companies and the Pro-Chile Trade Commission in 2020 to mentor startups entering the United States. 

ASCEND 2023 12

BY COREY ALLEN

Ascend spoke with the four Fellows about the program and their products.

Meet York University’s latest commercialization

Fellows Four budding researchers completed York University’s commercialization Fellowship program – now in its second year – at the end of April.

Kajanan Kanathipan Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Modular single-stage step-up photovoltaic (PV) converter with integrated power balancing feature Kanathipan’s doctoral research focuses on the development of new extraction techniques for renewable energy, particularly solar power. Solar energy can be tricky to harness for power due to varying atmospheric conditions, like cloud cover.

Kanathipan is determined to find a way to circumvent this issue and build a device that not only streamlines the conversion process, but can maximize power extraction under all operating conditions.

Solar energy starts with sunlight, which is made up of photons. Photovoltaic (PV) panels convert the sunlight into electrical currents. This is then converted to electricity that supplies power for machines, homes and buildings to run on. It’s a two-step process involving different converters.

Kanathipan’s idea would reduce the power conversion to a single step, using the same converter. This converter would also be able to better balance and store power from the PV panels to not stress or drain one converter more than the others.

THE PROGRAM IS FUNDED BY THE INNOVATION ARM of the Office of the

Vice-President Research & Innovation at York. It runs from January to April and provides graduate students and postdoctoral Fellows support and assistance to develop their academic research into a commercially viable product.

The Fellows receive $7,500 as stipend, with a quarter of the funds earmarked for research activities like prototype testing, proof of concept projects, or validation studies. They also participate in workshops and seminars that focus on various topics related to commercialization, including design thinking, intellectual property, licensing, and partnerships. Additionally, Fellows work at and receive advice on patent searching, industry outreach, and pitching.

“ The Fellowship provides a valuable opportunity to support and train the next generation of innovators and supports them on their entrepreneurial journey,” said Suraj Shah, associate director, commercialization and strategic partnerships.

13 Research & Innovation / York University

The invention would allow the entire conversion system to safely operate under different weather conditions. This would reduce equipment costs and produce a greater amount of energy for PV plants.

“We are looking to design and control photovoltaic conversion well enough that it provides an innovative solution in the solar technology industry,” says Kanathipan, who works out of the Advanced Power Electronics Laboratory for Sustainable Energy Research (PELSER) and is supervised by John Lam, associate professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering.

Kanathipan says the fellowship program has provided education and training not found in the lab, like the workshops on how to protect your intellectual property, build business partnerships, or how to determine a potential customer.

Right now, Kanathipan is working on a scaled down prototype, a key component of his dissertation.

Kanathipan is a PhD student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering.

Stephanie Cheung Faculty of Education

VoteBetter Cheung created the VoteBetter app, a SaaS (software as a service) product, which aims to drive civic engagement in student politics.

The application operates as a virtual election space for postsecondary student constituents, candidates and incumbents, and provides a central source for locating, contributing to and comparing campaign priorities.

Users can view candidates’ profiles, submit questions, and view, rank and comment on crowd-sourced campus issues.

Once the election is over, the app tracks the campaign promises of elected representatives and serves as a community forum.

Under the supervision of Natalia Balyasnikova, assistant professor in the Faculty of Education, Cheung’s master’s research examines contemporary trends in political participation on diverse campuses in the Greater Toronto Area and explores how undergraduate student election voter engagement and turnout might be improved. The idea for the app was inspired by her research and Cheung’s own experience in student politics, in addition to a former role as a public servant with the provincial government.

“VoteBetter can be used as a tool for students to deepen dialogue and focus more on the substantive issues their communities face than surface-level politics,” Cheung says. “Student groups can wield hefty budgets and their constituents deserve wellinformed leaders who understand pertinent issues and are equipped to pursue sustainable change.”

Cheung says the fellowship program has offered structure and guidance as she works through her

research and development phase.

She says she is interested in the commercialization of her master’s research not for profit, but to extend the impact of her academic work.

crystal filter more effectively controls solar radiation and thermal losses simultaneously and can transmit sunlight to be absorbed and converted to heat in a thermal storage medium.

“I am often asking myself how research can live off the page,” she says. “And I’m interested in my work facilitating opportunities for co-constructing knowledge and bridging theory to practice.”

The filter can also reflect radiative heat from the medium, which has longer wavelengths than sunlight, minimizing heat losses. The stored energy can then act as a power source later when sunlight is no longer available.

Currently, Cheung’s VoteBetter app is being validated with end users.

Cheung is a part-time master’s student in the Faculty of Education and full-time staff at York where she works as manager, student success and stakeholder engagement at Calumet and Stong Colleges in the Faculty of Health.

Mehran Sepah Mansoor Mechanical Engineering

A method of fabricating one-dimensional photonic crystal optical filters Mansoor works out of York University’s Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy Technologies Laboratory. His research at the AM-SET Lab has led to him inventing a novel fabrication method for a photonic crystal optical filter, which can transmit sunlight over a broad range of wavelengths.

Mansoor, under the supervision of AM-SET Lab’s founder Paul G. O’Brian at the Lassonde School of Engineering, believes the invention could have several applications, but it could be particularly useful to improve thermal energy storage systems, particularly those that store solar thermal energy.

Thermal energy storage involves preventing losses via heat conduction, convection, and radiation. Mansoor’s photonic

“The innovation is the way the materials in the photonic crystal filters have been fabricated and the treatment applied to them to achieve the optical properties needed to refract or bend light in a desired manner, as well as the way we have been able to stack all of the materials together,” said Mansoor. “Our method eliminates unwanted energy absorption in the photonic crystal while improving the energy transmission of the filter.”

Mansoor cites the program’s design thinking workshop as a highlight of his time as a Fellow. He says the fellowship also provided him a greater understanding of how to patent technology. This invention marks his first patent.

So far, Mansoor has completed simulations of the invention and has some preliminary results. He is in the early stages of creating a prototype.

Mansoor is a second-year master’s student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering.

Abbas Panahi Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

A novel portable platform based on field-effect transistor integrated with microfluidics for biosensing applications

Panahi’s academic work studying biosensors – a device to detect and target molecules – grew stronger after a PhD internship at Mitacs. Now in his fourth year as a PhD student and under the supervision of Professor Ebrahim Ghafar-Zadeh at the Lassonde School of Engineering, Panahi has invented a new biosensing platform that can detect disease.

The platform uses sensor technology that can be used on a portable device, like a smartphone, to analyze the specific concentration of RNA or any biomarker in a saliva sample.

“This technology has huge potential for medical application,” Panahi says. “The device could be used in hospitals for non-expert users to run clinical tests and help detect viruses quickly and easily.”

The portable sensor was developed entirely at York University’s Biologically Inspired Sensors and Actuators (BioSA) Laboratory – from the testing and modelling, to all the engineering – by a team of students and research associates under the direction, guidance and conceptualization of GhafarZadeh. The development process involved a variety of tasks, including in-house testing, modelling and engineering design.

For Panahi, the fellowship program gave him a complete education for what it takes to start a science-based venture. He says the fellowship allowed him to fully consider every aspect of the commercialization process and develop a strong business model. He also says the program’s teachings on how to match the technology with market needs was invaluable.

Currently, Panahi is working on technology market matching, and readying the device to undergo clinical tests in the next year.

Panahi is a fourth-year PhD student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering. 

ASCEND 2023 14

FUNDING Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON)

BY COREY ALLEN

York receives new funds from provincial agency to advance research commercialization and Ontario-made intellectual property

Commercialization efforts for York University research have received a $300,000 boost in funding from Intellectual Property Ontario (IPON).

Jennifer MacLean Assistant Vice-President of Innovation and Research Partnerships

Pina D’Agostino Associate Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Founder of the IP Innovation Clinic

THE NEW FUNDING will support the

Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation and the IP Innovation Clinic at York University to enhance its intellectual property and commercialization services to York researchers and their partners, particularly for increasing research outputs related to artificial intelligence, automotive and medical technology.

“With IPON’s financial backing, we will be able to streamline and develop a full-service IP and commercialization pathway for our faculty, students and our partners, and strengthen York’s pursuit of licensing and research partnership opportunities,” said Jennifer MacLean, assistant vicepresident of innovation and research partnerships. “Our goal is to triple the number of disclosures and double the number of patents filed by York students and faculty per year, while supporting licensing and partnerships that move York’s great ideas forward.”

The fund will help create two new staff positions – an assistant director for the IP Innovation Clinic and a business development and commercialization manager for OVPRI – and increase business and commercialization impact for IP holders in Ontario.

“This investment is just one example of how IPON is supporting our province’s postsecondary institutions and innovators, by providing them with the funding, tools, knowledge and connections they need to harness the value of their IP,” said Jill Dunlop, minister of colleges and universities.

15 Research & Innovation / York University

“ Initiatives like this are helping our province’s innovators benefit from IPON’s expertise and ensuring the economic and commercial benefits of home-grown innovation remain right here in Ontario.”

Commercialization of research outputs can mean bringing a new product or service to the market. An invention by a researcher can solve a problem faced by consumers or businesses or help make life easier or more efficient.

Commercialization can also extend the positive reach and impact University research has on society by driving revenue growth through sustained market opportunities.

“The IPON funds will be invaluable to help scale the many successes of the IP Innovation Clinic working with Ontario’s startups,” said Pina D’Agostino, associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and the founder of the IP Innovation Clinic. “With these resources we can serve many more clients who do not have money to pay for expensive legal fees. We are also able to train many more law students to be IP and business savvy to protect key assets in the disruptive tech economy.”

York is among 10 universities and colleges in Ontario to receive funding as part of the provincial agency’s pilot project to strengthen Ontario’s knowledge economy. 

FACULTY Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Schulich School of Business

Schulich research suggests link between financial literacy and IPO underpricing

BY PAUL PIVATO

A novel study co-authored

by Schulich Professor and Ron Binns Chair in Financial Reporting, Banking and Governance Kiridaran Kanagaretnam shows that greater financial literacy, or investment smarts, reduces the likelihood of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) being underpriced when they are first offered to institutional and retail investors.

The findings are contained in an article published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. The research was conducted by Kanagaretnam together with: Gerald Lobo, the Arthur Andersen Chair of Accounting at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business; Lim Chee Yeow, an associate professor at the School of Accountancy at Singapore Management University; and Jason Jia, an assistant professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and a Schulich PhD graduate.

T he researchers examined the relationship between financial literacy and IPO underpricing for a large sample of 14,831 IPOs from 34 countries over the 1998 to 2020 period. They used two measures of financial literacy that captured individuals’ basic financial knowledge, including the ability to invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

“Financial literacy is important for the efficient functioning of financial markets,” says Kanagaretnam. “Financially literate individuals possess fairly advanced financial knowledge and are therefore better able to seek out higher-level financial news and analyst reports, which may disclose additional information.”

The research study is one of the first to document the relationship between citizens’ financial literacy and IPO underpricing and provides evidence that highlights the role of financial literacy in mitigating capital market inefficiencies. 

ASCEND 2023 16

New organized research unit focused on water issues rides wave of early success, impact

BY COREY ALLEN

OneWATER, a new organized research unit (ORU) at York University, is in its infancy but is already driving positive change.

Sylvie Morin Faculty of Science

Launched last fall, OneWATER sent delegates to the United Nations in New York within its first few months of operating, where its members headlined a panel at the UN Water Conference. During the conference, OneWater announced its researchers will play a key role in the delivery of the Water Academy – a collaborative education program between York, several other academic institutions and UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research).

17 Research & Innovation / York University

“OneWATER was created to bring together water experts from all over campus as well as partners and communities and go beyond what we can accomplish as lone researchers,” says director Sylvie Morin, professor in the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science. “We didn’t anticipate this much momentum.”

Initially proposed as an ORU by Satinder Brar, professor and James and Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, OneWATER brings together York University’s experts on water-related issues in multiple disciplines across several Faculties and units.

From civil engineering to water governance to environmental justice and more, OneWATER is the central hub at York for leading water-related experts to

unite, conduct interdisciplinary research and generate knowledge on pressing issues, like water security, flooding and sanitation.

This work has the potential to significantly inform and influence public policy.

For Morin, OneWATER creates a platform for York researchers to tackle bigger questions that would otherwise be unable to be fully explored within a single department or Faculty.

“We have something very special here,” she says.

“ As a collective,

OneWATER can conduct higher-level, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research at York, take a significant leading role in Canada and compete for more significant grants.

As an ORU, we are also better positioned to work on largerscale projects with international collaborators.”

This summer, Morin will begin work on her first project under OneWATER.

OneWATER is an acronym that details the combined expertise of its members – W: water management A: artificial intelligence T: technologies E: education and sustainability R: resource recovery and reuse

Morin, along with Stephanie Gora, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, and Yeuhyn Kim, a PhD candidate co-supervised by Morin and Gora, will develop new materials for sustainable wastewater treatment focusing on pesticides and pharmaceuticals.

MORE NEW ORGANIZED RESEARCH UNITS AT YORK

Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Society (CAIS) CAIS unites York researchers who work to understand the theory and practice of AI systems, governance, and public policy.

An affiliate of Connected Minds, the Centre has two units: The Intelligent Systems Unit and the Public Policy Unit. The Intelligent Systems Unit is led by Professor James Elder and uses machine learning, data mining and computer vision science to tackle issues in healthcare, smart cities, and sustainability. The Public Policy Unit, led by Professor Pina D’Agostino, examines the risks and benefits of AI technologies, and how this balance can be managed through practice, policy, and governance.

Institute for Technoscience & Society (ITS) approved by Kean Birch ITS is a global hub of critical and interdisciplinary research and knowledge mobilization on the relationship between technoscience (the interconnected relationship between science and technology) and society, particularly the configuration of social power underpinning scientific claims, medical practices, emerging technologies, and sites of innovation. The Institute leverages York’s renowned expertise on these societal issues and has four thematic research clusters, including Technoscientific Injustices, Technoscientific Economics, Technoscientific Pasts & Futures, and Technoscientific Bodies & Minds. ITS is an associated research unit of Connected Minds and aims to support York researchers as they promote socially responsible and inclusive technoscience.

Centre for Integrative and Applied Neuroscience (CIAN) Neuroscience – the study of nervous system function — aims to explain the biological basis of

human behavior in health and disease. One in three Canadians will experience a brain-related health disorder. CIAN is an associated research unit of Connected Minds and mobilizes research to address health, education, industry, and other applications important for the global community.

Manufacturing Technology Entrepreneurship Centre (MTEC) MTEC integrates critical aspects of interdisciplinary research in manufacturing, technology, and entrepreneurship to reinforce research intensification by developing cutting-edge technologies and enterprises to address important global challenges. Part of the Lassonde School of Engineering, MTEC acts as a regional hub for technology innovation and leverages York’s Living Lab and BEST’s technology incubator. The Centre facilitates the design-prototype-test cycle and activates academic and industry partnerships to accelerate the process of bringing new technology solutions to the Canadian and world markets.

York Emergency Mitigation, Engagement and Governance Institute (Y-EMERGE) Y-EMERGE specializes in worldleading and multidisciplinary research and teaching in disaster risk reduction, emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. Y-EMERGE works to transform the way societies understand, conceptualize, analyze, manage, and govern crises, disasters, and emergencies. The Institute combines York’s expertise in a wide variety of disciplines, including mathematical modelling, social and behavioural study, geospatial technology, AI, participatory research, and the humanities and social sciences.

Y-EMERGE is a global leader in its on community-engaged scholarship, real-world and needdriven research, and evidencebased training for effective emergency management. 

ASCEND 2023 18

York health researcher brings a traumainformed lens to use sport for good

BY JESSICA WERB

Lyndsay Hayhurst Associate Professor School of Kinesiology and Health Science

Lyndsay Hayhurst has participated in sports from an early age, including a long stint as a competitive rower.

She credits it with helping her gain confidence and collaborative skills, which is why she’s been deeply engaged in researching how sports can create positive change in the lives of marginalized people around the world.

That interest has taken her as far afield as Uganda - where, for her PhD work - she evaluated how martial arts could impact the lives of self-identified women and girls for the better.

“Since then, I've always been focused on unpacking and teasing apart how genderbased violence can be addressed, reduced and prevented through interventions that are part of the ‘sport for development and peace’ umbrella,” says Hayhurst.

↑ Two collaborators bicycling in Nicaragua.

“ If you can't move, if you can't escape, if you can't access employment opportunities and education, those are the structural factors that the bicycle can help solve.”

“The young women in Nicaragua were able to go to school during the pandemic because they had bicycles and could avoid virus exposure on public transit. They were also able to sell goods on their bikes and to access health services that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

Over the next three years, Hayhurst - who is also a York Research Chair in Sport, Gender and Development and Digital Participatory Research - is hoping to gain more insight into how to address some of the social issues that affect the study participants.

“In rural Uganda, there are a lot of stigmas and myths around young women riding bicycles – particularly in more remote communities. So they often don’t want to be seen riding them.”

“At the same time, they want to be visible for safety reasons. There’s a paradox, and we think trauma- and violence-informed approaches to cycling and bicycle-focused development programs can possibly help address some of these issues.”

Some of those approaches include training staff on the health effects of trauma and violence, creating emotionally and physical safe spaces and peer support for program participants, fostering choice for participants to pick their own physical activities, and building on participants’ strengths, rather than deficit thinking.

PHOTO CREDIT: KEIRON COBBAN

T oday, that work includes a principal investigator role with the Wheels of Change project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), which studies how access to bicycles can help address poverty, gender equity and sustainability for self-identified girls and women in Nicaragua, Uganda, and Canada, using a trauma-informed approach. It’s work that began in 2016, now funded through to 2026.

Hayhurst argues mobility may play a significant role in gender-based violence prevention, and points to bicycling in Nicaragua to help explain why.

19 Research & Innovation / York University

↑ Hayhurst co-facilitating a poster collaging workshop as part of the study with Nicaraguan collaborators.

York engineers develop mobile app to improve the safety of city cycling

BY JESSICA WERB

↑Mojgan Jadidi readying for a bicycle ride.

PHOTO CREDIT: KEIRON COBBAN

These are some of the key principles of trauma-and violence-informed physical activity, a concept Hayhurst is further investigating with selfidentified women in communities throughout Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver for a project about preventing and addressing family violence. Hayhurst is co-principal investigator, alongside principal investigator Francine Darroch at Carleton University, with funds from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

As a mother of four active young kids, Hayhurst says she’s also hopeful her work will help contribute to the current national discourse about youth sports, like hockey.

“With all that's happening right now in the Canadian context around safe sport, I'm certainly questioning a lot of the purported benefits and thinking a bit more critically around what can be done to make it safer,” she says.

“I do feel like there are sports, like Ultimate Frisbee, dragon boating or pickleball, that have tried to move deliberately away from a neo-liberal, competitive, individualistic model.”

“There's hope in using a trauma and violence-informed approach in sports development that is more community-focused and inclusive.” 

Mojgan Jadidi Associate Professor of Geomatics Engineering Lassonde School of Engineering

When Mojgan Jadidi started cycling on the streets of Quebec City and Toronto, she found it to be a hair-raising experience.

“I cycled in Europe where cycling is a big part of the transportation system, and people are really comfortable with that,” she says.

“But when I came to Canada, it was sometimes scary, because I needed to share the street with cars, and some of the car-driving behaviour was not really appropriate for sharing the road.”

W ith an average of 74 cyclists killed every year in Canada, according to Statistics Canada, Jadidi decided to investigate how modern technologies could help make the cycling experience safer and less stressful.

In a paper titled Improving Cyclists’ Safety Using Intelligence Situational Awareness System, published this year in Sustainability, Jadidi and her co-authors (Gunho Sohn, associate professor in geomatics engineering, and PhD candidate Amir Nourbakhsh) described how they were able integrate information from disparate sources into a mobile app that delivers updated information in real-time to Toronto cyclists via voice alerts.

“Many technology companies have worked with the car industry, so we have lots of sensors embedded in the car like back-up cameras and safety sensors,” she points out.

“But the bike has not really changed. We thought about how we could build a system using the current infrastructure without

adding more tech and be accessible to most people, so we focused on the phone.”

Jadidi’s team created a solution that analyzes location data, historical collision data, weather information, real-time current road conditions and traffic patterns to determine whether cyclists are at higher risk of collisions as they move around the city.

“Information is a power,” she says. “When you have this power, you can make better and informed decisions. If a cyclist receives a warning telling them they’re entering a highrisk area, they can change their behaviour, go slower, or stop and take a different and safer route.”

Jadidi is also currently using quantum computing to analyze how to optimize bike sharing systems to better anticipate supply and demand by distributing bikes where they are most needed in real-time. She explains that she’s passionate about supporting cycling as a safe, accessible, and sustainable way to move around cities.

“The bike can be very easily streamlined into the transit system, and it’s easy to connect these two modes of transportation,” she points out. “It’s a great way to get around the city without taking a car and making more pollution”—that is, if the safety issues can be addressed.

With the source code for Jadidi’s safety application freely available on GitHub, she’s hopeful that it will be adapted by other developers to create safer streets that support cyclists as well as drivers.

“Cycling is sustainable, inclusive and accessible, with a lower cost than a car,” she says. “We have the technology to deliver the information cyclists need to be safer.

So why not do it?” 

SOURCE CODE Available on GitHub

ASCEND 2023 20

FACULTY Woldegebriel Woldegerima, Faculty of Science

FUNDING CIHR

BY COREY ALLEN

York mathematician receives federal grant to advance mpox research in Canada

MPOX

Commonly known as monkeypox, is a virus spread through close contact including sexual interactions and is typically found in parts of central and western Africa.

Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science

A YORK UNIVERSITY mathematician

has received nearly half a million dollars from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) to better predict and assess future outbreaks of mpox and other zoonotic threats (infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans).

Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima, an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Science, will use epidemiological and geospatial models including mathematical and artificial intelligence-based models to study epidemiology, transmission dynamics and immunology and intervention strategies to forecast the effectiveness of prevention and control strategies for mpox and other zoonotic diseases in Canada and around the world.

“We are not safe from emerging or re-emerging diseases including animal-to-human spillovers,” said Woldegerima. “Our research will provide valuable insights for preventive public health strategies and help governments be better prepared to manage and respond to an epidemic or pandemic threat in the future.”

The 2022 outbreak was reported in early May that year. A total of 87,479 cases, including 140 deaths, have been confirmed in 111 countries as of May 2023, according to the World Health Organization.

Woldegerima and his research team will conduct risk-map assessments, geospatial analysis and machine learning to identify hotspots for potential outbreaks around the world.

In addition, their research will use biobehavioural data and results of a survey by the Centre for Disease Control that involved men who have sex with men – a population considered at higher risk for infection

21 Research & Innovation / York University

– to examine control measures, risk factors and the impact mpox has had on sexually transmitted and bloodborne infections.

These various data sources will allow the researchers to extend their mathematical models for the first time to account for how the virus has disproportionately affected people living with HIV, who make up almost half of the global cases, and to better understand how HIV stigma and discrimination may impede public health interventions.

The work will provide new training opportunities for postdoctoral researchers and undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science and builds on York University’s expertise in the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases.

York is among the top institutions in Canada for publications on COVID-19 modelling.

Woldegerima’s team for the CIHR research project includes Professors Jianhong Wu, James Orbinski, Sarah Flicker, Ali Asgary, Jude Kong, Nicola L. Bragazzi and Nickolas Ogden. The project is supported by two Organized Research Units at York, Y-EMERGE and Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, which will provide in-kind support in the form of office space and administrative support.

Woldegerima’s project, “Modelling, predicting and risk assessment of mpox and other (re)emerging zoonotic threats to inform decision-making and public health actions,” received $480,000. 

FACULTY Carl James, Faculty of Education

FUNDING Medicine by Design

Education professor receives funding to pursue equity in regenerative medicine

W ith Dr. Istvan Mucsi of University Health Network, James will lead a team that was among six that received a collective $1 million from Medicine

by Design (MBD), a strategic hub for regenerative medicine research at the University of Toronto.

The project sprung from a series of workshops organized by MBD’s Convergent Working Group, which aspires to gather diverse perspectives across the field of medicine.

The goal of James and Mucsi’s current project is to enable researchers and clinicians to build more trusting relationships and communication between African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities. It aims to do so by facilitating education, workshops and discussions, as well as modules focused on culture, race, ethnicity and anti-Black racism in the field of regenerative medicine.

The project is reflective of James’ interest throughout his extensive career, which has focused on the ways in which race intersects

with ethnicity, gender, class and citizenship to mediate accessible and equitable opportunities in education and employment of racialized Canadians. His research on pathways to education and student success for Black youth, and support for Black scholars, is supported by donations from RBC Foundation and Walmart Canada.

Some of James’ previous work includes another project completed in collaboration with Mucsi, which resulted in the article “Psychosocial distress in patients with advanced CKD by racial group and immigrant status: A Canadian cross-sectional Study,” published in The American Journal of Kidney Diseases. 

ASCEND 2023 22

CARL JAMES PHOTO CREDIT: SOFIE KIRK

C

ARL JAMES, a professor and Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in the Faculty of Education at York, received funding for “Bridging the gap in regenerative medicine for African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) communities” - a project which will promote greater equity in regenerative medicine research and clinical practice.

BY ALEXANDER HULS

Sculpture

by York professor debuts at Keele and Finch Designed by Brandon Vickerd, artist and professor of visual arts at York University, the 41-foot sculpture made out of Corten steel is titled “The Heights” and is meant to evoke how the history of a place informs its present and future.

FACULTY Brandon Vickerd, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design

THE SEED OF “THE HEIGHTS”

began in 2020, when the Duke Heights Business Improvement Area (BIA) put out a public call for professional Canadian artists to propose a landmark public artwork that would bring back and reassert the Finch-Keele community after years of construction in the area preparing for the forthcoming Light Rail Transit (LRT) line.

Among the resulting 80 applicants, five artists – including Vickerd – were chosen to submit detailed proposals. Vickerd knew the BIA wanted something that addressed the history and future of the location, so he began researching what architecture had existed near the LRT site in the past. He discovered that, between 1873 and 1956, the one-room Elia Public School once stood near the sculpture’s current location before being demolished to make way for future developments.

For Vickerd, the old schoolhouse, and the education it would have provided as a driver for social and communal change, neatly connected the past to the present with how another school – York University – has helped shape and drive the community it belongs to. He found his inspiration and submitted his proposal to the Duke Heights BIA: a multi-faceted open design and architectural abstraction of the school made of Corten steel, which has a rusted metal finish that he says would give the sculpture a weathered, aged appearance, embodying a quiet assertiveness that is distinctive in its depth and the richness of its colour.

The work ahead wasn’t without its pressures. Vickerd, who has previously created sculptures for cities like Edmonton, Thunder Bay, Calgary, Ottawa and others, had never worked on something quite so close to home as York University, where’s he worked for the last 20 years. “I can almost see the location of the sculpture from my office window on campus. I knew all my colleagues are going to be driving by it every day, and our students live in that community,” he says.

“ There was a pressure of doing something that honoured a community that I was part of.”

Nonetheless, Vickerd’s art often works with notions of history and community, which made “The Heights” project well within his comfort zone. “The way I think about public art is it’s about giving back to the community,” he says. “It can’t be about making something that I just want to see or that I think is cool. It has to be something that comes from that community and contributes back to it.”

The design process – including engineering revisions and community feedback – took six months, then the actual creation took another six months. Vickerd credits the University too with not just the academic knowledge, but practical knowledge he’s gained that enabled him to create projects like “The Heights” sculpture. “It’s the accumulation of years of working with my colleagues and students in a way that can only happen at a university like York, which allows us to push boundaries, try out new ideas, think through things and experiment with materials. So, when opportunities like this come up, we can then better develop projects that are successful and create a greater experience in the community for the people who live it day.”

FUNDING Duke Heights BIA

P art of the experience he hopes “The Heights” creates is the opportunity for locals to reflect on the physical, social, and economic changes in the neighborhood with the opportunity to literally see the community in new ways.

“Because its design is open, and there’s so much negative space, it changes and evolves as you move around. It was important to me to give the viewer the opportunity to have the piece shift and change. It’s never static. It’s never just one perspective. I’m trying to connect that to how we experience community and how we experience urban geography.

As we move through the city, things change,” says Vickerd.

Currently, the sculpture – funded and managed by Duke Heights BIA, but now a permanent collection of the City of Toronto – is visible because of its size, but not yet accessible for closer viewing. Remaining landscaping and roadwork must be finished first, then the piece becomes open to the public.

Vickerd is excited for residents then – and even now – to take in the sculpture, and what he intends it to do more than anything else.

“The goal of this project is to acknowledge the historic significance of the site while celebrating the changing dynamic of the Keele and Finch intersection. ‘The Heights’ accomplishes this through a design that balances the monumental sculpture with a sense of dynamic tension and wonder. This sculpture is about the relationship between time and memory. It reflects on the role of history in providing a guiding light that illuminates a path forward into the future,” he says. 

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FACULTY Annie Bunting, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

FUNDING SSHRC

BY COREY ALLEN

York researchers bring exhibit on conjugal slavery to Sierra Leone A young woman’s green skirt containing bullet holes is one of several haunting artifacts that comprise Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War, an international travelling exhibit that focuses on the lives of Evelyn Amony and Grace Acan.

The two women were abducted as children in the 1990s, forced into marriages, and held captive for years by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group in Uganda. Amony was wearing the green skirt the day she was freed from LRA captivity.

Ododo Wa – “our stories” in the Acholi language – features artwork, short films, photographs and Amony and Acan’s personal belongings in order to help detail their stories of survival and their paths to freedom.

TOP & MIDDLE PHOTO CREDIT: ANNIE BUNTING

The pair helped develop the exhibit alongside Isabella Masson, curator at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and in partnership with Professor Annie Bunting, York University researcher and the director of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant project, Conjugal Slavery in War: Partnerships for the study of enslavement, marriage and masculinities.

↑ From top to bottom: 1) Schoolgirls take in the exhibit at Peace Museum in Freetown, Sierra Leone 2) Outside the exhibition in Grafton, Sierra Leone 3) The exhibition team pose for a group photo outside the Peace Museum (photo credit: Solomy Awiidi)

25 Research & Innovation / York University

“ It is our hope that the exhibit helps survivors open up about their experiences and helps them find the courage to advocate for their needs,” said Amony, now a human rights advocate in Uganda, and co-founder of the Women’s Advocacy Network, alongside Acan.

The exhibit is one of the outcomes of the SSHRC grant and aims to amplify the experiences of women in war, and the advocacy and work of survivors. It mobilizes what Bunting refers to as “difficult knowledge” by employing creative methods to share these experiences.

“The traveling exhibit has been shared in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and now in Sierra Leone, facilitating important conversations about justice and reparations from the perspective of survivors and mobilizing community-based research,” said Bunting, a professor of law and society in the Department of Social Science.

Bunting and the research team, alongside Amony and Acan, flew to Sierra Leone earlier this year to launch the exhibit at the Sierre Leone Peace Museum in Freetown.

It was a significant trip as the Peace Museum stands on the site of what once was the Special Court of Sierra Leone (SCSL) – the first international court to find abduction for forced marriage in conflict situations to be a crime against humanity.

F or Acan, taking the exhibit to Sierra Leone helps continue her and Amony’s advocacy work for justice and reparations.

“Survivors must not be forgotten,” she said. “They need to be supported to heal in a holistic and survivor-centred manner for them to live meaningful and productive lives.” 

GLENDON

GLENDON

Le campus Glendon célèbre l’excellence en matière de recherche lors d’un festival annuel CHAQUE ANNÉE, le Bureau de

↑ York University’s Glendon Campus.

Glendon Campus celebrates its research excellence with annual festival EVERY YEAR, the Research Office

at Glendon - York University’s bilingual campus - hosts a threeday event that aims to showcase the research achievements of its community through conferences, book launches, student exhibits, presentations, awards, and more.

Below are some highlights from this year’s Glendon Research Festival: Centre for Research on Language and Culture Contact (CRLCC) A key part of the festival’s programming focuses on the work produced by the Centre for Research on Language and Culture Contact. The CRLCC brings together the research activities of faculty members and students at York who investigate various aspects of language contact at both societal and individual levels. Language contact includes topics that can include second or multiple language acquisition, minority language maintenance or loss, or the linguistic and cultural dimensions of translation.

Curve of the Earth: Album Reflections, Pedagogical Connections Retired Glendon professor and musician Brian Morgan released a new album, Curve of the Earth, in December 2022. The album was inspired by his experience as an English teacher in Chongqing, China in the late 1980s. In his

festival presentation, Morgan discussed the making of album and his research on becoming a critical language teacher, English language teaching biases, and teacher identity as pedagogy.

Student Exhibition The festival featured a full day dedicated to oral presentations from student researchers at Glendon Campus. The research presentations covered an array of topics, including research on selfidentification preferences in York’s Disability community, quantifying memory transformation, and Yugoslavian rock ‘n roll history.

Principal’s Excellence Research Awards The festival also included the announcement of this year’s recipients of the Principal’s Excellence Research Awards, which recognize Glendon researchers who have made an outstanding contribution to research over the past five years.

This year’s recipients include: Professor Amanda Ricci (History), Emerging Researcher Professor Radu Guiaşu (Biology), Established Scholar Professor Kevin Reynolds (Linguistics and Language Studies) Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux (Biology), Contract Faculty. 

la recherche de Glendon — le campus bilingue de l’Université York — organise un événement de trois jours visant à mettre en valeur les réalisations de sa communauté en matière de recherche grâce à des conférences, des lancements de livres, des expositions étudiantes, des présentations, des prix, etc.

Voici quelques faits marquants du festival de la recherche de Glendon de cette année : Centre de recherche sur le contact des langues et des cultures (CRCLC) Une grande partie de la programmation du festival est axée sur le travail produit par le Centre de recherche sur le contact des langues et des cultures. Le CRCLC regroupe les activités de recherche des enseignants et étudiants de l’Université York qui examinent plusieurs facettes du contact linguistique sur le plan sociétal et individuel. Parmi les domaines qui en font partie, on peut mentionner : l’acquisition des langues secondes, troisièmes, etc.; le maintien ou la disparition des langues minoritaires; et les dimensions linguistique et culturelle de la traduction.

Curve of the Earth : Réflexions sur l’album, connexions pédagogiques Brian Morgan, professeur retraité de Glendon et musicien, a sorti un nouvel album, Curve of the Earth, en décembre 2022, qui tire son inspiration de son expérience en tant que professeur d’anglais à Chongqing, en Chine, à la fin des années 1980. Dans sa présentation au festival, le

professeur Morgan a parlé du processus de création de l’album et de ses recherches pour devenir un enseignant critique des langues, ainsi que des préjugés quant à l’enseignement de l’anglais et de l’identité pédagogique de l’enseignant.

Expositions étudiantes Le festival comprenait une journée entière consacrée aux présentations orales d’étudiantes-chercheuses et étudiants-chercheurs du campus Glendon. Ces présentations couvraient un large éventail de sujets, notamment la recherche sur les préférences en matière d’auto-identification dans la communauté des personnes en situation de handicap à York, la quantification de la transformation de la mémoire et l’histoire du rock’n’roll yougoslave.

Prix du Principal pour l’excellence en recherche Le festival a également été l’occasion d’annoncer les lauréats et lauréates du prix du Principal pour l’excellence en recherche, qui récompense les chercheurs et chercheuses de Glendon ayant apporté une contribution exceptionnelle à la recherche au cours des cinq dernières années. Les lauréates et lauréats de cette année sont : Professeure Amanda Ricci (histoire), chercheuse émergente Professeur Radu Guiaşu (biologie), chercheur établi Professeur Kevin Reynolds (linguistique et sciences du langage) Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux (biologie), chargé de cours. 

ASCEND 2023 26

FACULTY Estair Van Wagner, Osgoode Hall Law School

BY JOHN SCHOFIELD

Osgoode professor probes the right to housing, homelessness and Indigenous land rights What does the right to housing mean in Canadian law?

That’s one of the fundamental issues that Osgoode Professor Estair Van Wagner wrestles with in her research and teaching around the often controversial areas of property law and natural resources law.

Along with her work on homelessness and public space, Van Wagner also focuses her research on Indigenous land rights and property law.

S ince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she’s been a sought-after expert on the topic of homeless encampments, especially in the wake of a recent decision by an Ontario Superior Court judge rejecting the Region of Waterloo’s application to forcibly remove a homeless encampment from property it owns because of the lack of shelter space in the area.

Influenced by a series of B.C. court decisions starting with Victoria (City) v. Adams in 2008, Justice M.J. Valente ruled that the legal remedies sought by the Region of Waterloo violate the encampment residents' rights to life, liberty and security of the person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Van Wagner, who also serves as the codirector of Osgoode’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Clinic, has overseen or contributed to research that takes a human rights approach to homeless encampments, including an analysis of the City of Toronto’s approach to the encampments during the pandemic and an overview of homeless encampments across Canada, prepared for the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate.

“My hope,” she says, “is that our research is useful to groups working on the ground to mobilize change at the local level – saying to municipalities that the way you’re dealing with homeless encampments is violating human rights and is a manifestation of our failure to realize the right to housing.”

27 Research & Innovation / York University

“Ultimately,” she adds, “my research is really aimed at understanding how property and property law contribute to various forms of injustice.”

Under Canada’s colonial system of property law, says Van Wagner, the concept of ownership is often understood as exclusionary: “It’s our property, we own it, and we get to decide.”

“ We need to really rethink that in order to put human rights and social justice and equity at the centre of our decision-making,” she says. “There needs to be a much more nuanced approach to how we share property.”

In this regard, said Van Wagner, there is much to learn from Indigenous legal orders and property relations, which go beyond ownership to encompass complex systems of obligations and responsibilities with regard to culture, spirituality, the environment and all that live within these ecosystems. One of her other research projects explores Indigenous jurisdiction and private property in the

territory of the Hul’qui’min’um Treaty Group on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

“Until we address the violations of the right to housing that are going on across the country,” she added, “we will continue to see court cases, but litigation is not the way this issue (of homelessness) will be resolved.”

So what about that right to housing?

While the individual right to adequate housing is recognized in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Canada is a party, and in the federal National Housing Strategy Act, which came into force in July 2019, Van Wagner said Canadian courts have not recognized a right to housing under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

However, some municipalities such as Toronto have recognized a right to housing in their policy documents.

“In my view, this is still an open question,” said Van Wagner, “because while we don’t at the moment have a court decision that says there’s a Charter right to housing there absolutely is a right to housing in international and now federal law and that should be informing government decisions at all levels.” 

FACULTY Patricia Wilson, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

New book by York geographer rethinks concept of land claims in B.C. In her latest book, York University’s Patricia Wood, a professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, questions the ideologies that surround land and title arrangements in British Columbia.

In a Q&A with graduate student researcher Danielle Legault, Wood talks about her new book.

Q: How does this book build on your previous research work, and what inspired you to write it?

A: David Rossiter and I have been researching the historical, political and legal geography of Indigenous title in B.C. for about 20 years.

It started with a project on the referendum that the provincial government, under (former) Premier Gordon Campbell, held in 2002 about the “principles” of treaty negotiations. That became our first published article together, in The Canadian Geographer, in 2005. Several more articles, presentations and op-ed pieces followed on specific aspects, but there was a larger story that we wanted to tell that needed a book-length manuscript to do properly.

Q: What inspired your choice of British Columbia as the site of exploration in this book?

A: British Columbia is an important site of Indigenoussettler relations because the vast majority of the territory the Crown claimed was never “conquered” nor ceded by treaty. The Crown’s claim, even according to its own law, is without solid moral or legal foundation. It is thus inherently unstable.

Q: Can you discuss the unique approach of Unstable Properties in reframing the topic of Aboriginal claims to Crown land?

A: We would emphasize that the question is one of Crown claims on Indigenous land, not the other way around.

This is at the heart of our approach. It has always been the Indigenous claim that is subjected to scrutiny, as a “burden” on the Crown claim. This is backwards; it is the legitimacy of the Crown’s claim that needs to be examined. It is Canada that needs to reconcile its actual history and present with its alleged principles of democracy and justice.

We also want to emphasize that what progress has been made on resolving these questions and moving forward towards a more just relationship should be credited to Indigenous individuals and organizations who did the political and legal work to compel the Canadian state to – start to – recognize the hypocrisy, injustice and violence of settler-colonial land claims.

Our argument about the instability of the settler claim to Indigenous land in British Columbia isn’t intended to suggest British Columbia is exceptional and everywhere else is fine, but rather that it exposes the problems of

settler-colonial claims across Canada, and should lead us to question what existing treaties mean, under what circumstances they were established, and what kind of relationship we want to pursue from here.

Research is not politically neutral, and a lot of talk about “reconciliation” can be pretty superficial. We’re trying to contribute to a path that is more meaningful and material, where Indigenous sovereignty and land rights are part of the plan. Facing our history and decolonizing our thinking is not just in our publications; bringing this to the curriculum and the classroom is just as important.

Q: Having completed this book, how do you see your work moving forward in the future?

A: We know we still have miles to go, and Dave and I plan to continue to pay attention to specific cases that Indigenous organizations raise to see where we can help with research that exposes the instability of the settler claim, in hopes that it helps pressure settler governments to come to the table and negotiate honestly and fairly. 

The book, titled Unstable Properties: Aboriginal Title and the Claim of British Columbia, was co-written with York alumnus David Rossiter, a professor at Western Washington University.

Wood and Rossiter’s book reframes the issue of land claims as historical attempts by the Crown in B.C. to acquire Indigenous territory.

ASCEND 2023 28

York funds $4.05M to support interdisciplinary research for the UN SDGs At the start of 2023, York University announced it will fund new research through the Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (CIRC) program, which aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, global research excellence and world-class training opportunities.

Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Cluster for Detection and Remediation of Water Contaminants (CIRC-DRWC) UN SDG 6: Clean Water & Sanitation

Led by Satinder Brar, Lassonde School of Engineering, with co-Principal Investigators (PIs) Pouya Rezai, Lassonde School of Engineering, James Orbinski, Faculty of Health, Sylvie Morin, Faculty of Science, and Ali Asgary, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Catalyzing Collective Action at the Intersection of Global Health and the Arts

Now in its second year, the program supports critical research that can advance York’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

UN SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

“As the world continues to address urgent global challenges such as climate change, global health crises and political polarization, and their impact on people and the planet, it is critical now more than ever for York to support novel interdisciplinary research collaborations that drive innovative solutions to these grand challenges,” says York President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda Lenton. “York University is home to some of the brightest researchers in the world, and I am inspired by the talent, drive, and commitment of our researchers to making the world a better place.”

From Colonial Genocide to Just Relationships

“York is pleased to invest in interdisciplinary research clusters that will continue to amplify York’s world class research excellence,” says Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) Amir Asif. “The CIRC program brings together talented researchers from across disciplines and faculties, supporting research that will help address complex global issues identified in the UN SDGs, and driving positive change in our local and global communities.”

Led by Tarmo Remmel, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC)

Seven projects will receive $150,000 per year over three years:

UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequality

29 Research & Innovation / York University

Led by Caitlin Fisher, School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) with co-PI Steven Hoffman Faculty of Health, and Sharon Hayashi (AMPD)

UN SDG 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions

Led by Luann Good Gingrich (LA&PS) with co-PI Heidi Matthews, Osgoode Hall Law School

Technologies for Identification and Control of Infectious Diseases (TICID)

UN SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Led by Sergey Krylov, Faculty of Science

Geomatics for Analyzing Climate Change Effects on Ecosystems and Human Populations UN SDG 13: Climate Action

Translating Brain Signals Across Scales, Species, Sex and Lifespan UN SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Led by Jeff Schall, Faculty of Science with co-PI Shayna Rosenbaum, Faculty of Health Designing Sound Futures: Inclusive Design and Transdisciplinary STEAM Learning

Led by Kurt Thumlert, Faculty of Education with Co-PI Andreas Kitzmann (LA&PS)

In addition, six other proposals that were highly ranked by external reviewers will each be awarded two-year funding of $100,000 per year for two years for a total of $200,000 each.

These proposals include: Biomedical Engineering Cluster (BEC)

UN SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Led by Alex Czekanski, Lassonde School of Engineering with co-PI Peter Backx, Faculty of Science Towards Inclusive and Accessible Data Visualizations and Analytics UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequality

Led by Enamul Prince (LA&PS) Overcoming Epidemics: Transnational Black Communities’ Response, Recovery and Resilience

UN SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

Led by Mohamed Sesay (LA&PS) with co-PIs Sylvia Bawa (LA&PS) and Oghenowede Eyawo, Faculty of Health Research Cluster on Data Economy, aligned with UN SDG: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure UN SDG 9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure

Led by Xiaohui Yu (LA&PS) with co-PIs Giuseppina D’Agostino, Osgoode Hall Law School, and Jennifer Pybus (LA&PS) *Social and Business Implications of Introducing Micro-mobility Vehicles (at York) Implications for Disruptive Technologies and Experiential Education UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequality

Led by Andrew Maxwell, Lassonde School of Engineering with co-PIs Marina FreireGormaly, Lassonde School of Engineering, Pilar F Carbonell (LA&PS), Manos Papangelis, Lassonde School of Engineering and Jose Etcheverry, (EUC) *Towards Sustainable Extraction in the North, aligned with UN SDG: Responsible Consumption and Production UN SDG 12: Responsible Consumption & Production

Led by Laura McKinnon, Glendon College with co-PIs Kamelia

Atefi-Monfared, Lassonde School of Engineering, Gabrielle Slowey (LA&PS), Zachary Spicer, (LA&PS) “We would like to acknowledge the members of the internal Adjudication Committee: Professors Rosemary Coombe, David Hood, Jane Heffernan and Dan Zhang, who have helped the Office of the VPRI support research excellence in ways that are equitable, diverse and inclusive,” adds Asif. *Conditionally approved, subject to additional review.

MORE ABOUT THE CATALYZING INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH CLUSTERS PROGRAM

The Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (CIRC) program funds research excellence for interdisciplinary projects, crossing the mandates of at least two of the three federal granting councils, with the core team of at least five researchers for each project including members from at least two faculties and at least one early career researcher.

Modelled to replicate the success of interdisciplinary research clusters, the initiative empowers clusters to achieve research excellence and secure large-scale funding through highly competitive national programs, such as the Canada Excellence Research Chair, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund and the New Frontiers in Research Fund – Transformation stream.

The CIRC program will scale the development of research teams and clusters to position the University as a key node in national and international networks in strategic areas of interest, while enabling impactful contributions towards the University’s Strategic Research Plan, the University Academic Plan and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

All proposals received were subjected to expert external peer review, with final decisions informed by an internal adjudication committee comprised of senior York researchers with additional representatives from the Office of the VPRI. 

York Research Chairs The York Research Chairs program is envisioned as York University's internal counterpart for the national Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program and recognizes outstanding researchers at York.

TIERS

Janine Marchessault, YRC in Media Arts in Community Engagement

Carmela Murdoca, YRC in Reparative and Racial Justice

Chun Peng, YRC in Women’s Reproductive Health

Lisa Myers, YRC in Indigenous Art and Curatorial Practice

Lauren Sergio, YRC in Brain Health and Skilled Performance

Shayna Rosenbaum, YRC in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory

Rebecca Pillai Riddell, YRC in Pain and Mental Health

Ali Sadeghi-Naini, YRC in Quantitative Imaging and Smart Biomarkers

Gary Sweeney, YRC in Mechanisms of Cardiometabolic Diseases

Mathieu Poirier, YRC in Global Health Equity

Laurie Wilcox, YRC in 3D Vision Richard Wildes, YRC in Computational Vision Jianhong Wu, YRC in Industrial and Applied Mathematics Dan Zhang, YRC in Advanced Robotics and Mechatronics

TIER 2 CHAIRS

Ping Wang, YRC in AI Empowered Next Generation Communication Networks

Ali Abdul-Sater, YRC in Regulatory Mechanisms of Inflammation

Both have five-year terms that are renewable in the context of opencompetition based on peer review and the continuing availability of resources.

Joey Cheng, YRC in Leadership, Collaboration, and Teams

Uzo Anucha, YRC in Youth and Contexts of Inequity Jacob Beck, YRC in Philosophy of Visual Perception

Sheila Colla, YRC in Interdisciplinary Conservation Science Mike Daly, YRC in Planetary Science

TIER 1 CHAIRS

Kristin Andrews, YRC in Philosophy of Animal Minds

Shital Desai, YRC in Accessible Interaction Design Adam Diamant, YRC in Managing AI-Driven Technologies in Health Hany Farag, YRC in Integrated Smart Energy Grids Sarah Flicker, YRC in Community-Based Participatory Research Eve Haque, YRC in Linguistic Diversity and Community Vitality

Benjamin Berger, YRC in Pluralism and Public Law

Lyndsay Hayhurst, YRC in Sport, Gender, and Development and Digital Participatory Research

Doug Crawford, YRC in Visuomotor Neuroscience

Jane Heffernan, YRC in Mathematics of Immunity and Infectious Disease

James Elder, YRC in Human and Computer Vision

Ryan Hili, YRC in Molecular Evolution

Ilijas Farah, YRC in Foundations of Operator Algebras Lorne Foster, YRC in Black Canadian Studies and Human Rights Stephen Gaetz, YRC in Homelessness and Research Impact Kerry Kawakami, YRC in Equity and Diversity

Marlis Schweitzer, YRC in Theatre and Performance History Adrian Viens YRC in Population Health Ethics and Law

Tier 1 York Research Chairs are open to established research leaders at the rank of full professor, while Tier 2 York Research Chairs are aimed at emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment.

York Research Chairs are available at two levels analogous to CRC chairs.

Dayna Nadine Scott, YRC in Environmental Law and Justice in the Green Economy

Huaiping Zhu, YRC in Applied Mathematics

Robert Allison, YRC in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception

The level of support and recognition provided to York Research Chairs is expected to be aligned with supports and recognition provided through the CRC program.

Valérie A.M. Schoof, YRC in Primate Behavioural Endocrinology

Emily Laxer, YRC in Populism, Rights, and Legality Sean Hillier, YRC in Indigenous Health Policy and One Health Brent Lyons, YRC in Stigmatization and Social Identity Ozzy Mermut, YRC in Vision Biophotonics John Moores, YRC in Space Exploration

Jonathan Weiss, YRC in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disability Mental Health Derek Wilson, YRC in Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Amro Zayed, YRC in Genomics New Research Chairs as of July 1, 2023 TIER 1

Robert Allison, YRC in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception James Elder, YRC in Human and Computer Vision Jimmy Huang, YRC in Big Data Analytics Marie-Christine Pioffet, YRC in FrancoIndigenous Relations in the Americas Poonam Puri, YRC in Corporate Governance, Investor Protection and Financial Markets Lauren Sergio, YRC in Brain Health and Gender in Action TIER 2

Jacob Beck, YRC in Philosophy of Visual Perception Denielle Elliott, YRC in Injured Minds Gene Cheung, YRC in Graph Signal Processing Andrea Emberley, YRC in Children's Musical Cultures Taien Ng-Chan, YRC in Marginal & Emergent Media Sapna Sharma, YRC in Global Change Biology Hina Tabassum, YRC in 5G/6G-enabled wireless mobility and sensing applications Sue Winton, YRC in Policy Analysis for Democracy Cary Wu, YRC in Political Sociology of Health 

Amy Muise, YRC Relationships and Sexuality

ASCEND 2023 30

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