Students share findings from Undergraduate Research Opportunities program at showcase

Close to 50 students from across Ryerson shared the findings of investigations they conducted in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO) program at a new showcase. The impressive mix of subjects covered by the projects included the use of microscopic bubbles in cancer treatment, design characteristics of Toronto’s Chinatown and the extent to which female politicians face gendered criticism on Twitter.

Students used creative ideas and interactive technology to display their work, such as 3D-printed models of buildings, virtual reality headsets, computer animations and sound recordings. The budding researchers, who represented all of Ryerson’s faculties, were joined by their supervisors at the Student Learning Centre on October 8, 2019.

The aim of the URO initiative, which is funded by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation (OVPRI), is to provide students with opportunities to learn important research-related skills and to prepare for academic and career development. At the beginning of the event, Steven N. Liss, vice-president, research and innovation at Ryerson, spoke to students about why OVPRI runs the URO program.

“An event like this is just the beginning of the way in which we hope to be able to encourage, support and put emphasis on the importance of our undergraduate students’ participation in our research enterprise,” he said. “It’s really great to see the diverse range of activity and some of the interesting work that you’re undertaking here and I hope that’s just the beginning of a future for all of you.”

At the two-hour event, students and their supervisors had the chance to find out about each other’s work and speak to researchers in other faculties. Below are some examples of the exciting investigations to which students dedicated themselves over 14 weeks in the summer.

Chinatowns Everywhere: The Appearance of Erasure in Ethnocultural Heritage

Amy Yan, a third-year interior design student in the Faculty of Communication and Design, worked with her supervisor professor Linda Zhang on a project that used drones, an emergent technology in architectural preservation, to document and 3D scan the heritage of Chinatown East in Toronto. Using a technique called photogrammetry, she then generated a digital 3D model of the area from photographs taken by the drone.

These 3D scans are being used to create a participatory heritage installation as a part of a month-long exhibition at Myseum of Toronto's Myseum Intersections festival in April 2020, in partnership with East End Arts. The 3D scans will also be used in a series of community engagement workshops through April. These workshops aim at democratizing heritage technologies and include an interactive build-your-own-Chinatown board game made from 3D-printed individual buildings.

“Chinatowns have existed for almost 150 years in Toronto but we haven’t really stopped to look at the architecture,” said Amy. “It’s a place we often identify as cultural and being of heritage value, but we’ve never defined what it is that makes it valuable.”

Amy said the URO program allowed her to pursue a project that she was passionate about, adding she was able to use technologies that would otherwise have been unavailable to her.

“I had a really good time this summer working on this project, partly because it’s part of my heritage, so it’s close to me,” she said, “but then also because I’ve been able to work with these technologies that I would never get the chance to work with, like drones and 3D printing, and then brought all that together into a cohesive project that we can then exhibit.”

Canadian Midwives of Colour History Project

Several students were given the opportunity to contribute to major research projects being conducted by academics across Ryerson. These included the Canadian Midwives of Colour History Project, which is run by professor Karline Wilson-Mitchell in the Faculty of Community Services. Tumaini Lyaruu, a second-year midwifery student, interviewed seniors about the stories of midwives across Canada who lived during a 100-year period between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries.

“We found out that black midwives were definitely there, and also that they had a really revered place within communities and were known as midwives who were highly skilled who you could trust,” they said.

Tumaini added that the URO program helped them to refine their research skills, particularly in relation to project coordination, finding participants to interview, examining archival information and developing a research question.

“We uncovered a lot more than we had anticipated that we’re still now reflecting back on, so the opportunity of the URO program, to learn what we didn’t know, has been a great benefit,” they said.

To What Extent Do Political Events in China Shake International Financial Markets?

In the Ted Rogers School of Management, Jeremy Richards, a second-year business management student in the law and business major, analyzed stock market data to find out how Chinese, Canadian and Australian markets were affected by political events in mainland China, such as the election of its president Xi Jinping.

“Thirty days before Xi Jinping was elected all three countries were doing quite well in their individual financial markets, whereas on the actual day of the event they dropped significantly, and 30 days after the event they continued to drop,” he said.

Jeremy explained that the URO program, which allowed him to contribute to a study being conducted by his supervisor, professor Vik Singh, had encouraged him to pursue a career in academic research.

“I’m considering becoming a professor one day, so it was really good to be able to do some research on my own, while still learning from my supervisor,” he said.

Nonlinear Acoustic Characterization of the Shell and Size Engineered Microbubbles and Nanobubbles

Another student presenting her research was Niloufar Rostam Shirazi, who is doing a master’s in biomedical physics after completing her undergraduate degree in medical physics earlier in 2019. She graduated as the recipient of the Faculty of Science gold medal, which is the university’s highest honour and is presented to students for outstanding academic achievement combined with extraordinary contributions to the Ryerson community.

Her research supported the work of her supervisor, professor Michael Kolios, and explored the potential of using microscopic bubbles in ultrasound imaging. The bubbles can be injected into the body so that when the area they are in is scanned with ultrasound, they show up to create a clear image of the inside of the body. The researchers are attempting to improve the quality of the bubbles to make them stand out even more.

“The acoustic response from microbubbles is much stronger than from the tissue, due to their acoustic properties,” she said. “Therefore, by their injection in the body, since they stay in the bloodstream, vasculature can be easily differentiated from surrounding tissue under ultrasound exposure. Moreover, by optimizing the physical properties of these contrast agents, we can improve their biomedical and clinical applications.”

Niloufar said that the URO program, together with a previous funding award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), had prompted her to do a master’s degree at Ryerson.

“I received NSERC funding last year and then the URO, and both of them were great opportunities for me to be able to learn whether I want to become a graduate student or not,” she said. “I learned that I enjoy research more than I thought. That’s why I applied for the master’s.”

RBS Moment Connection Analysis Using Solid and Shell Models

Matthew Montesano and Mikaela Coello Mena, who are third-year civil engineering students in the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science, worked together on the same URO project. Supervised by professor Saber Moradi, they developed a computer model that showed how much stress earthquakes put on specific areas of beams in bridges. They focused on a safety feature called a “reduced beam section,” or RBS, where beams are intentionally weakened so their reaction to stress is predictable. They said they applied their model to beams that were not at right angles, as it is a subject that has not seen much research.

“In a non-orthogonal connection — an angle that is not 90 degrees — maybe the stress will be higher in some areas and not others. So we’re using our simulation to model that — how the stresses will change, what area will become more sensitive,” said Matthew. “We can then change the RBS to fit that, and create a standard.”

Violence Against Women in Politics on Twitter: A Micro-Analysis

Women face more gender-related criticism in political discussions on Twitter than men, according to a study by Mackenzie Gregory, a recent graduate from the politics and governance program in the Faculty of Arts. She is now studying for a master’s in public policy and administration and was supervised by professor Tracey Raney.

“We found that women get gendered attacks and men don’t − nobody tells a man to go back home and raise the kids,” she said. “Both genders get hate in politics. It’s natural and it’s going to happen, but women get gendered hate and it’s discouraging them from taking on leadership positions.”