Undergraduate Research Opportunities Showcase highlights student SRC

Close to 50 Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) student research projects from across six faculties were on display at the Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO) Showcase on September 16, 2024, in the Sears Atrium. 

The URO Showcase is the culmination of the summer URO program. This year’s participants’ projects covered a range of research topics, including the health-care experiences of transgender persons, teaching empathy through video games, the benefits of tacit learning in high school curricula, monitoring breast cancer cell growth and much more.

The students worked directly with a faculty mentor and attended knowledge translation workshops hosted by TMU Libraries and the OVPRI. This year’s URO Showcase gave students the chance to share their projects with attendees during the two-hour event.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to come together and celebrate the excellence of our undergraduate researchers and discuss the ideas of their diverse projects, spanning a range of disciplines that have taken shape over the summer,” said Steven N. Liss, TMU’s vice-president, research and innovation, during his opening remarks. 

The importance of research opportunities for undergraduate students and their potential for impact was highlighted by Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano, TMU’s provost and vice-president, academic. “You never know what you’ll fall in love with when you dig deep into a topic that’s important to you,” she said. 

The URO program, which has been running annually since 2019 and is funded by the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation (OVPRI), offers students a paid opportunity to contribute to scholarly, research and creative (SRC) activities. The URO is a faculty-based, competitive program and includes poster presentation workshops led by TMU Libraries. Additionally, this year, the OVPRI funded five TMU students to participate in a similar program hosted by William Osler Health System that focused on health-related work. Applications for the URO will open in early 2025 – learn more about this TMU program.

URO Showcase select projects

“The Lady Never Came”: The Failure of Democratic Reform in Myanmar

For her summer project, fourth-year history student Jordan Le Roux undertook a comprehensive review of the history of authoritarianism and the ongoing struggle toward democracy in Myanmar under the supervision of Faculty of Arts professor Arne Kislenko. Since the latest coup against the civilian government in 2021, Le Roux has focused on increasing and sharing her knowledge of the situation in an attempt to garner greater coverage in the media and academia.

“The failure of democracy in Myanmar has to be contextualized, firstly, in the role of the military and its level of control over the country, and second, in the ethnic divides and hostilities that have been created and exacerbated by colonialism,” said Le Roux.

Black Experiences with Planning in Canada 

Linda Musui, a fifth-year planning student, worked with Faculty of Community Services professor Magdalena Ugarte to fill a knowledge gap about Black stories and experiences with planning in Canada. She analyzed the results of interviews, focus groups and surveys that included responses from communities, organizations, Black planners and planners who work with or in Black communities. “Essentially, this project aims to capture the stories, history, and knowledge of Black planners and communities, and organizations, and take this experience and exploration and document that in a framework that is community-based, Black-informed and Black-centred,” she said. 

Results were sorted into two categories: Black planning, with tools for communities to navigate this system, and anti-Black racism in planning, which examines the racial origins of planning and implications for communities today.

Fabrication of 3D-Printed Nano-Enabled Beads for Multi-Stage Removal of Contaminants from Water

When plastics degrade into micro- and nano-plastics in water systems, they absorb toxic contaminants, enter aquatic food chains and threaten marine and human health. Fourth-year chemical engineering student Harisshnee Ramakrisshnhan worked with PhD candidate Yalda Majooni and Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science professor Nariman Yousefi to develop a water purification process that could remove toxic contaminants. Ramakrisshnhan presented on the research team’s findings that 3D-printed nano-enabled beads engineered to target specific pollutants effectively led to degradation and adsorption of the toxins, reducing the harmful impact of microplastics in water systems. Additionally, since the beads can be recovered and reused numerous times with minimal loss of efficiency, they are a sustainable option.

“Global water contamination is a very prevalent issue, especially water pollution caused by plastics,” said Ramakrisshnhan. “We want to address that.”

Effect of Temperature on Gemcitabine and Hydroxyurea Sensitivity

Does warming up chemotherapy drugs make them less effective? Under the supervision of professor Sarah Sabatinos, recently graduated Faculty of Science alumna Lohitika Sibia examined how heat changed the efficacy of two cancer drugs. Hydroxyurea, she explained, is a well-understood model drug that has limited use in patients. Gemcitabine is a newer drug that is important for clinical cancer treatments. To conduct the study, she tested drug effects on yeast cell growth. 

“It’s one of the most common environmental factors in terms of drug functions,” she said of temperature. If temperature does make a difference, it could have implications for how the drugs are delivered to patients. The preliminary results from this project show heat may change the process of cell death for certain types of drugs.

Unlocking the Untapped Potential of Indigenous Entrepreneurship: A Comparative Study between Canada and the U.S.

While Indigenous businesses in the U.S. and Canada hold substantial potential for driving economic growth through exports, they continue to face significant barriers to success. These findings and more were explored over the summer by criminology student Sreya Tahsin, who compared secondary data from reports, case studies, censuses and the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Businesses. Under the supervision of Ted Rogers School of Management professor Sui Sui, Tahsin found that, while some data on the economic contributions and barriers facing these businesses is available, more detailed information is needed to fully understand these factors.

“Improved nationwide data collection and analysis are crucial for policymakers to better support Indigenous entrepreneurs,” said Tahsin.

Footsteps of Empathy: Navigating Resilience, Happiness, and Social Connections in Interactive 3D Environments

Thomas Imada, a third-year computer science student, worked with The Creative School professor Kris Alexander on a project exploring the relationship between peoples’ life experiences and how they interact with video games. The project aims to help game designers and players understand the importance of empathy when interacting in 3D interactive spaces. In a video game the team designed, players navigate a day in an office environment, choosing between various actions and interactions when faced with specific challenges. Players are offered an optimal path that provides a careful approach to workplace interactions and opportunities to maximize their happiness and social connections along the way. The choices in this path are meant to challenge players to consider their game character’s demographics or life experiences when making choices rather than their own. 

“How do you go through your day in the office and make choices not based on your own experiences but on the game characters’ situation?” said Imada.