Thursday, March 3, 2022

Waterloo launches Future Cities initiative

This article was originally featured on the Faculty of Environment's website.

New academic programming and novel research is leading the way in innovative thinking about the future of cities – both large and small, in Canada and around the globe.

The Future Cities, a Faculty of Environment initiative is formalizing a “futures lens” in urban-focused research, knowledge mobilization, instruction, and civic engagement.

It provides a platform for people to think beyond current realities to imagine and design the communities that they want.

“The Future Cities initiative is about looking at and thinking about how communities of the future will affect who people are and how they live,” said Jean Andrey, dean of the Faculty of Environment. “The point is to focus on the possible, from imagination to impact.”

The initiative aims to also address the climate crisis while tackling societal imperatives related to equity and justice across our communities

“With the application of a holistic and radical mindset, cities will be transformed in ways that integrate sustainability, climate change and social equity; and give voice to the many actors that play a role,” said Helen Kerr, practitioner-in-residence, Future Cities initiative.

Kerr is bringing with her three decades of expertise in industrial and urban design and deep expertise in applying foresight methods in both the private and public sectors.

“It is really important that we envision a new idea of what the future can be, but that is only half. The other half is about the capability and resilience in making that future we want a reality,” Kerr said.

Part of the components of the initiative is provision of specialized training and learning opportunities for tomorrow’s leaders through undergraduate and graduate education, financial support for students through scholarships, and work-integrated-learning opportunities.

“If we want to exercise any control over the future, we have to start thinking about the future and start making decisions that are going to work out in the long term,” said Marta Berbés-Blázquez, Caivan Communities Professor at Waterloo. “The idea is to attract a critical diverse mass that represents interdisciplinary cohort that can anticipate the factors and challenges that impacts our cities now and in the future.”

The initiative also will build research capacity in the field of “futures literacy” applied to cities.

Berbés-Blázquez brings experience in creating future-thinking capacity for social transformation from a perspective rooted in social-ecological systems, guided by participatory principles, and geared primarily to cities as agents of change.

The initiative will provide a forum for presentations, dialogue, and knowledge sharing. The first inaugural seminar series, Future Cities Reimagined: Paths to Transformation is planned for March 4, 2022.

Catalytic funding for the initiative comes from a grant from the Canadian government and donation from the Caivan Communities Co-Founders and CEOs Frank Cairo and Troy van Haastrecht.

ACCUC Calls for Prayers, Immediate Conflict Resolution following Attack on Ukraine

This article was originally featured on St. Jerome's University website.

The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Canada (ACCUC) has called for prayers and immediate conflict resolution in a statement released today responding to the attack on Ukraine by Russia. The ACCUC, an organization of Roman Catholic postsecondary academic institutions from across Canada, is the official voice for Catholic higher learning in the country. St. Jerome’s University (SJU) is a member of the ACCUC. Its Executive Committee is chaired by SJU’s President and Vice Chancellor, Peter Meehan.

“Members of the ACCUC stand by the people of Ukraine and call upon the Russian government to cease this unprovoked invasion,” stated Meehan. “We call upon both parties to meet and find a peaceful solution that preserves human life and dignity.”

The statement by the ACCUC encourages both parties to meet and discuss a peaceful solution in the spirit of good faith.  It also offers a reminder that in the Beatitudes, found in Matthew 5:1-12 in the Bible, Jesus Christ taught that those who promote peace are truly the children of God, and turn away from violence and war.

“We cannot support this heinous action,” added Meehan. “We offer our support to those in our community who are impacted directly by this needless attack.”

A copy of the full ACCUC statement is available here. To find out more about the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in Canada (ACCUC) please use this link.

PhD candidates win Faculty of Mathematics Graduate Research Excellence Award

The Faculty of Mathematics is proud to announce that two of their PhD candidates, Greg Philbrick and James Davies, have each won a Faculty of Mathematics Graduate Research Excellence Award. The prestigious recognition comes with a cash prize of $5,000 and is conferred annually to a master’s or PhD student who has authored or co-authored an outstanding research paper.

Greg Philbrick’s paper, titled “A Primitive for Manual Hatching” and co-authored with his advisor Professor Craig Kaplan, was published in ACM Transactions on Graphics, the premier venue for research in computer graphics. Hatching is a technique in art used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines or curves. Hatching has been used for centuries in diverse media; however, even skilled artists find hatching patterns difficult to draw and more challenging still to edit.

To help artists with hatching, Greg built an interactive illustration tool in C++ that takes input from a drawing tablet and uses OpenGL to render a virtual canvas.

“Greg’s research paper is a significant contribution at the intersection of computer graphics and art,” said Professor Kaplan. “His own artistic practice was key in generating new research ideas relevant in real-world digital art, and his technical skills allowed him to develop a fully featured software prototype to demonstrate those ideas.”

Read the full story about Greg’s award-winning work.

James Davies researches in the areas of structural graph and matroid theory and especially problems involving graph colourings. His paper, titled “Vertex-minor-closed classes are chi-bounded,” provides a proof for a conjecture from his supervisor, the eponymous Geelen’s conjecture.

Along with this research that saw him win the grad research award, Davies is writing another more general paper, “Pivot-minor-closed classes are chi-bounded,” continuing to break new ground.

“I got into this research in combinatorics and optimization during my master’s at Warwick,” said Davies. “When I was finishing up that program, I was looking to continue with a PhD, and Waterloo was the obvious choice. It’s been such a supportive environment in the department, and my supervisor is both a brilliant scholar and an amazing mentor.”

Read the full story about James’ award-winning work

Growing innovation in the agriculture sector

This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Danielle Rose works under a pop-up grow tent inside Velocity’s main incubator workspace. It’s an unusual sight in the buzzing open-plan room amongst fellow tech founders.

Rose is harvesting lettuce, a common crop that her startup, Ceragen, is trying to improve. What makes her lettuce unique is a microbial technology that promotes the plant’s growth and helps to increase crop yields.

Ceragen is a biotech company that is innovating Canadian agriculture and has the potential to transform the global agriculture sector.

“Conventional agricultural techniques often harm the plant microbiome and the soil structures,” Rose says. Soil erosion and degradation are estimated to be a $10 trillion problem globally. “I want to reverse the negative impacts and help farmers harness the power of these microbiomes so they can grow more food on less land. This will help sustainably intensify agriculture so we can feed our growing population.”

Combining engineering with traditional science

The Velocity startup was inspired by foundational research published by University of Waterloo professor Trevor Charles and professor emeritus Bernie Glick. During her time as a grad student in Dr. Charles’ lab, Rose conducted market research on the industrial potential of using plant growth promoting microbes to develop probiotics for plants. These probiotics are applied to the roots of the plant and help improve both plant growth and food production. After forming Ceragen, she began to further research how different combinations or microbes designed for specific crops could help the plant grow better by improving nutrient uptake, regulating plant stress and producing growth promoting hormones.

Rose knew that this solution could solve a critical problem in the agriculture sector as more operations look to scale their crop productions to meet increasing consumer demand.

“The preliminary research that was done at Waterloo laid the foundation for the technology,” Rose says. “In order for us to take it out into industry, we needed to incorporate engineering principles to help us scale it up.”

She enlisted help from her brother, Matthew Rose, who had just completed his undergrad in Mechatronics Engineering at Waterloo. He became Ceragen’s Chief Technology Officer and together they implemented a bioinformatic pipeline that incorporates machine learning to bring automation into their science lab.

Partnering with big agriculture for R&D

Ceragen was incorporated in April 2021 and already has one product on the market for tomatoes — the world’s largest crop grown in greenhouses.

“We have three multi-million-dollar operations in Canada and the U.S. currently using our product,” Rose says. “Our microbes can help farmers increase their tomato crop yields by 10 per cent on average.”

Ceragen has achieved fast success in part because they’ve integrated growers throughout the research and development (R&D) process.

“We’ve welcomed several growers to be part of our R&D to make sure that our products provide value and meet their needs. We wanted to know what the most commercially relevant microbes to growers were, and what will provide the most economic value to them.

“In the end, we have a tailored made solution to a problem the growers are facing. And for me, that’s the best way to do science.”

Turning science into a business solution

Ever since Rose was a child, she knew she wanted to start her own company. “I have also always been environmentally minded, and I want to make a positive impact on the world and leave it better than I came into it,” she says.

Combining her love for biology and microbes with her business passion is what led her to pursue her grad studies at Waterloo.

“The school I did my undergrad at doesn’t have the same startup infrastructure as Waterloo has. Hearing about the community and resources available at Waterloo, I knew I needed to come here for my masters.”

Rose began attending Wednesday night workshops at Concept — Velocity’s innovation hub at Waterloo that helps turn ideas into businesses.

“I learned how to evaluate the commercial viability of an idea and how it plays inside an ecosystem. It’s great to have a cool science idea but until you understand the business side of it you can’t make a real-world impact with it,” she says. “We need to teach the business side of things to scientists. I think that is what Waterloo does well.”

The other big draw for Rose was Waterloo’s creator-own intellectual property policy that allows researchers to commercialize their discoveries.

In 2021, Ceragen became a resident member of Velocity — where Rose is currently experimenting with her lettuce crop. But Velocity is more than a space for her lab and grow tent, it has been a network of support and her first investor. Velocity is Canada’s most productive incubator and has helped scaleup more than 400 companies.

“Velocity has provided me with mentorship and advice that has been fundamental with pushing Ceragen forward. They have given us a fantastic space and early investment. The lab facilities and equipment that we have access to would cost us a significant amount of money as a deep-tech biology company. Velocity has allowed us to scale and realize the impact I know we can make in this sector.”